CHAPTER XI

.

_RECONCILIATION. THE DISMEMBERED EMPIRE RE-UNITED IN BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP. "BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER."_

It is well known and now acknowledged that for the past hundred years it has been the deliberate and well considered policy of the United States to eradicate everything British from the country to the north of us.

During the Canadian rebellion of 1837, as well as during the Fenian raid of 1866, the American frontier was openly allowed to be made a base of operation against British North America.

Canada has always claimed that she has been deprived of enormous areas of territory by the United States through sharp practice and unjustifiable means, especially in Oregon, Maine and Alaska. The most notable case of duplicity on the part of the United States was that of the Northeast boundary settled under the Ashburton Treaty of Washington in 1842. After a bitter controversy it was left out to arbitration for the King of the Netherlands to decide. The award was accepted by Great Britain and rejected by the United States. The question remained in abeyance for two years, during which there was imminent danger of a collision and of war. Military posts were simultaneously established and rashly advanced into the wild country which both parties claimed as their own. Redoubts and blockhouses were erected at several points. Reinforcement of troops from either side poured in. The public mind in the United States became inflamed by the too ready cry of "British outrage," proclaimed in all quarters by the reckless politicians of both

## parties in order to lash the national spirit into fury. The people in

the whole length and breadth of the Union were, to a man, convinced of the justice of their claim and of the manifest wrong intended by Great Britain. The Nation at large was ready and anxious for war, and had a skirmish taken place on the frontier involving the death of a dozen men during the so-called "Aroostook War," the whole country would have rushed to war and plunged the two nations into hostilities, the end of which no man then living could have foreseen.

During this trouble, the English people were quite calm and almost apathetic. With a vague notion of the locality of the disputed territory, a total ignorance of the merits or demerits of the dispute, and a profound contempt of the blustering and abuse of American politicians and newspapers, they were perfectly content to leave affairs in the hands of the government.

Finally a joint commission was appointed from the States of Maine and Massachusetts (both having rights in the disputed territory) and sent to Washington to negotiate a treaty with Lord Ashburton, a nobleman well adapted to the occasion from his connection by marriage, and property in the United States.

The odds were greatly against the British negotiator. His principal adversary was Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, who in one of his letters said: "I must be permitted to say that few questions have arisen under this government in regard to which a stronger or more general conviction was felt that the country was in the right than this question of the northeast boundary." He reiterated his own belief in "the justice of the claim which arose from our honest conviction that it was founded in truth and accorded with the intention of the negotiators of the treaty of 1783." The whole of the disputed territory amounted to 6,750,000 acres. At last a compromise was effected which granted to Great Britain 3,337,000 acres, and to the United States 3,413,000 acres, and acknowledged the title of England to all the military positions upon the frontier, and 700,000 acres more was awarded her than was assigned to her by the King of the Netherlands.

But the decision of the Commissioners suited neither party. The factions in England pronounced Lord Ashburton to have been sold, and those in America declared that Webster had been bought. The most violent opposition to the treaty was made; every part of it was denounced, and it became at last doubtful if the Senate would ratify it. That final consummation was, however, suddenly effected in a most remarkable manner, the Senate coming to its decision by an unexpected majority of thirty-nine to nine, after several days of secret debate. The sanction of the Queen and the British government had been given without hesitation and the people on both sides of the Atlantic were well satisfied with the termination of the long and virulent dispute, and the Northeastern Boundary Question would have sunk into the archives of diplomatic history, but truth like murder will out, and it so happened that Mr. Thomas Colley Grattan, British Consul for Massachusetts[99] who, at the request of the commissioners, had accompanied them to Washington to assist them in their negotiation, had the fortune to discover after the treaty was signed, the duplicity of the Senate during their secret debates leading to the ratification of the treaty. He says: "My informant gave unmeasured expression to his indignation, which he assured me was fully shared in by his friends, Judge Story and Dr. Channing. Judge Story expressed himself without reserve on Webster's conduct as a 'most disgraceful proceeding.'" Other gentlemen of Boston entirely coincided in these opinions.

[99] For full particulars see his work, "Civilized America," Vol. I, Chap. XXI, XXII, XXIII.

[Illustration: Map of the Boundary Line between Maine and New Brunswick.]

"It is obvious to all persons familiar with boundary disputes that the most important evidence in such disputes is founded on surveys and maps. Early in the controversy there was a strange disappearance of the one in the archives of the State Department, that had been transmitted by Franklin to Jefferson in October, 1790, with the true boundary line traced on it. It was, therefore, with great astonishment that I learned from the confidential communication just alluded to that during the whole of the negotiations at Washington, while the highest functionaries of the American Government were dealing with Lord Ashburton with seeming frankness and integrity, pledging their faith for a perfect conviction of the justice of their claim to the territory which was in dispute. Mr. Webster had in his possession and had communicated to them all--President, Cabinet, Commissioners and Senate--the highest evidence which the case admitted, that the United States had never had a shadow of right to any part of the territory which they had so pertinaciously claimed for nearly fifty years. This evidence, as my conscientious informant told me, was nothing less than a copy of an original map presented by Dr. Franklin to Count de Vergennes, the Minister of Louis XVI, on December 6, 1782 (six days after the preliminaries of the treaty of Paris of 1783 were signed) tracing the boundary, as agreed upon by himself and the other commissioners, with a strong red line south of the St. John, and exactly where a similar line appears in an unauthenticated map discovered in London subsequent to Lord Ashburton's departure on his mission."

Public attention being aroused by the statements made by the British Consul to his government, the injunction of secrecy imposed by the Senate on its members was dissolved, and permission was given for the publication of the speeches made in secret session of August 17-19, 1842. The most important of those speeches was that of Mr. Rives, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. His principal argument was that if they did not sign the treaty, the dispute would be referred to a second arbitration with very great danger of their losing the whole, Mr. Webster, the Secretary of State, having sent to him to be laid before the Senate a communication and a copy of the map presented by Dr. Franklin to Count de Vergennes. In short, it is exactly the line contended for by Great Britain except that it concedes more than is claimed. When this communication was read, Senator Benton informed the Senate that he could produce a map of higher validity than the one referred to. He accordingly repaired to the library of Congress and soon returned with a map which there is no doubt was the one sent by Franklin to Jefferson already alluded to as having been surreptitiously removed from the archives of the State Department some years before. The moment it was examined it was found to sustain, by the most precise and remarkable correspondence in every feature, the map communicated by Mr. Webster. Mr. Benton then stated that "if the maps were really authentic the concealment of them was a fraud on the British, and that the Senate was insulted by being a party to the fraud," and further that "if evidence had been discovered which deprived Maine of the title to one-third of its territory, honor required that it should be made known to the British."

The sudden acceptance of the treaty was in consequence of the evidence of the maps, and the conviction of all concerned that a discovery of their existence before the conclusion of a treaty would have given irresistible strength to the English claims.

Calhoun said: "It would be idle to suppose that these disclosures would not weigh heavily against the United States in any future negotiations."

The settlement of the Oregon boundary question again showed American hatred of England to be chronic. The question finally resolved itself into whether the threat of 54.40 or fight should be carried out, (a threat to deprive Canada of access to the Pacific Ocean and the possession of most of the enormous wheat fields now being developed in the northwest) or to fight Mexico and extend its boundaries to the South instead of the north. This latter scheme suited the slaveholders best who were then in power. The United States government then entered into a war with Mexico, one of the most unjustifiable contests ever entered into by a civilized nation. By this war of conquest the United States nearly doubled its territory. It must be said to the credit of New England that she would not take any part in this war any more than she did in the war of 1812.

When confederation of the Canadian provinces occurred in 1867, there was placed on record in the House of Representatives at Washington that it was disapproved and that the House regarded the Act of Confederation as a menace to the United States. For a hundred years after the Revolution it had been the policy of the United States to force Canada into annexation, and it was considered that she would be more likely to come into the Union if she was harrassed by a high tariff, boundary and fishing disputes, but now it is known to have been all wrong. The factors worked out just the reverse. Conditions have arrived that were little foreseen until within ten years. The American people have recognized the fact that a great change has taken place in Canada which materially effects the relation between Canada and the United States. Mr. Root, U. S. Secretary of State, recently said:

"Canada is no longer the outlying northern country in which a fringe of descendants of royalists emigrating from the colonies when they became independent of Great Britain, lived and gained a precarious subsistence from a fertile soil. It has become the home of a great people increasing in population and wealth. The stirrings of a national sentiment are to be felt. In their relations to England one can see that while still loyal to their mother country, still a loyal part of the British Empire, they are growing up, and, as the boy is to his parents when he attains manhood, they are a personality of themselves. In their relations to us they have become a sister nation. With their enormous national wealth, with their vigor and energy following the pathway that we have followed, protecting their industries as we have protected ours, proud of their country as we are proud of ours, they are no longer the little remnants upon our borders; they are a great and powerful sister nation."

For years after the Civil War there came from the press, from the lecture platform, and from the political rostrum, the most relentless abuse of Great Britain and everything British. Lecturers gave their audiences vivid descriptions of the Revolution and the war of 1812, in which American valor was always rated high and British brutality was held up to scorn. These lectures were frequently of thrilling interest because the speakers were not handicapped by matters so paltry as facts of history. But the most formidable batteries of wrath were trained against everything British from the political stump. The iron-lunged orators told of the iniquity of England, of its infamous tariff laws, the oppression of Ireland, etc. He was but a poor speaker who could not enliven a political meeting by twisting the tail of the British lion. All this is now changed. It was brought about by President Cleveland's Venezuelian message of December, 1895, and the Spanish War. When the Venezuelian episode occurred, England was believed to be isolated and without an ally. It proved that war could be declared against Great Britain at any time, in ten minutes, upon any pretext. The insolent message fell upon every one in England, from Lord Salisbury down, as a bolt from the blue sky. Englishmen were as innocent as babes of intentional offence to the United States. They had no conception that there existed in the United States such latent irritation or antagonism as under the first provocation would lead to an almost open avowal of national enmity. It, however, happily disclosed the fact that there still existed in the United States a numerous highly educated and conservative element (not dissimilar to the vanished Loyalists of the last century) in which one seldom finds a trace of antagonism to the old mother country. Following the message, magazine reviews, the public press, and the pulpit overflowed with a brilliant series of public utterances and these soon checked the noisy approving outbursts of a reckless half-educated majority to obtain whose votes at the next election undoubtedly prompted the presumptuous interference of the chief of the Republic and the unfriendly tone of his message.

Within three years after the message a wonderful change came over the people of the United States. The Spanish War had taken place and instead of finding Great Britain to be the hereditary enemy of the United States, which they had been taught in the school histories to believe, it was found that among the great powers of the world, Great Britain was the only friend which the United States had, and that "blood was thicker than water." It was discovered that the nations were envious of the great Republic, and that Britain alone was proud of her eldest daughter. It was remarked to the writer by a Spanish officer shortly after the surrender of Porto Rico: "But mind you, this from an old man who has studied history. You would never have had these islands had not England stepped in at the beginning of the trouble and said to all the nations of the world, 'Allow me to present my daughter, America.'" It was found, too, that the "traditional friendship" of Russia was of but little account at that time.

It was Russia that eagerly became the spokesman for envious Europe and gave voice to the words: "Now is the time for us to combine and crush this huge American monster before she becomes too strong for all of us, as she is already too strong for any one of us." It was Russia that planned to have the "concert of Europe" warn us that we were not to pose as champion of any other American people against any form of misrule by Europe--and that we were not to dare to meddle in Europe on any pretext.

She failed because England refused to join the league, or to enter with the other powers into a naval demonstration before Cuba, but so long as the war lasted with Spain the Russian diplomats kept pounding at every backdoor in Europe with an insistence that something be done to cut our comb, or make trouble or lose us the friendship of England. Our people in Washington know all this. They know also the behavior of the Russian minister at Washington who thought to poison us against England in the very days when we were buying in that country and shipping in secret from that country the vital necessities which the war demanded and which we had not got; when great steamers were found abandoned off New York loaded with contraband of war, cannon, arms, ammunition, etc., and towed into port by United States warships; when coal and ammunition were left on desert islands in the Philippines by British warships for the use of the United States navy; when England's fleet at Manila stood ready to take sides with Dewey and to open fire, to begin war on the Germans should occasion arise. American naval officers who were there know these facts to be true, and it is very significant that the Navy Department has not published the correspondence between it and Admiral Dewey at that time. We are hated all over the continent of Europe. Paris made a fete day when she imagined Sampson's fleet was destroyed.

The Germans hate us for taking 3,000,000 fighting men away from them, and also because we prevented them from purchasing the Philippines from Spain, and because the Monroe doctrine prevents them from obtaining colonies or naval stations in the Western Hemisphere. The Austrians hate us for humiliating Spain. There is not a country to the south of us but what hates us. Every republic in South America would put a knife in our back if the opportunity occurs.

Very significant, too, was the reception and banquet given at Windsor Castle in 1896 by Queen Victoria to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston--the oldest military organization in the Western Hemisphere--and the grand reception they received everywhere they went in England. It was a revelation to the Americans, as every one of them acknowledged, to receive such marked expression of kindliness and brotherhood at the old home. It was something they did not expect. The company more than reciprocated when the parent company, The Honourable Artillery of London, visited Boston in 1903. Once more were seen armed British sailors and soldiers marching through Boston's streets under the British flag, the buildings along the entire route beautifully decorated, and the visitors received with vociferous welcome wherever they went. We will hope that something even better and more substantial may yet come to us, when the United States and Great Britain will be allied in amity as firm as that which now holds together these federal states. "Old prejudices should be cast aside; the English-speaking states recognizing their kinship, should knit bonds together around the world, forming a kingly brotherhood inspired by beneficence, to which supreme dominion in the earth would be sure to fall; for whatever may be said today for other stocks, the 135,000,000 of English-speaking men have been able to make themselves masters of the world to an extent which no people has thus far approached.

"If love would but once unite, the seas could never sever. Earth has never beheld a co-mingling of men, so impressive, so likely to be frought with noble advantages through ages to come, as would be the coming together of English-speaking men in one cordial bond."[100]

[100] Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom.

The statesmen of Britain and America can do no worthier service than to find a way by which their strength may be combined to secure the peace of the world and the betterment of mankind. It is not necessary that their governments should be unified, or even that any hard and fast treaty obligation incurred. It is only necessary that they should agree to be friends and to stand by each other in all that will further these great objects. They alone of all the nations can do this and that they ought to do it few will deny. Both must forget certain bitterness born of the past and certain jealousies growing out of the greatness of both.

What Great Britain is doing for the many peoples under her care and what this nation is doing for the few outside our borders that we have in hand we might unitedly do for a great portion of the globe and its inhabitants. This combination must be strong enough to check certain highwaymen in international relations and to install a wholesome regard for human rights. Such an outcome of present friendliness will not be achieved in a day or generation. But it will come; it must come. Asia and the continent of Europe may become Chinese or Cossack, but the English-speaking race shall rule over every other land and all the islands and every sea.

The present time is a critical period in the life of the American Republic, and therefore in the life of the world. The impotence of the federal government to stop strike disturbances, lynchings and disfranchisements, the growing power of an oligarchial and plutocratic Senate, and the perils of imperialism are disquieting enough, but worst of all is the evil of party rule and party strife.

Washington abhorred party and regarded it as a disease which he hoped to avert by putting federalists and anti-federalists in his cabinet together. The intuition of the founders of the Republic was that the president should be elected by a chosen body of select and responsible citizens, but since the Jacksonian era, nomination and election have been completely in the hands of the Democracy at large, and the election has been performed by a process of national agitation and conflict which sets at work all the forces of political intrigue and corruption on the most enormous scale, besides filling the country with persons almost as violent and anti-social as those of the Civil War.

The qualification for public office from that of president down to that of a member of a city council in national, state or city politics is not a question of which man is most worthy of public confidence. It is no longer eminence but availability. The great aim of each party is to prevent the country from being successfully governed by its rival. Each will do anything to catch votes and anything rather than lose them. Government consequently is at the mercy of any organization which has votes on a large scale to sell, or corporations that will freely contribute its funds. The Grand Army of the Republic is thus enabled to levy upon the nation tribute to the amount of a hundred and fifty million dollars each year, thirty-six years after the war, although General Grant at the close of the war said that the pensions should never exceed seven millions each year. And now both parties in their platform promise their countenance to this exaction.

The recent exposures of the millions contributed by the trusts, tariff protected industries, life insurance companies, etc., to the campaign funds has astonished the world. The history of the most corrupt monarchies could hardly furnish a more monstrous case of financial abuse, to say nothing of the effect upon national character.

Each party machine has a standing army of wire pullers with an apparatus of intrigue and corruption to the support of which holders of office under government are assessed. The boss is a recognized authority, and mastery of unscrupulous intrigue is his avowed qualification for his place. The pest of partyism invades all the large cities of the country. New York is made the plunder of the thieves of one party and Philadelphia of thieves of the other. It is surely impossible that any nation should endure such a system forever. A nation which deliberately gives itself up to government by faction, under the name of party, signs its own doom. The end may be delayed but it is sure. The American people undoubtedly have the political wisdom and force to deal with this crisis, but there is no evidence that these qualities are being brought to bear on the situation nor is there any great man arisen to lead the reform.

## PART II.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

of the

LOYALISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS

with

THE ADDRESSES TO GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON. THE CONSPIRACY ACT; AND RESOLUTION, RELATING TO THE BANISHING AND CONFISCATION OF THE ESTATES OF THE ABSENTEES, AND REFUGEES, AND A LIST OF THE LOYALISTS THAT WENT TO HALIFAX ON THE EVACUATION OF BOSTON.

The Loyalists of Massachusetts

WHO WERE THE INHABITANTS OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION?

The first and second chapters of this work treated of the settlement of Massachusetts and the framing and establishing of that social system and form of government which through successive generations, the settlers and their descendants took part, which culminated in the Revolution. The founders of Massachusetts and of all New England, were almost entirely Englishmen. Their emigration to New England began in 1620, it was inconsiderable till 1630, at the end of ten years more it almost ceased. A people consisting at that time of not many more than twenty thousand persons, thenceforward multiplied on its own soil, in remarkable seclusion from other communities, for nearly two centuries. Such exceptions to this statement are of small account. In 1651 after the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell sent some four or five hundred of his Scotch prisoners to Boston, but very little trace of this accession is left. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, about one hundred and fifty families of French Huguenots came to Massachusetts; their names and a considerable number of their posterity are yet to be found. A hundred and twenty Scotch-Irish families, came over in 1719 and settled in Boston, and New Hampshire. Some slight emigrations from it took place at an early date, but they soon discontinued, and it was not till after the Revolution that those swarms began to depart, which have since occupied so large a portion of the territory of the United States. During that long period their identity was unimpaired. No race has ever been more homogeneous than this, at the outbreak of the Revolution, and for many years later. Thus the people of New England was a singularly unmixed race. There was probably not a county in England occupied by a population of purer English blood than theirs. Down to the eve of the war in 1775, New England had little knowledge of the communities which took part in that conflict with her. Till the time of the Boston Port Bill, Massachusetts and Virginia, the two principal English settlements, had with each other scarcely more relations of acquaintance, business, mutual influence, or common action, than either of them had with Bermuda or Barbados.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century vast numbers of Irish, and next to them German, came to New England, so at the time of writing, 1908, it is claimed that one half of the inhabitants of Boston are Irish, or of Irish parentage. During the past ten years the places of the Irish are being taken by the Italians, Jews, Portuguese, Greeks, Armenians, French Canadians, and others. The reader will see from the foregoing that the contestants in Massachusetts during the Revolutionary war were a race representing a peculiar type of the Englishmen of the seventeenth century who, sequestrated from foreign influences formed a distinct character by their own discipline, and was engaged in a work within itself, on its own problem, through a century and a half, and which terminated in the Revolutionary War, that dismembered the Empire. That the foregoing statement concerning the purity of the race at the time of the Revolution is a correct one, is shown in the following biographies of the Loyalists of Massachusetts, for in nearly every case their ancestry date back to that of the first settlers, through several generations.

THE ADDRESSERS.

The importance of the following addressers is out of all proportion to their apparent significance. They are an indispensable genesis to the history of the Loyalists. For the next seven years the Addressers were held up to their countrymen as traitors and enemies to their country. In the arraignments, which soon began, the Loyalists were convicted not out of their mouths, but out of their addresses. The ink was hardly dry upon the parchment before the persecution began against all those who would not recant, and throughout the long years of the war, the crime of an addresser grew in its enormity, and they were exposed to the perils of tarring and feathering, the horrors of Simbury mines, a gaol or a gallows.

ADDRESS OF THE MERCHANTS AND OTHERS OF BOSTON TO GOV. HUTCHINSON.

_Boston_, May 30, 1774.

We, merchants and traders of the town of Boston, and others, do now wait on you, in the most respectful manner, before your departure for England, to testify, for ourselves the entire satisfaction we feel at your wise, zealous, and faithful administration, during the few years that you have presided at the head of this province. Had your success been equal to your endeavors, and to the warmest wishes of your heart, we cannot doubt that many of the evils under which we now suffer, would have been averted, and that tranquility would have been restored to this long divided province; but we assure ourselves that the want of success in those endeavors will not abate your good wishes when removed from us, or your earnest exertions still on every occasion to serve the true interest of this your native country.

While we lament the loss of so good a governor, we are greatly relieved that his Majesty, in his gracious favor, hath appointed as your successor a gentleman who, having distinguished himself in the long command he hath held in another department, gives us the most favorable prepossessions of his future administration.

We greatly deplore the calamities that are impending and will soon fall on this metropolis, by the operation of a late act of Parliament for shutting up the port on the first of next month. You cannot but be sensible, sir, of the numberless evils that will ensue to the province in general, and the miseries and distresses into which it will

## particularly involve this town, in the course of a few months. Without

meaning to arraign the justice of the British Parliament, we could humbly wish that this act had been couched with less rigor, and that the execution of it had been delayed to a more distant time, that the people might have had the alternative either to have complied with the conditions therein set forth, or to have submitted to the consequent evils on refusal; but as it now stands, all choice is precluded, and however disposed to compliance or concession the people may be, they must unavoidably suffer very great calamities before they can receive relief. Making restitution for damage done to the property of the East India Company, or to the property of any individual, by the outrage of the people, we acknowledge to be just; and though we have ever disavowed, and do now solemnly bear our testimony against such lawless proceedings, yet, considering ourselves as members of the same community, we are fully disposed to bear our proportions of those damages, whenever the sum and the manner of laying it can be ascertained. We earnestly request that you, sir, who know our condition, and have at all times displayed the most benevolent disposition towards us, will, on your arrival in England, interest yourself in our behalf, and make such favorable representations of our case, as that we may hope to obtain speedy and effectual relief.

May you enjoy a pleasant passage to England; and under all the mortifications you have patiently endured, may you possess the inward and consolatory testimonies of having discharged your trust with fidelity and honor, and receive those distinguishing marks of his Majesty's royal approbation and favor, as may enable you to pass the remainder of your life in quietness and ease, and preserve your name with honor to posterity.

William Blair, John Greenlaw, Theophilus Lillie, James Selkrig, Benjamin Clark, Miles Whitworth, Archibald Wilson, William McAlpine, James McEwen, Jeremiah Green, Jonathan Snelling, William Codner, Samuel H. Sparhawk, James Hall, James Perkins, Joseph Turill, William Dickson, John White, Roberts & Co., John Winslow, jr., Robert Jarvis, William Perry, Joseph Scott, Thomas Aylwin, Jas. & Pat. McMasters, Samuel Minot, William Bowes, William Coffin, Benjamin M. Holmes, Gregory Townsend, Simeon Stoddard, jr., Archibald McNiel, Francis Green, John Powell, George Leonard, Philip Dumaresq, Henry Laughton, John Borland, Harrison Gray, Eliphalet Pond, Joshua Loring, jr., Peter Johonnot, M. B. Goldthwait, William Jackson, George Erving, Peter Hughes, James Anderson, Joseph Green, Samuel Hughes, David Mitchelson, John Vassall, John Semple, Abraham Savage, Nathaniel Coffin, Hopestill Capen, James Asby, John Timmins, Edward King, John Inman, William Tailor, Byfield Lynde, John Coffin, Thomas Brinley, George Lynde, Thomas Knight, Harrison Gray, jr., A. F. Phipps, Benjamin Green, jr., John Taylor, Rufus Green, David Green, Gilbert Deblois, David Phips, Benjamin Green, Joshua Winslow, Richard Smith, Henry H. Williams, Daniel Hubbard, George Spooner, James Warden, Hugh Turbett, Daniel Silsby, Nathaniel Coffin, jr., Henry Lyddell, William Cazneau, Silvester Gardiner, Nathaniel Cary, James Forrest, John S. Copley, George Brinley, Edward Cox, Edward Foster, Richard Lechmere, John Berry, Colbourn Burrell, John Erving, jr., Richard Hirons, Nathaniel Greenwood, Thomas Gray, Ziphion Thayer, William Burton, George Bethune, John Joy, John Winslow, Thomas Apthorp, Joseph Goldthwait, Isaac Winslow, jr., Ezekial Goldthwaite, Samuel Prince, Thomas Oliver, Benjamin Gridley, Jonathan Simpson, Henry Bloye, John Atkinson, James Boutineau, Benjamin Davis, Ebenezer Bridgham, Nathaniel Hatch, Isaac Winslow, John Gore, Martin Gay, Lewis Deblois, Adino Paddock.

ADDRESS OF THE BARRISTERS AND ATTORNEYS OF MASSACHUSETTS TO GOV. HUTCHINSON, MAY, 30, 1774.

A firm persuasion of your inviolable attachment to the real interest of this your native country, and of your constant readiness, by every service in your power, to promote its true welfare and prosperity, will, we flatter ourselves, render it not improper in us, barristers and attorneys at law in the province of Massachusetts Bay, to address your Excellency upon your removal from us with this testimonial of our sincere respect and esteem.

The various important characters of Legislator, Judge and first Magistrate over this province, in which, by the suffrages of your fellow-subjects, and by the royal favor of the best of kings, your great abilities, adorned with a uniform purity of principle, and integrity of conduct, have been eminently distinguished, must excite the esteem and demand the grateful acknowledgements of every true lover of his country, and friend to virtue.

The present perplexed state of our public affairs, we are sensible, must render your departure far less disagreeable to you than it is to us--we assure you, sir, we feel the loss; but when, in the amiable character of your successor, we view a fresh instance of the paternal goodness of our most gracious sovereign; when we reflect on the probability that your presence at the court of Great Britain, will afford you an opportunity of employing your interests more successfully for the relief of this province, and particularly of the town of Boston, under their present distresses, we find a consolation which no other human source could afford. Permit us, sir, most earnestly to solicit the exertion of all your distinguished abilities in favor of your native town and country, upon this truly unhappy and distressing occasion.

We sincerely wish you a prosperous voyage, a long continuation of health and felicity and the highest rewards of the good and faithful.

We are, sir, with the most cordial affection, esteem and respect, Your Excellency's most obedient and very humble servants,

Robert Achmuty, Andrew Cazneau, David Ingersoll, Jonathan Sewall, Daniel Leonard, Jeremiah D. Rogers, Samuel Fitch, John Lowell, David Gorham, Samuel Quincy, Daniel Oliver, Samuel Sewall, William Pynchon, Sampson S. Blowers, John Sprague, James Putnam, Shearjashub Brown, Rufus Chandler, Benjamin Gridley, Daniel Bliss, Thomas Danforth, Abel Willard, Samuel Porter, Ebenezer Bradish,

From the Essex Gazette of June 1, 1775.

_Salem, May 30, 1775._

Whereas we the subscribers did some time since sign an address to Governor Hutchinson, which, though prompted to by the best intentions, has, nevertheless, given great offence to our country: We do now declare, that we were so far from designing by that action, to show our acquiescence in those acts of Parliament so universally and justly odious to all America, that on the contrary, we hoped we might in that way contribute to their repeal; though now to our sorrow we find ourselves mistaken. And we do now further, declare, that we never intended the offence which this address occasioned; that if we had foreseen such an event we should never have signed it; as it always has been and now is our wish to live in harmony with our neighbors, and our serious determination is to promote to the utmost of our power the liberty, the welfare, and happiness of our country, which is inseparably connected with our own.

John Nutting, N. Sparhawk, Thomas Barnard, N. Goodale, Andrew Dalglish, Nathaniel Dabney, Ebenezer Putnam, E. A. Holyoke, William Pickman, Francis Cabot, William Pynchon, C. Gayton Pickman,

In Committee of Safety, Salem, May 30, 1775.--The declaration, of which the above is a copy, being presented and read, it was voted unanimously that the same was satisfactory; and that the said gentlemen ought to be received and treated as real friends to this country.

By order of the Committee,

RICHARD DERBY, JR., Chairman.

ADDRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF MARBLEHEAD TO GOV. HUTCHINSON.

_Marblehead, May 25, 1774._

His Majesty having been pleased to appoint his Excellency the Hon. Thomas Gage, Esq., to be governor and commander-in-chief over this province, and you, (as we are informed,) begin speedily to embark for Great Britain: We, the subscribers, merchants, traders, and others, inhabitants of Marblehead, beg leave to present your our valedictory address on this occasion; and as this is the only way we now have of expressing to you our entire approbation of your public conduct during the time you have presided in this province, and of making you a return of our most sincere and hearty thanks for the ready assistance which you have at all times afforded us, when applied to in matters which affected our navigation and commerce, we are induced from former experience of your goodness, to believe that you will freely indulge us in the pleasure of giving you this testimony of our sincere esteem and gratitude.

In your public administration, we are fully convinced that the general good was the mark which you have ever aimed at, and we can, sir, with pleasure assure you, that it is likewise the opinion of all dispassionate thinking men within the circle of our observation, notwithstanding many publications would have taught the world to think the contrary; and we beg leave to entreat you, that when you arrive at the court of Great Britain, you would there embrace every opportunity of moderating the resentment of the government against us, and use your best endeavors to have the unhappy dispute between Great Britain and this country brought to a just and equitable determination.

We cannot omit the opportunity of returning you in a particular manner our most sincere thanks for your patronizing our cause in the matter of entering and clearing the fishing vessels at the custom-house, and making the fishermen pay hospital money; we believe it is owing to your representation of the matter, that we are hitherto free from that burden.

We heartily wish you, sir, a safe and prosperous passage to Great Britain, and when you arrive there may you find such a reception as shall fully compensate for all the insults and indignities which have been offered you.

Henry Saunders, John Fowle, Thomas Lewis, Richard Hinkly, Robert Hooper, 3d, Sweet Hooper, Samuel Reed, John Gallison, Robert Hooper, John Lee, John Prince, Jacob Fowle, Robert Ambrose, George McCall, John Pedrick, Jonathan Glover, Joseph Swasey, Richard Reed, Richard Phillips, Nathan Bowen, Benjamin Marston, Isaac Mansfield, Thomas Robie, Samuel White, Joseph Bubler, John Stimson, Joseph Hooper, Richard Stacy, John Webb, John Prentice, Thomas Procter, Joseph Lee, Robert Hooper, jr.

ADDRESS TO GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON FROM HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN IN THE TOWN OF MILTON.

This document which was printed recently in the "History of Milton," was not a matter of record, and had never been printed before, it had also failed to meet the searching eye of the antiquarian, and the author said "it has come down to us in its original manuscript yellow with age."

It will be noticed the signers were obliged to recant, so as to save their property from being destroyed by the mob, and from personal injury and insult such as tarring and feathering, etc. It was with such doings that the "Sons of Despotism" amused themselves, and made converts to the cause of "liberty." It, however, did not save James Murray and Stephen Miller, who were banished, and Miller's estate confiscated.

_To_ THOMAS HUTCHINSON _Esquire Late Gov. &c._

SIR,--We the Select Men, the Magistrates and other principal Inhabitants of the Town of Milton, hearing of your speedy Embarkation for England, cannot let you leave this Town which you have so long honored by your Residence without some publick Expression of our sincere wishes for your health and happiness.

We have been Eye Witnesses, Sir, of your amiable private and useful publick Life; We have with concern beheld you, in the faithful and prudent Discharge of your Duty exposed to Calumnies, Trials and Sufferings, as unjust as severe; and seen you bearing them all with becoming Meekness and Fortitude.

As to ourselves and Neighbours in particular; altho many of us, in future Perplexities will often feel the Want of your skillful gratuitous advice, always ready for those who asked it, we cannot but rejoice for your Sake Sir, at your being so seasonably relieved by an honourable and worthy Successor, in this critical and distressful period from the growing Difficulty of the Government of your beloved native Province. And we see your Departure with the less Regret, being convinced that the Change at present will contribute to your and your Family's Tranquility: possessed as you are of the applause of good men, of the favour of our Sovereign, and the Approbation of a good Conscience to prepare the Way to Rewards infinitely ample from the King of Kings; to whose Almighty protection, We, with grateful hearts commend you and your family.

Signed

SAML. DAVENPORT STEPHEN MILLER BENJAMIN HORTON JA. MURRAY JOSIAH HOW ZEDAH CREHORE

REPLY OF GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON.

GENTLEMEN

I have received innumerable marks of respect and kindness from the Inhabitants of the Town of Milton, of which I shall ever retain the most grateful Remembrance. I leave you with regret. I hope to return and spend the short remains of my life among you in peace and quiet and in doing every good office to you in my power.

THO. HUTCHINSON.

* * * * *

Milton, Sept. 21, 1774.--Messrs. Davenport Miller and How were taken to Task by the Town Meeting for having signed the above address altho it was never presented or published. They were required by next day to make an acknowledgement of their offence--And a Committee of fifteen was chosen to treat with them and Mr. Murray.

Sept. 22. These Culprits attended and made the following acknowledgement, of which the Committee accepted, requiring them to sign it and to read it severally before the Town Meeting on the green. This done the Meeting by some Majority voted it not satisfactory. The offenders all but Capt. Davenport went home without making any other.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

Whereas We the Subscribers did sign and endeavour to promote among the Inhabitants of our Town of Milton an Address to Gov. Hutchinson a few days before his Embarkation for England, which Address contained Compliments to the Gov. that we did and do still, in our consciences, believe to be justly due to him; and Whereas we did further believe that it would be very acceptable to the Town to give them such an Opportunity of showing their gratitude to the Governor.

Now since the Temper of the Times is such, that what we meant to please has eventually displeased our Neighbours, We, who desire to live in peace and good will with them are sorry for it. Witness our hands this 22d. day of Sept. 1774.

Signed

JA. MURRAY SAML. DAVENPORT STEPHEN MILLER JOSIAH HOW

After the departure of the first three of these, the meeting insisted on Capt. Davenport's making the following acknowledgement, and that the committee should have the rest to make it at or before the next town-meeting on Monday, 3d October:--

Whereas We the Subscribers have given the good People of this Town and Province in General just Cause to be offended with each of us, in that unguarded action of ours in signing an address to the late Governor Hutchinson, for which we are heartily sorry and take this opportunity publickly to manifest it, and declare we did not so well consider the Contents. And we heartily beg their forgiveness and all others we may have offended: Also that we may be restored to their favour, and be made Partakers of that inestimable blessing, the good Will of our Neighbours, and the whole Community.

Witness our hands

Milton 22d Sept. signed SAML. DAVENPORT 24 Sept. ---- JOSIAH HOW 25 Sept. ---- JA. MURRAY 25 Sept. ---- STEPHEN MILLER

ADDRESS PRESENTED TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR GAGE, JUNE 11TH, 1774, ON HIS ARRIVAL AT SALEM.

To his Excellency Thomas Gage, Esq., Captain-General, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and Lieutenant-General of his Majesty's Forces.

May it please your Excellency:

We, merchants and others, inhabitants of the ancient town of Salem, beg leave to approach your Excellency with our most respectful congratulations on your arrival in this place.

We are deeply sensible of his Majesty's paternal care and affection to this province, in the appointment of a person of your Excellency's experience, wisdom and moderation, in these troublesome and difficult times.

We rejoice that this town is graciously distinguished for that spirit, loyalty, and reverence for the laws, which is equally our glory and happiness.

From that public spirit and warm zeal to promote the general happiness of men, which mark the great and good, we are led to hope under your Excellency's administration for everything that may promote the peace, prosperity, and real welfare of this province.

We beg leave to commend to your Excellency's patronage the trade and commerce of this place, which, from a full protection of the liberties, persons and properties of individuals, cannot but flourish.

And we assure your Excellency we will make it our constant endeavors by peace, good order, and a regard for the laws, as far as in us lies, to render your station and residence easy and happy.

John Sargent, John Prince, Benjamin Lynde, Jacob Ashton, George Deblois, William Browne, William Wetmore, Andrew Dalglish, John Turner, James Grant, Joseph Blaney, P. Frye, Henry Higginson, Archelaus Putnam, Francis Cabot, David Britton, Samuel Porter, William Pynchon, P. G. Kast, Thomas Poynton, John Fisher, Weld Gardner, Samuel Flagg, John Mascarene, Nathaniel Daubney, Nathan Goodale, E. A. Holyoke, Richard Nicholls, William Pickman, Jos. Bowditch, William Cabot, C. Gayton Pickman, Ebenezer Putnam, Cabot Gerrish, Nathaniel Sparhwak, S. Curwen, William Gerrish, William Vans, John Nutting, Rowland Savage, Timothy Orne, Jos. Dowse, William Lilly, Richard Routh, Benjamin Pickman, Jonathan Goodhue, Stephen Higginson, Henry Gardner.

THE "LOYAL ADDRESS FROM THE GENTLEMEN AND PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF BOSTON TO GOVERNOR GAGE ON HIS DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND, OCTOBER 6, 1775," WAS SIGNED AS FOLLOWS:

John Erving, James Selkrig, John Greecart, Thomas Hutchinson, jr., Archibald Cunningham, Richard Clarke, Silvester Gardiner, William Cazneau, Benjamin Fanieul, jr., Wm. Bowes, David Barton, Thomas Amory, John Timmins, John Semple, George Brindley, Nathaniel Coffin, Henry Lawton, Ralph Inman, John Winslow, jr., William Brattle, Edward Winslow, Alexander Bymer, John Troutbeck, Benjamin M. Holmes, Robert Hallowell, Stephen Greenleaf, William Jackson, Robert Jarvis, William Walter, Richard Green, David Phips, James Perkins, James Murray, John Tayler, Phillip Dumaresque, Joseph Scott, Archibald McNeal, Joshua Loring, jr., Peter Johonnot, Francis Green, Henry Lloyd, Nathaniel Cary, Benjamin Davis, William Lee Perkins, Martin Gay, Thomas Courtney, George Leonard, Samuel Hughes, John Sampson, Thomas Brinley, William Coffin, jr., William Tayler, Daniel Hubbard, Adino Paddock, John Inman, Samuel Fitch, Andrew Cazneau, Wm. Perry, John Atkinson, Henry Lindall, John Gore, Joseph Turill, Theophilus Lillie, Isaac Winslow, jr., Samuel Hirst Sparhawk, Henry Barnes, William Dickerson, Ebenezer Brigham, M. B. Goldthwait, William Hunter, William Codner, Lewis Gray, Robert Semple, Jonathan Snelling, Nathaniel Brinley, John Joy, Benjamin Gridley, John Jeffries, jr., Gregory Townsend, Gilbert Deblois, Archibald Bowman, Isaac Winslow, Edward Hutchinson, Jonathan Simpson, Byfield Lyde, Miles Whitworth, Nathaniel Tayler, John Love, Daniel McMasters, James Anderson, Hugh Tarbett, John Hunt, 3d, Lewis Deblois, Nathaniel Perkins, James Lloyd, John Powell, William McAlpine,

THE LOYAL ADDRESS TO GOVERNOR GAGE ON HIS DEPARTURE, OCTOBER 14, 1775, OF THOSE GENTLEMEN WHO WERE DRIVEN FROM THEIR HABITATIONS IN THE COUNTRY TO THE TOWN OF BOSTON, WAS SIGNED BY THE FOLLOWING PERSONS:

John Chandler, Seth Williams, jr., David Phips, James Putnam, Charles Curtis, Richard Saltonstall, Peter Oliver, sen., Samuel Pine, Peter Oliver, jr., Jonathan Stearns, Thomas Foster, Edward Winslow, jr. Ward Chipman, Pelham Winslow, Nathaniel Chandler, William Chandler, Daniel Oliver, James Putnam, jr.

List of the inhabitants of Boston, who on the evacuation by the British, in March, 1776, removed to Halifax with the army. Taken from a paper in the handwriting of Walter Barrell from the Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., Vol. 18, page 266.

Lieutenant-Governor Oliver and servants 6

_Council, &c._

Peter Oliver and niece 2 Harrison Gray and family 5 Timothy Ruggles and sons 3 Foster Hutchinson and family 13 Josiah Edson 1 John Murray and family 7 Richard Lechmere 12 John Erving 9 Nathaniel Ray Thomas and son 2 Abijah Willard and two sons 3 Daniel Leonard and family 9 Nathaniel Hatch 7 George Erving 6

_Custom House._

Henry Hulton 12 Charles Paxton 6 Benjamin Hallowel 7 Samuel Waterhouse, _Secretary_ 7 James Porter, _Comptroller Gen'l_ 1 Walter Barrell, _Inspector Gen'l_ 6 James Murray, _Inspector_ 7 William Woolen, _Inspector_ 2 Edward Winslow, _Collector, Boston_ 1 Charles Dudley, _Collector, Newport_ 2 George Meserve, _Collector, Piscataq_ 1 Robert Hallowel, _Comptroller, Boston_, 6 Arthur Savage, _Surveyor, &c._ 6 Nathaniel Coffin, _Cashier_ 4 Ebenezer Bridgham, _Tide Surveyor_ 8 Nathaniel Taylor, _Dep'y Naval Officer_ 2 Samuel Mather, _Clerk_ 3 Samuel Lloyd, _Clerk_ 6 Christopher Minot, _Land Waiter_ 1 Ward Chipman, _Clerk Sol._ 1 Robert Bethel, _Clerk Col._ 1 Skinner, Cookson, and Evans _Clerks_ 3 James Barrick, _Clerk Insp._ 5 John Ciely, _Tidesman_ 4 John Sam Petit, _Tidesman_ 6 John Selby, _Clerk_ 2 Edward Mulhall, _Tidesman_ 1 Hammond Green, _Tidesman_ 1 John Lewis, _Tidesman_ 6 Elkanah Cushman, _Tidesman_ 1 Edmund Duyer, _Messenger_ 3 Samuel Chadwel, Tidesman__ 1 Samuel Sparhawk, _Clerk_ 5 ---- Chandler, _Land Waiter_ 1 ---- Patterson, _Land Waiter_ 1 Isaac Messengham, _Coxwain_ 1 Owen Richard, _Coxwain_ 1

_Refugees._

Ashley, Joseph 1 Andros, Barret 1 Atkinson, John, _Merchant_ 4 Atkins, Gibbs 1 Ayres, Eleanor 3 Allen, Ebenezer 8 Bowes, William, _Merchant_ 4 Brinley, Thomas, _Merchant_ 3 Burton, Mary, _Milliner_ 2 Bowen, John 2 Blair, John, Baker 1 Bowman, Archibald, _Auctioneer_ 1 Broderick, John 3 Butter, James 2 Brown, Thomas, _Merchant_ 6 Byles, Rev'd Doctor 5 Barnard. John 1 Black, John 7 Baker, John, Jun'r 1 Badger, Rev'd Moses 1 Beath, Mary 4 Butler, Gilliam 1 Brandon, John 2 Brattle, William 2 Coffin, Williamn 2 Cazneau, Andrew, _Lawyer_ 1 Cednor, William 1 Connor, Mrs. 2 Cummins. A. and E. _Milliners_ 3 Coffin, William, Jun'r, _Merchant_ 4 Cutler, Ebnezer 1 Campbel, William 1 Caner, Rev'd Doctor 1 Cook Robert 1 Chandler, John, Esq'r 1 Chandler, Rufus, _Lawyer_ 2 Chandler, Nathaniel 1 Chandler, William 1 Carver, Melzer 1 Cooley, John 4 Courtney, Thomas 11 Carr, Mrs. 3 Deblois, Gilbert 5 Doyley, John 4 Dunlap, Daniel 1 Danforth, Thomas 1 Dumaresq, Philip, _Merchant_ 8 De Blois, Lewis 3 Duncan, Alexander 1 Doyley, Francis 1 Dickenson, Nathaniel 1 Draper, Margaret 5 Dougherty, Edward 2 Dechezzan, Adam 7 Duelly, William 3 Emerson, John 1 Etter, Peter 7 Fisher, Wilfree 4 Foster, Thomas 1 Faneuil, Benjamin, _Merchant_ 3 Fitch, Samuel, _Lawyer_ 7 Foster, Edward, _Blacksmith_ 7 Full, Thomas 5 Foster, Edward, Jun'r 5 Forest, James 7 Flucker, Mrs. 6 Gilbert, Thomas 1 Gallop, Antill 1 Gray, Andrew 1 Gray, John 3 Goldsbury, Samuel 3 Gardiner, Doctor Sylvester 8 Gridley, Benjamin 1 Grison, Edmund 2 Gay, Martin 3 Gilbert, Samuel 1 Grozart, John 1 Gray, Mary 1 Green, Francis 8 Greenwood, Samuel 5 Grant, James 1 Griffith, Mrs. 3 Gore, John 3 Griffin, Edmund 4 Hill, William 17 Hallowel, Rebecca 4 Hall, Luke 1 Henderson, James 5 House, Joseph 1 Hughes, Samuel 1 Hooper, Jacob 2 Hicks, John, _Printer_ 1 Hurlston, Richard 1 Holmes, Benjamin Mulberry 11 Hatch, Hawes 1 Hale, Samuel 1 Hester, John 6 Hutchinsen, Mrs. 7 Horn, Henry 7 Hefferson, Jane 1 Heath, William 1 Jones, Mary 6 Jarvis, Robert 1 Inman, John 3 Joy, John 8 Ireland, John 2 Jefferies, Doctor John 6 Johannot, Peter 1 Jones, Mrs. 4 Knutter, Margaret 4 King, Edward and Samuel 7 Lazarus, Samuel 1 Lovel, John, Sen'r 5 Leonard, George 9 Liste, Mrs. 5 Lillie, Theophilus 4 Lutwiche, Edward Goldston 1 Lyde, Byefield 5 Leddel, Henry 4 Laughton, Henry 5 Lloyd, Henry 10 Linkieter, Alexander 4 Lowe, Charles 2 Loring, Joshua, Jun'r 1 Murray, William 3 Moody, John, Jun'r 1 McKown, John 1 McAlpine, William 2 Moody, John 4 McKown, John (of Boston) 5 Macdonald, Dennis 1 Mackay, Mrs. 1 Mitchelson, David 2 McNeil, Archibald 13 Marston, Benjamin 1 Moore, John 1 Miller, John 5 Mulcainy, Patrick 4 MacKinstrey, Mrs. 12 Morrison, John 1 McMaster, Patrick and Daniel 3 McMullen, Alexander 1 Mitchel, Thomas 1 Mills, Nathaniel 2 McClintock, Nathan 1 Nevin, Lazarus and wife 2 O'Neil, Joseph 4 Oliver, William Sanford 1 Oliver, Doctor Peter 1 Powel, John 8 Philips, Martha 3 Phipps, David 11 Pelham, Henry 1 Putnam, James 7 Paine, Samuel 1 Perkins, Nathaniel 1 Patterson, William 3 Philipps, Ebenezer 1 Paddock, Adine 9 Pollard, Benjamin 1 Patten, George 3 Perkins, William Lee 4 Price, Benjamin 2 Page, George 1 Rummer, Richard 3 Rogers, Jeremiah Dummer 2 Rogers, Samuel 1 Richardson, Miss 1 Rose, Peter 1 Read, Charles 1 Ramage, John 1 Roath, Richard 6 Rhodes, Henry 5 Russell, Nathaniel 3 Richards, Mrs. 3 Ruggles, John and Richard 2 Smith, Henry 6 Sullivan, George 1 Serjeant, John 1 Scoit, Joseph 3 Simonds, William 3 Stow, Edward 4 Sterling, Elizabeth 1 Sterling, Benjamin Ferdinand 1 Simpson, John 5 Simpson, Jonathan, Jun'r 2 Semple, Robert 4 Stayner, Abigail 3 Stearns, Jonathan 1 Savage, Abraham 1 Saltonstal, Leveret 1 Service, Robert 5 Snelling, Jonathan 6 Sullivan, Bartholomew 2 Smith, Edward 4 Spooner, Ebenezer 1 Selknig, James 6 Scammel, Thomas 1 Shepard, Joseph 2 Thompson, James 1 Taylor, Mrs. 5 Terry, Zebedee 1 Terry, William 4 Taylor, William 2 Winslow, Isaac 11 Winslow, Pelham 1 Winslow, John 4 Winslow, Mrs. Hannah 4 Winslow, Edward 1 Williams, Seth 1 Willis, David 4 Wittington, William 3 Warden, William 2 Williams, Job 1 Warren, Abraham 1 Willard, Abel 4 Warden, Joseph 3 Willard, Abijah 1 Whiston, Obadiah 3 Wheelwright, Joseph 1 Winnet, John, Jun'r 1 Wright, Daniel 2 Welsh, Peter 1 White, Gideon 1 Wilson, Archibald 1 Welsh, James 1 Worral, Thomas Grooby 5 ---- [927]926

FOR MR. SAMUEL B. BARRELL From his friend and kinsman, THEODORE BARRELL

Saugerties Ulster Co., New York, Aug. 16, 1841

MANDAMUS COUNSELLORS.

_Salem, Aug. 9, 1774._ The following were appointed by his majesty, counsellors of this province by writ of mandamas,[101] viz:--

[101] Those whose names are in italics alone took the oath of office.

Col. Thomas Oliver, Lieut. Governor, President; Peter Oliver, _Thomas Flucker_, _Foster Hutchinson_, Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., _Harrison Gray_, Judge Samuel Danforth, Col. John Erving, Jr., James Russell, Timothy Ruggles, _Joseph Lee_, _Isaac Winslow_, Israel Williams, Col. George Watson, Nathaniel Ray Thomas, Timothy Woodbridge, William Vassall, _William Browne_, Joseph Greene, _James Boutineau_, Andrew Oliver, Col. Josiah Edson, Richard Lechmere, _Commodore Joshua Loring_, John Worthington, Timothy Paine, _William Pepperell_, Jeremiah Powell, Jonathan Simpson, Col. John Murray, Daniel Leonard, Thomas Palmer, Col. Isaac Royall, Robert Hooper, Abijah Willard, _Capt. John Erring, Jr._

BANISHMENT ACT OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

An Act to prevent the return to this state of certain persons therein named, and others who have left this state or either of the United States, and joined the enemies thereof.

Whereas Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., late governor of this state, Francis Bernard, Esq., formerly governor of this state, Thomas Oliver, Esq., late lieutenant governor of this state, Timothy Ruggles, Esq., of Hardwick, in the county of Worcester, William Apthorp, merchant, Gibbs Atkins, cabinet maker, John Atkinson, John Amory, James Anderson, Thomas Apthorp, David Black, William Burton, William Bowes, George Brindley, Robert Blair, Thomas Brindley, James Barrick, merchant, Thomas Brattle, Esq., Sampson Salter Blowers, Esq., James Bruce, Ebenezer Bridgham, Alexander Brymer, Edward Berry, merchants, William Burch, Esq., late commissioner of the customs, Mather Byles, Jun., clerk, William Codner, book-keeper, Edward Cox, merchant, Andrew Cazneau, Esq., barrister at law, Henry Canner, clerk, Thomas Courtney, tailor, Richard Clark, Esq., Isaac Clark, physician, Benjamin Church, physician, John Coffin, distiller, John Clark, physician, William Coffin, Esq., Nathaniel Coffin, Esq., Jonathan Clark, merchant, Archibald Cunningham, shop-keeper, Gilbert Deblois, merchant, Lewis Deblois, merchant, Philip Dumaresque, merchant, Benjamin Davis, merchant, John Erving, Jun. Esq., George Erving, Esq., Edward Foster and Edward Foster, Jun., blacksmiths, Benjamin Faneuil, Jun., merchant, Thomas Flucker, Esq., late secretary for Massachusetts Bay, Samuel Fitch, Esq., Wilfret Fisher, carter, James Forrest, merchant, Lewis Gray, merchant, Francis Green, merchant, Joseph Green, Esq., Sylvester Gardiner, Esq., Harrison Gray, Esq., late treasurer of Massachusetts Bay., Harrison Gray, Jun., clerk to the treasurer, Joseph Goldthwait, Esq., Martin Gay, founder, John Gore, Esq., Benjamin Hallowell, Esq., Robert Hallowell, Esq., Thomas Hutchinson, Jun., Esq., Benjamin Gridley, Esq., Frederick William Geyer, merchant, John Greenlaw, shopkeeper, David Green, merchant, Elisha Hutchinson, Esq., James Hall, mariner, Foster Hutchinson, Esq., Benjamin Mulbury Holmes, distiller, Samuel Hodges, book-keeper, Henry Halson, Esq., Hawes Hatch, wharfinger, John Joy, housewright, Peter Johonnot, distiller, William Jackson, merchant, John Jeffries, physician, Henry Laughton, merchant, James Henderson, trader, John Hinston, yeoman, Christopher Hatch, mariner, Robert Jarvis, mariner, Richard Lechmere, Esq., Edward Lyde, merchant, Henry Lloyd, Esq., George Leonard, miller, Henry Leddle, book-keeper, Archibald McNeil, baker, Christopher Minot, tide-waiter, James Murray, Esq., William McAlpine, bookbinder, Thomas Mitchell, mariner, William Martin, Esq., John Knutton, tallow-chandler, Thomas Knight, shop-keeper, Samuel Prince, merchant, Adino Paddock, Esq., Charles Paxon, Esq., Sir William Pepperell, baronet, John Powell, Esq., William Lee Perkins, physician, Nathaniel Perkins, Esq., Samuel Quincy, Esq., Owen Richards, tide-waiter, Samuel Rogers, merchant, Jonathan Simpson, Esq., George Spooner, merchant, Edward Stowe, mariner, Richard Smith, merchant, Jonathan Snelling, Esq., David Silsby, trader, Samuel Sewall, Esq., Abraham Savage, tax-gatherer, Joseph Scott, Esq., Francis Skinner, clerk to the late council, William Simpson, merchant, Richard Sherwin, saddler, Henry Smith, merchant, John Semple, merchant, Robert Semple, merchant, Thomas Selkrig, merchant, James Selkrig, merchant, Robert Service, trader, Simon Tufts, trader, Arodi Thayer, late marshal to the admiralty court, Nathaniel Taylor, deputy naval officer, John Troutbeck, clerk, Gregory Townsend, Esq., William Taylor, merchant, William Vassal, Esq., Joseph Taylor, merchant, Joshua Upham, Esq., William Walter, clerk, Samuel Waterhouse, merchant, Isaac Winslow, merchant, John Winslow. jr., merchant, David Willis, mariner, Obadiah Whiston, blacksmith, Archibald Wilson, trader, John White, mariner, William Warden, peruke-maker, Nathaniel Mills, John Hicks, John Howe, and John Fleming, printers, all of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, Robert Auchmuty, Esq., Joshua Loring, Esq., both of Roxbury, in the same county, Samuel Goldsbury, yeoman, of Wrentham, in the county of Suffolk, Joshua Loring, jr., merchant, Nathanial Hatch, Esq., both of Dorchester, in the same county, William Brown, Esq., Benjamin Pickman, Esq., Samuel Porter, Esq., John Sargeant, trader, all of Salem, in the county of Essex, Richard Saltonstall, Esq., of Haverhill, in the same county. Thomas Robie, trader, Benjamin Marston, merchant, both of Marblehead, in said county of Essex, Moses Badger, clerk, of Haverhill, aforesaid, Jonathan Sewall, Esq., John Vassal, Esq., David Phipps, Esq., John Nutting, carpenter, all of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, Isaac Royall, Esq., of Medford, in the same county, Henry Barnes, of Marlborough, in said county of Middlesex, merchant, Jeremiah Dummer Rogers, of Littleton in the same county, Esq., Daniel Bliss, of Concord, in the said county of Middlesex, Esq., Charles Russell, of Lincoln, in the same county, physician, Joseph Adams, of Townsend, in said county of Middlesex, Thomas Danforth, of Charlestown, in said county, Esq., Joshua Smith, trader of Townsend, in said county, Joseph Ashley, jr., gentleman, of Sunderland, Nathaniel Dickenson, gentleman, of Deerfield, Samuel Bliss, shopkeeper, of Greenfield, Roger Dickenson, yeoman, Joshah Pomroy, physician, and Thomas Cutler, gentleman, of Hatfield, Jonathan Bliss, Esq., of Springfield, William Galway, yeoman, of Conway, Elijah Williams, attorney at law, of Deerfield, James Oliver, gentleman, of Conway, all in the county of Hampshire, Pelham Winslow, Esq., Cornelius White, mariner, Edward Winslow, jr., Esq., all of Plymouth, in the county of Plymouth, Peter Oliver, Esq., Peter Oliver, jr., physician, both of Middleborough, in the same county, Josiah Edson, Esq., of Bridgewater, in the said county of Plymouth, Lieutenant Daniel Dunbar, of Halifax, in the same county, Charles Curtis, of Scituate, in the said county of Plymouth, gentleman, Nathaniel Ray Thomas, Esq., Israel Tilden, Caleb Carver, Seth Bryant, Benjamin Walker, Gideon Walker, Zera Walker, Adam Hall, tertius, Isaac Joice, Joseph Phillips, Daniel White, jr., Cornelius White, tertius, Melzar Carver, Luke Hall, Thomas Decrow, John Baker, jr., all of Marshfield, in the said county of Plymouth, Gideon White, jr., Daniel Leonard, Esq., Seth Williams, jr., gentleman, Solomon Smith, boatman, all of Taunton, in the county of Bristol, Thomas Gilbert, Esq., Perez Gilbert, Ebenezer Hathaway, jr., Lot Strange, the third, Zebedee Terree, Bradford Gilbert, all of Freetown, in the same county, Joshua Broomer, Shadrach Hathaway, Calvin Hathaway, Luther Hathaway, Henry Tisdel, William Burden, Levi Chace, Shadrach Chace, Richard Holland, Ebenezer Phillips, Samuel Gilbert, gentleman, Thomas Gilbert, jr., yeoman, both of Berkley, in the said county of Bristol, Ammi Chace, Caleb Wheaton, Joshua Wilbore, Lemuel Bourn, gentleman, Thomas Perry, yeoman, David Atkins, laborer, Samuel Perry, mariner, Stephen Perry, laborer, John Blackwell, jr., laborer, Francis Finney, laborer, and Nehemiah Webb, mariner, all of Sandwich, in the county of Barnstable, Eldad Tupper, of Dartmouth, in the county of Bristol, laborer, Silas Perry, laborer, Seth Perry, mariner, Elisha Bourn, gentleman, Thomas Bumpus, yeoman, Ephraim Ellis, jr., yeoman, Edward Bourn, gentleman, Nicholas Cobb, laborer, William Bourn, cordwainer, all of Sandwich, in the county of Barnstable, and Seth Bangs, of Harwich, in the county of Barnstable, mariner, John Chandler, Esq., James Putnam, Esq., Rufus Chandler, gentleman, William Paine, physician, Adam Walker, blacksmith, William Chandler, gentleman, all of Worcester, in the county of Worcester, John Walker, gentleman, David Bush, yeoman, both of Shrewsbury, in the same county, Abijah Willard, Esq., Abel Willard, Esq., Joseph House, yeoman, all of Lancaster, in the said county of Worcester, Ebenezer Cutler, trader, James Edgar, yeoman, both of Northbury, in the same county, Daniel Oliver, Esq., Richard Ruggles, yeoman, Gardner Chandler, trader, Joseph Ruggles, gentleman, Nathaniel Ruggles, yeoman, all of Hardwick, in the said county of Worcester, John Ruggles, yeoman, of said Hardwick, John Eager, yeoman, Ebenezer Whipple, Israel Conkay, John Murray, Esq., of Rutland, in said county of Worcester, Daniel Murray, gentleman, Samuel Murray, gentleman, Michael Martin, trader, of Brookfield, in the said county of Worcester, Thomas Beaman, gentleman, of Petersham, in the same county, Nathaniel Chandler, gentleman, John Bowen, gentleman, of Princeton, in the said county of Worcester, James Crage, gentleman, of Oakham, in the same county, Thomas Mullins, blacksmith, of Leominster, in the said county of Worcester, Francis Waldo, Esq., Arthur Savage, Esq., Jeremiah Pote, mariner, Thomas Ross, mariner, James Wildridge, mariner, George Lyde, custom house officer, Robert Pagan, merchant, Thomas Wyer, mariner, Thomas Coulson, merchant, John Wiswall, clerk, Joshua Eldridge, mariner, Thomas Oxnard, merchant, Edward Oxnard, merchant, William Tyng, Esq., John Wright, merchant, Samuel Longfellow, mariner, all of Falmouth, in the county of Cumberland, Charles Callahan, of Pownalborough, in the county of Lincoln, mariner, Jonas Jones of East Hoosuck, in the county of Berkshire, David Ingersoll, of Great Barrington, Esq., in the same county, Jonathan Prindall, Benjamin Noble, Francis Noble, Elisha Jones, of Pittsfield, in the said county of Berkshire, John Graves, yeoman, Daniel Brewer, yeoman, both of Pittsfield, aforesaid, Richard Square, of Lanesborough, in the said county of Berkshire, Ephraim Jones, of East Hoosuck, in the same county. Lewis Hubbel, and many other persons have left this state, or some other of the United States of America, and joined the enemies thereof and of the United States of America, thereby not only depriving these states of their personal services at a time when they ought to have afforded their utmost aid in defending the said states, against the invasions of a cruel enemy, but manifesting an inimical disposition to the said states, and a design, to aid and abet the enemies thereof in their wicked purposes, and whereas many dangers may accrue to this state and the United States, if such persons should be again admitted to reside in this state:

Sect. 1. Be it therefore enacted by the Council and House of Representatives, in general court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if either of the said persons, or any other person, though not specially named in this act, who have left this state, or either of said states, and joined the enemies thereof as aforesaid, shall, after the passing this act, voluntarily return to this state, it shall be the duty of the sheriff of the county, and of the selectmen, committees of correspondence, safety, and inspection, grand jurors, constables, and tythingmen, and other inhabitants of the town wherein such person or persons may presume to come, and they are hereby respectively empowered and directed forthwith to apprehend and carry such person or persons before some justice of the peace within the county, who is hereby required to commit him or them to the common gaol within the county, there in close custody to remain until he shall be sent out of the state, as is hereinafter directed; and such justice is hereby directed to give immediate information thereof to the board of war of this state: and the said board of war are hereby empowered and directed to cause such person or persons so committed, to be transported to some part or place within the dominions, or in the possession of the forces of the king of Great Britain, as soon as may be after receiving such information: those who are able, at their own expense, and others at the expense of this state, and for this purpose to hire a vessel or vessels, if need be.

Sect. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons, who shall be transported as aforesaid, shall voluntarily return into this state, without liberty first had and obtained from the general court, he shall, on conviction thereof before the superior court of judicature, court of assize and general gaol delivery, suffer the pains of death without benefit of clergy.--[_Passed September, 1778._]

WORCESTER RESOLUTIONS RELATING TO THE ABSENTEES AND REFUGEES.

The following votes were passed by the citizens of Worcester, May 19, 1783, and contain the substance of their doings relative to the refugees:

Voted,----That in the opinion of this town, it would be extremely dangerous to the peace, happiness, liberty and safety of these states to suffer those who, the moment the bloody banners were displayed, abandoned their native land, turned parricides, and conspired to involve their country in tumult, ruin and blood, to become subjects of and reside in this government; that it would be not only dangerous, but inconsistent with justice, policy, our past laws, the public faith, and the principles of a free and independent state, to admit them ourselves, or have them forced upon us without our consent.

Voted,----That in the opinion of this town, this commonwealth ought, with the utmost caution, to naturalize or in any other way admit as subjects a common enemy, a set of people who have been by the united voice of the continent, declared outlaws, exiles, aliens and enemies, dangerous to its political being and happiness.

Voted,----That while there are thousands of the innocent, peaceable and defenceless inhabitants of these states, whose property has been destroyed and taken from them in the course of the war, for whom no provision is made, to whom there is no restoration of estates, no compensation for losses; that it would be unreasonable, cruel and unjust, to suffer those who were the wicked occasion of those losses, to obtain a restitution of the estates they refused to protect, and which they abandoned and forfeited to their country.

Voted,----That it is the expectation of this town, and the earnest request of their committees of correspondence, inspection and safety, that they, with care and diligence, will observe the movements of our only remaining enemies; that until the further order of government, they will, with decision, spirit and firmness, endeavor to enforce and carry into execution the several laws of this commonwealth, respecting these enemies to our rights, and the rights of mankind; give information should they know of any obtruding themselves into any part of this state, suffer none to remain in this town, but cause to be confined immediately, for the purpose of transportation according to law, any that may presume to enter it.

CONFISCATION ACT.

CONSPIRACY ACT.

