Princetonians, 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary [Course Book ed.] 9781400856527

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Abbreviations and Short Titles Frequently Used
Class of 1769
Class of 1770
Class of 1771
Class of 1772
Class of 1773
Class of 1774
Class of 1775
Appendix
Index

Citation preview

PRINCETONIANS 1769-1775

EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE James M. Banner, Jr., Richard D. Challener, W. Frank Craven (Chairman), James McLachlan, John M. Murrin, Robert L. Tignor CONTRIBUTORS W. FRANK CRAVEN GARY S. DEKREY JAMES MCLACHLAN JAMES M. ROSENHEIM JAMES M. BANNER, JR. JANE E. WEBER RUTH L. WOODWARD

PRINCETONIANS =1769-1775 =

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY BY RICHARD A. HARRISON

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 1980

Copyright © ig8o by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found on the last printed page of this book The research for this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the Program for Research Tools and Reference Works of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent Federal Agency Publication of this book has been aided by the Whitney Darrow Publication Reserve Fund and the Albridge C. Smith Fund of Princeton University Press

This Book has been composed in Linotype Baskerville Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey

TO THE

MEMORY

OF

W i l l i a m S. D i x ( 1 9 1 0 - 1 9 7 8 ) University Librarian, 1953-1975, a n d an O r i g i n a l Sponsor of T h i s Series

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IX

PREFACE

XI

INTRODUCTION ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES FREQUENTLY USED

XVII

XXXIII

CLASS OF 1769

1

CLASS OF 1770

63

CLASS OF 1771

129

CLASS OF 1772

175

CLASS OF 1773

261

CLASS OF 1774

357

CLASS OF 1775

447

APPENDIX

541

INDEX

551

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

John Beatty. Reproduced from the Pennsylvania Magazine of His­ tory and Biography, Volume 44, 1920. Thomas Melvill. Courtesy of the Bostonian Society. Samuel Stanhope Smith, by James Sharpies. Princeton University. William Willcocks, Jr. Reproduced from Joshua L. Chamberlain, Universities and Their Sons, Volume 4 (Boston, 1898-1900). John Bowden, by Thomas McCleland. Columbia University; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. Frederick Frelinghuysen. Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. Nathan Perkins, by Joseph Steward. First Church of Christ Con­ gregational, West Hartford, Connecticut. John Taylor. Reproduced from William H. S. Demarest, A History of Rutgers College, 1766-1924 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1924). Gunning Bedford, Jr., attributed to Charles Willson Peale. U.S. Capitol; photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, by Gilbert Stuart. University of Pitts­ burgh. Philip Morin Freneau, by John Singleton Copley. Mr. Calvin H. Plimpton; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. Charles McKnight, Jr. Reproduced from the Nezv York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 67, 1936. James Madison, Jr., by James Sharpies. Princeton University. Samuel Spring. Central Congregational Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts. William Bradford, Jr., by Charles Willson Peale. Reproduced from George A. Boyd, Elias Boudinot (Princeton, 1952). Aaron Burr, by Gilbert Stuart. Princeton University. Israel Evans. New Hampshire State House; photo courtesy of Bill Finney. Philip Vickers Fithian. Princeton University Archives. Andrew Hunter, Jr., by Christian Gullager. Dr. Francis Turquand Miles; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. William Linn. Reproduced from William H. S. Demarest, A History of Rutgen College, 1766-1()24 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1924). David Bard. Presbyterian Historical Society. William Beekman, by John Durand. New York Historical Society, New York City. Franklin Davenport, by Charles B. J. Fevret de Saint Memin. Re­ produced Irom the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massa­ chusetts, Volume 10, 1907. Henry Lee, Jr., by Charles Willson Peale. Independence National Historical Park Collection. Morgan Lewis, by John Trumbull. City Hall, New York City; photo courtesy of Hellmicli Bros.

4 33 43 55 71 79 98 112

132 138 150 157 161 167 185 193 210 217 225 231 266 269

280

302 309

X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

James McCulloch, by Matthew Pratt. Princeton University, The Carl Otto von Kienbusch, Jr. Memorial Collection. John McKnight. Presbyterian Historical Society; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. Aaron Ogden, by Asher B. Durand. New York Historical Society, New York City. Richard Piatt, by John Ramage. New York Historical Society, New York City. John Blair Smith. Reproduced from Andrew V. Raymond, Union University, Volume I (New York, 1907). Stephen Bloomer Balch, by Sartain. Princeton University Archives. Abraham Keteltas Beekman, by John Durand. New York Historical Society, New York City. Daniel Breck. Reproduced from the Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, Volume 11, 1906. George Gale. Reproduced from Clarence W. Bowen, History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washing­ ton (New York, 1892). Henry Brockholst Livingston. Reproduced from Edwin B. Living­ ston. The Livingstons of Livingston Manor (New York, 1910). Jonathan Mason, Jr., by Gilbert Stuart. Reproduced from Law­ rence Park, Gilbert Stuart (New York, 1926). Lewis Morris IV, by Rembrandt Peale. Collection of Carolina Art As­ sociation, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina. William Stephens Smith, by Gilbert Stuart. Mead Art Museum, Am­ herst College. John Durbarrow Blair, by Edward F. Peticolas. Virginia State Li­ brary. Jacobus Severyn Bruyn, by John Vanderlyn. Senate House Associa­ tion, Kingston, New York; photo courtesy of the Frick Art Ref­ erence Library. Samuel Doak. Reproduction Courtesy of the Tennessee Historical Society Collection, Tennessee State Museum. Isaac Stockton Keith. Reproduced from Andrew Flinn, Sermons, Addresses, and Letters (Charleston, South Carolina, 1816). Andrew Kirkpatrick, by Samuel Lovett Waldo. Princeton University. Charles Lee, by Cephas Thompson. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. George Lewis. Reproduced from Carlos E. Godfrey, The Comman­ der-in-Chief's Guard (Washington, D.C., 1904). John Richardson Bayard Rodgers, by John Wesley Jarvis. New York Historical Society, New York City. Isaac Tichenor. Reproduced from James B. Wilbur, Ira Allen, Vol­ ume II (Boston, 1928).

321 325 329 335 343 359 362 366

379 398 410 415 426 452

458 472 487 490 494 498 518 529

PREFACE

THIS is the second volume in a series that began with James McLachlan's Princetonians, iy^f8-iy68: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton University Press, 1976), the preface to which provides a ready refer­ ence for the history of the project. In covering the seven classes that graduated from the College of New Jersey between September 1769 and September 1775, this volume extends the record through the preRevolutionary era. The original compilation of information by McLachlan and his staff was absolutely crucial to the continuation of the series, but sev­ eral of the difficulties attendant on the completion of the initial vol­ ume persisted in the preparation of this volume. The College's ma­ triculation records before 1820, if any were ever kept, have not sur­ vived. Minutes of the faculty apparently were not begun until 1787. Moreover, President Aaron Burr's manuscript Account Book, an in­ valuable source for identifying students in the College, including nongraduates, was not continued after Burr's death in 1757. And the im­ mensely useful journal of Esther Edwards Burr, Burr's wife and the daughter of President Jonathan Edwards, includes only the years up to 1758, when she died. The principal source for the identification of graduates of the College has been the minutes of the board of trustees, which, until the Revolution disrupted many of the College's procedures, seem thor­ ough and accurate. In them the clerk of the board, usually some member of the faculty, recorded the names of all students who were to receive degrees at commencement. In 1775, however, the clerk left a blank space for those names that was never filled, and one direct re­ sult is uncertainty as to whether or not Daniel Martin of that class actually graduated. Compensating for such difficulties is the increase in the amount of information available from newspapers and other published records. Reports of the annual commencement exercises as carried by journals in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities—which were all clearly based on a single account of the events by some officer of the College— not only provide the names of the graduates but also frequently de­ scribe the undergraduate prize competitions. Therefore, they often serve to establish the presence of a student who later did not graduate or to give some clue as to the standing of a student at an early date in

xii

PREFACE

his college career. Also useful as a confirming source are the general catalogues of the College, published periodically, probably first in 1770. Even more important are four surviving accounts kept by the Col­ lege stewards, Elias Woodruff and Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755). These record payments made or owed for room, board, and tuition. The earliest account is a list of arrears due in September 1770; the latest is presumably a full account of students enrolled at Nassau Hall from November 6, 1774 to April 10, 1775 and is the only one on which names are arranged by class or alphabetical order. Although the spelling of names was often phonetic and inconsistent, and although some of the stewards' shorthand abbreviations are difficult to inter­ pret, these lists contributed greatly to the certainty of identification of the growing number of non-graduates on the eve of the Revolu­ tion, many of whom certainly would have completed their education and received their degrees were it not for the social convulsion of war. Another valuable tool in identifying students who did not gradu­ ate, as well as a source of information about both graduates and nongraduates, are the records of the two literary societies that became fixtures at the College in 1769 and 1770. The American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society left no lists or minutes that survived the fires that ravaged Nassau Hall in 1802 and 1855, but their importance to life at Princeton may be judged from the diligence with which historians of the College have attempted to reconstruct their full record. Professor George M. Giger (A.B. 1841) in particular managed to put together a roster of the early Cliosophic Society using the recol­ lections of older members, fragments of surviving correspondence, and other sources. His list, now in the University Archives, was the basis for the first published catalogue of the society in 1845. Giger tried to identify each member by the year in which he was admitted, by the province or state from which he came, by his class, and occasionally by the pseudonym he used as a Cliosophian. All such information is not provided for every individual, but especially for the years before the war, Giger's list is an accurate and valuable source. It must, how­ ever, be admitted that it is in the records of the Cliosophic Society that is found the most mysterious and enticing of all the names of possible Princetonians, Flounce Fret. Allegedly a Cliosophian, his biography is not included in this volume because no evidence has been found that such a person actually existed, let alone attended the College. The literary societies also contributed the "Paper War" of 17711772 to the record. This battle of polemics between groups whose members were stoutly loyal produced a literary goldmine in doggerel

PREFACE

Xlll

verse, hudibrastics, and prose—including what may have been the first novel written in America, Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca in Arabia, by Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Philip Morin Freneau (both A.B. 1771). Almost all that survives of the "Paper War" is the product of Whig Society pens; and those of Brackenridge, Freneau, and James Madison (A.B. 1771) were the most prolific. Attacks on Cliosophians, including biting allusions to their physiognomies, phy­ siques, or habits, often help create strong impressions of both authors and victims. An additional manuscript source for the identification of students in the College is the ledger of Thomas Patterson, a Princeton mer­ chant whose store was a favorite shopping place among undergrad­ uates. The parents of many students relied on President Witherspoon to act as banker in their sons' transactions with Patterson, who noted which of his customers were students. His accounts, therefore, fre­ quently confirm the dates of a student's residence in Princeton. Finally there are the alumni files maintained in the University Archives for all graduates of the College, a collection begun by Varnum Lansing Collins in his effort to produce a new and more complete edition of his own General Catalogue of Princeton Univer­ sity, 1746-1906 (1908). During his tenure as Secretary of the University after 1917 and until his death in the 1930s, Collins worked diligently and with acute critical judgment to augment the record of the College, and especially of its eighteenth-century students. Although he was primarily interested in graduates, his files include information on some non-graduates as well. While they provide many useful additions to the 1908 catalogue, however, they also contain much unconfirmed tradition from families and other sources. In regard to non-graduates, the policy in this volume, as in the earlier volume, has been to include only those individuals for whose attendance firm and independent evidence exists. Thus, Peter Freneau, brother of Philip, who is often identified as a Princetonian, is not included because no proof of his matriculation in the College has been found. In his and in several other cases, the tradition that he attended Nassau Hall may have arisen from the possibility that he was once enrolled in the grammar school there. In other instances, positive evidence exists that men who traditionally have been credited with a Princeton education were in fact never enrolled. For example, John Habersham of Georgia is identified as a Princetonian in the Biographical Directory of the American Congress, but a letter from his father, James, in May 1768 clearly refutes that assertion. Writing to a correspondent in England, the elder Habersham noted that two of his sons, Joseph and James,

xiv

PREFACE

had attended the grammar school in Princeton in the early 1760s. There, he complained, their heads were stuffed "with useless criticisms on Phrases and Words in Latin and Greek . . . (and they were) neither taught to write legibly nor with Propriety in the language." He had no intention of allowing young John to suffer the same abuse, and so he kept the boy in Georgia to educate him "under my own eye."* Although the record still suffers from serious weaknesses, the sources are sufficiently complete to justify confidence that the 28 non-graduates included among the 178 individuals in this volume represent nearly all such students in the classes of 1769 to 1775. That so many have been identified, as compared with 25 non-graduates among the 338 men in the first volume, is partly a result of the marked increase in the amount of information available to historians as they advance into the last third of the eighteenth century. The greater amount of data accounts, too, for the greater space often allotted here to the individual than was allowed in the previous volume, although the overall difference is not so great when these sketches are compared to those of the later classes in the years 17481768. The limit on the length of sketches has been maintained, but with discretion to extend it in the cases of men who were particularly representative of their time and place, or in whose biographies may be found significant additions to the history of the College itself. Although the war tended to disperse these students faster and more widely than might normally have been the case, and although fewer non-graduates in particular tended to maintain contact with former fellow students in ways that would leave a trail for the historian to follow, students of the College were generally active and important citizens in a variety of walks of life. Furthermore, most of them have not been the subjects of modern, scholarly biographies. Their influ­ ence and importance has thus gone largely unrecorded, or the record has been so widely scattered in the literature as to be virtually un­ available for reference. These considerations will explain the varia­ tions in length among some of the sketches here. In particular, they will explain why the biography of James Madison, a president of the United States, is shorter than those of men less well known and of lesser importance. Special explanation is due for the length, of the sketch of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), which may be justified by the im­ mense controversy surrounding his life. Madison's impact on American history was greater and more lasting than Burr's, but his career was * Hist. Soc. of Ga., Collections, vi, 65-68.

