Abraham Howe came to Dorchester in 1636; was admitted Freeman May 2, 1637, he came from Broad Oak, Essex County, England, and died at Dorchester, Nov. 20th, 1683. His son Isaac Howe, was baptized in Roxbury in 1655. Isaac had a son Isaac, born in Dorchester, July 7, 1675. He had a son Joseph, born in Dorchester, March 27, 1716, who was the father of John Howe, born in Boston, October 14, 1754. Joseph Howe was a reputable tradesman in Marshall's Lane. He apprenticed his son to learn the printing business.
Richard Draper, the publisher of theMassachusetts Gazette, andBoston News Letterdied June 5, 1774. He left no children. His wife conducted the business for several months, and then formed a business connection with John Howe.
Howe had recently become of age, and was a sober, discreet young man. Mrs. Draper, therefore, was induced, a short time before the commencement of the war, to take him into partnership, but his name did not appear in the imprint of the Massachusetts Gazette till Boston was besieged by the Continental Army.
Howe remained with his partner until they were obliged to leave Boston in consequence of the evacuation of the town by the British troops, March 17, 1776, when they went to Halifax, from there he went to Newport, R. I., when the British took possession of the town December 8th.
John Howe was married at Newport by Rev. George Bisset, Rector of Trinity Church, to Miss Martha Minns. Mr. William Minns accompanied his daughter from Boston, and was present at the ceremony. William Minns was born at Great Yarmouth, England, December 16, 1728. In 1737 he accompanied his uncle, Robert Ball, and his widowed mother, and came to Boston. Miss Martha Minns was sixteen years of age when she married John Howe. She was noted for her beauty and her portrait is still in possession of her family. The issue of this marriage was three sons and three daughters.
Mr. Howe commenced the publication of a newspaper for the Britishat Newport; it was called The Newport Gazette, and the first paper was issued January 16, 1777.
The last number of a bound volume of this paper in possession of the Redwood Library at Newport, is dated January 15, 1778, but the publication of the paper probably continued till the evacuation of Newport by the British, October 25, 1779.
The paper was published in a house on the opposite side of the Parade, the Vaughn estate, now a market. A recent writer says:
"During the time the British were in possession of Newport, it was the office of the Newport 'Gazette,' the paper printed by the British on the press and type of the Newport 'Mercury.' Before that the 'Mercury' was printed by Solomon Southwick, in Queen Street, but when the island fell into the hands of the enemy, Southwick, as is well-known, buried his type in the rear of what was the old Kilburn House on Broad Street (now Broadway) and left the town. The loyalists recovered the type, and a printer named Howe began the printing of the 'Gazette.'"
A bound file of the newspaper published by Mr. Howe is in the possession of the Redwood Library. It runs, with a few numbers missing, from No. 1, to No. 52, January 15, 1778.
The first number was issued Jan. 16, 1777, with the following introduction.
"The Favours which the Subscriber has received from the Gentlemen of theArmy and Navy, in Boston and elsewhere, joined with the Importunities of many of the Inhabitants of this Town, has induced him, as speedily as possible, to gratify them with aNewspaper. He can only say, that his best endeavors shall not be wanting to render it as entertaining as possible: And he has nothing to wish for, but the Exercise of that Candour he hath so often before been indebted to. Itssizeis at present contracted, owing to the Impossibility of procuring larger printing Paper; but if more Intelligence should at any Time arrive, than this can contain, the Deficiency will be supplied with aSupplement. No Subscriptions are received; but if any Gentlemen choose to have the Paper weekly the Boy shall leave it at their houses. Articles of intelligence will be thankfully received and every favor gratefully acknowledged, by theirObedient humble servant,John Howe."
"The Favours which the Subscriber has received from the Gentlemen of theArmy and Navy, in Boston and elsewhere, joined with the Importunities of many of the Inhabitants of this Town, has induced him, as speedily as possible, to gratify them with aNewspaper. He can only say, that his best endeavors shall not be wanting to render it as entertaining as possible: And he has nothing to wish for, but the Exercise of that Candour he hath so often before been indebted to. Itssizeis at present contracted, owing to the Impossibility of procuring larger printing Paper; but if more Intelligence should at any Time arrive, than this can contain, the Deficiency will be supplied with aSupplement. No Subscriptions are received; but if any Gentlemen choose to have the Paper weekly the Boy shall leave it at their houses. Articles of intelligence will be thankfully received and every favor gratefully acknowledged, by their
Obedient humble servant,John Howe."
The British evacuated Newport, October 25, 1779, and Mr. and Mrs. Howe accompanied them to New York, and thence removed to Halifax and took up their permanent abode there, on the corner of Sackville and Barrington Streets. Here on Friday, January 5th, 1781, he published the first issue of the Halifax Journal, a paper that continued to be published regularly until 1870. It is said that Mr. Howe brought with him the printing press that had once belonged to Benjamin Franklin, and the first that the philosopher had ever possessed. It did the printing for the Howefamily for years. Mr. Howe was for many years King's printer for the Province, which secured to him all the government printing, including the publishing of the official gazette. For some years previous to his death, he held the office of postmaster-general and justice of the peace, and was living at the time of his death, December 29, 1835, at his beautiful residence on the Northwestarm, in good circumstances, and had the respect of the whole community.
Mr. Howe was a Sandemanian, that is, a follower of Robert Sandeman, who came to Boston from Glasgow in 1764; they held their first meetings at the Green Dragon Tavern, and afterwards had a meeting-house in the rear of Middle or Hanover street. This society rejected the belief in the necessity of spiritual conversion, representing faith as an operation of the intellect, and speculative belief as quite sufficient to insure final justification. This sect continued till 1823, when the last light was extinguished in Boston. Many of the Sandemanians were Loyalists, and went to Halifax. They may have built on a sandy foundation, but judging from their fruits, we may charitably conclude that in the main they were correct. Probably they did not like a church and state religion; and that may have been all. The few who were in Halifax met every Lord's day in an upper room, in the building lately used by Baxter as a furniture warehouse on Prince Street. The members, male and female, sat together around a table and took the Lord's Supper. This was weekly. There was singing and prayers, and Mr. Howe would afterward stand up, read a chapter of the Bible, and give an address. No doubt it was very good and simple and delivered with a calm, quiet sort of eloquence. When the meeting was over the brothers and sisters in fellowship, (only the more elderly members) rose and kissed one another, and seemed to be remarkably happy. It is said that in the afternoon of every Sunday the old gentlemen members went down to the room below and dined together, and probably edified one another with religious conversation. Those now living who have ever been with these Sandemanians in that upper room will never forget the calm godly faces of such men as old Mr. Howe, Mr. Greenwood and Mr. Mansfield. Strange to say, none of the Howes, and very few, if any, of the other families have followed in the track of these good men and women as to creed. It is to be hoped that many have been influenced for good by what they may have recalled of such worthy ancestors. Old Mr. Greenwood fell dead in the room while reading, and Mr. Mansfield died the same day from some accidental cause.
In a speech delivered by his sonJoseph Howe, in Boston July 4, 1858, he spoke of his father as follows: "The loyalists who left these States were not, it must be confessed, as good republicans as you are, but they loved liberty under their old forms, and their descendants love it too. My father, though a true Briton to the day of his death, loved New England, and old Boston especially, with filial regard. He never lost an opportunity of serving a Boston man, if in his power. At the close of yourrailway banquet, one gentleman told me that my father had, during the last war, taken his father from the military prison at Melville Island, and sent him back to Boston. Another, on the same evening, showed me a gold watch, sent by an uncle, who died in the West Indies, to his family. It was pawned by a sailor in Halifax, but redeemed by my father, and sent to the dead man's relatives. And so it was all his life. He loved his sovereign, but he loved Boston too, and whenever he got sick in his latter days, we used to send him up here to recruit. A sight of the old scenes and a walk on Boston Common were sure to do him good, and he generally came back uncommonly well." Elsewhere the same son remarked: "For thirty years he was my instructor, my playfellow, almost my daily companion. To him I owe my fondness for reading, my familiarity with the Bible, my knowledge of old colonial and American incidents and characteristics. He left me nothing but his example, and the memory of his many virtues, for all that he ever earned was given to the poor. He was too good for this world. But the remembrance of his high principle, his cheerfulness, his childlike simplicity, and truly Christian character, is never absent from my mind."
Mrs. Martha Howe died Nov. 25, 1790, aged 30 years, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard, Halifax.