An Act to confiscate the estates of certain notorious conspirators against the government and liberties of the inhabitants of the late province, now state, of Massachusetts Bay.

Whereas the several persons hereinafter mentioned, have wickedly conspired to overthrow and destroy the constitution and government of the late province of Massachusetts Bay, as established by the charter agreed upon by and between their late majesties William and Mary, late King and Queen of England, etc., and the inhabitants of said province, now state, of Massachusetts Bay; and also to reduce the said inhabitants under the absolute power and domination of the present king, and of the parliament of Great Britain, and, as far as in them lay, have aided and assisted the same king and parliament in their endeavors to establish a despotic government over the said inhabitants:

Sect. 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that Francis Bernard, baronet, Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., late governor of the late province, now state, of Massachusetts Bay, Thomas Oliver, Esq., late lieutenant governor, Harrison Grey, Esq., late treasurer, Thomas Flucker, Esq., late secretary, Peter Oliver, Esq., late chief justice, Foster Hutchinson, John Erving, jr., George Erving, William Pepperell, baronet, James Boutineau, Joshua Loring, Nathaniel Hatch, William Browne, Richard Lechmere, Josiah Edson, Nathaniel Rae Thomas, Timothy Ruggles, John Murray, Abijah Willard, and Daniel Leonard, Esqs., late mandamus counsellors of said late province, William Burch, Henry Hulton, Charles Paxon, and Benjamin Hallowell, Esqs., late commissioners of the customs, Robert Auchmuty, Esq., late judge of the vice-admiralty court, Jonathan Sewall, Esq., late attorney general, Samuel Quincy, Esq., late solicitor general, Samuel Fitch, Esq., solicitor or counsellor at law to the board of commissioners, have justly incurred the forfeiture of all their property, rights and liberties, holden under and derived from the government and laws of this state; and that each and every of the persons aforenamed and described, shall be held, taken, deemed and adjudged to have renounced and lost all civil and political relation to this and the other United States of America, and be considered as aliens.

Sect. 2. Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the goods and chattels, rights and credits, lands, tenements, and hereditaments of every kind, of which any of the persons herein before named and described, were seized or possessed, or were entitled to possess, hold, enjoy, or demand, in their own right, or which any other person stood or doth stand seized or possessed of, or are or were entitled to have or demand to and for their use, benefit and behoof, shall escheat, enure and accrue to the sole use and benefit of the government and people of this state, and are accordingly hereby declared so to escheat, enure and accrue, and the said government and people shall be taken, deemed and adjudged, and are accordingly hereby declared to be in the real and actual possession of all such goods, chattels, rights and credits, lands, tenements and hereditaments, without further inquiry, adjudication or determination hereafter to be had: any thing in the act, entitled, "An act for confiscating the effects of certain persons commonly called absentees," or any other law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding; provided always, that the escheat shall not be construed to extend to or operate upon, any goods, chattels, rights, credits, lands, tenements or hereditaments, of which the persons afore named and described, or some other, in their right and to their use, have not been seized or possessed, or entitled to be seized or possessed, or to have or demand as aforesaid, since the nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.--[_Passed April 30, 1779. Not revised._]

STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

An Act for confiscating the estates of certain persons commonly called absentees.

Whereas every government hath a right to command the personal service of all its members, whenever the exigencies of the state shall require it, especially in times of an impending or actual invasion, no member thereof can then withdraw himself from the jurisdiction of the government, and thereby deprive it of the benefit of his personal services, without justly incurring the forfeiture of all his property, rights and liberties, holden under and derived from that constitution of government, to the support of which he hath refused to afford his aid and assistance: and whereas the king of Great Britain did cause the parliament thereof to pass divers acts in direct violation of the fundamental rights of the people of this and of the other United States of America; particularly one certain act to vacate and annul the charter of this government, the great compact made and agreed upon between his royal predecessors and our ancestors; and one other act, declaring the people of said states to be out of his protection; and did also levy war against them, for the purpose of erecting and establishing an arbitrary and despotic government over them; whereupon it became the indispensable duty of all the people of said states forthwith to unite in defence of their common freedom, and by arms to oppose the fleets and armies of the said king; yet nevertheless, divers of the members of this and of the other United States of America, evilly disposed, or regardless of their duty towards their country, did withdraw themselves from this, and other of the said United States, into parts and places under the acknowledged authority and dominion of the said king of Great Britain, or into parts and places within the limits of the said states, but in the actual possession and under the power of the fleets or armies of the said king; thereby abandoning the liberties of their country, seeking the protection of the said king, and of his fleets or armies, and aiding or giving encouragement and countenance to their operations against the United States aforesaid:

Sect. 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that every inhabitant and member of the late province, now state, of Massachusetts Bay, or of any other of the late provinces or colonies, now United States of America, who, since the nineteenth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, hath levied war or conspired to levy war against the government and people of any of the said provinces or colonies, or United States; or who hath adhered to the said king of Great Britain, his fleets or armies, enemies of the said provinces or colonies or United States, or hath given to them aid or comfort; or who, since the said nineteenth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, hath withdrawn, without the permission of the legislative or executive authority of this or some other of the said United States, from any of the said provinces or colonies, or United States, into parts and places under the acknowledged authority and dominion of the said king-of Great Britain, or into any parts or places within the limits of any of the said provinces, colonies, or United States, being in the actual possession and under the power of the fleets or armies of the said king; or who, before the said nineteenth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and after the arrival of Thomas Gage, Esq., (late commander-in-chief of all his Britannic Majesty's forces in North America,) at Boston, the metropolis of this state, did withdraw from their usual places of habitation within this state, into the said town of Boston, with an intention to seek and obtain the protection of the said Thomas Gage and of the said forces, then and there being under his command: and who hath died in any of the said parts or places, or hath not returned into some one of the said United States, and been received as a subject thereof, and (if required) taken an oath of allegiance to such states, shall beheld, taken, deemed and adjudged to have freely renounced all civil and political relation to each and every of the said United States, and be considered as an alien.

Sect. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the goods and chattels, rights and credits, lands, tenements, hereditaments of every kind, of which any of the persons herein before described were seized or possessed, or were entitled to possess, hold, enjoy or demand, in their own right, or which any other person stood or doth stand seized or possessed of, or are or were entitled to have or demand to and for their use, benefit and behoof, shall escheat, enure and accrue to the sole use and benefit of the government and people of this state, and are accordingly hereby declared so to escheat, enure and accrue.--[_Passed April 30, 1779. Not revised._]

BIOGRAPHIES

OF THE

LOYALISTS _of_ MASSACHUSETTS

THOMAS HUTCHINSON.

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 1771-4.

Among all the loyalists of the revolted colonies, there was none so illustrious, through his position and abilities, as Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts. No public man of this State was ever subject to more slander, personal abuse, and misrepresentation than he, and no son of Massachusetts ever did so much to benefit and advance the best interests of the State; beyond all question he was the greatest and most famous man Massachusetts has ever produced.

Descended from one of the oldest and most noted of Massachusetts families, he was not one of the first members of it to acquire prominence, that distinction belongs to the celebrated Ann Hutchinson, wife of William Hutchinson who came over in 1634, "that woman of ready wit and bold spirit," more than a match for her reverend and magisterial inquisitors, and who won to her side men even of such power as John Cotton and Sir Henry Vane. She was finally banished and with her followers went to live under the protection of the Dutch, at Long Island where she and all of her family except one child were killed by the Indians[102], her husband having died the year previous.[103] Her grandson, Elisha Hutchinson, became the first chief justice under the old charter and afterwards assistant and commander of the town of Boston. His son, Col. Thomas Hutchinson, was of scarcely less note. He it was who seized Captain Kidd when he resisted the officers of justice sent against him, and was the father of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. He was a wealthy merchant, and councillor who made his native town a sharer in his prosperity by founding the North End Grammar School. He lived in the North Square in the finest house in Boston. Here his son, the future governor, was born Sept. 9, 1711 and the two, father and son, occupied it for more than sixty years, till it was sacked by the mob in 1765.

[102] This was Colonel Edward H. Hutchinson who was killed by the Indians during King Philip's war. He was father of Elisha Hutchinson.

[103] William Hutchinson was the first grantee of East Milton, where the Governor afterwards resided. He settled in Boston on the "Old Corner Bookstore" lot, corner of School and Washington streets. William Hutchinson was the grandson of John Hutchinson, Mayor of Lincoln, England.

When five and a half years old the boy was sent to the school established by his father, and at the age of twelve went thence to Harvard College. He graduated in 1727, and three years after he took the degree of Master of Arts. He then became a merchant--apprentice in his father's counting room. At the age of twenty-one, he had amassed by his own efforts L500. He married Margaret Sanford, daughter of the Governor of Rhode Island. In 1735 he joined the church, in 1737 he became selectman of Boston, and four months later, was elected Representative to the General Court. At the age of twenty-six, he entered upon his wonderful career, so strangely and sadly varied. When he stepped into leadership, he seemed simply to come to his own, for since the foundation of Massachusetts Bay there had been no time when some of his name and line had not been in the front.

From the first he is set to deal with questions of finance; as early as June 3, 1737, he is appointed to wrestle with a tax bill, and before the end of the year he is settling a boundary dispute with New Hampshire, and it was a mark of confidence when in 1740 he was appointed, being then 29, to go to England to represent the case to men in power. A far more memorable service than this had already been entered upon by him, and was resumed upon his return in which he was thoroughly successful in spite of great difficulties, it also having a close relation with the coming into being of the United States.

New England was at this time cursed with an irredeemable paper currency. Democracies never appear to so poor advantage as in the management of finances, and no more conspicuous instance in point can be cited, than that of provincial New England, throughout the first half of the 18th century. The Assembly, the members of which were simply the mouthpieces of the towns, surrendered their private judgment and became submissive to the "Instruction" which they received at the time of their election, was uniformly by a large majority, in favor of an irredeemable paper currency. Before the enormous evils which early became apparent and constantly grew in magnitude, the Assembly was impotent. Widows and orphans, classes dependent on fixed incomes, were reduced to distress, creditors found themselves defrauded of their just dues, till almost nothing was left, a universal gambling spirit was promoted. The people saw no way to meet the evil but by new, and ever new issues of the wretched script, until with utter callousness of conscience, men repudiated contracts voluntarily entered upon, and recklessly discounted the resources of future generations by placing upon them the obligations their own shoulders should have borne. The action of the Council in which the higher class was represented was uniformly more wise, and honorable, than that of the lower House during this period of financial distress, and it is especially to be noted that King and Parliament threw their influence on the right side, and sought repeatedly to save the poor blind people from themselves. The right of the home government to interfere in colonial affairs was then never questioned. Massachusetts would dodge if she could, the government mandates, but the theories of a later time, that Parliament had no jurisdiction over sea and that the King, having granted the charter, had put it out of his power to touch the provincial policy, in these days found no expression.

The Revolution was now preparing, the Colonies were chafing under restrictions imposed beyond the ocean for their own benefit. It is now generally admitted, that this was one of the first causes of the Revolution, perhaps the most potent of all causes. In all this time of distress no figure is apparent so marked with traits of greatness as that of Thomas Hutchinson. All the Colonies were infected with the same craze, but no other man in America saw the way out. Franklin, level headed though he was, elaborately advocated paper money, turning a good penny in its manufacture.[104] The father of Samuel Adams was one of the directors of the iniquitous "Land Bank" and the part taken by Hutchinson in causing Parliament to close it, was what led to the undying hatred of Samuel Adams towards Hutchinson, and the Government. When "Instructions" were reported in Town Meeting, Hutchinson was immediately on his feet, and declared he would not observe them, there were immediately cries "Choose another Representative." This could not be done during the session; he consistently threw his influence on the hard money side, and so far lost popularity that he was dropped in 1739. He was, however, elected again in 1742, and was Speaker in 1746-7-8.

[104] A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency.

What saved the province from financial ruin at this time was the capture of Louisburg. This warlike enterprise of Shirley led the country to increase its debt to between two and three million dollars, but the paper money was so depreciated at the close of the war that L1,200 was equal to only L100 sterling. Parliament very generously voted to reimburse the Province for the expense it had gone to in this war, and voted to pay L183,649, 2s 7 1-2d sterling.

Mr. Hutchinson, who was then Speaker of the House of Representatives, considered this to be a most favorable opportunity for abolishing bills of credit, the source of so much iniquity, and for establishing a stable currency of gold and silver for the future. L2,200,000 would be outstanding in bills in the year 1749 L180,000 sterling at eleven for one, which was the rate at that time, would redeem all but L220,000. It was therefore proposed that Parliament should ship to the Province Spanish dollars, and apply same to redeem the bills, and that the remainder of the bills should be met by a tax on the year 1749. This would finish the bills. The Governor approved of the bill prepared by Mr. Hutchinson but when the Speaker laid the proposal before the House, it was received with a smile; for a long time the fight was hopeless, many weeks were spent in debating it.

The large class of debtors preferred paper to anything more solid. Others claimed that though the plan might have merit, the bills must be put an end to in a gradual way, a "fatal shock" would be felt by so sudden a return to a specie basis. When the vote was taken the bill was decisively rejected. The chance of escaping from bondage seemed to be irrecoverably gone. A motion to reconsider having been carried, the conviction overtook some men of influence, and the bill for a wonder passed. The Governor and Council were prompt to ratify, and while the people marvelled, it was done. The streets were filled with angry men and when it was reported that Hutchinson's home was on fire there were cries in the street "Curse him, let it burn." His fine home at Milton, a recent purchase, many thought should be protected by a guard. The infatuation was so great, the wish was often expressed that the ship bringing the treasure might sink. Many doubted whether the treasure would really be sent, and this uncertainty perhaps helped the adoption of the bill.

But the treasure came, seventeen trucks were required to cart from the ship to the Treasury, two hundred and seventeen chests of Spanish dollars, while ten trucks, conveyed one hundred casks of coined copper. At once a favorable change took place. There was no _shock_ but of the pleasantest kind, a revulsion of popular feeling followed speedily, until Hutchinson, from being threatened at every street corner, became a thorough favorite. Twelve years after this time Hutchinson wrote, "I think I may be allowed to call myself the father of the present fixed medium." There is no doubt of it. He alone saw the way out of the difficulty, and nothing but his tact, and persistency, pushed the measure to success. This is admitted by his enemy, John Adams, who thirty years after Hutchinson's death said, "If I was the witch of Endor, I would wake the ghost of Hutchinson, and give him absolute power over the currency of the United States, and every part of it, provided always that he should meddle with nothing but the currency. As little as I revere his memory, I will acknowledge that he understood the subject of coin and commerce better than any man I ever knew in this country. He was a merchant, and there can be no scientific merchant, without a perfect knowledge of a theory of a medium of trade."[105] Hutchinson, in the third volume of his history of Massachusetts, remarks that the people of Massachusetts Bay were never more easy and happy, than in 1749 when, through the application of the Louisburg reimbursement to the extinction of the irredeemable bills, the currency was in an excellent condition. It excited the envy of the other colonies where paper was the principal currency.

[105] Curwen's Journal p. 456.

In 1750 he was again elected to the Assembly and "he was praised as much for his firm" as he had before been abused for "his obstinate perseverance." He was made chairman of a commission to negotiate a treaty with the Indians of Casco Bay. He also settled the boundary question with Connecticut, and Rhode Island, as he had done previously with New Hampshire. Massachusetts became greatly the gainer by this settlement of its boundaries. The present boundaries of Massachusetts are those established by Hutchinson. In 1752 he was appointed Judge of Probate, and Justice of the Common Pleas, for the County of Suffolk. In the spring of 1754 he lost his wife. With her dying voice and with eyes fixed on him she uttered three words, "Best of husbands." He loved her tenderly; twenty years later, taking thought for her grave, as we shall see later on in this article (where his countrymen could not let her bones rest in peace, but they must desecrate her grave on Copps Hill.)

"In 1754 he was sent as delegate to the Convention held in Albany, for the purpose of Confederating the Colonies, the better to protect themselves from the French. Hutchinson and Franklin were the leading minds of the body. To these two the preparation of important papers was confided and plans made to prevent the 'French from driving the English into the sea.'"

In 1758 Hutchinson became Lieutenant Governor. The excellent financial condition produced by Hutchinson's measure ten years previous, still continued, and was made even better than before. Quebec had fallen, and Canada was conquered by the English, and the mother country, made generous by success, sent over large sums of money to reimburse the Colonies for the share they had taken in bringing about the brilliant success, the result was that the taxes became a burden of the lightest ever before known.

In 1760 Chief Justice Sewall died. Hutchinson was appointed his successor by Governor Bernard. James Otis, Sr., then Speaker of the Assembly, desired the place. James Otis, Jr., a young vigorous lawyer, who was soon to arrive at great distinction, vigorously espoused his father's cause. Hutchinson warned the Governor of trouble, in case the Otises were disappointed. Bernard however, saw the risk of this, and declared he would in no case appoint Otis, but named Hutchinson instead. At once the younger Otis vowed vengence, a threat which he soon after proceeded to execute by embarrassing the Governor, including the new Chief Justice also in his enmity. Though before friends of government, the Otises now became its opposers, and as the younger man presently developed power as an unequalled popular leader, he became a most dangerous foe. "From so small a spark," exclaimed Hutchinson, "a great fire seems to have been kindled." Henceforth the two men are to have no feelings for each other, but dread and hatred. An agitation began between these two men, destined before it closes, to affect most profoundly the history of the whole future human race.

In February, 1761, Hutchinson just warming to his work as Chief Justice, was a principal figure in the disturbance about "Writs of Assistance" or "Search Warrants." The customs taxes were evaded the whole country over, in a way most demoralizing. The warehouses were few indeed in which there were no smuggled goods. The measures taken for tariff enforcement were no more objectionable than those employed today. Freedom to be sure is outraged when a custom-officer invades a man's house, his castle, but high tariff cannot exist without outrages upon freedom. A change had come about; the government had declared the laws must be enforced, and it lay upon Hutchinson to interpret the laws and see to this enforcement. The position of the Chief Justice was an embarrassing one. His own proclivities were for free trade; his friends had been concerned in contraband commerce, according to the universal practice in the term of slack administration. Hutchinson was as yet a novice in the Chief Justiceship, but he made no mistake in postponing his decision, and have the Court wait till the English practice could be known. When news came from England, a form was settled on as near to that employed in England, as circumstances would permit. Writs were issued to custom-house officers, for which application should be made to the Chief Justice by the Surveyor-General of the customs.[106] Before this determination was reached James Otis made his memorable plea against "Writs of Assistance," one of the epoch-making events in the history of America. John Adams afterward said, "I do say in the most solemn manner, that Mr. Otis's oration against Writs of Assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life."

[106] For further matter concerning the Writs of Assistance and James Otis see p. 34.

Hutchison's popularity from now begins to wane, and the main hand in this was no doubt the teachings of James Otis whose phrase "no taxation without representation" was used as a rallying cry. Boston at once elected him as its Representative in the Assembly, and his leadership thus was scarcely broken even when he became insane. At last he became a great embarrassment to his party, from the fact that, although his wits were gone, the people would still follow him. Peter Oliver, who succeeded Hutchinson as Chief Justice is quoted by John Adams as saying to him, that Otis would at one time declare of the Lieutenant Governor, "that he would rather have him than any man he knows in any office"; and the next hour represent him as "the greatest tyrant and most despicable creature living."[107]

[107] Adams' Diary, June 5th, 1762.

Hutchinson was now known as a "prerogative man," ready to defer to the home government in important things, but there was as yet no definite line drawn between prerogative men and patriots. Otis always scouted the idea of independence of the Colonies as disloyal folly, his successor, Samuel Adams, was the first to preach disloyalty and secession. Otis, as Moderator in Town Meeting in Boston, in 1763, spoke eloquently of the British empire and constitution. He said, "The true interests of Great Britain and her plantations are mutual, and what God in his providence has united, let no man dare pull asunder." As to parliamentary supremacy, Otis was much more emphatic than Hutchinson. He said, "the power of Parliament is uncontrollable, but by themselves, and we must obey. Forcibly resisting the Parliament and the King's laws is high treason. Therefore let the Parliament lay what burdens they please upon us; we must, it is our duty, to submit, and patiently to bear them till they will be pleased to relieve us."[108]

[108] Rights of the British Colonies.

Otis conceded to Parliament supremacy, but insisted that the Colonies should have representatives there. Hutchinson considered representation there impracticable, and while conceding supremacy, thought it should be kept well in the background, while the Colonies managed for themselves. Great Britain has really always held to this position even to the present day--"Although the general rule is that the legislative assembly has the sole right of imposing taxes in the Colony, yet when the imperial legislature chooses to impose taxes according to the rule of law they have a right to do it." So decided the English judge Blackburn in 1868 in a case when Jamaica was involved.[109] Mansfield's position that the Colonies were _virtually_ represented in Parliament was an entirely reasonable one. Parliamentary supremacy in the British empire is, indeed kept well in the background at the present moment, but let any great emergency arise, such as some peril to the mother country. If the Colony should remain apathetic, or in any way render aid and comfort to the enemy, the dependency would be as arbitrarily ridden over by the fleets, and armies, as in the days of George III. So long as America remained dependent, parliamentary supremacy was necessary. It would only be got rid of by such a declaration as that of 1776. This, Hutchinson was not ready for nor any other person in the Colonies until many years after this time, except one man, Samuel Adams, who said taxation without representation was tyranny and representation was impossible.

[109] Yonge Const. His. of Eng. p. 66. See also Todd, Parl. Gov. in the British Colonies 1899.

The correctness of the position of Hutchinson in the case of the Writs of Assistance have been maintained and exhibited in detail by so high an authority as the late Horace Gray, Esq., for many years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts and at the time of his decease justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.[110] A currency dispute took place in 1762 as regards the parity between gold and silver. Hutchinson represented the Council and Otis the House, the former, true to the policy which had already been of such advantage, set himself once more against a course certain to lead to a disastrous depreciation. This financial controversy led to further unpopularity, and lost him not only a great number of friends, but the House while reducing the allowance to the Superior Court in general, refused to make any allowance to him whatever as Chief Justice. After the great war with France, which was waged mainly for the benefit of the Colonies, it was found that England had a debt of L140,000,000 instead of L70,000,000 which it had before the war. England also had paid the Colonies vast sums of money as previously stated, expenses incurred in protecting themselves from the French. The American civil and military establishments before the war was L70,000 per annum, it was now L350,000. George Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer thought that the Colonies ought to contribute towards it; he did not expect them to raise the whole, but a portion of it, and did not intend to charge them with any interest on the national debt, although it was largely incurred on their behalf.

[110] See Quincy, Massachusetts Reports 1761-1772. Appendix 1.

In February, 1765, he laid a bill before Parliament for further defraying the expenses of protecting the colonies and he proposed to charge certain stamp duties in said colonies. The agents of the several colonies had an interview with him and tried to dissuade him from it. He replied that he had considered the whole case and believed the colonies should contribute something to the mother country to pay for their protection, every penny of which would be spent in the colonies, and that he knew of no better way than a stamp tax. "If," he said, "you can tell of a better, I will adopt it." Benjamin Franklin, proposed that the demand for money should be made in the old constitutional way in the form of a requisition to the Assembly of each province. Can you agree, rejoined Grenville, on the proportion that each colony should raise. The question touched the heart of the difficulty, the agents were obliged to answer in the negative, and the interview speedily closed, a few days later the fatal Bill passed,--one of the most momentous legislative Acts in the history of mankind.

The position of Hutchinson was a trying one; he favored neither the issuance of the Writs of Assistance nor the Stamp Act. The whole course of the government he disapproved of he had been ready to cross the ocean to remonstrate for the Colony, against the impolitic treatment. On the other hand, the disloyal tone which daily grew rife about him, was utterly against his mind, he saw no outcome for it but independence, a most wise forecasting of the situation, in fact there was no middle ground. Independence seemed to him and to every man then, except Sam Adams, a calamity. If that was to be avoided, there was nothing for it but to admit the supremacy of Parliament.[111] But the Province, to which he had been like a father, was growing away from him, and before the summer ended, he was to receive a blow as ruthless, and ungrateful, as it was possible to give. He was at this time a Judge of the highest Judicial Court, a member of the Council, and Lieutenant Governor at the same time. He had performed the duties of these incompatible offices to the satisfaction of the community, as is shown in the writings of John Adams before he became Hutchinson's enemy. He says, "Has not his merits been sounded very high by his countrymen for twenty years? Have not his countrymen loved, admired, revered, rewarded, nay, almost adored him? Have not ninety-nine in a hundred of them really thought him the greatest and best man in America? Has not the perpetual language of many members of both Houses and of a majority of his brother-counselors been, that Mr. Hutchinson is a great man, a pious, a wise, a learned, a good man, an eminent saint, a philosopher etc? Nay, have not the affections and the admiration of his countrymen arisen so high as often to style him the greatest and best man in the world, that they never saw, nor heard, nor read of such a man--a sort of apotheosis like that of Alexander and that of Caesar while they lived?"[112]

[111] For further information concerning the Stamp Act, see p. 37.

[112] John Adams, Diary, March 17, 1766.

It is not possible to give a more glowing eulogy in the English language of a person, than this written by John Adams, the successor of Washington as second President of the United States, but it could scarcely be less. The regularity of his life, his sympathy for the distressed, his affability, his integrity, his industry, his talents for business, and the administration of affairs, his fluency, and grace, as public speaker. His command of temper, and courteousness under provocation, united to form a rare man, and to give him influence. In a country where literary enterprise was very uncommon, he had devoted a great part of his life to investigating the history of his native province, busy though he was in so many places, in behalf of the public, he found time to carry it forward. In 1764 was published in Boston the first volume of his "History of Massachusetts Bay," a carefully studied work quite unparalleled in the meagre colonial literature, and is still, and will always remain, of the first authority respecting the beginning of New England. In 1767 came the second volume. He had access to original papers such as no person now possesses which were of the highest historical value. Writing to a friend in England in 1765, he said, "I think from my beginning the work until I had completed it, which was about twelve months, I never had time to write two sheets at a sitting without avocations by public business, but forced to steal a little time in the morning and evening while I was in town, and leave it for weeks together so I found it difficult to keep any plan in my mind."

In his third volume, written twenty years later and not published till 1828, more than forty years after his death, the heat of the fight is still in the heart beating behind the pen, in painting the portraits of his contemporaries. Otis, Sam Adams, Hancock and others, the men who bore him down after the fiercest possible struggle. His portrait drawing is by no means without candor, and one wonders that the picture is no darker. His presentment is always clear and dignified; his judgment of men and events are just. It is the work of the thoughtful brain whose comments on politics, finance, religion, etc., are full of intelligence and humanity.

And now Hutchinson approaches the most crucial period of his life. As seen in a previous chapter after the passing of the Stamp Act, and the adoption of the Patrick Henry Resolves, the people grew riotous and treason was talked of openly. The first great riot was on August 14, 1765. In the morning the effigies of Andrew Oliver, the Stamp agent, and Lord Bute the former prime minister, were hung on an elm tree, on the corner of what is now Washington and Essex streets, in the evening they were taken down, carried as far as Kilby street, where a new government building was torn down by the mob, who, taking portions of the wood-work with them, proceeded to Fort Hill, where they burnt the effigies in front of the home of Mr. Oliver and committed gross outrages on his premises which were plundered and wrecked.[113]

[113] See page 40 for a more full description.

On the evening of the 26th the riots recommenced with redoubled fury. Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, also Chief Justice, the second person in rank in the colony and a kinsman of Oliver, was made a mark for the most unmeasured outrage. The story is best told in the words of the victim in a letter to a friend.

To Richard Jackson, Boston, Aug. 30, 1765.

My Dear Sir--I came from my house at Milton the 26 in the morning. After dinner it was whispered in the town there would be a mob at night, and that Paxton, Hallowell, the custom house, and admiralty officers' houses would be attacked; but my friends assured me that the rabble were satisfied with the insult I had received, and that I was become rather popular. In the evening, whilst I was at supper and my children round me, somebody ran in and said the mob were coming. I directed my children to fly to a secure place, and shut up my house as I had done before, intending not to quit it; but my eldest daughter repented her leaving me, hastened back and protested that she would not quit the house unless I did. I couldn't stand against this, and withdrew with her to a neighboring house, where I had been but a few minutes before the hellish crew fell upon my house with the rage of devils, and in a moment with axes split down the doors and entered. My son being in the great entry heard them cry 'Dam him, he is upstairs, we'll have him.' Some ran immediately as high as the top of the house, then filled the rooms below and the cellar, and others remained without the house to be employed there. Messages soon came one after another to the house where I was to inform me the mob were coming in pursuit of me, and I was obliged to retire through yards and gardens to a house more remote, where I remained until 4 o'clock, by which time one of the best finished houses in the Province had nothing remaining but the bare walls and floors.

Not content with tearing off all the wainscot and hangings, and splitting the doors to pieces, they beat down the partition walls; and although that alone cost them near two hours, they cut down the cupola or lanthorn and they began to take the slate and boards from the roof, and were prevented only by the approaching daylight from a total demolition of the building. The garden house was laid flat, and all my trees, etc., broke down to the ground. Such ruin was never seen in America. Besides my plate and family pictures, household furniture of every kind, my own, my children, and servants, apparel, they carried off about L900 sterling in money and emptied the house of everything whatsoever, except a part of the kitchen furniture, not leaving a single book or paper in it, and have scattered or destroyed all the manuscripts and other papers I had been collecting for thirty years together, besides a great number of public papers in my custody. The next evening, I intended to go to Milton with my children, but meeting two or three small parties of the ruffians who I suppose had concealed themselves in the country, and my coachman hearing one of them say, 'There he is'! my daughters were terrified, and said they should never be safe, and I was forced to shelter them that night at the Castle.[114]

[114] Mass. His. Soc. Vol. XXVI, p. 146.

[Illustration: Governor Hutchinson's House Destroyed by the Mob.]

Josiah Quincy, then twenty-one years old, writing in his diary Aug. 27, 1765, says that Hutchinson's life "it is more than probable, was saved by his giving way to his eldest daughter and leaving the house." He described "the coming into court the next day of the stripped Chief Justice, clothed in a manner which would have excited compassion from the hardest heart. Such a man in such a station, thus habited, with tears starting from his eyes, and a countenance which strongly told the inward anguish of his soul,--what must an audience have felt, whose compassion had before been moved by what they knew he had suffered, when they heard him pronounce the following words which the agitation of his mind dictated, "Gentlemen,--There not being a quorum of the Court without me, I am obliged to appear. Some apology is necessary for my dress; indeed, I had no other. Destitute of everything,--no other shirt; no other garment but what I have on; and not one in my whole family in a better situation than myself. The distress of a whole family around me, young and tender infants hanging about me, are infinitely more insupportable than what I feel for myself, though I am obliged to borrow part of _this_ clothing.

"Sensible that I am innocent, that all the charges against me are false, I can't help feeling: and although I am not obliged to give an answer to all the questions that may be put to me by every lawless person, yet I call God to witness--and I would not, for a thousand worlds, call my Maker to witness to a falsehood--I say I call my Maker to witness, that I never, in New England or Old, in Great Britain, or America, neither directly or indirectly, was aiding, assisting or supporting--in the least promoting or encouraging--what is commonly called the Stamp Act; but, on the contrary, did all in my power, and strove as much as in me lay, to prevent it. This is not declared through timidity, for I have nothing to fear. They can only take away my life, which is of but little value when deprived of all its comforts, all that was dear to me, and nothing surrounding me but the most pressing distress.

"I hope the eyes of the people will be opened, that they will see how easy it is for some designing, wicked man to spread false reports to raise suspicion and jealousies in the minds of the populace, and enrage them against the innocent, but if guilty, this is not the way to proceed. The laws of our country are open to punish those who have offended. This destroying all peace and comfort and order of the community--all will feel its effects; and all will see how easily the people may be deluded, inflamed and carried away with madness against an innocent man. I pray God give us better hearts." The Court then adjourned to October 15th.

Why Hutchinson should have fallen into such great disfavor, it is not easy to say. Gordon, a writer of Whig leaning, but a fair minded witness of all that occurred suggests that there were some who still entertaining rancor towards him for doing away with paper money in 1748, for, as we have seen, his position in 1762 on the currency was not popular. Moreover the mob was led on to the house by a secret influence, with a view to the destruction of certain public papers known to be there relating to the grant of the New Plymouth Company on the Kennebec River.[115] Hutchinson himself speaks on having given rise to animosity against him for having taken certain depositions in the interest of government, before him in his character of Chief Justice to which his name was signed. They were purely official acts; for the depositions he had no responsibility whatever, but the unreasoning mass of the people confused him with others. There was nothing in his course at the time of the Writs of Assistance, at which the people needed to feel aggrieved. He was with the people in opposing the external taxes, also in disapproving the Stamp Act. Now that they were imposed, he to be sure thought nothing would answer but submission, but certainly in his declaration here he was nothing like so emphatic as James Otis, who still remained the popular idol. Otis had said in May, "It is the duty of all humbly and silently to acquiesce in all the decisions of the supreme legislature." In private talk he was still more vigorous in his utterances. He said to Hallowell, "That Parliament had a right to tax the Colonies, and he was a d----d fool who denied it and that this people never would be quiet till we had a Council from home, till our charter was taken away, and till we had regular troops quartered upon us."[116] Hutchinson had never expressed his thoughts anywhere near so definitely as this.

[115] His. of Am. Rev., Vol. I., p. 180.

[116] John Adams' Diary, Jan. 16, 1776.

The inhabitants of Boston and the Province were generally ashamed of the outrage upon Hutchinson, but the mob still dared to show its hand. Though in the first rush of feeling many of the rioters were sent to jail, they were afterwards set free. The chief actor seems to have been a shoemaker, named Mackintosh, who, though arrested, was presently discharged; Hutchinson declares this was through the interference of men of good position, who feared that a confession from him would implicate them. Hutchinson's demand of the legislature for compensation for the destruction of his home, was at last effectual. He is said to have received L3,194, 17s. 6d., a fair indemnity. The Act had attached to it for a "rider" pardon to all who had taken part in the disturbance connected with the Stamp Act. Bernard hesitated to sign the Act; but was finally induced to do so by his earnest wish to have Hutchinson receive justice. When the Act was sent to England, the King disallowed it; such lawlessness could not be condoned, even that a faithful official might receive his rights. But the money had been paid before the news of the King's displeasure arrived.

A period of lawlessness now followed. Riots were absolutely unpunished, for no jury would convict the rioters. Governor Bernard wrote that his position was one of utter, and humiliating impotence, and that the first condition of the maintenance of English authority in Massachusetts was to quarter a powerful military force at Boston.

Two regiments arrived Sept. 28, 1768. Shortly before their arrival the people gathered together in an immense meeting, and voted that a standing army could not be kept in the province without its consent. On the arrival of the troops everything was done by the people to provoke and irritate them. A perfect reign of terror was directed against all who supported the government. Soldiers could not appear in the streets without being the objects of the grossest insults. A press eminently scurrilous and vindictive was ceaselessly employed in abusing them. They had become as Samuel Adams boasted 'the objects of the contempt even of women, and children.' Every offence they committed was maliciously exaggerated and vindictively prosecuted, while in the absence of martial law, they were obliged to look passively on the most flagrant insults to authority. At one time the "Sons of liberty" in a procession a mile and a half long marched around the State House, to commemorate their riots against the Stamp Act, and met in the open fields to chant their "liberty song" and drink "strong halters, firm blocks, and sharp axes, to such as deserve them." At another an informer, who was found guilty of giving information to revenue officers, was seized by a great multitude, tarred and feathered, and led through the streets of Boston, which was illuminated in honor of the achievement.

A printer who had dared to caricature the champions of freedom was obliged to flee from his house, to take refuge among the soldiers, and ultimately to escape from Boston in disguise. Merchants who had ventured to import goods from England were compelled by mob violence to give them up to be destroyed, or to be re-embarked. A shopkeeper who sold some English goods, found a post planted in the ground with a hand pointing to his door, and when a friend tried to remove it, he was stoned by a fierce mob through the streets. A popular minister delighted his congregation by publicly praying "that the Almighty would remove from Boston the English soldiers."[117]

[117] Lecky's Am. Rev. Chapt. XI., p. 127.

These outrages led to the so-called Boston Massacre, more fully described in a previous chapter.[118] None of the mobs of that time of mobs was more brutal and truculent than that which provoked the firing of the group of baited men, standing their ground with steady discipline, among the clubs and missiles resorted to now, to enforce the usual foul and blasphemous abuse. Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson fulfilled at this time with complete adequacy the functions of chief magistrate, for Governor Bernard was at this time in England. Hutchinson was at once in the street, in imminent danger of having his brains dashed out, expostulating, entreating that order might be preserved.[119] It was a fine exhibition of power and courage. His standing in the east balcony of the State House, with the snow reddened beneath by the blood of the killed, with the regiments kneeling in rank ready for street firing, and several thousand of enraged men on the other side on the point of rushing into the fight, he was able to hold both parties in check. His prompt arrest of Captain Preston and the squad which had done the killing, was his full duty; and it is to the credit of the troop that the officer and his men in the midst of the exasperation gave themselves quietly into the hands of the law. Instead of a bloody battle, there was substituted a well-ordered civil process, due delay being observed that the passion of both sides might subside and the evidence, pro and con be calmly weighed. A mild and just verdict was the outcome, to which all submitted. Men they were, all of the same stock, for the time being fallen into antagonism, seeing things differently. All, however, bore themselves like Englishmen, showing the quality which has made the Anglo-Saxon race a mighty one.

[118] Boston Mobs, page 43.

[119] Mass. A. His. Vol. XXXI., p. 491. Witness at the trial of the soldiers said "He stood close behind him, and one of the mob lifted up a large club over my head, and was going to strike, but he seized him by the arm and prevented it."

Since the departure of Bernard there had been no session of the legislature. In March one took place that was the cause of a new dispute between the Lieutenant Governor and the legislature, which was destined to be long and important. It was as to how far the chief magistrate could be bound by royal instruction. Hutchinson says the Assembly was prorogued to meet at Boston March 14th, 1770, but before the time arrived there came a further signification of the King's pleasure that it should be held at Cambridge, unless the Lieutenant Governor had more weighty reasons for holding it at Boston, than those which were mentioned by the Secretary of State against it.[120] On the 15th of March therefore the legislature met in the "Philosophy Room" in Harvard College, in Cambridge.

[120] Hutchinson His. Vol. III., p. 280.

Remonstrances were passed by the Council and the House against the removal to which Hutchinson replied "That the King by his prerogative could remove the legislature from the 'Town House in Boston' did not in his mind admit of a doubt and therefore he disregarded the remonstrance." Soon after the Massacre, Hutchinson begged the Earl of Hillsborough, the Colonial Secretary, to allow him to resign. He said, "I must humbly pray that a person of superior powers of body and mind may be appointed to the administration of the government of this Province. I shall faithfully endeavor to support such person according to the best of my abilities, and I think it not improbable that I may be capable of doing his Majesty greater service in the Province, even in a private station than at present."[121] Instead of accepting his resignation he was appointed Governor in March, 1771, and his wife's brother-in-law, Andrew Oliver, being at the same time commissioned Lieutenant Governor, and Thomas Flucker Secretary.

[121] M. A. Hist. Vol. XXVI., Mar. 27 to Hillsboro.

At his inauguration while the Assembly and the Congregational ministers were silent, there were many congratulations, among them Harvard College. The students singing in Holden Chapel the anthem, "Thus saith the Lord from henceforth, behold! all nations shall call ye blessed; for thy rulers shall be of thine own kindred, your nobles shall be of yourself, and thy governors shall proceed from the midst of thee."

April 1, 1771, he writes to Colonel Williams of Hatfield. "It's certain all the valuable part of the town have shown me as much respect personally, as in my public character, as I could desire. Two Adamses, Phillips, Hancock, and two or three others, who, with the least reason have been the most injurious, are all of any sort of consideration who stand out."[122] Again on April 19, 1771, in a letter to Hillsboro, referring to the Town Meeting he says, "In these votes, and in most of the public proceedings of the town of Boston, persons of the best character and estate have little or no concern. They decline attending Town Meetings where they are sure of being outvoted by men of the lowest order, all being admitted, and it being very rare that any scrutiny is made into the qualification of voters."[123]

[122] M. A. Hist. Vol. XVII., p. 131.

[123] M. A. Hist. Vol. XXVII., p. 151.

The hopes Hutchinson and the friends of government were never brighter since the troubles began with the government, than in the spring of 1771. Among Hutchinson opponents men like Andrew Eliot, thought "it might be as well not to dispute the legal right of Parliament." Otis too, pursued a strong reactionary course and when on May 29 the legislature met, at his instance, while the remonstrance was passed as had become usual, against the removal of the legislature from Boston, the clause was struck out which denied to the crown the right to remove. The principle so long contended for was then sacrificed, the right of prerogative to infringe the charter at this point was acknowledged, and it would be easy to proceed on the ground that the crown might take what liberties it pleased with the charter. Otis's change was indeed startling. Samuel Adams was going on in the old road, when Otis started up, and said they had gone far enough in that way, the Governor had an undoubted right to carry the court where he pleased, and moved for a committee to represent the inconveniences of sitting there, and for an address to the Governor. He was a good man; the minister said so, and it must be so: and moved to go on with the business, and the House voted everything he moved for.[124]

[124] John Adams' Works, Vol. II., p. 266.

"Serious as was the defection of James Otis that of Hancock was even more so. His wealth, popular manners and some really strong qualities made his influence great. Samuel Adams had exploited Hancock, with all his consummate art ever since his appearance in public life, making him a powerful pillar of the popular cause. Contemptuous allusions to Hancock as little better than an ape, whom Samuel Adams led about according to his will, have come down from those times."[125] Such things were flying in the air and Hancock was feeble enough to be moved by them, if they came to his ears. Whatever may have been the reason, Hancock forsook his old guide, voted with the party of Otis for the acknowledgment of Hutchinson's right to convene the legislature where and when he choose. Hancock's defection at this time from the Whig cause seemed imminent, and when Hutchinson fled to England, three years later and his papers fell into the hands of his enemies, it was found necessary to suppress certain documents, belonging to this time as it is supposed they compromised Hancock, who in 1774 was once more firmly on the side of the Colonies.

[125] Hosmer's Life of Thomas Hutchinson p. 213.

Samuel Adams probably never experienced a greater mortification than when, as a member of a committee, he waited, by command of the House, upon Hutchinson to present an address acknowledging the right of the Governor to remove the General Court "to Housantonic in the western part of the Province," if he desired, nor, on the other hand, did the Governor ever enjoy a greater triumph. Hutchinson must have felt that he was even with his chief adversary for the humiliation of the preceding year, the driving out of the regiments. Adams felt his defeat keenly, but gave no sign of it, he saw his influence apparently on the wane, but was as unremitting as ever in his attempts to retrieve lost ground. But for him the revolutionary cause at this time must have gone by the board.

The revulsion was not long in coming. Before Hutchinson had time to restore the repentant legislature to the town house in Boston, the hearts of the members became hardened against him. When it became known that the decision of the king had been made for the support of the Massachusetts town officials from the revenue of the Colony by warrants drawn on the Commission of Custom, the wrath of the people became heavy, and the voice of Samuel Adams led the discontented. The Governor was paid L1500 sterling, instead of L1000, annually, which he was paid when dependent on the people. Hutchinson now plainly announced that he should now receive his salary from the King. The House protested in its usual temper, the set of the opposition being so powerful that several of the Loyalists withdrew disheartened. But in the midst of the fault-finding "Sons of Liberty", he received a mark of confidence from the General Court at which he was greatly pleased, as he had a right to be. We have already seen him as the principal figure in settling the boundary lines on the sides of New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The boundary line on the side of New York, not settled in 1767, and still in dispute, were equally in need of adjustment, and although his principles were popularly denounced, and the scheme was already in progress which was to drive him from his native land and deprive him of all his possessions in it, yet none but he could be trusted to undertake the delicate negotiations upon which the welfare of the Province depended.[126]

[126] The details are in Mass. Archives marked Colonial. Vol. IV. pp. 335-344.

The journal of the proceedings in the handwriting of the Governor, is still extant. With William Brattle, Joseph Hawley, and John Hancock, Hutchinson journeyed to Hartford, where on May 18, 1773, they discussed the matter with Governor Tyron, John Watts, William Smith, R. R. Livingston, and William Nicoll, Commissioners from New York. The New York men, although more compliant than the negotiators of seven years ago, were still disposed to exact hard concessions, to which all the commissioners but Hutchinson were about prepared to agree. Hutchinson, however, while diplomatic, was unyielding, insisting upon what had been substantially the demand of 1767. At last it was conceded, establishing for all time as a part of the Bay State the beautiful county of Berkshire. This alone should entitle him to a monument by the State of Massachusetts. He alone, it is said, prevented the giving up by Massachusetts of her claim to western lands; these were retained and afterwards sold for a large sum.[127]

[127] N. E. His. and Gen Reg., Vol. I., p. 310.

It was a great victory for the Governor, the Massachusetts Commissioners had been left free to do what seemed to them best, but they cordially acknowledged that success belonged to him.

On the return to Boston, the legislature was in session and the assembly authorized him to transmit the settlement to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State, at once, without formally laying it before them. They trusted him entirely. Hutchinson with some pride declared that "no previous instance of a like confidence of our Assembly in a Governor can be found in Massachusetts history."[128] This transient favor, and trust, aggravated for him the force of the blow he was so soon to receive. How bitter the home coming of Hutchinson was, the following extract from a letter to Sir Francis Bernard, the late Governor will show:

[128] Hutchinson His. Vol. III., p. 391, 392.

June 29, 1773. "After every other attempt to distress me they have at last engaged in a conspiracy which has been managed with infinite art, and succeeded beyond their own expectation. They have buzzed about for three or four months a story of something that would amaze everybody as soon as the elections were over, it was said in the House something would appear in eight and forty hours, which, if improved aright, the Province might be as happy, as it was fourteen or fifteen years ago. These things were spread through all the towns of the Province, and everybody's expectations were raised. At length upon motion the gallery was ordered to be cleared and the doors shut. Mr. Samuel Adams informed the House that seventeen original letters had been put in his hands, written to a gentleman in England by several persons from New England, with an intention to subvert the constitution. They were delivered to him on condition that they should be returned, not printed, and no copies taken. If the House would receive them on these terms, he would read them. They broke through the pretended agreement, printed the resolves, and then the letters, which effrontery was never known before. The letters are mere narratives which you well know to be true, as respects remarks upon the Colonies, and such proposals as naturally follow from the principles which I have openly avowed; but by every malversation, which the talents of the party in each House, could produce they have raised the prejudices of the people against me, and it is generally supposed all the writers were concerned in one plan, though I suppose no one of them ever saw or knew the contents of the letters of any others unless by accident."

After three weeks spent, the House resolved to address the King, to remove the Governor and Lieutenant Governor.[129] The name of the person to whom the letters were written was erased from all of them, but they appear to be all Mr. Thomas Whatley's six from the Governor, four from the Lieutenant-Governor, one from Rogers, and one from Auchmuty and the remainder from Rhode Island and Connecticut.

[129] M. A. His. Vol. XXVII., p. 502, etc.

The affair of the Hutchinson Letter created great excitement both in America and England, an affair in which the best men of Massachusetts Bay were concerned, including Franklin, then the agent of his native Province, although a citizen then of Pennsylvania; a shade has rested therefrom upon the character of Franklin, which cannot yet be said to have been explained away. Is it creditable that those wary, able men, Franklin, Samuel Adams, Bowdoin, John Adams, Samuel Cooper, and others, really thought the very quiet statements contained "in the letters in which there was no sentiment which the Governor had not openly expressed in his addresses to the Legislature, was a danger and menace to the welfare of the colony?"[130] The only explanation is that they had persuaded themselves that Hutchinson was so dangerous that if conduct thoroughly above board would not answer, he must be cast out by questionable means. Mr. Winthrop justifies their conduct by believing that it may be classed among what Burke calls "irregular things done in the confusion of mighty troubles, not to be justified on principle."[130] When the printed copies of the letter arrived in England they excited great astonishment. Thomas Whatley was dead. William Whatley, his brother, and executor was filled with a very natural consternation, at a theft which was likely to have such important consequences, and for which public opinion was inclined to make him responsible. He in turn suspected a certain Mr. Temple, who had been allowed to look through the papers of his deceased brother, for the purpose of perusing one relating to the colonies, and a duel ensued in which Whatley was severely wounded. Mr. Temple continued to be suspected. A letter of Jan. 4, 1774, says: "Although when they first came abroad his own brother said: Whoever sent them was a d----d villian."[131]

[130] New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg. I., p. 307.

[131] Hosmer's Life of Hutchinson, p. 274

Franklin then for the first time, in a letter to a newspaper, disclosed the part he had taken. He stated that "he, and he alone, had obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question, that they had never passed into the hands of William Whatley, and that, therefore, it was impossible, either that Whatley could have communicated them, or that Temple could have taken them, from his papers." There is some reason to believe that the original owner had left them carelessly in a public office, whence they had been stolen, but the mystery was never decisively solved.

"In England Franklin's conduct was regarded with the utmost severity. For the purpose of ruining honorable officials it was said, their most confidential letters, written years before to a private member of Parliament, who had at that time no connection with Government, had been deliberately stolen; although the original thief was undiscovered, the full weight of the guilt and dishonor rested upon Franklin. He was perfectly aware that the letters had been written in the strictest confidence, that they had been dishonestly obtained without the knowledge of the person who received them, or the person who wrote them, and that their exposure would be a deadly injury to the writers. Under these circumstances he sent them to a small group of politicians whom he knew to be the bitterest enemies of the Governor, and one result was a duel in which the brother of the man whose private papers had been stolen, was nearly killed. Any man of high and sensitive honor, it was said, would sooner have put his hand into the fire than have been concerned in such a transaction."[132]

[132] Lecky's Am. Rev., pp. 149, 150.

When the petition for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver arrived the Government referred it to the Committee of the Privy Council that the allegations might be publicly examined with counsel on either side. The case exerted an intense interest which had been rarely paralleled. No less than thirty-five Privy Councillors attended; among the distinguished strangers who crowded the Bar were Burke, Priestley and Jeremy Bentham, Dunning and Lee, who spoke for the petitioners; they appear to have made no impression; while on the other side Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General, made one of his most brilliant but most virulent speeches, which was received with boundless applause.

After a brief but eloquent eulogy of the character and services of Hutchinson he passed to the manner in which the letters were procured, and turning to Franklin, who stood before him he delivered an invective which appeared to have electrified his audience. "How the letters 'came into the possession of anyone but the right owner's,'" he said, "is still a mystery for Dr. Franklin to explain, and they could not have come into his hands by fair means. Nothing will acquit Dr. Franklin of the charge of obtaining them by fraudulent or corrupt means, for the most malignant of purposes, unless he stole them from the person who stole them. I hope, my Lords, you will brand this man for the honor of this country, of Europe, and of mankind.... Into what country will the fabrication of this iniquity hereafter go with unembarrassed face? Men will watch him with a jealous eye. They will hide their papers from him, and lock up their escritoires. Having hitherto aspired after fame by his writings, he will henceforth esteem it a libel to be called a man of letters--_homo trium literarum_. But, he not only took away those papers from our brother, he kept himself concealed, till he nearly occasioned the murder of another. It is impossible to read his account, expressive of the coolest, and most deliberate malice, without horror."

[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BEFORE THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

He stood there, conspicuous and erect, and without moving a muscle, was compelled to hear himself denounced as a thief, or the accomplice of thieves.]

The scene was a very strange one, and it is well suited to the brush or an historical painter. Franklin was now an old man, sixty-seven, the greatest writer, the greatest philosopher America had produced, a member of some of the chief scientific societies in Europe, the accredited representative of the most important of the colonies of America, and for nearly an hour, and in the midst of the most distinguished of living Englishmen, he was compelled to hear himself denounced as a thief or the accomplice of thieves. He stood there conspicuous, and erect, and without moving a muscle, amid the torrent of invective, but his apparent composure was shared by few who were about him. Fox, in a speech which he made as late as 1803, reminded the House how on that memorable occasion, "all men tossed up their hats, and clapped their hands, in boundless delight, at Mr. Wedderburn's speech." The committee at once voted that the petition of the Massachusetts Assembly was "false, groundless, and scandalous and calculated only for the seditious purpose of keeping up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the province." The king and Council confirmed the report and Franklin was ignominiously dismissed from his office of Postmaster.[133] From this time Franklin and his friends had a deep personal grudge against the British Government.

As the autumn deepened Hutchinson interpreted as favorable to himself the symptoms he perceived of the mood of the people. Oct. 16, 1773, he writes, "I now see so great a change in the people wherever I travel about the country, that I have reason to think I shall rather gain than lose by the late detestable proceedings, and my friends express stronger attachments to me than ever." This was only a brief Indian summer of favor before the outbreak, not now distant, of a storm more cold and pitiless than ever, for a crisis was now at hand more threatening than any that had preceded it. As shown in a previous chapter,[133] after the repeal of the Stamp Act in order to pacify the colonists, a duty was placed on tea, and other imports, which the colonists had always admitted to be a valid Act of the Parliament. No revenue probably had ever been expected from it. It was felt that the principle that Parliament might tax must be maintained; the cost of collection was greater than the proceeds. Instead of paying 12d per pound export duty from England, only 3d per pound was to be charged, when imported by the East India Company to the Colonies, thereby making a saving to the colonists of 9d per pound which would make tea cheaper than that smuggled in from the Dutch colonies.[134]

[133] Lecky's Am. Rev. pp. 150, 151, 152.

[134] See p. 47, for further information concerning the Stamp Act and the Tea Tax.

The project of sending the tea, was decided on in May, 1773, and Massachusetts was the Colony where the crisis was to come. The consignees were important persons. Two of them were Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, sons of the Governor, a third was the Governor's nephew Richard Clarke, father-in-law of Copley, the painter, a fourth was Benjamin Faneuil, a nephew of Peter Faneuil, deceased, a fifth Joshua Winslow, also of a memorable family. These held bravely to the task that had been set for them, putting their property and lives in jeopardy until finally they were driven to seek refuge in the Castle. Of those opposed to them Samuel Adams was the chief, followed by Hancock, Bowdoin, Dr. Thomas Young, Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church, Josiah Quincy, John Scollay, and others who lent their hands to action and their heads to counsel. Historic truth also compels the statement that the man put forward to do the disreputable work for them was "Captain Mackintosh" leader of the South End toughs in street fights with the North Enders, leader of the rioters in the destruction of the Governor's home in August, 1765. For his part in that affair he had never been punished, and now seems to have been rather a popular pet. He was styled the "First Captain-General of Liberty-Tree," and managed the illumination, hanging of effigies, etc. Long afterwards, in speaking of the Tea Party he said, "It was my chickens that did the job."[135]

[135] Francis Drake. "Tea Leaves." Introd. p. CXXVII.

An attempt was made to cause the consignees to resign their commissions under "Liberty Tree;" this they refused to do and in consequence they were mobbed in their houses, windows and doors were smashed and amid a tempest of missiles their lives and persons were in great danger. Hutchinson set himself against the "Sons of Liberty," "his course not showing one sign vacillation from first to last, but throughout bearing the marks of clear, cold, passionless inflexibility."[136]

[136] Richard Frothingham.

Another American writer says, "To candid men, the letters he wrote in those days of struggle ought to have interest, as well as the declarations of those who have portrayed him as the disgraced minion of a tyrant."[137] Another writer, referring to his action at this time, says, "We can at this day well afford to mete out this tardy justice to a man, whose motives and conduct have been so bitterly and unscrupulously vilified and maligned as have been those of Thomas Hutchinson."[138]

[137] Hosmer's Life of Hutchinson, p. 299.

[138] Francis S. Drake. Tea Leaves. Int. LXIII.

At last, in December, 1773, three ships laden with tea arrived at Boston, and what followed has been told a thousand times, with all possible elaborations by those who fully sympathize with the tea mob. The cold facts are that "Captain Mackintosh" and "his chickens," disguised as Mohawk Indians, instigated by Samuel Adams, John Hancock[139] and other leading "patriots" flung the whole cargo consisting of 342 chests, into the harbor. In the course of the violent proceedings this year the Council, the militia, and the company of cadets, had been vainly asked to assist in maintaining the law and order. The sheriff was grossly insulted, the magistrates could do nothing, and as usual, the crowning outrage of the destruction of the tea was accomplished with perfect impunity, and not a single person engaged in it was in any way molested, but every soul in Boston knew the penalty must fall, as certain as night follows day. "The news of these events convinced most intelligent Englishmen, that war was imminent, and that taxation of America could only be enforced by the sword. Popular opinion in England, which had supported the repeal of the Stamp Act, was now opposed to further concession, England, it was said, had sufficiently humiliated herself. The claim and the language of the colonial agitators excited profound and not unnatural indignation, and every mail from America brought news that New England at least was in a condition of virtual rebellion, that Acts of the British Parliament were defied and disobeyed with the most perfect impunity, that the representatives of the British Government were habitually exposed to the grossest insults, and reduced to the most humiliating impotence."

[139] Hancock's uncle made his large fortune by smuggling tea. See Hutchinson His., Vol. III., p. 297.

The time for temporising, it was said, was over. It was necessary to show that England possessed some real power of executing her laws and the ministers were probably supported by a large majority of the English people, when they resolved to throw away the scabbard, and to exert all the power of Parliament to reduce Massachusetts to obedience.[140] The measures that were taken were very stringent. By one Act, the harbor of Boston was legally closed. "The Custom House officers were removed to Salem. All landing, lading, and shipping of merchandise in Boston harbor was forbidden, and English men-of-war were appointed to maintain the blockade. The town which owed its whole prosperity to its commercial

## activity was debarred from all commerce by sea and was to continue under

this ban, till it had made compensation to the East India Company for the tea which had been destroyed, and had satisfied the crown that trade would for the future be safely carried on in Boston, property protected, laws obeyed, and duties regularly paid."[141] By another Act, Parliament was to remodel the charter of Massachusetts, the Council or Upper Chamber was now to be appointed as in most of the other colonies of America by the crown. The judges and magistrates of all kinds, including the sheriffs, were to be appointed by the royal governor. Jurymen were to be summoned by the Sheriffs. That these Acts of the British Parliament at this time was necessary is beyond question, for there was a mob in revolutionary Boston at this time, scarcely less foul-mouthed, pitiless, unscrupulous, than that which roared for the blood of the Bourbons in revolutionary Paris, or that of the Commons of later times. Mackintosh and his crew were unmistakably in evidence, certainly not restrained, but connived at by the better men, so that those just as conscientious and patriotic, who tried by lawful ways to oppose, found destruction for their property imminent, and could feel that their lives were secure only when they had fled down the harbor to the Castle.

[140] Lecky's Am. Rev., pp. 154, 164, 165, 166.

[141] 14 George III., c. 19, 45.

John Adams was one of the very few "patriots" who really disowned and opposed mob violence; not only did he defend the soldiers for killing some of the mob, but in a letter to his wife, he said: "mobs I do and will detest."[142]

[142] Letters of John Adams, Vol. 1., p. 13.

[Illustration: (View from Governor Hutchinson's Field.)]

On May 10th, 1774, news reached Boston of the passing of the Boston Port Bill, and the penalties the Tea-Party had brought upon the town. General Gage, who was to command four regiments and a powerful fleet arrived three days later. A military governor was now to succeed the civilian, it being understood that Hutchinson, after the disturbances were quelled, should return to power; in the meantime he was to go to England, and help the King with personal counsel.[143] Hutchinson's work in America was done. It may be asked, why did he remain in office in all these years, up to this time, enforcing laws with which he had no sympathy, the instrument of a policy he disliked, wrecking in the minds of many of his countrymen the honorable name which for forty years he had been establishing. It was certainly not for emolument. It was not for fame, for instead of credit he had long received only abuse. He kept hoping against hope, that the home government would become wiser, that the supremacy of Parliament, having once been recognized, should be allowed to sink out of sight, the Colonies being allowed to control themselves as British Colonies do at the present time. He hoped that in his own land the question of taxation would be less hotly contested by the people. These things gained, the glorious empire of England might remain undivided, mother and daughter remaining in peace together, an affectionate headship dwelling in one, a filial and loving concession of precedence in the other. To attain such a consummation seemed to the Governor a thing worth suffering and striving for. To bring this about, as is shown by all his acts, and all his words, he contended year after year, sacrificing to his aim his reputation, his fortune, at last, hardest of all, his citizenship, dying in exile of a broken heart.

[143] Hutchinson Hist. Vol. III., p. 458.

Before leaving Boston he received a most complimentary address signed by the principal inhabitants of that and other towns endorsing this course and conduct; they were known as "Addressers," and were afterwards persecuted and subjected to many indignities from their fellow townsmen.

June the 1st, 1774, he turned away from his beautiful mansion and extensive farm, and walked down Milton Hill, to the Lower Mills, nodding and smiling to his neighbors on this side and that, it is said, whether Whig or Tory, he was good friends with all. He was in a cheerful mood on that day when he left his home forever, for had not the best people of the Province approved of him, and had shown him strong marks of favor in their addresses. It is very evident, as shown in all his writing, that he was greatly attached to his beautiful country home and to his Milton neighbors, with whom he was a favorite. He mingled with them in social life, and worshipped with them in the same church. His residence on Milton Hill is situated in one of the pleasantest places in the vicinity of Boston. It is the same to-day as it was when the Governor resided there, with the exception that the house has been remodeled, and the surrounding estates, now the homes of millionaires, have been greatly improved by art. It is situated on the crest of Milton Hill--a drumlin--to the south of which, across a beautiful valley are the Blue Hills, called by the Indians the "Massachusetts" or the place of the great hills, and from which the state has derived its name. They appear like mountains rising through the atmosphere charged with fragrant mist from the intervening blossoming fields, which give them a blue appearance, and soften all their ruggedness into beauty.

The mansion faces the north on the road leading to Plymouth; across the road in front of the home is an extensive field sloping towards the green waving marshes that line the banks of the beautiful Neponset river, winding its course to the harbor, which bears upon its bosom many picturesque islands and in the remote distance is seen the rocky Brewsters, on which is situated the white lighthouse, marking the edge of the ocean.[144]

[144] Several wealthy citizens of Milton have recently purchased this field donated it to the State as a public reservation to be known as the "Governor Hutchinson Field."

On that beautiful spring morning as the Governor walked down the hill he had no thought of a lasting absence, though martial law for a time was to be tried he was still Governor; meantime his salary was continued and he was about to give an account of his stewardship to his royal master. At the foot of the hill he crossed the river and there met his carriage, next year to be confiscated, and appropriated to the use of Washington. In it he rode to what is now South Boston Point; then embarking in a boat, he was rowed to the Castle, on Castle Island, the last bit of Massachusetts earth to feel his footfall. From here he embarked on the warship Minerva, which was to convey him to England, where he arrived July 1st, and was immediately received by the King, who during the interview said, "I believe you generally live in the country, Mr. Hutchinson, what distance are you from town?" Mr. Hutchinson replied, "I have lived in the country. Sir, in the summer for 20 years, but except the winter after my house was pulled down, I have never lived in the country in the winter until the last. My house is 7 or 8 miles from Town, a pleasant situation, and most gentlemen from abroad say it has the finest prospect from it they ever saw, except where great improvements have been made by art to help the natural view."[145]

[145] Hutchinson Diary, Vol. II., pp. 164, 165.

[Illustration: (Governor Hutchinson's House on Milton Hill.)]

He often afterwards was at Court, and was treated with the greatest kindness by both King and Queen. A baronetcy was offered him, which he declined because of insufficient means to support the title, his property in America having been confiscated. He was however handsomely pensioned. He does indeed write under date of September 1st, 1778, "The changes in the last four or five years of my life make the whole scene, when I look back upon it appear like a dream or other delusions. From the possession of one of the best houses in Boston, the pleasantest house and farm at Milton, of almost any in the world and one of the best estates in the Colony of Rhode Island, with an affluent income, and a prospect of being able to make a handsome provision for each of my children at my death--I have not a foot of land at my command, and personal estate of L7000 only, depending on the bounty of Government for a pension, which, though it affords a present ample provision for myself, and enables me to distribute L500 a year among my children, yet is precarious, and I cannot avoid anxiety. But I am still distinguished by a kind Providence from my suffering relations, friends, and countrymen in America as well as from many of them in England, and have great reason to be thankful that so much money is yet continued to me."[146]

[146] Diary and Letters of H. Vol. II., p. 216.

[Illustration: (Inland View from Governor Hutchinson's House.)]

The Governor's diary in England is a profoundly pathetic record of a man broken-hearted by his expatriation. His sons and daughters and their families to the number of twenty-five were all dependent upon him. "He is glad he has a home for them, when so many fellow-exiles are in want." As Hutchinson was by far the ablest and most eminent of his party, so his sufferings were especially sharp. His name was held to be a stigma. Hutchinson Street in Boston became Pearl Street. The town of Hutchinson in the heart of the Commonwealth, cast off its title as that "of one who had acted the part of a traitor and parricide," substituting for it that of Barre, the liberal champion in Parliament.