PREFACE

xv

immeasurably less complicated and his identification with the College much more limited. The significance of the men discussed in this volume to United States history, however, goes far beyond their status as college mates of Madison and Burr. The measure of the contributions by the stu­ dents of the College of New Jersey to their communities, their states, and their nation should not be taken solely on the basis of the most distinguished alumni, but rather with appreciation for the activities of men much less well known. This volume could not have been completed without the financial support of a Gifts and Matching Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the generous gifts by alumni that, under the terms of the grant, were matched by federal funds. Not all of the alumni who have been helpful in one way or another can be men­ tioned here, but special mention is due Levering Cartwright '26, Nathaniel Burt '36, Wheaton J. Lane '25, Edward W. Scudder '35, Richard B. Scudder '35, Adolph G. Rosengarten '27, Maurice D. Lee, Jr. '46, Baldwin Maull '22, and John K. Jenney '25. Special mention should also be made of the substantial financial contribution from Princeton University's Bicentennial Committee, of which William H. Weathersby and Jeremiah S. Finch successively were chairmen, and of the generous support provided by President William G. Bowen and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies of the Depart­ ment of History, of which Professor Lawrence Stone is Director. Among the members of the University's staff who in the performance of their assigned duties have been especially helpful are Phillip E. Wilson, David Goodman, and Michael J. Capek. The staff of the project that produced this volume, each member of which has alternately been researcher, typist, genealogist, and his­ torian, performed prodigies on demand. This is especially true of Jane E. Weber and Gary S. DeKrey. Due special notice for their care­ ful typing are Jennifer Guberman and Sharon Rodgers, and for their researching skills, Linda Salvucci and Ruth L. Woodward. For volun­ teer assistance in typing, research, proofreading, and translating beyond the call, thanks too to Jane Serumgard Harrison. Gail Filion of Princeton University Press has provided her consistently helpful guidance, and Tam Curry '78, her editorial expertise. The support and assistance of Earle E. Coleman, Archivist of Princeton University, and of Cynthia McClelland, Assistant Archivist, were essential, as was the cooperation of the staff of the Firestone

xvi

PREFACE

Library at Princeton, particularly of its rare books and manuscript section, and Kennerly M. Woody, the bibliographer for History. Other institutions for whose help only too brief an acknowledgment is pos­ sible include the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia; the Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Wisconsin; the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress; the National Archives of the United States; the manuscripts division of the Alexander Library at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; the Speer Library of the Princeton Theological Seminary; the Maryland Legislative Historical Project, Hall of Records, Annapolis; the Harvard University Archives; the American Antiquarian Society; the Frick Art Reference Library; and the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Many individuals have provided information on specific Princetonians. In most cases, their contribution has been acknowledged in the "Sources" section for the sketches involved, but for his liaison assistance with the Hall of Records at Annapolis, Maryland, David Wise must be mentioned separately. And for his diligent, thorough, and energetic exploration of local records in New England, Nelson R. Burr '27 also deserves abiding thanks. His professionalism was equaled only by his enthusiasm for his alma mater. The writing of this volume was begun in the spring of 1976 and the speed of its completion was due largely to the sound footing established for the project by James McLachlan. His continued identification with the project as an active member of the Editorial Advisory Committee has lent to the work a valuable element of experience and continuity. Also vitally important were the wisdom, good sense, and encouragement of other members of the Editorial Advisory Committee. Its chairman, Frank Craven, who was also a major contributor to the work itself, must be accorded particular mention, for he has been the central force in keeping the project a live. For his guidance and friendship, thanks is an inadequate word. Those biographical sketches that are unsigned were written by Richard A. Harrison. The others were written by contributors identi­ fied at the end of each such essay by their initials, as follows: JMB, Jr .—James M. Banner, Jr. WFC—W. Frank Craven GSD—Gary S. DeKrey JMcL—James McLachlan JMR—James M. Rosenheim

INTRODUCTION

ON August 17, 1768, in a special meeting of the board, the Trustees

of the College of New Jersey installed the Reverend Doctor John Witherspoon as the institution's sixth president. He had been in America barely ten days, five of which were spent at the home of merchant Andrew Hodge, the father of Andrew (A.B. 1772) and Hugh (A.B. 1773), in Philadelphia. His arrival alone was something of a triumph for the College and its trustees. They had first offered him the presidency late in 1766, and it had been more than a year before he could be persuaded to leave his pulpit in Paisley, Scotland to accept it. By then, at the age of forty-four, Witherspoon was one of the most influential and respected leaders of the Presbyterian Church, possessed of an international reputation as a theologian and a phi­ losopher. Along with his rigorous adherence to the doctrines of Presbyterianism as he understood them, Witherspoon brought with him a familiarity with British and European educational techniques and standards that was one of his most attractive attributes in the eyes of the College's trustees. A leading exponent of the "common sense" philosophy that was the Scottish Enlightenment's answer to assertions of the rationality of religious belief, the new president also represented the "common sense" compromise between empiricism and orthodoxy. As an educator, he would proceed under the assumption that learning had both a utilitarian component and a moral component and he would inculcate in his pupils his insistence that they live useful as well as moral lives. While the trustees could expect his reputation to attract new students and new contributions that might end the inse­ curity of the College's finances, they could also count on him to modernize and diversify the curriculum, particularly with the addition of new fields of scientific learning. In his first official act as president, Witherspoon went far to en­ courage such hopes. During the negotiations with members of the board and Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) that ultimately led to his acceptance of the presidency, he had stressed his interest in the College library, which then probably included little more than the 1,281 vol­ umes (789 titles) catalogued by President Samuel Davies in 1760.1 In 1 William S. Dix, "The Princeton University Library in the Eighteenth Century," Princeton University Library Chronicle, 40(1978), 30-32, 27.

xviii

INTRODUCTION

the weeks before he left Great Britain, therefore, Witherspoon solic­ ited gifts of books from friends of the College; and upon his inau­ guration, he contributed 300 new volumes to the College's collection. By 1775 his diligent efforts would increase the library to almost 2,000 volumes.2 It was a propitious beginning to the new administration, which made its greatest contributions to the College in the seven years be­ tween 1769 and 1775. As he undertook his responsibilities, however, Witherspoon faced a situation that seemed very gloomy, indeed. The basic and most pressing problem involved funding. The early trustees and presidents, in their efforts to promote the cause of "New Side" theology, had been less than efficient with the institution's assets. Evi­ dence of that problem can be seen in the decision by the trustees, in the meeting at which Witherspoon was installed, to pay the new president his salary and reimburse him for his voyage with "the first moneys" that came into the treasurer's hands, for there was insufficient cash avail­ able to meet even that obligation.3 The president's disappointment with that situation may have been somewhat relieved by the board's permission for him to educate his own sons at the College without charge. James (A.B. 1770), John, Jr. (A.B. 1773), and David (A.B. 1 774) all graduated from Nassau Hall. Almost immediately, Witherspoon and the board moved to put the College on a sounder financial footing. They ordered a reduction in rent for rooms but established a policy requiring students to pay all fees and charges semiannually in advance after September i77°> a de­ cision that was apparently the reason for the genesis of the steward's ac­ counts on which much of the information in this volume is based. After the commencement of September 1768, Witherspoon undertook a personal tour of New England to appeal for funds and to solicit prospective students. He was able to report no the board in April 1769 that that mission had raised subscriptions of £1,000, a sum that almost equaled the total amount of college assets that were currently out at interest.4 Possibly because he foresaw a limit to support from the northeastern provinces, where several other colleges competed for money, and certainly because he recognized a promising and almost untapped resource elsewhere, the president took similar tours of the south in late 1769 and early 1770, and between October 1769 and Oc­ tober 1770 he added another £1,541 to the College treasury. He also maintained his contacts with groups and individuals in Scotland on 2 Ibid., 53. 3J.

Maclean, History of the College of New Jersey, 1, 301. 4 Thomas J. Wertenbaker, Princeton 1746-1896, 53.

INTRODUCTION

xix

whom he might call successfully for financial help.5 By 1774 a com­ bination of Witherspoon's fund-raising efforts, more efficient manage­ ment, and slightly increased fees had taken the College out of debt and left it with a balance that was twice its gross worth when Witherspoon arrived.6 In fact, by 1774 the trustees were so encouraged by the brightening fiscal picture that they sponsored a public dinner for selected members of the audience at that year's commencement pro­ gram. The cost, £11 155, proved more than they had expected, however, and even as they paid the bill they resolved not to repeat such ex­ travagance. At the same meeting, they also raised tuition to £5 per year.7 The goal of solvency required certain economies, of course; and the most notable of the early belt-tightening measures under Witherspoon came in April 1769, when Vice President and Professor of Di­ vinity John Blair resigned both his administrative and faculty posi­ tions. Witherspoon himself assumed the responsibilities of professor of divinity, and the board increased his salary by £50 accordingly. But it was the addition of revenue more than the reduction of spending that was the key to keeping the College's books balanced. Because tuition was the chief source of its operating capital, the College of New Jersey was, especially after Witherspoon's arrival, particularly aggressive in recruiting students. Since cost was perhaps the overriding consideration in a young man's choice of a college,8 fees and charges had to be kept as low as was practically possible, and until 1772 Nassau Hall could offer the least expensive education in the colonies. Between 1769 and 1775, the 150 A.B.s conferred in Princeton represented mpre than 18% of all 830 bachelor's degrees granted in America, behind only Harvard's 37% and Yale's 22% (see Table A).9 In the absence of documentary evidence, we cannot establish the average age of students when they matriculated at Nassau Hall and the duration of their stay. But for 141 of the 178 identified students from 1769 to 1775, it is possible to determine their age at graduation, or at what would have been the graduation of non-graduates had they 5 Dix, "Princeton University Library," 49-50. 6 V. Lansing Collins, President Witherspoon, 11, 85. t Maclean, History, 1, 317. s Beverly McAnear, "The Selection of an Alma Mater by Pre-Revolutionary Stu­ dents," PMHB, 73 (1949), 429-40. 9 Figures for William and Mary are not available since that college held no com­ mencement exercises. According to the records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, William and Mary granted 16 A.B.s between 1727 and 1775, but they were apparently granted only to candidates for the Anglican ministry and were bestowed only to relieve those men from a requirement for additional study in London. Letter from John E. Pomfret to W. F. Craven, 7 Aug 1978.

TABLE A10 Α.Β.S AWARDED BY AMERICAN COLLEGES, 1769-1775 Harvard 1769 1770 1771 1772

Yale

CNJ

R.I.

39 34 63

26 19 19

18 22 12

7 4 6

6 14 14

1 7 6

48 36

2 6 0 8

6 5

20 27

6 5 6 10

150

44

50

1775

48 40

23 36 30 35

Total

308

188

1773 1774

22 29

Phila. King's Dartmouth Queen's Total

—

12 7

2 6 8 11

97 100 124 109 123

1 14

125 152

44

31

15

830

—

—

—-

—

4

— —

remained in the College. The youngest student in this regard was David Witherspoon (A.B. 1774), third surviving son of the president, who was 14 when he graduated. The oldest was Thaddeus Dod (A.B. 1773), who took his A.B. at the age of 33 and was known by some of his contemporaries at the College as "the old monk." The average age of all students during these years at the time of their anticipated graduation was very nearly 21, precisely the same as the average figure for the classes of 1748-1768. And as was the case with those earlier classes, the average was raised somewhat by the generally higher age of students who later entered the ministry. For the 60 of the 72 future clergymen for whom information has been found, the average age at graduation was nearly 23½ years, the youngest, John D. Blair (A.B. 1 775)' being 15 and the oldest, Dod, 33. The averages not only indi­ cate a consistency in the age of Princetonians from 1748 to 1775; they also show that Princetonians followed the tendency of students at most colleges to enroll at an age that would mean graduation near the twenty-first birthday. By the 1770s the governors of King's College had established a minimum age of 14 for admission; and by 1769 the median age of entering freshmen at Harvard was 17, with students who were admitted as freshmen to Harvard between 1768 and 1771 ranging in age from 12 to almost 26.11 10 Figures are from Quinquennial Cat. of Officers and Graduates of Harvard Univ. (1925); Dexter, Yale Biographies HI; Hist. Cat. of Brown Univ., 1764-1934 (1936); Univ. of Pa. Cat. of Matriculates . , 1749-1783 (1894); Μ. H. Thomas, Co­ lumbia Univ. Officers and Alumni, 1754-1857 (1936); Gen. Cat. of Dartmouth Col­ lege, 1769-1910 (1910-1911); Cat. of Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College, 17661916 (1916). 11 David C. Humphrey, From King's College to Columbia, 1746-1800 (1976), 194; Samuel E. Morrison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936 (1936), 102; J. L. Sibley and C. K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Those Who Attended Harvard College

XVII.