A few years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Howe married Mrs. Austin, a widow with several children, wife of Captain Austin. By her he had two children, Sarah and Joseph. Mrs. Howe died in 1837. He had eight children, and at the present time there are eighty-five of his descendants, out of all these the survivors who bear the name of Howe only number sixteen. Many of his descendants were men of great prominence. His son William Howe, Assistant Commissary-General, who died at Halifax, January, 1843, aged fifty-seven. John Howe, Queen's Printer, and Deputy Postmaster-General, who died at the same place the same year, and David Howe, who published a paper at St. Andrew, N. B., Joseph, born December 13, 1804, became Hon. Joseph Howe, Governor of Nova Scotia in May, 1873.
Edmund Quincy, the first of the name in New England, landed at Boston on the 4th of September, 1633. He came from Achurch in Northamptonshire, where he owned some landed estate. That he was a man of substance may be inferred from his bringing six servants with him, and that he was a man of weight among the founders of the new commonwealth appears from his election as a representative of the town of Boston in the first General Court ever held in Massachusetts Bay. He was also the first named on the committee appointed by the town to assess and raise the sum necessary to extinguish the title of Mr. Blackstone tothe peninsula on which the city stands. He bought of Chickatabut, Sachem of the Massachusetts tribe of Indians, a tract of land at Mount Wollaston, confirmed to him by the Town of Boston, 1636, a portion of which is yet in the family.
Edmund Quincy died the year after making this purchase, in 1637, at the age of 33. He left a son Edmund and a daughter Judith. The son lived, in the main, a private life on the estate in Braintree. He was a magistrate and a representative of his town in the General Court, and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment.
Point Judith was named after his daughter. She married John Hull, who, when Massachusetts Bay assumed the prerogative of coining money, was her mint-master, and made a large fortune in the office, before Charles II. put a stop to that infringement of the charter. There is a tradition that, when he married his daughter to Samuel Sewall, afterwards Chief Justice, he gave her for her dowry, her weight in pine-tree shillings. From this marriage has sprung the eminent family of the Sewalls, which has given three Chief Justices to Massachusetts and one to Canada, and has been distinguished in every generation by the talents and virtues of its members.
Lieutenant-Colonel Quincy, who was a child when brought to New England, died in 1698, aged seventy years, having had two sons, Daniel and Edmund.
Daniel died during his father's lifetime, leaving an only son John, who graduated at Cambridge in 1708, and was a prominent public man in the Colony for nearly half a century. He was a Councillor, and for many years Speaker of the Lower House.
He died in 1767, at the time of the birth of his great-grandson, John Quincy Adams, who therefore received the name which he has made illustrious. Edmund, the second son, graduated in 1690, and was also in the public service almost all his life, as a magistrate, a Councillor, and one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. He was also colonel of the Suffolk Regiment, at that time a very important command, since the county of Suffolk then, and long after, included what is now County of Norfolk, as well as the town of Boston. In 1737, the General Court selected him as their agent to lay the claims of the Colony before the home government, in the matter of the disputed boundary between Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire.
He died, however, very soon after his arrival in London, February 23, 1737, of the smallpox, which he had taken by inoculation. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, where a monument was erected to him by the General Court, which also made a grant of land of a thousand acres in the town of Lennox to his family, in further recognition of his public services.
Judge Edmund Quincy had two sons, Edmund and Josiah.
The first named, who graduated at Cambridge in 1722, lived a private life at Braintree and in Boston.
One of his daughters married John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards Governor of Massachusetts. Josiah was born in 1709, and took his first degree in 1728. He accompanied his father to London in 1737, and afterwards visited England and the Continent more than once.
For some years he was engaged in commerce and ship-building in Boston, and when about forty years of age he retired from business and removed to Braintree, where he lived for thirty years the life of a country gentleman, occupying himself with the duties of a county magistrate, and amusing himself with field sports. Game of all sorts abounded in those days in the woods and along the shore, and marvellous stories have come down, by tradition, of his feats with gun and rod. He was Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment, as his father had been before him; he was also Commissioner to Pennsylvania during the old French war to ask the help of that Colony in an attack which Massachusetts Bay had planned upon Crown Point. He succeeded in his mission by the help of Doctor Franklin.
Colonel Josiah Quincy, by his first marriage, had three sons, Edmund, Samuel, Josiah, and one daughter, Hannah. His first wife was Hannah Sturgis, daughter of John Sturgis, one of his Majesty's Council, of Yarmouth. His eldest son, Edmund, graduated in 1752, after which he became a merchant in Boston. He was in England in 1760 for the purpose of establishing mercantile correspondences. He died at sea in 1768, on his return from a voyage for his health to the West Indies.
The youngest son of Colonel Josiah Quincy bore his name, and was therefore known to his contemporaries, and takes his place in history, as Josiah Quincy, Junior, he having died before his father, he was born February 23, 1744, and graduated at Harvard College, 1763. He studied law with Oxenbridge Thacher, one of the principal lawyers of that day, and succeeded to his practice at his death, which took place about the time he himself was called to the bar. He took a high rank at once in his profession, although his attention to its demands was continually interrupted by the stormy agitation in men's minds and passions, which preceded and announced the Revolution, and which he actively promoted by his writings and public speeches. On the 5th of March, the day of the so called "Boston Massacre" he was selected, together with John Adams, by Captain Preston, who was accused of having given the word of command to the soldiers that fired on the mob, to conduct his defence and that of his men, they having been committed for trial for murder. At that moment of fierce excitement, it demanded personal and moral courage to perform this duty. His own father wrote him a letter of stern and strong remonstrance against his undertaking the defence of "those criminals charged with the murder of their fellow citizens," exclaiming, with passionate emphasis, "Good God! Is it possible? I will not believe it!"
Mr. Quincy in his reply, reminded his father of the obligations his professional oath laid him under, to give legal counsel and assistance tothose accused of a crime, but not proved to be guilty of it; adding: "I dare affirm that you and this whole people will one day rejoice that I became an advocate for the aforesaid criminals,chargedwith the murder of our fellow citizens.To inquire my duty and to do it, is my aim." He did his duty and his prophecy soon came to pass.
There is no more honorable passage in the history of New England than the one which records the trial and acquittal of Captain Preston and his men, in the midst of the passionate excitements of that time, by a jury of the town maddened to a rage but a few months before by the blood of her citizens shed in her streets.
In 1774 he went to England, partly for his health, which had suffered much from his intense professional and political activities, and also as a confidential agent of the Revolutionary party to consult and advise with the friends of America there. His presence in London coming as he did at a most critical moment excited the notice of the ministerial party, as well as of the opposition. The Earl of Hillsborough denounced him, together with Dr. Franklin, in the House of Lords, "as men walking the streets of London who ought to be in Newgate or Tyburn." The precise results of his communications with the English Whigs can never be known. They were important enough, however, to make his English friends urgent for his immediate return to America, because he could give information which could not safely be committed to writing. His health had failed seriously during the latter months of his residence in England, and his physicians strongly advised against his taking a winter voyage.
His sense of public duty, however, overbore all personal considerations, and he set sail on the 16th of March, 1775, and died off Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the 26th of April.
The citizens of Gloucester buried him with all honor in their graveyard; after the siege of Boston, he was removed and placed in a vault in the burying ground in Braintree. Josiah Quincy was barely thirty-one years of age when he thus died.
His father, Colonel Quincy lived on at Braintree during the whole of the war. He died on March 3rd, 1784.
His passion for field sports remained in full force till the end, for his death was occasioned by exposure to the winter's cold, sitting upon a cake of ice, watching for wild ducks, when he was in his seventy-fifth year.
Samuel Quincy, the subject of this memoir, was the second son of Colonel Josiah Quincy, and the brother of Josiah, Junior, and Edmund. He was born in that part of Braintree now Quincy, April 23, 1735. He graduated at Harvard College in 1754, and studied law with Benjamin Pratt.
Endowed with fine talents, Mr. Quincy became eminent in the profession of the law, and succeeded Jonathan Sewall as Solicitor-General of Massachusetts. He was the intimate friend of many of the most distinguishedmen of that period, among whom was John Adams. They were admitted to the bar on the same day, Nov. 6, 1758.