The honorable name he had made through forty years of self-denying wisely directed public service, was blotted out, for generations it was a mark for obloquy. His great possession and large estate were confiscated, and to the shame of his countrymen be it said, they did not spare even his family tomb. It was sold by the State and the bones of his ancestors, some of the greatest men of the colony, and those of his wife and children were thrown out. The old stone with the Hutchinson crest on it still remains over the tomb in Copp's Hill burial ground with the name of the new owner of the tomb rudely marked on it. Could the governor have had a premonition of what was going to happen when he wrote to his son, Feb. 22, 1775, that he wished to have a new tomb built at Milton, and the remains of his wife, deceased twenty-one years, to be tenderly removed from Copp's Hill and deposited therein, with space for himself, and bade him "leave the wall or any ornament or inscription till I return, and the sooner it is finished the better."

His son Thomas had left Milton and retired to Boston before he received his father's letter. Hostilities immediately followed, and were succeeded by the confiscation of the estates of the loyalists. Hence this cherished design of the governor was never carried out. Again on May 15th, 1779, he writes in his diary, "And though I know not how to reason upon it, I feel a fondness to lay my bones in my native soil and to carry those of my dear daughter with me." Again he writes, "The prospect of returning to America and laying my bones in the land of my forefathers for four preceding generations, and if I add the mother of W. H. it will make five, is less than it has ever been." Then at last this entry is found. "Sept. 16, 1779. Stopped at Croydon, went into the church, looked upon the grave of my dear child, inquired whether there was room for me, and was informed there was." He was indeed sinking fast, and his end was rapidly approaching. A few months later, June 3, 1780, as he was walking down the steps of his house to his coach, going for his morning drive, he fell into the arms of his servant, and with one or two gasps he resigned his soul to God, who gave it. He was buried at Croydon on the 9th of June. It would scarcely be possible for a human life to close among circumstances of deeper gloom. Utter destruction had overtaken his family. His daughters and his son dispirited, dropped prematurely at the same time with him into the grave. His son "Billy" died on Feb. 20. A child of Elisha's died on June 25th, and his daughter Sarah died on the 28th. In daily contact with him was a company of Loyalist exiles, once men of position and wealth, now discredited, disheartened, and in danger of starvation. The country he loved and had suffered so much for, had nothing for him but contumely. To a man like Hutchinson public calamity would cause a deeper pang than private sorrow. No more threatening hour for England has probably ever struck than that in which the soul of this great and good man passed away. It had become apparent that America was lost, a separation that might be fatal to the empire, and which her hereditary enemies were hastening to make the most of. To America herself the rending seemed to many certain to be fatal.

While the members were thus being torn away, destruction seemed to impend at the heart. At the moment of his death, London was at the mercy of the mob, in the Gordon riots. The city was on fire in many places, a drunken multitude murdered, right and left, laying hands even upon the noblest of the land. Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of England, because he had recommended to the mercy of a jury, a priest arrested for celebrating mass, saved his life with difficulty, his home with all his possessions going up in flames. What a remarkable coincidence this was with what happened to the governor when he was Chief Justice of Massachusetts. The exile's funeral passed on its way through smoke, and uproar, that might easily have been regarded as the final crash of the social structure. No one foresaw then what was immediately to come; that England was to make good her loss twice over, that America was to become the most powerful of nations, that the London disorders were on the surface merely, and only transient. In Hutchinson's latest consciousness, every person, every spot, every institution dear to his heart must have seemed to be overwhelmed in catastrophe. Such was the end of a life thoroughly dutiful and honorable.[147]

[147] Hosmer's Life of Hutchinson, p. 349.

On the death of Cromwell, his body was buried in Henry VII chapel, and after the restoration it was disinterred and gibbeted at Tyburn, and then buried under the gallows, the head being placed on a pike over Westminster Hall, where Cromwell had Charles I condemned to death. And now nearly two and one-half centuries since this event occurred a beautiful monument of Cromwell has been erected by Parliament on the lawn a few feet from Westminster Hall where the above events took place. Will the city of Boston ever do likewise and erect a statue to Governor Hutchinson in some public place as a slight atonement for the obloquy cast upon his name, the desecration of his family tomb, and as a recognition of the great services he rendered his native state, for certainly he was one of the worthiest sons that Massachusetts has ever produced, and there should be some memorial in the place of his birth, to record his private virtues, his historical labors, his high station, his commanding influences, and his sorrows, which have an interest, which none acquainted with his life can fail to feel.

The following list of estates belonging to Thomas Hutchinson situated at, and near Boston, taken from him under the Conspiracy and Confiscation Acts comprises nineteen parcels of land. The state received for them L98,121, 4s or about $490,000. His mansion house on the corner of Fleet and Hanover Streets brought L33,500. The Governor owned other valuable real estate in Rhode Island and other parts of Massachusetts, particularly in that part now the State of Maine. He was probably the wealthiest person in the state of Massachusetts at the commencement of the Revolutionary War. The author is indebted to the late John T. Hassam, A. M., for the list of Confiscated Estates in Suffolk County contained in this work, giving the name of the purchaser at the sale, the Lib. and folio of the record and a brief description of the confiscated estates. It was originally printed in the proceedings of the Mass. His. Soc. for May, 1895.

LIST OF GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON'S CONFISCATED ESTATES IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Joseph Veasey, Dec. 27, 1779; Lib. 131, fol. 21; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Fish St. W., land purchased by Thomas Stephenson N.; passageway E; heirs of William Graves S.

To Samuel Broome, July 24, 1780, Lib. 131, fol. 233; Land, 43 A. 2 qr. 34 r., in Milton, a back lane E., Mr. Ivers and Milton River N., Stephen Badcock and a brook N.W.; lane to Stephen Badcock S.W.; road to Milton meeting-house S.E.----Land, 33 A. 1 r., mansion house and barn in Milton road to Braintree E., heirs of William Badcock S.E. and S.W., road to Milton meeting-house N.W.----14 A. 3 qr. 3 r. in Milton, road to Braintree S.W., Robert Williams S.E.; heirs of William Badcock N., Milton River N.E.----Woodland, 48 A. 1 qr. 9 r., in Milton, road by Moses Glover's N.W.; Braintree town line S.E.; John Bois S.W.; John Sprague N.E.----Tillage land, 17 A. 2 qr. 27 r., and salt marsh, 16 A. 14 r. adjoining, in Dorchester, lower road from Milton bridge to Dorchester meeting-house W.; Hopestill Leeds N.E.; John Capen and others E.; Amariah Blake and the river N., Ebenezer Swift, Daniel Vose and a creek S.----Salt marsh, 2 A. 3 qr. 9 r., near the Hummucks in Dorchester, Levi Rounsavel N.; Robert Swan and Madam Belcher S., the river W.----Salt marsh, 7 A., in Dorchester, Billings Creek S. and W.; Robert Spurr N.; Henry Leadbetter S.E. and E.----One undivided third of 8 A. salt marsh in Dorchester, held in common with Timothy Tucker and Joseph Tucker. Billings Creek S.; Nathan Ford W.----Woodland, 33 1-2 A. 9 r. in Braintree.

To John Hotty. Aug 8, 1780, Lib. 131, 161, fol. 247; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Fish St. W., land purchased by Parsons and Sargeant N.; passageways E. and S.

To Ebenezer Parsons, Daniel Sargent, Feb. 25, 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 95; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Fish St. W.; passageways N. and E., land purchased by Thomas Stephenson S.----Land and dwelling-house, Fish St. W.; land purchased by John Hancock N.; Thomas Hutchinson E.; land purchased by John Hotty S.----Land, store, block-maker's shop, and other work places near the above, passageways S.; W. and E; Thomas Hutchinson N.----Flats, dock, wharf and stores near the above passage W.: dock N.; sea E.; dock S.----Flats, dock and wharf adjoining the above-described wharf, John Brick S.; passageways W. and N.; dock N., the sea E.

To Ebenezer Parsons, Daniel Sargeant, Feb. 25, 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 99; Land and dwelling-houses in Boston, Fish St. W.; land purchased by said Parsons and Sargeant S.; passage N.; passage E.; land purchased by said Parsons and Sargeant S.; passage W.; then running W. and S.

To Thomas Stephenson, Mar. 13, 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 161; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Fish St. W.; land purchased by Parsons and Sargent N.; passage E.; land purchased by Joseph Veasey S.

To Enoch Brown, Oct. 14, 1784; Lib. 145, fol. 126; Land and brick dwelling-house in Boston, Middle St. W.; Fleet St. N.; street from Clark's Square to Fleet St. E.; Lady Franklin S.

THOMAS HUTCHINSON.

Eldest son of Governor Hutchinson. He was born in Boston in 1740. He married Oct. 10, 1771, Sarah, daughter of Lieut. Governor Andrew Oliver. He was Judge of the Probate Court for the County of Suffolk. He was Mandamus Councillor, and an Andresser of General Gage. He and his family were in Boston during the blockade, and bombardment. At the evacuation, they went aboard ship with their two children, when the third child was born, as they were leaving for England. Dr. Peter Oliver, the second son of Chief Justice Oliver, refers to this matter in his Diary, as follows: "We remained blocked up in Boston till the beginning of March, 1776, when we were ordered to embark. Tommy Hutchinson's family and mine went aboard the Hyde Pacquet for England, March 25th, 1776, we set sail for England. The day before we set sail from Nantasket, Tommy's wife was delivered of a boy which had not a drop of milk during the whole passage, was much emaciated, and no one thought it would have lived. The lady well. As to myself, I was sick 21 days without any support; reduced almost to a skeleton. Seven children on board ship, and the eldest not 6 years old."

The child born aboard ship was baptised Andrew, after its mother's father, Lieut. Gov. Andrew Oliver. It grew up, married, left children, was an eminent surgeon, and after a long life, died Dec. 23, 1846, aged 70 years. He was the father of the late Peter Orlando Hutchinson, great grandson of the Governor who edited the two volumes of the Diary of Governor Hutchinson, published in 1883. He was a local antiquary, of local repute, and a gentleman of great kindness of heart. He was a bachelor, and died at Sidmouth, Devon, Oct. 1st, 1897, aged 87, and was the last of his generation.

His last words at the end of the second volume, are as follows: "If in these volumes, I have anywhere said anything of my American friends that is untrue, or too harsh for the occasion, I regret it should have been so, and I willingly withdraw it altogether. I need not apologise for any unkind remarks that may have been made by the Governor, though most concerned, for he made none; and when they have made reparation for all the slander and misrepresentation which they have persistently heaped upon him during the last 120 years, then--we shall be quits. It is time to bury the hatchet. Farewell."

Thomas Hutchinson, the subject of this sketch, writing to his brother under date of Nov. 15th, 1788, alluded to the trying position in which the Loyalists were placed, he says, "We will give a little attention to a large and suffering body of people whose only crime had been that of fidelity to the Mother country. Driven out of the land of their adoption, they fled back to the land of their ancestors, where most of them were strangers. Some pressed their claims for relief from the English Government; others applied to the American Courts for recovery of the estates themselves, while others despairing of success, gave up everything for lost, and sat down resigned to their fate. Sir Francis Bernard lost the valuable Island of Mount Desert, and Sir William Pepperell lost miles of coast line, stretching away from Kittery Point to Saco, extending miles into the interior."

"These unfortunate people were very difficultly placed--if they had joined the American party, they would have been Rebels to England, but when the war was over and they applied for the restitution of their estates they were told they were Rebels to America."

Writing again under date of 1789, he said: "We proceeded to Exeter, and I have taken a house at a mile from the town, but in the neighborhood, the house furnished, and has every convenience about it, with about six acres of land--mowing, orchard, and garden stocked with fruit trees. I could have had my house and garden without the land, at L45, and am to pay L60 per ann. for the whole. The last year my orchard produced 20 hhds of cyder."

Thus the family became settled in a respectable looking old house built in the Queen Anne style, known as East Wonford near Heavitree church, where it still stands. The rent appears to be extraordinarily low. He would not bind himself to a lease, for he still had hopes of returning to America, but the return was never to be. The Hutchinsons had very little chance of a favorable hearing in Massachusetts, and their large fortune there was forever lost to them. The family seems to have been content with their new home, for in another letter to his brother of May 19, 1791, Thomas says:--"After eighteen months residence, we continue to think this a very agreeable part of England; and perhaps I could not have made a better pitch than I have done."

Thomas Hutchinson, son of the Governor, died in 1811, and his wife in 1802. They were deposited in a vault in the middle of Heavitree church. The church was pulled down in 1843 and a new one erected on the same site.

Thomas, his eldest son, grandson of the Governor, was born in America in 1772, brought to England by his father in 1776, he was a Barrister-at-Law, resided during the early years of his career at No. 14 New Boswell Court, Lincoln's Inn, London, and after that in Magdalen Street, Exeter. He married twice, had three sons and one daughter. He is buried in the N. W. corner of Heavitree churchyard. A stone with the following inscription marks the spot: "Underneath this stone Lie the mortal remains of Thomas Hutchinson, Barrister-at-Law, who departed this life the 12th of November 1837, aged 65."

Mary Oliver Hutchinson, daughter of Thomas Hutchinson, and granddaughter of the Governor, was born in America, Oct. 14, 1773, and was brought to England by her father in 1776, married Captain W. S. Oliver, R. N., grandson of Lieut. Governor Andrew Oliver, at Heavitree, in Oct. 1811. She died at East Tergnmouth, Devon, July 11th, 1833, leaving one son and two daughters of whom more presently.

William Hutchinson, son of Thomas and grandson of the Governor, was born in England, June 14, 1778. He entered the church and was pastor for some time at Heavitree and Colebrook, Devon. He had two sons and three daughters. Rev. William Hutchinson, died May 3rd, 1816.

ELISHA HUTCHINSON.

Son of Governor Hutchinson, was born Dec. 24, 1745, at Boston. He graduated at Harvard College in 1762. His wife Mary was the eldest daughter of Colonel George Watson of Plymouth, Mass. He was the commercial partner of his brother Thomas. They were the consignees of one-third of the tea. Their names were given to the East India Company by a London correspondent, who solicits the consignment for them, without mentioning their connection with the Governor, although the historian Bancroft falsely asserts that he had a pecuniary interest in the shipment, of which there is not the slightest evidence.[148] He accompanied his father to England in 1774, leaving his wife in America, with the intention of rejoining her in a few months, but it was three years before she could join him in England. Having reached his 80th year he died at Tutbury, June 24, 1824, having had issue three daughters and two sons. His son John, born Sept. 21, 1793, was perpetual curate of Blurton near Trentham, Co. Staff. Percentor and Canon of Lichfield, Editor of Vol. 3 of Gov. Hutchinson Hist. of Mass., in 1828. He married his cousin Martha Oliver Hutchinson, May 10th, 1836. He died April 27, 1865, at Blurton, having had issue two daughters and one son, John Rogers, born March 6, 1848, who married Ruth Hombersley, Oct. 19, 1882, at Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire.

[148] Tea Leaves, p. 324.

FOSTER HUTCHINSON.

Was brother of Governor Hutchinson, and one of the last judges of the supreme court of Massachusetts. He graduated at Harvard University in 1743. He accepted the appointment of mandamus councillor in 1774 and soon after was compelled to take refuge in Boston. He was proscribed and banished and his estates were confiscated. He left Boston at the evacuation in 1776, and with his family of twelve persons went to Halifax. He died in Nova Scotia in 1799. His son, Foster, an Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court of that Colony died in 1815, and his daughter Abigail deceased at Halifax, July 1843, aged seventy-four years. Foster and his brother Thomas had a dry goods store in 1765 below the "Swing Bridge" near what is now the corner of Hanover and Salem streets.

CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO FOSTER HUTCHINSON ET AL IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Ebenezer Parsons, Daniel Sargent, Feb. 25, 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 95; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Fish St. W.; passageways N. and E.; land purchased by Thomas Stephenson S.----Land and dwelling-house, Fish St. W.; land purchased by John Hancock N.; Thomas Hutchinson E.; land purchased by John Hotty S.----Land, store, block-maker's shop and other work places near the above, passageways S.; W. and E.; Thomas Hutchinson N.----Flats, dock, wharf and stores, near the above, passage W.; dock N.; sea E.; dock S.----Flats, dock and wharf adjoining the above described wharf, John Brick S.; passageways W. and N.; dock N.; the sea E.

To John Codman, Jr., Sept. 25, 1783; Lib 140, fol. 4; Land, wharf and dock in Boston. Town Dock N.; heirs of William Clarke deceased W.; heirs of Benjamin Andrews S.; passage from the Town Dock to Green's wharf E.

ELIAKIM HUTCHINSON.

As previously stated, the ancestor of Governor Hutchinson who emigrated to Boston was William Hutchinson, grandson of the Mayor of Lincoln; he had a brother Richard in business in London whose son Eliakim also settled at Boston. There is nothing to show that Richard ever came to this country, and when William and his wife Anne was expelled from Boston, the lot which had been granted to him in 1634, now known as the "Old Corner Bookstore," which then extended to the City Hall lot, was sold by his son Edward to Richard Hutchinson of London, linen-draper. This was the father of Eliakim. The subject of this notice was the great grandson of the emigrant. He was born in 1711 and married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Governor Shirley. He was a member of the Governor's Council and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk County. In 1764 he purchased from his father-in-law "Shirley Hall," the finest estate in Roxbury. In 1746 Governor Shirley bought thirty-three acres of land and erected this palatial mansion on it. Its oaken frame and other materials, even the bricks, it is said, were brought from England, at a vast expense. It has been removed from its original location, and is now occupied as a tenement house, yet, notwithstanding the vicissitudes it has undergone, it is extremely well preserved. One of the peculiarities of "Shirley Place," as the governor styled it, is its double front. From the upper windows a fine view is obtained of the city, harbor and islands. Each front was approached by a flight of stone steps flanked by an iron railing of an antique and rustic pattern. Entering the northern or proper front, you find yourself in a spacious hall of grand proportions. To the right a broad staircase leads to a balcony extending around to the left where two doors open into the guest chambers in which Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, Daniel Webster and many other celebrated men have from time to time been accommodated. From the balcony the musicians entertained the company at the table in the hall. The carved balusters around the staircase and gallery are of three different patterns, and the rail surmounting them is inlaid at the top. The base of the balustrade and staircase, is also adorned with a carved running vine. To the right and left of the hall are doors leading into the reception room, parlors, etc. Upon great occasions the two halls were thrown into one by opening the folding doors between. Washington paid a visit to Governor Shirley in March 1756, to relate to him the circumstances of his son's death who was killed at the battle of the Monongahela. In a letter to his friend and patron Lord Fairfax, he says, "I have had the honor of being introduced to several governors, especially Mr. Shirley, whose character and appearance, have perfectly charmed me." The next time Washington visited "Shirley Place" it was not as a guest, but as an enemy.

Governor Shirley was a man of great industry and ability, thoroughly able, enterprising, and deservedly popular. He was a strong advocate of prerogative and in 1756 advised the ministry to impose a stamp tax in America. In February, 1755, he was made a major-general, with superintendence of military operations in the Northern Colonies. It was then, after the disastrous defeat and death of General Braddock, that Major Washington came to report it to him, and he was superseded both in his command and his government, and ordered to England. Triumphantly vindicating himself from the charges against him, he was made a lieutenant-general in 1759, and was governor of the Bahamas from 1758 to June 1769 when he returned to Roxbury, residing with his son-in-law in the mansion built by him until his death, March 24, 1771, and was interred in the burying ground of King's Chapel, which edifice he caused to be built while governor.

Judge Eliakim Hutchinson died in June, 1775. He had a high standing at the bar, being well versed in his profession, and enjoyed a good reputation as a general scholar, and as a man of high moral and religious principles. He was early imbued with principles favorable to the government, but was never a bitter, nor even a warm partisan.

His patrimonial inheritance, aided by industry enabled him to acquire a handsome fortune, one of the largest in the province. He adhered to government from the beginning of the controversy, but the moderation of his conduct, his superior fitness for his office, and the confidence in his integrity, secured him public favor through the stormy period, which commenced soon after his appointment to the Governor's Council. But this was an unpardonable offence in the eyes of the "Sons of Despotism." It was however unsolicited, unexpected and accepted with great reluctance, and although he died before actual hostilities had scarcely commenced, yet his large and valuable estate was confiscated. That portion of it in Suffolk County was inventoried at L21,400, Shirley Place with eighty acres of land was valued at L12,000. During the siege of Boston the mansion was used as a barracks by the Revolutionary troops and was greatly injured thereby.

It was purchased from the State by John Read, and then passed through many hands, and in 1819 was purchased by Governor Eustis, who passed the remainder of his days there, dying in 1825. Among the guests that accepted his hospitality was John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Aaron Burr, and John Calhoun.

Judge Hutchinson's wife left Boston at the evacuation, and went to England. She died at London in 1790.

WILLIAM HUTCHINSON, son of Eliakim Hutchinson, graduated at Harvard College in 1762. He went to the Bahamas when his grandfather Shirley became Governor of same. In 1771 William Hutchinson was appointed Judge of the Admiralty Court of the Bahama Islands. He died in England in 1790.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO ELIAKIM HUTCHINSON IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To William McNeill, Archibald McNeill. Feb. 21, 1782; Lib. 134, fol. 27; Land in Boston, Cow Lane E., Howe's ropewalk S.; W. and S.; Milk St. W.; Palmer's pasture N.

To Edward Compton Howe, June 17, 1782; Lib. 135, fol. 22; Land in Boston, Milk St. N., Mr. McNeil E. and S.; McNeil's ropewalk E.; Cow Lane S.; ropewalk of Ferister and Torrey W.

To John Read, Sept. 9, 1782; Lib. 135, fol. 196; Land 37A., in Roxbury, bounded by the road from Roxbury to Dorchester, the brook and salt water creek between Roxbury and Dorchester, the way to the clay pit and by the lands of John Howes, John Humphrey, John Williams, Aaron White, James White, Caleb Williams, Samuel Warren, Joseph Clapp, Isaac Williams and Benjamin Williams.----Woodland 13 A., in Roxbury, Elijah Wales S.; widow Bourne and heirs E.; Noah Davis W. and N.----Right of William Shirley Esq., to the clay pits above mentioned called the Town of Roxbury clay pits.----23 1-2 A. in Roxbury, John Williams N.; Aaron White, Samuel Cheney, John Hawes, widow Warren and heirs of Joseph Warren W.; Nehemiah Munroe S; town way from Dorchester brook to Braintree road E.----Pasture land, 19 A., in Roxbury, Daniel Holbrook N.; Braintree road W.; James White S.W.; said town way S. and E.----22 A., in Roxbury, said town way N.W.; John Williams and ---- Swan S.; John Humphrey E. John Williams N.E.----Salt marsh and upland, 20 A., in Roxbury, heirs of Benjamin Williams S.W.; town creek between Roxbury and Dorchester S.E.; Joseph Curtis N.

To John Lucas, Edward Tuckerman. Oct. 4. 1782; Lib. 136, fol. 22; Land in Boston, on Dock Square and Cooper's Alley, bounded by lands of Thomas Green, Joshua Blanchard, widow Apthorp, John Newell, William Greenleaf, Jonathan Simpson and heirs of Thomas Young.

To Nathan Spear, March 1. 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 131; Land in Boston, passageway from the Town Dock to Green's wharf W.; Jonathan Williams, William Hyslop, Nathaniel Correy, Alexander Hill, heirs of John Gould, of Anthony Stoddard, and of John Walker deceased N.; the end of the wharf E.; the dock between said wharf and Green's wharf S.

To Francis Bigelow, April 3, 1783; Lib. 137 fol. 260; Land in Boston on Milk St.; bounded by a passageway and by land of said Bigelow, said Hutchinson and Mr. Bourne.

To Joseph Russell, July 12, 1783; Lib. 139. fol. 75; Land in Boston near Fort Hill, Gridley's Lane S.; Cow Lane E.; land of Town of Boston and of heirs of Andrew Oliver N.; Thomas Palmer W.

To Thomas Green, Feb. 18, 1784: Lib 141. fol. 136; Land in Boston. Dock Square S.; Eliakim Hutchinson W.; Mr. Blanchard N.; Thomas Green E.; N. and E.

To Thomas Walley, Aug. 28, 1784: Lib. 144. fol. 172; Land and buildings in Boston, Cross St. S.; Thomas Walley W.; widow Holmes N.; Samuel Ellinwood E.

To Samuel Emmons, Jr., Victor Blair. Dec. 24, 1792; Lib. 174. fol. 183; Land in Boston, Milk St. and Cow Lane, between a highway and ropewalk of Farreter and Torrey.

To Jeffery Richardson, May 17, 1793; Lib. 176, fol. 8; Land in Boston. Cow Lane S.E.; Samuel Emmons N.E.; Thomas Davis S.W.; extending towards Milk St. N.W.

To Jeffery Richardson, Dec. 15, 1795; Lib. 182, fol. 27; Confirmation of above.

To Martin Brimmer, Apr. 13, 1796;, Lib. 183, fol. 37; Flats and wharf in Boston, Minot's T N.; flats towards the town W.; wharf and flats of William Davis S.; the channel E.

[Illustration: ANDREW OLIVER.

Born in Boston, 1707. Lieutenant Governor 1770-4. Died in Boston, March, 1774.]

ANDREW OLIVER.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 1770-1774.

The Oliver family are among the most prominent of the early colonial families. Thomas Oliver came from Bristol in 1632. He was one of the founders, and Elder of the First Church in Boston.[149] His son Peter born in England in 1622 and died in Boston in 1670, was a prominent merchant, and commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1669 and was one of the founders of the Old South Church. Peter's son Daniel married Elizabeth, the daughter of Andrew Belcher, who was the father of Governor Jonathan Belcher.

[149] He lived on Washington Street; his lot extended north from Spring Lane, including the head of Water Street.

ANDREW OLIVER, son of Daniel Oliver, a member of the Council, and brother of Peter Oliver, the Chief Justice. He graduated at Harvard College in 1724. He was a representative from Boston, member of the council and Secretary of the Province. In 1765, soon after receiving the appointment of Stamp Collector, without his solicitation, he not approving of the Act, he became very unpopular. The rough population which abounded about the wharves and shipyards, whose movements were directed by persons of higher rank and larger views of mischief, grew riotous, and with the usual want of discrimination shown by mobs, were not slow to lift their hands against even their best friends. The houses of the Custom and Admiralty officials were attacked, which culminating in an extraordinary outrage against Andrew Oliver, which led John Adams to exclaim, "Has not the blind undistinguishing rage of the rabble done that gentleman irreparable injustice"?[150] He was hung in effigy, a drunken crowd carrying the effigy through the Town House, even while the Governor and Council were in session. The building he had fitted for the transaction of business was destroyed. Taking a portion of it for a fire, the mob proceeded to Fort Hill where Mr. Oliver lived and burned his effigy in a bonfire before his home; they then went to work on the barn, fence, garden, and dwelling house. After breaking all the windows they entered the house and damaged and destroyed his furniture, completely wrecking this beautiful mansion. The business being finished, the "Sons of Despotism" proceeded to the Province-house, gave three huzzas and dispersed. On the day following the riot, Mr. Oliver resigned his office. In writing to a friend he says, "I was persuaded to yield in order to prevent what was coming on the second night." This action of the mob caused intense suffering both to himself and family.[151]

[150] John Adams' Diary, Aug. 15, 1765.

[151] See page 40 for account of the riot.

In 1770, Mr. Oliver was appointed Lieutenant Governor. In 1773, several letters which he had written to persons in England, and which were obtained surreptitiously by Franklin and sent to Boston, created much excitement and abuse of the writers.[152] In addition to the assaults at home, he was accused in England by Arthur Lee who signed himself Junius Americanus with the grave crime of perjury. "Scarce any man ever had a more scrupulous and sacred regard for truth, and yet, to such a degree did the malignant spirit of party prevail as to cause this man in the public papers in England, to bring against him a charge of perjury. The Council of Massachusetts Bay, from whose votes and resolves this writer attempted to support the charge, by vote which they caused to be printed, repaired the injury as well as they could, but a consciousness of his innocence and integrity, however, together with the reproaches most injuriously cast upon him by the resolves of the council and house, in which he was treated as the determined enemy of the liberties of his country, the interest whereof according to the best of his judgment (which was much superior to that of his most virulent persecutors) he always had at heart, affected his spirits and evidently accelerated his death."[153] Mr. Oliver was now advanced in life, and unable to endure the disquiet and misery caused by his position in affairs at so troubled a period, soon sunk under the burden. After a short illness he died at Boston in March 1774, aged 67. By the testimony of foes as well as friends, he was a most useful and estimable man, modest, indefatigable, well-cultured, soundly sensible. He had been the most beloved member of a family greatly beloved, and no charge could be brought against him except that in his political principles he sided with the Government. He was a liberal benefactor to his ALMA MATER in books, ancient manuscripts, and anatomical preparations. At his funeral the mob was again in evidence. The House of Representatives withdrew from the procession because a certain punctilio was neglected. The mob of Boston ran after the funeral train hooting and in an unseemly way hilarious, gave three cheers when the mourners came out of the graveyard, his brother the Chief Justice, intrepid as he was, did not dare to be present, because his life was threatened. Had he died before this violent spirit was raised, he would have been revered by all orders and degrees of men in the Province.

[152] See page 162, 163 concerning Hutchinson and other letters abstracted by Franklin.

[153] Curwin's Journal, pp. 462, 463.

He was a man of large wealth for those days. The inventory of his real estate was as follows:

The Mansion House and Buildings situated near Fort Hill.

The Brick School House near Griffin's Wharf.

A Warehouse on Long Wharf.

A right in said Wharf.

The Buildings and Land etc., on Oliver's Dock.

A Brick House on Union Street with a small Wooden Shop adjoining and Land belonging thereto.

A Dwelling House and about three Acres of Land at Dorchester.

[Illustration: ANDREW OLIVER MANSION, WASHINGTON STREET, DORCHESTER.

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, 1770-74.]

The last named building is the only one now in existence, and the following description of it at the time of writing, may be interesting to the reader.

Lieut. Governor Oliver's country house in Dorchester is situated on the corner of Washington and Park streets. In the old deeds it is described as being "On the Road leading to Milton." The house appears the same as in the olden times. Not one whit has the estate changed outside of the interior of the great house. The broad acres that surround it still spread out before and behind it, the same drives are lined with great English Elms as in the old days; no finer old mansion house of the colonial period is to be found in New England, none is richer in memories of olden times. Here Lieut. Gov. Andrew Oliver entertained the finest of the land, where gentlemen in powdered wigs and ladies in fine old silks used to dance the minuet, and where the negro slaves used to be happy in their own way. It was sold by John J. Spooner, administrator of the estate of Andrew Oliver, to Col. Benjamin Hichborn, and was used by him as a summer residence. In 1817 it went into the hands of his brother, Samuel Hichborn, who entertained there Gen. Lafayette, and Presidents Jefferson, and Munroe. For many years it was owned and occupied by the famous chocolate manufacturer, Walter Baker. At the decease of Mrs. Baker, it was purchased by the Colonial Club who now occupy it as a club house.

THOMAS OLIVER.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1774-1775.

Thomas Oliver was born in Antigua and graduated at Harvard College in 1753, he was the son of Robert Oliver, a wealthy planter from Antigua who settled in Dorchester. His parentage is unknown, there were Olivers in Dorchester as early as 1637, and he may have descended from them.[154] He brought with him from Antigua his wife Anne and one son, Thomas, the subject of this notice. He purchased a number of pieces of land of which 30 acres had been the property of Comfort Foster, on this homestead lot he built in 1745 a fine mansion, on what is now known as Edward Everett square. Tradition records, that he brought many slaves with him, and when they were given wheelbarrows in which to carry the dirt, in ignorance of their proper use they carried them upon their heads, in just the same manner as the writer has seen negroes at the present time carry burdens on their heads on the "Pope's Head" estate in Antigua where these slaves came from. In Dorchester Robert Oliver had born to him sons, Isaac and Richard, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Vassall, Jr. He died December 20, 1762. "The Post Boy" contained the following brief obituary: "Thursday morning last died at his seat in Dorchester, in the 63d year of his age, Col. Robert Oliver. A Gentleman of extensive Acquaintance, remarkable for his Hospitality to All, was kind to the Poor, and in his Military Character, beloved and esteem'd, his Family and Neighbours, have met with a great Loss in this Bereavement; His Remains are to be interr'd Tomorrow at 3 o'clock in the Family Tomb at Dorchester." About two years before this Thomas, his eldest son, had married Elizabeth, daughter of Col. John Vassall of Cambridge, making a double connection by marriage between these two families. Closely allied with them by marriage were the Royalls, all three families being probably originally of New England, then resident in Antigua and Jamaica, and returning here to enjoy their acquired wealth. All three families built houses which have lasted to our time: Royall in Medford, Vassall in Cambridge and Oliver in Dorchester.

[154] Sabine says Dorchester. Dorchester Record says Thomas Oliver, the son of Robert Oliver, Esqr., and Ann, his wife, was born Jan. 5, 1733-4 at ye Island of Antigua.

Thomas Oliver remained for several years in Dorchester after his father's death. He inherited a large estate from his grandfather, James Brown, and from his great-uncle, Robert Oliver. He then began life under the most favorable auspices. His father-in-law was John Vassall of Cambridge, who married the daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips. Being a man of fortune he did not mingle in the stormy political contests of that period until a day fatal to his peace and quiet, when he accepted the office of Lieutenant-Governor. He has been represented as a mild, peaceable person, and gentlemanly in deportment. In 1766 he removed to Cambridge and built the fine mansion recently occupied by James Russell Lowell. He sold his Dorchester mansion to Richard Lechmere, who was the uncle by marriage of Oliver's wife, he having married May Phips, whose sister Elizabeth married Col. John Vassall, who died in 1741. In 1771 the mansion passed into the hands of John Vassall, a son of the Colonel, who was a Loyalist, and his property was confiscated. It was sold by the State to John Williams; it afterwards passed into the possession of Oliver Everett in 1792, and here his son Edward Everett was born in 1794. The house was torn down in 1900 and the square in front of it, previously known as the Five Corners, was named Edward Everett Square. On the opposite side of the square on a part of the same estate in a small park is situated a house built by one of the earliest settlers, about 1640, owned and occupied by the Dorchester Historical Society.

Thomas Oliver was the last Royal Lieutenant-Governor and President of the Council of Massachusetts. He received his appointment from the Crown in 1774, after the decease of Andrew Oliver, who was of a totally distinct family; it is understood that the King thought he was appointing Chief Justice Peter Oliver, a brother of Andrew, a much more

## active man in the politics of the times.

[Illustration: THOMAS OLIVER AND JOHN VASSALL MANSION, DORCHESTER.

It stood on the north side of Edward Everett square. A bronze tablet marks its site. Edward Everett was born here April 11, 1794. (see p. 183.)]

His appointment as Councillor was by the King's writ of mandamus which was held, was contrary to the charter. This made him an object of popular resentment. He detailed the course pursued against him, in consequence of being sworn into office in the following narrative dated September 7, 1774, which as throwing light on the transaction of the times is inserted entire:

"Early in the morning" (of September 2d), said he, "a number of inhabitants of Charlestown called at my house to acquaint me that a large body of people from several towns in the county were on their way coming down to Cambridge; that they were afraid some bad consequences might ensue, and begged I would go out to meet them, and endeavor to prevail on them to return. In a very short time, before I could prepare myself to go, they appeared in sight. I went out to them, and asked the reasons of their appearance in that manner; they respectfully answered, they 'came peaceably to inquire into their grievances, not with design to hurt any man.' I perceived they were landholders of the neighboring towns, and was thoroughly persuaded they would do no harm. I was desired to speak to them; I accordingly did, in such a manner as I thought best calculated to quiet their minds. They thanked me for my advice, said they were no mob, but sober, orderly people, who would commit no disorders; and then proceeded on their way. I returned to my house. Soon after they had arrived on the Common at Cambridge, a report arose that the troops were on their march from Boston; I was desired to go and intercede with his Excellency to prevent their coming. From principles of humanity to the country, from a general love of mankind, and from persuasions that they were orderly people, I readily undertook it; and is there a man on earth, who, placed in my circumstances, could have refused it? I am informed I am censured for having advised the general to a measure which may reflect on the troops, as being too inactive upon such a general disturbance; but surely such a reflection on a military man can never arise but in the minds of such as are entirely ignorant of these circumstances. Wherever this affair is known, it must also be known it was my request the troops should not be sent, but to return; as I passed the people I told them, of my own accord, I would return and let them know the event of my application (not, as was related in the papers, to confer with them on my own circumstances as President of the Council). On my return I went to the Committee, I told them no troops had been ordered, and from the account I had given his Excellency, none would be ordered. I was then thanked for the trouble I had taken in the affair, and was just about to leave them to their own business, when one of the Committee observed, that as I was present it might be proper to mention a matter they had to propose to me. It was, that although they had a respect for me as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, they could wish I would resign my seat. I told them I took it very unkind that they should mention anything on that subject; and among other reasons I urged, that, as Lieutenant-Governor, I stood in a particular relation to the Province in general, and therefore could not hear anything upon that matter from a particular county. I was then pushed to know if I would resign when it appeared to be the sense of the Province in general; I answered, that when all the other Councillors had resigned, if it appeared to be the sense of the Province I should resign, I would submit. They then called for a vote upon the subject, and, by a very great majority, voted my reasons satisfactory. I inquired whether they had full power to act for the people, and being answered in the affirmative, I desired they would take care to acquaint them of their votes, that I should have no further application made to me on that head. I was promised by the Chairman, and a general assent, it should be so. This left me entirely clear and free from any apprehensions of a farther application upon this matter, and perhaps will account for that confidence which I had in the people, and for which I may be censured. Indeed, it is true, the event proves I had too much; but reasoning from events yet to come, is a kind of reasoning I have not been used to. In the afternoon I observed large companies pouring in from different parts; I then began to apprehend they would become unmanageable, and that it was expedient to go out of their way. I was just going into my carriage when a great crowd advanced, and in a short time my house was surrounded by three or four thousand people, and one quarter part in arms. I went to the front door, where I was met by five persons, who acquainted me they were a Committee from the people to demand a resignation of my seat at the Board. I was shocked at their ingratitude and false dealings, and reproached them with it. They excused themselves by saying the people were dissatisfied with the vote of the Committee, and insisted on my signing a paper they had prepared for that purpose. I found that I had been ensnared, and endeavored to reason them out of such ungrateful behavior. They gave such answers, that I found it was in vain to reason longer with them; I told them my first considerations were for my honor, the next for my life; that they might put me to death or destroy my property, but I would not submit. They began then to reason in their turn, urging the power of the people, and the danger of opposing them. All this occasioned a delay, which enraged part of the multitude, who, pressing into my back yard, denounced vengeance to the foes of their liberties. The Committee endeavored to moderate them, and desired them to keep back, for they pressed up to my windows, which then were opened: I could from thence hear them at a distance calling out for a determination, and, with their arms in their hands, swearing they would have my blood if I refused. The Committee appeared to be anxious for me, still I refused to sign; part of the populace growing furious, and the distress of my family who heard their threats, and supposed them just about to be executed, called up feelings which I could not suppress; and nature, ready to find new excuses, suggested a thought of the calamities I should occasion if I did not comply: I found myself giving way, and began to cast about to contrive means to come off with honor. I proposed they should call in the people to take me out by force, but they said the people were enraged, and they would not answer for the consequences. I told them I would take the risk, but they refused to do it. Reduced to this extremity, I cast my eyes over the paper, with a hurry of mind and conflict of passion which rendered me unable to remark the contents, and wrote beneath the following words: 'My house at Cambridge being surrounded by four thousand people, in compliance with their commands, I sign my name, THOMAS OLIVER,' The five persons took it, carried it to the people, and, I believe, used their endeavors to get it accepted. I had several messages that the people would not accept it with those additions, upon which I walked into the court-yard, and declared I would do no more, though they should put me to death. I perceived that those persons who formed the first body which came down in the morning, consisting of the landholders of the neighboring towns, used their utmost endeavors to get the paper received with my additions; and I must, in justice to them, observe, that, during the whole transaction, they had never invaded my enclosures, but still were not able to protect me from other insults which I received from those who were in arms. From this consideration I am induced to quit the country, and seek protection in the town."

[Illustration: REVOLUTIONISTS MARCHING TO CAMBRIDGE.

To oblige Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Oliver to resign from the Council Board.]

The document presented to Mr. Oliver on the 2d of September, and which he signed, was as follows: "I, Thomas Oliver, being appointed by his Majesty to a seat at the Council Board, upon, and in conformity to the late Act of Parliament, entitled an 'Act for the better regulation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay,' which being a manifest infringement of the Charter rights and privileges of this people, I do hereby, in conformity to the commands of the body of this county now convened, most solemnly renounce and resign my seat at said unconstitutional Board, and hereby firmly promise and engage, as a man of honor and a Christian, that I never will hereafter, upon any terms whatsoever, accept a seat at said Board on the present novel and oppressive plan of Government." To this, the original form, he added the words above recited. Judge Danforth and Judge Lee, who were also Mandamus Councillors and Mr. Phipps, the sheriff, and Mr. Mason, clerk of the county, were compelled to submit to the same body, and make written resignations.

Governor Oliver, as stated by himself, went into Boston, and made assurances both to General Gage and to the Admiral on the station, which prevented a body of troops from being sent to disperse the large body of people who assembled at Cambridge on this occasion; and to these assurances it was owing, undoubtedly, that the day passed without bloodshed. But for the peaceable demeanor of those whom he met in the morning,--the landholders of the neighboring towns,--the first collision between the King's troops and the inhabitants of Massachusetts, would have occurred, very likely, at Cambridge, and not at Lexington. A detachment was sent to the former town the day before, to bring off some pieces of cannon, and from this circumstance arose, principally, the proceedings related by Governor Oliver. Indignant because the "redcoats" had been sent upon such an errand, thousands from the surrounding country assembled in the course of the day, (September 2d.) armed with guns, sticks, and other weapons; and when the Lieutenant-Governor's promise on his return from Boston, rendered it certain that they would not be opposed by the troops, they exacted from every official who lived at Cambridge full compliance with their demands, as has been stated.

From this period Governor Oliver lived in Boston, until March, 1776, when at the evacuation he accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax, and took passage thence to England.

His mansion near Mt. Auburn is the house in which he resided at the time he was mobbed by four thousand Disunionists. When Benedict Arnold with his Connecticut Company arrived at Cambridge just after the fight at Lexington, they were quartered in this house. After Bunker Hill the house became a hospital and the dead were buried in the opposite field. The mansion was afterwards the residence of Governor Gerry, and at a later period was owned and occupied by Prof. James Russell Lowell, which made it still more famous under the name of "Elmwood."

He was proscribed and banished in 1778 and in the year following was included in the Conspiracy Act, and his large estate confiscated. Though he forfeited his estates in Massachusetts, he was better situated financially than most of his fellow sufferers, for he was wealthy from his professions in the West Indies, still owned by his descendants. He was a studious man and lived in retirement in England. He died at Bristol, Nov. 29, 1815, aged 82, and left six daughters.

PETER OLIVER.

CHIEF JUSTICE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Peter Oliver, son of Daniel Oliver and brother of Andrew Oliver, the Lieutenant Governor, born in 1713, married Mary, daughter of William Clark. His son Peter, Jr., married Sarah, daughter of Governor Hutchinson. Peter Oliver, Sr., graduated from Harvard College in 1730. He received the degree of L.L. D. He was appointed to the supreme bench of the province, September 15, 1756.

An affair happened at the close of the year 1773, which drove Adams and all his factions into madness. It was a grant from the King of a salary to the judges of the Supreme Court. The Assembly had endeavoured to keep the judges in absolute dependence upon their humor and because they found them rather too firm to coincide with their views in the subversion of government, they made them the object of their resentment. The judges of the Court had the shortest allowance from the General Assembly of any publick officers, even their Doorkeeper had a large stipend. The judges' travel on their circuits were from 1100 to 1500 miles in a year. Their circuit business engrossed seven months of the year during the extremes of heat and cold in a severe climate. For all their service, the highest grant made to them was L120 sterling per year, and it had been much less; the Chief Justice had L30 sterling more.

His Majesty taking the cases of the judges into consideration, and from his known justice and benevolence, ordered their salaries to be paid out of his revenues in America, such salaries as would keep them above want, and below envy. The judges upon hearing of His Majesty's intention of such a grant had agreed to accept it, but four of them who lived at and near the focus of tarring and feathering, the town of Boston flinched in the day of battle, they were so pelted with soothings one day, and with curses and threatenings the next, that they prudentially gave the point up. The Chief Justice was now left alone in the combat, his brethren had but lately been seated on the Bench. He had been 17 years in the service, and had sunk more than L2000 sterling in it. He had offered not to accept of the grant (if His Majesty would permit him to do so), provided the Assembly would reimburse him one-half of his loss in their service, and for this he would resign his seat on the Bench. The Chief Justice very luckily lived at Middleborough, about 30 miles from Boston, or perhaps he would have followed suit of his brethren in giving up the King's grant. A message was sent to him by the Lower House signed "Samuel Adams, Clerk," requiring him to make explicit answer whether he would accept of the King's grant, or of their grant. He replied that he should accept the King's grant. Nothing less than destruction now awaited him. Col. Gardner, who was afterwards killed at Bunker Hill, declared in the General Assembly, that he himself would drag the Chief Justice from the Bench, if he should sit upon it.

The Assembly voted that he had rendered himself obnoxious to the people, as an enemy, and immediately presented a petition for his removal. Articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors were exhibited, which Gov. Hutchinson refused to countenance. The grand jury at Worcester on April 19th following, presented to the court a written refusal to serve under the Chief Justice, considering it illegal for him to preside until brought to answer to the above mentioned charges. He became a refugee in 1775, and died at Birmingham, England, in October 1791, aged 79.[155] Of the five judges of the Superior Court of Massachusetts at the commencement of the Revolution, four remained loyal, viz., Peter Oliver, Edmund Trowbridge, Foster Hutchinson, and William Browne. The Revolutionary member of the Court was William Cushing. Judges at this time wore swords, ermine robes, etc., while on the Bench.

[155] Curwin's Journal, p. 516.

DR. PETER OLIVER. Second son of Chief Justice Oliver, of Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard University in 1761. He dwelt at Middleborough, Plymouth County. He had practised in Scituate in early life, was one of the eighteen country gentlemen who were driven into Boston and who were Addressers of General Gage in 1775. He was proscribed and banished in 1778, and became a refugee in England, where he died at Shrewsbury, in Sept. 1822, aged eighty-one.

DANIEL OLIVER, son of Chief Justice Oliver, a learned and accomplished lawyer of Worcester County, graduated at Harvard College in 1762. A refugee loyalist of the Revolution, he died at Ashted, Warwickshire, May 6, 1826, aged 82. His father was an antiquarian, and copied with his own hand Hubbard's manuscript History of New England, which the son refused the loan of to the Massachusetts Historical Society for publication in their Collection.[156]

[156] Curwin's Journal, p. 510.

Sabine says that it was Doctor Oliver who refused to lend his copy or at least to permit a transcript of such parts of it as were missing in the American manuscript. In consequence, we have "Hubbard" mutilated at the beginning, and at the end. At this time, 1814, when the Massachusetts Historical Society with the aid of the Legislature desired to publish that work, there was a very bitter feeling towards the United States on account of the war at that time existing between the two countries.

ANDREW OLIVER of Salem, son of Lieutenant Governor Oliver, graduated at Harvard College in 1749. Studied law. Was often a representative to the assembly and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia; he was considered one of the best scholars of his day, and possessed fine talents. Judge Oliver was never fond of public life, but ardently attached to his books and friends. He was honored with a commission of mandamus councillor, which he declined. He married Mary, daughter of Chief Justice Lynde, and many of his descendants are now living here, for although Judge Oliver was a loyalist, he was the only member of his family that was not driven out of his country in consequence of the Revolution.

PETER OLIVER of Salem, the son of Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, was an Addresser of Gage in 1775 and was proscribed and banished in 1778. He became a surgeon in the British Army, and died at London in April, 1795. His widow afterwards married Admiral Sir John Knight, and died in 1839.

BRINLEY SYLVESTER OLIVER, another son of Andrew Oliver, graduated at Harvard in 1774. Later became a surgeon in the British service; was also purser on the Culloden at the battle of the Nile. He died in 1828.

[Illustration: SIR FRANCES BERNARD

Born in 1712 at Brightwell England. Governor of Massachusetts from 1760 to 1769. Died in England June 16, 1779. From Copley's painting in Fiske's American Revolution.]

A third son, WILLIAM SANFORD OLIVER, in 1776 accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax. He settled at St. John, New Brunswick, at the peace, and was the first Sheriff of the county. His official papers are dated at Parr or Parr-town, by which names St. John was then known. In 1792, he held the office of Marshal of the Court of Vice-Admiralty of New Brunswick. At the time of his death, he was Sheriff of the County of St. John, and Treasurer of the Colony. He died at St. John in 1813, aged 62. His son, William Sanford Oliver, was a grantee of St. John in 1783, but left New Brunswick about 1806, and entered the Royal Navy. He rose to the position of Captain and was married at Heavitree, in October, 1811, to Mary Oliver Hutchinson, the daughter of Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., who was brought to England in 1770 by her father and mother, when she was but three years of age. He was put on the retired list in 1844, and died in England the next year, aged 71.

SIR FRANCIS BERNARD.

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS FROM 1760 TO 1769.

Sir Francis Bernard was descended from Godfrey Bernard of Wansford in Yorkshire, who in the 13th century was a large landowner, whose clearly defined armorial bearings were the first of the family entered in the Heralds College.

Francis, the only child of the Rev. Francis Bernard was baptized July 12th, 1712, in the church of Brightwell in Berkshire. He was unfortunate in losing his father three years later. He became a scholar of St. Peter's College in 1725, and was admitted as a student to Christ Church, Oxford, later. In 1733 he entered himself a member of the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in 1737, and soon after settled at Lincoln as a provincial counsel. Four years later he married Amelia, daughter of Stephen Offley, Esq., of Norton Hill, Derbyshire. In 1744 he was elected Steward of the City of Lincoln and Deputy Recorder of Boston. In 1745 he was appointed Receiver-General of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln. In 1750 he was admitted Procter of the Consistory Court of the Diocese. The years that Francis Bernard spent at Lincoln were probably some of the happiest in his life. He was fortunate in his domestic relations, was doing well in his profession, and his many accomplishments which were always at the service of his friends, rendered him a general favorite in society.

In 1758 Mr. Bernard decided to seek a larger field for the support of his now large family. He was on intimate terms with the second Viscount Barrington, and his brothers and sisters; they were his wife's first cousins. It was thus through his influence that Francis Bernard received the office of Governor of New Jersey. The new world afforded an opening for his sons which meant much to the father. Mr. and Mrs. Bernard and four of their children left England in April, 1758. On his arrival in New Jersey, he entered into negotiations with the Indians. The war at the time raged between England and France rendering the positions of the Indians peculiarly important. By his address and tact he conciliated the Indians, and kept them steadfast in their allegiance to England, Governor Pownall of Massachusetts being appointed to South Carolina. Mr. Bernard was appointed as his successor. His residence in New Jersey was remembered as a time of happiness by the governor and his wife. His life was gladdened by a sense of the good he was able to achieve, and he was hopeful for the future, the page written by Thomas Bernard, his son, of this period reads like a pleasant fairy tale, but it was soon ended. Notwithstanding the supposed indignity offered to the colony of Massachusetts by the appointment of three officers of State by the Crown, the Constitution remained exceedingly democratic. Thomas Bernard gives a sketch of its leading features in which he depicts the colony as forming one of the freest communities in the world.

Governor Bernard reached Boston August 2nd, 1760. He was received with great parade and ceremony. At Dedham he was met by Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, several of the Council, and Brigadier-General Isaac Royal and the troops escorted him to his residence at the Province House in Boston. The Militia was drawn up in the main streets, and salutes were fired from all the forts and ships in the harbor, and the Governor and his family were entertained at a great dinner at Fanueil Hall, was then escorted to the State House, and to the Kings Chapel where the Governors were in the habit of attending.

Governor Bernard's nine years' administration in Massachusetts was during one of the most interesting periods in American history. When he arrived at Boston he found affairs on an apparently peaceful and prosperous footing. He stayed till all was in turmoil, and left only just before the storm broke. The first part of his administration was very agreeable. Soon after his arrival Canada was surrendered. The General Court in an address to the Governor declared that without the assistance of England the colonies must have fallen a prey to the power of France, and that without the money sent from England the burden of the war would have been too great to bear. For this relief the colonists gave warm thanks to the king and to parliament, and made the Governor a present of the great island of Mount Desert, and voted a costly monument in Westminster Abbey to Lord Howe, who had fallen in the campaign against Canada.

Much harmony prevailed for two or three years, but this happy and prosperous commencement did not continue. Governor Bernard was soon classed with those who were desirous of strengthening the authority of the government.

Shortly after Bernard's appointment, Chief Justice Sewall died on September 11. He was a great loss to the Province and it was a misfortune that his death occurred just at this time. Colonel Otis, as he was generally called, desired to succeed to this office. It was believed that he and his son were not friendly to the government. Governor Bernard, who had no doubt studied the affairs in Massachusetts, considered Colonel Otis to be wholly unsuited to the position of a Chief Justice, and determined not to appoint him. Thomas Hutchinson, the Lieutenant-Governor, an able and intelligent man, was appointed to the important office of Chief Justice. Governor Bernard had at once realized Hutchinson's qualities and said many years later, when they were both living in England, that he had never repented appointing Hutchinson Chief Justice.[157]

[157] Hutchinson's Diary & Letters. Vol. 1, p. 195.

Lynde, the senior judge, who did not care particularly to succeed Sewall, appears to have been satisfied with the appointment of Hutchinson, also Gridley, the leader of the Bar, and apparently all possible rivals, save Colonel Otis. Hutchinson discharged the duties of his new office in the most satisfactory manner. He proved himself to be efficient, and always kind, as evinced by his special attention to the claims of the helpless.

At this time, there were mutterings of a possible storm, and at this critical moment, in October of 1760, George II died. Just previous to his death Mr. Pitt, Secretary of State, sent a dispatch to the Governor touching on the trade of England and her American colonies. The organized system of smuggling that existed in the Colonies caused the Custom House officers to apply for the "writs of assistance," that were frequently employed in England.

So far the Governor's course had been hampered only by factious opposition from the chief offenders, but this opposition assumed formidable dimensions when the question of "writs of assistance" was brought forward. The rights of the Custom House officers to demand such help was tried before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. "The verdict was in their favor, but public opinion was strongly excited, and James Otis, the lawyer who opposed the Custom House officers, gained great popularity."[158] Notwithstanding Otis' eloquence, the case as already said was decided against his clients on the point of law. Governor Bernard was only performing his duty when he was active in promoting seizures for illicit trade.

[158] Doyle's History of America, Ch. XVIII.

In speaking of his early life in Boston, Julia Bernard, Governor Bernard's youngest daughter, mentions their home in Boston as "the Government House." She says that they employed both black and white servants, and speaks of the formalities that existed while the family lived there. "In Boston, none of the family, grown up brothers excepted, ever walked out in the town. We had a large garden, but it seemed rather a confinement." She also speaks of her father's home at Jamaica Pond. "This residence we usually moved to in May I think, and here we enjoyed ourselves extremely. We ran pretty much at liberty; there was no form or ceremony. My father was always on the wing on account of his situation. He had his own carriage and servants, my mother hers; there was a town coach, and a whiskey for the young men to drive about. I was used from a child to ride on horseback, and from childhood none of us had any fear of anything." Speaking of these days she says, they "all seemed great, enlightened, and enjoyable."

In describing her parents Julia Bernard says: "My father, though not tall, had something dignified and distinguished in his appearance and manner; he dressed superbly on all public occasions. My mother was tall, and a very fine woman. Her dresses were ornamented with gold and silver, ermine, and fine American sable."

The Province House was visited about the middle of the nineteenth century by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who has written interesting but melancholy pages on the subject.[159]

[159] For description of House, see "The Bernards of Abington and Nether Winchendon," by Mr. N. Higgins, Vol. I. p. 285.

The Province or Government House occupied by Sir Francis Bernard was situated nearly opposite the head of Milk street. It was purchased by the Colonial Legislature in 1716, of the widow of Peter Sargent, who built it. It was a magnificent building, no pains had been spared to make it not only elegant, but also spacious and convenient. It stood back some distance in its ample lot, and had the most pleasant and agreeable surroundings of any mansion in town. It was of brick, three stories in height, with a high roof and lofty cupola. The house was approached over a stone pavement and a high flight of massive stone steps, and through a magnificent doorway. Two stately oaks of very large size, reared their verdant tops on either side of the gate separating the grounds from the highway, and cast a grateful shade over the approach, through the beautiful grass lawn in front of the mansion.

After the evacuation of Boston the Province House and all other Government property was confiscated and became the property of the State. In 1811 the State gave the property to the Massachusetts General Hospital who leased it for ninety-nine years. Stores were erected in front of it. In 1864 it was destroyed by fire and only the walls are all that remain of the Old Province House. The engraving shown here was made from a sketch of it taken a short time before it was leased and altered. The Royal Arms, and the Indian vane are on exhibition in the Old State House.

Sir Francis Bernard's country mansion was situated on the southwest side of Jamaica Pond, fronting on Pond street, now a part of the Boston Park system. This was and still is a most lovely spot. The mansion house was surrounded with an estate of sixty acres. Here, but for the gathering clouds which darkened the political horizon, the remaining years of this scholarly and able representative of the government might have been passed in the enjoyment of all that seemed the most enjoyable in life--a delightful home, set in a lovely landscape, and the esteem and regard of the people he had governed. His extensive and beautiful grounds were filled with choice fruit trees, plants and shrubs including one hundred orange and lemon trees besides fig, cork, cinnamon and other rare exotics.

[Illustration: OLD PROVINCE HOUSE.]

After Bernard went to England, it was occupied by the second Sir William Pepperell, until he too was driven out by the disunionists. Then came the siege and the occupation of loyalist dwellings by the revolutionists, this being the quarters of Col. Miller of Rhode Island, in the summer of 1775. Afterwards it was used as a hospital for the camp at Roxbury. The soldiers who died were buried on elevated ground some distance back from the buildings. The governor's hot house was taken by Major Crane and converted into a magazine for the artillery. Confiscated by the State in 1779, it was bought by Martin Brimmer, a Boston merchant, who died here in 1804. Capt. John Prince purchased it in 1806, in 1809 took down the old house, a part of which had stood one hundred and forty-one years, and no doubt many a bumper of good wine had been drunk to the health of the seven sovereigns of Great Britain, who had reigned during that period.

Captain Prince made a road through the property from Pond to Perkins street, now known as Prince street; the whole estate was divided up into good sized building lots, on which many elegant residences have since been erected. In front of one of them are some fine large English elms probably planted by Gov. Bernard. One of them measures twenty-five feet in circumference.[160]

[160] The Town of Roxbury. Francis S. Drake.

Governor Bernard soon after his arrival in Massachusetts became much interested in Harvard College, and his interests extended far beyond the formalities required of him in his official capacity. "Having regard to the Governor's delight in Latin verse, it is not surprising that he should have endeavored to refine and soften the somewhat rugged type of student which Harvard then produced." He suggested that the college should follow the custom established in the English universities, of writing poetical tributes in commemoration of public events. Thirty-one poems were written. Of these nine were by the Governor himself in Greek and Latin, and the others owed their existence to the stimulus of prizes offered by him. It was a difficult undertaking for him to start this custom. A recent writer (Mr. Goddard) styles this volume, indeed, "the most ambitious typographical and literary work attempted on the continent previous to the Revolution, etc."

Governor Bernard's interest and exertion for the development of the material resources of his province should have won him lasting gratitude. He encouraged with all his power the manufacture of potash, the cultivation of hemp and flax on waste lands, and the carriage of lumber to British markets.

The Province prospered under Bernard during these years preceding the Stamp Act, and peace came through his ability and guidance. Mr. Hutchinson writes: "If at the expiration of that term he had quitted the government, he would have been spoken of as one of the best of the New England Governors." His son Thomas, also remarked upon his popularity during these five out of the nine years he presided as Governor of Massachusetts. The House of Representatives, conscious that Mr. Bernard had expended a considerable sum of his own money in improving the castle, and for other public benefits, passed a resolution that the island of Mount Desert, lying on the northeastward of Penobscot Bay, be granted to him and his heirs and assigns. The Council at once concurred in the grant. The confirmation of the Assembly's grant of Mount Desert was contained in a letter from the English Lords of Trade, dated May 21, 1763.

In July, 1763 [writes Thomas Bernard], orders were transmitted to the American Governors for carrying into strict execution the laws of trade, at the same time notifying the new authority which had been delegated to commanders of the King's ships stationed in America, to seize all vessels concerned in any prohibited commerce. These were followed by further orders for improvement of the revenue, and for suppression of all clandestine and illicit trade with foreign nations; with directions for the Governors to transmit such information as they had to communicate on the subject.[161]

[161] Life of Sir Francis Bernard.

Governor Bernard was compelled in the discharge of his official functions to enforce these commands, but he lost no time in remonstrating. His letter to the Earl of Egremont, Secretary of State, contains a plea for the indulgence granted, or tacitly allowed up to that time, with regard to wine and fruit, especially lemons, which he considered necessary to health in the climate of Massachusetts. This letter was followed by another addressed to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in which he entreats that the duties imposed by the Molasses Act may at least be reduced in the interest of England as well as of America, since it had been, and would be evaded, and its end to a large extent defeated. He continues: "this Act has been a perpetual stumbling block to the Custom House officers, and it will be most agreeable to them to have it in any way removed."[162]

[162] "The Bernards of Abington and Nether Winchendon," by Mr. Napier Higgins.

It was not until Bernard left America that the colonists knew of his protest to the government. A large number evidently were satisfied at his good will and perhaps suspected that he interceded in their favour, so their regard for him survived the trial of the new orders from England.

In the midst of this agitation, the smallpox broke out in the capital, and the Governor was compelled to move the General Assembly to Cambridge. Here in January, 1764, another misfortune occurred. Harvard Hall was burned to a heap of ruins, the only one of the ancient buildings which still remained. Of five thousand volumes, only a hundred were saved, and of John Harvard's books, but a single one.

The Governor at once appealed to the Assembly and obtained a vote for reconstruction. He set the example of contributing towards a new library by the gift of some of his own books; he also drew the architectural design for the new building and superintended its execution. Subscriptions were made both in England and America for the erection of the new hall.

In June 1763, a confederation of several Indian tribes had suddenly and unexpectedly swept over the whole western frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia, had murdered almost all the English settlers, and through unusual skill captured every British fort between the Ohio and Lake Erie, and had closely blockaded Fort Detroit and Pittsburg. After desperate fighting, the troops under Amherst succeeded in repelling the invaders and secured the three great fortresses of Niagara, Detroit and Pittsburg. The severe fighting appears to have been done by the English troops. Massachusetts seemed to be fatigued from the late war and could give no help when aid was asked. Connecticut finally sent 250 men. Peace was signed in September, 1764, the war having lasted fourteen months, months of extreme horror. The credit of the war belonged to the English soldiers, another great service rendered to the colonies by England.

England felt that the colonies should help share the great expense of the late wars. George Grenville as First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, signalized his period of administration by the Stamp Act. On the 10th of March the House of Commons on the motion of the Minister, passed a variety of resolutions respecting certain duties on foreign goods imported into the British colonies of America.

Grenville remarked in his honest way to the colonial agents in London, "I am not, however, set upon this tax. If the Americans dislike it, and prefer any other method, I shall be content. Write therefore, to your several colonies, and if they choose any other mode, I shall be satisfied, provided the money be but raised."[163]

[163] Samuel Adams (Hosmer) Ch. VI.

The British Government gave the colonies a year to deliberate, and the House of Representatives trusted Governor Bernard to plead for the colonists. When the members met again on January 10, 1765, the Governor honestly stated how much he had done. On January 14 began in the British Parliament the vehement and eloquent debates, ending in a majority of both Houses declaring in favour of the Stamp Act. The Ministry seems to have paid no attention to Governor Bernard's suggestion. His "Principles of Law and Polity" were ignored and also the Petition of the Assembly. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act received the Royal Assent, and England and her colonies were divided.

When the Colonists learned that the hated act had been passed, they became defiant. Riots soon took place in Boston, and Secretary Oliver, who was appointed by the British government as Stamp Distributor, was hung in effigy. This was during the summer of 1765 when the first cargo of stamps was daily expected. Then came the attack upon Mr. Oliver's house, and the complete destruction of Mr. Hutchinson's home.[164]

[164] For further information concerning the Stamp Act, see pp. 40, 41, 42.

During the warm months the Governor and his family were in the habit of residing at the castle. They were there when the stamps were expected and during the riotous times in Boston. The night that Hutchinson's home was destroyed seems to have made a deep impression on Julia Bernard, then in her sixth year. She afterwards wrote:

"While the family was resident at Castle William, my father came one night in his barge from Boston and brought Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, his sister, and two daughters, whom he had thus rescued from the fury of the mob. They had forced the house; the family fled for their lives; my father's barge was in waiting for him and he took them under his protection. The house was stripped of everything, and pulled down that night. They had nothing but what they had on. I can remember my mother getting them out clothes, and ordering beds to be prepared. Terror and distress sat upon their countenances."