INTRODUCTION

xxi

Although a precise statement of how many students left the College before graduation is not possible, it is evident that the great majority of Princetonians from the classes of 1769 to 1775, like their predeces­ sors at Nassau Hall, stayed the full course. After the College of William and Mary, from which almost no students took their A.B., the College of Philadelphia and King's College produced the smallest number of graduates from among their students. As in the period from 1748 to 1768, Princeton's record in graduating students was closer to those of Harvard and Yale. Only a few of the College of New Jersey's "drop outs" went on to complete their educations at other institutions. In addition to low fees, a further attraction to Princeton was the College's flexible attitude on admissions. The trustees had moved to require four years of resident study for the A.B. in 1767, but soon after Witherspoon's arrival they had rescinded that decision in the face of protests that a four-year requirement discriminated in favor of wealthy students. The College then adopted more stringent stand­ ards for accepting underclassmen but it retained the policy of admit­ ting qualified candidates to the sophomore and junior as well as the freshman classes. Impoverished students were helped in defraying ex­ penses by funds collected and maintained by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. Even after 1772, when both Rhode Island and Yale colleges set lower tuition and fee rates, the average cost of obtaining the A.B. was less at Nassau Hall because so many students were in residence for fewer than four years. All undergraduates, and particu­ larly those accorded advanced standing, were expected to be proficient in the classics and in rudimentary mathematics, and it was with an eye toward improving the preparation of prospective scholars that Witherspoon upgraded the curriculum in Nassau Hall's Grammar School. One additional factor in determining the cost of an education was the distance between the student's home and college. Accordingly, most eighteenth-century colleges recruited their scholars from the im­ mediate environs of the institution. Virtually all of Harvard's students were residents of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with such exotic locales as the Carolinas or the West Indies sending one student in each second or third class. 12 Seventy-five percent of Yale's students were residents of Connecticut, most of them from New Haven County; and of the rest, a substantial number lived in northern Long Island. 13 Students at Philadelphia were largely neighbors of the city 12 Morrison, Three Centuries, 102; Sibley's Harvard Graduates xvn. 13 McAnear, "Selection of an Alma Mater," 430.

xxii

INTRODUCTION

from Pennsylvania or nearby Maryland.14 According to a recent de­ tailed analysis, at least 75% of the 209 undergraduates at King's Col­ lege in New York City between 1754 and 1776 had grown up within thirty miles of the college buildings.15 Indeed, the four Princetonians from among the classes of 1769 to 1775 who left Nassau Hall to take their degrees elsewhere made their selections in accordance with typical patterns of student choice. Caleb Cooper (Class of 1769) trans­ ferred to King's, which was near his family home. John Bowden (Class of 1770) also moved to King's, but because of its Anglican af­ filiation. Josiah Pomeroy (Class of 1770), a native of Connecticut, graduated from Yale; and William Scott (Class of 1771) of Massachu­ setts took his degree at Harvard. While the College of New Jersey had from its beginnings drawn the largest number of its students from the middle colonies, however, the Princeton student body had always been the most diverse of all American colleges in terms of geographic origin. Under Witherspoon's administration, that diversity was maintained, but with an important difference. Fully 25% of the members of the College's first twenty-one classes were New Englanders; between 1769 and 1775 the median point of origin for Princeton students shifted notably south­ ward. Just as Witherspoon saw a rich potential for financial support in the southern provinces, so he saw there a promising source of stu­ dents. Because the journey by sea from Charleston or Savannah to Princeton was considerably shorter than an overland trip from sev­ eral "nearer" sites further north, a recruiting effort in the south was altogether reasonable. Witherspoon's forays into Virginia and those of John Rodgers and James Caldwell (A.B. 1759) to Maryland, Vir­ ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia were especially significant in forging a connection between the College and the south that would be a major factor in undergraduate enrollments by the nineteenth century. In his own time, Witherspoon's attention to that region returned a note­ worthy profit in donations and brought new students as well. In 1772 the trustees urged Witherspoon to seek support and schol­ ars in the West Indies, too, and in March of that year the president composed an "Address to the inhabitants of Jamaica, and other West India Islands, in behalf of the College of New Jersey." Trustee Charles Beatty, the father of John (A.B. 1769) and Charles C. (A.B. 1 775), an ^ Witherspoon's son James set sail to make their appeal that summer, but Beatty's death put an end to the campaign and the Coli^Anne Dexter Gordon, "The College of Philadelphia, 1749-1779: The Impact of an Institution," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin (1975). is Humphrey, From, King's College to Columbia, 97.

INTRODUCTION

xxiii

lege did not resume its recruiting efforts in such distant places until after the Revolution. Table B identifies the 178 students included in this volume in terms of the provinces in which they resided on the date of their matricu­ lation. It also compares the percentage from each province with the percentage among the 338 identified students at Nassau Hall in the classes of 1748 to 1768. The figures indicate that, although far from precipitate, there was a clear shift in the geographic appeal of the College. While the middle colonies continued to supply the greatest number of students, the south had replaced New England as the sec­ ond richest source. TABLE B RESIDENCE OF CNJ STUDENTS AT TIME OF ENROLLMENT Province

No., 1769-75

% 1769-75

% 1748-68

New Hampshire Massachusetts Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Rhode Island Georgia Unknown

2 12 5 24 44 38 2 7 9 13 2 2 1 17

1.1 6.7 2.8 13.5 24.7 21.3 1.1 3.9 5.0 7.3 1.1 1.1 0.6 9.5

0.59 11.5 12.7 14.8 26.3 11.9 1.8 5.0 2.7 1.2 0.59 0 0 11.0

This variety in the backgrounds of the students tended to make Nassau Hall somewhat more cosmopolitan than other colleges, al­ though the process of acculturation was not always easy. The com­ mencement costume of the Virginia planter's son Henry Lee (A.B. x773)> which was "stiff with lace, gold lace," was something still to be marveled at by classmates less used to the niceties of plantation life, especially as it contrasted so sharply with the rather plain dress in which James McCulloch (A.B. 1773), the son of a prosperous Philadelphian, posed for a graduation portrait. And a Nassau Hall educa­ tion was not sufficient to make Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), a pious young Cohansie farm boy, entirely comfortable as a tutor in Virginia. Witherspoon's "Address to the inhabitants of Jamaica," which was published on the mainland, made such a strong argument for Nassau

xxiv

INTRODUCTION

Hall that it elicited rebuttals from officers of other colleges, including Provost William Smith of Philadelphia and Professor John Vardill of King's. The latter's "Candid Remarks on Dr. Witherspoon's Address" provide a revealing look at the author's own institution, for Vardill claimed that since " 'Virtue and Vices' were determined to 'a con­ siderable Degree' by one's 'Birth, Station, and Companions,' . . . par­ ents should send their boys to King's College, where they would mingle with virtuous blue bloods, instead of to Princeton, where they would suffer exposure to the lower moral standards of farmers' sons." 16 The claim to a superior moral atmosphere was common to all college self-advertising in the eighteenth century, but if the American colleges of that era were the spawning grounds of the early national elite, 17 that process at Princeton involved the synthesis of a new class, while at King's it involved merely the perpetuation of elitism. With the largest endowment of all, King's was the least aggressive college in re­ cruiting students. It relied instead on the upper middle-class popula­ tion of New York City, which it had been organized to serve. Between 1769 and 1775 it produced fewer graduates than any other college ex­ cept Dartmouth, which began to grant degrees in 1771, and Queen's, which awarded its first A.B. in 1774. Before 1760, more than half of those who matriculated at King's were related to members of the col­ lege's board of governors (a proportion that declined to fewer than 20% in the 1770s) and 20% were the sons of ministers, doctors, or lawyers. Except for geographical distribution, the contrast between King's and Nassau Hall was not as profound as Vardill implied, although at least 57 of the 178 identified students at Princeton between 1769 and 1775 were sons of men who may generally be described as yeomen. Depending upon the accuracy of the identification of Daniel Martin (Class of 1775), 34 or 35 of the 178 were sons of professional men. But the proportion of ministers among the fathers of Princetonians (25 or 26 of 178) was almost certainly higher than that among the fathers of King's students, for the ties between the Presbyterian Church and the College of New Jersey were much stronger than those between the Anglican Church and King's College. 18 Table C represents the occu­ pations of the fathers of Nassau Hall students, 1769-1775. While none of these categories except that of "gentlemen" automatically con­ notes the prosperity of the family, it is safe to infer that the student ie Ibid., 209. " See Phyllis Vine, "Social Function ot Eighteenth-Century Higher Education," History of Education Quarterly, 16(1976), 409-24. is Humphrey, From King's College to Columbia, 74, 97, 117, 137.

TABLE C PROFESSION OF FATHERS OF CNJ STUDENTS, 1769-1775 farmers clergymen merchants gentlemen* urban occupations** lawyers physicians soldiers unknown

57 25 (26) 23

18 13

6 3

2 31 (30)

* a vaguely defined category encompassing wealthy landowners, gentleman farmers, planters, etc. ** including artisans, innkeepers, local officials, etc.

body at Nassau Hall was more varied in terms of personal circum­ stances than that of King's. It may, therefore, be correct to see the College of New Jersey more as an example of education as a means of upward social mobility than as a means of the consolidation of privilege. 19 Social mixture was an attribute of other colleges as well, and the similarity between Harvard and Princeton in that regard has been noted elsewhere. 20 But the combined effect of geographic and so­ cial diversity was to make Nassau Hall the best choice for a breeding ground of a truly national elite. That conclusion is reinforced by the geographic distribution of Princetonians from the classes of 1769 to 1775 after they left the College. Most of the former students from King's or Philadelphia cqlleges or Harvard, for example, returned to their home neighborhoods. 21 The students of Nassau Hall, however, like their predecessors in the first twenty-one classes, were a relatively peripatetic lot. They had been born in the British Isles or any of eleven mainland colonies or the West Indies. They had resided in any one of the thirteen mainland colonies at matriculation. And they adopted one of nineteen states, the District of Columbia, England, or the West Indies as their place of primary residence. It is undoubtedly true that in recruiting students Witherspoon could rely upon the "old school tie" for help. Alumni who were schoolmasters or local ministers were extremely influential in directing prospective students to Princeton. 22 And of the 178 students in this is Jackson Turner Main, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America (1965), 283. 20 Morison, Three Centuries, 102-103. 21 Humphrey, From King's College to Columbia, 228; Gordon, "College of Phila­ delphia;" Morison, Three Centuries, 102. 22 McAnear, "Selection of an Alma Mater," 436-37.

xxvi

INTRODUCTION

volume, four or five were the sons of alumni (depending again on the identification of Daniel Martin), four the nephews of alumni, and fourteen the sons of trustees or presidents of the college. Seven stu­ dents were the sons of Yale alumni, one the son of a man who had attended Yale without graduating, and one the son of a Harvard graduate. By the time he wrote his "Address to the inhabitants of Jamaica," Witherspoon had been invested by the trustees with complete per­ sonal authority over the course of instruction at the College. He had made his general philosophy of education very clear in his inaugural address, "The Union of Piety and Science," which he probably de­ livered at the commencement of 1768. While he never ignored Nassau Hall's obligation to the church, he turned the College from "a place where religion struck the dominant note" to one "devoted chiefly to training men for public life."23 In this regard it is noteworthy that the commencement of 1769 was the first in which the College awarded honorary doctorates of law. Among Witherspoon's first curricular innovations was the increase in courses in the natural sciences. In April 1769 the board authorized him to purchase the orrery created by David Rittenhouse of Phila­ delphia, and that ingenious device was installed in Nassau Hall in 1771. In September of that year the trustees named William C. Hous­ ton (A.B. 1768), then the senior tutor, to the professorship of mathe­ matics and natural philosophy, and Houston had at his disposal not only the orrery but other "philosophical apparatus," too, for peda­ gogic support. By 1772 the College's program in the sciences was, ac­ cording to Witherspoon's address to Jamaica, "equal, if not superior, to any on the continent." The new president also brought with him from Scotland the prac­ tice of lecturing to students. His own classes included eloquence, com­ position, taste, and criticism; moral philosophy; divinity; and chronol­ ogy and history. Eventually, these lectures were copied and assigned to students as reading upon which class discussions might be based. Witherspoon also taught French, a language he had mastered through reading and in which his Scottish accent always affected his pronun­ ciation, until 1772 when a French teacher was hired. The course was not a required part of the curriculum, but it was open to students who could afford the time and the extra fee required. In 1772 the trustees urged Witherspoon to introduce Hebrew as an optional course of study and hired a teacher of that language as well. 23 Wertenbaker, Princeton, 76.

INTRODUCTION

xxvii

But the new tutor never arrived, and the president added instruction in Hebrew to his own duties. Much more to his liking, however, was the teaching of Greek and Latin—languages that were the basis for an eighteenth-century education. As Witherspoon described it, the ideal four-year program began with the classics and rhetoric and was augmented by geography, philosophy, and elemental mathematics in the sophomore year. Juniors and seniors continued their language studies while also taking courses in higher mathematics, natural philosophy, moral philosophy, history, and composition and criticism. Undergraduates withstood rigorous examinations by the president, the tutors, and after 1772, by a committee of trustees. Those who failed "grosly" were sent back an entire year. 24 Young Charles C. Beatty's letters home indicated how strong an impression the testing regimen made on the undergaduates. Underclassmen were also re­ quired to deliver frequent orations in class, and seniors spoke in pub­ lic every five or six weeks. Beginning in 1771, Witherspoon introduced undergraduate competitions during the annual commencement exer­ cises. Contestants were evaluated by the audience in the fields

of

"Reading the English Language and answering questions on Orthog­ raphy and grammar; Reading Latin and Greek, with attention to Quantity; Speaking Latin; Latin Versions; and

pronouncing an

English oration." 25 Both the examinations and the competitions were designed to test the student's mental alertness as well as his mastery of the subject at hand. Witherspoon also arranged an informal tuitionfree program of postgraduate instruction in a variety of fields

"as fit

young Gentlemen for serving their Country in public Stations." 26 Sev­ eral students, including James Madison (A.B. 1771), took advantage of that innovation. Naturally, most of the young men who studied with the president after graduation were trained by him for the ministry. As the trustees had expected, he had been received at once as a major figure

in the

American church, a standing which attracted many aspiring clergy­ men to Nassau Hall. In the years from 1769 to 1775 the College of New Jersey graduated more ordained ministers (72) than any other institution save Harvard, and its percentage of clergymen among graduates (48%) was higher than any but Dartmouth's (23 clergymen, or 74% of A.B.s). Of the 338 graduates and non-graduates identified for the first twenty-one classes, 158, or 46.7%, were ordained. Of the 178 graduates and non-graduates identified for 1769-1775, 40.4.% were 21 Ashbel Green, L i f e of . . . W i t h e r s p o o n , 133. 25 Ibid., 129. 26 Dix, "Princeton University Library," 41.

xxviii

INTRODUCTION

ordained. Compared to any seven-class grouping of graduates and non-graduates in the classes of 1748 to 1768, the proportional produc­ tion of ministers in the classes of 1769 to 1775 was consistent with the College's record, which ranged from a high of 61% of all students in the classes of 1748-1754 to a low of 37% of all students in the classes of 1756 to 1762, and which averaged 46%. TABLE D ORDAINED CLERGYMEN AMONG COLLEGE GRADUATES, 1769-1775 College

A . B . s g r a n Ui d

CNJ Yale Rhode Island Dartmouth* Queen's** Philadelphia 50 King's

150 188 44 31 15 50 44

No. clergymen

72 68 14 23 2 6 2

% of g r a d u a t e s

48 % 36.2% 31.ί*% 74 % 13J5% 12 % 4.5%

Figures for Harvard not complete * 1771-1775

only

** 1773"1775 onlY

Within that consistency, however, there was at least one significant change, and that was in the denominational affiliations of the or­ dained Princetonians from the classes of 1769 to 1775. "The College was founded by Presbyterians. . . . But it was not founded by the Presbyterian church, which at the time was sharply divided, as were other denominations, over the issues raised by the Great Awaken­ ing."27 The original charter had mandated that students be admitted without regard to their religious "Sentiments," and the theological in­ fluence most important to the young College was that of the Awaken­ ing in its broadest sense, rather than that of "New Side" Presbyterianism exclusively. Table E identifies the denominational affiliations of the 158 ministers who were in the classes of 1748 to 1768 and compares that information to the affiliations of the 72 ministers in the classes of 1769 to 1775. The marked increase in the percentage of Presbyterian clergymen in the latter years, while the overall rate of production of ministers re­ mained fairly constant, indicates a greater proportional contribution to the Presbyterian church, and thus perhaps a greater denomina27 Wesley Frank Craven, "On the Writing of a Biographical Dictionary," A P S P , xxii, 2 (April 1978), 73.