As Solicitor for the Crown, he was engaged with Robert Treat Paine in the memorable trial of Capt. Preston, and the soldiers in 1770; his brother was opposed to him on that occasion, and both reversed their party sympathies in their professional position. It was plain to all sagacious observers of the signs of the times, that the storm of civil war was gathering fast; and it was sure first to burst over Boston. It was a time of stern agitation, and profound anxieties. In their emotion Mr. Quincy and his wife shared deeply, and passionately. The shadows of public and private calamity were already beginning to steal over that once happy home. The evils of the present and the uncertainties of the future bore heavily on their prosperity. The fierce passions which were soon to break out into revolutionary violence and mob rule, had already begun to separate families, to divide friends, and to break up society. Samuel Quincy was a Loyalist and remained true to his oath of office, wherein he swore to support the government. His father and brother were revolutionists; as previously stated his brother died on shipboard off Gloucester, seven days after the hostilities had commenced at Lexington, and when his father saw from his house on Quincy Bay, the fleet drop down the harbor, after the evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776, it must have been with feelings of sorrow that the stout-hearted old man saw the vessels bear away his only surviving son, never to return again. Such partings were common griefs then, as ever in civil wars, the bitterest perhaps that wait upon that cruelest of calamities.
Samuel Quincy was an addressor of Governor Hutchinson, and a staunch Loyalist. His wife, the sister of Henry Hill, Esq., of Boston, was not pleased with her husband's course in the politics of the times, and he became a Loyalist against her advice, and when he left Boston, a refugee, she preferred to remain with her brother, and never met her husband again. The following letter written to his brother by Mr. Quincy, during the siege of Boston, will explain his position at that time.[230]
To Henry Hill, Esq., Cambridge.Boston, May 13, 1775.Dear Brother:There never was a time when sincerity and affectionate unity of heart could be more necessary than at present. But in the midst of the confusions that darken our native land, we may still, by a rectitude of conduct, entertain a rational hope that the Almighty Governor of the universe will in his own time remember mercy.I am going, my dear friend, to quit the habitation where I have been so long encircled with the dearest connections.
To Henry Hill, Esq., Cambridge.
Boston, May 13, 1775.
Dear Brother:
There never was a time when sincerity and affectionate unity of heart could be more necessary than at present. But in the midst of the confusions that darken our native land, we may still, by a rectitude of conduct, entertain a rational hope that the Almighty Governor of the universe will in his own time remember mercy.
I am going, my dear friend, to quit the habitation where I have been so long encircled with the dearest connections.
I am going to hazard the unstable element, and for a while to change the scene—whether it will be prosperous or adverse, is not for me to determine. I pray God to sustain my integrity and preserve me from temptation.My political character with you may be suspicious; but be assured, if I cannotservemy country, which I shall endeavor to the utmost of my power, I will neverbetray it.The kind care of my family you have so generously offered penetrates me with the deepest gratitude. If it should not be within my power to reward you, you will have the recompense greater than I can give you, the approbation of your own heart. Would to God we may again enjoy the harmonious intercourse I have been favored with since my union with your family. I will not despair of this great blessing in some future and not very distant period. God preserve you in health and every earthly enjoyment, until you again receive the salutation ofYour friend and brother,Samuel Quincy.
I am going to hazard the unstable element, and for a while to change the scene—whether it will be prosperous or adverse, is not for me to determine. I pray God to sustain my integrity and preserve me from temptation.
My political character with you may be suspicious; but be assured, if I cannotservemy country, which I shall endeavor to the utmost of my power, I will neverbetray it.
The kind care of my family you have so generously offered penetrates me with the deepest gratitude. If it should not be within my power to reward you, you will have the recompense greater than I can give you, the approbation of your own heart. Would to God we may again enjoy the harmonious intercourse I have been favored with since my union with your family. I will not despair of this great blessing in some future and not very distant period. God preserve you in health and every earthly enjoyment, until you again receive the salutation of
Your friend and brother,Samuel Quincy.
SAMUEL QUINCYSAMUEL QUINCY.Born at Braintree, now Quincy, April 23, 1735. Solicitor-General of Massachusetts. Died at sea in 1789. His remains were interred on Bristol Hill, England. From a painting by Copley.
Again on August 18th he writes to Mr. Hill and said, "You conjure me by the love of my country to use my best endeavors to bring about a reconciliation, suggesting that the Americans are still as determined as ever to die free, rather than live slaves; I have no reason to doubt the zeal of my fellow-countrymen in the cause of freedom, and their firmness in its defence, and were it in my power, my faithful endeavors should not be wanting (nay, I have a right to say they are not) to effect an accommodation. But, my good friend, I am unhappy to find that the opinion I formed in America, and which in a great measure governed my conduct, was but too justly founded. Every proposal of those who are friendly to the colonies, to alter the measures of government and redress the grievances of which they complain, is spurned at, unless attended with previous concessions on their part. This there is less reason every day to expect, and thus the prospect of an accommodation is thrown at a distance; nor is there yet the least reason to suppose that a formidable, if any opposition will be framed against administration in favor of America.
"These are facts, not of conjecture only, but visible and operative. Your reflection will perhaps be, we must then work out our own salvation by the strength of our own arm, trusting in the Lord. Really, my friend, if the colonies, according to their late declaration, have made a resistance by force their choice, the contest is in short reduced to that narrow compass. I view the dangerous and doubtful struggle with fear and trembling; I lament it with the most cordial affection for my native country, and feel sensibly for my friends. But I am aware it is my duty patiently to submit the event as it may be governed by the all-wise counsels of that Being 'who ruleth in the heavens, and is the God of armies.'"
In a letter to his wife, London, Jan. 1, 1777, he said: The continuanceof our unhappy separation has something in it so unexpected, so unprecedented, so complicated with evil, and misfortune, it has become almost too burdensome for my spirits, nor have I words that can reach its description. I long much to see my father. It is now more than eighteen months since I parted with him in a manner I regret. Neither of you say anything of the family at Braintree. They ought not to think me regardless of them though I am silent; for, however lightly they may look upon me, I yet remember them with pleasure.
Again, on March 12, 1777, he said: You inquire whether I cannot bear contempt and reproach, rather than remain any longer separated from my family? As I always wished, and I think always endeavored, not to deserve the one, so will I ever be careful to avoid the other. You urge as an inducement to my return, that my countrymen will not deprive me of life. I have never once harbored such an idea. Sure I am I have never merited from them such a punishment. Difference of opinion I have never known to be a capital offence, and were the truth and motives of my conduct justly scrutinized, I am persuaded they would not regard me as an enemy plotting their ruin. That I might yet be able to recover in some respect the esteem of my friends, I will not doubt while I am conscious of the purity of my intentions. When I determined on a voyage to England, I resolved upon deliberation, and I still think, with judgment. I did not, indeed, expect so hurried a succession of events, though you must remember, I long had them in contemplation.
I am sorry you say nothing of my father, or the family at Braintree; I have not received a line nor heard from them since I left America. * * God bless you all; live happy, and think I am as much so as my long absence from you will permit.