Governor Bernard assured the people he had their interest at heart, but his road was a difficult one, and he was greatly worried over the performance of his duty. Because he represented the government, he was abused and insulted, and finally felt that he had no real authority, but was totally in the hands of the people. His son quotes his father's words: "Although I have never received any orders concerning the Stamp Act until this day, nor even a copy of the Act, I have thought it my duty to do all I could to get it carried into execution. And I must say in so doing I have exerted all possible spirit and perseverance.... I have made great sacrifices to his Majesty's service upon this occasion. My administration, which before was easy, respectable, and popular, is rendered troublesome, difficult, and dangerous, and yet there is no pretext to charge me with any other offence than endeavoring to carry the Stamp Act into execution; but that is here an high crime never to be forgiven." The struggle was carried on without intermission, but towards the end of April, Boston was delighted by the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act. "Letters published in England," writes Hutchinson, "Allowed that Governor Bernard's letters to the Ministry, and the petition from the Council and House in 1764, which had been drawn by the Lieutenant-Governor, forwarded the repeal. But they had no merit with the prevailing party, because they solicited the repeal as a matter of favour, and not as a claim of right."

Great rejoicings now took place in the city and for a while Governor Bernard's life became a little easier.

In August 1768, the King offered the Governor a Baronet's title, which he accepted. Rule and order was vanishing in Massachusetts. On September 28, 1768, two regiments from Halifax with artillery, arrived off Boston, and the vessels which brought them, cast anchor in Nantasket Roads, a few miles below Castle William. The troops were landed on Saturday, October 1, and on Saturday, October 15, General Gage arrived with his officers to look after the quartering of the troops himself, a difficult problem to solve in this divided community. Thus was the Governor placed, trying to fulfil his duty to England, and yet always with the best interest of the people at heart. Commodore Hood wrote to Mr. Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty on November 25, 1768, stating that "The General [Gage] and Governor Bernard have been lately burnt in effigy, in a most public manner."

All through the next winter a fierce controversy raged in the newspapers regarding England and her colonies. Samuel Adams was the most prolific and forcible writer, and his contributions went also to newspapers at a distance. In the spring of this year the Governor became "Sir Francis Bernard of Nettleham, in the county of Lincoln, Baronet." The patent bears the date April 5, 1769. The King had ordered the expense of the patent to be paid out of his privy purse, and this according to the Governor's son, was a compliment seldom offered.

The grant of the baronetcy was accompanied by an order summoning Sir Francis Bernard to proceed to England and there report on the state of his province. Ere long the Governor and the whole body of loyalists were struck with consternation by the intelligence that General Gage had ordered the removal of the troops from Boston. They considered this extremely dangerous.

On the 4th of January, 1770, a town meeting was held by which every one was declared an enemy who had in any way assisted in obtaining or retaining troops. Sir Francis Bernard was making preparations for his departure, and this of course, was intended as a parting shot. He yielded to the advice of friends to attend the Harvard Commencement as usual and Mr. Hutchinson says that, "When he had gone through it without any insult worth notice from the rude people, who always raise more or less tumult on that day, he thanked his friends for their advice." It is satisfactory to think that his last public appearance in Massachusetts was at Harvard, the institution he had always felt such a deep interest in.

A few days before the Governor departed, he received a circular from the Earl of Hillsborough announcing the intended repeal of the duties on glass, paper and paint, and one of his last acts of administration consisted in making this intention known, and the assurance of the good will of the British Government for the American colonies. Governor Bernard then bequeathed the administration to Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and made his last farewells.

"He embarked on board the Rippon, a man-of-war ordered from Virginia to convey him, and sailed for England. Instead of the marks of respect commonly shown, in a greater or less degree, to governors upon their leaving the province, there were many marks of public joy in the town of Boston. The bells were rung, guns were fired from Mr. Hancock's wharf, Liberty Tree was covered with flags, and in the evening a great bonfire was made upon Fort Hill."[165] The Governor sailed on August 1, 1769, a sad ending to nine years of laborious and anxious administration. Perhaps there were some staunch friends with him to the last in whose sympathy he found consolation for sights and sounds which must have jarred upon his feelings, and were of set purpose arranged to aggravate his sorrow in parting, for an indefinite time, from his nearest and dearest. Hosmer, the biographer and eulogist of Samuel Adams, speaks of Francis Bernard as "an honourable and well-meaning man, and by no means wanting in ability."

[165] Hutchinson Hist. Mass., Vol. III., p. 253.

Thomas Bernard, who accompanied his father, states that he was graciously received in England and by George III. A petition arrived from the colonies asking for a new governor, it concludes:

"Wherefore we most humbly entreat your Majesty that his Excellency Sir Francis Bernard, Baronet, may be forever removed from the government of this province, and that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to place one in his stead worthy to serve the greatest and best Monarch on earth."

The Governor's resignation soon followed. His life was filled with much anxiety for the financial welfare of his family as during his eleven years of residence in America, his private fortune had not been increased. He received a pension, but many troubles arose which greatly taxed his physical and mental strength. Mrs. Bernard and the remaining members of her family, moved from their country home at Jamaica Pond, which was afterwards occupied by Sir William Pepperell, to a new residence called the Cherry House, which the Governor caused to be built on a lot of land containing about 30 acres on the "Road leading to Castle William" at Dorchester Neck, now South Boston. The Governor probably selected this location on which to build his house on account of its nearness to Castle Island, to which he and his family could take refuge in case of mob violence.[166] John Bernard's name continued for some time to head the list of proscribed traders and his position, entailing loss, insult, and even danger, must have been a constant source of apprehension to his relatives. After learning that her husband had definitely resigned, Lady Bernard prepared to join him in England. Many of their household possessions were sold at the Province house on September 11. Just before the vessel sailed, young Francis Bernard died November 20, 1770, at the age of twenty-seven, and is probably buried beside his brother Shute in the burial ground of the King's Chapel at Boston. Mrs. Bernard was accompanied by four of her children, Amelia, William, Scrope and Julia.

[166] One lot of 261/2 acres was purchased of John Baker et al. in 1762. Lib. 98, Fol. 113. Another lot adjoining same, of 3 acres of James Baker in 1764. Lib. 102, Fol. 39. During a raid made by the "Ministerial Troops" from the Castle on Feb. 13th, 1776, nearly all the houses on the Neck were burnt; among them was "An House and Stable and Barn belonging to Francis Bernard burnt; valued at L100.00," also damage done "by our Soldiers," L40.00. (See New Eng. Gen. Reg. Jan. 1897.) This tract of land extended from Fourth street (Way leading to Castle William) to Dorchester Bay, M street running through the center of it. The writer's father in 1858 purchased a portion of this land, and it was here he spent his boyhood days. After the war another house was erected on the site of the one burnt; its location was on Fourth street between M and N streets. The writer remembers that a boyhood companion that lived there picked up in the garden an English guinea.

Sir Francis took a house in the vicinity of Hampstead and for a while the family was united, the children from America joining those in England. The two youngest had never seen their eldest sisters, Jane and Frances, who had remained in the mother country. A short time later, Sir Francis suffered from a paralytic stroke and his recovery was partial and imperfect. Realizing this, he applied for leave to resign his appointment to Ireland, having been appointed to the Irish Board of Commissioners. This was granted him in 1774, and his former pension restored to him. The vigor of his mental faculties is evinced by the fact that on July 2, 1772, he went to Oxford and received the degree of D. C. L. and from Christ Church the honour of having his picture by Copley among other illustrious students in the Hall of that society.

After a stay at Nether Winchendon, the family removed to the Prebendal House at Aylesbury, and now for a short period enjoyed comparative peace. The colonies were in open revolt. Soon after Governor Hutchinson's arrival in England, he resumed his habits of friendly intercourse with Sir Francis Bernard and his family. Thomas Bernard studied for the Bar, and William and Scrope were sent to Harrow. Jane, the eldest daughter, married Charles White, a barrister, in 1774. Fanny, the third daughter, became greatly attached to her newly found sister Julia, and proved herself very capable with her pen. Scrope later entered Christ Church at Oxford and William embarked for Canada. John left England for America probably in 1775. William, who was a Lieutenant in the army, was drowned before reaching Canada. He was on board a provision ship bound for Quebec which took fire, and he, with some others, took to a boat which overset and they all were drowned. This cast a gloom over the family, from which the father and mother never fully recovered.

A London visit of Sir Francis and Lady Bernard in March, 1777, is mentioned by Governor Hutchinson.

"8th.--Sir Francis and Lady came to town last evening, and dined with us to-day, with Paxton, Dr. Caner, Chandler, and Boucher."

Later came Lady Bernard's death and Hutchinson in his "Dairy," 1778, says:

"2nd.--Lady Bernard died last week, the 20th. [May], at Aylesbury. Paxton was there on a visit. She had been in poor health several months, but took an airing the day before the night in which she died, or rather towards morning."

This remarkable woman was married to Sir Francis Bernard thirty-seven years and had shared every vicissitude of his career. She had felt the cares of his agitated public life in America and had seen him gradually broken down by much trouble, not the least of which was the final blow received in England at the hands of supposed friends.

Thomas, who was now eight and twenty, relieved his father from business cares, and became a worthy head to the family. News reached England of the act of banishment. John Bernard had reached America before the Declaration of Independence and lived in a remote part of Maine, but his name does not appear among the proscribed. News of the Confiscation Act did not reach Sir Francis before his death, and Thomas says that his last days were free from anxiety on that ground. He died believing in the honesty of America.

The engagement of Julia Bernard about this time to the Rev. Joseph Smith, brought a gleam of happiness into the family.

On June 21, Hutchinson writes:

"A gentleman, who knew me and asked how I had been since he last saw me, informed me Saturday morning, as I was taking my morning walk, that he went to Aylesbury a day or two before, and that Sir Francis Bernard died Wednesday night, the 16, [1779], which has since been confirmed."

He suffered from several complaints, and an epileptic fit more violent than any he had had before, hastened the end. He died surrounded by his children, within a month of completing his sixty-seventh year, and was buried by the side of Lady Bernard in a vault under Aylesbury church. Sir Francis Bernard's memory was held in high honor by his children, and by none more tenderly than Thomas, his father's companion and confidant. After his father's death, Thomas wrote:

"May his children contemplate with pleasure and confidence, the talents and probity of their father, and, soothed with the memory of his virtues, forget the return which those virtues have received! And may they, by retracing the events of his life, strengthen and fortify their minds, that if ever they should be called to such a trial as he underwent, they may imitate him in the conscientious and honourable discharge of their duty, and in integrity of life."[167]

[167] Life of Sir Francis Bernard, by One of his Sons.

SIR JOHN BERNARD, on the death of his father, succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1779. When, in 1769, Sir Francis was recalled from the government, he possessed a large landed estate in Maine of which the large island of Mount Desert, which was given him by the Colony, and afterwards confirmed by the Crown, was a part. He also owned Moose Island, now Eastport, and some territory on the mainland. John, at the time of his departure, had an agency for the sale and settlement of these and other lands, and until the war commenced, was in comfortable circumstances. In order to hold his property and prevent its confiscation, he remained in the country, and therefore it could not be claimed that he was an absentee, or a refugee, and as he did not take any part in the controversy, it could not be claimed that he was an enemy to the new government. His place of residence during the war appears to have been at Bath, Machias, and at Pleasant Point, a few miles from Eastport. An unbroken wilderness was around him. The only inhabitants at the head of the tidewater of the St. Croix were a few hunters and Indians. He lived in a small hut built by himself, with no companions but a dog. Robbinston and Perry were uninhabited, Eastport contained but a single family, yet at the spot now occupied by the remnant of the Passamaquoddy Indians, he attempted to make a farm. He had been bred in ease and refinement, had hardly done a day's laborious work in his life, yet he believed he could earn a competence by labor. He told those who saw him that "other young men went into the woods, and made themselves farms, and got a good living, and he saw no reason why he could not." But he cut down a few trees, became discouraged, and after the confiscation of the property of Sir Francis in 1778, he was in abject poverty, and the misfortune of himself and family seemed to have unsettled his mind. After the peace, he lived at Pleasant Point, and occasionally went to Boston. His abject condition in mind and estate rendered him an object of deep commiseration, and his conduct during hostilities having entitled him to consideration, the Legislature of Massachusetts restored to him one half of his father's estate, which included one half of the island of Mount Desert, and an estate in Boston consisting of wharves, land, and flats, which he sold for L600 to Wm. Allen. Of his subsequent history while he continued in the United States, but little is known. Later in life he held offices under the British Crown at Barbadoes and St. Vincent. He died in the West Indies in 1809 in his sixty-fifth year, without issue, and was succeeded by his brother Thomas.

SIR THOMAS BERNARD, the third surviving son of Sir Francis, succeeded his brother John to the Baronetcy. He took his degree from Harvard College in 1767. After he took up his residence in England, much of his time was devoted to institutions of benevolence in London, and he wrote several essays with a design to mitigate the sorrows, and improve the condition of the humbler classes of English society. The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He married a lady of fortune who died in 1813 while preparing to go to church.

Sir Thomas' account of his father's life makes him stand out perhaps the most prominent of Sir Francis' children. His death occurred in England in 1818. The Baronetcy of Sir Francis Bernard now stands in the name of Morland.

The following is a list of Sir Francis Bernard's confiscated property in Suffolk County situated in what is now South Boston, and Jamaica Plain, together with the name of the purchasers. He had also much property in Maine, including one half of Mount Desert island, that was confiscated.

CONFISCATED PROPERTY OF SIR FRANCIS BERNARD SITUATED IN SUFFOLK COUNTY.

To Martin Brimmer, Aug. 18, 1779; Lib. 130 fol. 178; Farm, 50 A., mansion house and barn in Roxbury, highway to Benj. Child S.E.; Jamaica Pond N.E.; Joseph Winchester N.W.;, Samuel Griffin and school lands S.W.; the hill N.; Samuel Griffin W.; S W; W. and S.W.--Wood lot in Roxbury, 12 A. 3 qr. 36 r., Sharp and Williams S; land of heirs of William Douglas deceased W.; land of heirs of Edward Bromfield deceased N. land of heirs of Elizabeth Brewer deceased E.----Wood lot in Roxbury, 2A. 1 qr 17 r, highway W.: Capt. Baker S.; John Harris E.; Mr. Walter N.----Salt marsh in Roxbury, 3 A. 1 qr., John Williams S., creek N.W.; Robert Pierpoint N; creek to Dorchester E.

To William Allen, Jan. 2, 1781; Lib. 132 fol. 76; Land in Dorchester, 25 A. 3 r., road to Point of Dorchester Neck N.; land of town of Dorchester and Richard Withington deceased E; said Withington, James Baker, Samuel Blake deceased and James Blake S.; Jonathan [Clap] W.----Salt marsh in Dorchester. 2 A. 3 qr., Sir Francis Bernard N.; salt marsh of Richard Withington deceased E.; James Blake W; the sea S.

SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL.

BARONET OF KITTERY, MAINE.

William Pepperell was a native of Tavistock near Plymouth in Devon, who at the age of twenty-two, about the year 1676, emigrated to the Isle of Shoals, and became a fisherman. He acquired property and removed to Kittery on the mainland, where he died in 1734, leaving an only son of his own name, who continued the business of fishing, amassed great wealth, and arrived at great honors. It is interesting and instructive to trace the rising steps of the Pepperell family, from a destitute young fisherman to the princely affluence and exalted station, civil, political, and military, to which his son arrived. It throws light upon the early history of the infant colonies, the character of the early settlers, the nature of their occupations, their commerce, the condition, and relative importance of places of trade, and the influence of the times, and events, in forming the character and shaping the fortunes of the illustrious subject of this memoir. The name once so celebrated, has in America long since become extinct, and but for its record in the page of history, would ere this have passed into oblivion. To account for this curious fact, it will be necessary to give a more extended notice of the history of the family than would otherwise seem necessary.

While a fisherman at the Isle of Shoals, Pepperell had frequent occasion to sail to Kittery Point for the purpose of traffic, and for the purchase and repair of boats. A shipwright there named John Bray welcomed him to his home, and supplied his wants. He had a daughter Margery, who had arrived at the age of seventeen when she first saw Mr. Pepperell, who was smitten with her youthful charms. At the time of this marriage Mr. Pepperell removed from the Shoals to Kittery Point, where Mr. Bray gave him the site of the present Pepperell mansion. The south part of this structure was built by him and the north part by his son Sir William, who was born here in 1696, and here dwelt the two families till the decease of the father in 1734, which left the son's family sole occupants till 1759. The home has since been curtailed in its dimensions by the removal of ten feet from each end of the building. It was during this period of little more than half a century that the largest fortune, then known in New England, was gradually accumulated. The principal business of the Pepperells was done in the fisheries. They sometimes had more than one hundred small vessels at a time on the Grand Banks. Ship-building was also a very extensive branch of industry on the Pascataqua, and its tributary streams. The Pepperells built many vessels and sent them to the West India islands, laden with lumber, fish, oil, and live stock, to exchange for cargoes of rum, sugar, and molasses, for home consumption; others to European markets to exchange for dry goods, wine, and salt, and to sell both vessel and cargo. To the Southern colonies fish was sent in exchange for corn, tobacco, and naval stores. Mills were erected by them on the small rivers, and lumber and ship-timber, were floated down to Kittery Point, and Newcastle, to be shipped to European and American ports.

Sir William was his only son. About 1727 he was elected a member of the Council of Massachusetts, and held a seat in that body by annual election for thirty-two years, until his death. He was also selected to command a regiment of militia, and being fond of society, rich, and prosperous, was highly popular, and possessed much influence. With a vigorous frame, firm mind, and great coolness, when in danger, he was well fitted for his residence in a country exposed to ferocious enemies.

The Treaty of Utrecht which secured Nova Scotia to the British Crown, gave France undisputed right to Cape Breton. Here they built the city of Louisburg at enormous cost, and protected it with fortresses of great strength. The walls of the defences were formed with bricks brought from France, and they mounted two hundred and six pieces of cannon. The city had nunneries, and Palaces, gardens, and squares, and places of amusement, and was designed to become a great capital, and to perpetuate French dominion, and the Catholic faith in America. Twenty-five years of time and six million dollars in money were spent in building, arming, and adorning this city, "The Dunkirk of the New World." That such a plan existed, at so early a period of our history, is a marvel, and the lovers of the wonderful may read the works of Parkman which contain accounts of its rise, and ruin, and be satisfied that "truth is sometimes stranger than fiction."

The possession of this stronghold by the French was a source of continual annoyance to the New England fishermen, and at last became intolerable. Situated as it was directly off the fishing grounds, it meant destruction to the fishing interest every time there was a war with France. At last its capture was seriously conceived and undertaken. Governor Shirley, in 1744, listening to the propositions made to him on the subject, submitted them to the Legislature of Massachusetts, and that body in secret session, the first ever held in America, authorized a force to be raised, equipped, and sent against it, and the command was conferred upon Colonel William Pepperell. His troops consisted of a motley assemblage of fishermen, and farmers, sawyers, and loggers, many of whom were taken from his own vessels, mills, and forests. Before such men, and others hardly better skilled in war, in the year 1745, Louisburg fell. The achievement is the most memorable in the Colonial annals. For this great service Colonel Pepperell was created a Baronet in 1746. After the fall of Louisburg, he went to England and was presented at Court. In 1759 he was appointed Lieutenant-General. He died the same year at his seat at Kittery, aged sixty-three years, and was buried in the large and beautiful tomb erected in 1734 which was placed near the mansion home. His children were two, Andrew, a son who graduated at Harvard University in 1743, and died March 1, 1751, aged twenty-five, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Colonel Nathaniel Sparhawk. Lady Pepperell, who was Mary Hirst, daughter of Grove Hirst of Boston, and granddaughter of Judge Sewall of Massachusetts, survived until 1789. Mrs. Sparhawk bore her husband five children, namely Nathaniel, William Pepperell, Samuel Hirst, Andrew Pepperell, and Mary Pepperell. Sir William, her father, soon after the decease of her brother, executed a will, by which after providing for Lady Pepperell, he bequeathed the bulk of his remaining property to herself, and her children. Her second son was made the residuary legatee, and inherited a large estate. By the terms of his grandfather's will he was required to procure an Act of the Legislature to drop the name of Sparhawk, and assume that of Pepperell. This he did on coming of age, and was allowed by a subsequent Act, to take the title of Sir William Pepperell, Baronet. He received the honors of Harvard University in 1766, subsequently he visited England, and became a member of the Council of Massachusetts. In 1774 when that body was recognized under the Act of Parliament, he was continued, under the mandamus of the King, and thereby incurred the wrath of the disunionists, who at a county congress, held at Wells, York County, Maine, on the 16th of Nov. 1774, declared a boycott against him, and denounced him in the following manner: "The said William Pepperell, Esq., hath, with purpose to carry into force, Acts of the British Parliament, made with apparent design to enslave the free and loyal people of this country, accepted, and now holds, a seat in the pretended Board of Councillors in this Province, as well as in direct repeal of the charter thereof, as against the solemn compact of kings, and the inherent right of the people. It is therefore Resolved, that said William Pepperell, Esq. hath thereby justly forfeited the confidence, and friendship of all true friends to American liberty, and with other pretended councillors, now holding their seats in like manner, ought to be detested by all good men, and it is hereby recommended to the good people of this country, that as soon as the present leases made to any of them by said Pepperell, are expired, they immediately withdraw all connection, commerce, and dealings, from him, and they take no further lease, or conveyance of his, farms, mills, or appurtenances thereunto belonging (where the said Pepperell is the sole receiver and appropriator of the rents and profits), until he shall resign his seat, pretendedly occupied by mandamus. And if any persons shall remain, or become his tenants, after the expiration of their present leases, we recommend to the good people of this country, not only to withdraw all connections, and commercial intercourse with them, but to treat them in the manner provided by the third resolve of this Congress."

The Baronet not long after this denouncement retired to Boston. His winter residence was on Summer street, near Trinity church, and his country residence was an estate on the southerly side of Jamaica Pond containing sixty acres, which he leased from Sir Francis Bernard. In 1775 he arrived in England under circumstances of deep affliction. Lady Pepperell, who was Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Isaac Royall, of Medford, having died on the passage. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and the year following was included in the Conspiracy Act. In May, 1779, the Committee on confiscated estates offered for sale "his large and elegant house, gardens, and other accommodations, &c., pleasantly situated on Summer street, Boston, a little below Trinity church." His vast domain in Maine, the largest owned by any individual in New England, though entailed upon his heirs, was confiscated. This estate extended from Kittery to Saco, with a coast line of upwards of thirty miles, and extending back many miles into the interior, and, for the purposes of farming and lumbering, was of great value, and the water power and mill privileges, rendered it even at the time of the sequestration, a princely fortune. His possessions were large in Scarboro, Elliot, Berwick, Newington, Portsmouth, Hampton and Hubbardston. In Saco alone he owned 5,500 acres, including the site of that populous town and its factories. A large portion of this property was purchased by Thomas Cutts who had served as a clerk in Sir William's counting room. He was

## active during the revolution, was a noted merchant, president of a bank,

colonel of a regiment, senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, and one of the founders of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He died in 1821.

All of Sir William's brothers were loyalists and were forced to leave the country, and their vast domains passed into other hands. A life interest or dower right in the Saco lands was enjoyed by Lady Mary Pepperell, the widow of the first Sir William and her daughter, Mrs. Sparhawk, which was devised to them by the Baronet's will. In exchange for the right thus arising, the State afterwards assigned two-ninths in absolute property to Lady Pepperell and her daughter, by a deed executed in 1788. This small portion of this great estate was saved through these ladies residing in the country during the war, the "sons of despotism" could hardly tar and feather two defenceless women, or drive them forth as they did their sons and brothers, and make absentees or refugees of them.

Thus the princely fortune of Pepperell, that required a century to construct, from the foundation laid by John Bray the shipwright to the massive structure raised by the fisherman William Pepperell and completed by his son Sir William, fastened and secured though it was, by every instrument that his own skill and the best legal counsel could devise to give stability and perpetuity, was in a brief hour overthrown, and demolished by the confiscation act of 1778. So complete was the wreck that two of his daughter's grandsons, were saved from the almshouse by the bounty of some persons on whom they had no claim for favor.

Never before in the history of this country has there been a more conspicuous fall of a family from a high estate. There has always been a doubt as to the legality of the Confiscation Act, as far as the remainder or reversionary interest, of the first Sir William was concerned, since it is apparently clear that the life-interest of the second Sir William could only be, or by the statute actually was, diverted and passed to the State.[168]

[168] This question was decided in the case of Roger Morris of New York who married Mary, daughter of Frederick Phillips, who it is said had previously refused George Washington, the estate which belongs in right to his wife was confiscated, and that the whole interest should pass under the Act Mrs. Morris was included in the attainder. Humanity is shocked that a woman was attainted of treason, for no crime but that of clinging to the fortunes of the husband whom she had vowed on the altar never to desert. However, in the year 1809, their son, Captain Henry Gage Morris of the Royal Navy, in behalf of himself and his two sisters, sold their reversionary interest to John Jacob Astor of New York for the sum of L20,000 sterling. In 1828 Mr. Astor made a compromise with the State of New York by which he received for the rights thus purchased by him, the large sum of five hundred thousand dollars, having obtained a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States affirming the validity and perfectibility of his title.

After the death of the first Sir William, his widow, Lady Pepperell, caused a neat house to be erected near that of her daughter, and the village church which still remain. Here she died in 1789 after being a widow thirty years.

This house came into the possession of Captain Joseph Cutts. He was a large ship owner and a successful merchant. Ruined by Mr. Jefferson's embargo, and the war of 1812, he lost his reason, and his two sons also went insane. One fell by his own hand in Lady Pepperell's bedchamber, the other was so violent at times that it was necessary to chain him. Under these misfortunes the daughter Sally's reason gave way. The town allowed a small sum for the board of her father, and her brother. Her home even was sold to satisfy a Government claim for duties owed by her father. It would seem that the doom of the Pepperells was transmitted to all who should inhabit this house. Surely a blight seemed to have fallen upon it which consumed the lives and fortunes of a family until its evil destiny was fully accomplished.

The old mansion built by the first Colonel Pepperell, and enlarged by his son, is plain in its architecture, and contained a great many rooms before it was curtailed ten feet from each end. It was well adapted to the extensive domains and hospitalities of its former owners. The lawn in front extends to the sea, and the restless waves over which Sir William successively sought fortune and fame, still glitter in the sunbeams, and dash around the disconsolate abode. The fires of hospitality are extinguished. It is now occupied by the families of poor fishermen who do not like to be troubled with visitors or strangers. The hall is spacious and well finished; the ceiling is ornamented, and the richly carved bannisters bear traces of former elegance. The large hall was formerly lined with some fifty portraits of the Pepperell and Sparhawk families and of the companions in arms of Sir William, such as Admiral Sir Peter Warren Commodore Spry and others. We have now no sympathy with the joyous acclamations once bestowed on these successful victors returning from the field of glory to be crowned with laurels. The American people feel no desire to perpetuate the fame of their achievements, although characterized at the time by patriotism as pure, and disinterested as any exhibited since this government was formed. Patriotism in those days implied loyalty and fidelity to the king of England, but how changed the meaning of that word in New England after the Declaration of Independence? Words and deeds before deemed patriotic, were now traitorous, and so deeply was the idea of their moral turpitude impressed on the public mind, as to have tainted popular opinion concerning the heroic deeds of our ancestors performed in the king's service, in the French wars, but criticism of this is apt to produce what Coleridge declared the cold waters of reason thrown on the burning embers of democracy inevitably produced--namely a hiss. The Revolution absorbed and neutralized all the heroic fame of the illustrious men that preceded it. The extinction of their fame was not more remarkable than the wreck of their fortunes. The Penns, Fairfaxes, Johnsons, Phillips, Robinsons and Pepperells were stripped of their immense possession, by confiscation, who up to that time had been but little less than hereditary noblemen and viceroys of boundless domains.

[Illustration: THE PEPPERELL MANSION.]

During the Revolution the Baronet was treated with great respect and deference by his fellow exiles in England. His home in London was open for their reception, and in most cases in which the Loyalists from New England united in representations to the ministry or to the throne, he was their chairman or deputed organ of communication. He was allowed L500 sterling per annum by the British Government, and this stipend, with the wreck of his fortune, consisting of personal effects, rendered his situation comfortable, and enabled him to relieve the distress of the less fortunate. And it is to be recorded in respect for his memory, that his pecuniary benefactions were not confined to his countrymen who were in banishment, for their loyalty, but were extended to his countrymen who were disloyal, who languished in England in captivity sharing with them the pension which he received from the government, after their government had despoiled him of all his great possessions. It is to be remembered, too, that his private life was irreproachable, and that he was among the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In 1779 the Loyalists then in London formed an Association, and Sir William was appointed President. The first meeting was held at Spring Garden Coffee House, May 29th, 1779, and the next at the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand on the 26th. About ninety persons met at this place composed of Loyalists from each Colony. A Committee appointed at this meeting, on July 6th, reported an Address to the King. In this document it is said, that, "notwithstanding your Majesty's arms have not been attended with all the effect which those exertions promised, and from which occasion has been taken to raise an indiscriminate charge of disaffection in the Colonists, we beg leave, some of us from our own knowledge, and others from the best information, to assure your Majesty that the greater number of your subjects in the Confederated Colonies, notwithstanding every art to seduce, every device to intimidate, and a variety of oppressions to compel them to abjure their sovereign, entertain the firmest attachment and allegiance to your Majesty's sacred person and government. In support of those truths, we need not appeal to the evidence of our own sufferings; it is notorious that we have sacrificed all which the most loyal subjects could forego, or the happiest could possess. But, with confidence, we appeal to the struggles made against the usurpations of Congress, by Counter Resolves in very large districts of country, and to the many unsuccessful attempts by bodies of the loyal in arms, which have subjected them to all the rigors of inflamed resentment; we appeal to the sufferings of multitudes, who for their loyalty have been subjected to insults, fines, and imprisonments, patiently enduring all in the expectation of that period which shall restore to them the blessings of your Majesty's Government; we appeal to the thousands now serving in your Majesty's armies, and in private ships-of-war, the former exceeding in number the troops enlisted to oppose them; finally, we make a melancholy appeal to the many families who have been banished from their once peaceful habitations; to the public forfeiture of a long list of estates; and to the numerous executions of our fellow-citizens, who have sealed their loyalty with their blood. If any Colony or District, when covered or possessed by your Majesty's troops had been called upon to take arms, and had refused; or, if any attempts had been made to form the Loyalist militia, or otherwise, and it had been declined, we should not on this occasion have presumed thus to address your Majesty; but if, on the contrary, no general measure to the above effect was attempted, if petitions from bodies of your Majesty's subjects, who wished to rise in aid of Government, have been neglected, and the representations of the most respectable Loyalists disregarded, we assure ourselves that the equity and wisdom of your Majesty's mind will not admit of any impressions injurious to the honor and loyalty of your faithful subjects in those Colonies."

Sir William Pepperell, Messrs. Fitch, Leonard, Rome, Stevens, Patterson, Galloway, Lloyd, Dulaney, Chalmers, Randolph, Macknight, Ingram, and Doctor Chandler, composing a committee of thirteen, were appointed to present this Address. At the same meeting it was resolved, "That it be recommended to the General Meeting to appoint a Committee, with directions to manage all such public matters as shall appear for the honor and interest of the Loyal in the Colonies, or who have taken refuge from America in this country, with power to call General Meetings, to whom they shall from time to time report." Of this Committee, Sir Egerton Leigh, of South Carolina, was Chairman. This body was soon organized. On the 26th of July, Mr. Galloway, of Pennsylvania, who was a member of it, reported rules for its government, which, after being read and debated, were adopted. The proceedings of this Committee do not appear to have been very important; indeed, to meet and sympathize with one another, was probably their chief employment. On the 2d of August, it was, however, "Resolved, That each member of the Committee be desired to prepare a brief account of such documents, facts, and informations, as he hath in his power, or can obtain, relating to the rise, progress, and present state of the rebellion in America, and the causes which have prevented its being suppressed, with short narratives of their own, stating their facts, with their remarks thereon, or such observations as may occur to them; each gentleman attending more particularly to the Colony to which he belongs, and referring to his document for the support of each fact." This resolution was followed by another, having for its design to unite with them the Loyalists who remained in America, in these terms: "Resolved, That circular letters be transmitted from the Committee to the principal gentleman from the different Colonies at New York, informing them of the proceedings of the General Meeting, the appointment and purposes of this Standing Committee, and requesting their co-operation and correspondence."

August 11, 1779, at a meeting of the Committee, report was made that General Robertson had been "so obliging as to undertake the trouble of communicating to our brethren in New York our wishes to have an institution established there on similar principles to our own, for the purpose of corresponding with us on matters relative to the public interests of British America." Whereupon it was resolved, that, in place of the circular letter resolved upon on the 2d, "a letter to General Robertson, explanatory of our designs and wishes, and entreating his good offices to the furtherance of an establishment of a Committee at New York, be drawn up and transmitted." At the same meeting, (August 11th,) Sir William Pepperell stated that Lord George Germain had been apprised of the proceedings of the "Loyalists for considering of American affairs in so far as their interests were concerned, and that his Lordship had been pleased to declare his entire approbation of their institution."

The framing of the letter to General Robertson, above mentioned, seems to have been, now, the only affair of moment, which, by the record, occupied the attention of the Association. It may be remarked, however, that agreeably to the recommendation above stated, a Board of Loyalists was organized at New York, composed of delegates from each Colony. Another body, of which the Baronet was President, was the Board of Agents constituted after the peace, to prosecute the claims of Loyalists to compensation for their losses by the war, and under the Confiscation Acts of the several States. Sir James Wright, of Georgia, was first elected, but at his decease, Sir William was selected as his successor, and continued in office until the Commissioners made their final report, and the commission was dissolved. Sir William's own claim was of difficult adjustment, and occupied the attention of the Commissioners several day. In 1788, and after Mr. Pitt's plan had received the sanction of Parliament, the Board of Agents presented an Address of thanks to the King for the liberal provision made for themselves and the persons whom they represented, which was presented to his Majesty by the Baronet. On this occasion, he and the other Agents were admitted to the presence, and "all had the honor to kiss his Majesty's hand." As this Address contains no matter of historical interest, it is not here inserted. But some mention may be made of West's picture, the "Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in 1783," of which an engraving is here shown. The Baronet is the prominent personage represented, and appears in a voluminous wig, a flowing gown, in advance of the other figures, with one hand extended and nearly touching the crown, which lies on a velvet cushion on a table, and holding in the other hand, at his side, a scroll or manuscript half unrolled.

The full description of this picture is as follows: "Religion and Justice are represented extending the mantle of Britannia, whilst she herself is holding out her arm and shield to receive the Loyalists. Under the shield is the Crown of Great Britain, surrounded by Loyalists. This group of figures consists of various characters, representing the Law, the Church, and the Government, with other inhabitants of North America; and as a marked characteristic of that quarter of the globe, an Indian Chief extending one hand to Britannia, and pointing the other to a Widow and Orphans, rendered so by the civil war; also, a Negro and Children looking up to Britannia in grateful remembrance of their emancipation from Slavery. In a Cloud, on which Religion and Justice rest, are seen in an opening glory the Genii of Great Britain and of America, binding up the broken fasces of the two countries, as emblematical of the treaty of peace and friendship between them. At the head of the group of Loyalists are likenesses of Sir William Pepperell, Baronet, one of the Chairmen of their Agents to the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; and William Franklin, Esq., son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who, having his Majesty's commission of Governor of New Jersey, preserved his fidelity and loyalty to his Sovereign from the commencement to the conclusion of the contest, notwithstanding powerful incitements to the contrary. He was arrested by order of Congress and confined for two years, when he was finally exchanged. The two figures on the right hand are the painter, Mr. West, the President of the Royal Academy, and his lady, both natives of Pennsylvania."

[Illustration: RECEPTION OF THE AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN ENGLAND.]

Sir William continued in England during the remainder of his life. He died in Portman Square, London, in December, 1816, aged seventy. William, his only son, deceased in 1809. The baronetcy was inherited by no other member of the family, and became extinct. His daughters were Elizabeth, who married the Rev. Henry Hutton, of London; Mary, the wife of Sir William Congreve; and Harriet, the wife of Sir Charles Thomas Palmer, Baronet.

[Illustration: ARREST OF WILLIAM FRANKLIN BY ORDER OF CONGRESS.

THE LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY, SON OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN]

NATHANIEL SPARHAWK, brother of the second Sir William Pepperell, was born August, 1744. Graduated at Harvard University in 1765. He was an Addresser to Gov. Gage and went to England where he remained till 1809, when he returned, and died in Kittery, 1814. His two sons never married, and were by the kindness of their neighbors saved from the almshouse, on account of their noble ancestor, being great grandsons of the elder Sir William Pepperell.

SAMUEL HIRST SPARHAWK, also brother to Sir William Pepperell, graduated at Harvard University in 1771, an Addresser to both Hutchinson and Gage. Subsequently he went to England with his family of four persons. He died at Kittery, August 29, 1789, aged thirty-eight. He left an only daughter, Miss Harriet Hirst Sparhawk, who at his request was adopted by his sister in Boston, wife of Dr. Jarvis, with whom she lived till the death of that lady in 1815. She afterwards lived at Portsmouth, and expended one hundred dollars in repairing the old Pepperell tomb. She was the last Sparhawk living of Pepperell blood, in America.

ANDREW SPARHAWK, the fourth son of Colonel Sparhawk, married a Miss Turner. Was a Loyalist and went to England with his brothers, where his wife died soon after their arrival, and he died there in 1783, leaving no children.

MARY PEPPERELL SPARHAWK, married Dr. Charles Jarvis of Boston, and after his death, she passed the remainder of her days at Kittery Point near the village church, and nearly opposite the residence of her grandmother, Lady Pepperell's dwelling, built after the Baronet's death. She died in 1815.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Thomas Russell, Jan. 2., 1783; Lib. 136, fol. 203; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Summer St. S.; Benjamin Goldthwait E.; heirs of Benjamin Cunningham deceased N.; Samuel Whitwell W.----Land and Buildings, Summer St. N.; widow Jones W. and N.; Joseph Balch W.: John Rowe and Thomas Thompson S.; said Thompson W.; John Rowe S.; Zachariah Brigdon E.

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY

AND HIS SON

LORD LYNDHURST, LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

John Singleton Copley of Boston was the son of Richard Copley of County Limerick, who married Mary Singleton, of Deer Park, County Clare. Her father was of a Lancashire house of that name which had settled in Ireland in 1661.

Richard and Mary came to Boston in 1736, and their son John was born July 3rd, 1737. The father went to the West Indies and died there about the time of the birth of his son.

The widow of Richard Copley married Peter Pelham, an engraver and artist, by whom she had one son, Henry Pelham, who followed his father's profession. Peter Pelham died in 1751. John S. Copley became one of the most famous painters of his time. Without instruction, or master, he drew and painted, and "saw visions" of beautiful forms and faces which he transferred to canvass. His pictures show up the features and the figures of the aristocracy of Boston, of a time when there were aristocrats here, so that it has been frequently said that one of these ancestral portraits is a Bostonian's best title of nobility.

Major George Washington visited Boston in 1755 and sat to young Copley for a miniature. In 1766 Copley sent, without name or address, an exquisite portrait of his half brother, Henry Pelham, known as the "Boy and the Flying Squirrel," to Benjamin West, a fellow countryman then settled in London with a request to have it placed in the Exhibition Rooms of the Society of British Artists. The attention and admiration excited by this wonderful painting were such that the friends of the artist wrote most warmly to persuade him to go to England for the pursuit of his vocation, and West extended to him a pressing invitation to his own home. In 1769 he married Susannah Farnum, daughter of Richard Clarke, a wealthy merchant of Boston, and agent of the East India Company for their trade in that town. The tie between the artist and his wife was peculiarly close. We constantly meet her familiar lineaments through the whole course of Copley's works. Now Mary by the manger, with the Divine Infant at her breast, in "The Nativity," again in "The Family Picture" and in the fabled scene of Venus and Cupid, or in the female group in "The Death of Major Pierson," dissolved in an agony of grief, and fear, as they escape from the scene of violence and death.

The locality associated with his married life in Boston was a solitary house on Beacon Hill, chosen with his keen perception of picturesque beauty. His prophecy has been fully verified that the time would come when that situation would become the favorite site for the homes of the wealthy. Singular as it may appear the site selected by Copley was the same as that selected by William Blackstone, the first settler of Boston. In after years Copley's thoughts fondly reverted to his early home--his farm, he called it--which contained 11 acres on the southwest side of Beacon Hill, now bounded by Charles, Beacon, Walnut, and Mt. Vernon streets, Louisburg Square and Pinckney street.

In 1771 Copley wrote that he was earning a comfortable income. At this time, he moved in the best society, where his courtly manners and genial disposition made him a general favorite. He was now approaching the crucial period of his life. He saw the approaching storm that was soon to break and deluge his country in blood. He was peculiarly situated, and in a trying position. It is said that his sympathies were at first with the revolutionists, and he acted as an intermediary between them and his father-in-law, Richard Clarke,[169] to whom the tea was consigned, but when the infuriated mob destroyed the tea, and attacked the warehouse, and residence of Mr. Clarke, forcing him to flee for his life, Copley could no longer tolerate mob rule. His case was like that of many others of whom it is said "persecution made half of the king's friends." These outrages occurred in December 1773. Less than two years afterwards he wrote to his wife, from Italy, July 1775: "You know years ago I was right in my opinion that this would be the result of the attempt to tax the colony; it is now my settled conviction that all the power of Great Britain will not reduce them to obedience. Unhappy and miserable people, once the happiest, now the most wretched. How warmly I expostulated with some of the violent 'Sons of Liberty' against their proceedings, they must remember; and with how little judgment, in their opinion, did I then seem to speak! But all this is past; the day of tribulation is come, and years of sorrow will not dry the orphan's tears, nor stop the widow's lamentations, the ground will be deluged in the blood of its inhabitants before peace will again assume its dominion in that country."[170] Copley embarked for England, June 1774, six months after his father-in-law was driven out of Boston by the mob, and one year before the conflict with the mother country commenced. Leaving his aged mother, his favorite brother, his wife and children behind him, he went to prepare a place of refuge for them from the impending storm. Probably the desire to visit Europe and behold the work of the great masters of the art he loved so well had something to do with leaving his native land, to which he was never to return. After travelling and studying two years on the Continent, he went back to London, and was soon joined by his family. Then began a career of uninterrupted success. He became the fashion, and many of the nobility sat to him as did also three of the princesses, daughters of George III. Following the fashion of the day he took up historical painting, which included the death of Major Pierson and the death of Chatham (both now in the English National Gallery): The siege of Gibraltar, now in the Guild Hall of London, and Charles I demanding in the House of Commons, the surrender of the five impeached members, which now hangs in the Boston Public Library. "The death of Major Pierson" in repelling the attack of the French at St. Helier's, Jersey, on the 6th of January 1781, was painted in 1783 for Alderman Boydell, for his gallery. When this was dispersed it was bought back by Copley, and remained in the house in George Street till Lord Lyndhurst's death, when it was purchased for the National Gallery for 1500 guineas. The woman flying from the crowd in terror, with the child in her arms, was painted from the nurse of Mr. Copley's family; the figure between her and the wall, with the upraised arm, is Mrs. Copley; the boy running by the nurse's side is young Copley.

[169] Tea Leaves 322, 323, 327, 329.

[170] Life of Copley, p 62.

Copley was an Addresser of Hutchinson in 1774, the year he left Boston, and in 1776, on his return from Italy to London, he became a member of the Loyalist club, for weekly conversation and a dinner. He died at his residence in George Street, London, Sept. 9, 1815, aged seventy-eight and was buried in the tomb belonging to Governor Hutchinson's family in the parish church at Croydon, near London. Copley had one son and two daughters who lived to maturity.

[Illustration: JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY

Born in Boston July 3, 1737. Painter to the King. Died in London Sept. 9, 1815.]

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, the younger, was born in Boston May 20, 1772, was early destined for his father's profession, and, accordingly he attended the lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Barry, at the Royal Academy. He, however, had no inclination to follow in his father's footsteps. He threw off his instructors, impatiently declaring that he would not be known as the "son of Copley the painter" but it should be "Copley, the father of the Lord Chancellor." So early did he prognosticate his own future eminence. He was entered 1790 at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the mathematical tripos of 1794, was second wrangler, sickness alone preventing him from obtaining the highest honor of the year. He was also Smith's Prizeman, won the King William prize, and, the following year, was appointed a "travelling bachelor" with a grant for three years of a L100 a year, and, a month later, was elected a fellow of Trinity, improved the opportunity to visit Boston, the town of his birth, with the ulterior view of regaining the family estates on Beacon Hill, owned by his father before leaving Boston, more than twenty years before. For although Copley was an Absentee, or Refugee, and therefore had laid himself liable to the confiscation of his property, yet, through his well known sympathy with the Revolutionists before the commencement of open war, and through the assistance of some of his friends, his property, which consisted of the largest landed estate in Boston, had not been confiscated. There were however several real estate speculators who had profited largely by purchasing the confiscated estates of the Loyalists for a mere trifle who determined to possess themselves of Copley's property. Jonathan Mason, and Harrison Grey Otis, made a contract with Gardiner Green, who was Copley's agent, to purchase the same, without adequate authority from the owner. When the deed was sent to him for execution he refused to sign it. A bill in equity was bought to enforce the contract of sale. Copley executed a power of attorney to his son, when he went to Boston, giving him authority to settle the case. He arrived in Boston Jan. 2nd, 1796, and wrote to his father: "The business cannot come on till May. If you can make yourself a subject of the United States you are clear. If otherwise I am not yet sufficiently informed to say what may be the result, if you are decreed an alien, but take courage." He wrote again in February 27, 1796, saying, "I have, my dear sir, concluded my negotiations with Messrs. Mason, Otis, and others. I have acted for the best. I was very strongly of the opinion that the event of the contest would be in favor of the plaintiffs. Your counsel agreed with me in their sentiments upon that head.[171] A compromise became, therefore, necessary, and for the consideration of $18,450 a deed of release was given, dated February 22, 1796, recorded in Lib. 182, fol. 184, Suffolk Deeds."[172]

[171] Life of Copley, p. 141.

[172] Gleaner Articles, p. 196.

No deed of any lands in Boston within a century will compare with this in importance and interest. Taking into consideration the upland, beach, and flats, this purchase is at a considerably less rate than $1,000 per acre. That the son acted wisely his letters prove, but the transaction was one of deepest regret to the whole family, and embittered the remainder of the artist's life.

In a letter to his mother from Boston, the young man says: "Shall I whisper a word in your ear? The better people are all aristocrats. My father is too rank a Jacobin to live among them. Samuel Adams is superannuated, unpopular and fast decaying in every respect." Again he wrote to his mother from Philadelphia: "_I have become a fierce Aristocrat._ This is the country to cure your Jacobins. Send them over and they will return quite converted. The opposition here are a set of villains. Their object is to overset the government, and all good men are apprehensive lest they should be successful. A great schism seems to be forming, and they already begin to talk of a separation of the States north of the Potomac from those on the southern side of the river."[173] He was a visitor at Mount Vernon and spent a week as a guest of the first President of the young Republic.

[173] Life of Copley. p. 140, 145.

After nearly two years spent in the new United States, John Singleton Copley, the younger, returned to what had now become the settled home of the Copley family. He commenced a long course of study and systematic preparation for a life which was to become of the most distinguished, among the most famous men of the first half of the 19th century. Called to the bar in 1804 he, with no other influence than that of his own commanding talents, soon ranked among the leading men of his profession and that at a time when an unusually large number of great advocates were at the English bar.

But it was not at the bar only, or when on the bench at the head of the judiciary of England that this son of Boston distinguished himself. In both houses of Parliament, as Copley or Lyndhurst, he was an acknowledged leader of men.

Copley took his seat in the House of Commons as member for Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight, in March 1818, and until his removal to the House of Lords, nine years later, sat continuously as a member. Meanwhile promotion, professionally and politically, was constantly growing. In 1819, he was made a king's sergeant (at large) and chief justice of Chester. In June of the same year he was appointed Solicitor General (with knighthood), five years later became Attorney General. In 1826 he succeeded Lord Gifford as Master of the Rolls, a high judicial office, which at that time and for many years after did not compel the vacating of a seat in Parliament.

The town Council of Bristol unanimously elected him in the same year Recorder of that city.

In April 1827 in his 55th year on the retirement of Lord Chancellor Eldon, the ambition of his life was realized. The great prize of the legal profession was offered to him by the express desire of the king and with it of course a peerage, Sir John Singleton Copley became Baron Lyndhurst of Lyndhurst in the County of Hampshire and, for nearly forty years thereafter remained to adorn the House of Lords by his high talents, his noble character, and his fervid eloquence.

Lyndhurst's first Chancellorship, was not of long duration. From 1830 to 1834 we find him occupying the chiefship of the Court of Exchequer. He a strong tory, had been honored by a whig ministry, in his appointment to the office of Lord Chief Baron. This dignified and permanent position he resigned again to became Chancellor following the passing of the Reform Bill. As Lord Chancellor once more, and for the third time, from 1841 to 1846 he was a member of the ministry of Sir Robert Peel. The fame of the great jurist and statesman had become as precious to the citizens of Breton, as it was to the mother country. Here in Massachusetts he was born, and from his American parents received the first vivid impression of childhood. The reminiscences of his youth however, were always-accompanied by a heartfelt effusion of gratitude that his lot was cast in England. To London he was especially attached, and used to say "that every product known to man, every wonder of art, and skill, which the civilized world produced, could be found there."[174]

[174] Life of Copley, p. 126.

He was called the "Nestor of the House of Lords." His speeches were remarkable for their clearness, vigor, and force, even when he had reached nearly to his ninetieth year. A portrait of Lord Lyndhurst in his Chancellor robes is in the portrait gallery of the New York Historical Society. Lord Lyndhurst died October, 1863, in his 92nd year. Leaving no male heirs, his title died with him.

[Illustration: LORD LYNDHURST, LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

Born in Boston May 20, 1772. Son of John Singleton Copley. Died in London Oct. 12, 1863.]

He married Sarah Geray, daughter of Charles Brunsden, and widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas, who fell at Waterloo. He was the father of Sarah Elizabeth, Susan Penelope, and Sophia Clarence. His second wife, Georgiana, daughter of Lewis Goldsmith, bore him a single child, Georgiana Susan.

His Lordship's eldest sister, Elizabeth Clarke, born in Boston, 1770, was educated at a boarding school at Clapham, London, and married Gardiner Greene of Boston, a man of high social standing and business position, who had come to Boston from Demerara after the Revolution, where he had accumulated a large fortune. While on a visit to London in July, 1800, he married Miss Copley. She died at Boston in 1866, aged 95 years. In her will she left to Harvard College a collection of proof copies of all of Copley's historical paintings. Her daughter, Martha B. Greene, born in 1812, married Charles Amory and wrote the Life of John Singleton Copley, and to this valuable work we are indebted for much of the information we have given in this biographical notice. She died in 1880 leaving many descendants.

KING HOOPER OF MARBLEHEAD.

Marblehead is a rough peninsular, projecting into the Bay, with craggy shores, and a narrow harbor a mile and a half in length and a half mile wide. It is distant about eighteen miles from Boston.

From its peculiar adaptation to fisheries and commerce, though very limited in territory, this place was once famous for the hardihood and daring enterprise of its citizens. It was the principal fishing port in all the colonies, and now it does not contain one single fisherman that goes to the "Banks," but it has since become the principal yachting centre in the United States if not in the world; frequently there will be seen gathered here more than five hundred yachts of all classes and descriptions.

It was naturally a wilderness of rock, with here and there a green valley or glade just fitted for a little garden, where the mariner perched his pretty nest, on the adjacent cliff. No herds or flocks ranged on this barren place. A Marbleheader ploughed only the deep for his living, his pasture lay afar off on the Banks of Newfoundland, or the Georges, and his harvest whitened the shores with their wide spread fish flakes. Even at this day, with its cluster of antique dwellings and rough trapesian streets, this seaport has an odd look, like some ancient town in England. But in this secluded spot, where stands the dilapidated fortresses of Sewall and Lee, several eminent men, merchants, mariners and lawyers, were born and educated, who became staunch loyalists. They were sincere in their convictions and had the courage to declare them in defiance of a rough and turbulent population. They could not view the revolutionary proceedings of their townsmen without deep concern, and doing all in their power to dissuade their fellow-citizens from the course they had taken, they protested that the entire policy of the colonies was suicidal and that the town had been guilty of treason by its action. With a sincere belief that these rebellious acts of the colonists must sooner or later bring disaster and ruin upon the country, and death and imprisonment to the leaders, they entreated their friends and neighbors to recede from their position before it was too late, but in vain. It was voted in town meeting that they "ought not to be indulged in their wickedness" and that a committee should be chosen to attend to the conduct of these ministerial tools and Jacobites, that effectual measures might be taken "either for silencing them or expelling them from the community". What brought about this action of the Revolutionists was the address to Governor Hutchinson on his departure for England signed by thirty-three of the principal citizens of the town. Among these names there were five of the name of Hooper, chief of whom was "King Hooper," the principal merchant in the town. He had a high reputation for honor and integrity in his business dealings and for his benevolence.

ROBERT HOOPER, the first to appear in Marblehead, is first mentioned in Massachusetts records as master of a shallop hired of Mr. Moses Maverick, a wealthy business man of Marblehead, in 1663. From a deposition he made in court, he was born about 1606. This would make him old enough to have been the father of John, Robert and Henry Hooper, the other very early residents of Marblehead. He died after 1686.

ROBERT HOOPER, supposed to be the son of the aforesaid, was born as early as 1655. Married Dec. 4, 1684, Anna, daughter of Peter and Hannah Greenfield. Hannah was a daughter of John and Ann Devereux. He was an inn keeper and died about 1689.

GREENFIELD HOOPER, son of the aforesaid, was born about 1686. He resided at Marblehead, was a merchant. He also had a "workshop," with loom for weaving. He married, Jan. 16, 1706, Alice, daughter of Andrew Tucker, Sr., and received a share of his real estate. He died about October 1, 1747.

[Illustration: KING HOOPER MANSION, DANVERS.

At his elegant mansion in Danvers, Robert Hooper entertained General Gage, who made it his headquarters in 1774.]

ROBERT HOOPER, known as "King Hooper," was born at Marblehead, June 26, 1709, son of the aforesaid Greenfield Hooper. He was married four times. Was a merchant who rose from poverty to apparently inexhaustible wealth, engrossing for years a large part of the foreign fishing business of Marblehead, which was very extensive about the year 1760. For awhile he purchased all the fish brought into that port, sent it to Bilboa and other parts of Spain and received gold and silver in return, with which he purchased goods in England. He owned lands in Marblehead, Salem, Danvers, and an extensive tract at Lyndeborough, N. H., and elsewhere. He had a large and elegant house at Marblehead, and also a mansion at Danvers, where he did "royal" entertaining, rode in a chariot like a prince, and was ever after known as "King Hooper." He was one of the wealthiest and most benevolent men in the colony. He presented Marblehead with a fire engine in 1751.[175]

[175] Hooper Genealogy. Curwen's Journal. History of Marblehead.

At his elegant house in Danvers he entertained General Gage for some time in 1774, and was an Addresser of Hutchinson the same year. He was appointed representative to the General Court in 1775, and declined a seat in the Governor's council in 1759 on account of deafness. He was one of thirty-six persons appointed as mandamus councillors of the province in 1774, at the beginning of the agitation that led to the Revolution, and was one of the twelve that did not accept of the honor, his deafness previously referred to being probably the reason, for he was a staunch loyalist. This, together with his age and known generosity, prevented his being driven forth from the town; it however did not prevent the loss of his great property, for when he died in 1790 he was insolvent. In a letter dated Marblehead, March 17, 1790, addressed to his granddaughter Ruth, the wife of Lewis Deblois, a Boston loyalist residing at St. John, N. B., he says: "But as you justly observe we have been and still are 300 miles distance from each other and my advanced age make it doubtful whether I may ever see you more in this world, your parting from me was next to burying you, there is nothing would give more pleasure than to hear of the health and prosperity of every branch of my family." This truly great and honorable man died, a little more than a month after writing this letter. He died May 20, 1790, aged 81 years.

JOSEPH HOOPER, son of the aforesaid, was born at Marblehead, May 29, 1743, married Oct. 30, 1766, Mary, daughter of Benjamin and Lucy (Devereux) Harris of Newburyport, Nov. 20, 1746. She died at Newburyport Oct. 3, 1796.

He graduated from Harvard College in 1763, was a merchant in his native town, carrying on a foreign trade. He built the mansion in Marblehead afterwards occupied by Chief Justice Sewall. He was an Addresser of Governor Hutchinson in 1774. Being an ardent loyalist he was forced to leave his home in 1775 and go to England. He became a paper manufacturer at Bungay, Suffolk, England, where he died in 1812. The Marblehead Revolutionary committee recorded May 8th, 1781, that "they believed he had voluntarily gone over to our enemies," that is he was a loyalist, and proceeded to administer on his affairs. One third share was set off to his wife June 9, 1783, and the balance confiscated and sold. He had two sons and two daughters.

ROBERT HOOPER, son of King Hooper, was born at Marblehead, Feb. 9, 1746, married May 23, 1769, Anna, daughter of Richard and Jemima Corwell. He was an Addresser of Governor Hutchinson, but evidently made peace with the Revolutionists and was allowed to remain. He died about 1781 at Marblehead. "He had usually traded beyond the sea."

SWEET HOOPER, son of King Hooper. Married at Boston, Aug. 4, 1779, Mary, daughter of Hector McNeil. He was an Addresser of Governor Hutchinson, but was allowed to remain. He was a merchant at Marblehead, died October, 1781.

ROBERT HOOPER, 3d. as described in the Addressers to Governor Hutchinson, was probably a son of Deacon Robert Hooper, cousin to the aforesaid Hoopers. He was born at Marblehead 1757, and married Sept. 21, 1777, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Whittaker of Salem. In 1794 he sold his two-sixths of the mansion house, etc., which had belonged to his father, the late Deacon Robert Hooper. He removed to Lexington, Maine, was master of Limerick Academy. He died May 11, 1836.

WILLIAM BOWES.

Nicholas Bowes of Cambridge, Mass., married 26 June, 1684, Sarah Hubbard, who died 26 Jan. 1686, and for second wife married 6 May, 1690, Dorcas Champney, and a third wife, Martha Remington, of Cambridge, June 21, 1718. It is claimed that he was descended from Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of London. Nicholas Bowes, son of the preceding was born at Boston, Nov. 2nd, 1706. He graduated at Harvard College as M. A., was minister at Bedford from 1730 to 1754. He married Lucy Hancock, the aunt of John Hancock, the Revolutionary Governor of Massachusetts. Their son

WILLIAM BOWES, was born at Boston, 3 December 1734. He married Ann Whitney, March 22, 1761, who died Jan. 2, 1762. His second wife was Mary Stoddard, whom he married Oct. 30, 1769, and who died 9 May, 1774. He was a merchant and had inherited in 1764 a large property from his uncle, Thomas Hancock, one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston. He was an Addresser of Governor Hutchinson in 1774, and of General Gage in 1775. At the evacuation of Boston he went to Halifax with his family of four persons. In 1788 he was proscribed and banished, and his estates confiscated. He died near London, April, 1805. His eldest son,

WILLIAM BOWES, born at Boston, 15 Oct. 1771, lived in England and died near London 10 June, 1850, aged 79. He married Harriet Troutbeck, daughter of Rev. John Troutbeck, born at Boston 1 Oct. 1768, and died in England, 14 January, 1851, aged 82. Their children were Emily Bowes born 1806, Edmund Elford Bowes, born 1808, M. A. Trinity College. Cambridge. Arthur Bowes, born 1813. All born and living in England in 1856.

Sarah Bowes, daughter of William Bowes, Sr., was born at Boston, Jan. 31, 1773, and died in England. July 1850, unmarried.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO WILLIAM BOWES IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Richard Driver. Feb. 16, 1782, Lib. 134, fol. 23; Land in Boston, Fitch's Alley W.; Margaret Phillips N., Corn Court E. Andrew Oliver S.

To Mungo Mackey. June 11, 1783; Lib. 139, fol. 16. One fourth of land, brick distill house and other buildings in Boston, Cambridge St. N.; George St E. heirs of John Guttridge deceased S.; Belknap St. W.

To Robert Jenkins, Feb. 16, 1784; Lib. 141, fol. 132; Land and buildings in Boston. Wilson's Lane W.; Dock Square N.; Arnold and Samuel Wells E. heirs of Charles Hammock deceased S.

To James Welch. Nov. 6, 1784; Lib. 145, fol. 250; Land in Boston. Wings Lane N., Nathan Frazier and heirs of Charles Apthorp deceased E.; said heirs S.; E.; S. and W.

GENERAL TIMOTHY RUGGLES.

THOMAS RUGGLES of Nazing, Essex County, England, was born in Sudbury, Suffolk County, England, in 1584. He came to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1637 and was freeman May 22, 1639. He married in Nazing, England, Mary Curtis. He died in Roxbury, November 16, 1644, and his wife died in 1674, leaving four children.

His son Samuel was many years selectman, representative, and captain of the Roxbury company. His son Samuel succeeded his father in the several offices named and in company with seven other persons purchased, Dec. 27, 1686, for L20, from John Nagers and Lawrence Nassawano, two noted Indians, a tract of land containing by estimation 12 miles long north and south and eight miles wide east and west. This purchase is now known as the town of Hardwick, Mass. His son, the Rev. Timothy Ruggles, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts November 3., 1685, and married Mary White, the daughter of Benjamin and Susanna White. He graduated from Harvard College in 1707, and was ordained pastor of the Rochester church in 1710, which office he held until his death which occurred October 26, 1768. He was a great worker in the community and much beloved.

GENERAL TIMOTHY RUGGLES, born in Rochester, Mass., October 20, 1711, eldest son of Rev. Timothy Ruggles, one of the fifth generation of Ruggles in America, graduated at Harvard College in 1732 and commenced practicing law in Rochester. He represented his native town in the provincial assembly at the age of 25, and procured the passing of a bill still in force prohibiting sheriffs from filing writs. He removed to Harwich about 1753 on to the lands bought by his grandfather from the Indians. In 1757 he was appointed judge and in 1762 Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, which he held till the Revolution. He was also surveyor-general of the king's forest, an office of profit, attended with but little labor. Besides professional employment he was engaged in military and political occupation.

In 1756 almost immediately before Mr. Ruggles' appointment to the bench, he accepted a Colonel's Commission in the forces raised by his native province for service on the frontier of Canada. In the campaign which followed, he served under the command of Sir William Johnson, and did good service in the expedition against Crown Point. In September of the same year he was second in command under that leader at the battle of Lake George, in which the French under Baron Dieskau, met a signal defeat, after very severe fighting, in which he distinguished himself for coolness, courage and ability, and so highly were his services esteemed on that occasion that he was promoted to the position of General of Brigade and placed under the command of the Commander-in-Chief.

In 1758 he commanded the Third Division of the Provisional troops under Abercrombie, in the unsuccessful attack upon Ticonderoga. He also served with distinction and courage in the campaign of 1759-1760. In the winter of 1762 while the belligerent forces on both sides were in winter quarters, he had the honor to be chosen speaker of the House of Representatives. On the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765 delegates were chosen by the legislature of the various colonies, to seek out some relief from immediate and threatened evils, by a representation of their grievances to the king and parliament. Gen. Ruggles was chosen as one of the delegates from Massachusetts. The Stamp Act Congress met at New York, Oct. 19, 1765, and General Ruggles was elected president of same. An address to the king was voted and certain resolves framed setting forth the rights of the colonies, and claiming an entire exemption from all taxes, excepting those imposed by the local assemblies. Gen. Ruggles refused his concurrence in the proceedings for which he was censured on his return by the House of Representatives, and was reprimanded by the speaker who occupied his place. John Adams, who claimed relationship with Ruggles before his defection found nothing in his character but what was noble and grand. "Ruggles' grandeur" he wrote, "consists in the quickness of his apprehension, steadiness of his attention, the boldness and strength of his thoughts and his expressions, his strict honor, conscious superiority, contempt of meanness, etc." He was, he said, a man of genius and great resolution. At an early period of the Disunion propaganda. Ruggles, conceiving that the course of the British Government was neither politic nor just, and believing that the Disunion leaders honestly intended to bring about a reform, joined hands with them and as previously stated he was elected President of the Stamp Act Congress, but on the discovery of the real aim of that body, he refused to proceed any further on the road to Disunion and left the Congress. Adams then suddenly discovered, "an inflexible oddity about him, which has gained him a character for courage and probity, and that at Congress." "His behavior was very dishonorable" and governed by "pretended scruples and timidities" and ever since he was "held in utter contempt and derision by the whole continent." But fifty years later, when no advantage could be gained by blackening the character of this brave and honest man, he remembered he was a high-minded man, an exalted soul acting in scenes he could not comprehend.[176] General Ruggles was a staunch, independent and fearless supporter of the government, a son of Massachusetts of which she should be proud.

[176] Diary and Letters of John Adams.