TABLE E DENOMINATIONAL AFFILIATIONS OF ORDAINED CNJ ALUMNI

Presbyterian Congregational Anglican Episcopalian Dutch Reformed Baptist Lutheran Total

1748-1768

1769-1775

97 41 10 6 3 1

52 (72%) 17 (24%) 3 (4%) 0 0 0

158

(61.4%) (26%) (6.3%) (3.8%) (1-9%) (0.6%)

72

tional influence on the College than had obtained earlier. Insofar as it served as a seminary for future clergymen, in other words, Prince­ ton was on the way to becoming more sectarian as the Revolution ap­ proached.28 All told, 66% of the students from 1769 to 1775 entered the pro­ fessions of law, medicine, or the ministry, although none of those should be regarded as an occupation that excluded activity in other fields. Many were also teachers, and some of them had influence be­ yond absolute calculation in terms of their choice of profession. Gen­ erally, there was a decline in the proportion of "professionals" from the first twenty graduating classes, in which 74% of the identified students were clerics, doctors, or lawyers. Nassau Hall may thus be re­ garded as somewhat less a "pre-professional" school after 1769. But Witherspoon's definition of public life was not so narrow as to ex­ clude mercantile pursuits, education, or government service. While he was a dedicated and successful pastor to the congregation at Prince­ ton and a prominent member of American church councils, and while he witnessed a religious revival among the student body in the Col­ lege in the early 1770s, his greatest effect upon Nassau Hall, its stu­ dents, and America itself was that he was the mentor of pious men of great civil achievement. Witherspoon once described his policy as a college president to Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), one of his successors: Govern always but beware of governing too much. Convince your pupils . . . that you would rather gratify than thwart them. . . . Put a wide difference between youthful follies and foibles, and those acts which manifest a malignant spirit. . . . Be 28 Ibid.

XXX

INTRODUCTION

exceedingly careful not to commit your own authority or that of the college in any case that cannot be carried through with equity. But . . . in every instance in which there is a manifest intention to offend, or to resist authority, make no compromise with it what­ ever. . . . Maintain the authority of the laws in their full extent, and fear no consequences.29 The usually good-natured rivalry between the Cliosophic and Ameri­ can Whig societies was, therefore, acceptable to Witherspoon in spite of the occasionally ribald tone of the "Paper War" between the two groups. In fact, the president may have taken some satisfaction from the inspiration to practice their skills at oratory and rhetoric that the "war" provided to members of the literary societies. Certainly he was not dismayed as the student debate increasingly took on the tone of patriotic and nationalistic thought. From the day he landed in Philadelphia, Witherspoon had been impressed by American society. As the political tension between the colonies and Great Britain worsened during the 1770s, he was in­ creasingly outspoken in defense of the American cause. He had long opposed the participation of clergymen in politics, but by 1774 his reservations on that score dissolved in the face of the mounting crisis. That summer, soon after he became a member of the Somerset County Committee of Correspondence, he wrote an unpublished essay in which he declared his loyalty to the king but also asserted that rebel­ lion would be preferable to slavery under unjust British rule. Mani­ festations of student opposition to English policy, beginning with the interception and ceremonial burning of a letter that urged merchants to ignore the Non-Importation Agreement of 1770, received at least his tacit blessing. In fact, when several students gathered to burn some tea and an effigy of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson on the College grounds in 1774, the president and faculty did nothing to punish the demonstrators. The decision of the trustees to deprive one of the leaders of the "tea party," Samuel Leake (A.B. 1774), of his commencement honors, therefore, was as much a slap at Witherspoon as it was an expression of the board's disapproval of the bonfire itself. Witherspoon's political influence upon his students was obvious. In his notes on the president's lectures, William Beekman (A.B. 1773) especially emphasized the issues of natural freedom, equality, and liberty. When John Adams visited the College in 1774, he came away impressed that the president was "as high a son of liberty as any man 29 Green, Witherspoon, 136.

INTRODUCTION

xxxi

in America." 30 And Witherspoon assured Adams that all of the stu­ dents were equally committed to the American cause. The letters from Charles C. Beatty to his family in 1774 and 1775 were filled with references to the patriotic feeling at Nassau Hall, and after Lexington and Concord, the students formed their own militia company. When war finally came, nearly half of the 178 students at Nassau Hall in the classes between 1769 and 1775 joined the ranks to fight for American independence. Among Witherspoon's pupils from these years, seven were members of the Continental Congress, two sat in the Constitu­ tional Convention of 1787, three served in the federal cabinet, eight were in the United States Senate, ten were elected to the United States House of Representatives, one sat on the United States Supreme Court, one was vice-president, and one, president of the United States. These 178 men held, among them, at least 105 major state or national offices. Only two were professed and unrepentant Loyalists, as were eight of the 338 Princetonians of 1748 to 1768. Thus, fewer than 2% of all Princeton students in classes from 1748 to 1775 were Loyalists, as compared to perhaps 16% of living Harvard alumni and at least half of the "blue-blooded" former students at King's. 31 If Witherspoon knew that John Vardill, erstwhile critic of the 'Address to the inhabitants of Jamaica" and champion of King's College, was one of Great Britain's most important espionage agents during the war, he was certainly not surprised. In his first seven years as president of the College, Witherspoon had overcome a chronic financial crisis, revamped the curriculum, added to the faculty, broadened Princeton's geographical appeal, and insti­ gated a regular growth in the size of the student body. A New Jersey census of 1772 recorded 85 students in the College, and a survey of July 1 7 7 3 increased that number to more than 1 0 0 . In August 1 7 7 4 Edward Crawford (A.B. 1775) informed his brother James (A.B. 1 777) t ^ lat there were 93 scholars in the College and 30 more in the grammar school. When he returned to Princeton for a postgraduate visit in December 1 7 7 5 , Charles C. Beatty reported that there were 4 5 students in the junior class alone. 27 of 39 identified class members graduated in 1775, and 27 of 49 would graduate in 1776. None of them left Nassau Hall unchanged by Witherspoon.

Ironically, it was the principles of liberty for which Witherspoon stood that sustained the war in which almost all of his early achieve30 John Quincy Adams, Life and Works of John Adams, π (1874), 355. 31 Morison, Three Centuries, 147η.; Humphrey, From King's College t o Columbia, 140.

xxxii

INTRODUCTION

ments at the College were overturned. Wartime damage, wartime in­ flation, wartime debts, and wartime social upheaval that led to a catastrophic drop in the numbers of enrolled students were the chal­ lenges that faced the College in the years 1776 to 1783. By then, how­ ever, Nassau Hall would not have the advantage of President Witherspoon's full attention.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES FREQUENTLY USED

AASP Proceedings of American An­ tiquarian Society A/C Annals of Congress Adams Papers L. Butterfield et al., eds., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams Alexander, Princeton S. D. Alexan­ der, Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century als autographed letter signed APS Proc. American Philosophical Society Proceedings APS Trans. American Philosophical Society Transactions BDAC Biographical Directory of the American Congress Beam, Whig Soc. J. N. Beam, The American Whig Society Bentley, Diaries Diary of William Bentley Bradford Journal Ms Journal of William Bradford (A.B. 1772) PHi Butterfield 1 Rush Letters L. H. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush Calhoun Papers Robert L. Meri­ wether et al., eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun Cal. Va. St. Papers Calendar of Vir­ ginia State Papers Clay Papers James P. Hopkins et al., eds., Papers of Henry Clay Clinton Papers H. Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds., Public Papers of George Clinton CNJ College of New Jersey Col. Rec. Ga. Colonial Records of Georgia Col. Rec. N.C. W. N. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Caro­ lina Col. Rec. Pa. Colonial Records of Pennsylvania CSmH Huntington Library, San Marino, California

CtHi Connecticut Historical Society DAB A. Johnson and D. Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography Davis, Essays J. S. Davis, Essays on the Earlier History of American Corporations Del. Arch. Delaware Archives Dexter, Yale Biographies F. B. Dex­ ter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College DLC Library of Congress DNA National Archives, Washing­ ton, D.C. Doc. Hist. Fed. Elec. M. Jensen and R. A. Becker, The Documentary History of the First Federal Elec­ tions, 1788-1790 Doc. Hist. First Fed. Cong. L. G. DePauw et al., Documentary History of the First Federal Con­ gress of the United States of America Elliot's Debates Jonathan Elliot, Debates in the Several State Con­ ventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution First Census North, Heads of Fami­ lies . . . 17go Fithian Journal, I. J. R. Williams, ed., Philip Vickers Fithian j Jour­ nal and Letters, /767-/774 Fithian Journal, II R. G. Albion and L. Dodson, eds., Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 17751776 Foote, Sketches, N.C. W. H. Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, His­ torical and Biographical Foote, Sketches, Va. W. H. Foote, Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical Force, Am. Arch. P. Force, ed., American Archives . . . a Docu­ mentary History Franklin Papers L. W. Labaree et

xxxiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin GHQ Georgia Historical Quarterly Giger, Memoirs G. M. Giger, MS Memoirs of the College of New Jersey, PUA GMNJ Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey Hageman, History J. F. Hageman, History of Princeton and Its Institutions Hamilton Papers H. C. Syrett and J. E. Cooke, eds., Papers of Alex­ ander Hamilton Heitman F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Con­ tinental Army . . . Hening, Statutes W. W. Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large . . . of Virginia Jay Papers R. B. Morris et al., eds., John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary . . . Unpublished Papers, 1745-1780 JCC W. C. Ford et al., eds., Jour­ nals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789

Jefferson MSS Microfilm collection, Papers of Thomas Jefferson (is­ suing authority) Jefferson Papers J. P. Boyd et al., eds., Papers of Thomas Jefferson JPHS Journal of Presbyterian His­ torical Society Kegley, Va. Frontier F. B. Kegley, Kegley's Virginia Frontier KSHS Reg. Register of the Ken­ tucky State Historical Society LCHSPA Lancaster County Histori­ cal Society Papers and Addresses LMCC E. C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress

LN New Orleans Public Library Maclean, History J. Maclean, His­ tory of the College of New Jersey

Madison MSS Microfilm collection, Papers of James Madison (is­ suing authority) Madison Papers W. T. Hutchinson

and W.M.E. Rachal et al., eds., Papers of James Madison Md. Arch. Archives of Maryland

Md. Wills A. W. Burns, comp., Abstracts of Maryland Wills MCCCNY Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York MCCCNY, 1675-1776 Minutesofthe Common Council of the City of New York, 1675-1776

MdHi Maryland Historical Society Md. Leg. Hist. Proj. Maryland Leg­ islative Historical Project, E. C. Papenfuse and D. W. Jordan, Principal Investigators, Hall of Records Annapolis, Md. MHi Massachusetts Historical Soci­ ety MHM Maryland Historical Maga­ zine MHS Coll. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections MHSP Massachusetts Historical So­ ciety Publications

MiD

Detroit Public Library

Min. Gen. Assem., 178()-1820 Min­ utes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Min. Gen. Assem., 1821-1835 Min­ utes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1821-1835

MWA American Antiquarian Soci­ ety N New York State Library, Albany Nc North Carolina State Library/ Archives NCHGR North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Records NCHR North Carolina Historical Review

NcD Duke University Library NcSal Rowan Public Library, Salis­ bury, North Carolina NcU University of North Carolina Library NEHGR New England Historical and Genealogical Register NEQ New England Quarterly

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS NhD Dartmouth College Library NHi New York Historical Society N.H. St. Pap. New Hampshire State Papers N.H. Town Pap. New Hampshire Town Papers Nj New Jersey State Library/Ar­ chives NJA New Jersey Archives NJHSP New Jersey Historical So­ ciety Proceedings NjP Princeton University Library NjPT Princeton Theological Sem­ inary Library NjR Rutgers Library, State Univer­ sity, New Brunswick, New Jersey N.J. Wills NJA, V. XXIII-XLI NN New York Public Library NNC Columbia University Library N.Y. Arch. B. Fernow, ed., New York Archives NYGBR New York Genealogical and Biographical Record NYHS Coll. New York Historical Society Collections N.Y. Wills Abstracts of Wills, NYHS Col., 1892-1906 Pa. Arch Pennsylvania Archives Patterson Acct. Bk. Thomas Patter­ son, Account Book, 1774-1776, AM 77-98. Gen. MSS [bound], NjP PCC Microfilm Papers of the Con­ tinental Congress (issuing au­ thority) PGM Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine PHi Historical Society of Pennsyl­ vania PMHB Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography PPAmP American Philosophical So­ ciety Library PPiU University of Pittsburgh Li­ brary PPL Library Company of Philadel­ phia PPPrHi Presbyterian Historical So­ ciety Princetonians, 1748-1768 J. McLach-

XXXV

lan, Princetonians, 1748-1768: A Biographical Dictionary PSCl Political Science Quarterly PUA Princeton University Archives Rec. Pres. Church Records of the Presbyterian Church . . . 17061788 Rec. St. Conn. C. J. Hoadly and L. W. Labaree, eds., Public Re­ cords of the State of Connecticut Rev. Rec. Ga. Revolutionary Re­ cords of Georgia Rush, Autobiography G. W. Corner, ed., Autobiography of Benjamin Rush Sabin J. Sabin, Bibliotheca Ameri­ cana Sabine, Loyalists L. Sabine, Bio­ graphical Sketches of the Loyal­ ists of the American Revolution ScCleU Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina SCHGM South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine SCHM South Carolina Historical Magazine ScU University of South Carolina Library Sh-C R. Shoemaker and M. Francis Cooper, comps., American Bibli­ ography . . . Imprints, 1820-1829 Sh-Sh R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoe­ maker, comps., American Bibli­ ography . . . Imprints, 1801-1829 Sibley's Harvard Graduates J. L. Sibley and C. K. Shipton, Bio­ graphical Sketches of Those Who Attended Harvard College Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart. Somerset County Historical Quarterly (N.J.)

