Part 18
Died at Charleston, S. C., on the 19th ult., Mrs. Walter Bowne, consort of Walter Bowne, Esq., of New York, and daughter of the Hon. Robert Southgate, of Scarborough, Maine, aged 25 years. The Bereaved Husband and infant children, the afflicted parents, Brethren and sisters, and the numerous respectable friends and acquaintances by whom she was so justly respected and beloved for her talents and virtues, will deeply mourn this early signal triumph of the King of Terrors. But they will not “sorrow as those without hope.” Her immortal spirit, liberated from the body, is, we trust, already admitted to a clear and perfect, an immediate and positive, a soul-transforming and eternal vision of God and the Redeemer. Why the most endearing ties of nature should be dissolved almost as soon as formed, why the dreadful law of mortality should be executed on the most worthy and dearest objects of conjugal, parental, and social love, in the moment of sanguine expectation of reciprocal enjoyment, is among the dark and mysterious questions in the book of Providence. The ways of God are inscrutable to man, “clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” All afflictive events are readily resolved into the wisdom of God. To his sovereign will, reason and religion, duty and interest require us to bow with reverence. What a dark and gloomy veil is spread by the early death of our friends over our earthly enjoyments! How tenderly are we hereby admonished not to expect satisfaction in this empty, fluctuating, and transitory state! How strongly urged to place our affections on things above, to secure an immediate interest in those sublime and durable pleasures which flow from the service and favor of God and the prospect of complete and endless felicity in His presence.
Inscription on the monument in Archdale Churchyard, in Archdale Street, Charleston, S. C.:—
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
ELIZA S. BOWNE
Wife of Walter Bowne of New York, Daughter of Robert Southgate Esqr., of Scarborough, District of Maine, who departed this life on the 19th day of February, 1809, aged 25 years.
-----
Footnote 1:
Mrs. Rowson’s story is well known. She was an Englishwoman, Susanna Haswell, the daughter of an officer in the navy, and was brought to America by her father in 1767, when she was only five years old. Their ship was wrecked on Lovell’s Island, in Boston Harbor, and they lived at Nantasket for nearly ten years, when they went back to England. There she married William Rowson, a musician, and went upon the stage. In 1795–96 we find her acting in Baltimore and Boston. She published several comedies and a number of novels; one of these, “Charlotte Temple,” gained great popularity. She died at Boston in 1824. She taught school in several places—at Medford, at Newton, and at Boston, and was very successful.
Footnote 2:
Joseph Coffin Boyd, of Portland, Maine. Married Isabella, oldest daughter of Dr. Southgate.
Footnote 3:
Horatio Southgate, Dr. Southgate’s oldest son, followed the profession of the law in the town of Portland, Maine, and was for twenty-one years Register of Probate for Cumberland County, Maine. Mr. Southgate married three times. His first wife was a friend of his sisters and was Abigail McLellan, the daughter of Hugh McLellan, a well-known East Indian merchant. Mary Webster was Mr. Southgate’s second wife; she was the daughter of Noah Webster, whose name is well known in connection with the dictionary that he wrote. Mr. Southgate’s third wife was Eliza Neal of Portland. By his three wives Mr. Southgate had a large family of children, among them being the Rt. Rev’d Horatio Southgate and the Rev’d William Scott Southgate.
Footnote 4:
Isabella Southgate had married to Joseph Coffin Boyd. She was Dr. Southgate’s oldest child.
Footnote 5:
Mary Black, the second wife of Richard King, Mrs. Southgate’s stepmother. She had married Mr. King soon after the death of his first wife, who was her cousin, and had been a kind and devoted mother to his three children.
Footnote 6:
Octavia Southgate, Dr. Southgate’s third daughter. She married, in 1805, William Browne.
Footnote 7:
Sarah Leland was the daughter of Mrs. Southgate’s half-sister Dorcas King, Mrs. Joseph Leland.
Footnote 8:
Arixene and Robert Southgate, Eliza’s younger sister and brother. Arixene married Henry Smith, of Sacarappa, Maine.
Footnote 9:
William King, the son of Richard King by his second wife Mary Black, was a large land-owner near the town of Bath. Mr. King was elected the first Governor when the District of Maine was changed into a State with a government of its own.
Footnote 10:
Eleanor Coffin, afterwards Mrs. John Derby, was the daughter of Dr. Coffin, a neighbor of Dr. Southgate’s. Martha Coffin, another daughter, had lately married Mr. Richard Derby. The Mrs. Codman mentioned in the previous letter was a sister of Dr. Coffin’s.
Footnote 11:
Peony (vulgarly called Piny). Note by M. B. L.