An extract from the "History of the County of Annapolis, Nova Scotia," says, "The conduct of Mr. Ruggles as a military commander has been highly praised by most competent judges. Few men in the province were more distinguished and few more severely dealt with in the bitter controversies preceding the Revolution. His appearance was commanding and dignified, being much above the common size; his wit was ready and brilliant; his mind clear, comprehensive and penetrating; his judgment was profound and his knowledge extensive; his abilities as a public speaker placed him among the first of the day; and had he embraced the popular sentiments of the times, there is no doubt he would have ranked among the leading characters of the Revolution."

By pen and tongue, in the halls of the Legislature, and on the platform, he declared against rebellion and bloodshed; General Ruggles was a good scholar and possessed powers of mind of a very high order. Many anecdotes continue to be related of him in the town of his nativity, which show his shrewdness, his sagacity, his military hardihood and bravery. As a lawyer he was an impressive pleader and in parliamentary debate able and ingenious. He remained in the army until 1760, the last three years being Brigadier General under Lord Amherst.

As the Revolutionary quarrel progressed he became one of the most violent supporters of the ministry and he and Otis as leaders of the two opposing parties were in constant collision in the discussion of the popular branch of government. In 1774 he was named a Mandamus Councillor, which increased his unpopularity to so great a degree that his house was attacked by night and his cattle were maimed and poisoned. General Ruggles tried to form a plan of combining the Loyalists against the Disunionists after the model of similar associations formed in other colonies. On December 22, 1774, he sent a communication to the "Printers of the Boston Newspaper" concerning the forming of an Association "and if attended to and complied with by the good people of the province might put it in the power of anyone very easily to distinguish such loyal subjects to the king and are to assert their rights to freedom, in all respects consistent with the laws of the land from such rebellious ones as under the pretence of being friends of liberty, are frequently committing the most enormous outrages upon the persons and the property of such of his Majesty's peaceable subjects who for want of knowing whom to call upon, in these distracted times for assistance, fall into the hands of bandits, whose cruelties surpass those of savages."

The "Association" consisted of a preamble and six articles. The principal were the first and third, which provided "That we will upon all occasions, with our lives and fortunes, stand by and assist each other in the defence of life, liberty and property, whenever the same shall be attacked or endangered by any bodies of men, riotously assembled upon any pretence, or under any authority not warranted by the laws of the land." And "That we will not acknowledge or submit to the pretended authority of any Congress, Committees of Correspondence, or any other unconstitutional assembly of men, but will at the risk of our lives if need be, oppose the forcible exercise of all such authority."

The Association did not succeed, the Loyalists were not inclined to such organization, nor fitted for secret intrigue without which it could not have succeeded in combatting the measures of the Disunionists. They were slow to join, and inefficient in action. No good was accomplished by this association and the Disunionists proceeded on their way triumphant.

When the appeal to arms had been finally decided on by the Disunionists, the popular excitement was at a fearful height, and all those who had counselled moderation, either in demand or action, were declared to be enemies to their country and traitors to the cause of liberty, and as such worthy of death. No man in Massachusetts was regarded as so inimical to the cause of rebellion as General Ruggles, whose known and recognized ability, great energy, and unflinching courage made him an object of fear as well as dislike.

They denounced him as malignant and openly threatened his life. In consequence of this violence he was forced, with his family and such of his neighbors as remained loyal, to seek safety and refuge from his dwelling house which he had built in Harwich by joining the British forces in Boston. On the very day of the battle of Lexington, a body of Loyalists formed in Boston, composed of tradesmen and merchants. They are spoken of as "the gentlemen volunteers," or Loyal American Association. They were placed under the command of Brigadier General Ruggles. During the siege of Boston they were joined by other Loyalist companies, Loyal Irish Volunteers, Captain James Forrest, Royal Honorable Americans, Colonel Gorham. After the evacuation of Boston he was in Long Island for a while and in 1783 he was an exile from his native province in his old age, but still as vigorous as he was loyal. His extensive estates in Harwich were confiscated, but were made up to him subsequently by the crown. He was living at Digby or Annapolis in the year of 1783, and made an application for a grant of land in that portion of the province. "In the following year the grant was issued. The undismayed grantee commenced a labor at the age of more than seventy years, which few, if any of the young men of to-day would voluntarily undertake. The work of chopping down the forests and clearing the lands for crops and of preparation for building went on simultaneously and rapidly under his direction.

"Two young men, Stromach and Fales, were employed to work with him for a limited number of years and receive their pay in land. They did their work, and he paid them, and their descendants are now the occupiers of many a fair home in the beautiful township of Wilmot."

General Ruggles' four daughters were married before the Revolution broke out and their husbands probably adhered to the Colonial side, for they never came to Nova Scotia. Three of his sons followed him into exile and settled in that country, Timothy, John, and Richard. It may not be without use to remark that for much the greater part of his life, General Ruggles ate no animal food, and drank no spirituous or fermented liquors, small beer excepted, and that he enjoyed health to his advanced age. This remarkable leader of men died in 1795. The "Royal Gazette" in August, 1795, said of him that "the district of county in which he lived will long feel the benefits resulting from the liberal exertions he made to advance the agricultural interests of the Province." It was also said of General Timothy Ruggles that he was one of the best soldiers in the colonies.

He was buried to the eastward of the chancel of the (then new) church, lately known as the "Pine Grove Church," in Central Wilmot, near the present village of Middleton,--a church toward the erection of which he was a considerable contributor.

Numerous descendants of General Ruggles are to be met with in Nova Scotia. There is a street and church in Roxbury named after this illustrious family.

JOHN RUGGLES, son of General Ruggles of Harwich, Mass., was proscribed and banished in 1778. He settled in Nova Scotia and died there in 1795. His widow Hannah, only daughter of Dr. Thomas Sackett of New York, died at Wilmot, N. S. in 1839, aged 76. His only son, CAPTAIN TIMOTHY AMHERST RUGGLES of the Nova Scotia Fencibles died at the same place in 1838 at the age of 56.

TIMOTHY RUGGLES, another son of the General, was a member of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia for many years. He died at N. S. in 1831. Sarah, his widow, died at that place in 1842, aged 92.

RICHARD RUGGLES, son of the General, was born at Rochester, Mass., in 1774 and died at Annapolis in 1832.

THE FANEUIL FAMILY OF BOSTON.

The Faneuils were Huguenot refugees from La Rochelle, France. When they came to America they brought with them considerable wealth in jewels and money. From their coat of arms we should judge they dated back as far as the crusades, as the crossed palm branches can have no other meaning.

There is a paper extant in the French language and written by Benjamin Faneuil the elder. It is a family record in which he states that in 1699 he married Ann Bureau; then follows the birth of Peter Faneuil, afterwards the birth of three daughters. This paper was left by Benjamin Faneuil the younger, and is now in the possession of his great-grand-son George A. Bethune, M. D., Boston (1884). They first settled near New Rochelle, N. Y., and in 1699 Benjamin Faneuil was given the freedom of the city of New York. In Valentine's "History of New York," P. 219, we read in a list of the principal merchants of the city the name of Benjamin Faneuil the third in the list.

Andrew, the brother of Benjamin settled in Boston and made an immense fortune as a merchant. His wife was born in Holland and was a very beautiful woman.

Andrew Faneuil had no children that lived to maturity. He adopted two sons of his brother Benjamin of New York--Peter, born in 1701, and Benjamin the younger, born in 1702. Benjamin Faneuil the younger, married the daughter of Dr. John Cutler from a noted German family. Andrew Faneuil was offended about this marriage and left most of his fortune to his nephew Peter Faneuil. Peter Faneuil died five years after his uncle and left no will, and his brother Benjamin was declared sole heir to his fortune.

Benjamin Faneuil the elder is buried on the north side of Trinity church in New York City and the gravestone is in good preservation. His brother Andrew lived in a splendid house at the corner of Somerset and Beacon Streets, Boston; the house after his death was owned and occupied by Gardner Greene. From that home in Boston Andrew Faneuil was buried, having a most imposing funeral. (See Memorial Hist. of Boston). His tomb is in the graveyard at the south side of the common.

Benjamin Faneuil the younger, and Mary Cutler, had two sons neither of whom left descendants, and a daughter. He lived at one time in Boston at the corner of Washington and Summer Streets, and later in Brighton. He was stone blind for twenty years and lived to be eighty-four years of age. He was an admirable character and greatly beloved. His daughter entertained General Washington at their home during the seige of Boston, and General Lee was with him. Benjamin Faneuil admired Washington and he told him so, emphatically, whether a Whig or not. But he also told General Lee who was an Englishman that he had his "head in the noose" for he was a very decided old man and had to state his opinions under any circumstances.

Peter Faneuil possessed his uncle's estate only about five years but during that time he lived in sumptuous style at the corner of Somerset and Beacon Streets in the house that Andrew built. He gave great sums to charity and Faneuil Hall was but one of his gifts to the city. Every charity of that day has his name down for a large sum. To Trinity church he gave a L100 for an organ and a donation to support the families of the deceased clergy of that church. It became so large that it was divided between Trinity church and Kings Chapel, and has done much good. There is a fine portrait of Peter Faneuil still extant; it was given to the Antiquarian Society of Boston by his niece, Miss Jones, and is a better picture than the one in Faneuil Hall.

Peter Faneuil was a careful business man, but was always generous. At the time of the erection of Faneuil Hall there was no market house then in the town, and so he erected a building one hundred feet in length by forty feet in width. Besides the market there were several rooms for town officers, and a hall which would contain one thousand persons. On the completion of the building the first public oration held there was a funeral eulogy delivered in honor of its donor, Peter Faneuil, March 14, 1743 by Master Lovell of the Latin School, and was "Recorded by Order of Town."[177] The Hall was dedicated to Liberty and Loyalty to the King in the following words, "May Liberty always spread its Joyful Wings, over this Place. And may Loyalty to a King under whom we enjoy this Liberty ever remain our Character." That the building should ever be used by conspirators against the King, and become synonymous for disloyalty to the King, was the very last purpose that its founder intended it to be used for, yet by the strange irony of fate Faneuil Hall became known to the world as the "Cradle of Liberty" in which the Revolution was rocked. The town also voted to purchase the "Arms of Peter Faneuil and Fix them up in Faneuil Hall." Only a few years passed when the very people he had so benefited by his bounty tore down his "Arms" and portraits, and showed the most violent marks of disrespect to the memory of him who had been their best friend, but it was unreasonable violence that moved the mob who called themselves patriots. Faneuil Hall is a permanent memorial of the Huguenots of Boston and with the exception of a few crumbling gravestones it is the only visible monument of their residence here.

[177] See Boston Town Records 1742 to 1757. pp. 14, 15, 16. Printed by the City of Boston.

Peter Faneuil died in 1742 and left his vast fortune to his two nephews, Peter and Benjamin Faneuil the younger, the latter being an eminent merchant and was one of the consignees of the tea that was destroyed by the mob. The following letter sent to him by the "patriots" at that time undoubtedly expresses the feelings and the sentiment of those who formed the "Boston Tea Party." The letter he said was found in his entry.

"Gentlemen, It is currently reported that you are in the extremest anxiety respecting your standing with the good people of this Town and Province, as commissioners of the sale of the monopolized and dutied tea. We do not wonder in the least that your apprehensions are terrible, when the most enlightened humans and conscientious community on the earth view you in the light of tigers or mad dogs, whom the public safety obliges them to destroy. Long have this people been irreconcilable to the idea of spilling human blood, on almost any occasion whatever, but they have lately seen a penitential thief suffer death for pilfering a few pounds, from scattering individuals you boldly avow a resolution to bear a principal part in the robbing of every inhabitant of this country, in the present and future ages of every thing dear and interesting to them. Are there no laws in the Book of God and nature that enjoin such miscreants to be cut off from among the people, as troublers of the whole congregation. Yea, verily, there are laws and officers to put them into execution, which you can neither corrupt, intimidate, nor escape, and whose resolution to bring you to condign punishment you can only avoid by a speedy imitation of your brethren in Philadelphia. This people are still averse to precipitate your fate, but in case of much longer delay in complying with their indispensable demands, you will not fail to meet the just rewards of your avarice and insolence. Remember, gentlemen, this is the last warning you are ever to expect from the insulted, abused and most indignant vindicators of violated liberty in the Town of Boston.

Thursday evening 9 o'clock, Nov. 4. 1773. O. C. Secy, per order.

To Messrs. the Tea Commissioners, Directed to B---- F---- Esq."[178]

[178] Tea Leaves pp. 292-3.

The Faneuils did not lack patriotism. They counselled prudence until the country was prepared for action in a constitutional way. They were entirely opposed to mob violence, and their patriotism took a reasonable practical form, looking to the best interests of all. Further they had no angry feelings against the English; they had too recently been received and protected by them when their own country turned them out. They always spoke of the English as a great nation. They admired their liberality as to religious opinions in which France was wanting.

BENJAMIN FANEUIL the elder previously referred to, the father of Peter and Benjamin, the younger, and Mary died at Cambridge in 1785 aged 84.

PETER FANEUIL his son, who shared with his brother the vast fortune left them by their uncle went to Canada at the outbreak of the Revolution and then to the West Indies.

BENJAMIN FANEUIL found that it was necessary for his safety to leave Boston. He went to Halifax with the fleet when Boston was invaded on March 17, 1776, he afterwards went to England where he had $300,000 in English funds, with which he entertained his friends, the less fortunate refugees. In writing to a friend he said, "When we shall be able to return to Boston I cannot say, but hope and believe it will not exceed one year, for sooner or later America will be conquered, that you may depend on." He, however, was destined never to return but was proscribed and banished. He resided at Bristol where he died in 1785. His wife Jane was the daughter of Addington Davenport. The Faneuil name has become extinct; there are, however, numerous descendants through the female. Mary Faneuil, daughter of Benjamin Faneuil the elder became the wife of George Bethune, Oct. 13, 1754, and died in 1797, leaving many descendants. Mary Ann Faneuil, sister of Peter, who built the hall, married John Jones, who died at Roxbury in 1767, and whose son Edward died in Boston in 1835 at the age of 83. She was a loyalist, and resided for some time in Windsor, Nova Scotia. A letter from her son dated at Boston, June 23, 1783, advising her if desirous of returning, not to come directly to Boston, as the law was still in force; but first to some other State and thence to Boston.[179]

[179] Dealings with the Dead, p. 510.

THE COFFIN FAMILY OF BOSTON.

ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, SIR THOMAS ASTON COFFIN, ADMIRAL FROMAN H. COFFIN, GENERAL JOHN COFFIN.

The name of Coffin is widely spread over this continent; thousands take pride in tracing their descent from Tristram Coffin of Alwington, which extends along the Severn Sea, south of the boundary between Somerset and Devon, fronting the broad Atlantic.

The Coffins came over with William the Conqueror and settled there in 1066. It is said that the name Coffin was a corruption or translation of Colvinus, signifying a basket or chest, and that from the charge of the King's treasure, such employment, like royalty itself, being hereditary, the name became attached to the family. In 1085, according to the "Doomsday Book," Alwington was possessed by David De la Bere, and that the heiress of that name brought it to the Coffins. On a subject less grave this might be suspected for a jest but the authority is proof. Tristram came over to New England in 1642 and settled at Salisbury, and also at Haverhill and Newbury. He resided at these places for sixteen years and then went to Nantucket, which at that time was a dependency of New York. For 80 pounds he and his associates bought of the Indians a large part of the island. Tristram's third son, James, was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and of Probate. James' son, Nathaniel, married the daughter of William Gayer, and niece of Sir John Gayer. William, the eldest son of Nathaniel, born 1699, removed to Boston and became proprietor of the Lunch of Grapes Tavern in 1731. It was situated on King street at the corner of Mackerel lane, the site now occupied by the Exchange building, on the corner of State and Kilby streets. It was a tavern from 1640 to 1760, when the Great Fire swept everything away.

The Coffins were strong in numbers and near neighbors, along the principal thoroughfare, now Washington street, dwelt twenty families, descended from William Coffin, or their near kinfolk, who lived in constant intercourse. The patriarch, at four score, his vigor hardly abated, lived on this street near his son's house. His daughter, Elizabeth, married her cousin, Thomas C. Amory, who had bought the house opposite her father's, at the corner of Hollis street, built by Governor Belcher for his own use. He was one of the organizers of Trinity church in 1734 and was one of the first wardens of same. He lived in honor and affluence till he died in 1774, just before the war broke out, which saved him from witnessing the exile and widespread confiscation that awaited his sons. His children and their children counted about sixty when he died, but of his descendants bearing the name of Coffin, all have died out in Massachusetts. He had four sons, all staunch Loyalists, William, Nathaniel, John and Ebenezer. The daughters, Mrs. De Blois, Mrs. Amory, and Mrs. Dexter, married into the best families of Boston, and through love for their husbands took the other side. The sons were proscribed and banished by an Act of the Massachusetts Legislature.

WILLIAM COFFIN, JR., the eldest son of William, was born in Boston, April 11th, 1723. He was an Addresser of General Gage, was proscribed and banished. He accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax in 1776 on the evacuation of Boston.

SIR THOMAS ASTON COFFIN, Baronet, son of William, Jr., was born at Boston, March 31, 1754. He graduated at Harvard College in 1772. He was for a long time Secretary to Sir Guy Carleton, by whose side he sat in the last boat which left Castle Garden on the evacuation of New York, 25th Nov., 1783. When Sir Guy Carleton became Lord Dorchester and Governor of Quebec, 1784, Coffin accompanied him and by his influence was appointed in 1804 Secretary and Comptroller of Accounts of Lower Canada. At another part of his life he was Commissary General in the British Army. He went to England and died in London in 1810, very wealthy. He was grandfather to Mrs. Bolton, wife of Col. Bolton, R. A., who took an active part in the Red River Expedition of 1870.

WILLIAM COFFIN, the second son of William Coffin, Jr., was born in Boston, 1758, and died at Kingston, Canada, in 1804.

EBENEZER COFFIN, the third son of William Coffin, Jr., was born at Boston, 1763, went to South Carolina where he acquired property as a merchant and planter and was the father of Thomas Aston Coffin of Charleston, South Carolina, whose descendants, with an hereditary instinct, distinguished themselves by their chivalrous devotion to a failing cause in the late Confederate war.

NATHANIEL COFFIN, second eldest son of William, was born in Boston in 1725, graduated at Harvard College in 1744, received in 1750 an honorary degree at Yale. Brought up a merchant, he was early appointed King's Cashier of the Customs and acquired considerable property. He resided on the corner of Essex and Rainsford Lane, now Harrison avenue. The tide washed up to the garden wall. Near by in front, on what is now called Washington street, was the "Liberty Tree," where Captain Mackintosh and his "chickens," met to plan outrages upon loyal citizens.

In August, 1767, a flagstaff was erected which went through and above it highest branches. A flag hoisted on this was the notice for the assembling of the "Sons of Liberty" for action. In 1775, his son Nathaniel, and his friends cut it down, much to the disgust of Mackintosh who was known as the "First Captain General of Liberty Tree." On the building occupying its site is a stone bas-relief of the tree with an inscription on it. Nathaniel Coffin held one of the most lucrative positions under the crown, his acquaintances and friends were naturally among the government officials and the better class of the community. He had much to lose if he severed from his fealty to the mother country and, banishment and confiscation would be the penalty, if the disunionists succeeded.

NATHANIEL COFFIN was the last Receiver General and Cashier of his Majesty's Customs at the Port of Boston, he was an addressor of Hutchinson in 1774 and of Gage in 1775. With his family of three persons he accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax in 1776 and in July of that year embarked for England in the ship Aston Hall. In May, 1780, while returning, he died the day before the vessel arrived at New York. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Barnes of Boston.

NATHANIEL COFFIN, JR., son of the aforesaid, was born in Boston in 1749. Was an Addresser of Hutchinson in 1774 and a Protester against the disunionists the same year. He was brought up to the bar, and succeeded well in his profession. As he took a prominent part on the side of the Government; and caused the "Liberty Tree" to be cut down, he was obliged to fly, or he would have been tarred and feathered. He employed a negro to assist him in cutting it down. A thousand dollars reward was offered by the Revolutionists for the offender, the darky informed against him, and he had to leave.[180] He was at New York in 1783, and was one of the petitioners for lands in Nova Scotia. At a subsequent period he was appointed Collector of Customs at the island of St. Kitt's and filled that position for thirty-four years. He died in London in 1831, aged 83.

[180] "Memoir of General John Coffin." By Captain Henry Coffin. R. N., 1880, p. 17.

WILLIAM COFFIN, second son of Nathaniel, the Cashier. An Addresser of Hutchinson in 1774; went to Halifax in 1776, proscribed and banished, 1778. Assisted his brother in destroying the "Liberty Tree." He had three sons in the British service. After the peace, he was at St. John, New Brunswick, a prosperous merchant.

GENERAL JOHN COFFIN, the third son of Nathaniel, the Cashier, was born in Boston, 1756, was sent to sea at a very early age, and at the age of eighteen was in command of a ship. In 1775, while his ship was in England, she was engaged by the government to take troops to America. He had on board nearly a whole regiment with General Howe in command of the troops, who was ordered out to supersede General Gage at Boston. The vessel arrived at Boston June 15th. Mr. Coffin landed the regiment on June 17th at Bunker Hill, and the action having already commenced, he was requested by the Colonel, "to come up and see the fun," the only weapon at hand being the tiller of his boat; he immediately, to use a nautical phrase, "unshipped it," and with equal determination, commenced "laying about" him, and "shipped" the musket, powder and belt of the first man he knocked down. He bore an active part and distinguished himself during the rest of the action. In consideration of his gallant conduct he was presented to General Gage after the battle and made an ensign on the field, shortly after he was promoted to a lieutenancy, but still retained the command of his ship. He was promised by General Howe on his arrival at Boston the command of 400 men, if he would go to New York and raise them. He accordingly went to New York when Boston was evacuated March 17, 1776, where he raised among the Loyalists a mounted rifle corps, called the "Orange Rangers," of which he was made Commandant, and from which he exchanged into the New York Volunteers in 1778. He took part in the defeat of Washington in the battle of Long Island in 1777 and went with that corps to Georgia in 1778. Here he raided a corps of partisan cavalry, composed chiefly of loyal planters. At the battle of Savannah, at that of Hobkerk's Hill, and the action of Cross Creek near Charleston, and on various other occasions, his conduct won the admiration of his superior.

At the battle of Eutaw Springs which he opened on the part of the King's troops, his gallantry and good judgment attracted the notice and remark of General Greene, the Revolutionary leader, one of General Washington's ablest lieutenants. Major Coffin with 150 infantry and 50 cavalry averted the advance on Eutaw. Colonel William Washington, a distinguished partisan leader, with numerous cavalry rashly dashed forward; he lost most of his officers and many of his men, and his horse was shot under him, and he would have been slain had not Major Coffin interposed, who took him prisoner. These two men, who had known each other well in private life, rode back to camp to share the same meal and the same tent.

In the Southern colonies the Revolutionists and Loyalists, waged a war of extermination, the partisans on both sides, seldom gave quarter or took prisoners. At the close of the conflict in Virginia Lord Cornwallis made him a gift of a handsome sword, accompanied by a letter conferring on him the rank of Major Brevet. Whilst Coffin was attached to Cornwallis, he was able to be of great service to him, but the bravery, not to say the extraordinary sagacity mingled with audacity of one man, could not save the army. Lord Cornwallis' army cooped up in Yorktown by a superior army of French and Americans, and blockaded by a French fleet, was in danger of starvation, and Coffin stood almost alone in successful forays, in which he frequently eluded the whole American and French army, and returned laden with the fruits of his success. In one of these raids he accidentally came to the house of a wealthy planter whose daughter was to be married that day. He quietly surrounded the house with his troops and knocking at the door, sent in word that he wished to speak with the proprietor. On presenting himself, the gentleman was courteously made aware of his condition. He was told not to make any noise, but to order sufficient turkeys, ham, wine and other provisions to be put up, to satisfy his men; if this was done no harm would happen, but on the contrary, if any resistance was attempted, everything and everybody in the house would be destroyed. Coffin's character and resolution were well known, so the planter thought it best to graciously comply with the mandate. A large quantity of provisions was thus secured.

Captain Coffin supped with the wedding party, danced with the bride, and left in safety, taking care that no alarm should be given, and reached Cornwallis without accident by daylight.

Even when the enemy held Charleston, during which time he ran very great risks of being taken prisoner, he went to see Miss Ann Matthews, daughter of William Matthews, Esq., of St. John's Island, to whom he was eventually married in 1781. On the occasion of one visit, the house was searched for him by authority, and the gallant soldier took refuge under Miss Matthews' ample dress. At that time ladies wore hoops and they must have been of considerable size, when Major Coffin, who stood six feet two and was proportionately stout, could successfully conceal himself under one. At the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, that portion of his army consisting of native Americans, he failed to obtain special terms for, in the articles of capitulation. He, however, availed himself of the conceded privilege of sending an armed ship northerly, without molestation, to convey away the most obnoxious of them. Major Coffin determined not to be taken by the Revolutionists who had offered $10,000 for his head, so he cut his way through the lines, and reached Charleston, attracted by the charms of Miss Matthews. When Charleston was evacuated Major Coffin made his way up to New York, crossed the Hudson, having eluded all attempts at his capture and presented himself at headquarters, to the great astonishment of his friends in the British Army. Sir Guy Carleton, Commander-in-chief, appointed him Major of the King's American Regiment, vacant by the death of Major Grant.

Previous to the evacuation of New York, and probably in view of it, Major Coffin and others who were feared and disliked by the victorious Revolutionists, and were, therefore, thrust out beyond the pale of redemption, were sent by the British Government, to New Brunswick. At twenty-seven he laid down his sword and took up his axe, accompanied by a wife delicately nurtured in a wealthy family and a warm climate, and four negroes, one woman and three men, all brought from Charleston. They arrived in October, 1783, when there were but two persons in or near the harbor of St. John. Mr. Symonds and Mr. White, fur-traders, kindly supplied the newcomers with provisions, and they immediately commenced clearing and felling timber. During the first winter they suffered great hardships, particularly Mrs. Coffin. His first mishap was the loss of his boots in crossing a swamp, now the market place of the city of St. John. Having selected some lots of ground fronting the harbor, he proceeded to explore the interior of the country. An ascent of about twelve miles up the beautiful St. John, opened out a rich and lovely landscape-hill and dale, magnificent woods, rivers and lakes, swarming with game and fish.

In this fine and fertile locality Major Coffin purchased for a trifle a tract of land from Colonel Grazier, to whom it had been granted by Government. Four men were sent up there to build a house, and in the following May, 1784, he and his wife and four black servants, took possession of their new residence, and called it Alwington Manor, after the family estate in Devonshire, which belonged to them in the time of William the Conqueror. Two of the men, and the woman, proved to be good and faithful servants, and when the slaves were emancipated, still remained with the family.

Settlers soon flocked into the province. Ten years' residence, with Major Coffin's activity, aided by his willing men, made it a respectable and desirable settlement. He was made a Magistrate of the county and in due time a Member of the Provincial Parliament, and of the Legislative Council, which offices he filled till within a few years of his death.

In June, 1794, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, who was then Governor of Nova Scotia, stopped at Alwington Manor.

Although retired from active employ, he still remained in the service on half pay, and in 1804 he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1805 he went to England, where he was received with much distinction, and was presented to the King by the commander-in-chief.

The war of 1812 aroused all the warlike instincts of the old partisan; he snuffed the battle afar off, and at once offered to raise a regiment for home service. He soon had 600 men ready for service, which enabled the Government to send the 104th regiment to Canada, then hardly pressed by invasion. At the peace of 1815 he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and the regiment disbanded and General Coffin returned to half pay once more.

He for many years alternated in his residence between England and New Brunswick. He was the oldest General in the British Army when he died in 1838, aged 82, at the house of his son, Admiral T. Coffin, in King's County, New Brunswick.

Those who knew the General well in his later days, recall with affectionate recollection the noble presence and generous character of the chivalrous old soldier, a relic of the days in which giants were in stature and in heart, true to his king and country, a humble Christian and an honest and brave man, who united to the heroism of a Paladin the endurance of the pioneer, and when he could no longer serve his Prince in the field, served him still better by creating a new realm of civilization and progress in the heart of primeval forest. His name will ever be held in honor in New Brunswick.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN.

Born in Boston, 1759. Died in England, June 23, 1839. From a painting in possession of the Boston Atheneum.]

Eight of the children of General and Mrs. Coffin, all natives of New Brunswick, lived to make their way in the world, thanks to a grateful government and helpful country. The eldest son, General Guy Carleton Coffin, died in 1856, a General of the Royal Artillery; John Townsend Coffin, the second eldest, entered the British Navy as midshipman in 1799 and became admiral in 1841. Under the will of his uncle, Sir Isaac Coffin, he became the owner of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He died in 1882. Henry Edward Coffin, the third son, became a lieutenant in the British Navy in 1814 and an Admiral in 1856. He died in 1881. The eldest daughter, Caroline, married the Hon. Charles Grant of Canada, afterwards Baron de Longueuil; their son, the present Baron, married a daughter of Lewis Trapmane of Charleston, S. C. The second daughter married General Sir Thomas Pearson, K. C. B., an officer much distinguished in Canada during the war of 1812.

A third married Colonel Kirkwood of the British Army and went to live in Bath, England.

A fourth married John Barnett, Esq., also an officer in the British Army, who subsequently occupied a high official position in the Island of Ceylon.

The fifth, Mary, married Charles R. Ogden, Esq., Attorney-General, Lower Canada.

ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN was the fourth son of Nathaniel, the Cashier. He was born in Boston in 1759. At eight years of age he entered the Boston Latin School. He was a diligent student in a class that embraced numerous celebrities and when in Parliament he acknowledged himself indebted to the methods and discipline of the Boston schools for his apt classical quotations, then a mode much in vogue in that august assemblage. His constitution was, however, too vigorous, his animal spirits too buoyant for scholarship alone to mark his schoolboy days. He led the sports of the playground and was the leader on the 5th of November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder plot. Boston was a pleasant place to dwell in, broad stretches of tree or turf, sloping pastures, and blooming gardens, surrounded the abodes of the wealthy. Tide water fresh from the ocean, spread nearly around the peninsular. Beyond these basins, wooded heights of considerable elevation lifted themselves above boundless tree tops. For fishing, or shooting, rowing, sailing, or swimming, coasting or skating, Boston with its environs of lake, and orchard, was then the paradise for boys. It was a capital school for his play hours, and the old Latin,--the oldest school in the country,--dating from 1635, for his studies of a graver sort. There fifteen of his cousins were his school mates, a host of his own celebrities and four--Scheaffe, Moreland, Mackay, and Ochterlony--who became baronets, or generals by military service in England, he was well placed for development nor were his opportunities neglected. At the commencement of the Revolution Isaac was too young to enter into it, or to realize what it meant, but long before he entered, at the age of fourteen, the British navy, he no doubt had formed opinions of his own.[181] It was doubtless of advantage to him, quickening his faculties and maturing his character, that such events were transpiring about him at this plastic period. His sense of justice and right and of what freedom signified, proved in his subsequent career that these advantages had not been without effect.

[181] It is a singular fact that all persons of American birth that were in the navy remained loyal. Washington came very near entering the navy as midshipman and going with his brother Lawrence under Admiral Vernon to the attack on Cartagena. His trunk was packed and he was all ready to depart when his mother prevailed upon him to remain. Had he gone he would have remained loyal, or his case would have been the exception.

At the age of fourteen Isaac entered the Royal navy under the auspices of Rear Admiral Montague. By him he was confided to the care of Lieutenant William Hunter, at that time commanding the Brig Gaspee and who then spoke of his pupil, "Of all the young men I ever had the care of, none answered my expectations equal to Isaac Coffin. He pleased me so much that I took all the pains in my power to make him a good seaman, and I succeeded to the height of my wishes, for never did I know a young man acquire so much nautical knowledge in so short a time." After serving on the Gaspee he served as midshipman on the Kingfisher, Captain, Diligent, Fowey, Le Pincon and the Sybl, frigate. In 1779 Coffin, now Lieutenant, went to England and joined the Adamant. His next appointment was to the London of 98 guns, the flagship of Rear Admiral Graves on the coast of America, from her he removed into the Royal Oak where he acted as signal lieutenant in the action off Cape Henry, March 16, 1781. By following such traces the naval histories of Great Britain afford of these several ships, we can reasonably conjecture the part Coffin took in the Revolutionary War. We learn what duties were performed by him on each of them, and we have no reason to doubt, from his rapid promotions, of his efficiency and zeal. We know that his patron, Admiral Montague, protected the rear of Howe's retreat from Boston in 1776, that the ships were often engaged with the enemy, and that they captured several valuable prizes in which action he

## participated. The events of the first four years of the war from 1775 to

1779 are sufficiently familiar. D'Estraing's repulse at Savannah and Prescott's evacuation of Newport in 1779, its reoccupation by Tiernay in July 1780. The reduction of Charleston, defeat of Gates at Camden. Capture at sea of Henry Laurens, president of Congress. After the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown to the combined French and American armies and French fleet, De Grasse hastened to the West Indies intending to join the Spaniards, and capture Jamaica and drive the English out of the West Indies. After the battle of March 16 at Cape Henry, on the return to New York, the Royal Oak took several valuable prizes, and then went to Halifax for repairs. In the middle of June a vessel arrived from Bristol with the remains of his father, who died the day before. Having held an important government position, his obsequies in New York on Broadway showed due regard to his memory. Isaac was placed soon after in command of Avenger, the advanced post of the British up the North River, which he held during the autumn till he exchanged with Sir Alexander Cochrane, for the Pocahontas and joined Admiral Hood at Barbados and served on his flagship, the Barfleur. Soon after Coffin joined him he learned that De Grasse was at St. Kitts, after an engagement there in which the French lost one thousand men, Hood joined Lord Rodney's fleet.

For two days the hostile fleets manoeuvered in sight of each other near Dominica. In number the fleets were equal, in size and complement of crew the French were immensely superior; they had twenty thousand soldiers on board to be used in the conquest of Jamaica; a defeat at this time would be England's ruin. The English Admiral was aware that his country's fate was in his hands. It was one of those supreme moments which great men dare to use and weak ones tremble at. At seven in the morning, April 12, 1782, the signal to engage was flying at the masthead of the Formidable Rodney's flagship. The Admiral lead in person and in passing through the enemy's line engaged the Glorieux, a 74, at close range. He shot away her masts and bowsprit and left her a bare hull. All day long the cannons roared and one by one the French ships struck their flags or fought till they sank. The carnage on them was terrible, crowded as they were with troops. Fourteen thousand were reckoned as killed besides the prisoners. The Barfleur, Hood's flagship, on which was Coffin engaged the "Ville de Paris," the flagship of the French Admiral, the pride of France, and the largest ship in the world. After fighting valiantly all day, after all hope was gone, and a broadside from the Barfleur had killed sixty men, she surrendered. Her decks above and below were littered over with mangled limbs and bodies. It was said when she struck there were but three men on the upper deck unhurt, the Count was one. The French fleet was totally destroyed, and on that memorable day Yorktown was avenged, and the British empire was saved. Peace followed but it was peace with honor. The American Colonies were lost but England kept her West Indies. The hostile strength of Europe all combined had failed to wrest Britannia's ocean sceptre from her. She sat down, maimed and bleeding, but the wreath had not been torn from her brows. She was and is still the sovereign of the seas. After the battle Captain Coffin went in his sloop to Jamaica, where through the influence of Hood, he was appointed by Lord Rodney captain of the Shrewsbury, of 74 guns; he was then only 22 years of age. This indicated the estimate of both Hood and Rodney of the value of his services in the late famous battle. Peace soon came, but there was much to discourage him. His family was broken up. The remains of his father lay in their last resting place in New York. The Shrewsbury was paid off, and he was put out of commission. He was his own master with abundance of prize money. Many of his family and friends from Boston had taken up their abode in London, and the refugee loyalists formed there a large circle. They all liked Isaac, a handsome young fellow with pleasant ways, generous and unpretending and loaded with laurels. He was held in high estimation by the great naval celebrities and by the public, their attention might have turned the head of one less sensible.

Sir Guy Carleton, who had been created Lord Dorchester, could hardly have saved Canada for the Crown in 1775 without the aid of the Coffins, was now appointed Governor of Canada. It was probably at his request that Isaac was appointed to the command of the Thisbe, to take him and his family and suite to Quebec in 1786. While on his way up the river to Quebec the Thisbe was becalmed off the Magdalen Islands, and struck by their appearance, perhaps the more attractive from the autumnal splendor, Coffin requested, probably not in very serious earnest, that Lord Dorchester as representative of the Crown, would bestow them on him. This request seemed reasonable to the governor, and eventually letters patent were granted to him on the Islands. The records recite the grant of the islands to him for his zeal and unremitting persevering efforts in the public service. At Sir Isaac's death he left the island by will to his nephew, Admiral John T. Coffin, who died in 1882. On his return to Europe he was employed in many branches of the service. In 1794 he was in charge of the Melampus frigate, in 1796 he was resident commissioner of Corsica. From Elba he removed to Lisbon, to take charge of the naval establishment there for the next two years. He was then dispatched to superintend the arsenal at Port Mahon when Minorca fell into the hands of the British, and from there to Nova Scotia, in the Venus frigate. At Halifax and afterwards at Sheerness, as resident commissioner, he was employed till April 1804, when appointed rear admiral he hoisted his flag on the Gladiator, and the following month was created a baronet.

March, 1811, he married Elizabeth Browne, but within a few years satisfied of their utter incompatibility, they very amicably, on both sides, arranged for independence of each other. She was said to be addicted to writing sermons at night to the disturbance of the slumber of her rollicking spouse. The fault was certainly not hers, for she was a clever and exemplary woman. She lived nearly as long as he did, but they rarely met, though he made repeated overtures to reconciliation, some rather amusing. It is the reasonable ambition of all Englishmen, whose conditions and circumstances justify such aspirations, to be permitted to take part in the legislation and government of the country, and when Sir Isaac's health and peace rendered active service in the navy no longer desirable, his wish was gratified by his return to Parliament in 1818 for the borough of Ilchester for which he sat till 1826. His reputation and experience, gave considerable weight to his opinion when he took part as he frequently did in debates on naval affairs. He was tall, robust, but of symmetrical proportions, his voice powerful, and his countenance expressive and noble. Sir Isaac died at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, June 23, 1839, at the age of 80. Lady Coffin preceded him to the tomb on the 27th of January that year. His brother, General John Coffin, died the year previous, June 12, 1838, in New Brunswick. Sir Isaac made frequent visits to his native town, having made more than thirty voyages to and from America. The many brilliant gentlemen of Boston in professional life, or among its merchant princes, affluent and convivial, were pleased to have him as their guest. Loyalty to the mother country died out slowly, and a Boston born boy, who had attained great distinction, whose kinsfolk had ample means for hospitality, had much attention paid him. His kinsman, Thomas C. Amory writes, "Often when at my father's, who resided in Park street, where now is the Union Club house, the festal entertainments extended into the small hours, and those upon whom it devolved to sit up to receive the roisters, would gladly welcome from far off his shout of 'Home ahoy!' breaking the silent watches of the night."

His prize money amounted to considerable. This he entrusted to his cousin Amory in Boston, and the income finally equalled the original deposit.

He was very generous to his native land. Soon after the war ended he established a schoolship in Massachusetts waters, for mates and skippers to learn the art of navigation. The barge Clio which he purchased for the purpose, was commanded by his kinsman, Captain Hector Coffin, who was imprudent enough in 1826 to go up in her to Quebec with the American flag flying and act in a very indiscreet manner, and when his brother, General John Coffin, of New Brunswick, urged him to abandon what gave umbrage at home, he acquiesced in giving up what had cost him several thousand pounds. He also sent over to the land of his birth famous race horses and cattle to improve the breed; also fish, rare fruit and plants.

He was warmly attached to Nantucket, where his ancestors and their descendants had dwelt for many generations. He visited the place and became acquainted with his kinsfolk and in 1826 appropriated $12,000 afterwards increased till now it is upwards of $60,000, as a fund for a school for the instruction of the posterity of Tristram. This includes nearly every native born child of the island. The Duke of Clarence, William the Fourth, who succeeded his brother George to the throne, through his long connection with the navy, attached to him the officers who had grown old with him. It is said the King had Sir Isaac upon his list as Earl of Magdalen and intended to make him Governor of Canada, and the only obstacle that prevented it was the attachment he had for the land of his birth.

This memoir of a Boston boy, who by dint of his own native energy attained a title, and the highest rank in the British navy, and a generous benefactor, whose works still bear witness to the noble impulse that prompted them, will ever be kindly remembered and cherished by his countrymen.

Jonathan Perry Coffin, Sir Isaac's youngest brother, born in Boston in 1762, was a barrister of repute in London.

JOHN COFFIN, the third son of William and Ann Coffin, was born in Boston, August 19, 1729, and was brother of Nathaniel, the Cashier, and uncle of General John, and Admiral, Sir Isaac Coffin. In the confiscation Act he was described as distiller, and combined this business, no doubt, with that of merchant and ship owner. Loyal to the core, and knowing that he was a marked man, he resolved early in 1775, to place his family in safety. Embarking, therefore, his household goods, his wife and eleven children, on board his own schooner, the Neptune, he brought them around safely to Quebec where on the 23d August, 1775, he bought from "La Dame Veuve Lacroix" a piece of land at the _pres de ville_, well known during the siege which followed as the "Potash." He went to work with characteristic energy to establish a distillery, when his work was interrupted by that celebrated event. In the autumn the Revolutionary forces under Arnold and a former British officer, Montgomery, invaded the Province, and Quebec was invested. Late in the year John Coffin joined the Quebec enrolled British militia and the building he had designed for a distillery, became a battery for the defence of the approach from Wolfe's cove. The battery was armed with the guns of a privateer frozen in for the winter. Her commander, Barnsfare, and his seamen handled the pieces, and by his side John Coffin, the Boston Loyalist, shared the merit of the defence.

Before that battery, on the memorable morning of the 1st January, 1776, fell, General Montgomery, and the chief officers of his staff, and with them the last hopes of the Revolutionary cause in Canada.

In a paper prepared by his nephew, Lieutenant-Colonel Coffin of Ottawa, read before the Literary and Historical society of Quebec Dec. 18, 1872, it is shown on the testimony of Sir Guy Carleton, then Governor of Canada, and of Colonel Maclean, Commandant of Quebec, "that to the resolution and watchfulness of John Coffin, in keeping the guard at the _pres de ville_ under arms, awaiting the expected attack, the coolness with which he allowed the rebels to approach, the spirits which his example kept up among the men, and to the critical instant when he directed Captain Barnsfare's fire against Montgomery and his troops, is to be ascribed the repulse of the rebels from that important post where, with their leader, they lost all heart."

There can be no question but that the death of Montgomery and the repulse of this attack, saved Quebec, and with Quebec, British North America to the British Crown, and that of the brave men who did this deed John Coffin was one of the foremost.

John Coffin died September 28, 1808, aged 78, as the record of his burial has it, "One of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace of the City of Quebec and Inspector of Police for said City."

He had thirteen children born to him, 11 survived him. Directly, or indirectly, all throve under the fostering protection of the Crown and a grateful government. The eldest daughter, Isabella, married Colonel McMurdo. Her sons served in India, a grandson was captain in the Royal Canadian Rifles, when that fine regiment disbanded at Kingston in 1870.

The second daughter, Susannah, married the Hon. John Craigie of Quebec, Provincial Treasurer, a brother of Lord Craigie, Lord of Sessions in Scotland. One son, Admiral Craigie, died in 1872. A daughter married Captain Martin, who led one of the storming parties at the capture of Fort Niagara in 1814.

MARGARET, the youngest daughter, married her cousin, Roger Hale Sheaffe. At the time of the marriage he was major in Brock's regiment. That gallant officer was slain at Queenstown Heights at 7 o'clock in the morning. At noon Colonel Sheaffe moved up from Niagara, attacked the American forces and hurled them from the rocks into the river. For this great service he was made a Baronet.

Of John Coffin's sons, the oldest, JOHN, born in Boston in 1760, died Deputy Commissary-General at Quebec, March, 1837.

WILLIAM, the second son, born in Boston, 1761, obtained a commission in the 1st Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment. Subsequently through the kind influence of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent, he obtained a commission in the regular army and served half the world over. He retired from the service in 1816 a captain in the 15th Regiment and Brevet Major, and died in England in 1836. His son WILLIAM FOSTER COFFIN, was Commissioner of Ordnance and Admiralty, Land Department of the Interior, Canada. This gentleman married, in 1842, MARGARET, second daughter of Isaac Winslow Clarke, of Montreal, who, in 1774, was the youngest member of the firm of Richard Clarke and Sons of Boston, to which was consigned the historical cargo of tea. He rose to the rank of Deputy Commissary General, and after 50 years service died in 1822.

The third son, THOMAS COFFIN, born in Boston, 1762, was a member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada, and Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia. He married a Demoiselle de Tonancour and lived and died at Three Rivers, 1841. A son of his was for many years Prothonotary for the District of Montreal.

The fifth son, FRANCIS HOLMES COFFIN, born in Boston, 1768, entered the Royal Navy and served during the long war with France, and died an Admiral in 1835. His eldest son, General Sir Isaac Coffin, K. C. Star of India, died at Black Heath, October, 1872.

The fourth son, NATHANIEL COFFIN, born in Boston, 1766, lived and died in Upper Canada. In the war of 1812 he joined the volunteer companies and was aide-de-camp to Sir Roger Sheaffe at the battle of Queenstown Heights, where General W. Scott was taken prisoner. He became Adjutant General of Militia in Upper Canada. He died at Toronto in 1835.

The sixth son, JAMES, born in Boston, 1771, died at Quebec in 1835, Assistant Commissary-General.

These Boston men and women, sons and daughters of brave John Coffin, are all living instances of the loyal faith in which they were born, and of its honorable and just reward of a grateful and kind government, and is but one case of many which goes to show that the Americans who were loyal, as a body fared infinitely better than the Revolutionists who were successful. It is proverbial that republics are ungrateful.

Today their descendants are organized as the United Empire Loyalists and count it an honor that their ancestors suffered persecution and exile rather than yield the principals and the ideal of union with Great Britain. They have made of the land of their exile a mighty member of the great British empire, they begin to glory in the days of trial through which they passed.

LIST OF JOHN COFFIN'S CONFISCATED ESTATES IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Christopher Clark, Aug. 9, 1783; Lib. 139, fol. 151; Land in Boston, Essex St. S.; Short St. W.; Joseph Ford E.; Thomas Snow N.

To Moses Wallack, Mar. 12, 1785; Lib. 146, fol. 260; Land in Boston, Essex St. S.; said Wallack W.; S. and W.; Blind Lane N.; Thomas Downes and Samuel Bradley E.

To Edward Jones, Feb. 13, 1786; Lib. 155, fol. 111; Land in Boston, Essex St. N.; the sea S.; sugar house and land of heirs of Thomas Child deceased E.; Mary Pitman and heirs of Samuel Bradley W.; with flats to low water mark.

JUDGE SAMUEL CURWEN.

The paternal ancestry of Samuel Curwen, the subject of this sketch were for many centuries amongst the leading families in the county of Cumberland, in the north of England, where the family seat Workington Hall still remains, George Curwin his immediate ancestor was an early emigrant to New England, having established his residence in Salem in 1638. He was highly esteemed for his active, and energetic character, and for several years represented Salem in the "General Court" or Legislature of the colony. He also commanded a squadron of horse in the Indian wars and assisted in checking the inroads of the savage enemy. He died at Salem in 1685 at the age of 74 years, leaving a large estate. His son Jonathan was of the provincial council named in the second charter granted by William and Mary in 1691, and a judge of the superior court of the province. He married a daughter of Sir Henry Gibbs and their son George was the father of the subject of this sketch. George Curwin graduated at Harvard College in 1701 and was pastor of a church at Salem. He died in 1717 at the early age of thirty-five years. The subject of this memoir was born in 1715 and graduated at Harvard College in 1735. In 1738 he traveled in England and the Continent. On his return he engaged in commercial pursuits with success. His business was subsequently interrupted by the depredation of French cruisers fitted out from Louisburg. In 1744-5 Mr. Curwin as a captain and his brother as a commissary joined an expedition for the reduction of that stronghold. The result of the expedition was completely successful, and reflected great credit on the participators in it.

Annexed is a cut of the Curwin House, Salem, erected by Captain Curwin in 1642, now known as the witch house. The unfortunate persons arrested during the witchcraft delusion were examined in this house by Justices Jonathan Curwin and Hawthorn before being committed.

[Illustration: CURWIN HOUSE, SALEM. ERECTED IN 1642.]

At the commencement of the Revolution Samuel Curwin was Judge of Admiralty and had been in the commission of the peace for thirty years. He was one of the signers of the address to Governor Hutchinson when he went to England. This gave great offence to the disunionists, they attempted to compel him to make public recantations in the newspapers. This he refused to do, saying that the prescribed recantation contained more than in conscience he could own, and that to live under the character of reproach, which the fury of the mob might throw upon him, was too painful a reflection to suffer for a moment. He therefore resolved to withdraw from the impending storm. He accordingly embarked for Philadelphia on the 23rd of April, 1775, and thence to London on the 13th of the following month. While in exile he kept a journal, which has been published. No work extant contains so much information of the unfortunate Loyalists while abroad. The journal commences at Philadelphia, May 4th, 1775, and says: "Since the unhappy affairs at Concord and Lexington, finding the spirit of the people to rise on every fresh alarm, (which has been almost hourly) and their temper to get more and more soured and malevolent against all moderate men, who they see fit to reproach as enemies of their country by the name of tories, among whom I am unhappily (although unjustly) ranked, and unable longer to bear their undeserved reproaches and menace, hourly denounced against myself, and others, I think it a duly I owe to myself to withdraw for a while from the storm, which to my foreboding mind is approaching. Having in vain endeavored to persuade my wife to accompany me, her apprehensions of danger from an incensed soldiery, a people licentious, and enthusiastically mad, and broke loose from all the restraints of law or religion, being less terrible to her than a short passage on the ocean, and being moreover encouraged by her, I left my late peaceful home (in my sixtieth year) in search of personal security, and those rights which by the laws of God I ought to have enjoyed undisturbed there, and embarked at Beverly on board the schooner Lively, Captain Johnson, bound hither, on Sunday the 23rd ultimo, and have just arrived. Hoping to find an asylum among quakers and Dutchmen, who I presume from former experience have too great a regard for ease and property to sacrifice either at this time of doubtful disputation on the altar of an unknown goddess or rather doubtful divinity."

On landing he writes "I went in pursuit of lodgings, and on enquiring at several houses, ascertained they were full or for particular reasons would not take me in; and so many refused, as made it fearful whether like Cain I had not a discouraging mark upon me, or a strong feature of toryism. The whole city appears to be deep in congressional principles and inveterate against _Hutchinson Addressers_." Under date of May 9th, 1775, he writes, "Dined with Stephen Collins. Passed the evening at Joseph Reed's in company with Col. Washington (a fine figure and of most easy and agreeable address) Richard Henry Lee, and Col. Harrison, three of the Virginia delegates. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Reed, were Mrs. Deberatt, Dr. Shippen and Thomas Smith. I staid till twelve o'clock, the conversation being chiefly on the most feasible and prudent method of stepping up the channel of the Deleware to prevent the coming up of any large ships to the city. I could not perceive the least disposition to accommodate matters." He wrote, "Having had several intimations that my residence here would be unpleasant, if allowed at all, when it shall be known that I am what is called '_an addresser_' I have therefore consulted the few friends I think it worth while to advise with, and on the result am determined to proceed to London in the vessel in which I came here."

Following is a brief description of the journal, which Curwin kept while in England, the four hundred and more pages contain matters of the deepest interest to those who are interested in the lives of those Loyalists who returned to England, July 3, 1775. "On landing at Dover, visited the Castle. Next day arrived at the New England Coffee House, Threadneedle Street. Visited Westminster Hall with my friend Benjamin Pickering. Went to old Jewery meeting-house where I met Gov. Hutchinson, and his son and daughter, and received a cordial reception and invitation to visit him. There is an army of New Englanders here. Evening to Vauxhall Gardens. Spent the day at Hempstead in company with Isaac Smith, Samuel Quincy, David Greene, and P. Webster. I am just informed of the most melancholy event, the destruction of Charlestown by the King's troops, of great carnage among the officers. My distress and anxiety for my friends and countrymen embitter every hour. By invitation dined at Grocers' Company feast, at their hall in the Poultry. Dined with Governor Hutchinson in company with Mr. Joseph Green, Mr. Manduit and Mr. Ward Nicholas Boylston. It is a capital mistake of our American friends to expect insurrections here, there is not a shadow of hope for such an event. It is said most vigorous measures will take place in the spring, if no offer be made on the part of the colonies. Visited Hampton Court, and Gardens. Thence to Windsor. From the terrace we saw almost under our feet Eaton college. Saw Mr. Garrick in Hamlet at Drury Lane. To the Herald's office where Parson Peters, with his friend Mr. Punderson lodges, the latter has lately arrived from Boston. It seems he was harshly dealt with by the _sons of liberty_, being obliged to make two confessions to save his life notwithstanding which he was hunted, pursued, and threatened, and narrowly escaped death (or the Simsbury mines to which he was finally adjudged, and he thinks with the loss of his eyes) which would have been his fate but for his seasonable and providential retreat.[182] At Chapel Royal, St. James, saw the king and queen, who joined in the service with becoming devotion. Bishop of London preached. To the Adelphia, Strand, where by appointment met twenty-one of my countrymen, who have agreed on a weekly dinner here, viz., Messrs. Richard Clark, Joseph Green, Jonathan Bliss, Jonathan Sewell, Joseph Waldo, S. S. Blowers, Elisha Hutchinson, Wm. Hutchinson, Samuel Sewell, Samuel Quincy, Isaac Smith, Harrison Grey, David Green, Jonathan Clark, Thomas Flucker, Joseph Taylor, Daniel Silsbee, Thomas Brindley, William Cabot, John S. Copley and Nathaniel Coffin, Samuel Porter, Edward Oxnard, Benj. Pickman, Jno. Amory, Judge Robert Auchmuty and Major Urquhart, absent, are members of this New England club, as is also Gov. Hutchinson. At Parson Peters saw Mr. Troutbeck, lately arrived from Halifax, and Mr. Wiswall, mutually invited each other to visit and gave cards. Drank tea at Mr. Green's in company with Gov. Hutchinson, whom I had not seen for some weeks, and who expressed an uneasiness at my neglect to call. I called at Mr. Copley's to see Mr. Clark and the family who kindly pressed my staying to tea. Was presented to Mr. West, a Philadelphian, a most masterly hand in historic painting. Mr. West is the king's history painter. Called on my friend Browne. He acquainted me with some facts relative to the unfortunate abandonment of Boston by the king's troops, which has all the appearance of being forced. Would to God this illjudged, unnatural quarrel was ended."

[182] For description of Simsbury mines see pp. 56-57.

Went to Shepton Mallet.[183] Walked to the market-cross, an open structure supported by Gothic arches and pillars, and ornamented in front by a few mutilated statues, but whether of saints or heroes of antiquity, I know not. A few gentlemen of fortune live here, but many worthy clothiers. Walked with Mr. Morgan over the hills to the remains of Roman-way, the ditch continues, although in an imperfect state, and carried over the Meridep hills, running from north to south and from shore to shore. Rode to Bath. Met Col. Saltonstall who with Mr. Boyleston has taken lodgings here for sometime past. Visited Glastonbury Abbey ruins. In the Bristol Gazette is the following: 'Gov. Howe has landed the British army and taken possession of New York on the 15th of September, the provincials had fled from the city with great precipitation, towards Kingsbridge.' There have been some discouraging accounts from France, respecting the intention of that court to assist the colonies, and advices from Spain say their ports are open to the English colonists. Received a letter informing me of my wife's health, and that she had been obliged to pay ten pounds sterling to find a man for the American army in my stead. Dec. 14. This day, General Burgoyne's mortifying capitulation arrived in town. We all know the General's bravery, and skill. He did not surrender whilst there was a possibility of defence. On confirmation of the American news, Manchester offered to raise a thousand men at their own expense, to be ready for service in America in two months, and was soon followed after by Liverpool. It is said there are to be proposals for raising two thousand men out of each parish through the kingdom.

[183] The native town of the author, J. H. Stark.

Lord North, has proposed terms of reconciliation, but nothing short of independency will go down with the colonies. France will support them, all thoughts of conquest, of unconditional submission, be assured are given up. I am fully convinced the colonies will never find any good purpose answered by independence. God only knows what is before us. I cannot review the state of Great Britain four years since, and regard the present crisis without horror, without trembling. France and Spain are armed from head to foot at all points ready to sally forth. Heard the dreaded sound, war declared against France.

Exeter, Sept. 6. Am informed that I am suspected to be an American spy disaffected to government. Have heard that Paul Jones in the French king's service, has taken a forty-four gun frigate, and entered the harbor of Hull and destroyed sixteen ships.

Visited Col. Erving and family, afterwards dined and took tea with my worthy friend Judge Sewall, his company Mr. and Mrs. Faneuil. From thence I went to see Mrs. Gardner, her husband the doctor, and their daughter Love Eppes. Meeting Colonel Oliver, late lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, he informed me of his residence.

Visited Mr. Lechmere, drank tea with Judge Sewall, Captain Carpenter, young Jonathan Gardner, both of Salem, and a Mr. Leavitt, having arrived in a cartel ship from Boston, dined and passed the afternoon and evening. From them I obtained much information relating to our country and town. Those who five years, ago were the "_meaner people_" are now by a strange revolution become the only men of power, riches and influence. Those who, on the contrary, were leaders in the highest line of life, are glad at this time to be unknown, and unnoticed, to escape insult, and plunder, the wretched condition of all who are not violent, and adopters of republican principles. The Cabots of Beverly, who you know, had but five years ago a very moderate share of property, are now said to be by far the most wealthy in New England. It is a melancholy truth that whilst some are wallowing in undeserved wealth, that plunder and rapine has thrown into their hands, the wisest, most peaceable and most deserving such as you and I know are now suffering want, accompanied by many indignities that a licentious, lawless people can pour forth upon them.

The number of Americans in Bristol are compiled in the following list: Col. Oliver and six daughters. Mr. R. Lechmere, his brother Nicholas, with wife and two daughters. Mr. John Vassal, wife and niece, Miss Davis, Mr. Barnes, wife and niece, Miss Arbuthnot, Mr. Nathaniel Coffin, wife and family. Mr. Robert Hallowell, wife and children. Judge Sewell, wife, sister, and two sons. Samuel Sewall with his kinsman. Mr. Faneuil, and wife. Mr. Francis Waldo and Mr. Simpson, together with Mrs. Borland, a son and three daughters.

April 24, 1780. This day, five years are completed since I abandoned my house, estate, effects and friends. God only knows whether I shall ever be restored to them, or they to me. Party rage, like jealousy and superstition is cruel as the grave;--that moderation is a crime and in times of civil confusions, many good, virtuous and peaceable persons now suffering banishment from America are the wretched proofs and instances. By letter from Salem from our friend Pynchon, all our friends there are well and longing, but almost without hope, for the good old times as is the common saying now except among those as he expresses it, whose enormous heaps have made them easy and insolent, and to wish for a continuance of those confusions by which they grow rich.

London, Oct. 30th, 1781. To Samuel Sewell, Esq., You wish me to write you favorable news from America. Would to God such was to be found written in the book of fate. The French you know are in possession of the Chesapeake, with a much superior fleet to that of Great Britain, for they reckon thirty-six capital ships to our twenty-four, even after Digby's junction. General Cornwallis's royal master is in the utmost distress for him, who, all the world here fears to hear will have been _Burgoyned_ and therefore an end to this cursed, ill-omened quarrel, though not in a way they wish, for which the instigators and continuers deserve execution. At New England Coffee House heard the glorious news of Admiral Rodney's defeat and capture of the French Admiral de Grasse, with five capital ships and one sunk.

London, March 17, 1783. Before the preliminaries are ratified or hostilities ceased in the channel an American ship laden with oil, with thirteen stripes flying, came into the river from Nantucket. The ship, Captain Holton Johnson of Lynn, with whom I came from America, was, by a revolution common at such periods translated into a legislator in our Massachusetts Assembly, being about two months in London, told me that had not his interests and efforts prevailed, my name would have been inserted in the banishment list, and my estate confiscated, the reason, if any, must be private spite and malice, no public crime was ever alleged, but merely leaving the country in her distress. If success is justification, I confess my guilt. Read a Boston newspaper, where I saw poor Coomb's estate in Marblehead advertised for sale. I really pity my poor fellow refugee and think him cruelly treated by his savage townsmen. At New England Coffee House to read the papers filled with relations of the rising spirit of Americans against the refugees, in their towns and assemblies. Intoxicated by success under no fear of punishment, they give an unrestrained loose to their angry, malevolent passions attribute to the worst of causes the opposition to their licentious, mobbish violation of all laws human and divine; and even some of the best of the republican party seem to think at least their practice squints that way, that the supposed goodness of their cause will justify murder, rapine, and the worst of crimes. But cool impartial posterity will pass a better judgment, and account for the violence of the times from party rage which knows no bounds.

[Illustration: SAMUEL CURWEN.

Born at Salem in 1715. Judge of Admiralty. Died at Salem in 1802.]

London, Aug. 9, 1783. By the newspapers from America, particularly our quarter, I find there but slender grounds of hope for success in attempting the recovery of debts or estates; a general shipwreck is seemingly intended of all absentees' property--the towns in their instructions to the representatives making it a point to prevent the return of them, and consequent confiscations of all their property, notwithstanding the provision in the fifth preliminary article. These lawless people regard not any obstacle when the gratification of their angry passions or the object of gain are in view. For an explicit answer, "Do you propose to spend the remainder of your days abroad?" The wished for period of my return is not arrived, it is a subject I consider with some indifference, age and infirmities having made such inroads on my constitution as leave me but little to hope, or fear from the result of public councils, or the imprudence of private conduct. I am free to declare my apprehension that the lower, illiterate classes, narrow-minded and illiberal all over the world, have too much influence. Oct. 6. This day was proclaimed peace with France, Spain, and Holland. At New England Coffee House in company with Mr. Nathaniel Gorham, lately arrived from Boston, whom I had well known. He is a native of Charlestown, late a member of Congress, and of the Massachusetts Assembly, and who is now here on the score of obtaining a benevolence for the sufferers at the destruction of that town June 17, 1775, by the king's troops, which all things considered, carries with it such a face of effrontery as is not to be matched. Invited him to tea; received a letter from my wife's brother, James Russell. To him he replied, I thank you for your favor of the 21st of August, the first from you since my unhappy abandoning my former home in April, '75. In truth, were your sister (Mrs. Curwin) no more, there would need no act of Massachusetts, or any other assembly, or senate to prohibit my return. To his wife he writes: If it was not for your sake, or that you would follow my fortune or accompany my fate, I should not hesitate for a moment taking up my future abode, which cannot possibly be but of short continuance, somewhere out of the limits of the republican government. Wishes for the welfare of my friends still warm my heart, as to the rest, I read with cold indifference the insurrection in Pennsylvania, and the carryings-on in the late English colonies, having lost local attachment. If your fortitude has increased in the proportion that your health and spirits have improved, perhaps you will not find it an insurmountable difficulty to resolve on a land tour to Canada, or a voyage to some other English settlement. Whatever shall be the result of your thoughts let me be made acquainted therewith as soon as convenient. Should a final expulsion be concluded on, you will no longer hesitate. Captain Nathaniel West brings me a message from the principal merchants and citizens of Salem proposing and encouraging my return which instance of moderation I view as an honor to the town and respectful to myself. It affords me pleasure, and I would cheerfully accept the offer, but should the popular dislike rise against me, to what a plight should I be reduced, being at present (out for how long is a painful uncertainty) on the British government list for L100 a year (a competency for a single person exercising strict economy) to surrender this precarious allowance without public assurance of personal security. Imagine to yourself the distress of an old man, without health under such adverse circumstances and you will advise me to wait with resignation till the several Assemblies shall have taken decisive measures. Went to the Treasury and there received the agreeable information that the commissioners had granted my petition to appoint an agent to receive my quarterly allowance, after my departure from England, on making satisfactory proof of my being alive at the successive periods of payment. From this date an end to my doubts respecting my embarkation, its issue time must reveal. I know not in what employment I am to pass the small remainder of my days, should Providence permit my safe return home, but I shall not think part of it ill-bestowed in directing and assisting the studies and pursuits of my niece's children who are just of an age to receive useful ideas--with regard to the English, Latin, and Greek tongues. Sept. 25, 1784. Arrived at Boston at half past three o'clock. Landed at the end of Long Wharf after an absence of nine years and five months, occasioned by a lamented civil war. By plunder and rapine some have accumulated wealth, but many more are greatly injured in their circumstances. Some have to lament over the wreck of their departed wealth and estates, of which pitiable number I am, my affairs sunk into irretrievable ruin. On Sunday, being the day following, I left for Salem, where I alighted at the house of my former residence, and not a man, woman, or child, but expressed a satisfaction at seeing me, and welcomed me back. The melancholy derangement of my affairs has so entirely unsettled me, that I can scarcely attend to anything. I think it very unlikely that my home can be saved.[184] Salem, Nov. 22, 1784. Judge Curwin wrote to his friend Judge Sewall, Bristol, England, saying: "I find myself completely ruined. I confess I cannot bear to stay and perish under the ruins of my late ample property and shall therefore as soon as I can recover my account-books, left in Philadelphia on my departure from America and settle my deranged affairs, retreat to Nova Scotia, unless my allowance be taken from me." He however remained at Salem where he passed the remainder of his days dying in 1802 at the age of eighty-six. The foregoing brief abstracts from Curwin's Journal give some of the things which he saw and heard, and the hopes and fears which agitated him and his fellow exiles. He left no children. Samuel Curwin Ward, a grandson of his brother George, at the request of Judge Curwin, took his name by an act of the Legislature, and his descendants are all that now bear the name in New England.