Sprague, Annals W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit STE C. K. Shipton and J. E. Mooney, National Index of American Imprints Through 1800: The Short Title Evans Stiles, Itineraries F. B. Dexter, Ex­ tracts from the Itineraries . . . of Ezra Stiles

xxxvi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Stiles, L i t e r a r y D i a r y F. B. Dexter, ed., T h e L i t e r a r y D i a r y o f E z r a Stiles

Records of North Carolina, 17771790

William S. Stry-

Off. Reg.

Official Register of

cers and the

Men of

the Offi­

New Jersey

Revolutionary

War

in

(1911)

(!967) P a p e r s J. P. Boyd and R. J. Taylor, eds., S u s q u e -

Susquehannah

hannah Company Papers

T Tennessee State Library Archives THi Tennessee Historical Society THM

Tennessee

Historical

Maga­

zine

Thorp, E i g h t e e n f r o m P r i n c e t o n W. Thorp, ed., L i v e s o f E i g h t e e n from Princeton Tyler's

Quart.

Historical

VHi ViU

and

Quarterly

Genealogical

Virginia Historical Society

D. Dia­

University of Virginia Library Virginia

Magazine

tory and Biography

Washington

patrick,

Diaries

ed.,

J.

The

C.

Fitz-

Diaries

of

George Washington, 1748-1799

Washington MSS Microfilm Collec­ tion, Papers of George Washing­ ton (issuing authority) Washington Writings J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed., W r i t i n g s o f G e o r g e Washington . . . 1745-1799 Webster, MS Brief Sketches R. Web­ ster, Brief Sketches of Early Pres­ byterian Ministers, PPPrHi Wertenbaker, Princeton T. J. Wertenbaker, P r i n c e t o n , 1 7 4 6 - 1 8 9 6 Wharton, Dip. Corresp. F. Whar­ ton, ed., R e v o l u t i o n a r y D i p l o ­ matic Correspondence

Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J. S. Wickes, H i s t o r y o f M e d i c i n e i n New Jersey and Its Medical Men

of

ince to A.D. 1800

Williams, Academic Honors John Rogers Williams, ed., A c a d e m i c Honors in Princeton University,

Vineland Historical Magazine

VMHB

(Jackson)

Washington

from the Settlement of the Prov­

Tyler's

Magazine

VHM

Diaries

Jackson, ed., ries, /749-7770

Ms Steward's accounts Ms Records of the CNJ Steward, 1770-1775, PUA St. Rec. N.C. W. Clark, ed., S t a t e

Stryker, ker,

Washington

His­

1748-1902 WMQ WPHM

William and Mary Quarterly Western Pennsylvania His­

torical Magazine

CLASS OF 1769

John Beatty, A.B. William Lawrence Blair, A.B. Joel Brevard, A.B. Matthias Burnet, Jr., A.B. William Channing, A.B. Caleb Cooper John Davenport, A.B. John Rogers Davies, A.B. Peter (Petrus) DeWitt, A.B. John Henry III, A.B. James Linn, A.B.

John Alexander McDougall, a.B. Thomas Melvill (Melville), A.B. Samuel Niles III, A.B. Jesse Reed, A.B. Samuel Stanhope Smith, A.B. Philip Stockton Elihu Thayer, A.B. William Willcocks, Jr., A.B. David Zubly, A.B.

John Beatty JOHN BEATTY, A. B., A.M. 1772, physician, soldier, public official, and

entrepreneur, was born on December 10, 1749, in Warwick, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest son of Charles Clinton Beatty, an Irish immigrant who had been trained by William Tennent at the Log College and who then succeeded Tennent as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Neshaminy. The Reverend Mr. Beatty was an active missionary, a chaplain in the French and Indian War, and a trustee of the College from 1763 until his death in 1772. His wife, Anne, was the daughter of John Reading who had been president of New Jersey's Royal Council. At the College John Beatty was one of the original members of the American Whig Society. His part in the commencement exercises of 1769 was to oppose an argument that "ridicule was not the test of truth." From Nassau Hall, Beatty went to Philadelphia to study medicine under Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who found him "idle but worthy." By 1772 he had opened his own practice, first in Princeton and then in Hartsville, Pennsylvania, near Neshaminy. Half in jest, he complained that both places were too healthy to offer him much of a living. Beatty returned to Nassau Hall frequently. In November 1773 he enrolled his brother Charles Clinton Beatty (A.B. 1775) in the College, and on March 22, 1774, he married Mary Longstreet, the daughter of Richard Longstreet of Princeton. The ceremony was performed in Longstreet's home by President Witherspoon. After the birth of a daughter in April 1775, Beatty moved back to Princeton permanently, although he was in Neshaminy for several months there­ after. His daughter died in his absence. All passionate Whigs, the four oldest Beatty brothers joined the Continental Army. In January 1776 John Beatty commanded a com­ pany in the Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion, and in June he was in New York to help build Fort Washington. After months of trying to stall the British occupation of the area, Beatty concluded that only a miracle could save the Americans. On November 16, 1776, as a major in command of the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion, Beatty was captured along with the rest of the garrison at Fort Washington. He spent six months on a prison ship and a year on parole in Flatbush before being exchanged on May 8, 1778. Three weeks later Beatty was named to replace Elias Boudinot as commissary general of prisoners for the Continental Army, with the rank of colonel. While he managed to spend most of his tenure at or

4

CLASS OF 1769

John Beatty, A.B. 1769

near his home in Princeton, he found his responsibility for the care of enemy captives greatly complicated by congressional inaction and frugality. At one point he formally petitioned for a broader grant of authority, but Congress and the commander in chief pointedly re­ fused. Washington was disturbed by the constant traffic between New Jersey and occupied New York, most of it under the commissary general's flag, and all of it vulnerable to pilferage and graft. To restrict that traffic he insisted that Beatty adhere strictly to a rigid chain of command; but in that chaotic situation a certain amount of infor­ mality was both useful and unavoidable. The sub rosa bartering be­ tween Beatty and his British counterpart, while exploitable for per­ sonal gain, also made the problem of supplying prisoners less onerous. Washington issued a specific ban on such trade in December 1779. One week later, Beatty ordered some cloth from New York and was arrested. He faced a general court-martial in February 1780. Severely reprimanded by the court and by Washington, Beatty resigned his post, as he had said he wanted to do before his trial. His frustration

JOHN BEATTY

5

with Congress grew further as he tried to find someone in Philadelphia with authority to accept his resignation and help settle his accounts. Beatty rejoined his wife and son in Princeton, where he hoped to devote his first months as a civilian to his farm because he feared that his medical skills were rusty (though he had occasionally treated patients while on active duty). When he did resume his practice, pub­ lic affairs again interrupted him. On November 16, 1783, he was elected by the state legislature to sit in the Continental Congress. In Congress Beatty plunged into the midst of the controversy over the cession of western lands to the Confederation by those states that claimed title to them. Nonlanded states, many citizens of which had speculated heavily in western lands on the supposition that the old titles would be voided after the Revolution, refused to acknowledge the claims of the landed states. Beatty was a leader in the fight for the rights of the speculators. But the prospective cessions gave the landed states immense leverage, and Beatty failed both to secure his constitu­ ents' claims and to challenge the landed states' titles. Of his congressional duties, Beatty was most interested in finances. A member of the committee to enforce requisitions from the states, he was disgusted by the inability of the Confederation to collect its money. The weaknesses of the system confirmed his growing attach­ ment to the concept of a strong central government. Although he was reelected in November 1784, Beatty only reluctantly attended the session of Congress that opened in New York in May 1785. He left the city in June, more depressed than ever about the future of "a union already too feebly united." Retiring from public affairs to resume his practice in Princeton, he joined the Board of Trustees of the College in 1785 and was very active in the state medical society, of which he had been president in 1782. Beatty was a member of New Jersey's ratifying convention for the Constitution in 1787. He owned £265 in loan office certificates at the time and so had a modest interest in the question of national debt as­ sumption. He served for two years as treasurer of the College and was chosen a member and then speaker of the state assembly in 1789. In that capacity he presented the state's compliments to Washington in New York. Their old problems apparently forgotten, he and the president dined together. Beatty was a charter member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati and was an executive in the state's Masonic order. He re­ mained a member of the Hunterdon County Militia, attaining the rank of brigadier general. His time for medicine was thus somewhat limited, although when yellow fever struck Philadelphia in September

6

CLASS OF 1769

1793, his old mentor Benjamin Rush made a point of describing the epidemic to Beatty and recommending—as Rush was wont to do—that the disease be treated with mercury. When a fifth congressional district was created in New Jersey in that year, Beatty was the first man to represent it. The Third Congress was one of the most active in the early national period. Like all Federalists, Beatty was distressed by the growing opposition to Treas­ ury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and outraged by the recent conduct of the French minister "Citizen" Edmond Charles Genet. But the most pressing issue in the early session was the creation of a navy, a problem about which Beatty corresponded with his classmate Samuel Stanhope Smith and with President Witherspoon. American commerce and neutral rights were imperiled by the wars of the French Revolu­ tion. The nation was embroiled in a dispute with England over ful­ fillment of the Treaty of 1783. American vessels were subject to the depredations of the Barbary pirates. And as insurance rates tripled and American seamen were impressed by the Royal Navy or enslaved by the "Algerines," the debate over national defense was embittered by differences over the country's relations with England and revolutionary France. Opposition to a navy came largely from western and southern members, who feared a threat to liberty, a drain on the treasury, and entanglement in world affairs. It proved to be a divisive sectional and partisan issue, and only after several close votes did Congress authorize six frigates. Beatty consistently supported the measure but he was not eager to incur London's permanent enmity. Accordingly, he worked to limit the concurrent resolution on nonintercourse with England, in­ sisting only that previous wrongs be righted. For most of his term in the House, Beatty again concentrated on finances. He was one of the minority of Federalists who softened an investigation of the Treasury Department and the national bank. Another of his committee assignments dealt with complaints about the whiskey excises. The committee accurately reported that opposi­ tion to the taxes continued in western areas, but it gave no hint of the rebellion that would erupt later in 1794. After leaving Congress in 1795, Beatty was promptly chosen secre­ tary of state of New Jersey by the legislature. He moved from Prince­ ton to a new mansion on the Delaware in Trenton. Charged with the maintenance of the State House and its grounds, he financed the task by leasing the grounds for pastorage. He was on the committee that bought New Jersey's first governor's mansion in Trenton in 1798. He was also authorized to act as a stock commissioner for a company to

J O H N BEATTY

7

build Trenton's first bridge across the Delaware, a project that was bound to compete with the packet service between Beatty's landing at Bloomsbury in south T r e n t o n and Philadelphia from which he had derived a large part of his own fortune. But Beatty assured his income by becoming president of the Delaware Bridge Company and helping to select Bloomsbury as the site of the span. A f t e r retiring from state office in 1805, Beatty was, with Isaac Smith (A.B. 1755), a founder of the T r e n t o n Banking Company. He was chosen president of the firm in 1815, the year in which his wife died. He then married Mrs. Katherine De Klyn Lalor. A ruling elder of the Presbyterian church and a proprietor of the library company, Beatty was also a trustee of the Princeton Theological Seminary between 1822 and 1826. He had resigned from the College's board of trustees in 1802. O n April 30, 1826, Beatty suffered an apoplectic fit and died suddenly. T r e n t o n newspapers of all political persuasions mourned him. His funeral, at the First Presbyterian Church in T r e n t o n , was attended by leaders of New Jersey's educational, religious, political, and business communities. A t his death, his estate was worth $15,656. His only surviving child was his son Richard Longstreet Beatty (A.B. 1

797)-

SOURCES: DAB; Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J., 48, 138-41; PMHB, 44 (1920), 194246, passim; 54 (1930), 156-57; 3g (1915), 378 (an erroneous pension claim that names JB as commander of the Fifth Pa. Regt.); 13 (1889), 159, 162; 17 (1893), 160; 29 (1905), 55-56; Bulletin of Hist, of Medicine, 32 (1958), 39-45; BDAC; Sprague, Annals, m , 119-25; A. Alexander, Log College (1851), 247-49; A. Green, Life of •• . Witherspoon (1973), 42-43;»M. A. Tennent, Light in Darkness (1971), 43, 49, 60; Bucks Cnty., Hist. Soc., Papers, 2 (1909), 139-43; Beam, Whig Soc. (1933), 20; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (A.M.); College of Physicians of Phila., Transactions and Studies (4 ser.), 14 (1946), 129 ("idle but worthy"); als JB to E. Green, 31 A u g 1772; C. C. Beatty to B. Beatty, (n.d.) Mar, 3 A p r 1774, 6 Apr, 2 Jul 1775, Gen. MSS, N j P ; NJHSP, 80 (1962), 223-35; 81 (1963), 21-46; L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in the Amer. Rev. (1970), 383; Fithian Journal, n, 228; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), x, 103-105; LMCC, HI, i72n, 442n; 1 v, 20, 22, 39; vn, x x x i x , 455n, 459, 46on, 592-93, 25n, 39 & n, 148 & n; VIII, 25n, 39 8c n, 126, 48 & n; G. A. Boyd, Elias Boudinot (1952), 65, 72, 207; Washington Writings, xi, 499; XII, 13, 25, 221-22, 240-41; xin, 499-50; xiv, 15, 53; xvii, 45-49, 251-52, 304, 325; x v m , 33-34, 168, 216; Hamilton Papers, 11, passim; xv, 462-65; XVII, 37, 38n; Jefferson Papers, 111, 86, 87n; vi, 7n, 6i2n; VII, 74n; als JB to E. Boudinot, 31 Jul 1778, PHi (Dreer Coll.); JCC, xxvi, 16-17, 48- 110-11, 116-17; xxvii, 247-48; WMQ (3 ser.), 29 (1972), 231-62; E. Coles, Hist, of Ordinance of 1787 (1856), 5-9; D. B. Davis, Problem of Slavery in the Age of Rev. (1975), 153-55; Madison Papers, VIII, 23-24, 27n; R. P. McCormick, Experiment in Independence (1950), 225, 238-41 ("a union . . . too feebly united"), 268n; N.J. Med. Soc., Rise, Minutes, and Proceedings (1875), 41, 46-48, 50-51; Washington Diaries, iv, 57; J. Thatcher, Amer. Med. Biography (1828), 1, 173; GMNJ, 9 (1934), 103; E. F. Cooley, Geneal. of Early Settlers of •• . Trenton and Ewing (1883), 9; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 656, 6 5 7 ^ als S. Smith to JB, 23 Dec, 24 Dec 1793, 6 Mar 1794, P P P r H i ; R. W . Irwin, Diplomatic Relations of the U.S. with the Barbary Powers