Footnote 12:
Ann, daughter of Cyrus King (Mrs. Southgate’s half-brother) and his wife Hannah Stone. She was named after her aunt, Mrs. William King, Ann Frazier. She afterwards married Mr. Bridge.
Footnote 13:
Mr. Jewett married Sally Weeks, a friend and neighbor of the Misses Southgate. He was a grandson of Aaron Jewett, who built the first sawmill on Algers Falls, Dunstan, in 1727, and carried on what was then considered an extensive lumber business.
Footnote 14:
Moses Porter was Eliza’s cousin. He was the oldest son of Mrs. Aaron Porter (Paulina King).
Footnote 15:
Miranda and Arixene Southgate were at this time aged respectively twelve and eight years. Their cousin Sally Leland was about the same age. Frederic Southgate, born in 1791, became a tutor in Bowdoin College, and died unmarried in 1820.
Footnote 16:
_Isabella Boyd_, second child of Isabella Southgate and Joseph Coffin Boyd. She died of consumption, the fatal disease which carried off so many of her aunts, sisters, and cousins.
Footnote 17:
_Rufus King_, oldest son of Richard King and Isabella Bragdon, and brother of Mrs. Southgate. He was born in 1755 and married Mary Alsop. He was delegated by the State of Massachusetts to the Convention for framing the Constitution of the United States, was a member of Congress from Massachusetts, Senator of the United States from New York, and at this time Minister to the Court of St. James.
Footnote 18:
_Mary Alsop_ was born in 1786. She was the daughter of John Alsop and Mary Frogat.
Footnote 19:
Mr. and Mrs. Southgate’s “profiles” hung in Mr. King’s house at Jamaica until about 1875, when they were given by his granddaughter to Mrs. Southgate’s grandson, Mr. Lawrence, of Flushing, L. I.
Footnote 20:
_Broads_, a tavern near Portland, to which gay parties of young people went on frolics.
Footnote 21:
The manuscript which was under the seal was so torn as to make this sentence illegible.
Footnote 22:
_Paulina Porter_, daughter of Dr. Aaron Porter of Portland. She married, first Enoch Jones, and then Edward Beecher. Her sister Harriet married Lyman Beecher.
Footnote 23:
_Miss Rice’s_ father was Joseph Rice; he raised a company of fifty men and, after the receipt of the news of the skirmish at Lexington, set out as soon as possible for Cambridge and joined Colonel Phinney’s regiment. It was the first regiment that marched into Boston after its evacuation by the British on the 17th of March, 1776. In a letter from Rufus King to Dr. Southgate, dated August 6, 1776, he says: “Phinney’s regiment is ordered from Boston to Ticonderoga. I guess the pious Elder would as lieve tarry where he is, but he was formerly fond of action—hope now he will be satisfied.... Gen. Gates will doubtless make a stand at Ticonderoga.”
Footnote 24:
Phippsburg.
Footnote 25:
This letter was never finished.
Footnote 26:
Mary King Porter (at this time twenty years of age) married Nathan Coffin.
Footnote 27:
E. Hasket Derby, Jr., was born in Salem in 1766, and died in Londonderry, H. N., in 1826. Mr. Derby married, in 1797, Miss Lucy Brown. He was the son of E. Hasket Derby, who married Elizabeth Crowninshield, a leading merchant of Salem, and founder of the East India trade; known in the annals of Salem as “King Derby.” Mr. Derby, the father, had four sons, who married and had families. They were E. Hasket, Jr., just mentioned; John, who married Miss Barton and secondly Miss Eleanor Coffin; E. Hersey, who married Miss Hannah Brown Fitch; and Richard C., who married Miss Martha Coffin. The father of E. Hasket Derby, Sen., was Richard Derby, merchant, a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1774–5.
Footnote 28:
The Rumford kitchen or Roaster was invented by Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford), a native of Salem. Mr. Thompson, after passing through various phases of existence, went to Bavaria, where by his powers of pleasing and wonderful inventive faculties he attracted the attention of the king, and by him was created Count Rumford. One of Count Rumford’s particular studies was the laws which govern heat and cold, and to him we are indebted for great improvement in our chimneys, fireplaces, and kitchen ranges. Before his time all cooking was done over an open wood fire. In the “Life of Count Rumford,” by Ellis, page 240, we find the following: “The Roaster, if not the first, was the most simple, ingenious, and effective apparatus of the kind which, by its arrangement of flues for conveying hot air around the food in the oven as well as by economizing fuel, allowed of the preparation of many articles by one fire, and greatly facilitated the labors and added to the comfort of the cook. They were especially popular in Salem, where many of the flourishing citizens had occasion to recall over their dinners the ‘apprentice boy in Mr. Appleton’s shop.’”