[184] It was saved from confiscation by his wife remaining in it during the war, and her furnishing a substitute for her husband to serve in the army.

JAMES MURRAY.

James Murray was a direct descendant of Sir John Murray of Philiphaugh, Scotland, who sat in Parliament for the County of Selkirk in 1612. Sir John's second son, was John Murray of Bowhill. This John Murray was the father of John Murray of Unthank, born in 1677, who in turn was the father of James Murray, the subject of this notice, who was born in 1713 at Unthank. Here on this ancestral estate he passed the first fifteen years of his life, after the wholesome manner of Scotch lads--porridge-fed, bare legged--he protested in after life against his grandson wearing stockings. The people amongst whom he lived had married, thriven and multiplied until the population had become one vast cousinship, bound together by that clannish loyalty which, quite apart from pride of name, is ineradicable in the Scots to the present day. Through the influence of Sir John Murray he was apprenticed to William Dunbar of London, a merchant in the West India trade. On the death of his father, he received a thousand pounds as his share of the estate. With this small patrimony he decided to try his fortune in the New World. His objective point in his new venture was the Cape Fear Region in North Carolina. The Carolinas having shaken off their proprietary rule were now entering, it was hoped, upon a more prosperous period as dependencies of the Crown. Gabriel Johnson, a Scotchman who had been a physician and professor at St. Andrews University, had been recently appointed Governor. This made some stir in Scottish circles, a fact which directed James Murray's desire to this particular Colony. With letters of recommendation to Governor Johnson, he embarked at Gravesend, September 20, 1735, for Charleston. He settled at Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River, and purchased a house in town and a plantation of 500 acres and Negro slaves. He was also appointed collector of the Port, and in 1729 he was appointed a member of the Board of Councillors. In 1737 Mr. Murray received news of the death of his mother. This necessitated a journey to Scotland to settle her estate. On returning he brought with him his younger brother and his sister Elizabeth, not quite fourteen years of age. She was installed as his housekeeper, and then began that affectionate intimacy between them which was perhaps the most vital and enduring element in the life of each. James Murray prospered as a planter and merchant. He imported from England such goods as the colonists required and in exchange sent to England naval stores, tar, pitch, and turpentine.

In 1744 he returned to Scotland with his sister Elizabeth, married his cousin, Barbara Bennet, and remained in England and Scotland for five years. On his return in 1749, accompanied by his wife and daughter and his sister Elizabeth, their ship put into Boston, and he returned alone to Wilmington, leaving his family in Boston, because, as he wrote, "they had an opportunity of spending three of the most disagreeable months of this climate in that poor Healthy Place, New England--their health they owe to God's goodness, their poverty to their own bad policy and to their Popular Government." His sister Elizabeth remained in Boston and married Thomas Campbell, a Scotchman, merchant and trader. Their married life was short, for the husband died in a few years.

A comfortable, prosperous figure in Boston at that time was Mr. James Smith, a Scotchman, a sugar-baker, whose refinery had been in working since 1729 or before and who had amassed wealth as well as years. His home on Queen Street, now Court Street, was central in position, surrounded by other residences of its kind, yet conveniently near his sugar house, which stood in Brattle Street, between the old church and what was known as Wing's Lane. At the same time it was not far from King's Chapel. As one of the Church Wardens of King's Chapel and a generous contributor to its needs Mr. Smith stood high in the esteem of his fellow townsmen and the few allusions to him in the records and traditions of his day indicate that he was no less genial a friend than an open handed citizen. Mr. Smith married Mrs. Campbell in 1760. "I can assure you," wrote James Murray in 1761, "they both enjoy a happiness which is rarely met with in a match of such disparity." Her brother rejoiced in this marriage, which he declared placed her "in the best circumstances of any of her sex in the town." Prosperity for one member of the family must help for all. Boston thus became a second home for the Murrays in America.

[Illustration: COUNTY RESIDENCE OF JAMES SMITH, BRUSH HILL, MILTON.

BUILT IN 1734.]

Shortly after his sister's marriage he lost his wife and all his children but two, owing to the unhealthy climate. This caused him to leave the South and his opinion of New England was changed, for he wrote at this time, 1760, "you cannot well imagine what a land of health, plenty and contentment this is among all ranks, vastly improved within these ten years. The war on this continent has been a blessing to the English subjects and a calamity to the French, especially in the Northern Colonies, for we have got nothing by it in Carolina."

In 1761 Mr. Murray married Miss Thompson, a daughter of Mrs. Mackay, who lived on King Street. The marriage proved to be a fortunate one for Mr. Murray's two daughters as well as for the two most concerned. Mr. Smith was withdrawing from the sugar business and wished Mr. Murray to take it up. He was, however, in no haste to be off from his plantation, which he really loved, but at last the break was made and in 1765 he removed to Boston to cast in his lot permanently. Mr. Murray had warm friends in Boston and felt himself in congenial surroundings. He occupied Mr. Smith's home on the corner of Queen Street, the Smiths reserving a portion of it for themselves, though their permanent residence was now at Brush Hill, Milton. Mr. Smith had purchased in 1734, and subsequently, 300 acres at Brush Hill and erected the mansion house now owned and occupied by Murray Howe.

Mr. Smith's long life came to an end on the 4th of March, 1769. He died at Brush Hill and was buried from his home on Queen Street. Mrs. Smith returned to Scotland and before leaving she made over to her brother the Brush Hill Farm, in trust for his daughters, Dorothy and Elizabeth. This was very fortunate, as it afterwards turned out, for it saved it from confiscation. Mr. Murray, with much content, established himself there, hoping to "run off the dregs of his days" in peace. Of the farm he had given his brother, some years before, a graphic description; it was in many respects as pleasantly situated as Governor Hutchinson's. It had, he said "a good house, well furnished, good garden and orchards, meadows and pasturage, in 300 acres. A riverlet washed it and by several windings lost itself between two bushy hills, before it ran into the great bay. Of this bay, often covered with sails, and of the light-house, there is a fair prospect from the house which stands on an eminence and overlooks also a pleasant country round. It is in short one of the pleasantest and most convenient seats I see in the country."

Dorothy Murray, who, family traditions say, had grown to be a beautiful and fascinating young lady, accepted the hand of Rev. John Forbes, a clergyman then settled at St. Augustine, Florida. Their marriage occurred in 1769. The Forbes of Milton are the descendants.

The political turmoil in the midst of which Mr. Murray found himself upon his removal to Boston, in 1765, filled him with surprise and dismay. He had hoped, on leaving North Carolina, that he was turning his back upon rebellion, but here he had alighted upon the very seat of disorder. By force of circumstances, as well as by inclination, it was inevitable that in North Carolina, and afterwards in Massachusetts, his associates should have been those whose sympathies were on the side of law and order. The Boston of the disunionists, of Otis, Hancock, and the "brace of Adams" he never knew. "He shared so completely Hutchinson's convictions that the best interests of America were being sacrificed" by the very men who maintained they were asserting their rights and although, like those who sided with the Government, he incurred suspicion and hatred, he never to the end of his life could see himself as an enemy to the land he helped to build.[185]

[185] James Murray, Loyalist; pp. 152, 154, 155.

To such men as him, men who were averse to partisanship and whose interests centered wholly within the domestic circle, yet who could take a large impersonal view of passing events, the inevitable ban under which, as Tories, they afterward fell, bore all the sting of injustice. He wrote in 1766, "the truth is we are all the children of a most indulgent Parent, who has never asserted his authority over us, until we are grown almost to manhood and act accordingly; but were I to say so here before our Chief Ruler, the Mob, or any of their adherents, I should presently have my house turned inside out."

When the troops sent by General Gage from New York arrived in Boston and were refused shelter in various places under control of the disunionists, Mr. Murray came forward and the sugar house was opened to them for barracks. Thenceforth "Murray's Barracks" or "Smith's Barracks," as they were indiscriminately called, were a source of irritation to the disloyal section of the town. Moreover, his willingness to lodge British soldiers, and a free hospitality shown to British officers (among others who frequented his house was General Mackay, a relative, probably, of his wife) marked Mr. Murray as a King's man. His appointment in 1768 as a Justice of the Peace drew him still further into public notice. Popular displeasure in fact, so far distinguished him as to make him, in the autumn of the next year, the victim of a mob. The condition of affairs was rapidly growing worse. The troops were called from Murray's barracks to protect the guard on King's Street from the fury of the mob and this brought about the so-called "State Street Massacre." Then followed the Lexington affair and Bunker Hill and the siege of Boston by Washington's army. During this time Mr. Murray remained in Boston. His daughter, Mrs. Forbes, had returned from Florida and with her sister Elizabeth, lived on the farm at Brush Hill. His sister, Elizabeth Smith, had married Ralph Inman of Cambridge and while her husband remained in Boston, she stayed in the Cambridge mansion to prevent its being confiscated. Communications between Milton and Boston were carried on by vessels sailing up the Neponset.

Mr. and Mrs. Murray visited Brush Hill in this manner and Mrs. Inman even journeyed back and forth between Cambridge, Boston and Milton in this way. Finally the evil day came when the evacuation of Boston became a necessity. The consternation was indescribable. Men who had lived all their lives in Boston and were a part and parcel of it found themselves suddenly compelled to take leave of friends, old associations and property and to flee with the army to Nova Scotia. The departure of General Howe was hampered and delayed by the necessity of caring for the removal of the Loyalists. All the transports which were at hand, assisted by such other vessels as could be procured, were inadequate for the purpose. The refugees, on their part, were in a state of distraction between the impossibility of taking with them more than a small part of their possessions. Mr. Murray, like the rest, had no recourse but to sail with the troops for Halifax. The parting he must have believed to be only temporary, but it was final.

A lady writing from Brush Hill under date of May 17th, 1776, and signing herself E. F., gives a graphic description of the condition in which the Murray family were left. She writes, "This amiable family are going to be involved in new troubles. Did I fear for myself alone, I should be happy compared with what I now suffer, for I have nothing to fear from the malevolence of man, but when I see the few but valuable friends I have remaining upon the point of becoming destitute like myself my heart sinks within me, and I can not avoid exclaiming "Great God!" Surely for all these things people shall be brought to judgment. I am hunted from one retreat to another, and since I left your Ark, like Noah's dove I can find no resting place. The Committee at Cambridge have left Mrs. Inman's farm, in spite of all assiduity to prevent it and the same tribe of demons have been here to take this into possession during the life of Mr. Murray. When this affair will end, God knows. Nature is all blooming and benevolent around us. I wish to Heaven that she could inspire the breasts of this deluded people with the same affectionate glow towards each other. _May eternal curses fall on the heads of those who have been instrumental to this country's ruin._"

Again under the date of June 16th she writes, "Rejoice with me, my dear Aunt, _this infernal crew cannot succeed in taking the farm from this amiable family_. _The Almighty Father of infinite perfection will not permit them to prosper in all their wickedness._"[186]

[186] James Murray, Loyalist; pp. 248, 249, 251.

James Murray now began the weary life of banishment, the pathos of which was so many times repeated in the history of the Loyalist exiles. He first went to Halifax; there he established himself with his wife and his sister, Mrs. Gordon, but he could not be content to stay so far from his sister and his children, who remained in Boston to prevent their property from being confiscated, and soon, as he puts it, he came "creeping towards" them, hoping at least to be able more easily to communicate with them and to serve them by sending occasional supplies. He visited Newport, New York and Philadelphia. He found himself, however, no nearer the accomplishment of his wishes in New York than in Halifax and to Halifax, in 1778, after some two years spent in profitless wanderings, he returned. There he remained the rest of his life. In his last letter to his daughter dated Halifax, February 17th, 1781, he said "A man near seventy, if in his senses, _can want but little here below, nor want that little long_. Therefore the withdrawing of my salary for some time past gives me but little concern." In this letter he seems to have had a premonition of his death, for he died a few months later. The salary that he refers to was that which he received from England for several years after leaving Boston--about 150 Pounds a year as inspector of imports and exports, many sufferers received from 50 to 300 Pounds a year in addition to their salary for their present subsistence. Mrs. Inman, his sister, survived her brother but a few years and those were sad ones. Her friends were scattered, her means reduced and her health undermined. She died May 25, 1785.

ELIZABETH MURRAY, his daughter, married Edward Hutchinson Robbins, who in 1780, when but twenty-two years of age, became a member of the disloyal government and who occupied the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor and Judge of Probate. Brush Hill afterwards passed into the possession of her son, James Murray Robbins, who lived here until his death in 1885. It then passed into the possession of his nephew, James Murray Howe, its present occupant.

As previously stated, the only thing that prevented the confiscation of this estate was that Elizabeth and Dorothy Murray, to whom their aunt had given it had remained on the property during the war and would not leave it, although every effort was made to drive them off it by their disloyal neighbors. Their father was proscribed and banished under the Act of 1778, he was forbidden to return to Massachusetts and for a time did not even dare to write to his family. A daughter of Mary Robbins married a son of Paul Revere. Two of their sons fell upon the battlefield in the war for the Union, fighting on the loyal side in support of their government, giving to their country on the one hand lives derived from the disunionists and on the other from their loyal ancestor.

Rev. John Forbes wrote to his wife in 1783, just previous to his death, as follows: "Upon hearing of the peace, having all my property in Florida, I thought of going immediately to England. I might be of use to myself either by giving a short representation of the importance of retaining the province under the Crown of Great Britain or in finding early what hopes I might entertain of being in a situation of remaining in England with my united family, when the boys might be educated under my eye." After Mr. Forbes' death his wife, Dorothy Forbes, hoping to recover something from his estate as well as from her father's, made a trip to Wilmington and St. Augustine. The land which Mr. Forbes owned in Florida, which had been given over to the Spaniards, she received compensation for from the British Government. In Wilmington, however, she did not succeed, for when her father went to Boston he turned over his Cape Fear estate, which he valued at that time at L3000, to his nephew, Thomas Clark, who had recently come over from England. After the war commenced, the whole of Mr. Murray's property was confiscated. It was then claimed by Thomas Clark, who presented an account for more than the assessed value of the property for his salary for caring for it. As he had joined the disunionists it was ultimately made over to him by act of the Legislature. Mrs. Forbes tried to recover some of her patrimony, but without success. She did not even see her cousin, who wrote from his plantation that floods prevented his leaving his estate to visit Wilmington but that if she would come to him he would be happy to see her and did not doubt of being able to convince her that he had acted for the best in what he did.

SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON.

Benjamin Thompson, otherwise known as Count Rumford was one of the most distinguished men of his age. He came on both sides of his parentage from the original stock of the first colonists of Massachusetts Bay. JAMES THOMPSON, one of the original settlers of Woburn, was prominent among those who fixed their residence in that part of the town now known as North Woburn. Little is known of his English antecedents except that he was born in 1593, his wife's name was Elizabeth and by her he had three sons and one daughter all probably born in England. As early as 1630 when he was thirty-seven he joined the company of about fifteen hundred persons who under lead of Governor Winthrop landed on New England shores during the eventful year. He was one of the first settlers of Charlestown and belonged to sturdy yeomanry of the country. He was among the few adventurers who early pushed their way into an unknown region and fixed their home in the wilderness, with Henry Baldwin and a few others, in that part of Charlestown Village now known as North Woburn. James Thompson was twice married. Elizabeth died November 13, 1643, and he married February 15, 1644, Susannah Blodgett, widow of Thomas Blodgett of Cambridge. The descendants of this early settler are now very numerous in the country.

[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN THOMPSON, NORTH WOBURN.]

Jonathan Thompson, son of the former had a son Jonathan who had a son Ebenezer. Captain Ebenezer Thompson and Hannah Converse were the grandparents, Benjamin Thompson, the son of the last, and Ruth Simonds were the father and mother of the celebrated Count Rumford. His mother was the daughter of an officer who performed distinguished service in the French and Indian wars, which were in progress at the time of the birth of his eminent grandson. The parents were married in 1752, and went to live at the house of Captain Ebenezer Thompson. Here under his grandfather's roof, the future Count Rumford was born, March 26, 1753, in the west end of the strong substantial farm-house. The father of the little boy died November 7, 1754, in his twenty-sixth year, leaving his wife and her child to the care and support of the grandparents. In March, 1756, when the child was three years old, his widowed mother was married to Josiah Pierce, the younger, of Woburn. Mr. Pierce took his wife and her child to a new home, which, now removed, stood but a short distance from the old homestead.

Ellis in his "Life of Count Rumford" says, that Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Thompson were the two men most distinguished for philosophical genius of all that have been produced on the soil of this continent. "They came into life in humble homes within twelve miles of each other, under like straits and circumstances of frugality and substantial thrift. They both sprang from English lineage, of an ancestry and parentage yeoman of the soil on either continent, to be cast, as their progenitors had been, upon their own exertions, without dependence upon inherited means, or patronage, or even good fortune. Born as subjects of the English monarch, they both, at different periods of their lives, claimed their privileges as such, visiting their ancestral soil, though under widely unlike circumstances, and their winning fame and distinction for services to humanity. We almost forget the occasion which parted them in the sphere of politics, because they come so close together in the more engrossing and beneficent activity of their genius." It is not known whether these two men ever met together, or sought each other's acquaintance, or even recognized each other's existence, though they were contemporaries for more than thirty years.

Benjamin Thompson in his youth attended the village grammar school. Later he was apprenticed to Mr. John Appleton, an importer of British goods at Salem, and later still was for a short time a clerk in a dry goods store in Boston where he was when the "Massacre" occurred. It was while at Salem he first displayed his fondness for experimental philosophy, when accidentally his face was somewhat marked by a pyrotechnical explosion. He used to steal moments to play the fiddle as he was passionately fond of music. Lacking taste for trade he engaged in the study of medicine with Dr. Hay of Woburn, meanwhile in company with his friend and neighbor, Loammie Baldwin, walking to and fro from Cambridge, in order to attend scientific lectures at Harvard College. At length he became a teacher, first in Wilmington, then in Bradford and then in a more permanent and lucrative position in Concord, New Hampshire, then a part of Essex County, Massachusetts; once known as Penacook but at this time as Rumford. His more public and noticeable life now began. Here he married at the early age of nineteen Sarah, the widow of Colonel Rolfe and the daughter of the Rev. Timothy Walker. When he went to Concord as a teacher he was in the glory of his youth, and his friend Baldwin describes him as of a fine manly make and figure, nearly six feet in height, of handsome features, bright blue eyes, and dark auburn hair. He had the manners and polish of a gentleman, with fascinating ways, and an ability to make himself agreeable. His diligent study and love of learning also added to his attractions. He was married about November, 1772, and his wife brought to him a fortune. It was at about this time that Benjamin Thompson met Governor Wentworth,--an event which led to that series of difficulties and troubles which resulted in his leaving the country. The governor was struck by the young man's commanding appearance, and a vacancy having occurred in a majorship in the Second Provincial Regiment of New Hampshire, Governor Wentworth at once commissioned Thompson to fill it. Thus the young man received an appointment over the heads of other officers of age and experience. It was a mistake on the part of the governor and a mistake for him to accept the office. The veteran officers over whom he had been appointed so suddenly and unexpectedly from the plain life of a civilian were very angry as was to be expected.

Young Thompson manifested in early manhood the tastes, aptitudes and cravings which prompt their possessor, however humbly born, and under whatever repression from surrounding influence, to push his way in the world by seeking and winning the patronage of his social superiors, who have favor and distinctions to bestow. He was regarded from his boyhood as being above his position; he had also a noble and imposing figure, with great personal beauty, and with those whose acquaintance he cultivated he was most affable and winning in his manners. His marriage enabling him to give over the necessity of school keeping, furnished him the means for making excursions at his pleasure. Besides his acquaintance with Governor Wentworth at Portsmouth, he had also on visits with his wife to Boston, been introduced to Governor Gage and several of the British officers, and had partaken of their hospitalities. Two soldiers, who had deserted from the army in Boston, finding their way to Rumford (Concord), had been employed by him upon his farm. Wishing to return to their ranks and comrades, they had sought for the intervention of their employer to secure them immunity from punishment. Thompson addressed a few lines for this purpose to General Gage asking at the same time that his own agency in their behalf should not be disclosed. Besides his acquaintance with the royal governors, the patronage he had received from one of them, the intimacy in which he was supposed to stand with others, the return of the deserters, and his independent spirit, as shown in speaking his mind with freedom, in a way to check the rising spirit of rebellion, and in distrust of the ability and success of the disunionists, caused him to be distrusted, and unpopular by the inflammable materials around him. He therefore became a suspected person in Rumford, where there were watching enemies, and talebearers, as well as jealous committees, who soon brought their functions to bear in a most searching and offensive way against all who did not attend revolutionary assemblies. It was well known as it was observable that Thompson took no part in these. He had occasion to fear any indignity which an excited and reckless county mob, directed by secret instigators might see fit to inflict upon him, whether it were by arraying him in tar and feathers, or by riding him upon a rail to be jeered at by his former school-pupils. If ill usage stopped short of these extremes, the condition of escape and security was a public recantation, unequivocally and strongly expressed, involving a confession of some act, or word, in opposition to the will of the disunionists, and solemn pledge of future uncompromising fidelity to them.

There was something exceedingly humiliating and degrading to a man of independent and self-respecting spirit, in the conditions imposed upon him by the "Sons of Despotism" in the process of clearing himself from the taint of "Loyalism." The Committees of "Correspondence and of Safety" whose services stand glorified to us through their most efficient agency in a successful struggle, delegated their authority to every witness or agent who might be a self-constituted guardian of the disloyal cause or a spy, or an eaves-dropper, to catch reports of suspected persons. It was this example, followed a few years later that led to such terrible results in the French Revolution.

Major Thompson insisted from the first, and steadfastly to the close of his life, affirmed that he had never done anything hostile to the revolutionary cause up to this time. He demanded first in private, and then in public, that his enemies should confront him with any charges they could bring against him, and he promised to meet them and defend himself against all accusations. He resolved, however, that he would not plead except against explicit charges, nor invite indignity by self-humiliation. Major Thompson was summoned before a Committee of the people of Rumford (Concord), in the summer of 1774 to answer to the suspicion of "being unfriendly to the cause of Liberty." He positively denied the charge and boldly challenged proof. The evidence, if any such was offered, was not a sort to warrant any proceedings against him, and he was discharged. This discharge, however, though nominally an acquittal, was not effectual in relieving him from popular distrust and in assuring for him confidence. Probably his own reluctance to avow sympathy with the disloyal cause, and make professions in accordance with the wishes of his enemies, left him still under a cloud. A measure less formal and more threatening than the examination before a self constituted tribunal, was secretly planned by the "Sons of Despotism." This was a visit to his comfortable home, the most conspicuous residence in the village. It was carried into effect in November, 1774. A mob gathered at the time agreed on, around his dwelling, and after a serenade of hisses, hootings and groans, demanded that Major Thompson should come out before them. The feeling must have been intense and was of a nature to feed its own flames. Had Thompson been within, he would inevitably have met with foul handling. The suspicion that he was hiding there would have led to the sacking of his dwelling, and the destruction of his goods, though the daughter of their venerated minister was its mistress, and she was the mother, not only of Thompson's infant, but of the only child of their former distinguished townsman, Colonel Benjamin Rolfe. Mrs. Thompson and her brother, Colonel Walker, came forth and with their assurance that her husband was not in town, the mob dispersed.

Having received a friendly warning that this assault was to be made upon him, his brother-in-law and other friends advised him to quit the place, for although his family connections, beginning with the minister, and the squire of the town, were, the most powerful set among the inhabitants, yet they were unable to vindicate him and protect him from outrage, and we may infer that his apprehensions were not in vain, notwithstanding his own consciousness of rectitude.

Mr. Thompson therefore had secretly left Rumford just before the mob came to his home. He thought it was to be only a temporary separation from the place, for all his friends were there, and his wife and infant child; but he was never to see that pleasant home again, nor anyone of those whom he left there, except that he had a brief and troubled visit from his wife and infant, and met the latter again only after an interval of twenty-two years. He made a hasty effort to collect some dues which belonged strictly to himself, but he scrupulously avoided taking with him anything that belonged to others, or even to his wife. What of his own he left there was soon subjected to the process of confiscation.

Thompson sought refuge in his former home at Woburn with his mother. Here for a short time, he sought to occupy himself in quiet retirement with his favorite pursuits of philosophical study and experiment. But popular suspicion found means to visit its odium upon him there, and seeking a new refuge, he found temporary shelter in Charlestown, with a friend, nine miles from Woburn and one from Boston. In compliance with an earnest appeal, his wife with her infant joined him at his mother's home in Woburn, though it required of them a ride of more than fifty miles in winter. They remained with him till the end of May, 1775, after which he never saw his wife again. Thompson offered his services to the patriot army but his enemies interposed their veto. Ellis says, "There is no record, or even tradition of unwise or unfriendly expressions dropped by Mr. Thompson which could be used against him even when he challenged proof of his alleged disaffection to the cause of his country. However he was young and he had an independent spirit. His military promotion by pure favoritism, and, what he insisted was simply an act of humanity, his seeking immunity for two returning deserters, were enough in themselves to assure him zealous enemies."

Through all this trouble Thompson had a staunch and loyal friend. Colonel L. Baldwin was an ardent patriot, but stood faithfully by his old friend and fellow-student, believed in him and protected him from violence. At last Thompson's pride was so wounded and he felt the humiliation so keenly that in the hot impulse of youth and a naturally proud spirit, he embraced an opportunity to leave a land which he honestly thought to be ungrateful and cruel. It is not true as has often been said that Benjamin Thompson lost his interest in his family and country. Some of the most tender and most touching letters were written by him to his mother and his family still in Concord who believed in his integrity. Some of these letters have never been published, others after the lapse of nearly a century appeared in the "life of Count Rumford" by Dr. Ellis. These errors as to matters of fact may persuade us that the early predilection of Thompson for the loyalist cause, and the opening of opportunities, more than any settled purpose, decided the course of this forlorn and ill-treated young husband and father, adrift on the world, when he found himself loosed from all home ties and that there was nothing secret or disguised in the plans he formed for seeking in a foreign land and among strangers at the risk of homelessness and poverty, the peace and protection which he could not find in his own dwelling. He did not privately steal away; he remained in and about Woburn two months after writing his last letter to his friend, Mr. Walker, in which he so deliberately avowed his intentions. He settled his affairs with his neighbors, collecting dues and paying debts, well assured that his wife and child would lack none of the means of a comfortable support. Having made all his preparations he started from Woburn October 13, 1775, in a country vehicle, accompanied by his step-brother, Josiah Pierce, who drove him to the shores of Narragansett Bay where he was taken aboard of the British frigate Scarborough, in the harbor of Newport. The vessel very soon came round to Boston and remained till the evacuation, of which event he was undoubtedly the bearer of the tidings to England in despatches from General Howe. From henceforth we are to know Benjamin Thompson till the close of the war as an ardent loyalist, and in council and in arms an opponent to the revolutionary cause. He must have done appreciable service in the four or five months he was in Boston, in order to have won so soon the place of an official in the British government. Thenceforward the rustic youth became the companion of gentlemen of wealth, and culture, of scientific philosophers, of the nobility and of princes. The kind of influences which he at once began to exert, and the promotion which he so soon received in England, answers to a class of services rendered by him of a nature not to be misconceived. They had not in England at that time much exact information about the state of the country. Thompson thoroughly understood the matter. He could give trustworthy information about the topography, and about the events of the war in which he had played a part. He was not slow in winning the confidence of Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who was sadly deficient in his knowledge of the American Colonies. Major Thompson was immediately admitted to a desk in the Colonial office. He of course proffered and showed he could impart "information." The young man became such a favorite with Lord George that he was daily in the habit of breakfasting, dining and supping with him at his lodgings and at his country seat, Stoneland. Apart from the discharge of his duties as a private secretary, he made the most and the best use of his opportunities in acquainting himself with London and seeking introductions alike to men in public station and to those engaged in scientific pursuits; nothing of interest would escape his keen observation, and no means of personal improvement or acquisition through men or things, would fail to yield him advancement.

[Illustration: SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON.

Born in North Woburn, March 26, 1753. In the uniform of a British Officer. Known as Count Rumford. Died at Paris Aug. 21, 1814.]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and became one of the most

## active and honored members of the Society. In 1780 he was made "Under

Secretary of State for the Northern Department." The oversight of all the practical details for recruiting, equipping, transporting, and victualling the British forces, and of many other incidental arrangements was then committed to him. Major Thompson, who had always clung to that title, though its provisional commission gave him no rank in the regular army, was now honored with the commission in the regular army of a Lieutenant Colonel; though now at the age of only twenty-eight, not yet a veteran, he wished for, and meant to do, full military duty. He needed a command. Where should he find a regiment. He provided for himself, and resolved to secure a following from those in his native land, who had been loyal to the government. They were known as the "Loyal American Regiments" and for the most part, they were the most desperate, and hated of any of the combatants, they had suffered the loss of their homes, and endured the most cruel treatment from their neighbors, and countrymen, and when the opportunity occurred they often retaliated. In this partisan warfare quarter was neither given or taken. In the early part of January, 1782, Lieutenant Colonel Thompson arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, General Green's army at that time invested the city. Becoming desperate in their need of supplies, a sortie was made under Thompson's command, an attack was made by him on the partisan forces under the command of Marion, the famous partisan leader, near the Santee. When the brigade was first attacked it was under the command of Colonel Horrey, and though Marion came in season to take part in the action, he had the mortification of witnessing the discomfiture of his band with the loss of many men and munition.[187]

[187] Memoir of the war in the Southern Department of the United States. By Henry Lee, p. 397.

Rivington's New York Gazette, under date of Feb. 18th, 1782, says "A detachment of the Royal Americans went on service against Greene," March 27th. A person who left the Southern Army Feb. 13th, says Lieutenant Colonel Thompson has taken command of the British cavalry under Colonel Leslie. "A considerable force of cavalry and infantry commanded by Colonel Thompson sallied out from Charleston on the side opposite the American camp and surprised and dispersed a party of militia. The British retreated before Greene could send reinforcements."

Charleston, March 2. Lieutenant Colonel Thompson moved Sunday, Feb. 24 from Daniel's Island, with the cavalry, Cunningham's and Young's troops of mounted militia, Yagers, and Volunteers of Ireland, with one three pounder, and a detachment of the Thirtieth Regiment. By the spirited exertion of his troops, and by the Colonel's mounting the infantry occasionally on the dragoon horses, he carried his corps thirty-six miles without halting. Having secured the American scouts to prevent information being given he drove in Horrey's regiment. They were pursued by Major Doyle with mounted militia. On seeing the enemy, Colonel Thompson sounded a charge and dashed forwards. Marion's marque and men refreshed our soldiers. Colonel Thompson marched back driving the cattle, etc. The admirable conduct of the officer who commanded can be equalled by the spirit with which his orders were executed. (Rivington, April 17). In the war of posts, of desultory skirmishes, and of raids into the farming country, to which the struggle at the South was reduced, there was indeed little opportunity for Thompson to win laurels. He made use of his energetic and methodical skill in doing what he could to organize and discipline such materials as he had before him.

Towards the end of the war he was sent to New York to organize a regiment out of the broken and scattered bands of Loyalists on Long Island. "Recruits for the King's American Dragoons, likely and spirited young lads who were desirous of serving their King and country, and who prefer riding to going on foot, were offered ten guineas each, if volunteers." Such was the advertisement. His ability in organizing this regiment was a great achievement. He commanded at Huntington, Long Island in 1782-3 where he caused a fort to be built. In August, 1782, near Flushing, standards were presented to his corps, with imposing ceremonies. Prince William came forward to the center of the regiment, received the colors from Admiral Digby, and presented them with his own hand to Lieutenant Colonel Thompson. On a given signal the whole regiment gave three shouts, the music played "God save the King", the artillery fired a royal salute and the ceremony ended.

An ox was roasted whole, to grace this occasion. He was spitted on a hickory sapling, twelve feet long, supported on crutches, and turned by handspikes. An attendant dipped a swab in a tub of salt and water to baste the ox, and moderate the fire. Each soldier then sliced off for himself a piece of juicy beef.[188]

[188] The barbecue is still in vogue in the Southern States at all large social gatherings.

The Prince who officiated on this occasion was the King's third son, afterwards William IV. He had sailed on board the Prince George under Admiral Digby, to qualify himself for rank in the Royal Navy.

Returning to England Thompson, as a commissioned officer of high rank now on half pay, obtained leave to travel on the Continent. He left England in September, 1783, with no anticipation of the ultimate result of what was to him in intent mainly a trial of fortune. On his arrival at Strasburg, Prince Maximilian, who became Elector of Bavaria in 1799 and King in 1805, was attracted by the young man's appearance. On acquaintance he soon realized that the Englishman was a man of remarkable intelligence and later Thompson received an earnest invitation to enter into the service of the elector. Thompson therefore returned to England to receive the necessary permission from the king. The king not only granted the permission but also conferred on him the honor of Knighthood on February 23, 1784.

Returning to the continent Thompson became a fast friend of the Elector of Bavaria. His great mind was put to useful service in a country that needed his wisdom, philanthropy and personal help. Many honors were conferred upon him and he was admitted to several academies. In 1788 the Elector made him Major-General of Cavalry and Privy Councillor of State. He was also put at the head of the War Department. His constant study in science and philosophy, and the great problems of the day, made him an invaluable help to the people, besides his ability as a statesman. In Munich, where beggary had been reduced to a system and had become an intolerable curse, he received from all classes multiplied tokens of most grateful regard for his acts of disinterested benevolence. Both in England and on the continent he was held in the highest esteem for the broad and wise plans for the amelioration of the condition of the poor which he devised and executed. He dealt with those who lived in the filthiest order and it was his aim to show them that virtue came from cleanliness, and he worked unceasingly that their surroundings might first be clean.

Honors of all kinds were heaped upon this worker for mankind, but nothing so deeply moved him or was so tenderly cherished in his memory, as that scene, when once he was dangerously ill, the poor of Munich went publicly in a body, in processions, to the cathedral, and offered public prayers for his recovery. And on another occasion four years later, when he was again dangerously ill at Naples, these people of their own accord, set apart an hour each evening, after they had finished their work in the Military Work-house, to pray for him. On his return, after an absence of fifteen months, the subjects of his benevolence gave him a most affecting reception. He in response, provided for them a festival in the English Gardens which his own skill and taste had laid out where before was an unhealthy marsh. Here eighteen hundred poor people of all ages enjoyed themselves, in presence of above eighty thousand visitors. Thompson says, "Let him imagine, I say, my feelings, upon hearing the confused noise of the prayers of a multitude of people who were passing by in the streets, upon being told that it was the poor of Munich, many hundreds in number, who were going in procession to the church to put up public prayers for me;--public prayers for me!--for a private person!--a stranger!--a Protestant!"

"Such testimonies as these were more valuable than all his military honors, all his scientific reputation, his diplomas of Knighthood in England, and in Poland, and his decoration as a count of the Holy Roman Empire and there is reason to believe that he so regarded them himself."[189]

[189] Memorial of James Thompson of Charlestown, Mass., and Woburn, Mass., by Leander Thompson, A. M.

He was accused of being selfish and devoid of all honor, coarse and cruel. That he married another woman while his wife was alive and was always a tyrant! The records of Concord give the date of his wife's death as January 19, 1792, while the register of Paris gives the date of his second marriage as October 24, 1805.

Sarah, the only child of Count Rumford, who was born in the Rolfe Mansion in Concord, Oct. 18, 1774, remained in the care of her mother until the latter's death. Her father had taken great interest in her and never forgot his family, and he made provision also for his mother. After his wife's death, Sarah accepted her father's invitation to rejoin him in Europe where she shared his honors both in London and on the Continent. She received her title as countess and her pension both of which she enjoyed to the close of her life.

While the countess was on a return visit to her old home she gained the first news of her father's coming marriage through his letters to her. Father and daughter kept up a continual correspondence, and from these letters which have since been published much of their private life is revealed.[190] Count Rumford married the widow of General Anthony Laurence Lavosier at Paris in 1805, but the marriage soon proved unhappy and he retired to the Villa Auteuil, within the walls, but removed from the noise of the great city. Count Rumford never returned to his old home in Massachusetts though it was his wish to do so. The United States government through its ambassador, Hon. Rufus King, then resident of London, formally invited him to return, assured of his loyalty and great ability, and offered him the responsible position of superintendent of the proposed American Military Academy and of inspector-general of artillery. Though to the mutual regret of both parties concerned, the count was not able to accept the invitation of the American government, he gave in order to assist in the equipment of the Military Academy, some of his very valuable models and drawings and offered to give his whole rich collection of military books, plans, drawings, and models, provided they would be acceptable.

[190] See "Life of Count Rumford," by George Ellis.

The Count's last days were spent near Paris, as that climate was best suited to him. He lived a very retired life spending most of his days in philosophical pursuits and experiments, almost secluded from the world. Constant friendship between Colonel Baldwin and Benjamin Thompson remained until the end, and the latter was always grateful for the interest and care his old friend had bestowed upon his daughter during their separation.

Thompson published essays and papers on his work and that he could have been great in theoretical science is shown by his experiment at Munich in 1798, and his clear reasoning upon it which was in advance of the prevailing scientific opinion by half a century. When he was in London in 1800 he projected the Royal Institute of Great Britain.

Besides a great number of communications to scientific journals, he published four volumes of essays, political, economical, experimental, and philosophical. He was ever a great friend to Harvard College. When the Colleges were converted into barracks, during the siege of Boston, he was instrumental in preserving the library and philosophical apparatus from destruction by the revolutionists who regarded the College as a hotbed of toryism. By his will he laid the foundation of that professorship to Harvard University, which has rendered his name justly esteemed with his friends. He bequeathed an annuity of one thousand dollars and the reversion of another of four hundred dollars, also the reversion of his whole estate, which amounted to twenty-six thousand dollars, "for the purpose of founding a new institution and professorship, in order to teach by regular courses of academical and public lectures accompanied with proper experiments, the utility of the physical and mathematical science for the improvement of the useful arts, and for the extension of the industry, prosperity, happiness and well being of society." In 1796 he remitted five thousand dollars in three per cent. stocks, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the income to be appropriated as a premium to the author of the most important discovery on light and heat.

This great, useful and influential life came to a close on August 21, 1814. He was just about to depart for England to which country, as long as he lived, he retained the most devoted attachment. His death resulted from a nervous fever at Auteuil, about four miles from Paris and he is buried within the limits of that city. In the Monthly Magazine or British Register (London) for September, 1814, appeared the following:

"At his seat near Paris, 60, died, August 21, that illustrious philosopher, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, F. R. S., Member of the Institute, &c., an American by birth, but the friend of man, and an honor to the whole human race."

Many testimonies were given in remembrance of Benjamin Thompson throughout the civilized world. In Munich the king erected at his own cost a bronze statue of Count Rumford, and it stands in the Maximillian Strasse, the finest street of Munich, perhaps of any city of Europe. The new and beautiful library which was erected in Woburn, Massachusetts, has paid tribute also to this man's memory. A bronze monument of heroic size stands boldly out upon the library lawn, and the inscription was written by President Eliot of Harvard College. The Rumford Historical Association was organized in 1877 with the simple desire to do justice to Count Rumford's transcendent abilities as a great scientist and to his marked usefulness as one of the greatest philanthropists of his age. A portrait of Count Rumford by Page after one Kellerhofer hangs in Memorial Hall, Cambridge.

Sarah, the Countess of Rumford, after living in Paris and London several years, returned to her old home in Concord, where she spent her last years. She possessed many memorials and pictures which she was fond of exhibiting to visitors. She was eccentric but had a quick and vigorous mind and idolized America. She was never married and her death occurred December 2, 1852, at the age of seventy. In her will she left $15,000 and her homestead, worth $5,000, for the endowment of an institution for widows and orphans of Concord, the homestead to be the site of the institution, to the New Hampshire Asylum for Insane in Concord she left $15,000, to the Concord Female Charitable Society who have under their care a school for poor children, called the Rumford School, she left $2,000, and the rest of her property, estimated at from $75,000 to $100,000, to distant relatives.

COLONEL RICHARD SALTONSTALL.

The ancestors of Sir Richard Saltonstall resided for centuries in the parish of Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and the earliest date at which we find this name recorded is in 1276. Thomas de Saltonstall of the West Riding of Yorkshire is the first name of whom any record is preserved. Sir Richard Saltonstall, born in 1521 was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1598. After holding several prominent offices under the crown he became Lord Mayor of London in 1597-8. He was the uncle of Sir Richard Saltonstall who was born in 1586 at Halifax and was one of the patentees of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay and was appointed First Assistant. He came over with the Winthrop fleet, and arrived in Salem aboard of the Arabella, June 12, 1630, "bringing out the charter with them." He returned to England, and at his death, left a legacy to Harvard College. He dissented from the action of the tyrannical rulers who were his associates, who inflicted punishment on such as differed from them, but slightly in their notion of policy, and requested that his dissent should be entered upon the records, which stand much to his honor and credit. After his return to England he wrote to Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson, the ministers in Boston "that it did not a little grieve his spirit to hear what sad things were reported daily of the tyranny and persecution in New England, as that they fined, whipped and imprisoned men for their consciences." His son Richard, born in 1610, settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, returned to England, and died there in 1694. His son Nathaniel, born about 1639 and died in 1707, settled at Haverhill, Mass., of which he is called the father. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of the first minister, Rev. John Ward, who gave the young couple the land for their home, on which was erected the Saltonstall mansion which remained in the possession of the Saltonstall family for several generations. In the early part of the last century it was purchased by Major James Duncan, who erected the present mansion which is now owned and occupied by the Haverhill Historical Society. Nathaniel had a son Richard, who also had a son Richard born June 24, 1703. He graduated from Harvard College in 1722 and became Colonel in 1726. In 1736 he became judge of the Superior Court and died in 1756. His eldest son, Richard Saltonstall, the subject of this notice, was the sixth generation from Sir Richard the First Assistant, and the fourth of the family in succession who held the office of Colonel. He graduated from Harvard College with high honors and delivered the Latin Oration at Commencement.

His acceptance from Governor Shirley of the commission of Colonel, so soon after leaving college, evinced a spirit which was not long after to be tried in arduous service for his country. During the French war he was Major in the army and was one of the unfortunate prisoners at the capitulation of Fort William Henry. He escaped being massacred by the Indians by concealing himself in the woods where he lay for many hours, and when at last he reached Fort Edward was nearly exhausted with fatigue and hunger. He remained in active service until the close of the war, and later was appointed Sheriff to the County of Essex.

Colonel Saltonstall was always a steady loyalist in principle and never for a moment wavered in his devotion to the flag which he had so bravely fought under and which he had so often sworn to support. "The proceedings (of the Government) were in his opinion extremely inexpedient, but he never doubted their right to tax the Colonies."

"He was much beloved by the people of Haverhill, and its vicinity. He resided on the beautiful family estate in Haverhill known as 'the Saltonstall Place,' where he lived in a liberal style of hospitality, sustaining the character of a truly upright man, and an accomplished gentleman. It was long before he lost his popularity, but in 1774 a mob assembled from the West Parish of Haverhill and Salem, N. H., for the purpose of proving themselves _Sons of Liberty_ by attacking him. By a word he could have collected a great part of the inhabitants of the village to his defence, but he would not, though urged by some of his friends. The rioters marched to his home and paraded before it, armed with clubs and other offensive instruments, when he came to the door and addressed them with great firmness and dignity. He told them he was under the oath of allegiance to the king, that he was bound to discharge the duties of the office he held under him, that he did not think the people were pursuing a wise or prudent course but that he was as great a friend to the country as any of them, and had exposed his life in its cause, etc. He then ordered some refreshment for the _gentlemen_, who soon began to relent, when he requested them to go to the tavern and call for entertainment at his expense. They then huzzard to the praise of Colonel Saltonstall, and never attempted to mob him again."

Colonel Saltonstall left Haverhill in the fall of 1774 and embarked for England. He did not enter the British service, saying, if he could not conscientiously engage on the side of his native country he never would take up arms against her. If he had joined the continental army he undoubtedly would have held an office of high command. The king granted him a pension and he passed the remainder of his life in England, where he died. In one of his last letters in which he expressed great affection for the "_delightful place of his nativity_," he wrote, "I have no remorse of conscience for my past conduct. I have had more satisfaction in a private life here than I should have had in being next in command to General Washington, where I must have acted in conformity to the dictates of others, regardless of my own feelings."

In Haverhill Colonel Saltonstall was much beloved and had a great influence from his integrity, benevolence of disposition and his superior understanding and knowledge of the world. In England he was hospitably received by his remote family connections, who paid him every kind and generous attention while living, and erected a monument to his memory in Kensington church, on which is the following inscription:

"Near this place are interred the remains of Richard Saltonstall, Esq., who died October, 1785, aged fifty-two. He was an _American loyalist_, from Haverhill in Massachusetts, where he was descended from a first family, both for the principal share it had in the early erecting as well as in rank and authority in governing that province, and wherein he himself sustained, with unshaken loyalty and universal applause, various important trusts and commands under the Crown both civil and military, from his youth till its revolt; and throughout life maintained such an amiable private character, as engaged him the esteem and regard of many friends. As a memorial of his merits this stone is erected."

Colonel Saltonstall was not married. He was Proscribed and Banished by the law of 1778. His mansion home at Haverhill passed into the hands of his brother, Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall who joined the Disunionists, at a time when his brothers remained true to those principals of loyalty in which they had been educated. He however did not take up arms against the government. At his death he left three sons and four daughters, the only family of that name in Massachusetts.

LEVERETT SALTONSTALL, youngest son of Judge Saltonstall was born in 1754 and at the commencement of the war had nearly completed his term of service with a merchant of Boston, when Col. Saltonstall came to that place for protection from mob violence. Being in the habit of looking up to him for advice and direction, he embraced the same political opinion, and becoming acquainted with the British officers he was fascinated with their profession. After the passing of the Act of Disunion July 4, 1776 he unlike his brothers decided to enter the British service and fight for his government. He was in many battles, and commanded a company in the army of Lord Cornwallis. He died at the close of the war at New York, 1782. His brother-in-law, the Rev. Moses Badger, who was also a loyalist, in a letter to Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall concerning his sickness (consumption), says, "It may be some consolation to you and his mother to hear, that his behaviour in the regiment endeared him to every officer, and the soldiers who had so frequent opportunities to see his intrepidity, coolness and gallantry in

## action, absolutely revered him. He was agreeable to people of all ranks.

He was exceedingly cautious in speaking, seldom uttering a word without reflection and was never heard to speak ill of any one and reprobated the man or woman who indulged themselves in this infirmity. He never fell into the scandalous and fashionable vice of profaneness. In short, I looked upon him to be as innocent a young man as any I have known since I have been capable of making observations on mankind."[191]

[191] Mass. His. Coll. 2, series Vol. IV, pp. 167, 168.

REV. MATHER BYLES.

Josiah Byles, a saddler by trade, came from Winchester, Hants county. He was in Boston in 1695 and joined the church October 11, 1696; seven years later he married the pastor's daughter.

He had four children by his wife Sarah. His second wife, Elizabeth, he married October 6, 1703; she was the widow of William Greenough and the daughter of Increase Mather.

Mather Byles, D. D., son of Josiah and Elizabeth, was born in Boston in 1706. He graduated from Harvard University in 1725 and was ordained first pastor of the Hollis street church in 1733. This church was built on land given by Governor Belcher in 1733, the site is now occupied by the Hollis street Theatre. He married, February 14, 1733, Mrs. Anna Gale; the ceremony took place in the state room of the Province House, Rev. Thomas Prince of the Old South officiating. By this marriage he had six children born, all of whom died young except Elizabeth. His second wife was Rebecca, daughter of Lieutenant Governor Hon. William Tailor; the ceremony was performed by Rev. Joseph Sewell, D. D. By his second wife he had four children. He was created Doctor of Divinity at Aberdeen in 1765. He lived happily with his parish until 1776 when the connection was dissolved and never renewed. Of the Congregational clergy he stood alone against the revolution.

Mather Byles is one of the most interesting men of this period. He was a scholar and a great wit. Pope, Lansdowne and Watts were among his correspondents. In his pulpit he avoided politics and on being asked the reason, replied: "I have thrown up four breastworks, behind which I have entrenched myself, neither of which can be enforced. In the first place I do not understand politics; in the second place, you all do, every man and mother's son of you; in the third place you have politics all the week, pray let one day in seven be devoted to religion; in the fourth place, I am engaged in work of infinitely greater importance; give me any subject to preach on of more consequence than the truth I bring you, and I will preach on it the next Sabbath."

The preacher became known as the "celebrated Dr. Byles." He wrote in poetry and prose very well, and some of his sermons are still extant. Also several of his essays, in the New England Weekly Journal, a poem on the death of George I; and the accession of George II, in 1727. A sort of memorial address to Governor Belcher, on the death of his wife, and a poem called the conflagration, and a volume of metrical matters published in 1744.

The serious writings of Dr. Byles are singularly free from everything suggestive of frivolous association. In his pulpit there was none of it, while out of it, unless on solemn occasions, there was very little else. One of that day said his wit at times was quite as clever as Jonathan Swift or Sydney Smith.

Mather Byles and his family were staunch loyalists. News of the repeal of the stamp act arrived in Boston May 16, 1766. The nineteenth of May was appointed for merry-making. "At one in the morning the bell of the Hollis street church began to ring," says a zealous writer of that day. "The slumbers of the pastor, Dr. Byles, were disturbed of course, for he was a tory, though a very pleasant tory, after all." In 1777 he was denounced in town meeting, and having been by a subsequent trial pronounced guilty of attachment to the Royal cause, was sentenced to confinement, and to be sent to England with his family. This Byles steadfastly refused to do and the doom of the banishment was never enforced, and he was permitted to remain in Boston. The substances of the charges against him were that he continued in Boston during the siege; and that he prayed for the king and the safety of the town.

For a time he was kept a prisoner in his own house. On one occasion while under guard he persuaded the sentinel to go on an errand for him, promising to perform sentinel's duty himself; and to the great amusement of all gravely marched before his own door with a musket on his shoulder, until his keeper returned. This was after his trial; and alluding to the circumstances that he had been kept prisoner, that his guard had been removed and replaced again, he said, that "he had been guarded, re-guarded, and disregarded."

[Illustration: REV. MATHER BYLES, D. D.

Born in Boston in 1706. "A man of infinite wit." Died in Boston July 5, 1788.]

Near his house, in wet weather, was a very bad slough. It happened that two of the selectmen who had the care of the streets, passed that way driving in a chaise, stuck fast in this hole, and were obliged to get out in the mud to extricate their vehicle. Dr. Byles came out, and making them a respectful bow, said: "Gentlemen, I have often complained to you of this nuisance, without any attention being paid to it, and I am very glad to see you 'stirring' in this matter now."

Dr. Byles' wit created many a laugh and many an enemy. In person he was tall and commanding. His voice was strong and harmonious and his delivery graceful. He was intimate with General Knox, who was a bookseller before the war. When the American troops took possession of the town after the evacuation, Knox, who had become quite corpulent, marched in at the head of his artillery. As he passed on Byles thought himself privileged, on old scores, exclaimed, loud enough to be heard, "I never saw an ox fatter in my life." When confined in his own house and quite poor and had no money to waste on follies, he caused the little room in which he read and wrote to be painted brown, that he might say to every visitor, "You see, I am in a brown study."

From the time of the stamp act in 1765 to the period of the revolution the cry had been repeated in every form of phraseology, "that our grievances should be redressed." One fine morning the multitude had gathered on the common to see a regiment of redcoats parade there, who had recently arrived. "Well," said the doctor, gazing at the spectacle, "I think we can no longer complain that our grievances are not red-dressed." "True," said one of his neighbors who were standing near, "but you have two d's, Dr. Byles." "To be sure, sir, I have," the doctor instantly replied, "I had them from Aberdeen in 1765."

Some visitors called one morning, and Mrs. Byles unwilling to be found at her ironing board, and desiring to hide herself, as she would not be so caught by those ladies, the doctor put her in a closet, and buttoned her in. After a few remarks the ladies expressed a wish to see the doctor's curiosities, which he proceeded to exhibit; and after entertaining them very agreeably for some time, he told them he had kept the greatest curiosity to the last; and proceeding to the closet, unbuttoned the door and exhibited Mrs. Byles.

He had at one time a remarkably stupid and literal Irish girl as a domestic. With a look and voice of terror he said to her in haste, "Go and say to your mistress, Dr. Byles has put an end to himself." The girl ran upstairs and with a face of horror, screamed, "Dr. Byles has put an end to himself." The astonished wife and daughter ran into the parlor--and there was the doctor, calmly waltzing about with a part of a cow's tail, that he had picked up in the street, tied to his coat or cassock behind.

On the celebrated Dark-day in 1780 a lady who lived near the doctor, sent her young son with her compliments, to know if he could account for the uncommon appearance. His answer was, "My dear, you will give my compliments to your mamma, and tell her that I am as much in the _dark_ as she is." He paid his addresses unsuccessfully to a lady who afterwards married a gentleman of the name of Quincy; the doctor on meeting her said: "So madam, it appears that you prefer a Quincy to Byles." "Yes, for if there had been anything worse than _biles_ God would have afflicted Job with them."

Mather Byles had two daughters by his second wife, Mary born in 1750 and Katherine born in 1753. They were famous for their hospitality and their stout, unflinching loyalty to the throne, to the last hours of their existence. This thread of life was spun out more than half a century after the Royal government had ceased in these States; yet they retained their love of, and strict adherence to monarch and monarchies, and refused to acknowledge that the Revolution had transferred their allegiance to new rulers. One of these ladies of a by-gone age, wrote to William the Fourth, on his accession to the throne. They had known the "sailor-king" during the Revolution and now assured him that the family of Doctor Byles always had been, and would continue to be, loyal to the rightful sovereign of England.

Dr. Byles continued to live in Boston after the Revolution, the last twelve years of his life being spent in retirement. He died of paralysis July 5th, 1788 at the age of 82. As Dr. Byles refused to be driven out and made a refugee, or absentee, he therefore saved his property from confiscation, and his two daughters, maiden ladies, lived and died in the old family house at the corner of Tremont and Nassau street, now Common street. They were repeatedly offered a great price for their dwelling, but would not sell it, nor would they permit improvements or alterations. In the course of improvements in Boston a part of the building had to be removed in widening the street. This had a fatal influence upon the elder sister; she mourned over the sacrilege, and, it is thought, died its victim. "That," said the survivor, "is one of the consequences of living in a Republic. Had we been living under a king, he would have cared nothing about our little property, and we could have enjoyed it in our own way as long as we lived. But," continued she, "there is one comfort, that not a creature in the States will be any better for what we shall leave behind us." She was true to her promise, for the Byles estate passed to relatives in Halifax at their decease. One of them died in 1835, the other in 1837. They worshipped in Trinity church under which their bodies were buried, and on Sundays wore dresses almost as old as themselves. Among their furniture, was a pair of bellows two centuries old, a table on which Franklin drank tea on his last visit to Boston, a chair which more than a hundred years before the Government of England had sent as a present to their grandfather, Lieutenant-Governor Tailer. They showed to visitors commissions to their grandfather, signed by Queen Anne, and three of the Georges. They talked of their walks arm-in-arm, on Boston Common, with General Howe, and Lord Percy, while the British Army occupied Boston. They told of his Lordship's ordering his band to play under their window for their gratification. They took pleasure in exhibiting the many heirlooms which were in the possession of the family and enjoyed hearing a recitation of the bright stories of the day. The works of Watts were sent to Byles by the author from time to time and among the treasures highly prized by the family was a presentation copy, in quarto from Pope, of his translation of the Odyssey. At the sale of the library of Dr. Byles a large folio Bible in French, was purchased by a private individual. This Bible had been presented to the French-Protestant church in Boston, by Queen Anne, and at the time when it came into the hands of Dr. Byles was the last relic of that church, whose visible temple had been erected in School Street about 1716.[192]

[192] For further information about these French Protestants see the "Memoir" by Dr. Holmes, or to Vol. XXII. p. 62. of Massachusetts Historical Collections.

The bible is now preserved in the library of the Divinity School at Cambridge and was presented in 1831 by the widow of the late Samuel Cobb of Boston, who had bought it at the sale of Mather Byle's library.

MATHER BYLES, JR., D. D., a son of Rev. Mather Byles by his second wife, was born in 1734, and married Rebecca, daughter of Rev. N. Walter of Roxbury in 1761. He graduated in 1751 at Harvard University. In 1757 at the age of twenty-three he was ordained at New London; his father preached the sermon. Eleven years after, his ministry came to an abrupt termination. Without previous intimation, he called a meeting of his church and requested dismission, that he might accept an invitation to become Rector of the North Episcopal, or Christ Church, Salem street, Boston. His change to Episcopacy was soon a matter of discussion all over New England. Among the reasons he gave in the course of the discussion that ensued, were, that "another minister would do much better for them than he had done or could do, for his health was infirm, and the position of the church very bleak, the hill wearisome, he was not a country minister, and his home and friends were all in Boston." The debate was long and warm, and produced total alienation. April 12, 1768, the record is "The Rev. Byles dismissed _himself_ from the church and congregation." Before the close of 1768, he was inducted into the desired rectorship; and of Christ Church, was the third in succession. He continued to discharge his ministerial duties until 1775, when the force of events compelled him to abandon his flock. He was a staunch loyalist, and resigned the rectorship of Christ Church on Easter Tuesday, 1775, meaning to go to Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, but political tumults there, making that impossible, he remained in Boston, and performed the duty of chaplain to some of the regiments, until the evacuation in 1776, when he left Boston. Accompanied by his family of four persons, he went to Halifax. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. He settled at St. John, New Brunswick, after the war, and was Rector of the city, and Chaplain of the Province. He died at St. John in 1814.

His daughter Rebecca, born in 1762, married W. J. Almon, M. D., Surgeon to the Ordnance and Artillery, and died at Halifax in 1853.

MATHER BYLES (3) born in 1764, went to the British West Indies, was Commissary General at Grenada. He married June, 1799, Mary, eldest daughter of Chief Justice Bridgewater of Grenada. The writer was at St. George, Grenada, in 1907, and saw there in the Episcopal Church a marble tablet erected to the memory of Mather Byles of Boston, by his Brother Belcher. He died Dec. 17, 1802.

ELIZABETH, born in 1767, married William Scoville, Esq., of St. John, and died in 1808.

ANNA, born at Boston, married General Thomas DesBrisay, Lieut. General in the Army, Commandant at Halifax in 1799.

BELCHER was born in 1780 at Halifax, and died in England in 1815.

MATHER BROWN, was a grandson of Rev. Mather Byles (1). His mother was Elizabeth, born in 1737, who married in 1760 Gawler Brown and died in 1763.

Mather Brown went to Europe in 1780, with a letter of introduction from his grandfather to Harrison Gray, Esq., London, a firm friend of the family. Mr. Copley had likewise been intimate with Dr. Byles before he left Boston. He also gave him a letter addressed by the old patriarch "To Mr. Copley in the Solar system." In a letter dated Paris 23, 1781, he writes: "Dr. Franklin has given me a pass, and recommendatory letter to the famous Mr. West. He treats me with the utmost politeness; has given me an invitation to his home. I delivered him my grandfather's message, he expressed himself with the greatest esteem and affection for him, and has since introduced me at Versailles, as being grandson to one of his most particular friends in America."

In his first letter from London, 1781, he writes: "In consequence of the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, who gave me letters to his fellow townsman, the famous Mr. West of Philadelphia, I practice gratis with this gentleman, who affords me every encouragement, as well as Mr. Copley, who is particularly kind to me, welcomed me to his home, and lent me his pictures, etc. At my arrival Mr. Treasurer Gray carried me and introduced me to Lord George Germaine." In a letter in 1783 he wrote: "I have exhibited four pictures in the exhibition; the king and queen were there yesterday." In 1784: "I have painted several Americans. Yesterday I had two pictures shown his royal highness, the Prince of Wales. They were carried to the palace by his page. He criticised them, and thought them strong likenesses. I believe I never told you that the king knew a picture of mine in the last exhibition, of the keeper of Windsor Castle, and took particular notice of Mr. Gray's picture; asked him who it was, and who did it, and what book he had in his hand. Mr. West told him it was the treasurer of Boston painted by his pupil, a young man, Mr. Brown of America. The king asked him what part. He told him Massachusetts." In 1785 he writes: "Among other great people I have painted, Sir William Pepperell and family, and Hon. John Adams, ambassador to His Britannic Majesty. On the 20th of June, I had the honor to be introduced to the Duke of Northumberland at his palace; his Grace received me with the utmost politeness."

Mather Brown became afterwards artist to the king, a worthy successor to Copley. And thus two Boston-born boys filled this honorable position.

THE HALLOWELL FAMILY OF BOSTON.

Robert Hallowell arrived in Boston from London, in 1764 and entered upon his duties as Comptroller of the Customs. He was Collector of the Customs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire before the age of twenty-five. In 1765, Sabine says, "A mob surrounded his elegant house in Hanover Street, tore down his fences, broke his windows, and forcing the doors at last destroyed furniture, stole money, scattered books and papers, and drank of the wines in the cellar to drunkenness."

In 1768 Hallowell ordered Hancock's vessel, the _Liberty_, seized for smuggling wine, to be removed from the wharf to a place covered by the guns of the _Romney_ frigate; and in the affray which occurred, received wounds and bruises that at the time seemed fatal.

He removed his office to Plymouth, June 1, 1774, when the port of Boston was closed. In 1775, he was an Addresser of Gage; and the year following with his family of five persons, he accompanied the British Army to Halifax. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. He went to England and resided at Bristol. Hallowell came to the United States in 1788 and in 1790--as the executor of his own father and of his wife's father. In 1792 he removed to Boston with his family, and lived in the homestead on Batterymarch Street, which because of his mother's life interest, had not been confiscated. He was kindly received and became intimate with some distinguished citizens.

In 1816, when failing in health, he went to Gardiner, Maine to reside with his son, and died there April, 1818, in his seventy-ninth year. His wife was Hannah, daughter of Doctor Sylvester Gardiner. His two daughters, Hannah and Anne, died unmarried. His son, the Hon. Robert Hallowell, became a gentleman of great wealth and a highly respected citizen. Two of Mr. Hallowell's sisters died in England; Sarah, wife of Samuel Vaughan, in 1809; and Anne, widow of General Gould, in 1812.

The towns of Hallowell and Gardiner on the Kennebec River are named after their families.

BENJAMIN HALLOWELL of Boston, brother of Robert Hallowell, was Commissioner of the Customs. In early life he commanded a small armed vessel, and during the war ending in the conquest of Canada, commanded the province twenty-gun ship, "King George," rendering essential service notably at the retaking of Newfoundland.

Captain Hallowell's acceptance of the office of Mandamus Councillor made him a special object of public detestation.

On September 2, 1774, while the mob were assembled on Cambridge Common to receive the resignations of Danforth, Lee, and Oliver as Mandamus Councillors, Hallowell passed on his way to Roxbury. About one hundred and sixty horsemen pursued him at full gallop. Some of the leaders however, prudently dissuaded them from proceeding and they returned and dismounted, except for one man who followed Hallowell to Roxbury and caused him much annoyance. Through the action of the mob he was obliged to seek protection in Boston and leave his mansion which was built in 1738. It was used afterwards by the disunion forces as a hospital for the camp at Roxbury and his pleasure grounds were converted into a place of burial for the soldiers who died there.

In March, 1776, Captain Hallowell accompanied the British army to Halifax with his family of six persons. In July, 1776, he sailed for England in the ship Aston Hall. While at Halifax he wrote: "If I can be of the least service to either army or navy I will stay in America until the Rebellion is subdued."

The British Government granted him lands in Manchester, and two other towns in Nova Scotia, and a township in Upper Canada, which bears his name. He was a large proprietor of lands on the Kennebec, Maine, prior to the Revolution, but in 1778, he was proscribed and banished and included in the Conspiracy Act a year later, and his entire estate confiscated. His mansion house in Roxbury was seized and sold by the State, but as the fee was in Mrs. Hallowell, her heirs sued to recover of the person who held under the deed of the Commission of Confiscation and obtained judgement in 1803 in the United States Circuit Court, by which she recovered the property.