8

CLASS OF 1769

(1931), passim; M. Smelser, Congress Founds the Navy (1959), 48-59; H. Sprout and M. Sprout, Rise of Amer. Naval Power (1939), 8-32; A/C, HI, 154, 459, 497, 601-602; G . T u c k e r , D a w n Like T h u n d e r (1963), 72-73, 75-78; G . W . Allen, O u r Navy and the Barbary Corsairs (1905), 15, 47-49; E. R. Walker et al, Hist, of Trenton (1929), I, passim; P. G. Tomlinson, Hist, of Trenton Banking Co. (1929), 3-4, 8, 19-20, 70; J . H a l l , Hist, of Pres. Chh. in T r e n t o n , N.J. (1859), 402-404; T r e n t o n T r u e Ameri­ can, Trenton Emporium, 3 Jun 1826; Trenton Federalist, 5 Jun 1826; F. B. Lee, Mercer Cnty., N.J. (1907), 1, 194; Ms inventory of will, Nj. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, Nj, PHi 1 PPPrHi

William Lawrence Blair WILLIAM LAWRENCE BLAIR, A. B., lawyer, was born about 1747, prob­

ably in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where his father, Reverend John Blair, was pastor of the Rocky Spring, Middle Spring, and Big Spring Presbyterian congregations from 1742 to an uncertain date near the beginning of the French and Indian War. In 1757 John Blair succeeded his older brother Samuel Blair—with whom he had mi­ grated to America from Ireland and received schooling at William Tennent's famous Log College—as pastor of the congregation and master of a famous school founded by Samuel at Fagg's Manor, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was undoubtedly there that young William began his preparation for college. He probably entered Nassau Hall by the fall of 1767, for it was then that his father became Professor of Divinity and Moral Philosophy and vice-president of the College. This appointment was one of the moves made by the trustees following the death of President Finley, before they succeeded in persuading John Witherspoon to accept the presidency of the College. John Blair served as vice-president until Witherspoon took over in August 1768 and resigned his professorship as of the commencement at which William graduated. The Blair family had been closely identified with the College since its founding. Reverend Samuel Blair was one of the founding trustees under the charter of 1746 and continued under the second charter of 1748 until his death in 1751. His son, Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), had been elected president of the College for a brief time in the interim between the administrations of Finley and Witherspoon. William's father, John, had been awarded an honorary A.M. in 1760 and was elected a trustee in 1766, a position he resigned upon taking the pro­ fessorship. William's younger brother was John Durbarrow Blair (A.B. 1775), whose middle name was taken from their mother's maiden name, Elizabeth Durbarrow (the daughter of John Durbarrow of

WILLIAM LAWRENCE BLAIR

9

Philadelphia). Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), William's class­ mate and later president of the College, was a cousin through his mother, Elizabeth Blair Smith, a daughter of Samuel Blair. In 1774 William's sister Rebecca would marry Reverend William Linn (A.B. 1772). Nothing more is known of William Blair's career in the College than that at his commencement he shared in a Latin syllogistic debate with his classmates Joel Brevard and Peter DeWitt. A long-established tradition at Princeton maintains that William L. Blair went to Kentucky after graduation. This tradition may have grown out of some confusion of William's career with that of his younger brother James, who did settle in Kentucky and was the father of Francis Preston Blair, publisher of the Washington Globe from 1830 and active in national politics for a generation thereafter. Actu­ ally, William studied law, presumably in Philadelphia, where he was admitted to the bar in May 1773. In that same year he was practicing law in nearby Chester County, where he seems to have resided and practiced for a number of years. In the 1780 tax rates for Chester County, and in the same year, in the fourth class of the Chester County Militia, William L. Blair, Esq. appears as an "inmate." In April 1786 William L. Blair is listed as judge advocate for the Chester County Militia. If perchance the William Blair that we discuss here was the same man as the William Blair of East Nantmill Township, Chester County, at the time of the census of 1790, he headed a family includ­ ing, in addition to himself, one free white male under 16 and four free white females; so presumably he was married and the father of one son and three daughters. But no other evidence regarding his marriage and his children has been found. Within the following decade he had moved to Philadelphia, where he is listed in two directories for 1799 as William L. Blair, attorney at law, with an address at 67 South Fifth Street. In a directory for 1802, he is listed in the same way, except that his address was then 62 North Fifth Street. By 1805 the address was 5 Plum, by 1810 it had become 318 South Second Street, and in 1811 it was 125 South Eleventh. It was probably there that he died on August 17, 1812, at the age of 65. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, ill, 62-66, 117-19; Centennial Memorial of Presbytery of

Carlisle (1889), 11, 33-36; W. E. Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, 1 (1933), 1-15; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa. (1886) [Cumberland], 210; Alexander, Log College (1851), 293-301. It has been said that James Blair, the Ky. settler, also attended CNJ, but no confirmation has been found. W. R. Jillson, Old Ky. Entries and Deeds (1926), 78, shows an entry in 1785 by a William Blair for some 1,400 acres, but there were many William Blairs, and the CNJ graduate seems clearly to have been in Chester Cnty. at the time. Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); J. H. Martin, Bench and Bar of Phila. (1883), 242, 249; J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, Hist, of Chester Cnty. (1881), 385; Pa.

10

CLASS OF 1769

Arch., (6 ser.), XII, 706 (a letter from William L. Blair of 12 Dec 1801 regarding a large estate in litigation which employs the address at "11th Street South No. 69"). WFC

Joel Brevard JOEL BREVARD, A.B., officer in the Revolution, was probably the young­ er brother of Ephraim Brevard (A.B. 1768), and if so, the son of John Brevard and Jane MacWhorter, sister of Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757). But he could also have been a first cousin to Ephraim. The family traced its origins to the John Brevard who settled in Mary­ land early in the century and whose three sons, Robert, John, and Zebulon, migrated to North Carolina at some time after 1744. John and Robert had settled on the headwaters of the Rocky River by 1747 or 1748 in that part of Anson County that became Rowan County in 1753- Of the two brothers, John became the more prominent, serving as justice of the peace as early as 1749 and in the assembly in 1754, on the Rowan Committee of Safety in 1775, and as a member of the Pro­ vincial Congress in the fall of 1776. His oldest daughter, Mary, was married to General William L. Davidson, and according to tradition, all eight of John's sons served in the Revolutionary War. The surviving records of the College provide no clue as to where Joel Brevard may have been prepared for college or when he first came to Princeton. It can only be reported that on commencement day of 1769 he participated with William Blair and Peter DeWitt in a Latin syllogistic dispute of the proposition: "Magnitudinem, Distantiam 8c figuram esse proprie, non Objecta Visus, sed tantum Tactus." And to this it can be added that the College catalogue of 1786 lists him as dead. The record of his activity during the interim is comparably limited. In November 1776, when the North Carolina Provincial Congress ap­ pointed officers for three regiments recruited for the "Continental Establishment," Joel Brevard of the Salisbury District was one of the eight captains of the Ninth Regiment, Colonel John Williams com­ manding. On August 28, 1777, Colonel Williams reported to Governor Richard Caswell from a camp on Quankey Creek in Halifax County that "Capt. Joel Brevard and five Lieut's of my Reg't have resigned their Corn's." No explanation was given in the letter that recommend­ ed a replacement for Captain Brevard on the eve of an anticipated march to join General Washington. That Brevard's death may have occurred before September 1784 is suggested by the notation of com-

MATTHIAS BURNET, JR.

11

missioners appointed by the state assembly for the settlement of "Army Accounts of the North Carolina Line" that £86 4s 2d had been paid to H. Montfort in behalf of Captain Joel Brevard "for J. Brevard." SOURCES: PGM, 16 (1948), 91-95; R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 48, 50η,

82η, 177, '86; J. Rumple, Rowan Cnty. (1881), 114, 144; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Col. Rec. N.C., xi, 597 (Williams's letter), 602; Army Accounts, XVII, 191. These Accounts apparently were compiled chiefly between 1 Sep 1784 and 1 Feb 1785. WFC

Matthias Burnet, Jr. MATTHIAS BURNET, JR., A.B., A.M. 1772, Yale 1785, D.D. 1802, Presby­ terian and Congregational clergyman, was born January 24, 1749, in Bottle Hill, Morris County, New Jersey. He was the son of Matthias and Mary Burnet, who farmed several tracts of land there. Burnet probably received his early education in the school run by Jacob Green, a trustee of the College from 1748 to 1764. In his com­ mencement exercises at Nassau Hall he delivered a Latin dissertation. He may have stayed in Princeton to study theology under Witherspoon. Certainly he was there in September 1772 when he received his A.M. and presented an oration on "Principles of Criticism and Taste" at the commencement. Burnet was called to the pulpit of the Presbyterian church in Ja­ maica, Long Island in the fall of 1774. The Presbytery of New York ordained and installed him there in April 1775, after which he mar­ ried Ann Combs of Jamaica. Loyalism to the British crown was strong in Jamaica, particularly among its Anglican citizens. Burnet's wife and her family were mem­ bers of the Church of England, and their LoyaIism may have influ­ enced him. He was one of very few Presbyterian ministers who did not actively support the Revolution. On the other hand, he did not pro­ mote the British cause, either. He claimed later that his only purpose was to protect his church; but absolute neutrality was not possible on Long Island. When English troops occupied Jamaica, the Loyalist leader Oliver Delancey boarded with Burnet for a time. The British did not interfere with Burnet's preaching, and Highlanders occasion­ ally worshipped in his church. A few overzealous Loyalists, angry at all Presbyterians, did try to destroy the church steeple, but they were stopped by the royal mayor of New York, David Mathews (A.B. 1754), a guest in Burnet's home at the time. By or against his will, Burnet was on the king's side.

12

CLASS OF 1769

In January 1780 Burnet visited the influential Loyalist William Smith in New York to plead for help in keeping his church from being converted to an army hospital. He succeeded, and the visit seemed to strengthen his fidelity to Britain. A master of propaganda, Smith told Burnet that the war could still be ended on a conciliatory basis. He surprised the minister with an account of supposed American plans to abandon all public support for churches in the United States, leaving every clergyman to beg. He stressed that Episcopalian domination of the new republic would mean the end of Presbyterian "preheminence." Burnet's distress at such news satisfied Smith that the pastor would go home and convert any of his flock who favored independence. In fact, Burnet's support for either side did not intensify demonstrably. A pro-British neutral was not the man most parishioners wanted in their pulpit after the war and Burnet was forced to resign his post. Following his farewell sermon he distributed copies of the 120th Psalm, which ends, I am for peace; but when I speak, They all declare for arms. It was a poignant self-defense that may have had some effect. He left Jamaica in May 1785, but his relations with his former church there­ after were uniformly amicable. He returned regularly and even preached there again in 1790, arguing that his wartime conduct had saved the church and that that had been his primary responsibility. Burnet was installed as the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Norwalk, Connecticut on November 2, 1785. It remained his home for the rest of his life. A widower with two children, he married again on June 30, 1793. His second wife was Fanny Roe, the daughter of Azel Roe (A.B. 1756) of Woodbridge, New Jersey. They had one child. Burnet helped to found an academy at Norwalk and served on its board of trustees. When the school was left without a tutor, he took on that responsibility as well, drilling the students in Latin and Greek. Widely respected for his erudition and his forceful sermons, the best of which were extemporaneous, he was honored by Yale and the College and was chosen to deliver the Connecticut election sermon in 1803. Burnet died suddenly on his wedding anniversary in 1806. His estate included land that he had inherited from his father and possibly some slaves, for he had owned two in 1790. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, 11, 92-96; Sabine, Loyalists (1847), 185; J. M. Macdonald, T w o Centuries in the Hist, of the Pres. Chh., Jamaica, L.I. (1862), 190-99; N.J. Wills,

WILLIAM CHANNING

13

νι, 64; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Pa. Ga­ zette, 14 Oct 1772 (A.M., CNJ); Stiles, Literary Diary, in, 185; Trenton Federalist, 18 Oct 1802 (D.D.); H. Onderdonk, Jr., Rev. Incidents of Queens Cnty. (1846), 153; W.H.W. Sabine, Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, HI (1971), 210 ("preheminence"); 1 ^/' First Cen­ E. Hall (comp.), Ancient Hist. Recs. of Norwalk, Conn. (1847), sus, Conn., 21. PUBLICATIONS: see STE; Sh-Sh #3919 MANUSCRIPTS: NjR