March 20, 1777.I am not surprised much that, to the less of property, I have already sustained, I am to suffer further depredations, and that those to whom I am under contract should avail themselves of this opportunity and endeavor to make what is left their own. All I ask is that my brother and my other friends (if I have any) would think of me as they ought, and to be assured, that as far as they interpose their assistance to save me from suffering, they will not hereafter find me deficient in return.October 15, 1777.If things should not wear a more promising aspect at the opening of the next year, by all means summon resolution to cross the ocean. But if there is an appearance of accommodating this truly unnatural contest, it would be advisable for you to bear farther promise; as I mean to return to my native country whenever I may be permitted, and there is a chance for my procuring a livelihood. But I do not say that I will not accept of an opening here, if any one should offer that I may think eligible.London, April 18, 1778.If there is an accommodation, I shall certainly turn my views to some part of the continent, unless something very promising should offer elsewhere. It would grieve me very much to think of never again seeing my father; God bless him, and many other worthy friends and relations in New England; but a return to my native country I cannot be reconciled to until I am convinced that I am as well thought of as I know I deserve to be. I shall ever rejoice in its prosperity, but am too proud to live despised where I was once respected—an object of insult instead of the child of favor.You suggest, that had I remained, I might still have been with you in honor and employment. It may be so, but when I left America I had no expectation of being absent more than a few months, little thinking operations of such magnitude would have followed in so quick a succession; I left it from principle, and with a view of emolument. If I have been mistaken, it is my misfortune, not my fault. My first letters from my friends congratulated me on being out of the way; and I was pleased to find my undertaking met with their approbation as well as my own. The hearts of men were not within my reach, nor the fortuitous event of things within my control. "I am indeed a poor man;" but even a poor man has resources of comfort that cannot be torn from him, nor are any so miserable as to be always under the influence of inauspicious stars. I will therefore still endeavor to bear my calamities with firmness, and to feel for others.Those who have befriended my family are entitled to my warmest gratitude, and I hope you will never fail to express it for me. Whether it ever will be in my power to recompense them I know not, but no endeavor of mine shall be wanting to effect it. * * * I conjecture, though you do not mention from what quarter, you have received unkindness. There are in this world many things we are obliged and enabled to encounter, which at a distance appear insupportable. You must have experienced this as well as I; and it ought to teach us that best doctrine of philosophy and religion—resignation. Bear up, therefore, with fortitude, and wait patiently in expectation of a calmer and brighter day.London, May 31, 1778.By the public prints we are made acquainted with an act of the state of Massachusetts Bay, that precludes those among others from returning, who left it since the 19th of April, 1775, and "joined the enemy." You do not mention this act, nor have I any information by which I am to construe what is meant by "joining the enemy." The love of one's country, and solicitude for its welfare, are natural and laudable affections; to lose its good opinion is at once unhappy, and attended with many ill consequences; how much more unfortunate to be forever excluded from it without offence! It is said also that there is a resolve of congress, "that no absentee shall be permitted to take up his residence inany other colony without having been first received and admitted as a citizen of his own." This may have some effect on a movement I had in contemplation of going southward, where I have a very advantageous offer of countenance and favor.London, March 15, 1779.You may remember in some of my former letters I hinted my wish to establish a residence in some other part of the continent, or in the West Indies, and particularly mentioned to you Antigua—where my kinsman, Mr. Wendell, my friend, Mr. David Greene, Dr. Russell and his family, Mr. Lavicourt, Mr. Vassall, and others of my acquaintance, will give the island less of the appearance of a strange place. By the passing of the act of proscription the door was shut against me in my own country, where I own it would have been my wish to have ended my days. This confirmed my resolution. I have since unremittedly pursued various objects, endeavoring to drive the nail that would go.My first intention was that of transplanting myself somewhere to the southward. On this subject I thought long, and consulted others. I considered climate, friends, business, prospects in every view, and at last formed my opinion. The provinces in the south part of America in point of health were not more favorable than the island—in point of friends they might be preferable, but with respect to business or the means of acquiring it, uncertain; public commotion yet continued, violent prejudices are not easily removed. I had neither property nor natural connections in either of them. I could have no official influence to sustain me. What kind of government or laws would finally prevail it was difficult to tell. These and other reasons determined me against the attempt. But to stay longer in England, absent from my friends and family, with a bare subsistence, inactive, without prospects, and useless to myself and the world, was death to me! What was the alternative? As I saw no chance of procuring either appointment or employ here, the old object of the West Indies recurred, where in my younger days I wished to have remained; and by the influence of some particular gentlemen I have at last obtained the place of "Comptroller of the Customs at the Port of Parham in Antigua;" for which island I mean to embark with the next convoy. My view is to join the profits of business in the line of my profession to the emoluments of office. This I flatter myself will afford me a handsome maintenance. I grow old too fast to think of waiting longer for the moving of the waters, and have therefore cast my bread upon them, thus in hopes that at last, after many days, I may find it.Transmit to my father every expression of duty and affection. If he retains the same friendship and parental fondness for me I have always experienced from him, he will patronize my children, and in doing this will do it unto me. It was my intention to have written to him, but the subjects on which I want to treat are too personally interesting for the casualties of the present day. He may rest assured it is my greatest unhappiness to be thus denied the pleasing task of lightening his misfortunesand soothing the evening of his days. Whatever may be the future events of his life, I shall always retain for him the warmest filial respect, and if it is my lot to survive him, shall ever think it a pleasure as well as my duty to promote to my utmost the welfare of his posterity. My mother will also accept of my duty and good wishes; the prosperity of the whole household lies near my heart, and they will do me an injustice if they think me otherwise than their affectionate friend. * * *With respect to my property in America, my wish and desire is, if I have any control over it, that my friends there collectively, or some one singly under your direction, would take it into their hands, and consolidating the debts I owe into one sum, apply it to their discharge. I can think of no better way than this. If eventually I am deprived of it, I will endeavor to bear it with that fortitude which becomes a Christian and philosopher.P. S. I could wish above all things to preserve my law books.TO HENRY HILL, ESQ.London, May 25, 1779.I have obtained an appointment at Parham, in Antigua, as comptroller of the customs, and am to embark soon for St. Kitts. * * It is this day four years since I left Boston, and though I have been racked by my own misfortunes and my feelings for the distresses of my family and friends, I have still by a good Providence been blessed with health and comforted by the kindness of many friends. If I have not been in affluence, I have been above want, and happy in the esteem of numbers in this kingdom to whom I was altogether a stranger. * * The education of my children is uppermost in my heart. The giving my son the benefit of classical learning by a course of college studies, is a step I much approve. The sequestration of my books is more mortifying to me than any other stroke. If they are not yet out of your power save them for me at all events.
March 20, 1777.
I am not surprised much that, to the less of property, I have already sustained, I am to suffer further depredations, and that those to whom I am under contract should avail themselves of this opportunity and endeavor to make what is left their own. All I ask is that my brother and my other friends (if I have any) would think of me as they ought, and to be assured, that as far as they interpose their assistance to save me from suffering, they will not hereafter find me deficient in return.
October 15, 1777.
If things should not wear a more promising aspect at the opening of the next year, by all means summon resolution to cross the ocean. But if there is an appearance of accommodating this truly unnatural contest, it would be advisable for you to bear farther promise; as I mean to return to my native country whenever I may be permitted, and there is a chance for my procuring a livelihood. But I do not say that I will not accept of an opening here, if any one should offer that I may think eligible.
London, April 18, 1778.
If there is an accommodation, I shall certainly turn my views to some part of the continent, unless something very promising should offer elsewhere. It would grieve me very much to think of never again seeing my father; God bless him, and many other worthy friends and relations in New England; but a return to my native country I cannot be reconciled to until I am convinced that I am as well thought of as I know I deserve to be. I shall ever rejoice in its prosperity, but am too proud to live despised where I was once respected—an object of insult instead of the child of favor.
You suggest, that had I remained, I might still have been with you in honor and employment. It may be so, but when I left America I had no expectation of being absent more than a few months, little thinking operations of such magnitude would have followed in so quick a succession; I left it from principle, and with a view of emolument. If I have been mistaken, it is my misfortune, not my fault. My first letters from my friends congratulated me on being out of the way; and I was pleased to find my undertaking met with their approbation as well as my own. The hearts of men were not within my reach, nor the fortuitous event of things within my control. "I am indeed a poor man;" but even a poor man has resources of comfort that cannot be torn from him, nor are any so miserable as to be always under the influence of inauspicious stars. I will therefore still endeavor to bear my calamities with firmness, and to feel for others.
Those who have befriended my family are entitled to my warmest gratitude, and I hope you will never fail to express it for me. Whether it ever will be in my power to recompense them I know not, but no endeavor of mine shall be wanting to effect it. * * * I conjecture, though you do not mention from what quarter, you have received unkindness. There are in this world many things we are obliged and enabled to encounter, which at a distance appear insupportable. You must have experienced this as well as I; and it ought to teach us that best doctrine of philosophy and religion—resignation. Bear up, therefore, with fortitude, and wait patiently in expectation of a calmer and brighter day.
London, May 31, 1778.
By the public prints we are made acquainted with an act of the state of Massachusetts Bay, that precludes those among others from returning, who left it since the 19th of April, 1775, and "joined the enemy." You do not mention this act, nor have I any information by which I am to construe what is meant by "joining the enemy." The love of one's country, and solicitude for its welfare, are natural and laudable affections; to lose its good opinion is at once unhappy, and attended with many ill consequences; how much more unfortunate to be forever excluded from it without offence! It is said also that there is a resolve of congress, "that no absentee shall be permitted to take up his residence inany other colony without having been first received and admitted as a citizen of his own." This may have some effect on a movement I had in contemplation of going southward, where I have a very advantageous offer of countenance and favor.
London, March 15, 1779.
You may remember in some of my former letters I hinted my wish to establish a residence in some other part of the continent, or in the West Indies, and particularly mentioned to you Antigua—where my kinsman, Mr. Wendell, my friend, Mr. David Greene, Dr. Russell and his family, Mr. Lavicourt, Mr. Vassall, and others of my acquaintance, will give the island less of the appearance of a strange place. By the passing of the act of proscription the door was shut against me in my own country, where I own it would have been my wish to have ended my days. This confirmed my resolution. I have since unremittedly pursued various objects, endeavoring to drive the nail that would go.