Footnote 29:
Mme. Milliken, probably the daughter of John Ayer. She was the wife of John Milliken of Boston.
Footnote 30:
Dr. Southgate’s family resided at Leicester.
Footnote 31:
Woburn.
Footnote 32:
Billerica.
Footnote 33:
Dracut.
Footnote 34:
_Francestown_, named so after Gov. Wentworth’s wife.
Footnote 35:
Lady Nesbert, wife of Sir John Nesbert, celebrated for a race ridden against John Randolph in 1719.
Footnote 36:
Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, had married, February 2, 1801, Theodosia Burr, only daughter of Aaron Burr.
Footnote 37:
This was Mr. William Constable, who married, February 26, 1810, Miss Mary Elizabeth McVickar, daughter of John McVickar, Esq.
Footnote 38:
The Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer had lately married his second wife, Cornelia Patterson. Miss Southgate spelt the name as it was then usually pronounced.
Footnote 39:
Rensselaer Westerlo and his sister Catherine Westerlo, who afterwards married Mr. Woodworth. Their mother was Catherine Livingston, oldest daughter of Philip, commonly known as the “Signer,” he having been one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Miss Livingston had first married Stephen Van Rensselaer, Patroon of the Manor, and by him had had three children: Stephen, who succeeded his father; Philip, mayor of the city of Albany; and a daughter. Mrs. Van Rensselaer remarried Dominie Westerlo.
Footnote 40:
Walsh (?).
Footnote 41:
Oliver Kane, a merchant of New York. He married, at Providence, Rhode Island, May 22, 1803, Miss Ann Eliza Clarke, daughter of John Innes Clarke.
Footnote 42:
James G. King.
Footnote 43:
General Henry Knox was a general in the American army during the Revolution. He entered it at the beginning of the war as a captain of the Boston Grenadiers. He was the first Secretary of War of the United States. He married the daughter of Secretary Flucker. General and Mrs. Knox grew to be enormously stout and were perhaps the largest couple in the city of New York at the time when Washington was inaugurated as first President of the United States. General Knox’s home was at Thomaston, Maine.
Footnote 44:
General Pinckney of South Carolina had served in the American army. He had two daughters, one of whom married Col. Francis K. Huger.
Footnote 45:
Hodgkinson made his first appearance in New York as _Vapid_. He was born in Manchester, England, 1767; his father was an innkeeper named Meadowcraft. Young Meadowcraft ran away from home, took the name of Hodgkinson, and joined the stage. His wife, to whom he was married on his arrival in America, by Bishop Moore, was Miss Brett of the Bath Theatre. She died in New York of consumption, September, 1803. Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson received $100 a week for their services, which was the highest amount yet paid to any two performers in America.
Footnote 46:
This Joseph Jefferson was the grandfather of the present Joseph Jefferson.
Footnote 47:
Mr. and Mrs. William Codman. Mrs. Codman was a Miss Coffin. William Codman had at that time an insurance office at No. 28 South Street, New York.
Footnote 48:
Mrs. Henderson and Miss Denning were daughters of William Denning, a well-known New York merchant.
Footnote 49:
_Columbia Gardens_ were on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street.
Footnote 50:
_Mt. Vernon_ Gardens, afterwards called Contois’s Gardens, were on the northwest corner of Broadway and Leonard Street.
Footnote 51:
Mrs. Delafield was a Miss Hallett. She married, December 11th, 1784, Mr. John Delafield, an Englishman, who had arrived in New York in 1783. They had twelve children. Among them were Major Joseph Delafield, who married Miss Livingston; Mr. Rufus Delafield married Miss Bard; Dr. Edward Delafield married Miss Floyd; Henry Delafield married Miss Munson.
Footnote 52:
_Malbone_, a celebrated miniature painter. He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, and when very young showed great taste for painting. He travelled about the then known portions of the United States, painting portraits of people in Charleston, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, etc., many of which are now in existence. His price for painting a head was $50. He died of consumption in Savannah, May 7, 1807, in the thirty-second year of his age.
Footnote 53:
Lucia, Zilpah, and John were the children of Genl. Peleg Wadsworth. Zilpah afterwards married Stephen Longfellow, and was the mother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Genl. Wadsworth lived at Hiram, on the Saco River.
Footnote 54:
Dr. William Moore was a celebrated physician of New York. He married Miss Sarah Fish and had by her a numerous family. Among them being Nathaniel Moore, President of Columbia College, and Dr. Samuel Moore, also a favorite physician.