William Channing WILLIAM CHANNING, A. B., A.M. Yale 1781, lawyer and public official,

was born on June 11, 1751, in Newport, Rhode Island, where his fa­ ther, John Channing, was a merchant and occasional justice of the peace whose business fortunes touched both prosperity and bank­ ruptcy. When John Channing died in 1771, his friend Ezra Stiles, who had prepared William for college, feared that the family would face hard times. William's mother, Mary Chaloner Robinson Channing, kept a small store to provide some income. At the College Channing was a member of the Well-Meaning Club, which became the Cliosophic Society in 1770. In his commencement exercises he spoke on "oratory." He then returned to Rhode Island to study law under Oliver Arnold, a prominent attorney in Providence. He opened his own practice in Newport in 1771. Channing also returned to Stile's Congregational church, where he married Lucy Ellery on May g, 1773. His father-in-law, William Ellery (Harvard 1747), was one of Newport's leading citizens and in 1776, as a member of the Continental Congress, would sign the Declaration of Independence. Another of Ellery's daughters married Francis Dana (Harvard 1762), the first American minister to Russia. Stiles remained a close friend of the Channings. Between 1774 and 1786 he baptized at least seven of their eleven children. Channing quickly became one of the island's civic leaders. Appar­ ently the early responsibilities of a family compelled him to dedicate most of his life to his work. At times he held at least three positions in addition to his law practice. He was a justice of the peace for New­ port in 1775 and 1776 while at the same time holding a major's com­ mission in the county militia. From late 1776 until February 1778 he was the assistant clerk of the lower house of the Rhode Island Assem­ bly, a post that paid an average of £4 per year. Possibly then, and certainly later, Channing tutored law students in his home. In 1777 he was elected attorney general of Rhode Island,

14

CLASS OF 1769

an office that he would retain for all but three years of the rest of his life. In September of 1777 Channing served with William Bradford and Henry Ward on a committee created to formulate a plan of gov­ ernment for the new state. Channing had joined the exodus from Newport in 1776 when British occupation was imminent. Like Stiles, he had moved to Dighton, Massachusetts to await the liberation of his home town. After serving briefly as clerk of the Rhode Island Assembly in early 1780, Channing joined the legislafture as a deputy from Newport. As attorney general he was in charge of the collection of rents from con­ fiscated Loyalist estates in Newport after the British left the island in 1779. The arrival of a French fleet was an occasion for great celebra­ tion, and Channing was among the official welcoming party. Enthu­ siasm waned, however, as additional French and American forces failed to arrive. "I begin to fear," Channing told Stiles, "that nothing decisive will be done in America." In fact, Rochambeau's fleet re­ mained at Newport for several months, bottled in by the Royal Navy. Local merchants took advantage of their visitors to charge usurious prices for boats and wagons, and Channing was recommended by the governor as a man who could advise the French on reasonable and customary expenses. He was also a member of the town committee that welcomed Washington as he passed through in March 1781. The general remembered his hosts and in 1783 asked them personally to be equally hospitable to his nephew, George Augustine Washington, who was sent to Newport to recover his health. While Washington was on the island, rumors circulated that Channing's enforcement of laws against illicit trade to Long Island and Block Island was less than scrupulous. The attorney general demand­ ed a legislative investigation of the charges and was not only exoner­ ated of any wrongdoing by his colleagues in the assembly but received a commendation as well. In 1782 Channing paid $1,200 in gold and silver for the deed to one of the confiscated estates in Newport and moved back to the island permanently. He was still an active member of the Second Congregational Church there and a leader in the move­ ment to repair the damage done to it during the occupation. In May 1785 he was named a manager of the lottery that he had helped to create to raise $1,250 for the church. The explosive question of paper money brought a partial and temporary interruption to Channing's career. Rhode Island's Legal Tender Act, opposed by Channing and the rest of the state's hard money advocates, was tested in court in September 1786. The judges invalidated the paper currency, and thus began an intense political

WILLIAM CHANNING

15

battle that resulted in a federalist defeat in the election of 1787. The spirit of antifederalism was strong in Rhode Island, and Channing lost his job as attorney general. Elected by the freemen of Newport in March 1788, Channing served on a committee to instruct the island's representatives in the assembly to vote for a convention to consider the Constitution. The conven­ tion was held, but not even the state's Federalists were entirely com­ fortable with the new national government. In 1790 Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen to ratify the Constitution. Before it did so, Washington appointed Channing as federal district attorney for the state. It was in that capacity that he corresponded with Secre­ tary of State Jefferson about the way in which Rhode Island was deal­ ing with the problems of Loyalists and British subjects. Jefferson's re­ quest for information was a response to the growing chorus of British complaints about American failure to comply with the Treaty of 1783. As the owner of a confiscated estate himself, Channing was careful to describe Rhode Island's policy in the most favorable terms. While politics kept an anti-Federalist in the post of state attorney general, practicality brought Channing back into the affairs of that office in February 1791. The incumbent lived too far from the princi­ pal towns to be available when his advice was needed. Accordingly, Channing was appointed assistant attorney general, and then in May he was reelected to the post he had earlier held for nearly a decade. In the spring of 1793 Channing took his young son George to Dr. Isaac Senter's clinic on nearby Conanicut Island to be inoculated against smallpox. Three months later Channing himself was stricken with an unidentified disease that exhibited symptoms of dyspepsia. He died on September 21, 1793. His preoccupation with business had left Channing little time for his large family, which included three extremely distinguished sons: William Ellery, the famous Unitarian cleric; Edward Tyrrell, profes­ sor at Harvard; and Walter, physician and professor at Harvard. A loyal alumnus of the College, Channing had wanted to send his sons to Nassau Hall, but his stern Presbyterian influence on his children was not as strong as the influence of his wife's more religiously liberal family of Harvard graduates. The boys went to Harvard. They re­ membered their father as a distant figure, always dressed in black with a cocked hat on his bald head. Channing was mourned as much by the public as by his family and the two slaves who remained with it after being freed. His colleagues in the government appreciated his loss all the more as they tried to replace him. "It is to be lamented," wrote federal judge Henry Marchant to Alexander Hamilton, "that

16

CLASS OF 1769

Mr. Channing was the only Gentleman, in or near Newport whose years and Experience were sufficient for so important an office." SOURCES: W. Updike, M e m o i r s of t h e R J . B a r (1842), 94-109; Stiles, L i t e r a r y Diaries, i , 11, 4 5 9 ( " n o t h i n g decisive . . ."), HI, passim; J . J. S m i t h , Civil a n d M i l i t a r y L i s t of R J . (1900), 346, 362, 477, 123, 129; R e c . of C o l . of R J . , VII, 366; R e c . of S t . of R . I . , viii, i x , x , passim; C . R . W i l l i a m s , C l i o . Soc. (1916), 16-17; P a . Journal a n d W e e k l y A d v e r t i s e r , 12 O c t 1769 ( c o m m e n c e m e n t ) ; G . S. Kimball, P r o v i d e n c e i n Colonial T i m e s (1912), 321; Sibley's H a r v a r d G r a d u a t e s , x n , 134-51; W . M . Fowler, Jr., W i l ­ l i a m E l l e r y (1973), 171, 178; R . A . G u i l d , L i f e , T i m e s , a n d C o r r e s p o n d e n c e of J a m e s M a n n i n g (1864), 329; R . I . H i s t . Soc., C o l l . , 6 (1867), 284; B . C o w e l l , Spirit of '76 i n R . I . (1850), 205, 226; W a s h i n g t o n W r i t i n g s , x x v i , 478; B u l l e t i n of N e w p o r t H i s t . Soc., 2 (1912), 6; S. G. Arnold, Hist, of St. of R.I. (1844), n, 525; I. H. Polinshook, R . I . a n d t h e U n i o n (1969), 141, 153; W . R . Staples, R . I . i n t h e C o n t i n e n t a l C o n ­ gress (1870), 607, 682; Jefferson P a p e r s , x v n , 338-39; x v m , 67-68; H a m i l t o n P a p e r s , x n , passim; x v , 447 ("it i s t o b e l a m e n t e d . . ."); G . C . C h a n n i n g , Early Recollec­ t i o n s of N e w p o r t , R . I . (1868), 17-21; D A B (sons); W . H . C h a n n i n g , W i l l i a m E l l e r y Channing (1848), 1, 12-19.

Caleb Cooper CALEB COOPER, A.B. King's 1769, A.B. (hon.) CNJ 1769, A.M. King's 1771, schoolmaster, public official, farmer, and shopkeeper, the son of Mary and Thomas Cooper, was born in 1745, on his father's farm in Southampton, Long Island, New York. No later than February 1768, armed with a recommendation from the faculty at Nassau Hall, he began to teach school in New Brunswick, New Jersey, preparing stu­ dents for matriculation at Queen's College. Meanwhile, he completed his own education at King's College in New York City. After gradu­ ating he opened a new school in Newark, New Jersey. Apparently, this independent venture was not successful, for by 1773 Cooper was back in Southampton where he married Abigail Huntting, probably the daughter of Zerviah and Samuel Huntting. Cooper subscribed to the SufEolk County Association banning the import of British goods in May 1775, but no other record of his par­ ticipation in revolutionary activity has been found. He owned a farm for a time and at some point opened a shop near his home. From 1782 until 1806 Cooper was regularly active as a trustee, commissioner, or justice of Southampton or its subdivision Sag Harbor. In 1792 he was a member of the committee of correspondence in Southampton that supported the election of George Clinton for governor of New York. After his final term as a town trustee in 1807, his name disap­ pears from the local records. Cooper may have had up to six surviving children, some of whom may have been among the many residents of Long Island who moved

JOHN DAVENPORT

17

to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania at the turn of the century. It is possible that Caleb Cooper was part of that migration, too, for the name appears on the petition for the creation of Susquehanna County in 1810. There is no other evidence that Cooper either left South­ ampton or remained there in retirement. His shop and homesite were sold in 1812. One source gives 1834 as the year of his death. SOURCES: G. R. Howell, Early Hist, of Southampton (1887), 321; DAR Patriot Index, 153; H. Schneider and C. Schneider, eds., Samuel Johnson (1929), iv, 254, 255, 257; N.Y. Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, 9 Oct 1769 (hon. A.B.); Som. Cnty. Hist. Chiart., 8 (1919), 24-25; W. H. Benedict, New Brunswick in Hist. (1925), 38; N.Y. Mercury, 1 Feb 1768; W.H.S. Demarest, Hist, of Rutgers College (1924), 72; Pa. Chronicle, 2128 Mar 1768; N.Y. Gazette ir Weekly Mercury, 4 Jan 1773; NYGBR, 46 (1915), 19-26; 56 (1925), 128; F. G. Mather, Refugees of iyj6 from Long Island to Conn. (1913), 1056; Rec. Town of Southampton, HI, 274, 311-75; iv, 17-18; First Census, N.Y., 166; Β. T. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (1918), 11, 188-89; M. Stocker, Centen­ nial Hist, of Susquehanna Cnty., Pa. (1974), 272; PHi, Lancaster Cnty., 1772-1816,

175·

John Davenport JOHN DAVENPORT, A.B., A.M. 1772, Yale 1785, Brown 1805, Presby­

terian clergyman, was born either at Philippi, New York, or Freehold, New Jersey, on August 11, 1752, the son of James and Parnel Daven­ port. His father (Yale 1732) was one of the most notorious itinerant preachers of the Great Awakening and became pastor of the Presby­ terian church at what is now Pennington, New Jersey shortly after John's birth. A friend of President Burr's and a warm supporter of the College, the elder Davenport died in 1757. John Davenport made many friends at Nassau Hall, among them the lawyer William Paterson (A.B. 1763), who lived near Princeton and kept in close touch with undergraduate affairs. Paterson supplied the youth with a rough draft of an oration "On the Passions" that Daven­ port delivered during the examination held before commencement. After graduation Davenport joined the College's former tutor Joseph Periam (A.B. 1762) as a teacher in a Latin grammar school conducted under the auspices of the Presbyterian church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He maintained close ties to Princeton while there, perhaps be­ cause his older sister Elizabeth had married the Princeton merchant Enos Kelsey (A.B. 1760). At some time in 1771, probably the spring, Davenport moved to Philadelphia to tutor the children of Isaac Roberdeau, a prominent merchant. From his new home he informed his uncle Eleazer Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College, that he was spending his spare

18

CLASS OF 1769

time reading, thinking of studying for the ministry, and successfully resisting the "allurements" of the city. Even in Philadelphia Davenport remained involved with the affairs of the College. As an alumnus he was inducted into the undergraduate Cliosophic Society on June 23, 1772 and given the pseudonym "Cicero." A few months later, when he received his A.M. at Nassau Hall, Davenport delivered a public address on "The Influence which Success has in fixing the general Estimation of the Merit of Actions." It was probably shortly after this that Davenport moved to Bethle­ hem, Connecticut to study for the ministry with Joseph Bellamy, the New Divinity theologian. In 1774 he told Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), who was then studying with Bellamy, that his teacher was "a very judicious as well as pious Divine, whose instruction 8c conversation have I hoped proved to your Spiritual benefit." By that time Daven­ port had moved to East Hampton, Long Island, to further his theo­ logical studies with Samuel Buell (Yale 1741), a close friend of Presi­ dent Burr and an early supporter of the College. Davenport found East Hampton "a town where peace and harmony eminently prevail" and found Buell "a good experimental Divine." Ordained by the Presbytery of Suffolk on June 4, 1775, Davenport soon found both a wife and pulpit. On December 18, 1775, he married Elizabeth Chan­ dler Barker, widow of Nehemiah Barker (Yale 1742), who had been pastor of a Presbyterian church at Mattituck, Long Island. Filling Barker's pulpit as well as his bed, Davenport was installed as minister of the Mattituck church. In spite of the disparity in their ages—Daven­ port was twenty-three, his bride fifty-five—the marriage was said to have been a happy one. Davenport's whereabouts during the years of the Revolution are difficult to trace. A Whig, he signed the local association boycotting the importation of British goods in 1775. Like many of his neighbors, he possibly fled as a refugee to Connecticut after the British occupation of Long Island in the latter half of 1776. He is thought to have acted informally as chaplain to various units of the American forces, but no official record of his service has been discovered. On May 18, 1786, Davenport was installed as minister of the Pres­ byterian church at Bedford, Westchester County, New York. Remem­ bered as a "faithful and godly" pastor, he remained there for five years. On August 12, 1795» Davenport moved to the Presbyterian church at Deerfield, in Cumberland County, New Jersey. Little specific record of Davenport's various pastorates has survived. He seems often to have been absent from his pulpits on extended preaching tours. Writing from Deerfield late in 1802, he informed Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783)