In 1784, when Mrs. Adams, the wife of the first minister from the United States was in England, she relates that both Mr. Hallowell and his wife treated her with respect and kindness. They also urged her to take lodgings with them, but this she declined. She records, too, that they lived in handsome style but not as splendidly as when in Boston. She accepted an invitation to "an unceremonious family dinner" as Mrs. Hallowell called it and met the Rev. Dr. Walter, Rector of Trinity Church, and two other gentlemen who belonged to Massachusetts.

On visiting Boston in 1796, Captain Hallowell was accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. Emsley, whose husband had just been appointed Chief Justice of Upper Canada. During his stay the odium which attached to his official relations to the Crown seemed to have been forgotten, since he was received by his former associates with the greatest kindness and hospitality. He died at York (Toronto) Upper Canada, in 1799, aged seventy-five, and was the last survivor of the Board of Commissioners.

Captain Hallowell had two sons, both of whom changed their names. WARD NICHOLAS HALLOWELL'S name was changed to Boylston. He was born in Boston in 1749. Sabine says: "I have before me the original license bearing the signature of George III by which he was authorized to change his name;" it recites--"That Nicholas Boylston, his uncle by his mother's side has conceived a very great affection for him, the petitioner, and has promised to leave him at his death, certain estates which are very considerable, etc." In early life he made a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and along the coast of Barbary; and arrived in England in 1775 through France, and Flanders. He dined at Governor Hutchinson's, London, with some fellow Loyalists, July 29, 1775, and entertained the company with an account of his travels, and, at subsequent periods, exhibited the curiosities which he brought from the Holy Land, Egypt, and other countries to the unhappy exiles from his native state.

In the Autumn of the next year, he was in lodgings at Shepton Mallet. He became a member of the Loyalist Association, formed in London in 1799. In 1800 he returned to Boston and laid claim to his father's estate that had been confiscated and sold, as being the property of his mother in her own right. Having assumed her name of Boylston, he obtained the estate by due process of law, as previously stated. In 1810 he presented Harvard College with a valuable collection of medical and anatomical works and engravings. He took his mother's name of Boylston, and thus claimed the family estate. He died at his seat in Roxbury, January 7, 1828.

He was a gentleman of education and took an active interest in the Roxbury schools. His liberality is commemorated by a school, and a street named after him, Boylston street being one of the principal streets in Boston.

SIR BENJAMIN HALLOWELL (Carew), another son of Captain Hallowell, who, succeeding to the estates of the Carews of Beddington, assumed the name and arms of that family. He was one of the eight Boston boys who subsequently attained high rank in the British service. Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Sir Benjamin Hallowell (Carew), John Singleton Copley, the younger, who became Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor of England, General Sir John Coffin, Hugh Mackay Gordon, Sir David Ochterlony, Sir Roger Hale Sheaff, Sir Aston Coffin.

Entering the royal navy during the American war he was at the time of his death in 1834, an admiral of the Blue in the British Navy, G. C. B., K. St. F. M. His commission as Lieutenant, bears date August, 1781; as Captain, in 1793; as Rear-Admiral, in 1811; as Vice-Admiral, in 1819. He was made a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1819, and was promoted to the rank of Grand Cross in 1831.

His employments at sea were various and arduous. He was with Rodney in the memorable battle with De Grasse; also at the siege of Bastia; and in command of a ship-of-the-line under Hotham, in the encounter with the French off the Hieres Islands. He served as a volunteer on board the _Victory_, in the battle of Cape St. Vincent. In the battle, Admiral Jarvis took his official post on the quarter deck of the Victory. Calder, the captain of the fleet kept bringing reports of the increasing numbers, observed till he reached twenty-seven, and said something of the disparity. Enough of that, said Jarvis, the die is cast and if there are fifty sail, I will go through them. Hallowell could not contain himself. He slapped the great admiral on the back, crying "That's right, Sir John, and by God, we'll give them a damned good licking." He was in command of the _Swiftsure_ of seventy-four guns, and contributed essentially to Nelson's victory in the battle of the Nile. From a part of the mainmast of L'Orient, which was picked up by the _Swiftsure_, Hallowell directed his carpenter to make a coffin, which was sent to Nelson with the following letter:

"Sir, I have taken the liberty of presenting you a coffin made from the mainmast of L'Orient, that when you have finished your military career in this world, you may be buried in one of your trophies. But that that period may be far distant is the earnest wish of your sincere friend,

BENJAMIN HALLOWELL."

Southey, in his "Life of Nelson," remarks: "An offering so strange and yet so suited to the occasion, was received in the spirit in which it was sent. And, as if he felt it good for him, now that he was at the summit of his wishes, to have death before his eyes, he ordered the coffin to be placed upright in his cabin. An old favorite servant entreated him so earnestly to let it be removed, that at length he consented to have the coffin carried below; but he gave strict orders that it should be safely stowed, and reserved for the purpose for which its brave and worthy donor had designed it."

In 1799, Sir Benjamin was engaged in the attacks on the castles of St. Elmo and Capua, and was honored with the Neapolitan Order of St. Ferdinand and Merit. Two years later he fell in with the French squadron, and surrendered his ship--the Swiftsure--after a sharp contest. During the peace of Amiens, he was stationed on the coast of Africa. He was with Hood in the reduction of St. Lucia and Tobago; with Nelson in the West Indies; in command of the convoy of the second expedition to Egypt; with Martin, off the mouth of the Rhone, where he assisted in driving on shore several French ships-of-war; and in the Mediterranean. His last duty seems to have been performed on the Irish station. He died at Beddington Park, in 1834, at the age of seventy-three. His wife was a daughter of Commissioner Inglefield, of Gibraltar Dock-yard. His son and heir, Charles Hallowell Carew who at the time of his decease, had attained the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy, and who married Mary, the daughter of Sir Murray Maxwell, C. B., died at the Park, in 1848. In 1851 his fifth son, Robert Hallowell Carew, late captain in the 36th Regiment, married Ann Roycroft, widow of Walter Tyson Smythes.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO BENJAMIN HALLOWELL IN SUFFOLK COUNTY, AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Samuel Gardner Jarvis, July 24, 1780: Lib. 131, fol. 230 Farm, 7 1-2 A., and dwelling-house in Roxbury, Jamaica Plain N.W.; road by widow Parker's N.E.; Joseph Williams S.E.; heirs of Capt. Newell, deceased, S.W.

To John Coffin Jones, Mar. 15, 1782; Lib. 134, fol. 60; Land and brick dwelling-house in Boston, Hanover St. N.; heirs of Alexander Chamberlain, deceased, and heirs of Miles Whitworth, deceased, W.; land in occupation of Samuel Sumner S. and W.; said Sumner and Joseph Scott, an absentee, S.; said Scott and heirs of Benjamin Andrews, deceased, E.

To John Coffin Jones, Mar. 15, 1782; Lib. 134, fol. 62; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, land purchased by said Jones N.; Joseph Scott E.; S. and E.; said Scott and Sampson Mason S. and E.; Masons Court S.; heirs of Miles Whitworth, deceased, W.

[Illustration: THE OLD VASSALL HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE.

Occupied during the siege of Boston by Dr. Benjamin Church, Surgeon-General, who was arrested and confined here until his trial.]

THE VASSALLS.

John Vassall, the first member of this illustrious family of which anything is definitely known, was an alderman of London, and in 1588 fitted out and commanded two ships of war to oppose the Spanish Armada. He was descended from an ancient French family traced back to about the eleventh century of the house of Du Vassall, Barons de guerdon, in Querci, Perigord.

John Vassall had two sons, Samuel and William. Samuel was one of the original patentees of lands in Massachusetts in 1628. His monument in King's Chapel, Boston, erected by Florentinus Vassall, his great grandson, in 1766, sets forth that he was "a steady and undaunted asserter of the liberties of England in 1628, he was the first who boldly refused to submit to the tax of tonnage and poundage, an unconstitutional claim of the crown arbitrarily imposed for which to the ruin of his family, his goods were seized and his person imprisoned by the star chamber court, the Parliament in July, 1641, voted him L10,445:12:2 for his damages, and resolved that he should be further considered for his personal sufferings."

His name headed the subscription list to raise money against the rebels in Ireland, and his whole life was indicative of the energy and liberality which characterized many of his descendants.

His son, WILLIAM VASSALL, born about 1590, was the first of his name who came to America. He was an assistant in the Massachusetts Bay Company and one of the original patentees of New England. In June, 1635, he embarked with his wife and six children on board the Blessing, for New England. He undoubtedly settled at first in Roxbury, for in the church record of that town is the following entry: "Mrs. Anna Vassaile, the wife of Mr. William Vassaile. Her husband brought five children to this land, Judith, Frances, John, Margaret, Mary." Also one other, Anne, who afterwards married Nicolas Ware.

William Vassall removed later to Scituate, where he proved himself to be an ever staunch Episcopalian. The Puritans had strong suspicion of him always as "inclining to the Bishops." While he lived in Scituate he was regarded as a highly respectable citizen and of "a busy and factious spirit." He was proprietor of a large estate, which bore the name of Newland. In 1646 he sailed to England for the redress of wrongs in the government and never returned, but in 1648 removed to Barbados and resided in the parish of St. Michael, where he died in 1655, aged 65 years. He bequeathed to his son John one-third of his real estate and the remainder to his five daughters. His Scituate estate consisted of about 120 acres, with house, barns, and the privilege of "making an oyster bed in North River," before his house. The estate was conveyed by Joshua Hubbard to John Cushen and Mathyas Briggs for L120.

His daughter Judith married Resolved White, the eldest brother of Peregrine White, at Scituate, 1640. Frances married James Adams at Marshfield 1646. Ann married Nicholas Ware of Virginia. Margaret married Joshua Hubbard of Scituate. Mary was unmarried and alive at Barbados in 1655.

JOHN VASSALL, only son of William Vassall, born about 1625. In 1643 his name is on the militia roll of Scituate, and later bore the rank of captain. In 1652 he sold his house in Boston for L59. In 1661 he sold his Scituate estates and removed, it is supposed, to Cape Fear, N. C, and later to the West Indies.

JOHN VASSALL, the only son of Samuel, whose monument is in King's Chapel, married Ann, the daughter of John Lewis, an English resident of Geno. He went to Jamaica shortly after it was taken in 1655, and laid the foundation of the great estate which his posterity enjoyed until the emancipation in 1834. He had two sons, William and Leonard, from whom descended all of the name of which there is any subsequent record.

LEONARD VASSALL, son of said William, was born in Jamaica, 1678, and was twice married. His first wife was Ruth Gale, of Jamaica by whom he had seventeen children. She died in Boston in 1733. His second wife was widow Phebe Goss, by whom he had one daughter. He removed to Boston previous to 1723. He was early connected with Christ Church. In 1730 he was instrumental in founding Trinity church. The original building was built on land which he had purchased of William Speakman, baker, 1728, for L450. The lot covered by the church was bounded by Seven-starr Lane (Summer street), 86 feet and 169 feet on Bishop's Lane (Hawley street), and is nearly opposite the estate which he purchased in 1727 of Simeon Stoddard, and where he resided until his death. He had large and valuable estates in Braintree and Jamaica.

John and William Vassall, two of Major Leonard's sons, were important men in Boston, and added much to the prosperity of the town.

JOHN VASSALL, the elder brother of William, was born in the West Indies Sept. 7, 1713, and graduated from Harvard college in 1732. In 1734 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Lieut. Gov. Spencer Phips by whom he had four children, and later he married Lucy, the daughter of Jonathan Barren of Chelmsford by whom he had one child. He resided in Cambridge most of his life and died there November 27, 1747. December 30, 1741, John Vassall conveyed to his brother Henry (a planter who had married Penelope the daughter of Isaac Royal of Antigua), in consideration of L9050 over seven acres of land in Cambridge, with dwelling house, barn and outhouses. During the Revolution, no doubt, this house was the headquarters of the Surgeon-General and perhaps a hospital. Dr. Benjamin Church, after he was detected in correspondence with the enemy, was arrested here and confined to his quarters until trial, and left a record of his occupation of the house by his name, cut with a penknife on one of the doors of his chamber, which is still legible though since covered with several coats of paint.

After the death of John Vassall, his son, who was also known by the name of John, erected the house in Cambridge, which has since become famous through Washington's connection with it, as during the Revolution it was used as his headquarters, and afterwards it was the home of Prof. Henry W. Longfellow.

MAJOR JOHN VASSALL, the grandson of Leonard Vassall, was born in Cambridge, June 12, 1738, and graduated from Harvard College in 1757. He erected a beautiful edifice on the estate inherited from his father and occupied it until driven from it by the rage of the mob. The estate was confiscated in 1774 and he removed to Boston for protection, and in that city continued to dwell upon the estate adjoining that of his uncle, William Vassall, on Pemberton Hill, until 1776.

At the commencement of the Revolution he was obliged to flee with his family to England. He had large possessions in Cambridge, Boston and Dorchester,[193] all of which were confiscated and himself exiled, soon after he departed from home. He joined the British army in Halifax, and from there sailed to England. He died there suddenly, October 2, 1796. An obituary published in the "Gentleman's Magazine" said of him, "he had a very considerable property in America where he lived in princely style." Sometime after the disturbances took place, having taken a very

## active part and spared no expense to support the royal cause, he left

his possessions there to the ravagers, and having fortunately very large estates in Jamaica, he came with his family to England. He carried his loyalty so far as not to use the family motto, "Soepe pro rege, semper pro republica."

[193] See p. 184 concerning his mansion in Dorchester.

In 1774 he had been addresser of Hutchinson and for this great offence to the mobs, he was driven from his home, his property was confiscated and he was exiled. During his residence in England, he seems to have lived near Bristol and died at Clifton. A part of the Jamaica grant was still in the family, and his several children inherited a competence. His wife Elizabeth, sister of Lieut.-Gov. Thomas Oliver, died at Clifton, in 1807. His children were John, who died at Lyndhurst, in the year 1800; Thomas Oliver, who died in England in 1807; Elizabeth; Robert Oliver, who became a member of the Council of Jamaica, and died at Abington Hall, in that island in 1827; a second Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Lemaistre and died at Cheltenham, in 1856; Leonard and Mary, who alone was born in England, who married Mr. Archer, and who with her only child, deceased, at Clifton, in 1806.

SPENCER THOMAS VASSALL, son of the aforesaid John Vassall, born at Cambridge, Mass., 1764. Entered the British Army as Ensign at the age of twelve years. He rose to the command of the 38th regiment, and was regarded as one of the bravest officers in the service. He was mortally wounded at the storming of Monte Video, in 1807. His remains were taken to England and buried in St. Paul's church, Bristol, where there is a monument to his memory. His son, Spencer Lambert Hunter, who died in 1846, was a Knight and a captain in the Royal Navy. His other son, Rawdon John Popham, was a colonel in the Royal Artillery. His youngest daughter Catherine married Thomas L. Marchant Saumerez, son of the admiral.

WILLIAM VASSALL, brother of Major John Vassall, was born in Jamaica, November 23, 1715, and graduated at Harvard College in 1733. In 1774 he was appointed Mandamus Councillor, but was not sworn. He was also sheriff of Middlesex County. He owned considerable property, and was the possessor of a fine estate near Bristol, R. I. He was prominent among the Loyalists of Boston, and was singled out early as an enemy to the Revolutionary cause. He was proscribed and banished and obliged to flee with his family to England. Mr. Vassall was for many years connected with King's Chapel, Boston, and in 1785 protested by proxy against the change in the Liturgy and the unauthorized ordination of James Freeman.

The confiscation of his estate gave rise to a singular suit. As the Federal Constitution was adopted, a State could be sued; and, at Mr. Vassall's instance, proceedings against Massachusetts were commenced in the court of the United States; and Hancock, who was governor, was summoned as defendant in the case; he however declined to appear, and soon after the eleventh amendment to the Constitution put an end to the right of Loyalists to test the validity of the Confiscation Acts of the Revolution. Mr. Vassall died at Battersea Rise, England, in 1800, aged eighty-five. He was upright, generous, and loving. Church and society lost in him an eager, zealous advocate, an upright Christian, of an honorable and unblemished reputation. His first wife, Ann Davis, bore him Sarah, four named William, two named Fanny, Francis, Lucretia, Henry and Catherine. His second wife, Margaret Hubbard, was the mother of Margaret, Ann, Charlotte, Leonard and Nathaniel. Each wife had twins. Nathaniel, the youngest son, a captain in the Royal Navy, died in London in 1832.

WILLIAM VASSALL, son of the preceding William Vassall, was born in Boston in 1753, and graduated at Harvard College in 1771. He was a Loyalist and went to England. He inherited the bulk of his father's property in the West Indies, which descended to his nephew, Rev. William Vassall, rector of Hardington, England, "but so burdened and deteriorated in consequence of emancipation of the slaves that it was not worth anything," and that gentleman declined to administer upon it. He died at the Weston House, near Totness, December 2, 1843. Ann, his widow, died at the same place October 1846, aged seventy-five years.

FLORENTINUS VASSALL was the son of William Vassall and a great-grandson of Samuel, to whose memory he erected the beautiful marble monument in King's Chapel, when he was in Boston in 1766. He was here again in 1775 and in that year went to England. He was born in Jamaica, and lived there the greater part of his life. He died in London in 1778.

[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN VASSELL'S MANSION, CAMBRIDGE.

Washington's headquarters during the siege of Boston afterwards known as the Craigle and Longfellow House.]

Of the immense domain fifteen miles wide on both sides of the Kennebec River, extending from the vicinity of Merry Meeting Bay to the southerly line of the town of Norridgwock, he was the owner of one twenty-fourth part. In his will, executed in 1776, he gave to his son Richard and to Richard's daughter, Elizabeth, life estate in these lands, and then devised them in entail to his male children. The bequest proved of little value to either. After the lapse of years the rights of Elizabeth and her son Henry were transferred separately to parties in Boston, to test the title which was claimed by squatters. Three of them were sued in the name of the son. The cases were carried up to the United States Supreme Court, where it was decided that during his mother's life, he could not maintain an action. After her decease, suit against one settler was renewed, but on intimation by the court that fifty years' possession was sufficient to presume a grant, or title without consideration, another point, namely, whether the right of the plaintiff to recover was barred by the statute of limitation. The defendant paid a small sum for the land he occupied, and each party his own costs. Thus in 1851 terminated litigation, which for a long time was the subject of great interest on the Kennebec, and elsewhere in Maine. This granddaughter Elizabeth was a remarkable woman. Those who knew her speak of her as brilliant and witty, as possessed of queenly grace of manner, as well informed, of wonderful tact, and of excellent sense. Her first husband was Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart. By this marriage she was the mother of Sir Godfrey Vassall Webster, Bart., who died in 1836, of Lieut-Col. Sir Henry Vassall Webster, K. T. S., of the British Army, who died in London in 1847, aged 54, and of Harriet, who married Admiral Sir Fleetwood B. Reynolds C. B. K. C. H., who died at Florence in 1849, leaving an only child, the wife of the son and heir of the Earl of Oxford. Another son, Charles Richard Fox, whose father was Lord Holland, married Mary Fitzclarence, second daughter of King William IV., and who, in 1845 was a colonel in the army, and aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.

In 1797 Lady Webster married Lord Holland, who took by sign-manual the surname of Vassal which, however, was not assumed by his children. As Lady Holland, she was the mother of three children, who died young, of Henry Holland, who became at the death of his father, Lord Holland, of Mary Elizabeth, wife of Lord Lilford, and of Georgianna Anne who died in 1819.

The friendly feelings of Bonaparte towards Lady Holland, especially after the peace of Amiens, is well known, and that in return "for the many acts of kindness, which she had bestowed upon him" he left her a gold snuff box which had been presented to him by Pope Pius VI., containing a card with these words: "L'Empereur to Lady Holland, temoigne de satisfaction et d'estime." She died at London, in 1845, aged 75. Among her bequests were the income of an estate, about L1500 per annum, to Lord John Russell, for his life, and a legacy of L100 to Macaulay the historian.

"The Vassall family has ever been distinguished for enterprise, magnanimity, and noble bearing. If some of this name were not only often, but always, for their king it must be admitted that they made as great sacrifices to loyalty as did their forefathers to liberty."

The Vassals were connected by marriage and business dealings with the Olivers and Royalls. All three families had acquired great wealth in the West Indies, and although they lost their great possessions in New England, by the Confiscation Act, yet they were much better situated than their fellow sufferers as they retained their West Indian estates till they, too, became worthless, after the emancipation of the slaves.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO JOHN VASSAL IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To John Williams, Sept. 25. 1781; Lib. 133, fol. 110; Land 3 1-2 A., and buildings in Dorchester, the high road S. and W.; Ebenezer and Lemuel Clap N.; Zebadiah Williams E.----1-2 A South of the above, Mr. Jeffries E.; the high road on the other side.

To Isaiah Doane, Jan. 8, 1784; Lib. 141, fol. 2; Land and buildings in Boston. Tremont St. E; heirs of John Jefferies deceased S.; heirs of Jeremiah Allen deceased, William Vassall and heirs of Joseph Sherburne W.; William Vassall and land of the old brick church N.

GENERAL ISAAC ROYALL.

William Royall, the first member of this family of which there is anything definitely known, emigrated to Salem probably during the year of 1629. He had a grant of land there known as "Royall's side" or "Ryall's Neck." He married, at Boston or Malden, Phoebe Green. He was in Casco Bay as early as 1635. His house was built on the south side of what was afterwards known as Royall's River, near its mouth, in North Yarmouth. Here he lived until the troubles with the neighboring Indians, which induced him to remove to Dorchester in 1675, accompanied by his son William, who was born probably at the Casco settlement in 1640. He was a carpenter by occupation, and died in 1724, in the 85th year of his age, and is buried in the tomb built by his son Isaac in the Dorchester burying ground.

Isaac Royall, son of the aforesaid William, born probably at the settlement in Casco Bay about 1672. He early settled at Boston, and engaged in trade, making frequent voyages to Antigua and other West India islands. He married, according to Boston records, on July 1, 1697, Elizabeth, daughter of Asaph Eliot and grandniece of the apostle to the Indians of that name. His wife was the widow of one Oliver, probably of Dorchester.

For a period of forty years Isaac Royall was a resident of Antigua, although his frequent presence in Boston during that time is evinced by his signature to conveyances. His name first appears on the Suffolk records in a mortgage deed given by himself and wife on the 24th August, 1697, he then being styled a "merchant of Boston." His trading operations between 1704 and 1710 with the West Indies, proved the foundation of his fortune.

On December 26, 1732, he purchased of the heirs of Lieutenant Governor Usher the estate in Charlestown (Medford) containing about five hundred acres. The large Mansion house was built by Usher, but has since become widely known as the Royall Mansion. It was one of the finest and most pretentious residences of the time within the suburbs of Boston. It is described by a visitor at that time as "A fine Country Seat belonging to Mr. Isaac Royall, being one of the grandest in N. America." This mansion was greatly added to, and almost rebuilt by the wealthy West Indian planter. He petitioned the General Court in December, 1737, that he might not be taxed on the twenty-seven slaves which he brought with him from Antigua. "That he removed from Antigua with his family, and brought with him among other things, and chattels, a parcel of negroes, designed for his own use, and not any of them for merchandise."

Isaac Royall, the builder of this mansion, did not live long to enjoy his princely estate, dying in 1739, not long after its completion. His widow, who survived him eight years, died in this house, and was interred from Colonel Oliver's in Dorchester April 25, 1747. The pair share the same tomb in the old Dorchester burying place. His daughter Penelope married Colonel Henry Vassall of Cambridge in 1742. He died in 1769, and she died in Boston in 1800, aged 76.

GENERAL ISAAC ROYALL, a son, who was born in Antigua, probably in 1719, married Elizabeth McIntosh in 1738, but lived mostly in Boston. He became an extensive purchaser of lands in various parts of the State, and was one of the original proprietors of the township of Royalston in Worcester County. He was a member of the Artillery Company of Boston in 1750, was made a brigadier general in 1761, the first of that title among Americans. He was elected by the House a Councillor of the Province, and served in that office until 1774, completing twenty-three years of consecutive service.

Much has been written of this man's position at the time of the colonial disturbances in 1774. Possessed of large wealth, and the influence that riches and education carried with them, his course was watched by the people with intense anxiety. He was known to have much in common with the faithful band of Loyalists, who were gathered about Cambridge and Boston, yet he was still faithful to the people's church, and most of his family ties held him to the popular cause. A long letter, written by him to Lord Dartmouth, dated in January of 1774, exists in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Proceedings, 1873-1875, page 179. Harris says, "there can be no good reason for doubting the sincerity of his sympathy with the people, and although, when the time came to make a choice, he was prevailed upon to adhere to the side of the government, there is abundant evidence of his continued love towards New England and his desire to return and end his days here." How much harder was it then for a man in his position to make the great sacrifices he did, to give up his loved home and his property, all for the cause of his King.

He wrote to Lord Dartmouth, "I am conscious that in all public affairs I have made the honor of my king and the real Interests and Peace of my country the ultimate end of all my transactions. I am so to live in this world as that I may be happy in another, and no man more ardently wishes and earnestly prays to the God of Peace for the Restoration of those happy days, which formerly subsisted between us and our mother country than I do."

Three days before the battle of Lexington, Colonel Royall took his departure from Medford. He drove in his chariot, which was one of the few in this vicinity, to Boston, and never again returned.

The mansion itself was indeed one of the finest of colonial residences, standing, as it did, in the midst of elegant surroundings. In the front, or what is now the west side, was the paved court. Reaching farther west were the extensive gardens, opening from the courtyard, a broad path leading to the summer house. The slave quarters were at the south. The brick slave quarters have remained unchanged, and are the last visible relics of slavery in New England. The deep fireplace where the slaves prepared their food is still in place, and the roll of slaves has certainly been called in sight of Bunker Hill, though never upon its summit.

The interior woodwork of the house is beautifully carved, especially the drawing room, guest chamber, and staircase. The walls are panelled, and the carving on either side of the windows is very fine, that in the guest chamber being the most elaborate.

One interested in colonial architecture may wander for hours through this noble house, and yet feel that there is more to learn. The dark cellar, full of passages, the garret with its corners, and the secret staircase so often searched for, yet undiscovered, all furnish good material for imaginary pictures of the Revolutionary days of our ancestors.

The Royall mansion is now owned and occupied by "The Royall House Association" and is open for the public.

When Colonel Royall left his mansion he had prepared to take passage from Salem to Antigua, but, having gone into Boston, the Sunday previous to the battle of Lexington, and remained there until that affair occurred, he was, by the course of events, shut up in the town. He sailed for Halifax very soon, still intending, as he says, for Antigua, but on the arrival of his son-in-law. George Erving, and his daughter, with the troops from Boston, he was by them persuaded to sail for England, whither his other son-in-law, Sir William Pepperell, had preceded.

[Illustration: GENERAL ISAAC ROYALL'S MANSION, MEDFORD.

He was kind to his slaves, charitable to the poor and friendly to everybody.]

Upon his arrival in England, he exchanged visits with Governors Pownall, Bernard, and Hutchinson. Colonel Royall after the loss of some of his nearest relatives and of his own health, requested that he be allowed to return "home" to Medford and to be buried by the side of his wife, his father and mother, and the rest of his friends. He would fain have lived in amity with all men and with his king too, but the Revolution engulfed him. But he is not forgotten. He died in England 1781, his large hearted benevolence showed itself in many bequests to that country that had driven him forth and to which he was an alien. He bequeathed upwards of two thousand acres of land in Worcester County to found the first Law Professorship of Harvard University and his other bequests were numerous and liberal. He has a town (Royalston) in Massachusetts named for him, and is remembered with affection in the place of his former abode. His virtues and popularity at first saved his estate, as his name was not included with those of his sons-in-law, Sir William Pepperell and George Erving, in the "conspirators act," but on the representation of the selectmen of Medford "_that he went voluntarily to our enemies_" his property was taken under the confiscation act and forfeited. It was held by the State until 1805, when it was released by the Commonwealth, owing to the large bequests that Colonel Royall made to the public. It was then purchased by Robert Fletcher, who divided the estate up into house lots and sold them to various persons.

General Royall's mansion was the centre of great festivities, and the most noted families of Boston and vicinity were entertained there. He was noted for his hospitality and was always generous and charitable to the poor, and an excellent citizen. Brooks in his "History of Medford" says hospitality was almost a passion with him. No home in the Colony was more open to friends, no gentleman gave better dinners, or drank costlier wines. As a master he was kind to his slaves, charitable to the poor, and friendly to everybody.

He was a most accurate man and in his daily journal minutely described every visitor, topic, and incident and even descended to recording what slippers he wore and when he went to bed. Some one said in speaking of Colonel Isaac Royall, "it is not that he loved the colonies less but England more." Among his bequests was a legacy of plate to the first church of Medford, and legacies to the clergymen, and while a member of the House of Representatives, he presented the chandelier which adorned its hall.

After the departure of General Royall from his beautiful home, it was taken possession of by the rebels who came pouring into the environs of Boston and laid siege to same. Colonel, afterwards General, John Stark,[194] made the mansion his headquarters, and his New Hampshire troops pitched their camp in the adjacent grounds. It was afterwards occupied by General Lee, who took up his quarters in the mansion, whose echoing corridors suggested to his fancy the name of Hobgoblin Hall.

[194] General John Stark's brother Colonel William Stark, was a man of great bravery and hardihood. Before the Revolution he was a much greater man than his brother John. He commanded New England troops in the capture of Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Louisburg and Quebec. In West's picture, "The Death of Gen. Wolf," he is shown as holding Wolf in his arms. William Stark remained loyal and became a colonel in the Royal Army. He was killed from a fall from his horse at the battle of Long Island.

Elizabeth, the wife of Isaac Royall, died at Medford, July, 1770, and was buried in the marble tomb in Dorchester. Their daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Sir William Pepperell, died at sea upon the voyage to England in 1775.[195]

[195] For an account of the Pepperell family see New Eng. Gen. Reg., xx. 4. Those descended from him comprise probably a hundred families holding the highest social positions including dignitaries in church and state, baronets, presidents of colleges, D. D's., and bishops, and others of exalted rank, perhaps more numerous than can be found in any one family in the British realms.

It is said that the male line of the Royalls has ceased to exist in Maine and Massachusetts. The writer knows not of a single living individual bearing the surname who has descended from the stock that in the beginning of the settlement was so vigorous, and promised to be so prolific. This statement will also apply to many other Loyalists' families that were driven from their homes at the commencement of the Revolution.

GENERAL WILLIAM BRATTLE.

Thomas Brattle, the forefather of the Brattle family that settled in Boston, was at his death accounted the wealthiest man in the Colony. Though we have no information concerning the family prior to the coming of Thomas Brattle to New England, it is only reasonable to believe that he was descended from an educated and intelligent line. Only four generations bearing the name existed here, and it is a notable circumstance that all the male representatives of those four generations were men of remarkable powers and distinguished abilities.

THOMAS BRATTLE was born about 1624, and was a merchant of Boston. He was a member of the Artillery Company and captain in the militia, and the commander of several expeditions against hostile Indians. He was one of the founders of the Old South Church. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Captain William Tyng, by whom he had seven children. His death occurred in 1683.

THOMAS BRATTLE, the son of the former, was born in 1658, and was a graduate of Harvard College. He was a very intelligent man, and was treasurer of Harvard College for twenty-five years. He was one of the founders of the Brattle Street church, and gave an organ to the King's Chapel when it was rebuilt in 1710, the first organ used in Boston in a church. He was a steadfast opposer of the proceedings of the courts during the witchcraft delusion in 1692. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and died in 1713. President Ouincy says of him: "He was distinguished for his private benevolences and public usefulness."

WILLIAM BRATTLE graduated from Harvard college, and for over twenty years was pastor of the Cambridge church. He was also a member of the Royal Society of London.

WILLIAM BRATTLE, son of the former, was baptized by his father in 1706. He graduated from Harvard College in 1722, and was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was a theologian, and as a physician he was widely known, and no higher tribute to his eminence as a barrister need be sought than in the years 1736-7, when, only thirty years of age, he was elected by the House and Council to the office of Attorney General.

He possessed strong peculiarities, and Sabine says of him that "A man of most eminent talents and of greater eccentricities has seldom lived." He inherited a large and well invested property, and had ample means to cultivate those tastes to which, by his nature and education, he was inclined. He was for many years Major General of the Province, and afterwards Brigadier General. His large and beautifully situated house, which now exists in Cambridge, though greatly transformed, known as the "Old Brattle House" was the resort of the fashion and style of this section of the country. At the age of twenty-one he married Katherine, the daughter of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall. She died at Cambridge in 1752, and he married again in 1755, Mrs. Martha, widow of James Allen, and daughter of Thomas Fitch. General Brattle seems to have inherited from his father the same love for and interest in the welfare of his Alma Mater, which so characterized the beloved minister of the church in Cambridge. He was long one of her overseers, and in 1762 was appointed by the Council one of a committee for the erection of Hollis Hall, a task which was satisfactorily completed.

When the Revolution broke out in 1775, he was holding a very honorable office under the crown. Harris says he was "on terms of friendship with many of the regular army officers quartered in Boston and vicinity. His cultivated and refined tastes tending always to draw him to court, rather than plebeian society, were, no doubt, inducements for him to remain loyal. Certain it was, while studiously endeavoring to preserve friendly and peaceful relations with his townsmen and neighbors, he was openly opposed to their principles. He was an Addresser of Gen. Gage and approved of his plans, but at last public excitement reached such a height that he deemed it wise to withdraw from Cambridge, and leaving his house and property in the hands of his only daughter, Madame Wendell, at that time a widow, he quietly joined the Royal army in Boston, and at the evacuation in 1776, sailed with the forces to Halifax, where he died in October of the same year. It is said that his gravestone is still to be seen in the churchyard in that city." There is a portrait of William Brattle in the possession of his descendants, which was painted by Copley, being one of the first productions of that eminent artist. Of his nine children, only two lived to maturity, Katherine in whom the line but not the name was perpetuated, and Thomas.

Katherine was married to John Mico Wendell, a merchant of Boston, in 1752, who was of Dutch origin. After the death of her husband, Katherine removed to Cambridge and resided there until her death in 1821, at the age of nearly ninety-one years. The house was situated near the corner of what afterwards became Wendell street, and North ave. The Centinel of February 10, 1821, contained a memoir from which we gain some knowledge of her character.

"Descended from honorable families, she possessed the virtues and and maintained the honors of her ancestors.... During the war of the Revolution, both her talents and virtues were put to severe tests, and by her wisdom and discretion, her energy, and integrity, her benevolence, and charity, she conciliated the favor of men in power, civil and military; secured to herself personal respect, and rescued the paternal inheritance from the hazard of confiscation. It was by her means that the portion of the estate that fell to her brother Thomas, then in England, was in a like manner preserved.... Her contributions aided in the translation of the Bible into the languages of the East, and in the diffusion of Christian knowledge among the poor and destitute of our own country."

She had five children, but three of them died before reaching maturity. Governor James Sullivan, who knew Thomas Brattle well, wrote of him: "Major Brattle exercised a deep reverence for the principles of government, and was a cheerful subject of the laws. He respected men of science, as the richest ornament of their country. If he had ambition, it was to excel in acts of hospitality, benevolence, and charity. The dazzling splendor of heroes, and the achievements of political intrigues, passed unnoticed before him, but the character of the man of benevolence filled his heart with emotions of sympathy."... "In his death, the sick, the poor and the distressed have lost a liberal benefactor, politeness an ornament, and philanthropy one of its most discreet and generous supporters."

THOMAS BRATTLE, the youngest and only surviving son of General William and Katherine Saltonstall Brattle, was born at Cambridge in 1742. He graduated from Harvard College in 1760, and not long afterwards visited England and the Continent, for the double purpose of study and travel.

When the war broke out, he was still abroad, and being informed of the position taken by his father, he conceived to be the most prudent course to remain in England. While abroad he traveled over various parts of Great Britain, and made a tour through Holland and France, and was noticed by persons of distinction. Returning to London, he zealously and successfully labored to ameliorate the condition of his countrymen, who had been captured and were in prison. This restored to him his estates, for he was included in the Confiscation, Proscription and Banishment Act of 1778. He returned to America in 1779, and 1784 the enactments against him in Massachusetts were repealed, and he took possession of his patrimony. He found his mansion home at Cambridge had been thoroughly ransacked and damaged by the Continental troops, who had occupied it during the war. The neglected estate was restored to its former beauty, and improved by the erection of a green-house, probably one of the earliest known in this part of the country. He lived here for many years, and became well known for his charities. He died, universally lamented and beloved, on the seventh of February, 1801, and was laid to rest in the family tomb, the last of his name. He was never married.

The only descendants of General William and Katharine Saltonstall Brattle, are through their daughter Katherine, who married John Mico Wendell.

CONFISCATED ESTATE OF WILLIAM BRATTLE IN BOSTON, AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To James Allen, May 12, 1781; Lib. 132, fol. 202: Land and buildings in Boston. Tremont St W.; John Rowe and Henry Caner, an absentee, S.; Nathaniel Holmes E.; George Bethune N. and E.; John Andrew and heirs of Samuel Pemberton deceased N.; Robert McElroy W. and N.; passageway W. and W. [N.]

JOSEPH THOMPSON.

Joseph Thompson was the son of Joseph and Sarah (Bradshaw) Thompson, who were located in Medford as early as 1772, coming from Woburn, and descended from the same family as Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford). They lie buried side by side in the little burial ground on Salem street, Medford. Joseph, the subject of this sketch, was born May 16, 1734. He was married in Boston, 1759, to Rebecca Gallup, whom Isaac Royall refers to in his will as a kinswoman of his wife.

In addition to the double portion assigned to him out of his father's estate, he added to it from time to time by the purchase of several estates. His occupation is mentioned in the deeds as that of merchant. In June, 1775, news reached the Provincial Congress that the Ervings of Boston, had fitted out, under color of chartering to Thompson, a schooner of their own, to make a voyage to New Providence (Nassau, Bahama Islands), to procure "fruit, turtle and provisions of other kinds for the sustenance and feasting of those troops who are, as pirates and robbers, committing daily hostilities and depredations on the good people of this colony and all America." Congress therefore resolved that Captain Samuel McCobb, a member, "be immediately dispatched to Salem and Marblehead, to secure said Thompson, and prevent said vessel from going said voyage, and cause the said Thompson to be brought before this Congress." Thompson, however, escaped, and afterwards went to England. On June 3, 1780, on the petition of Rebecca Thompson, asking leave be granted her to rejoin her husband in England on the first convenient opportunity, and to also return again to this state, the General Court, and the committee of Inspection for Medford, were directed to see that she carried no letters nor papers that might be detrimental to this, or any of the United States of America.[196]

[196] Medford Historical Register, Vol. viii, p. 59.

James Prescott, Joseph Hosmer and Samuel Thatcher, Esq., were ordered to make sales of certain estates situated in the county of Middlesex, confiscated to the use of the government, belonging to Joseph Thompson, merchant. Six acres of salt marsh on Medford river were sold to Ebenezer Hall, Jr., for L70; a dwelling house and yard bounded south on the great road, to Thomas Patten for L295; 11/2 rods of land (part of the dower estate of his mother), with 3-16 of the dwelling house, 1-4 of an acre of mowing land, 20 rods of plow land, to Samuel Kidder for L24.15; a pew in the meeting house to Susanna Brooks, widow, for L10; 8 acres of land bounded south on the great road and west on Proprietor's Way, and situated near the Hay Market, to Jonathan Foster for L252. 10, and about 10 poles of land with a joiner's shop thereon, bounded north on the road to Malden, to Ebenezer Hall for L40.5, making a total of L692.5.

A Mr. Thompson died in England during the war, probably the same.

COLONEL JOHN ERVING.

The Erving family was one of the oldest and most respected families in Boston. Hon. John Erving, the father of the colonel, was one of the most eminent merchants in America, and was a member of the Council of Massachusetts for twenty years. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, his great-grandson, in a public address in 1845, thus refers to him: "A few dollars earned on a commencement day, by ferrying passengers over Charles River, when there was no bridge--shipped to Lisbon in the shape of fish, and from thence to London in the shape of fruit, and from thence brought home to be reinvested in fish, and to be re-entered upon the same triangular circuit of trade--laid the foundations of the largest fortunes of the day, a hundred years ago." Mr. Erving, by his wife Abigail, had a large family. He died in Boston in 1786, aged ninety-three.

COLONEL JOHN ERVING, eldest son of the preceding, was born in Boston, June 26, 1727, was a colonel of the Boston regiment of militia, a warden of Trinity church. He graduated at Harvard University in 1747. In 1760 he signed the Boston Memorial, and was thus one of the fifty-eight who were the first men in America to array themselves against the officers of the Crown, but like many others that did not favor many acts of the government, he could not tolerate mob rule, and therefore threw his lot in on the side that represented law and authority.

When Hancock's sloop Liberty was seized for smuggling in 1768, by the commissioners, the fury of the mob became great. They fell upon the officers, several of whom barely escaped with their lives. Mr. Erving, besides having his sword broken, was beaten with clubs and sticks, and considerably wounded. He was not concerned with the seizure of the sloop.

[Illustration: MAJOR GENERAL SIR DAVID OCHTERLONY.

Born in Boston Feb. 12, 1758. There is erected in Calcutta a monument to him, which is one of the notable sights of that city. Died at Meerut, India in 1825.]

In 1774 he was an addresser of Hutchinson, and the same year appointed mandamus councillor. On the evacuation of Boston, he and his family of nine persons accompanied the army to Halifax, and from there he went to England. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. He died at Bath, England, June 17, 1816, aged eighty-nine. His wife, Maria Catherina (youngest daughter of Governor Shirley), with whom he lived sixty years, died a few months before him. A daughter of Mr. Erving married Governor Scott of the island of Dominica and died at that island February 13, 1768. His son, Dr. Shirley Erving, entered Harvard College in 1773, but his education was cut short by the Revolution. He became a prominent physician at Portland, Maine, and died at Boston in 1813, aged fifty-five. His widow survived him for many years. They left two sons and one daughter. The Erving mansion house was on Milk street, and was confiscated.

GEORGE ERVING was a prominent merchant of Boston. He was one of the fifty-eight memorialists who were the first men in America to array themselves against the officers of the Crown, but he could not take part with the mobs in their lawless and brutal actions. He was an Addresser of Hutchinson in 1774, was proscribed under the Act of 1778, and his estate was confiscated under the Conspiracy Act of 1779. He went to Halifax with his family of five persons, and thence to England. He died in London in 1806 at the age of seventy. His wife was a daughter of General Isaac Royall of Medford.

CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO COLONEL JOHN ERVING AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To James Lloyd, May 4. 1787; Lib. 160, fol. 105; Land and buildings in Boston. Kilby St., formerly Mackerel Lane, E; heirs of John Erving deceased N; heirs of Samuel Hughes W.; Joseph Winthrop S.

To John Codman, Jr., July 2. 1787. Lib. 160, fol. 201; Land and messuage in Boston. Newbury St., W.; John Crosby N.; E. and N., John Soley E. and S., passage or alley S.----Land 14 A., in Walpole, road from Walpole to the sign of the Black Lamb in Stoughton N.; Nathaniel Preble S.E.; Philip Bardin S.W. and N.W.

To Nathaniel Appleton. Feb. 13, 1789; Lib. 164, fol. 149; Land, 14 A, in Walpole, road from Walpole to the sign of the Black Lamb in Stoughton N.; Nathaniel Preble S.E.; Philip Bardin S.W. and N.W.

To John Deming. May 6, 1789; Lib. 166, fol. 11; Land and messuage in Boston. Newbury St. W.; John Crosby N.; E. and N.; John Soley E. and S.; passage or alley S.

MAJOR GENERAL SIR DAVID OCHTERLONY.

Captain David Ochterlony, the father of the subject of this memoir, was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, and was descended from one of the most ancient families in that country. In 1226 the land of "Othirlony" was exchanged by his ancestors for those of Kenney in Forfarshire possessed by the Abbey of Aberbrothock. Kenney had been bestowed on the Abbey by its founder, King William, the Lion King of Scotland.

David, was a captain in the merchant service, and resided for a while at Montrose. Boston was one of the many ports visited by him in his voyages. Five years after his first appearance in Boston, June 4, 1757, intention of marriage was published, to Katherine, daughter of Andrew Tyler of Boston, by his wife Miriam, a sister of Sir William Pepperell. On 27th of June, 1762, he purchased a brick house with about 1500 square feet of land on Back street, which at that time was that part of Salem street from Hanover to Prince street. Meanwhile three sons and daughter were born. The eldest of these, MAJOR GENERAL SIR DAVID OCHTERLONY born 12 Feb. 1758, who was to revive the name in a new locality. Captain Ochterlony, the father, continued his career as a mariner but a few years after locating in Boston, he died in 1765, at St. Vincent W. I. His widow went to England, where she married Sir Isaac Heard of London, Norroy and Garter King of Arms, and gentleman of the Red Rod, to the order of the Bath.

The son David was a scholar at the Latin School in Boston, when his father died. At the age of eighteen he entered the army and went to India, as a cadet, and in 1778 received an appointment as Ensign. In 1781 he was Quartermaster to the 71st Regiment of Foot. During the twenty years that succeeded, he was exposed to all the danger and fatigue of incessant service in the East. He attained the rank of Major in 1800 and of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1803, and Colonel in 1812. His commission of Major General bears date June 1, 1814. In 1817 he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. His health, after nearly fifty years of uninterrupted military duty in a tropical climate, became impaired and he resigned a political office in India with the intention of proceeding to Calcutta, and thence to England. This plan he did not live to execute. He died at Meerut in 1825, while there for a change of air. He was Deputy-Adjutant-General at the Battle of Delhi, after which he was sent as envoy to the Court of Sha Alum. For his conduct in the Nepaulese war, he was created a Knight Commander of the Bath and May 7, 1816, was made a baronet. After his death there was erected in Calcutta a monument to him, which is one of the notable signs of the city. Sir David never married. His title descended to Charles Metcalf Ochterlony, and was succeeded in it by his son, the present baronet, Sir David Ferguson Ochterlony. Gilbert Ochterlony, the second son of Captain David, died Jan. 16, 1780, aged 16, at the home of his step-father Isaac Heard, Esq., at the college of arms.[197] Alexander, the third son died in 1803, and Catherine in 1792.

[197] It was Sir Isaac Heard that took such pains in searching out the pedigree of the Washington family.

Captain David's will, made at the time of his marriage, was probate March 7, 1766, and left everything to his wife Katrin, but his estate was not settled till after the peace. 1791, and then it was insolvent, the sum then obtained to close up the estate paid a dividend of only six and a half pence on the pound. The name of Ochterlony in New England became extinct.

JUDGE AUCHMUTY'S FAMILY.

Robert Auchmuty first of the American family of that name was descended from an ancient Scottish family, holding a barony in the north of that country. His father settled in England early in the eighteenth century, and Robert studied law at the Temple, London, and came to America and settled in Boston about the year 1700. He was a profound lawyer and possessed remarkable talents and wit, but when he was admitted to practice does not appear. He was in practice soon after 1719 and the profession owed much to his character and system and order which now began to distinguish its forms of practice. His talents were extraordinary, "Old Mr. Auchmuty says a contemporary would sit up all night at his bottle, yet argue to admiration next day, and was an admirable speaker." He was sent to England to settle a boundary dispute between Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. His services were so valuable, that on December 1738, he received from the former a grant of two hundred acres of land. He was judge of the Court of Admiralty for New England from 1733 until 1747. While he was in England he advocated the expedition to Cape Breton in an ably written pamphlet published in 1744. This tract probably gave to the historian Smollett the erroneous impression that Auchmuty was the originator of that brilliant enterprise, the credit of which belongs to Governor Shirley.

Judge Auchmuty held his office until 1747 when he was superseded by Chambers Russell. His home was in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and many anecdotes of him have been handed down from generation to generation. He was "greatly respected and beloved in public and private life." His memory is held in high veneration by the bar in Massachusetts and his opinions are still respected.

Judge Auchmuty died in April, 1750, leaving several children. His daughter married Judge Pratt of New York and his son, Judge Robert Auchmuty, followed in his father's footstep, and became a noted lawyer in Massachusetts. Although he had not the advantage of a collegiate education he became an able lawyer. As an advocate he was eloquent and successful. "Among his contemporaries were Otis, Quincy, Hawley, and judges Paine, Sargent, Bradbury, R. Sewall, W. Cushing and Sullivan and though less learned than some of these he was employed in most of the important jury trials."

"It was when together with that class of lawyers above named that the profession owed the respectability which since his day has characterized the bar of Massachusetts."[198] He held the office of Advocate of the Court of Admiralty from August 2, 1762, until his appointment as judge, having been originally appointed in the place of Mr. Bollan, to hold the office during his absence. Chambers Russell was appointed in the place of the elder Auchmuty as judge of the Admiralty for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island in 1747. He held the office until his death in 1767, and Robert Auchmuty, the younger, was appointed by the governor to fill his place. This was in April, but on the sixth of July he was duly commissioned as Judge of the Admiralty for all New England with a salary of L300 a year. His commission was received in March, 1760, when his salary was increased to L600 per annum. Judge Auchmuty continued to hold this office as long as the authority of the British was recognized, as he was a zealous Loyalist.

[198] Updike History of Narrangansett church.

Robert Auchmuty was one of the commissioners with Governor Wanton of Rhode Island, Samuel Horsemanden, Chief Justice of New York, Frederic Smythe, Chief Justice of New Jersey, and Peter Oliver, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, to inquire into the destruction of the Gaspee, in 1772.[199] He was a colleague of Adams and Quincy in defence of the British soldiers tried for participation in the "Boston Massacre."[200] He appeared once after his appointment in defence of Captain Preston and his soldiers, and his argument was described as so memorable and persuasive, "as almost to bear down the tide of prejudice against him, though it never swelled to a higher flood."

[199] See page 52 for description of same.

[200] Ibid. 45.

The Auchmuty house in Roxbury stands at the corner of Cliff and Washington Streets. It was build about 1761 by the younger Judge Auchmuty, who resided there until the outbreak of the revolution. Here as a convenient halting place between the Province House and the Governor's country seat at Jamaica Plain, and the Lieutenant Governor residence at Milton, met the crown officers to make plans to stem the rising tide of disloyalty and lawlessness of the mobs, and their secret leaders. Here Bernard Hutchinson Auchmuty, Hallowell, and Paxton discussed the proposed alterations in the charter, and the bringing over of British troops to preserve the peace. Letters of Judge Auchmuty to persons in England were sent to America with those of Governor Hutchinson by Franklin in 1773 and created much commotion.[201]

[201] See page 162.

At the Declaration of Independence in 1776 he left his native country and settled in England. At one period he was in very distressed circumstances. He never returned to the United States and his estate was confiscated. His mansion in Roxbury became the property of Governor Increase Sunmer and was occupied by him at the time of his decease. Auchmuty Lane was that part of Essex Street between Short and South Street in Boston. Robert Auchmuty died in London an exile from his native land in November, 1778.

[Illustration: BRITISH TROOPS PREVENTING THE DESTRUCTION OF NEW YORK.

On its evacuation by Washington; it was set on fire, it was saved by the summary execution of all incendaries by the British.]

HONORABLE JAMES AUCHMUTY, son of the elder Robert, was a storekeeper in the Engineer Department. At the peace he removed to Nova Scotia where he became an eminent lawyer, and was appointed judge. He had a son, a very gallant officer in the British Army, who was killed in the West Indies.

REVEREND SAMUEL AUCHMUTY, another son of the elder Judge Auchmuty who settled in New York, was born in Boston in 1725. He graduated from Harvard college in 1742 and was taken by his father to England, where he was ordained a minister in the Episcopal church. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Oxford. He was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the gospel, an assistant minister of Trinity church in New York. He married in 1749 a daughter of Richard Nichols, governor of that province. In 1764 at the death of the Rector of Trinity church he was appointed to succeed him and took charge of all the churches in the city, performing his arduous duties with faithfulness until the revolution. In 1766 he received the degree of S. T. D. at Oxford. Dr. Auchmuty opposed the revolution and when the Americans took possession of New York City in 1777, it is said a message was sent him from Lord Sterling by one of his sons, "that if he read a prayer for the King the following Sunday, he would send a band of soldiers and take him out of the desk." His son, knowing his father's indomitable spirit did not deliver the message, but with some of his classmates from Columbia college attended the church with arms concealed under their gowns and sat near the pulpit for his protection. His conscience would not allow him to omit these prayers without violating his ordination vows. As soon as he commenced reading, Lord Sterling marched into the church with a band of soldiers and music playing Yankee Doodle. The Doctor's voice never faltered and he finished his prayer and the soldiers marched up one aisle and down another, and went out again without violence. After the service Dr. Auchmuty sent for the keys of Trinity and its chapels, and ordered that they should not be opened again until the liturgy could be performed without interruption, and took them to New Jersey. When the British took possession of New York he resolved at once to return to his loved flock and applied for leave to pass the American lines. This was denied him. With the unfailing energy which marked his character he determined to return on foot through circuitous paths to avoid the American lines. After undergoing great hardships, sleeping in the woods and great exposure, he reached the city. On its evacuation by Washington's Army it had been set on fire, and it was only by using the most drastic means,--the summary execution of all incendaries by the British--that the city was saved from total destruction. Nearly one thousand buildings were burned in the western part of the city and among them Trinity church, the Rector's home, and the Charity School. Through the exertions of the British troops, St. Paul's and King's College barely escaped. The Vestry of Trinity reported their loss at L22,000, besides the annual rent of 246 lots of ground on which the buildings had been destroyed. After the fire, Dr. Auchmuty searched the ruins of his church and of his large and elegant mansion; all of his papers and records had been destroyed; he found no articles of value except the church plate and his own. His personal loss he estimated at upwards of $12,000.

The Sunday following Dr. Auchmuty preached in St. Paul's church for the last time. The hardships which he had undergone terminated in an illness which resulted in his death after a few days. This venerable and constant worker for mankind died March 4, 1777 in his fifty-second year, and was buried under the altar of St Paul's. Interesting notices of his labors and sufferings and death may be found in Hawkins' "Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of England, in the North American Colonies," London, 1845. By the old inhabitants of the city Dr. Auchmuty was much respected and beloved and was spoken of as Bishop Auchmuty. He had seven children. Jane, one of his daughters, married Richard Tylden of Milstead, of county Kent in England. One of her sons was Sir John Maxwell Tylden, who was in the army for twenty years in which he greatly distinguished himself. Another, William Burton Tylden was a major in the Royal Engineers. Dr. Auchmuty had two other daughters of which there is no account, save that they were married.

SIR SAMUEL AUCHMUTY, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, was a Lieutenant General in the British Army. At the beginning of the Revolution he was a student at Kings College and was intended by his father for the ministry. His own inclinations were military from his boyhood and soon after he graduated he joined the Royal army under Sir William Howe as an ensign in the 45th regiment and was present at most of the actions in that and the following year. In 1783 he commanded a company in the 75th Regiment, in the East Indies, and was with Lord Cornwallis in the first siege of Seringaptarn. In 1801 he joined the expedition to Egypt, and held the post of adjutant-general. He returned to England in 1803 and three years after was ordered to South America, where as brigadier-general, he assumed the command of the troops; and in 1807 assaulted and reduced--after a most determined resistance--the city and fortress of Montevideo. In 1809 he was transferred to India. Subsequently he succeeded Sir D. Baird as chief of staff in Ireland. He was knighted in 1812, his nephew, Sir John Maxwell Tylden, lieutenant-colonel of the 52 regiment being his proxy. He twice received the thanks of Parliament, and was presented with a service of plate by that body and by the East India Company. His seat was Syndale House, in Kent, near Feversham. He died in Ireland suddenly in 1822 at the age of 64.

ROBERT NICHOLAS AUCHMUTY, another son of the Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, graduated at Kings College, New York and in the revolution served as a volunteer in the British army. His wife was Henrietta, daughter of Henry John Overing and he died at Newport, Rhode Island in 1813. His daughter Maria M., widow of Colonel E. D. Wainwright of the United States Marines, died at Washington, D. C., Jan. 1861, aged 71.

RICHARD HARRISON AUCHMUTY, brother of the above, was a surgeon in the British Army. Taken prisoner in the storming of Stony Point. With Cornwallis at Yorktown, and died soon after the surrender, while on parole.

"It is regretted that men as distinguished in their day as were the Auchmuty's, father and sons, so few memorials new remain." They were men who adorned their profession and "left a distinct and honorable impression upon their age."

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO ROBERT AUCHMUTY ET AL. IN SUFFOLK COUNTY, AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Samuel Clark, Feb. 26, 1780; Lib. 131, fol. 58; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, School St. S.; the town's land W.; John Rowe N; Joseph Green E----Garden land near the above. Cook's Alley W.; Leverett Saltonstall N.; William Powell E. S. and E.; Leverett Saltonstall S. [Description corrected in margin of record.]

To Josiah Waters, Jr., April 13, 1782; Lib. 134, fol. 164. Discharge of mortgage Fillebrown et al to Auchmuty dated Feb. 10. 1766.

To Increase Sumner, July 31, 1783; Lib. 139, fol. 122; 6 A. 3 qr. 10 r. land and dwelling-house near the meeting-house in Roxbury, the road N.; Jonathan Davis E., S. E; and S.; the lane and Increase Sumner W.

COLONEL ADINO PADDOCK.

Robert Paddock was one of the Pilgrim Fathers, he was one of the early settlers of Plymouth, and was a smith by trade. He had a son, Zachariah, born in 1636, who was the ancestor of the subject of this sketch. Robert Paddock was probably a relative of Captain Leonard Peddock who was master of one of the ships that came to Plymouth in 1622, it being frequently the case in those times that names were mis-spelled. This is the origin of the name of Peddock's Island at the entrance of Boston Harbor. Branches of this family at the Revolutionary period were to be found in various parts of New England, New Jersey, and South Carolina. Adino Paddock was the son of John and Rebecca (Thatcher) Paddock; was born March 14, 1727, and was baptized in the First Church, Harwich, March 31, 1728.

His father died in 1732 and his mother removed soon after to Boston, where her name appears as a communicant in Brattle Square church "from Church East Yarmouth" December 5, 1736. Adino Paddock was married in Boston, June 22, 1749, to Lydia Snelling, daughter of Robert and Lydia (Dexter). He settled in Boston, where he manufactured chaises and transacted his business near the head of Bumstead Place. He lived opposite the burying ground, on the east side of Long-Acre Street. Adino Paddock was the first coach-maker of the town, and was a man of substance and character. His name is best known in connection with the famous Paddock elms. Mr. James Smith, a prosperous sugar baker, whose house was on Queen Street,--now Court Street,--when in London, was struck by the beauty of the elms in Brompton Park. The story goes that Mr. Smith procured young trees of the same kind, and had them planted in his nursery, on his beautiful farm, Brush Hill, in Milton. The fame of these trees spreading, one of his friends, Mr. Gilbert Deblois, asked for some, saying that he would in return name his newborn son for Mr. Smith. The bargain was struck, and James Smith Deblois, baptized May 16, 1769, bore witness to its fulfilment. Other elms of this stock were also planted, but those received by Mr. Gilbert Deblois became the most celebrated. These were set out in front of the granary, just opposite Mr. Deblois' house in Tremont Street. As Adino Paddock's shop window looked out upon them, Mr. Deblois enjoined Mr. Paddock to have an eye to their safety.

It is related that on one occasion, Paddock offered the reward of a guinea, for the detection of the person who "hacked" one or more of the trees. He guarded the infant elms very carefully and the "Gleaner" tells of his darting across the street upon one occasion and vigorously shaking an idle boy who was making free with one of the sacred saplings. The elms were thought to have been planted in 1762. They grew to magnificent proportions, and withstood the axe for more than a century. They escaped in 1860, but were cut down a few years later. The largest was one that stood near the Tremont House. Its circumference near the sidewalk was nearly seventeen feet. This was the largest of all the trees belonging to the public walks of the city, excepting the great American elm on Boston Common that was destroyed by the tornado of 1869.

Adino Paddock was in 1774 captain of the train of artillery belonging in Boston of which John Erving was colonel. This company was particularly distinguished for its superior discipline and the excellence of its material. The gun house stood at the corner of West and Tremont Streets, separated by a yard from the school house. In this gun house was kept two brass three-pounders, which had been recast from two old guns sent by the town to London for that purpose, and had the arms of the province engraved upon them. They arrived in Boston in 1768, and were first used at the celebration of the King's birthday, June 4th, when a salute was fired in King Street.

When the mobs began to be in evidence Captain Paddock expressed an intention to turn them over to General Gage, for safe keeping, some of the men that composed the company, resolved, that it should not be so, they met in the school-room, and watching their opportunity they crossed the yard, entered the building and, removing the guns from their carriages, carried them to the school room where they were concealed in a box in which fuel was kept. They were finally taken to the American lines, in a boat, and were in actual service during the whole war. The two guns were called the "Hancock" and "Adams," and were in charge of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, until presented in 1825 by the State to the Bunker Hill Monument Association. They are now suspended in the chamber at the top of Bunker Hill Monument, with a suitable inscription on each.

Before Mr. Paddock's departure from Boston he was entitled to the higher military appellation of Colonel. As an active officer, and for a time commander of the Boston train of artillery, he felt himself particularly honored, as he was then in a position of great usefulness, for, in fact his lessons in military matters while in the Train, were productive of much good, as laying the foundation of good soldiership, in the Province, by giving thorough instruction to many who afterwards became distinguished officers in the revolutionary war.

Ardently attached to the interests of the government he was one of the foremost of the loyalist party. He left Boston at the evacuation, March 17, 1776. There were nine in his family. They went to Halifax and in the following June he embarked with his wife and children for England.

In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. From 1781 until his death he resided on the Isle of Jersey and for several years held the office of Inspector of Artillery Stores with rank of Captain. Colonel Paddock received a partial compensation for his losses as a Loyalist, and died March 25, 1804, aged seventy-six years. Lydia, his wife died at the Isle of Jersey, in 1781, aged fifty-one.

Colonel Paddock's house was situated on the south corner of Bromfield and Tremont Streets, formerly Common Street and Ransom Lane. Thomas Bumstead, a coach-maker, purchased the estate when it was confiscated and carried on the coach-making business there. Bumstead Place was laid out in 1807 on the site of the home, and was closed in 1868. Gilbert Deblois occupied the opposite corner, on which was built Horticultural Hall, the trustees of the new office building recently erected there, at the suggestion of Alex S. Porter, named the new building the "Paddock Building" who said "I think that we ought to do all we can to preserve the memory of those good old citizens who by their influence and hard labor did so much in laying the foundation of our beloved city."

Adino Paddock and Lydia Snelling had thirteen children, nine of them died in infancy, and John a student at Harvard College was drowned while bathing in Charles River in 1773.

ADINO PADDOCK, the younger, accompanied his father to Halifax in 1776 and in 1779 followed his father to England, where he entered upon the study of medicine and surgery. Having attended the different hospitals of London and fitted himself for practice, he returned to America before the close of the Revolution, and was surgeon of the King's American Dragoons. In 1784 he married Margaret Ross of Casco Bay, Maine, and settling at St. John, New Brunswick, confined his attention to professional pursuits. In addition to extensive and successful private practice he enjoyed from Government the post of surgeon to the ordinance of New Brunswick. He died at St. Mary's, York County in 1817, aged 58. Margaret his wife died at St. John in 1815 at the age of 50. The fruit of this union was ten children, of whom three sons, Adino, Thomas and John were educated physicians. Adino commenced practice in 1808 at Kingston, New Brunswick. Thomas married Mary, daughter of Arthur McLellan, Esq., of Portland, Maine, and died at St. John, deeply lamented in 1838, aged 47.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO ADINO PADDOCK IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Thomas Bumstead. Aug. 1, 1782, Lib. 135, fol. 139; Land and buildings in Boston, Common St. W.; land of the commonwealth S.; heirs of Gillum Taylor deceased E. and S.; Thomas Cushing E., N. and E.; Rawson's Lane N.

THEOPHILUS LILLIE.

Edward Lillie by the recorded births of his children appears to have been in Boston as early as 1663. As he was devoted to the Church of England, it may be presumed that he came from that country, and the date of his eldest child's birth makes it likely that he was born before 1640. This branch of the Lillie family probably lived for a while in Newfoundland, and if so, they are likely to have been of the Devonshire or West-of-England stock, which supplied the first settlers for that Province. They became possessed of real estate at St. John's during the latter half of the seventeenth century, described as "a plantation"--a term signifying full proprietorship.

Edward Lillie married about 1661, Elizabeth, whose maiden name is unknown. He was one of the well known citizens of the town of Boston when its estimated population was from five to seven thousand inhabitants. In 1687 he was one of the sixty citizens whose property was rated at L50 or more,--taking rank with such contemporaries as Elisha and Eliakim Hutchinson, Adam Winthrop, Samuel and Anthony Checkley, and Simon Lynde.[202] Edward Lillie carried on a large business as "cooper," at that period one of the most important industries of New England in its connection with commerce.

[202] Memorial Hist. of Boston, II. 8. Record Com. Report VII. 69.

Prior to 1670 Edward Lillie had land "in his tenure and occupation" at the North End. He purchased July 8, 1670, an estate at what was then the South End of the town,--a dwelling-house and land. This estate was situated on the south-east corner of Washington and Bedford Streets, and it is in part now (1907) the site of R. H. White's dry-goods establishment. In January 1674 he purchased of Captain Thomas Savage land on Conduit (now North) Street and erected thereon in 1684 a brick dwelling-house. The estate was valued in inventory at L1300.