My first intention was that of transplanting myself somewhere to the southward. On this subject I thought long, and consulted others. I considered climate, friends, business, prospects in every view, and at last formed my opinion. The provinces in the south part of America in point of health were not more favorable than the island—in point of friends they might be preferable, but with respect to business or the means of acquiring it, uncertain; public commotion yet continued, violent prejudices are not easily removed. I had neither property nor natural connections in either of them. I could have no official influence to sustain me. What kind of government or laws would finally prevail it was difficult to tell. These and other reasons determined me against the attempt. But to stay longer in England, absent from my friends and family, with a bare subsistence, inactive, without prospects, and useless to myself and the world, was death to me! What was the alternative? As I saw no chance of procuring either appointment or employ here, the old object of the West Indies recurred, where in my younger days I wished to have remained; and by the influence of some particular gentlemen I have at last obtained the place of "Comptroller of the Customs at the Port of Parham in Antigua;" for which island I mean to embark with the next convoy. My view is to join the profits of business in the line of my profession to the emoluments of office. This I flatter myself will afford me a handsome maintenance. I grow old too fast to think of waiting longer for the moving of the waters, and have therefore cast my bread upon them, thus in hopes that at last, after many days, I may find it.
Transmit to my father every expression of duty and affection. If he retains the same friendship and parental fondness for me I have always experienced from him, he will patronize my children, and in doing this will do it unto me. It was my intention to have written to him, but the subjects on which I want to treat are too personally interesting for the casualties of the present day. He may rest assured it is my greatest unhappiness to be thus denied the pleasing task of lightening his misfortunesand soothing the evening of his days. Whatever may be the future events of his life, I shall always retain for him the warmest filial respect, and if it is my lot to survive him, shall ever think it a pleasure as well as my duty to promote to my utmost the welfare of his posterity. My mother will also accept of my duty and good wishes; the prosperity of the whole household lies near my heart, and they will do me an injustice if they think me otherwise than their affectionate friend. * * *
With respect to my property in America, my wish and desire is, if I have any control over it, that my friends there collectively, or some one singly under your direction, would take it into their hands, and consolidating the debts I owe into one sum, apply it to their discharge. I can think of no better way than this. If eventually I am deprived of it, I will endeavor to bear it with that fortitude which becomes a Christian and philosopher.
P. S. I could wish above all things to preserve my law books.
TO HENRY HILL, ESQ.
London, May 25, 1779.
I have obtained an appointment at Parham, in Antigua, as comptroller of the customs, and am to embark soon for St. Kitts. * * It is this day four years since I left Boston, and though I have been racked by my own misfortunes and my feelings for the distresses of my family and friends, I have still by a good Providence been blessed with health and comforted by the kindness of many friends. If I have not been in affluence, I have been above want, and happy in the esteem of numbers in this kingdom to whom I was altogether a stranger. * * The education of my children is uppermost in my heart. The giving my son the benefit of classical learning by a course of college studies, is a step I much approve. The sequestration of my books is more mortifying to me than any other stroke. If they are not yet out of your power save them for me at all events.
In a copy of a letter to a friend, apparently in the West Indies, but whose name does not appear, Mr. Quincy thus expresses himself:
Antigua, Feb. 1, 1782.You ask of me an account of my coming to the West Indies, the manner of my existence and destination, &c. The story is long, and would require many anecdotes to give the true history, but you will excuse me if at present I say only, that in the year 1775, just after the battle of Lexington, I quitted America for London on motives of business, intending to return in a few months; but my absence was construed by our good patriots as the effect of my political principles, and improved first to my proscription, afterwards to the very flattering title of traitorous conspirator, and the confiscation of my estate. I remained in England severalyears, but, tired of waiting for the moving of the waters, and unwilling to waste the flower of my age in a state of indolence, neither profitable to myself nor my family, I resolved to seek my fortune in this part of the world, where I had been in my younger days,—obtained a berth in the customs, which, together with the emoluments of my profession, afford me a comfortable subsistence, and the prospect of something beyond.Your friend, &c.,Samuel Quincey.
Antigua, Feb. 1, 1782.
You ask of me an account of my coming to the West Indies, the manner of my existence and destination, &c. The story is long, and would require many anecdotes to give the true history, but you will excuse me if at present I say only, that in the year 1775, just after the battle of Lexington, I quitted America for London on motives of business, intending to return in a few months; but my absence was construed by our good patriots as the effect of my political principles, and improved first to my proscription, afterwards to the very flattering title of traitorous conspirator, and the confiscation of my estate. I remained in England severalyears, but, tired of waiting for the moving of the waters, and unwilling to waste the flower of my age in a state of indolence, neither profitable to myself nor my family, I resolved to seek my fortune in this part of the world, where I had been in my younger days,—obtained a berth in the customs, which, together with the emoluments of my profession, afford me a comfortable subsistence, and the prospect of something beyond.
Your friend, &c.,Samuel Quincey.
Mr. Quincy's wife died November, 1782 in Massachusetts. He married again while at Antigua, Mrs. M. A. Chadwell, widow of Hon. Abraham Chadwell.
TO HIS SON, SAMUEL QUINCY, JR., CAMBRIDGE.June 10, 1785.How anxious soever I may feel to see my friends and relations once more, I cannot think of doing it at the expense of my liberty; nor will I ever visit that country where I first drew my breath, but upon such terms as I have always lived in it; and such as I have still a right to claim from those who possess it,—the character of a gentleman. * * * The proposal Judge Sumner has hinted to me of keeping his old berth for you at Roxbury, is a good one, at least better than Boston. Cultivate his good opinion, and deserve his patronage; he will bestow the latter for my sake, I trust, as well as his personal esteem for you. It will also stand you in stead at court, where I hope you will one day figure as a legislator as well as an advocate. All depends upon setting out right. You are at the edge of a precipice, or ought to consider yourself so; from whence, if you fall, the "revocare gradum," is a task indeed. Resolve, then, to think right, and act well; keeping up to that resolution will procure you daily the attention of all ranks, and command for you their respect. Keep alive the cause of truth, of reason, of virtue, and of liberty, if I may be permitted to use that name, who have by some injuriously been thought in a conspiracy against it. This is the path of duty, and will be the source of blessing.July 24, 1789.I am exceedingly sorry to hear of the distracted political situation of Massachusetts. * * * A constitution founded on mere republican principles has always appeared to me a many-headed monster, and, however applauded by a Franklin, a Price, and a Priestley, that in the end it must become a suicide. Mankind do not in experience appear formed for that finer system, which, in theory, by the nice adjustment of its parts promises permanency and repose. The passions, prejudice, and interests of some will always be in opposition to others, especially if they are in place.This, it may be said, is the case in all governments, but I think less so in a monarchy than under a republican code. The people at large feel an overbalance of power in their own favor; they will naturally endeavor to ease themselves of all expenses which are not lucrative to them, and retrench the gains of others, whether the reward of merit or genius, or the wages of a hireling.Tortola, June 1, 1789.My Dear Son:Your short letter of the 14th February gave me pleasure, as it informed me of your health and that of your family, and other friends in the neighborhood of Roxbury.It would be my wish to make you a visit once more in my life, could it be ascertained I might walk free of insult, and unmolested in person. Two things must concur to satisfy me of this,—the repeal of the act passed 1779, against certain crown officers, as traitors, conspirators, &c.; and accommodation with those who have against me pecuniary demands. The first I have never yet learned to be repealed, either in whole or in part, and therefore I consider it as a stumbling-block at the threshold; the second, no steps I suppose have been taken to effect, although I think it might be done by inquiry and proposition—with some by a total release from demand, and with others by a reasonable compromise. If you ever wish your father to repose under your roof, you will take some pains to examine the list, and make the trial. I shall shortly, I hope, be in a situation to leave this country, if I choose it; but whether Europe, of the two objects I have in view, will take the preference, may depend on the answer I may receive from you, upon the hints I have now thrown out for your consideration and filial exertions. * * *I have been, as I informed you in my last, a good deal indisposed for some time past. I find myself, however, better on the whole at present, though I feel the want of a bracing air. Adieu.Your affectionate parent,Samuel Quincy.
TO HIS SON, SAMUEL QUINCY, JR., CAMBRIDGE.