Footnote 55:
He was returning from his mission in London, where he had been Minister to the Court of St. James from the United States.
Footnote 56:
Nicholas Low, a merchant in New York. Among his descendants are Mrs. Eugene Schuyler and the wife of M. Waddington, at present ambassador to the Court of St. James from France.
Footnote 57:
Mr. Watson was at this time a widower with one son, James Watson. This son became a great beau in New York society, but died unmarried and insane.
Footnote 58:
William Henderson, who had married Sarah Denning.
Footnote 59:
George III of England.
Footnote 60:
Bethlehem. This is a place originally settled by a religious sect called Moravians. They were famous for their schools,—one for boys kept by the Brothers, and a girls’ school kept by the Sisters. Young ladies were sent to Bethlehem from New York, Philadelphia, and distant parts of the country, to receive their education at this place. In a letter from John Adams to his daughter, dated Monday, Feb. 10th, 1823, he speaks of it: “I have seen a remarkable institution for the education of young ladies at Bethlehem. About 120 of them live under the same roof. They sleep all together in the same garret. I saw 120 beds in two long rows in the same room. The beds and bedclothes were all of excellent quality and extraordinary neat. How should you like to live in such a nunnery?”
Footnote 61:
The yellow fever having broken out in New York, the city was deserted by all who could leave it. Even the business was transacted in the neighboring village of Greenwich, which is now incorporated in the city itself and its boundaries lost in the surrounding streets. The following advertisements have been copied from the “Evening Post,” Thursday, Aug. 25, 1803, as being of interest, as the advertisers were not only well-known New Yorkers, but personal friends of Mrs. Bowne:—
Woolsey & Rogers’ Counting House is removed to No. 28 Courtlandt Street.
REMOVAL. William Codman has removed his Counting House to the N. E. corner room in the 2nd Story of the City Hotel, Broadway.
John G. Bogart, Attorney at law & Notary Public, has Removed his office to the House of Judge Livingston, No. 37 Broadway, near the Custom House.
John Murray & Sons have removed their Counting House to Mr. Murray’s country seat on the Harlem Road, 3 1–2 miles from town.
[This was at Murray Hill, about the corner of 37th Street and Fifth Avenue.]
The Editor being obliged to be absent from town a few days, the discussions respecting _yellow fever_ will, of course, be suspended for a little time.
Footnote 62:
Mr. Boyd, Mrs. Bowne’s brother-in-law, had been in England for some months and was now expected to return to his home.
Footnote 63:
Mrs. Boyd, Isabella Southgate.
Footnote 64:
Beau Dawson, Mr. J. Dawson of Virginia. He had been sent out by President Jefferson in April, 1801, as bearer of the Treaty or Convention between France and the United States as ratified by the latter. The ship in which he sailed was wrecked and the Treaty lost, although the envoy was saved. Another treaty was drawn up and dispatched as soon as possible, but there was great annoyance at the delay.
Footnote 65:
Highlands. The hills about West Point on the Hudson are so called. The road from Peekskill to Garrison’s over the hill called “Anthony’s Nose” is particularly steep and stony. The Beverly Farm, which was owned by Mr. William Denning, lay in the midst of these hills. The house is still standing and is almost unaltered.
Footnote 66:
To Miranda Southgate, or, more likely, to Octavia. (M. K. L.)
Footnote 67:
From Octavia Southgate to Mrs. Southgate.
Footnote 68:
Mr. Newbold and Mr. Philip Rhinelander were well-known New Yorkers. The latter married, December 22, 1814, Miss Mary Colden Hoffman.
Footnote 69:
Mr. Jephson was an Englishman who had lately arrived in New York.
Footnote 70:
John Duer married Miss Anne Bunner October 19, 1804, and his brother, William Duer, soon after married Maria Denning. Mr. Rhinelander engaged the two Miss Duers to the wrong men. Fanny married Beverly Robinson, and Sally married, March 10, 1805, John Witherspoon Smith, and died July 10, 1887, in the one hundred and first year of her age.
Footnote 71:
Mrs. Kane’s “charming little girl” became Mrs. James King of Albany, and the mother of many well-known New Yorkers.
Footnote 72:
Lady Temple was the daughter of Governor Bowdoin, and had married Sir John Temple. Their daughter, afterwards Mrs. Winthrop, was the mother of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. She was long the reigning belle in Boston.
Footnote 73:
Mr. and Mrs. Bogert were intimate friends of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus King’s, and they occupied adjoining places at Jamaica.
Footnote 74:
Mrs. Heyward was Mr. and Mrs. Rogers’ daughter. She married Mr. Heyward of South Carolina. Miss Heyward married Mr. Cutting of New York, and was the mother of Messrs. William, Heyward, and Brockholst Cutting.