Edward Lillie's will was dated December 24, 1688, and proved January 7, 1688-9. His wife was probably the "Mrs. Lily" whose death, according to town records, took place January 4, 1705. They had six children.

Samuel Lilly, born March 20, 1663, was the eldest child. June 4, 1683, he married at the age of twenty Mehitable Frary, daughter of Captain and Deacon Theophilus Frary, one of the founders of the Old South Church. Her mother was the daughter of Jacob Eliot, and the niece of John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians." Mehitable, was born February 4, 1665-6, and as her father had no sons, his estate was divided between the daughters.

Samuel Lillie, like his father, was a "cooper," but early in life became interested in commerce, sending as early as May 23, 1684, merchandise to the island of Nevis. For the next twenty-three years he was widely engaged in commercial transactions, and was uniformly styled "merchant" in formal documents. After his father's death he bought and occupied the latter's premises at the North End, enlarging them by other purchases.

Mrs. Royall, wife of Isaac Royall and mother of the Loyalist was a cousin of Mrs. Samuel Lillie. During his latter years Samuel Lillie was absent from America quite frequently. It is not likely that he was in Boston from 1708 till shortly before his death.[203] Mrs. Lillie died March 4, 1723. They had eleven children, born in Boston and baptised (except one or two) in the Second church, each a few days after birth.

[203] "The Lillie Family of Boston" by Edward L. Pierce.

Theophilus Lillie, the fourth child of Samuel and Mehitable Lillie, was baptized August 24, 1690. He married July 8, 1725, Hannah Ruck (Rev. Cotton Mather officiating). Seems to have done much in settling his father's affairs, but was not engaged in active business.

On the 28th of July, 1732, in Town Meeting, he with others, was appointed a committee to receive proposals, touching the demolishing, repairing, or leasing out the old buildings belonging to the town in Dock Square. The committee to give their attendance at Mr. William Coffin's the Bunch of Grapes tavern, on Thursdays weekly, from six to eight o'clock in the evening. In 1736 he appears as one of the subscribers to Prince's Chronological History of Boston, the list containing, according to Drake, the names of persons most interested at that period in literary concerns.

Hannah Ruck, his wife, was born December 4, 1703 and was the daughter of John Ruck, a successful merchant, a citizen active in municipal affairs and holding municipal offices. Her mother was Hannah Hutchinson, daughter of Colonel Elisha Hutchinson, and aunt of Thomas Hutchinson, the last Royal Governor. A close friendship existed between the two families, and their homes were near together at the North End. This friendship was continued in Halifax, after the Loyalist exodus in 1776.

Theophilus Lillie sold the family estate at the corner of Newbury and Pond Streets March 9, 1754. Before this sale he had removed to the Ruck homestead "near the old North Meeting House." Mr. Lillie died late in March, 1760. He left but little property. His eldest son Samuel, died young and John and Theophilus Lillie were his father's sole heirs.

THEOPHILUS LILLIE, the youngest son, was born August 18, 1730. He married late in 1757 (intentions of marriage published October 27, 1757) Ann Barker, who had been a shop-keeper, in company with Abiel Page, "near Rev. Mr. Mather's meeting-house." He was educated as a merchant and was in retail trade as early as 1758, as shown by the numerous collection suits brought by him, and his advertisements in the Boston "Gazette" May 22 of that year. His store was on "Middle (Hanover) Street, near Mr. Pemberton's meeting-house." His stock was miscellaneous English Dry Goods and Groceries.

When it was determined to resist the tax on imports, a non-importation agreement was entered into in August, 1768, by the merchants of Boston, many were forced to sign it through fear of offending the mob, the agreement ended in 1769, and some of those who had been forced into it were determined to proceed in their regular business, and would pay no attention to a renewal of it, among these was Theophilus Lillie. They were proscribed and persecuted for several weeks by the rabble collecting to interrupt customers, passing to and from their shops, and houses, by posts erected before their shops with a hand pointed towards them, and by many marks of derision. At length on February 22nd, 1770, a more powerful mob than common, collected before the house of Theophilus Lillie and set up a post on which was a large Wooden Head, with a board faced paper, on which was painted the figures of four of the principal importers. One of the neighbors, Ebenezer Richardson, found fault with the proceedings which provoked the mob to drive him into his home for shelter. Having been a custom house officer, he was peculiarly obnoxious to the mob. They surrounded his house, threw stones and brick-bats through the windows, and, as it appeared upon trial were forcing their way in, when he fired upon them, and killed a boy eleven or twelve years of age. He was soon seized, and another person, George Wilmot with him, who happened to be in the house. They were in danger of being sacrificed to the rage of the mob, being dragged through the streets and a halter having been prepared, but some more temperate than the rest, advised to carry him before a justice of peace, who committed him to prison.

The boy that was killed was Christopher Snider, the son of a poor German. The event was taken advantage of by Sam Adams, and other revolutionary leaders to raise the passion of the people, and thereby strengthen their cause. A grand funeral therefore was judged to be the proper course to pursue. In the _Evening Post_ of 26 Feb. is a very minute account of the affair, which had a very great deal to do with subsequent events. The corpse was set down under 'Liberty Tree' whence the procession began. About 50 school boys preceded, and there was "at least 2000 in the procession, of all ranks, amid a crowd of spectators." The pall was supported by six youths chosen by the parents of the deceased. On the Liberty Tree and upon each side and foot of the coffin were inscriptions well calculated to excite sympathy for the deceased, and at the same time indignation against him, who occasioned his death.

On the 20th of April following the two culprits were tried for their lives. Richardson was brought in guilty of murder, but Wilmot was acquitted. Drake says "In this account of the case of Richardson and Wilmot, it must be borne in mind that it is almost entirely made up from the facts detailed by their enemies. Richardson was no doubt insulted beyond endurance, which caused his rashness, in a moment of intense excitement he fired on the mob. These facts doubtless had their weight with the court, for the Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson, viewed the guilt of Richardson as everybody would now, a clear case of justifiable homicide, and consequently refused to sign a warrant for his execution, and, after lying in prison two years, was, on application to the King pardoned and set at liberty."[204]

[204] Drake's History of Boston, p. 777.

After the affair of the Wooden Figure at Lillie's, there was constant trouble in Boston between the soldiers and roughs of the town, until the 5th of March, when occurred the affray between the Mob and the Soldiers known as the "Boston Massacre."[205]

[205] See pages 43 and 44 for account of the "Massacre."

Mr. Lillie had taken no part in the affair that happened near his store, but popular feeling was influenced by that occurrence against him. Mr. Lillie's full statement of the interference with his business by the illegal committee of citizens, will be found in the "Massachusetts Gazette," January 11, 1770. An extract will show his attitude towards the affair.

"Upon the whole, I cannot help saying--although I have never entered far into the mysteries of government, having applied myself to my shop and my business--that it always seemed strange to me that people who contend so much for civil and religious liberty should be so ready to deprive others of their natural liberty: that men who are guarding against being subject to laws [to] which they never gave their consent in person or by their representative should at the same time make laws, and in the most effectual manner execute them upon me and others, to which laws I am sure I never gave my consent either in person or by my representative. But what is still more hard, they are laws made to punish me after I have committed the offence; for when I sent for my goods, I was told nobody was to be compelled to subscribe; after they came, I was required to store them. This in no degree answered the end of the subscription, which was to distress the manufacturers in England. Now, my storing my goods could never do this; the mischief was done when the goods were bought in England; and it was too late to help it. My storing my goods must be considered, therefore, as punishment for an offence before the law for punishing it was made.

"If one set of private subjects may at any time take upon themselves to punish another set of private subjects just when they please, it's such a sort of government as I never heard of before; and according to my poor notion of government, this is one of the principal things which government is designed to prevent; and I own I had rather be a slave under one master (for I know who he is, I may perhaps be able to please him) than a slave to a hundred or more whom I don't know where to find, nor what they will expect of me."

In 1770 Mr. Lillie removed to Oxford in Worcester County,--a removal induced probably by his recent experiences in Boston. His domicile is stated to be in that town in actions brought by him in Suffolk County. On account of his political views his new residence did not prove to be any more congenial than Boston had been.

In 1772 he attached for a debt the house of Dr. Alexander Campbell and the people of Oxford took umbrage, and threatened him with violence. In the same year he sold his place in Oxford, and returned to Boston. He bought in 1774 an estate in Brookfield, but it does not appear that he lived upon it at any time. Until the political troubles Mr. Lillie seems to have been in good circumstances, and to have kept up in his manner of dress the fashions of the period, according to family traditions. He left Boston in March, 1776 with the British troops for Halifax. His family thus embarking numbered four persons--himself and wife, and one of the other two being, doubtless, a negro servant.

Mr. Lillie's death occurred in Halifax two months after leaving Boston, on May 12. His property in Massachusetts was confiscated. Jacob Cooper, of Boston, administered on his estate. Mrs. Lillie continued to live at Halifax, and notwithstanding the confiscation proceedings, she undertook to collect, by suits in Massachusetts in 1784-85, some of the debts due to her husband. The Confiscation Act however, was a bar to any recovery.

Mrs. Lillie survived her husband eighteen years. Her funeral is registered on the records of St. Paul's church, Halifax, as being on September 16, 1794, at the age of seventy-nine. Her will dated December 10, 1791, and August 5, 1794 (appointing Foster Hutchinson, the younger, Executor) was proved September 20, 1794, on the oath of John Masters and Foster Hutchinson, the younger. Certain provisions of the will show a

## particular interest in a colored servant. The will provides: "It is also

my will and intention that my black man Caesar be free, and that the sum of ten pounds be retained and left in the hands of my hereinafter named executor, to be applied to the use of said Caesar in case of sickness, or other necessity, at the discretion of said executor." She also bequeathed to him "a suit of mourning cloths suitable for a man in his situation in life"; and in a later codicil, "the feather-bed and bedstead whereupon he usually sleeps, and also the bedclothes and bedding belonging thereto." Mr. Lillie's confiscated personal effects indicate that he lived in a liberal style. At the time of his death. Governor Hutchinson, then in England, wrote in his Diary, July 24, 1776:

When I came home I heard of Mr. Lillie's death at Halifax. What numbers have been brought to poverty, sickness, and death by refusing to concur with the present measures of America!

Theophilus Lillie died childless. Search was made in July, 1895, by Edward Lillie Pierce and his son George, in the old graveyard at Halifax, but no stone for him or his wife was discovered, although her funeral had been duly recorded in the church register. The stones of Foster Hutchinson and his family were well preserved; and the Lillie stone if ever set up, would be likely to be found near them.

Mr. Lillie's personal property in Massachusetts was disposed of and his three pieces of real estate were sold at public auction. His debts were small and the whole amount turned into the treasury, L595, valued at L446 in sterling money. The public gain was considerable.

JOHN LILLIE, the only surviving brother of Theophilus was born August 8, 1728. He is described as a "mariner" in public documents, but no details of his career on the sea have been transmitted. He married in Trinity church, August 16, 1754 Abigail Breck (born June 19, 1732.) She was the daughter of John and Margaret Breck. John Lillie died April, 1765, and his will was proved on the 19th. He left six children. John Lillie, his son, became a Major in the Continental Army and served in many engagements with great bravery during the war. General Washington certified that Major Lillie "conducted himself on all occasions with dignity, bravery, and intelligence." He was married to Elizabeth Vose, January 20, 1785, and was survived by several children.

Mehitable and Ann Lillie, two of John Lillie's daughters (the mariner) have always with their descendants been well known.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO THEOPHILUS LILLIE IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To John Greenough, May 26, 1781; Lib. 132, fol. 216. Land and buildings in Boston. Middle St. E.; Samuel Ridgeway S.; Thomas Greenough W. Thomas Greenough and Edward Foster, an absentee, N.

To Samuel Howard. Aug. 3, 1781: Lib. 133, fol. 5. One undivided third of land and large brick dwelling-house in Boston, Sun Court St. N.; Joseph Hemmingway and others E.; John Leach and others S.; Market Square W.

DR. SYLVESTER GARDINER.

Sylvester Gardiner was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1707. He was descended from the first emigrant of the name to the Narragansett country. His father was William Gardiner, the son of Benoni, the son of Joseph, an English emigrant. Sylvester was the fourth son of William Gardiner and was educated by his brother-in-law, the Rev. Dr. McSparran, for the medical profession. He studied eight years in England and France, and returning to Boston, entered and pursued a successful professional career. He established a store for the importation of drugs and acquired a fortune. He accumulated much real estate in Maine and became proprietor of one-twelfth part of the "Plymouth Purchase," so-called, on the Kennebec River. At one time he owned 100,000 acres and was grantor of much of the land in ancient Pittston. "His efforts to settle the large domain were unceasing from the year 1753 to the Revolution. He was made perpetual moderator of the proprietors at all their meetings; he executed their plans, built mills, houses, stores and wharves, cleared lands, made generous offers to emigrants; established an episcopal mission, and furnished the people of that region with their first religious instruction. And most of all this was accomplished with his own money."[206] He erected houses and mills at Swan Island, Pownalborough and other places, and was the author of the beginnings of many settlements. He was a public spirited man of great zeal and energy, broad and liberal in his views.

[206] Sabine's Loyalists, Vol. I. p. 459.

Dr. Gardiner was married three times. His first wife was Anne, daughter of Doctor John Gibbons of Boston; his second, Abigail Eppes of Virginia; his third, Catharine Goldthwaite. In Boston he was respected by all classes. Of the "Government Party," he entertained as guests, Sir William Pepperell, Governor Hutchinson, Earl Percy, Admiral Graves, Major Pitcairn, General Gage, Major Small and others. He was an Addresser of the Royal Governors in 1774 and the year following he became identified with the Royal cause. In 1776, at the evacuation, he abandoned all and found temporary shelter at Halifax. When he left his native country close to the age of three score and ten, he took only about L400 with him. The vessel in which he embarked was destitute of common comforts, poorly supplied with provisions, and the cabin, which he and several members of his family occupied, was small and crowded with passengers. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished and settled in Poole, England. His property in Boston and Maine was confiscated and all goods that could be found were sold at public auction. A library containing five hundred volumes, was sold in 1778-79 at auction by William Cooper. His books and other personal effects amounted to L1658.18.

The estates on the Kennebec were confiscated but the Attorney-General found that the action was illegally prosecuted and instituted new proceedings. Before they were brought to a close peace was declared and the proceedings stayed. The heirs of Dr. Gardiner learned these facts and obtained the property. Had there not been a flaw in the first suit this would not have been the case.

"In 1785 Doctor Gardiner returned to the United States. For a part of his losses he petitioned Massachusetts for compensation. He had never borne arms, he said, nor entered into any association, combination or subscription against the Whigs. When he quitted Boston, he stated, too, that he had in his possession a valuable stock of drugs, medicines, paints, groceries and dye stuffs, which having a vessel fully equipped and entirely under his control, he could easily have carried off, but which he left, of choice, for the benefit of the country, which he knew was in need. The claim was acknowledged to the extent of giving his heirs tickets in the State Land Lottery, by which they obtained nearly six thousand acres in the county of Washington, Maine."[207]

[207] Sabine's Loyalists, Vol. I, p 460.

Washington, on taking possession of Boston, ordered the medicines, etc., in Doctor Gardiner's store, to be transferred to the hospital department for the use of the Continental Army; but the State authorities interfered and required delivery to the Sheriff of Suffolk county. The result, however, was a vote of the council complying with the requisition of the commander-in-chief.

After the peace Doctor Gardiner resided in Newport, Rhode Island, where he still practiced medicine and surgery. There he died suddenly of a malignant fever on August 8, 1786, in his eightieth year. His body was interred under Trinity church and his funeral was attended by most of the citizens. The shipping displayed its colors at half-mast, and much respect was shown by the people. Dr. Gardiner had always been philanthropic and a benefit to mankind. He seems to have been identified in church work wherever he lived and from the following extract appears to have been a member of King's chapel, while residing in Boston: "April 3, 1740.--Rec'd of Mr. Sylvester Gardiner Sixteen Pounds Two Shills, in full for wine for the Chapple for the year past. John Hancock."[208]

[208] "Dealings with the Dead," by a Sexton of the Old School.

Dr. Gardiner acted conscientiously in his course in remaining loyal and his "Christian fortitude and piety were exemplary as his honesty was inflexible and his friendship sincere."[209] In the Episcopal church in Gardiner, Maine, near the pulpit, a beautiful cenotaph of black marble about eight feet high enclosed in a fine oaken frame, is erected to the memory of Dr. Gardiner, by Robert Hallowell Gardiner, his grandson and heir.

[209] Newport Mercury. Aug. 14, 1786.

JOHN GARDINER, the eldest son of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, was born in Boston in 1731, and was sent to England, to complete his education. He studied law at Inner Temple and practiced in the courts of Westminster Hall. He received the appointment of Attorney-General in the West Indies at St. Christopher's. He was denied promotion by the British Government because of his sympathy for the Whigs, and in 1783 he returned to Boston. On February 13, 1784, John Gardiner, his wife, Margaret, and their children were naturalized. John Gardiner was an ardent reformer and an active Unitarian. He was the principal agent in transforming the King's Chapel into a Unitarian church. He wrote an able treatise in defence of the theatre. Removing to Pownalborough, Maine, he represented that town in the General Court from 1789 until his death in 1793-94. He was drowned by the loss of a packet in which he was sailing to Boston to attend the session of the Legislature.

JOHN SYLVESTER JOHN, son of John Gardiner, was born in Wales in 1765. His father had left America in 1748 before he was of age and resided in England and South Wales until 1768, when he went to St. Christopher's, remaining in the West Indies until 1783. John Sylvester John, became an able theological and political writer. He was rector of Trinity church, Boston, from 1805 until his death, which occurred at Harrowgate Springs, England, in 1830, while traveling for his health.

A tablet was erected in Trinity church to the memory of John Sylvester John Gardiner, who had first been an assistant and later the rector of the church. At the time of the great Boston fire, November 9, 1872, when old Trinity church on Summer street was destroyed, this tablet was the only relic saved from the interior of the church. It was rescued from the flames by a great-grandson of John Sylvester John Gardiner, and is now in Trinity church, Copley square. Boston.

WILLIAM GARDINER, son of the rector, was an eminent Boston lawyer. He had two daughters, Louisa, who married John Cushing of Watertown, and Elizabeth.

WILLIAM GARDINER, the second son of Sylvester Gardiner, removed to Gardinerston, Maine, soon after the settlement commenced. He employed a housekeeper and entertained his friends and was famous for his fun making. He gave offence to the Whigs because he "would drink tea"; because he refused to swear allegiance to their cause; and because he called them "Rebels." "Arrangements were made to take him from his bed at night, and tar and feather him, but a Whig, friendly to him, carried him to a place of safety. He was, however, made prisoner, tried and sent to jail in Boston."[210] In March, 1778, he petitioned for release and was soon after allowed to return home where "he was regarded as a harmless man and was allowed for the most part to remain unmolested, except by petty annoyances." William Gardiner died, unmarried at Gardiner, Maine, and was buried "beneath the Episcopal vestry."

[210] Sabine's Loyalists, Vol. I, p. 462.

ANNE GARDINER, third child of Sylvester Gardiner, married the second son of the Earl of Altamont. HANNAH, a fourth child, was the wife of Robert Hallowell. REBECCA, the fifth child, married Philip Dumarisque. Last, ABIGAIL, married Oliver Whipple, counsellor-at-law, Cumberland, Rhode Island, and subsequently of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Nearly the whole of the estate in Maine passed under the provisions of Doctor Gardiner's will, to Hannah's only son, Robert Hallowell, who, as one of the conditions of that instrument, added the name of Gardiner. John on account of his political and religious opinions failed to become the principal heir, and William "was not an efficient man."

Sylvanus Gardiner's second wife was the widow of William Eppes of Virginia, daughter of Col. Benj. Pickman of Salem. She died at Poole, England, leaving a son, Wm. Eppes, who married Miss Randolph of Bristol, whose son was a commissary general in the British Army. A daughter, Love Eppes, married Sir John Lester of Poole, and Abigail Eppes married Richard Routh, a loyalist.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO SYLVESTER GARDINER IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To William Coleman, Benjamin Coleman, Dec 12. 1782. Lib. 136, fol. 146; Land and buildings in Boston, Marlborough St. W.; John Sprague and Samuel Partridge S.; alley between said land and land of John Erving E.; Samuel Partridge N.

To Joseph Gardner, Nov. 21. 1783; Lib. 140, fol. 113; Land in Boston, Marlborough St. E.; alley S. and E., Samuel Dashwood S. and E., Martin Gay E.; Winter St. S.; heirs of William Fisher W.; S.; W. and S.; heirs of Henderson Inches S.; John Williams and land of the State W.; Jonathan Cole N.; John Lucas E. and N.

To John Boles, March 2, 1784; Lib. 141, fol. 195. Land in Boston. Winter St. N.; John R. Sigourney W.; Dr. John Sprague S. and E.

To Joseph Henderson. Aug. 7, 1784. Lib. 144 fol. 111; Land and buildings in Boston, Long Lane E.; Dr. John Sprague S. and E.; Andrew Johonnot S., Charles Paxton and Dr. Sprague W.; said Sprague N.

RICHARD KING.

Of Scarborough, he was a prosperous merchant, "with a leaning towards the Government." Many persons had become indebted to him beyond their ability to pay. In consequence, apparently of this circumstance, his troubles soon began, after the attack and destruction of Mr. Hutchinson's residence, of which the following outrage appears to have been an imitation, and the story has been handed down by no less a person than John Adams: "Taking advantage of the disorders occasioned by the passage of the Stamp Act, a party disguised as Indians, on the night of the 16th of March, 1760, broke into his store, and his dwelling-home also, and destroyed his books and papers, containing evidences of debts. Not content with this, they laid waste his property and threatened his life if he should venture to seek legal mode of redress."

John Adams was counsel for King, and he, who had no pity for Hutchinson, but rather rejoiced in the impunity of his assailants, writes, "The terror and distress, the distraction and horror of his family cannot be described by words or painted on canvas. It is enough to move a statue, to melt a heart of stone to read the story."[211]

[211] John Adams' Letters to His Wife. Note to No. 9.

The popular bitterness then engendered did not, however, subside, and in 1774, a slight incident occurred which soon caused it once more to break out. A vessel of Mr. King's was found to have delivered a load of lumber in Boston, by special license, after the port had been closed, and the material had been purchased for the use of the troops. On this occasion forty men from the neighboring town of Gorham came over and compelled Mr. King, in fear of his life, to make a disavowal of his opinion. These repeated shocks seem to have been too much for Mr. King's constitution. He became insane and died in the following March.

Such were the means adopted by the Sons of Despotism, to make patriots, to convert their fellow countrymen to their ways of thinking. Intimidation and oppression are the accompaniments of all successful revolutions. The same holds true of the methods adopted at the present time by the leaders of a strike. The leaders, like the revolutionary leaders, are unwilling to acknowledge that they are disturbers of the peace, or that acting under them their followers are brutally assailing those who seek employment under other than union conditions.

CHARLES PAXTON.

COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS.

The subject of this sketch was born at Boston, February 28, 1707. Wentworth Paxton and Faith, his wife, were his parents. Charles Paxton was a Commissioner of Customs and as such early incurred the ill will of the so-called patriotic party. In 1769 he and his associates were posted in the "Boston Gazette," by James Otis. It was this card of Otis which brought on the altercation with Robinson, another commissioner, in the coffee-house in State street, and which resulted in injuries to the head of the first champion of the revolution, from which he never recovered. Otis subsequently became insane and while confined in an asylum met his death, being struck by a bolt of lightning.

Charles Paxton was a warden of King's Chapel in 1762, and was remarkable for finished politeness and courtesy of manners. His office was unpopular and odious and the wags of the day made merry with qualities, which at any other time would have commanded respect. On Pope-day, as the gun-powder plot anniversary, or the 5th of November was called, there was usually a grand pageant of various figures on a stage mounted on wheels and drawn through the streets with horses. The Pretender suspended on a gibbet between the Devil and the Pope, with appropriate implements and dress, were among the objects devised to make up the show. Sometimes political characters, who in popular estimation should keep company with personages represented, were added; and of these, Commissioner Paxton was one. On one occasion he was exhibited between the figures of the Devil and the Pope in proper figure. As the disputes which preceded the war increased, the visits of Paxton to London became more frequent. He went there as the authorized agent to the crown officers, to complain of the merchants for resisting the Acts of Parliament, and for the interest of the supporters of the Crown. After he entered upon his duties he was efficient and active beyond his associates. John Adams says of him that he appeared at one time to have been Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary and Chief Justice.

Paxton and his fellow-commissioners seized one of Hancock's vessels for smuggling wine which caused a fearful mob and the flight of the officers of the revenue to Castle William. Then came the hanging of Paxton in effigy on the "Liberty Tree," then at the instance of the Commissioner the first troops came to Boston; then the card of Otis, denouncing the commissioners by name, the assault upon him in answer to it, and later came the destruction of three cargoes of tea; then the shutting of the port of Boston; then the first continental congress; then war,--a war which cost England $500,000,000 and the Anglo-Saxon race 100,000 lives in battle, storm and in prison.

In 1776, with his family of five persons, Mr. Paxton embarked at Boston with the British Army for Halifax, and in July of that year sailed for England in the ship Aston Hall. He came under the Confiscation Act and was proscribed and banished. In 1780 he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Governor Hutchinson. In 1781 he was seen walking with Harrison Gray, the last Colonial treasurer of Massachusetts, near Brompton. This able and determined supporter of the crown died in 1788 at the age of eighty-four at the seat of William Burch (one of his fellow commissioners) at Norfolk, England.

JOSEPH HARRISON.

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS.

As previously stated, after the close of the last war with France which ended in the conquest of Canada, the Government decided on enforcing the revenue laws.[212] The frigate Romney of fifty guns had arrived from Halifax and at the same time the sloop "Liberty," owned by John Hancock, arrived loaded with wine from Madeira; there was a duty of L7 per tun on such wines; several cargoes had been smuggled in without payment of the duty, and it seemed probable that there would either be a connivance by the custom house officer in this case, as in others, or there would be a great disturbance by the mob. Harrison determined that there should be no connivance by the officers and that the laws against smuggling should be enforced, even if the vessel did belong to one of the principal merchants and a representative of Boston and an officer of the corps of cadets. Before the vessel arrived it had been frequently mentioned that the duties would not be paid, and it was expected that an open refusal would be made. When the vessel arrived and was lying at Hancock's wharf on the tenth of June, 1768, the custom house officer, Thomas Kirk, went on board, and was followed by Captain John Marshall,--who commanded Mr. Hancock's ship, the London Packet,--with five or six others. These persons confined Kirk below and kept him some three hours, and in the meantime the wine was taken out and no entry made of it at the Custom House or Naval Office. The cargo was landed in the night and carted through the streets of Boston under a guard of thirty or forty stout fellows armed with bludgeons, and though it was notorious to the greatest part of the town, no officer of the customs thought fit to attempt a seizure, nor is it probable that he could have succeeded if he had attempted it. On the liberation of the custom house officer, an entry was made the next morning by the master, Mr. Nathaniel Barnard, who entered four or five pipes of wine, and made oath that that was all he brought into port. This was as much a submission to the authority of the act as if the whole cargo had been seized.

[212] Ibid. 33-4, Hutchinson, Vol. III, p. 189.

It was determined to seize the sloop upon a charge of false entry. Accordingly Mr. Joseph Harrison, the collector and Benjamin Hallowell, the comptroller, repaired to Hancock's wharf and made the seizure, and fearing an attempt to rescue the vessel, made a signal to the Romney, which lay at a small distance from the shore, and a boat with armed men came to their aid. To prevent a rescue the vessel was taken from the wharf into the harbor. This removal brought on a riot, a mob was soon gathered together and the officer, insulted and beaten, several of whom barely escaped with their lives. Among the numerous missiles thrown at Mr. Harrison was a brick or stone which struck him on the breast, from the effects of which he was confined to his bed. His son, Mr. Richard Acklom Harrison, was thrown down, dragged by the hair of his head and otherwise barbarously treated. Mr. Hallowell and Mr. Erving, inspectors, did not fare much better. The former was confined to his home from the wounds and bruises he received and the latter besides having his sword broken was beaten with clubs and sticks, and considerably wounded. The mob next proceeded to the home of Mr. John Williams, the Inspector-General, broke his windows and also those of the Comptroller, Mr. Hallowell. They then took Mr. Harrison's boat and dragged it to the Common and there burned every fragment of it. Captain Marshall, the captain of the "London Packet," died the same night as the riot, at Hancock wharf, and it is said his death was caused by the over-exertion which he made in removing the wine from the sloop Liberty. The most conspicuous man on the part of the mob was Captain Daniel Malcolm, a trader in Fleet street, who, it is said, was deeply interested in the wines attempted to be smuggled. The revenue officer knew him well and owed him no good will, for the reason that some time before they undertook to search his premises for contraband goods, but were obliged to retreat before deadly weapons, without effecting their object. On the occasion of the seizure of the Liberty he headed a party of men who exerted themselves to prevent her removal to the Romney, they said the sloop should not be taken into custody, and declared they would go on board and throw the people belonging to the Romney overboard.[213] When the ministry became advised concerning the riots which followed the seizure of the sloop Liberty, they gave orders for two regiments to sail for Boston from Ireland.[214] They arrived September 30. The 29th regiment camped on the Common and the 14th was quartered in Faneuil Hall. The revenue officers retired after the assaults upon them to the Castle until the arrival of the troops. Joseph Harrison and his wife and family went to England. He was succeeded in the collectorship by Edward Winslow, who held the office till the evacuation of Boston.

[213] Drake's History of Boston, pp. 735-6-7.

[214] See chapter on Boston Mobs, p. 40.

CAPTAIN MARTIN GAY.

John Gay emigrated to America about 1630. He settled first at Watertown and was a grantee in the great Dividends and in Beaver Brook plowlands, owning forty acres. He was Freeman May 6, 1635 and a Selectman in 1654. He died March 4, 1688, and his wife Joanna died August 14, 1691. He had eleven children.

Nathaniel, third child of John Gay was born January 11, 1643. Was Freeman May 23, 1677, and Selectman in 1704 and other years. He married Lydia Lusher. He died Feb. 20, 1712. His wife died August 6th, 1774, aged ninety-two. He had ten children.

Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D. D., Minister of Hingham was born in 1696 graduated at Harvard University in 1714, and was ordained in 1718. He was a devoted loyalist, and died 1787, at the age of ninety, and in the sixty-ninth year of his ministry. Rev. Doctor Chauncy "pronounces him to have been one of the greatest and most valuable men in the country." His son, MARTIN GAY, was Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was born at Hingham on the 29 December, 1726. He married first, 13 December, 1750, Mary Pinckney, by whom he had seven children. After her death he married Ruth Atkins, by her he had two children. He carried on the business of a brass founder, and copper smith, on Union Street, Boston. He was also deacon in the West Church in Lynde Street. On the thirtieth of April, 1775, shortly after the battle of Lexington, Deacon Gay, with Deacon Jones was requested to "take care of the plate, etc., belonging to this church, and Congregation." The church and congregation were at this time dispersed and the meeting house occupied as a barrack by the troops, and the pastor had gone to Nova Scotia. Mr. Gay was true to his trust, at the evacuation he took "the plate and linnen" to Nova Scotia and afterwards returned it, for long years after in 1793 the church voted him their thanks for "having taken care of the plate belonging to the church, while the town was in the hands of the British troops, and when it was evacuated." When the new church was built in 1805 he subscribed three hundred dollars towards it. From 1758 to 1774, he was yearly chosen one of the two Assay Masters, and for many years he was chosen one of the sixteen Firewards of the Town, in which office he had as associates John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Adino Paddock, he was chosen one of the twelve Wardens of the Town in 1771, and occupied many other offices of importance, which shows the esteem in which he was held by his fellow townsmen. In June, 1774, he signed the Address to Governor Hutchinson, and from that time, he was not elected to any town office, owing to his public avowal of Loyalist sentiments.

Mr. W. Allan Gay of West Hingham, a grandson of Martin Gay, has three letters written by the Captain, they have been published in the Collection of the Colonial Society of Mass., Vol. 3. They are interesting as they bring us almost into personal contact with people who were living in Boston more than a hundred years ago, and one of whom saw the Battle of Bunker Hill. The first was written by Captain Martin Gay to his brother Jotham, seven years his elder. He had been an officer in the French war of 1755 and had taken part in the expedition against Nova Scotia under Gen. John Winslow. He afterwards settled in the province he had helped to conquer from the French and at the date of the letter had been for more than ten years a resident of Cumberland, Nova Scotia. Within but three weeks after the battle, it gives one of the first authentic accounts published. The writer's loyalty to his "King and Country" is very apparent, as well as his detestation of all Rebels, and especially the "famous Doctor Warren." The letter in part is as follows: "The victory obtained by about two thousand regular troops commanded by General Howe, over a large body of the County Rebels, ('tis said about six thousand,) on the heights of Charlestown, on the 17ult, was a remarkable Action. It proves that nothing the enemies to Great Britain can do, will daunt the courage of British troops. The Rebels had entrenched themselves on the top of a high hill, with two cannon mounted in the Redoubt, besides several field pieces, on the hill, which is about a quarter of a mile from Charles River in approaching which, the troops had to break through stone walls, and other difficulties, which gave the enemy every advantage they could wish for. However, after a most violent hot fire, the brave soldiers forced the entrenchments to the joy of all the spectators, (myself being one) and others on this side of the river, who are friends to King and Country. Immediately on the King's troops appearing on the top of the Redoubt, the Rebels ran off in great confusion leaving their cannon, entrenching tools and a large number of their dead and wounded. The loss was great on both sides, the action lasted about an hour and a quarter. We have reason to lament the loss of so many valuable brave officers and men, of the King's Army who were killed on the field of battle, and since dead of the wounds they received. I have not seen any account of the transaction of that day made public by authority, therefore will not pretend to say which suffered most in the loss of men. Will mention one on the Rebel side, the famous Doctor Warren, who has for some years been a stirrer up of Rebellion, was killed in the action. Had some others of his disposition which I could name been there, and meet the same fate with him, it would have made the victory of that day the more glorious, though the Rebels meet with a shameful defeat, they still continue in their opposition, in fortifying hills and others places near this town. I am not apprehensive of their ever being able to take or destroy this town, but 'tis a melancholy consideration to be in this situation, which must in time prove fatal to this town and province, if not soon prevented by that almighty being, whose providence preserves and governs the world in all things."

On the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, by the British troops, he accompanied them to Halifax. There went with him his son Martin, and his daughter Mary, who afterwards married Rev. William Black of Halifax, and also "his man London." He remained in Nova Scotia during the whole period of the war. Mrs. Ruth Gay, second wife of Martin Gay, whose maiden name as already stated was Atkins, remained in Boston during the war, probably with her father's family. Her father, Thomas Atkins, was a bricklayer by trade, and a well-to-do citizen, his real estate having been appraised at his death in 1785 at L1,696. He, with his eldest son, joined the revolutionists, but his second son, Gibbs Atkins, was a loyalist. So were families divided in those days.

The second letter was from his wife in Boston and was sent to him at Halifax. It is interesting as showing some of the devices reported to by the loyalists, their families and friends to save at least a portion of their estates for the original owners. The letter is as follows:

Boston, 24 June, 1786.

My Dear Mr. Gay:

My last of the 8th instant containing the melancholy account of the death of my father, I make no doubt you have received. In that I also informed you that the house was to be sold the 15 of this month which was done accordingly. Mr. Whalley chose to bid it of and Brother Timothy bought it at L380. He paid 129 Dollars Earnest money, the rest is to be paid in 6 weeks. I wish you could settle your affairs so as to come home before the time is up. Mr. Whalley has sent you the account of the sale properly authentic, and has directed them to be left at Mr. Pike's at Halifax. Do come home as soon as you can. Our friends unite with me in love to you and children. Father Gay has got quite well. Fanny is with me and desires her duty to you. Love to her Brothers and Sisters. Believe me to be your tender, affectionate Wife,

R. GAY.

The sale mentioned by Mrs. Gay took place under the Confiscation Act of 1777-1780. These estates were treated by the Probate Court as those of deceased persons. As Martin Gay's wife was not an absentee she was entitled to her third or dower right in her husband's estate. The Commissioners appointed by the Probate Court assigned to Mrs. Gay as "her third" "the two middle tenements of the house on Union Street, Boston, with the cellars chambers and upper rooms. Also the shop fronting Union Street and the land under same with the liberty to go through the great entry into the said shop, with the use and improvements of the yard, Well, Pump, and Privy." This division was made at her request as a shrewd means of retaining for herself and eventually for her husband, the _whole_ of the property, for it would be difficult to sell or to lease the two ends of the house so divided, with the middle taken out. The result was that the remainder of the house was unsaleable and as stated in the letter was bought in by her brother Timothy Atkins. As Mrs. Gay by her right of dower had only a life estate on the property, it was necessary that she should require what is known as the "remainder" which was still vested in the Commonwealth. This was conveyed to her by Act of the Legislature, Feb. 7th, 1807, for the consideration $1,680. In 1809, the widow, Ruth Gay, and her son Ebenezer Gay, sold this property for fifteen thousand dollars.

The third letter is dated at London, 7 July, 1788. In it he says "I cannot pretend to say when my affairs will admit of my return to America. By a late act of parliament a final settlement will (it is sayed) be made with the Loyalists within a few months. I must wait with patience this important event, then prepare to leave this both wonderful and delightful kingdom, and return to my family and friends in my native country, though an Alien when in it."

He remained two years in England and returned to Boston in 1792, when he resumed his business as a coppersmith at his old stand in Union Street, and soon after entered into business relations with Mr. James Davis, a brass founder, then but twenty-two years of age, who had learned the trade from a Hessian, who like many of his countrymen were obliged to remain in the country when Congress violated the terms of the Saratoga Convention.[215] Mr. Gay subsequently sold the business to Mr. Davis, who incorporated it in 1828 under the name of the Revere Copper Company, Mr. Joseph Warren Revere being one of the incorporators.

[215] See page 85 for further account of the Saratoga Convention.

Martin Gay died in 1809, and he was buried in the Granary Burial Ground. SAMUEL GAY was the eldest son of Martin Gay who graduated at Harvard in 1775. Owing to the disturbed state of the times, and the quarterings of the rebel troops in the College buildings, he did not take his degree at the College Commencement, which was not held this year. He became a permanent resident of New Brunswick, and was a member of the first House of Assembly organized in the Colony, and represented the County of Westmoreland several years. He was also a magistrate of that County, and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He died at Fort Cumberland (where his father had a grant of land from the Crown) January 21, 1847 in the ninety-third year of his age.

EBENEZER GAY was the youngest son of Martin Gay, and can hardly be classed as a loyalist. He was a child when his father went to Halifax, and he remained in Boston with his mother during the war. He graduated at Harvard College in 1789, practiced law, and was a member of the State Senate, and resided at Hingham. Mr. Wickworth Allen Gay, the artist, is his son. Martin Gay the younger, was fifteen years of age when he accompanied his father to Halifax. Three years later he was accidentally shot by a friend while hunting near Windsor, Nova Scotia.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO MARTIN GAY IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To John Davis. Jan. 7, 1783; Lib. 136, fol. 228; Land in Boston, Winter St. S.. Samuel Dashwood E. and N.; Dr. Sylvester Gardner, an absentee, W.

To Timothy Atkins. Dec. 13. 1787; Lib. 161, fol. 240; Land and buildings in Boston. Union St. E.; Philip Freeman S.; E.; E. and S.; heirs of Benjamin Andrews W; N. and W.; Dorothy Carnes N. and W.; Jeremiah Bumstead N.; reserving that part of the premises set off to Ruth Gay, wife of said Martin Gay.

DANIEL LEONARD.

The Leonard family was established in this country in 1652, by three sons of Thomas Leonard, who remained in England. The three sons were James, Henry, and Philip, all of whom have left many descendants. The Leonards were interested in the first iron works established in this country at Lynn, Braintree, Rowley Village, and Taunton, and at a later date at Canton, so that the observation "where you can find iron works there you will find a Leonard" has been almost literally verified. They were probably interested in most, if not all the iron works established in this country within the first century after its settlement, and it is a remarkable fact that the iron manufacture has continued successively, and generally very successfully, in the hand of the Leonards or their descendants, down to the present day.

James was the progenitor of the Leonards of Taunton, Raynham and Norton. He and his sons often traded with the Indians, and were on such terms of friendship with them, that when war broke out King Philip gave strict orders to his men never to hurt the Leonards. Philip resided in winter at Mount Hope, but his summer residence was at Raynham, about a mile from the forge. The family was noted throughout Plymouth County in Colonial times for its wealth, and the number of able men it produced in successive generations, who were entrusted by the public with offices of honor and importance. To this family belonged Daniel Leonard, the third Taunton lawyer, a man who was no unconspicuous actor in the affairs of his time. He was the only son of Ephraim Leonard, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, a colonel in the militia, and the possessor of a large property, who resided on a homestead of five hundred acres connected with which were extensive iron works, situated in that part of the town of Norton now known as Mansfield. There, in a house on this estate the subject of this sketch was born May 29, 1740. His boyhood was passed tranquilly amid comforts which usually wait on an only child of wealthy and influential parents. Entering Harvard College at an early age, he graduated in 1760 in the class of John Lowell, the celebrated lawyer. He took up law as a profession, and had not been long at the bar before he was engaged in a fair practice, his generous disposition and affable manners having established his popularity, while his acquirements won for him reputation as an orator and a scholar. In 1770 he received from Yale College the degree of M. A.; in 1769 he was appointed as King's Attorney of Bristol County. Having become possessed of a fortune by a Boston heiress, he adopted what for that age and vicinity was considered great style, and display of dress, and mode of living. He set up a chariot, and pair of horses with which he travelled to Boston several times a week, something no lawyer in the Province had ever ventured to do before. In 1769 he began his political career by entering the Legislature where he represented Taunton during the year's of 1770-71-73 and 74. At first he made the most ardent speeches, which had been up to that time delivered in the House against Great Britain in favor of the colonists, but in the latter years of his service as a representative, he, like many more of his countrymen, became alarmed at the mob outrages, and the drifting of the country towards rebellion, he slowly changed his opinions and became a Loyalist and a supporter of the government that represented law, and authority. The revolutionists attributed this change to the influence of Governor Hutchinson and Attorney-General Sewall with whom he was on terms of intimacy, although this friendship formed some cause of distrust; the change in his views was not known publicly, or with certainty until the summer of 1774, as is evidenced by his being a member of the Committee of Nine on the state of the Province in the Legislature of that year, a committee made up of those only who were believed to be against the government. In June of that year he became an "addresser" to Governor Hutchinson. A few weeks later he was appointed Mandamus Councellor by the King. When it became known that he had taken the oath for qualifications for this office a mob of upward of two thousand men gathered on the "green" near his home, uttering oaths and angry threats and menacing him with personal indignities, which they would undoubtedly have proceeded to put into execution if they could have found him, but being informed by his father that he had gone to Boston and that he would use his influence to induce his son to resign his office, they were mollified for the time and refrained from pulling the house down, and gradually dispersed. They, however, assembled again the following evening, and seeing a light in the south chamber where Mrs. Leonard lay sick in bed, and thinking that Leonard was there, they fired through the window into the room; the bullets passed through the upper sash and shutter, and lodged in the

## partition of the next chamber.[216] Friends had acquainted Mr. Leonard

of the mob's intention to attack his home. He therefore went to Boston where his family soon joined him, and was protected from further violence by the presence of the troops. This outrage upon his home greatly embittered him against the revolutionists and their cause, and was undoubtedly the cause of his writing his celebrated letters, which so ably championed those principles of civil liberty, for which the loyalists so nobly contended.

[216] Mrs. Leonard was confined to bed with childbirth. Charles, their only son, was born an idiot, due no doubt to this outrage. The mother of Curtis Guild, the present governor of Massachusetts, was born in this room, she being a descendant of the Leonard family.

Daniel Leonard was the author of the famous letters signed Massachusettensis, mis-attributed by the first President Adams to Jonathan Sewall. These letters that appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette "reviewed with much ingenuity with the purpose of showing that the course of the government was founded in law and reason; that the colonies had no substantial grievance; that they were a part of the British Empire and properly subject to its authority." From the great skill in which they were written they were attributed to Jonathan Sewall, a man of much talent. It was more than a generation before the authorship was assigned to Daniel Leonard. John Adams answered these papers as "Novanglus." "Massachusettensis" bears dates between December, 1774, and April, 1775, and was published three times in a single year: first, in the "Massachusetts Gazette and Post Boy," next in a pamphlet form; and last, by Rivington, in New York. Still another edition appeared in Boston in 1776. The replies were numerous. "Novanglus" bears dates between January and April, 1775. Both were printed in 1819, with a preface, by Mr. Adams, who remarks of "Massachusettensis," that "these papers were well written, abounded with wit, discovered good information, and were conducted with a subtlety of art and address wonderfully calculated to keep up the spirits of their party, to depress ours," etc., etc.

The following are a few brief extracts from these letters.

"The press when opened to all parties and influenced by none, is a salutary engine in a free state, to preserve the freedom of that state, but when a party has gained the ascendancy, so far as to become the licensers of the press, either by act of government, or by playing off the resentment of the populace against printers, and authors, the press itself becomes an engine of oppression or licentiousness, and is as pernicious to society as otherwise it would be beneficial. It is too true that ever since the origin of our controversy with Great Britain, the press of this town have been indulged in publishing what they pleased, while little has been published on the part of the government. The effect this must have had upon the minds of the people in general is obvious. In short, the changes have been so often rung upon oppression, tyranny, and slavery, that, whether sleeping or waking, they are continually vibrating in our ears, and it is now high time to ask ourselves whether we have not been deluded by sound only. Should you be told that acts of high treason are flagrant through the country, that a great part of the province is in actual rebellion, would you believe it true? Nay, you would spurn it with indignation. Be calm, my friends, it is necessary to know the worst of a disease, to enable us to provide an effectual remedy. Are not the bands of society cut asunder and the sanctions that hold man to man trampled upon? Can any of us recover a debt, or obtain compensation for an injury by law? Are not many persons, whom once we respected, and revered, driven from their homes, and families, and forced to fly to the army for protection, for no other reason but their having accepted commissions under our king? Is not civil government dissolved?

"Reader, apply to an honest lawyer (if such a one can be found) and inquire what kind of an offence it is for a number of armed men to assemble, and forcibly to obstruct the courts of justice, to pass governmental acts, to take the militia out of the hands of the king's representatives to form a new militia, to raise men and appoint officers for public purposes, without order or permission of the king or his representatives, or for a number of men to take to their arms, and march with a professed design of opposing the king's troops. Ask, reader, of such a lawyer, what is the crime, and what the punishment, and if, perchance, thou art one that has been active in these things, and art not insensibility itself, his answer will harrow up thy soul.

"The shaft is already sped, and the utmost exertion is necessary to prevent the blow. We already feel the effects of anarchy, mutual confidence, affection, and tranquility, those sweeteners of human life are succeeded by distrust, hatred, and wild uproar; the useful arts of agriculture and commerce are neglected for caballing, mobbing this or the other man, because he acts, speaks or is suspected of thinking different from the prevailing sentiment of the times, in purchasing arms, and forming a militia. O height of madness! Can you indulge the thought one moment that Great Britain will consent to this? For what has she protected and defended the colonies against the maritime powers of Europe, from their first British settlement to this day? For what did she purchase New York of the Dutch? For what was she so lavish of her best blood and treasure in the conquest of Canada, and other territories in America? Was it to raise up a rival state, or to enlarge her own empire? I mention these things, my friends, that you may know how people reason upon this subject in England, and to convince you that you are deceived, if you imagine, that Great Britain will accede to the claims of the colonies. And now, in God's name, what is it that has brought us to this brink of destruction? Has not the government of Great Britain been as mild and equitable in the colonies, as in any part of her extensive domains? Has she not been a nursing mother to us from the days of our infancy to this time. Has she not been indulgent almost to a fault?

"I have as yet said nothing of the difference in sentiment among ourselves. Upon a superficial view we might imagine that this province was nearly unanimous; but the case is far different. A very considerable body of men of property in this province are at this day firmly attached to the cause of government, bodies of men compelling persons to disavow their sentiments, to resign commissions or to subscribe leagues, and covenants, has wrought no change in their sentiments. It has only attached them more closely to government and pray more devoutly for its restoration.

"A new, and until lately unheard of mode of opposition, has been devised, said to be the invention of the fertile brain of one of our party agents, called a committee of correspondence. This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent that ever issued from the eggs of sedition. These committees when once established, think themselves amenable to none, they assume a dictatorial style, and have an opportunity under the apparent sanction of their several towns, of clandestinely wreaking private revenge on individuals by traducing their characters, and holding them up as enemies of their country, wherever they go, also of misrepresenting facts and propagating sedition through the country. Thus a man of principle and property in travelling through the country would be insulted by persons whose faces he had never seen before. He would feel the smart without suspecting the hand that administered the blow. These committees, as they are not known in law, and can derive no authority from thence. They frequently erect themselves into a tribunal where the same persons are at once legislators, accusers, witnesses, judges, and jurors and the mob the executioners. The accused has no day in court, and the execution of the sentence is the first notice he receives. It is chiefly owning to these committees, that so many respectable persons have been abused and forced to sign recantations and resignation though so many persons, to avoid such reiterated insults, as are more to be deprecated by a man of sentiment than death itself, have been obliged to quit their houses, families and business, and fly to the army for protection. That husband has been separated from wife, father from son, brother from brother, and the unfortunate refugee forced to abandon all the comforts of domestic life. Have not these people that are thus insulted, as good a right to think and act for themselves in matters of the last importance. Why then, do you suffer them to be cruelly treated for differing in sentiment from you? Perhaps by this time some of you may inquire who it is, that suffers his pen to run so freely. I will tell you; it is a native of this province that knew it before many that are now basking in the rays of political sunshine, had a being. He was favored not by whigs, or tories, but the people. He is now repaying your favors, if he knows his own heart, from the purest gratitude. I saw the small seed of sedition when it was implanted; it was as a grain of mustard. I have watched the plant until it has become a great tree; the vilest reptiles that crawl upon the earth are concealed at the root, the foulest birds of the air rest upon its branches.

"At the conclusion of the late war Great Britain found that the national debt amounted to almost one hundred and fifty million, and heavy taxes and duties were laid. She knew that the colonies were as much benefited as any part of the empire, and indeed more so, she thought it reasonable that the colonies should bear a part of the national burden, as that they should share in the national benefit. For this purpose the stamp act was passed. At first we did not dream of denying the authority of parliament to tax us, much less legislate for us. We had paid for establishing a post office, duties imposed for regulating trade, and even for raising a revenue to the crown without questioning the right. Some resolves in Virginia denying the right of parliament made their appearance. We read them with wonder, they savoured of independence. It now became unpopular to suggest the contrary, his life would be in danger that asserted it. The newspapers were open to but one side of the question and the inflammatory pieces that issued weekly from the press, worked up the populace to a fit temper to commit the outrages that ensued. It has been said that several thousands were expended in England, to ferment the disturbance there. However that may be, opposition to the ministry was then gaining ground, from circumstances foreign to this. The ministry was changed and the stamp act repealed. When the statute was made imposing duties upon glass, paper, India teas, etc. imported into the colonies, it was said this was another instance of taxation. We obtained a partial repeal of this statute which took off the duties from all articles except teas. We could not complain of the three-penny duty on tea as burdensome, for a shilling which had been laid upon it for the purpose of regulating trade, and therefore was allowed to be constitutional, was taken off; so that we were, in fact, gainers nine pence on the pound by the new regulation. The people were told weekly that the ministry had formed a plan to enslave them that the duty upon tea was only a prelude to a window tax, hearth tax, land tax and poll tax, etc. What was it natural to expect from a people bred under a free constitution, jealous of their liberty, credulous, even to a proverb when told their privileges were in danger. I answer outrages, disgraceful to humanity itself. What mischief was not an artful man, who had obtained the confidence and guidance of such an enraged multitude, capable of doing? He had only to point out this or that man, as an enemy of his country, and no character or station, age or merit could protect the proscribed from their fury. Happy was it for him, if he could secrete his person, and subject his property only to their lawless rage. By such means acts of public violence has been committed as will blacken many a page in the history of our country. They have engrossed all the power of the province into their own hands. A democracy or republic it has been called, but it does not deserve the name of either. It was, however, a despotism cruelly carried into execution by mobs, and riots, and more incompatible with the rights of mankind than the enormous monarchies of the East. The government under the British Constitution consisting of kings, lords, and commons, is allowed both by Englishmen and foreigners to be the most perfect system that the wisdom of ages has produced. The distributions of power are so just, and the proportions so exact, as at once to support and control each other. An Englishman glories in being subject to and protected by such a government.

"Let us now suppose the colonies united and moulded into some form of government, in order to render government operative and salutary, subordination is necessary. This our patriots need not be told of, and when once they had mounted the steed and found themselves so well seated as to run no risk of being thrown from the saddle, the severity of their discipline to restore subordination would be in proportion to their former treachery in destroying it. We have already seen specimens of their tyranny, in the inhuman treatment of persons guilty of no crime except that of differing in sentiment. What then must we expect from such scourges of mankind when supported by imperial powers?

"I do not address myself to whigs or tories, but to the whole people. I know you well, you are loyal at heart, friends to good order, and do violence to yourselves in harboring one moment, disrespectful sentiments towards Great Britain, the land of our forefathers' nativity, and sacred repository of their bones, but you have been most insidiously induced to believe that Britain is rapacious, cruel and vindictive, and envies us the inheritance purchased by the sweat and blood of our ancestors. Could that thick mist be but once dispelled that you might see our Sovereign, the provident father of all his people, and Great Britain a nursing mother to the colonies, as they really are. Long live our gracious king, and happiness to Britain would resound from one end of the province to the other."[217]

[217] Extracts from Massachusettensis. Letter addressed to the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Dec. 12th, 1774.

In February, 1775, Daniel Leonard was appointed Solicitor General of the Commission of Customs with a salary of L200 sterling, a body exercising powers similar to those of a court of admiralty. Thirteen months after this time, March, 1776, he accompanied the British Army to Halifax with his family of eight persons and thence to London, where he practiced as a barrister in the Courts of Westminster.

In 1780, William Knox, Under Secretary of State for the American Department suggested the division of Maine, and a province of the territory between the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers, with Thomas Oliver for Governor, and Daniel Leonard for Chief Justice. The plan was approved by the King and Ministry, but was abandoned because Wederburne, the Attorney-General, gave the opinion that the whole of Maine was included in the charter of Massachusetts.

Mr. Leonard was in Massachusetts in 1799 and again in 1808. He was included in the Banishment Act of 1778 and the Conspiracy Act of 1779. He received the appointment of Chief Justice to Bermuda. After filling this office for many years, he again in his last days took up his residence in London, where he died June 27, 1829, aged 89. His death was the result of an accident while withdrawing the charge from a pistol, he accidentally discharging it so as to cause almost instant death.

The generous temper and affable manners of Mr. Leonard seemed to have fascinated those who were in his household. The nurse who was entrusted with the care of the infant daughter of his first wife, would never leave him. She went with his family in all their wanderings, first to Boston, then to Halifax, London, and Bermuda, then to the United States, back again to the West Indies, then to London, and died in their service. His Deputy Sheriff, who had been a Captain in the Provincial service, a person of great address, wit, and accomplishments, followed his fortunes and was killed in the battle of Germantown, then a Major in the British Army. A young gentleman educated at Harvard College, and in his office, went with him to London where he died.

Daniel Leonard married twice. His first wife was Anna, daughter of Hon. Samuel White of Taunton, his second Sarah Hammock of Boston, who died on the passage from Bermuda to Providence, R. I., aged 78. He left a daughter Anna, who married a Mr. Smith of Antigua, Harriet who died in London in 1849, Sarah who married John Stewart, a captain in British army and afterwards Collector of the Port of Bermuda. Sarah had four children. The eldest Duncan Stewart, on the death of an uncle who died childless, succeeded to an ancient Lairdship in Scotland. His brother, Leonard Stewart, was an eminent physician in London. His sister Emily married a Captain in the service of the East India Company, the other sister, Sarah, married a Mr. Winslow, descended from the ancient governor of Plymouth, and a relative of Lord Lyndhurst, (Copley) whose private Secretary he was during his Chancellorship.[218] Mr. Leonard had an only son Charles, who was born when the mob attacked his house, and was feeble-minded. He entered Harvard College in 1791, but did not graduate. He was subsequently under the guardianship of Judge Wheaton, and was found dead in the road in Barrowsville, near Taunton in 1831. Col. Ephraim Leonard, who lived till the close of the Revolution devised his large estate to his grandson Charles. It was understood, however, that the father and sisters of Charles were to participate in the enjoyment of the property. Had Daniel Leonard returned from banishment and taken the oath of naturalization and allegiance to the new government, he would have inherited this large estate, but this he would not do, nothing could swerve him from his loyalty to the old flag.

[218] Genealogical Memoir of the Leonard Family, by William R. Deane.

JUDGE GEORGE LEONARD.

Major George Leonard was the third in descent from James, the immigrant. He removed in 1690 to Norton, then a part of Taunton, where he became the proprietor of very large tracts of land, and was in fact the founder of that town. Here this family, as possessors of great wealth and of the largest landed estate probably of any in New England, have lived for over two hundred years. Major George was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. His eldest son George, the subject of this sketch, was born March 4, 1698. He was in office from early manhood until old age. He served his town in nearly every capacity and was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1725; a member of the Council in 1741; and Judge of Probate in 1747; while in the Militia he rose to rank of Colonel. In 1740 he was dismissed from the bench, in consequence of his connection with the famous Land Bank scheme, but was restored six years afterwards, and became Chief Justice. He was called a "neutral" by Clark the historian of Norton, and he remarks that though the most influential man in town he took no active part in public affairs during the war. A _neutral_ in the Revolution was a Loyalist, the Revolutionists did not allow such a thing as a "neutral" to exist. The fact was that he was an old man, whom all classes respected, and on that account they did not molest him, and drive him out.

He died in 1778, in his eighty-first year. "Tradition," says Clark, "has universally given him a character above reproach, and of sterling worth." He married Rachel Clap, of Scituate, who bore him four children and who died in 1783, in her eighty-second year.

George Leonard, son of the former, was born in 1729, and graduated at Harvard University in 1748. He held several important offices under the Colonial government, and after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, was a member of Congress. It is said "he was a genuine specimen of an American country gentleman," that "he was a kind and considerate landlord, who never raised his rents, and who regarded his old tenants as his friends," that "he was tenaciously attached to old customs, and wore the short breeches and long stockings to the day of his death."

COLONEL GEORGE LEONARD.

Was the son of Rev. Nathaniel Leonard the brother of Judge Leonard and fifth in descent from James the immigrant. He was driven forth from his native land and settled in New Brunswick in 1783, and was much employed in public affairs. The year after his arrival, he was appointed one of the agents of government to locate lands granted to Loyalists, and was soon after made a member of the Council, and commissioned as a Colonel in the militia. He died at Sussex Vale in 1826, at an old age. His wife Sarah, died a year before aged eighty-one. He had several children. His daughter Caroline married R. M. Jarvis, Esq., in 1805, and his daughter Maria married Lieutenant Gustavus Rochfort of the Royal Navy in 1814. His son, Colonel Richard Leonard of the 104th Regiment of the British army and Sheriff of the District of Niagara, died at Lundy's Lane in 1833.

GEORGE LEONARD, JR., son of George Leonard, accompanied his father to New Brunswick in 1783. He was a grantee of the city of St. John. He was bred to the law, and devoted himself to his profession. He died at Sussex Vale in 1818.

HARRISON GRAY.

RECEIVER GENERAL OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Harrison Gray, was the son of Edward Gray and his wife Susanna. He was born in Boston, 24 February, 1711.

Edward Gray was from Lancashire, England, was an apprentice in Boston in 1686, and married Susanna Harrison in 1699, by whom he had several children.

Harrison Gray was bred a merchant. His patrimonial inheritance, aided by industry, enabled him to acquire a handsome fortune. In June 1753, he was chosen Treasurer of the province by the General Court and continued in that office till October, 1774. He was an ardent loyalist, and adhered to government from the beginning of the controversy, but the modification of his conduct, his superior fitness for the office and the confidence in his integrity secured him public favor through the stormy period which commenced soon after his first election, and continued until his appointment to, and acceptance of, the office of mandamus counsellor in 1774. But this was an unpardonable offence in the eyes of the "sons of despotism." It was however unsolicited, unexpected, and accepted with great reluctance, being strongly pressed upon him by the leaders of the loyalist party; and as most of those who had been appointed his colleagues living in the country were compelled by the mobs to decline the office, he was led to believe that residing in Boston then garrisoned by the troops, he had no such apology for shrinking from the service, and accordingly sacrificed inclination to a conscientious sense of duty. This brought upon him the ill will and malice of his political opponents, among these was John Adams, who said, "I went in to take a pipe with brother Cranch and there I found Zab Adams. He told me he heard that I had made two very powerful enemies in this town, and lost two very valuable clients--Treasurer Gray, and Ezekiel Goldthwaite; and that he had heard that Gray had been to me for my account, and paid it off, and determined to have nothing more to do with me. O the wretched, impotent malice! they show their teeth--they are eager to bite--but they have not strength. I despise their anger, their resentment, and their threats; but I can tell Mr. Treasurer that I have it in my power to tell the world a tale which will infallibly unhorse him, whether I am in the house or out. If this province knew that the public money had never been counted these twenty years, and that no bonds were given last year, nor for several years before, there would be so much uneasiness about it that Mr. Treasurer would lose his election another year." This was one of the meanest and most contemptible statements John Adams ever made. It was a reckless accusation, and insinuation, and was ably answered by his grandson, Harrison Gray Otis, who prepared a clear refutation of the unjust accusation in Russell's Centinel, June, 1830. It was also refuted by subsequent events. In October, 1774, the royal government was superseded by the revolutionary congress who resolved "_that no more taxes be paid to him_," and made choice of Henry Gardner for his successor. This authority he could not be expected to recognize. He therefore retained the books and files at his office till the evacuation of Boston, and then left them in exemplary order. They are still in the public archives of Massachusetts and show the model of a faithful state treasurer. He might have been justified in retaining a lien upon these as a security against loss and damage to his very valuable real, and personal estate, which he left, and which was soon confiscated, but his high sense of official duty forbade his recourse to any such precaution, and he withdrew from a country which he loved, not less than those who stayed at home, taking nothing which belonged to the public, but surrendered all his property into the keeping of the public that treated him so basely. He was also a creditor to many of the "sons of despotism," at the head of whom was John Hancock, who owed him a large sum for borrowed money, no part of which would he pay in his lifetime, and of which a small part was received from his executors.[219]

[219] This was the same as he did towards Harvard college, when treasurer of same. History of Harvard College by Josiah Quincy.

In the House of Representatives, August 8, 1775, "Ordered, that Mr. Hopkins be directed to inquire how the Committee of Supplies have disposed of the horse and chaise formerly Harrison Gray's which was used by the late Dr. Warren, and came to the hands of the said Committee after Dr. Warren's death." The next day, "Ordered, that Dr. William Eustis be, and hereby is directed, immediately to deliver to the Committee of Supplies the horse and chaise which were in the possession of the late Doctor Warren, and which formerly belonged to Harrison Gray."

When Boston was evacuated, Mr. Gray, urged by a sense of duty, with the male members of his family, tore himself away from his adored and only daughter, Mrs. S. A. Otis, which so preyed upon her peace of mind that it finally caused her death.

He went to Halifax with his family of four persons where he stayed a short time. "He was passenger in one of the six vessels that arrived at London from Halifax, prior to June 10, 1776, laden with Loyalists and their families."

In Mr. Gray's house in London about the year 1789, Arthur Savage gave the Rev. Mr. Montague a bullet taken from the body of General Warren the day after his death. Mr. Montague after his return to Boston, became rector of Christ Church. Harrison Gray, in a letter to him, dated London, August 1st, 1791, remarks to him in a spirit of loyalty to the crown of Britain as follows: "The melancholy state in which you represent religion to be in Boston and New England is confirmed by all who come from thence. Is this one of the blessings of your independence to obtain which you sacrificed so many lives? I am glad your federal constitution 'has had a very great and good effect', but very much question whether you will ever be so happy as you were under the mild and gentle government and protection of Great Britain; for, notwithstanding the freedom my countrymen boast of, if in order to obtain it they have sacrificed their religion, they have made a poor bargain. They cannot, in a religious sense, be a free people till the Son of God has made them free. It is very surprising, considering the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion at Quebec was one of the heavy grievances the American Congress complained of[220] that your governor and other great men in your town should attend the worship of God in a Roman Catholic church, to hear a Romish bishop on a Sunday; and that he should be one of the chaplains who officiated at a public dinner. I cannot at present account for their inconsistency any otherwise than by supposing the part they took in the late unhappy contests lays so heavy upon their consciences that they imagine no one can absolve them but a Romish priest."

[220] See