June 10, 1785.
How anxious soever I may feel to see my friends and relations once more, I cannot think of doing it at the expense of my liberty; nor will I ever visit that country where I first drew my breath, but upon such terms as I have always lived in it; and such as I have still a right to claim from those who possess it,—the character of a gentleman. * * * The proposal Judge Sumner has hinted to me of keeping his old berth for you at Roxbury, is a good one, at least better than Boston. Cultivate his good opinion, and deserve his patronage; he will bestow the latter for my sake, I trust, as well as his personal esteem for you. It will also stand you in stead at court, where I hope you will one day figure as a legislator as well as an advocate. All depends upon setting out right. You are at the edge of a precipice, or ought to consider yourself so; from whence, if you fall, the "revocare gradum," is a task indeed. Resolve, then, to think right, and act well; keeping up to that resolution will procure you daily the attention of all ranks, and command for you their respect. Keep alive the cause of truth, of reason, of virtue, and of liberty, if I may be permitted to use that name, who have by some injuriously been thought in a conspiracy against it. This is the path of duty, and will be the source of blessing.
July 24, 1789.
I am exceedingly sorry to hear of the distracted political situation of Massachusetts. * * * A constitution founded on mere republican principles has always appeared to me a many-headed monster, and, however applauded by a Franklin, a Price, and a Priestley, that in the end it must become a suicide. Mankind do not in experience appear formed for that finer system, which, in theory, by the nice adjustment of its parts promises permanency and repose. The passions, prejudice, and interests of some will always be in opposition to others, especially if they are in place.This, it may be said, is the case in all governments, but I think less so in a monarchy than under a republican code. The people at large feel an overbalance of power in their own favor; they will naturally endeavor to ease themselves of all expenses which are not lucrative to them, and retrench the gains of others, whether the reward of merit or genius, or the wages of a hireling.
Tortola, June 1, 1789.
My Dear Son:
Your short letter of the 14th February gave me pleasure, as it informed me of your health and that of your family, and other friends in the neighborhood of Roxbury.
It would be my wish to make you a visit once more in my life, could it be ascertained I might walk free of insult, and unmolested in person. Two things must concur to satisfy me of this,—the repeal of the act passed 1779, against certain crown officers, as traitors, conspirators, &c.; and accommodation with those who have against me pecuniary demands. The first I have never yet learned to be repealed, either in whole or in part, and therefore I consider it as a stumbling-block at the threshold; the second, no steps I suppose have been taken to effect, although I think it might be done by inquiry and proposition—with some by a total release from demand, and with others by a reasonable compromise. If you ever wish your father to repose under your roof, you will take some pains to examine the list, and make the trial. I shall shortly, I hope, be in a situation to leave this country, if I choose it; but whether Europe, of the two objects I have in view, will take the preference, may depend on the answer I may receive from you, upon the hints I have now thrown out for your consideration and filial exertions. * * *
I have been, as I informed you in my last, a good deal indisposed for some time past. I find myself, however, better on the whole at present, though I feel the want of a bracing air. Adieu.
Your affectionate parent,Samuel Quincy.
Soon after the date of this last letter, Mr. Quincy embarked for England, accompanied by his wife. The restoration of his health was the object of the voyage, but the effort was unsuccessful; he died at sea, within sight of the English coast. His remains were carried to England, and interred on Bristol hill. His widow immediately re-embarked for the West Indies, but her voyage was tempestuous. Grief for the loss of her husband, to whom she was strongly attached, and suffering from the storm her vessel encountered, terminated her life on her homeward passage.
It was a singular coincidence that two of Mr. Quincy's brothersdied at sea, as he did on shipboard, Edmund, the eldest and Josiah, the youngest brother.
Samuel Quincy had two sons: Samuel, a graduate of Harvard College in 1782, who was an attorney-at-law in Lenox, Mass., where he died in January, 1816, leaving a son Samuel. His second son, Josiah, became an eminent counselor-at-law of Romney, N. H., and President of the Senate of that State.
Mr. Samuel Quincy was proscribed and banished and his property confiscated.
About 1750 there appeared in Boston society a very handsome man by the name of Murray, whose antecendents people seemed to be ignorant, when he came to this country he settled at Rutland, and was very poor, and at first "peddled about the country" and then became a merchant. He was a man of great influence in his vicinity, and in the town of Rutland, which he represented many years in the General Court. On election days his home was open to his friends and good cheer dispensed free to all from his store. His wealth, social position, and political influence, made him one of the Colonial noblemen who lived in a style that has passed away in New England. He was a Colonel in the militia, for many years a member of the General Court, and in 1774 was appointed a Mandamus Councillor, but was not sworn into office, because a mob of about five hundred, with the "Worcester Committee of Correspondence," repaired to Rutland, to compel Colonel Murray to resign his seat in the Council. On the way, they were joined by nearly one thousand persons, among whom were a portion of the company who had compelled Judge Timothy Paine to take the same course, marching directly to Rutland the same day.
A delegation went to his house, and reported that he was absent. A letter was accordingly sent to him, to the effect that; unless his resignation appeared in the Boston papers, he would be waited upon again. He abandoned his home on the night of the 25th of August of that year, and fled to Boston.
As previously stated, there was always a mystery surrounding John Murray, regarding who he was and where he came from, but his descendants had some reason for supposing that he was one of the "Athol Family" of Scotland, the surname of the Duke being Murray. Some years since one of Col. Murray's descendants went to "Blair Athol," the family seat of the Dukes of Athol, hoping to hear something about him, and there found an old retainer of the family who recalled the fact that many years ago a younger member of the family had disappeared, nothing being heard of him again, though it was supposed he had run away to America.
Miss Murray, after her father's death, went from St. John to Lancaster, Mass., to be with her relatives, the Chandler Family. She had with her some amount of silver plate, and on each piece was the arms of the "Ducal House of Athol." She had small means, and when in need of money used to sell this silver, one piece at a time. In the grant of the town of Athol by the General Court the first name is that of John Murray, who probably gave the name of his ancestral home to the new town.
In 1776, with a family of six persons, he accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax. Col. Murray left a very large estate when he fled from Boston, and in 1778 he was prosecuted and banished, and in 1779 lost his extensive property under the Confiscation Act.
After the Revolution, Colonel Murray became a resident of St. John, N. B. He built a house in Prince William street, with a large lot of land attached to it, which became very valuable.
A portrait by Copley is owned by his grandson, the Hon. R. L. Hazen of St. John, a member of the Executive Council of New Brunswick. He is represented as sitting in the full dress of a gentleman of the day, and his person is shown to the knees. There is a hole in the wig, which is said to have been done by one of the mob who sought the Colonel at his house after his flight, vexed because he had eluded them, vowed they would leave their mark behind them, accordingly pierced the canvas with a bayonet.
Colonel Murray married several times, his first wife was Elizabeth McLanathan, who was the mother of ten children. His second wife was Lucretia Chandler, the daughter of John and Hannah Gardner, of Worcester. His third wife was Deborah Brinley, the daughter of Francis Brinley, of Roxbury.
Colonel Murray was allowed a pension of £200 per annum by the British Government. His estate valued at £23,367, was confiscated except one farm for his son Alexander, who joined the Revolutionists. He died at St. John, 1794.
Daniel Murray, of Brookfield, Mass., Son of Colonel John. He graduated at Harvard College in 1771. Mr. Murray entered the military service of the Crown, and was Major of the King's American Dragoons. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. At the peace he retired, on half pay. In 1792 he was a member of the House of Assembly of N. B. In 1803 he left the Colony. In 1832 he died at Portland, Maine.
Samuel Murray, Son of Colonel John, graduated at Harvard College in 1772. He was with the British troops at Lexington in 1775, and was taken prisoner. In a General Order, dated at Cambridge, June 15, 1775, it was directed "That Samuel Murray be removed from the jail in Worcester to his father's homestead in Rutland, the limits of which he is not to pass until further orders." In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. He died previous to 1785.
Robert Murray, Son of Colonel John. In 1782 he was a Lieutenantof the King's American Dragoons. He settled in N. B., and died there of consumption in 1786.
John Murray, Son of Colonel John. In 1782 he was a Captain in the King's American Dragoons. After the Revolution he was an officer of the Fifty-fourth Regiment, British Army.
John Putnam, the founder of the Salem family, was born in 1579, at Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, England. He is described in the records an husbandman. His farm was at Burstone in Wingrave. He emigrated to Salem with his three sons in 1640, where grants of land were made by the town of Salem to him and to his sons on their own account, in what was then known as Salem Village, now the town of Danvers.