Footnote 75:
Wolsey Rogers married, Thursday evening, December 1, 1807, Miss Susan Bayard.
Footnote 76:
Harriet Clarke, a daughter of John Innes Clarke of Providence, and sister of Mrs. Kane.
Footnote 77:
Mrs. Oliver Kane had married, at Providence, R. I., May 22, 1803, Mr. Oliver Kane, merchant of this city. Her children were Mrs. King of Albany, Mrs. William Russel, Mrs. Nicholsen, John, De Lancey, and Miss Lydia Kane.
Footnote 78:
Mrs. Gilbert R. Livingston (Martha Kane), a sister of Oliver Kane. Her children were Mrs. Henry Beekman, Mrs. Codwise, Mrs. Constable, the Rev. Gilbert R. Livingston, and James Kane Livingston.
Footnote 79:
Mrs. Fish (Miss Elizabeth Stuyvesant) had married, April 30, 1803, Colonel Nicholas Fish. This daughter was Mrs. Daniel le Roy. The Hon. Hamilton Fish and Mrs. Richard Morris were also children of Colonel Fish’s.
Footnote 80:
_Pauline Porter_, daughter of Paulina King and Dr. Aaron Porter of Portland, had married Edward Beecher.
Footnote 81:
Mary King Porter, her sister, married Nathaniel Coffin of Saco.
Footnote 82:
Horatio Southgate married his first wife, Nabby McLellan, September 29, 1805. Mrs. Bowne is here alluding to her sister Octavia’s engagement to William Browne.
Footnote 83:
Robert Murray, Mr. Bowne’s nephew.
Footnote 84:
_Frederic Southgate_, her youngest brother.
Footnote 85:
John, Charles, and James King, sons of Rufus King, Mrs. Bowne’s cousins. James was at that time at Harvard College.
Footnote 86:
Mrs. Gillespie (Amelia Denning). This daughter died when a very young girl of a putrid sore throat.
Footnote 87:
Walter Bowne, Jr. Eldest child of Walter Bowne and Eliza Southgate.
Footnote 88:
Kitty Bayard married Duncan Campbell. Her sister Susan had married Woolsey Rogers, December 1, 1807.
Footnote 89:
Mary, oldest daughter of Robert Watts and his wife Lady Mary Alexander, married Dr. Romaine, who left her a widow after a few years of married life. At the age of seventy-three Mrs. Romaine married her first love, Peter Bertram Cruger, a widower with eight children. Miss Watts’s engagement to Dr. Romaine was a surprise to her friends, who knew of her attachment to Mr. Cruger.
Footnote 90:
John Alsop King, oldest son of Rufus King and his wife Mary Alsop. John A. King was twice governor of the State of New York. He married in 1810 Mary Ray. Charles King, the second son of Rufus King, for some time President of Columbia College, New York. He married twice: first, Miss Gracie, and for his second wife Miss Low, the daughter of his father’s intimate friend Nicholas Low.
Footnote 91:
Miss Fairlee was the daughter of Major Fairlee of the British army, who was a noted wit. Many anecdotes are told of his odd sayings. One of them was, that being on his death-bed he was told by his physician to take yeast as medicine. “What for?” said the Major; “to make me rise?” Miss Fairlee married Cooper the actor.
Footnote 92:
The wife of the French General Moreau. They came to the United States in 1805, but he returned to fight with the Allies, and was killed in 1813, some say by a bullet aimed by Napoleon himself.
Footnote 93:
Mrs. Stevens was Miss Rachel Coxe, of Philadelphia, and had married Colonel Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey.
Footnote 94:
Miss Lyde married Jonathan Ogden. Among her children were Mrs. Robert Goelet, Mrs. Dominick Lynch Lawrence, and Mrs. Joseph Ogden.
Footnote 95:
Mrs. John Lawrence.
Footnote 96:
Ralph Izard and his wife, the granddaughter of Etienne de Lanci, a Huguenot nobleman who came to this country in 1686. Mr. Izard had been appointed Commissioner from Congress to the grand-duchy of Tuscany, and had performed other important diplomatic services. He was one of the first United States senators from South Carolina. Mrs. Mannigault’s husband was the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Izard. She was related to the Misses Watts of New York, and for their sake was particularly attentive and kind to their friend Mrs. Bowne. Mr. and Mrs. Heyward were the parents of the celebrated beauty Miss Elizabeth Heyward, who married James Hamilton.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● The caret (^) serves as a superscript indicator, applicable to individual characters (like 2^d) and even entire phrases (like 1^{st}).