His sons were Thomas, born 1614, died at Salem Village 1686; Nathaniel, born 1619, died at Salem Village 1700; John, born 1627, died at Salem Village, 1710.
In deeds, John Putnam is described as both husbandman and yeoman. He was a man of substance and of as much education as his contemporaries, but neither seeking or desiring public office. In 1653 he divided his lands between Thomas and Nathaniel, having evidently already granted his homestead to his younger son John. He died in 1662.
The subject of this memoir was a descendent of John Putnam, in the fifth generation, through his youngest son John, known as Captain John. It was in the military affairs and in the witchcraft delusion that his character is best shown. In 1672 he is styled Corporal, in 1678 he was commissioned Lieutenant of the troope of horse at the Village, and after 1687 he is styled "Captain." He served in the Naragansett fight, and retained his military manners throughout his life. In 1679 and later he was frequently chosen to present Salem at the General Court, to settle the various disputed town bounds. He was selectman in 1681. He was deputy to the General Court for many years previous to the new charter.
His residence was on the farm originally occupied by his father, now better known as Oak Knoll, the home of the poet Whittier.
The will of John Putnam is not on record. He seems to have disposed of his property by deed to his children. Rev. Joseph Green makes the following note in his diary: "April 7, 1710, Captain Putnam buried by ye soldiers."
Lieutenant James, son ofCaptain John, was born in Salem Village, 1661, and died there in 1727. He was a farmer, inheriting from his father the homestead at Oak Knoll. In 1720 he is styled on the records Lieut., which title was always scrupulously given him. Althoughnever caring to hold office, he was evidently esteemed by the townspeople. He had been taught a trade, and he in his turn taught his son the same trade, that of bricklayer. This was a custom among many of the early Puritan families. It is to the credit of all concerned, that far-sighted and wealthy men of that day brought up their sons to know a useful trade, in case adversity should overtake them.
James Putnam, of the fourth generation, son of the aforesaid Lieut. James, was born in Salem Village in 1689, and died there in 1763. He lived in the house just to the south-east of Oak Knoll on the same road; the house is still standing, in a fine state of preservation.
During his long life, James Putnam took considerable interest in town affairs. He was one of those who succeeded in obtaining the establishment of the district of Danvers. In 1730 he paid the largest tax in the village.
Honorable James Putnam, of the fifth generation, son of the aforesaid James Putnam, was born in Salem Village, 1726, and died at St. John, N. B., 1789. He graduated from Harvard College in 1746. In his class was Dr. Edward H. Holyoke, whose father, Edward Holyoke, was then president of the College. He studied law, under Judge Trowbridge, who according to John Adams, controlled the whole practice of Worcester and Middlesex Counties, and settled in Worcester in 1749, taking up the practice of the law.
In 1750 he married Eleanor Sprague, by whom he had one daughter, Eleanor, who married Rufus Chandler, of Worcester.
James Putnam, in 1757, held the commission of Major, under Gen. Louden, and saw service. Between the years of 1755 and 1758, John Adams, afterwards President of the United States, taught school in Worcester, and studied law with Mr. Putnam. He also boarded in his family. Mr. Adams remarks that Mr. Putnam possessed great acuteness of mind, had a very extensive and successful practice, and was eminent in his profession. James Putnam was one of the twenty signers to the address from the barristers and attorneys of Massachusetts to Gov. Hutchinson, May 30, 1774. His brothers, Dr. Ebenezer and Archelaus, both addressed Gov. Gage on his arrival, June 11, 1774. In February, 1775, he, with others, was forced by the threatening attitude of the mob to leave Worcester and seek refuge in Boston, he having had his cattle stolen and a valuable grist mill burned, and threatened with bodily harm.
On Oct. 14, 1775, eighteen of those gentlemen who were driven from their habitations in the country to the town of Boston, addressed Gov. Gage on his departure. Among the signers were James Putnam and James Putnam, Jr.
In 1778 the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act confiscating the estate of 308 Loyalists and banishing them; if they returned a second time, to suffer death without the benefit of clergy. Among these was the Hon. James Putnam, who had in 1777 succeeded Jonathan Sewell as attorney general of Massachusetts, the last under the Crown.
During the siege of Boston on the 17th Nov. 1775, the following order was issued by the British Commander: "Many of his Majesty's Loyal American subjects having offered their services for the defence of the place" are to be formed into three companies under command of Hon. Brigadier General Ruggles, to be called the Loyal American Associates, to be designated by a white sash around the left arm. James Putnam was commissioned captain of the second company, and James Putnam, Jr. was commissioned second lieutenant of the second company. At the evacuation of Boston, both James Putnam and his sons, James and Ebenezer, accompanied the army to Halifax, and New York, where his sons engaged in business. He sailed for Plymouth, England, December, 1779, with Mrs. Putnam and his daughter Elizabeth.
While in England he wrote numerous letters to his brothers, from which we make the following quotations. Under date of Nov. 13th, 1783, he writes from London: "My countrymen have got their independence (as they call it) and with it in my opinion, have lost the true Substantial Civil liberty. They doubtless exult as much at the acquisition they have gained as they do at the loss the Tories, as they call them, have sustained."
"America, the thirteen states, at last separated from this country, never more to be connected. For you may believe me when I say I firmly believe, and on good grounds, that even the present administration would not now accept of the connection, if America would offer it on the old footing."
"You may be assured there is nothing I wish for more than to see my dear brother and other dear friends in America again."
"At the same time, I can tell you with truth, unpleasing as you may think the situation of the Loyalists to be, I would not change with my independent countrymen with all imaginary liberty, but real heavy taxes and burdens, destitute in a great measure, as I know they are, of order and good government."
"Having this view of things, you can't expect to see me in Massachusetts soon, even if I was permitted or invited to return with perhaps the offer of the restoration of my estate. For what would it be worth but to pay all away in taxes in a short time."
"I'm not yet determined whether to remain in this country or go abroad to Nova Scotia or elsewhere."
Again, under date of July 20, 1784, he writes: "Your country is so changed since I left it, and in my opinion for the worst, that the great pleasure I should have in seeing my dear friends would be lost in a great measure in the unhappy change of government."
His next letter was from Parr, on the river St. John, N. B., Nov. 18, 1784. He says: "Dear Brother. I have been at this place about ten days, am surprised to find a large flourishing town, regularly laid out, well built, consisting of about two thousand houses, many of them handsome and well finished—And at the opposite side of the river at Carlton,about five hundred more houses on a pleasant situation. A good harbor lies between the two towns, which never freezes, and where there are large ships and many vessels of all sizes. The country appears to me to be very good, and am satisfied will make a most flourishing Province."
He writes again the next year: "You may wonder perhaps at my saying I hope I'm settled in this Province for life, and that I can be contented or happy in the place formerly called Nova Scotia."
"I want to see you and my friends, if I have any, but I don't wish to live in your country or under your government. I think I have found a better. No thanks to the Devils who have robbed me of my property. I do not wish to live with or see such infernals."
"God bless you, your wife, your son, your daughter, my brother, etc., who I shall be glad to see again, but not in the American States."
In another letter, dated St. John, N. B., May 13, 1785, to his brother, he says: "As to seeing you any more, you have no reason to expect it in your State.
"You may be assured, I should be exceeding happy in seeing you both here. I can give you a comfortable lodging, and wholesome good fresh provisions, excellent fish and good spruce beer, the growth and manufacture of our own Province.
"Tho' we should be glad to see the few friends we have remaining there among you, we don't wish to give them the pain of seeing us in your State, which is evidently overflowing withfreedom and liberty[231]without restraint.
"The people of the States must needs now be very happy, when they can all and every one do just what they like best. No taxes to pay, nostamp act,more moneythan they know what to do with,trade and navigation as free as air."
Under date of Nov. 4, 1786, he writes: "The people of your State seem to be stirring up another revolution. What do they want now? Do they find at last, to be freed from the British Government, and becoming an independent State does not free them from the debts they owe one another, or exempt them from the charge of taxation. I wish they would pay me what they justly owe, they may then have what government they please, or none, if they like that best."
He was appointed in 1784 Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and a member of the Council. It was said that he was the ablest lawyer in all America. Judge Putnam was the first of the council and bench of New Brunswick, who died from failing health; he had not attended council meetings for over a year. He died 23 Oct., 1789, in his 65th year. In character he was upright and generous; his health was never robust; and loss of country, friends and wealth must have been a severe blow. Sabine says: "I have often stood at his grave and mused upon the strange vicissitudes of human condition, by which the Master,one of the giants of the American Colonial Bar, became an outlaw, and an exile, broken in fortune and spirit, while his struggling and almost friendless pupil, elevated step by step by the very same course of events, was finally known the world over as the Chief Magistrate of a Nation." It is thus in all successful Revolutions, those that were at the head of affairs are hurled from power, and their fortunes wrecked, whilst young men like John Adams, of great abilities but poor, and little prospects for advancement, are elevated to the highest offices. Who would have ever heard of the "Little Corporal" had it not been for the French Revolution, then there would not have been any "Napoleon the maker of Kings."
Judge Putnam had two relatives who became famous in the Colonial wars, and the Revolution. Major-General Israel Putnam was of the fourth generation from John. He was born in Salem Village, 1717. He distinguished himself at Crown Point, Montreal and Cuba, and later at Bunker Hill. General Rufus Putnam was of the fifth generation. After serving in the Colonial wars under his cousin Israel Putnam, he took part in the siege of Boston, and constructed the works on Dorchester Heights, on the 4th of March, 1776, that forced the evacuation of Boston.
At no time during the youth of these two men would one have predicted that they would be two great soldiers. Their early education was very defective, partly because school advantages were then very meagre in the rural districts, in which they passed their youth, and partly no doubt, because their strong inclinations were for farming and active outdoor life, rather than for books and sedentary occupation. Robust and full of energy, they were as boys, given to feats of strength and daring.
In 1780 General Rufus Putnam "bought on easy terms" the confiscated property of Colonel Murray, who married Lucretia Chandler. This property was situated in Rutland, and consisted of a large farm and spacious mansion.
James Putnam, Jr., son Judge Putnam, graduated at Harvard College in 1774. He was one of the eighteen country gentlemen who addressed Gen. Gage, and were driven into Boston. He went to England and died there in 1838, having been a barrack master, a member of the household, and an executor of the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria.
Stephen Paine, from whom so many of the family in America are descended, came from Great Ellingham, near Hingham, Norfolk County, England. He was a miller, and came with a large party of immigrants from Hingham and vicinity, in the ship Diligent, of Ipswich, John Martin master, in the year 1638, bringing with him his wife Rose, two sons and four servants.
Mr. Paine first settled at Hingham, Mass., where he had land granted to him, was made a freeman in 1639 and elected Deputy in 1641. In 1642 he, with four others, settled at Seekonk, and became prominent in the affairs of the new settlement at Rehoboth.
Mr. Paine survived the eventful period of King Philip's war and died in 1679, outliving his two sons, Stephen having died at Rehoboth in 1677, and Nathaniel in 1678.
Nathaniel Paine, son of the aforesaid Nathaniel, of the third generation, was born at Rehoboth 1661, married Dorothy, daughter of Jonathan Rainsford, of Boston. He removed in early life to Bristol, Mass., now R. I., and was one of the original proprietors of that place. In 1710 he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Judge of Probate. He was one of the Council of Mass. Bay from 1703 till his death in 1723, with the exception of the year 1708. Nathaniel Paine died at Bristol, R. I., in 1723, and his wife Dorothy Rainsford, in 1755.
Nathaniel Paine, of the fourth generation and fourth son of the preceding Nathaniel, was born at Bristol 1688. He was an active and influential citizen of Bristol, was for five years elected Representative. In 1723 he was a member of a Court of Admiralty for the trial of pirates. In 1724 was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
Mr. Paine married Sarah, daughter of Timothy Clark of Boston. After his death in 1729, his widow married John Chandler and removed to Worcester.
Timothy Paine, son of the aforesaid Nathaniel and Sarah Clark, his wife. He was born in Boston in 1730 and married Sarah Chandler in 1749, the daughter of John Chandler, so these young people had probably been brought up under the same roof from early childhood. He graduated at Harvard College in 1748, and was a stout government man in the controversies which preceded the Revolution.
Soon after leaving college, Mr. Paine was engaged in public affairs, and the number and variety of offices which he held exhibit the estimation in which he stood. He was at different times Clerk of the Courts, Register of Deeds, Register of Probate, member of the executive council of the Province, in 1774 he was appointed one of his Majesty's Mandamus Councillors, Selectman and Town Clerk, and Representative many years in the General Court. In 1771 he was also Special Justice of the Supreme Court. Solid talents, practical sense, candor, sincerity, ability, and mildness, were the characteristics of his life.
When the appeal to arms approached, many of the inhabitants of Worcester, most distinguished for talents, influence, and honors, adhered with constancy to the Government. Educated with veneration for the sovereign to whom they had sworn fealty; indebted to the government for the bounty, honor and wealth which they possessed—loyalty and gratitude alike influenced them to resent acts that were treasonable, and rebellious. The sincerity of their motives were attested by the sacrifice oflife, property, loss of power, and all the miseries of banishment, confiscation and exile.
The struggle between the revolutionist, and the loyalty of a minority of the people, powerful in numbers, as well as talents, wealth, and influence, arrived at its crisis in Worcester early in 1774, and terminated in the total defeat of the loyalists.
Among the many grievances of the revolutionists, was the vesting of the government in the dependents of the King, it aggravated the irritation, and urged the mobs to acts of violence.
Timothy Paine, Esq., had received a commission as one of the Mandamus Councillors. High as was the personal regard, and respect for the purity of private character of this gentleman, it was controlled by the political feelings of a period of excitement; and measures were taken to compel his resignation of a post which was unwelcome to himself, but which he dared not refuse, when declining would have been construed as contempt for the authority of the King, by whom it was conferred.
August 22, 1774, a mob of nearly 3000 persons collected from the surrounding towns, visited Worcester and entered the town before 7 o'clock in the morning. They chose a committee to wait upon Mr. Paine and demand his resignation as Councillor. They went to his house, and he agreed to resign from that office, and drew up an acknowledgement, mentioning his obligations to the country for favors done him, his sorrow for having taken the oath, and a promise that he never would act in that office contrary to the charter, and after that he came with the committee to the common, where the mob made a lane between them, through which he and the committee passed and read divers times as they passed along, the said acknowledgment. At first one of the committee read the resignation of Mr. Paine in his behalf. It was then insisted that he should read it with his hat off. He hesitated and demanded protection from the committee, which they were incapable of giving him. Finally, with threats of tar and feathers, and personal violence, in which his wig was knocked off, he complied, and was allowed to retire to his dwelling unharmed.
At the commencement of the Revolution some American soldiers quartered at his house repaid his perhaps too unwilling hospitality, and signified the intensity of their feelings towards him by cutting the throat of his full length portrait.
Madam Paine, in passing the guard house, which stood nearly where the old Nashua Hotel stood in Lincoln square, heard the soldiers say "Let us shoot the old Tory." She turned around facing them and said: "Shoot if you dare," and then she reported to General Knox the insult she had received, which was not repeated.
Mrs. Timothy Paine or Madam Paine, as she was styled from respect to her dignity and position, was a woman of uncommon energy and acuteness. She was noted in her day for her zeal in aiding as far as was in her power the followers of the crown, and in defeating the plans of therebellious colonists. In her the King possessed a faithful ally. In her hands his dignity was safe, and no insult offered to it, in her presence, could go unavenged.
Her wit and loyalty never shone more conspicuously than on the following occasion: when President Adams was a young man, he was invited to dine with the court, and bar, at the home of Judge Paine, an eminent loyalist of Worcester. When the wine was circulating around the table, Judge Paine gave as a toast "The King." Some of the Whigs were about to refuse to drink it, but Mr. Adams whispered to them to comply, saying "we shall have an opportunity to return the compliment." At length, when he was desired to give a toast, he gave "The Devil." As the host was about to resent the indignity, his wife calmed him, and turned the laugh upon Mr. Adams, by immediately exclaiming "My dear! As the gentleman has been so kind as to drink to our King, let us by no means refuse in our turn to drink to his."
Timothy Paine and Sarah Chandler, his wife, not only feared God, but honored the King, so the old record goes. They belonged to families, often associated together in the remembrance of the present generation, as having adhered through the wavering fortunes and final success of the Revolution, devoted and consistent to the British Crown. Solid talents, practical sense, candor, sincerity, affability, and mildness, were the characteristics of his life. He died July 17, 1793, at the age of sixty-three. His widow died at Worcester, in 1811.