JOHN RODGERS DAVIES

19

that after a tour of three months his voice had given out and his health had been impaired. This may have marked the beginning of the chronic illness that led to his dismissal from the Deerfield church in 1805. It was probably during this period that Davenport, whose wife had died, married again. His second wife, Mrs. Sarah Robinson of Philadelphia, was a widow fourteen years his junior. In September 1807 the Davenports moved to Onondaga County, New York. There the minister assumed the pulpit of the church in Baldwinsville and, in spite of the financial worries that had plagued him at Deerfield, put $800 down on the purchase of a 150-acre farm in nearby Pompey. Although he told Green that he "thirst[ed] for retire­ ment," in 1811 he was the first moderator of the Onondaga Presbytery and then undertook a six-week "missionary tour." Probably by 1814 he was tending to the church in Lysander as well as his own. Davenport visited his alma mater in 1818 when he was in New Jersey for his sister's funeral. He and Green, now president of the College, exchanged emotional commiserations about their troubles. At the time, Green's problems included the recent serious rioting at Nassau Hall that had outraged many alumni, including the old-style Federalist conservative Davenport. Having finally retired and with a modest income from his sister's estate, Davenport remained in Lysander until he died, apparently childless, on July 13, 1821. He was buried at the Baldwinsville ceme­ tery. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, 111, 92; Publications of the Onondaga Hist. Assoc., 1

(1912), 74; F. G. Mather, Refugees of ιηη6 from Long Island to Conn. (1913), 323; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 1, 523-29, 555, 664-69, 447-50; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; als W. Paterson to JD. 10 Jul 1769, NjP; JD to A. Burr, 19 Feb 1774; ("judicious . . . Divine," and "peace and harmony . . . prevail"); JD to A. Green, 21 Jan, 28 May 1800; 15 Dec 1802; 20 Oct 1807 ("thirst for retirement"); 10 Mar 1808; 21 Apr 1812; 15 Apr 1817; 10 Apr 1818, Gratz Coll., PHi; R. Bolton, Hist, of . . . the Cnty. of Westchester (1881), 1, 53; A. H. Brown, Outline Hist, of the Pres. Chh. in West or South Jersey (1869), 13, 21. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, PHi

JMcL

John Rodgers Davies JOHN RODGERS DAVIES, A.B., lawyer, was the third and youngest son

of Samuel Davies, fourth president of the College, and his second wife, Jane Holt of Williamsburg, Virginia. Born in 1752, in Hanover County, Virginia, he was named for Reverend John Rodgers (D.D.

20

CLASS OF 1769

1760), a close friend and schoolmate of his father and later a trustee of the College. It is assumed that he and other members of the family, including his older brother William Davies (A.B. 1765), came to Princeton in the summer of 1759, when his father took over the duties of the presidency. When President Davies died in February 1761 at the age of 37, his family was left in straitened circumstances. Some £400-500 reportedly was collected in Philadelphia and New York for support of his widow and two daughters; "£95 per annum for five years to support his three sons at College" was also collected in Philadelphia. Presumably John and William owed their education to this or to additional funds provided in recognition of the father's services to the College. No success has attended efforts to locate Davies between 1761 and his graduation. It is said that his mother returned to her family and friends in Virginia, and John may have gone with her. Where he was prepared for college and when he was admitted to Nassau Hall are apparently unknown. If he followed the usual pattern of at least two years in residence, the date of his entrance would be 1767. He could have been one of the founding members of the Whig Society in June 1769 and certainly was one of its earlier members. At commencement in the following September he participated in a debate on the proposi­ tion that "Material Substance really exists without the Mind." As the third speaker, he considered the arguments for the affirmative and the negative, and finally supported the negative. Little can be added regarding his subsequent career. President Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), writing in 1822 of the Davies family, stated that John had studied law. He could have been the John R. Davies of Richmond, Virginia, who has been credited with service as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. Archibald Alexander, youthful probationer on a missionary tour of eastern Virginia in 1792, was advised by a couple he visited in Amelia County that Davies was a neighbor. The hostess told of once having asked him to read a poem written by his father on the occasion of his birth, only to be told that he would not and "that he had never perused any of his father's writings." Alexander added that six or seven years later, on a tour of counties below the James, he found that Davies had moved to Sussex, where he flatly refused a special invitation to hear Alexander preach. To stop the importuning of the gentleman in whose home the sermon was to be delivered, Davies reportedly said: "If the Apostle Paul was to preach at your house to-night, I would not go; nay, if my own father was to preach there I would not go." Later historians of the College have placed him in Sussex County,

PETER (PETRUS) DEWITT

21

one of them observing that he "never rose to any eminence," another that he "was a man of talents, and succeeded well in his profession." He died, never having married, in 1832, although the printed cata­ logue of the College in 1812 lists him as at that time dead. SOURCES: H. A. Davis, Davis Family . . . in Wales and Amer. (1927), 35; G. W. Pilcher, Samuel Davies (1971), 39, 41; Maclean, History, 1, 245-46, 246η; Beam, Whig Society, 20-21; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); A. Green, Discourses, Delivered in the CNJ (1822), 354-55; J- H. Gwathmey, Hist. Reg. of Virginians in the Rev. (1938), 209; J. W. Alexander, Life of Archibald Alexander (1854), 141-42; Alexander, Princeton, 128 ("not perused"); Giger, Mem­ oirs ("Apostle Paul"). WFC

Peter (Petrus) DeWitt PETKR (PETRUS) DEWITT, A.B., Dutch Reformed clergyman, was born

in King's County, Long Island, New York on February 17, 1739 and baptized at the Reformed Church of New Utrecht. His parents were Johannes, a farmer, and Catharine Luyster DeWitt. His early years, like his later ones, are obscure. DeWitt was a member of neither the Plain-Dealing nor the WellMeaning clubs at the College but he participated in a Latin debate on the issue, "Magnitudinem, Distantiam & figuram esse proprie, non Objecta Visus, sed tantum Tactus" in his commencement exercises. DeWitt may have returned to his father's farm after graduation, since he apparently did not begin his study for the ministry at once. He is said to have been tutored by John Henry Livingston (Yale 1762), the future president of Queen's College, who was in Europe until September 1770. DeWitt was not examined and admitted as a candidate for the ministry until October 1778, when he presented himself before the Synod of North Holland, meeting in Kingston, Ulster County. Livingston was at Kingston during the decade, as well as at Livingston Manor in Dutchess County. A Petrus DeWitt resided at Rhinebeck in Dutchess County in April 1774. At some point, DeWitt's family moved to that county, where his brother was often a public official. In 1782 John H. Living­ ston was certainly in the neighborhood, for he preached a sermon before Washington at one of the local churches that year. Petrus DeWitt was probably ordained by the Classis of Kingston, of which he was a member when he attended a church convention in October 1791. He was installed as pastor of the church in Rhinebeck in 1786, the same year in which he subscribed to the Reformed

22

CLASS OF 1769

Church's Articles of Union. He began to keep a careful record of his pastorate there in October 1787, and either then or within a few months, he was also the pastor of the church at nearby Red Hook. It is possible that he began at Red Hook when it was established in 1785 and then added Rhinebeck to his duties when that pulpit was vacated at the end of the year. He probably lived in the old stone parsonage in Rhinebeck. In June 1789 that church was incorporated under his pastorate as the "Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Rhynebeck Flatts." In September 1791 DeWitt settled his account with the elders and deacons at Red Hook, who owed him £15 8s 2d for his services through July 1 of that year. He apparently devoted himself entirely to Rhine­ beck thereafter, although he officiated at the installation of his suc­ cessor at Red Hook in February 1794. Before DeWitt's father died in June 1792, he provided in his will for the education of Johannes, the second and oldest surviving child of DeWitt and his wife, Elizabeth Duryee, who had been married on February 4, 1782. In 1798 or 1799 DeWitt moved his family to Bergen County, New Jersey, where he assumed the pulpit of the hexagonal church at Ponds. His ministry also included neighboring Wycoff and Preakness when elements of the congregation at Ponds decided to create separate churches in those places. DeWitt supervised a major renovation of the fifty-year-old WycofE church before his death on October 7, 1809. He bequeathed his real and personal property, in­ cluding a farm known as "it hookye" in Fishkill, New York, to his wife and five sons. A daughter had died in childhood. An inventory set the value of his estate at £601 13s iod. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; C. E. Corwin, M a n u a l of t h e R e f o r m e d C h h . i n A m e r . (1922), 307-308; NYGBR, 73 (1942), 105; 97 (1966), 136; 61 (1930), 125; 88 (1957), 25; T . G . B e r g e n , E a r l y Settlers of R i n g ' s C n t y . , N . Y . (1881), 197; P a . Journal a n d Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Dexter, Yale Biographies, 11, 75558; N . Y . Ecclesiastical R e c . , v i , 4248, 4307, 4362, 4391; F e d . W r i t e r s P r o j . , D u t c h e s s Cnty. (1937), 149; F. Hasbrouck, Hist, of Dutchess Cnty., N.Y. (1909), 446; G. Dang e r f i e l d , C h a n c e l l o r R o b e r t L i v i n g s t o n ( i 9 6 0 ) , 116, 197; Ε . M . S m i t h , H i s t , of R h i n e ­ beck (1881), 113, 127-28, 129; W . W . C l a y t o n , H i s t , of B e r g e n a n d Passaic C o u n t i e s , N . J . (1882), 208; J . M . V a n V a l e n , H i s t , of B e r g e n C n t y . , N . J . (1900), 188; N . J . W i l l s , xi, 103.

John Henry III JOHN HENRY III (called John Henry, Jr.), A.B., A.M. 1786, lawyer and public official, was born in 1750 at "Weston," his parents' estate in Dorchester County, Maryland. His father, Colonel John Henry, Jr., the

JOHN HENRY III

23

son of a Presbyterian clergyman, was a very prosperous planter and fre­ quent legislator in Maryland. The colonel's wife was Dorothy Rider Henry. Henry was educated at the West Nottingham Academy in Cecil County, Maryland before he entered the College. He was a founding member of the American Whig Society and helped the College steward, Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755), collect subscriptions and contributions for the American Magazine when it was launched in 1769. As "the greatest Orator" in his class, Henry delivered the valedictory address at the commencement exercises that year. After graduation, Henry spent six years studying law, possibly in Maryland for a time and for at least thirty months in the Middle Temple in London. He was a member of the Robin Hood Club, a debating and social society at the Inns of Court in which colonial affairs were often discussed. After returning to America in 1775 he entered politics. In February 1777 Henry was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. In December he was also chosen to represent the state in the Continental Congress. Although he held a captain's commission in the Upper Battalion of Dorchester County Militia throughout the Revolu­ tion, his wartime service was almost exclusively in the state and national legislatures. He was a member of both until 1781. With President Witherspoon, Henry served on the congressional committee that hired Baron von Steuben as an officer in the Con­ tinental Army. He was particularly interested in military affairs and worked assiduously to improve conditions in an army that was fast dissolving. As a member of the committee on the quartermaster depart­ ment, he was instrumental in reforming logistics. And largely through his efforts, Maryland received money for recruiting and, in turn, bore its share of the financial burden of the war. More of a nationalist than many other delegates, Henry opposed the fragmentation of the army to protect sectional interests, urging instead that the forces be concen­ trated under Washington. He was among the seventeen members of Congress who pledged themselves to prompt, efficient, and civil debates in April 1778 and he avoided joining any of the factions that often crippled congressional deliberations. In 1777 and 1778, when north­ erners and southerners squabbled over the recall of American diplo­ matic agents in the controversy involving Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, and Benjamin Franklin, Henry voted on each question separately, siding with both groups at different times. Like most members of Congress, Henry was appalled at reports in April 1778 that the British government would soon offer a concilia-

24

CLASS OF 1769

tion plan to America based on something less than independence. Assuming that London's idea was to undermine American resolve, he warned that the plan would "prove more dangerous to our cause than ten thousand of their best troops." Congress rejected any negotiations until Britain recognized American independence. On June 26, 1780, Congress referred the divisive issue of western lands to a committee of which Henry was a member. Maryland led the states without land claims in trying to force the others to cede the land to the nation. As of February 1779 Maryland was the only state that had not signed the Articles of Confederation, and it refused to do so until the land issue was settled. The dispute produced bitter feel­ ings, especially between Maryland and Virginia, and by 1780 it was affecting the war effort. The committee's report recommended cession of the land and ratification of the Articles by Maryland. It was adopted in September but the problem lingered unsolved for several more years. Henry also served on the committee that proposed a reorganization of the executive departments. Appointed in August 1780, the group took six months to produce a report outlining the arrangement of the war, marine, and finance departments that obtained until 1789. As a member of the powerful committee on ways and means and of the panel that drafted an appeal for financial aid from France, Henry was actively interested in foreign policy. He was among the minority that opposed Congress's decision in 1780 to authorize John Jay, then ne­ gotiating for an alliance with Spain, to give up navigation rights on the Mississippi in exchange for Madrid's partnership. Henry believed that the south would be better served by seceding from the union than by losing the river. J ay made the offer, but Spanish temporizing obviated it. In November 1780 Henry was nominated to be the American consul in France pending a reshuffling of diplomatic agents, but the appoint­ ment was never made. Affairs at home led Henry to take several leaves of absence from Congress, particularly after September 1780, when "Weston" was plundered by British troops. After his father's death in 1781, Henry inherited the largest portion of the family estate, collected the last of the substantial amount of money owed him for his service in Congress, and stayed in Maryland for four years as a member of the state senate. He chaired the senate committee that welcomed Washing­ ton to Annapolis to resign his commission in December 1783 and he voted with the majority when the senate finally ratified the Articles of Confederation. In December 1784, along with Luther Martin (A.B. 1766), he was again elected to represent Maryland in the Continental Congress.

JOHN HENRY III

25

In the midst of important debates in July 1785, Henry took another leave. This trip was in anticipation of "the Reception and Gratifica­ tion of the accomplished fair One" to whom he would be introduced by his friend, Governor William Paca of Maryland. His colleague William Hindman warned Paca that Henry was "full charged and in high Condition" and would hold the governor to his promise. The "fair One" may have been Margaret Campbell, the daughter, step­ daughter, and ward of very wealthy planters in Maryland. She and Henry were married on March 6, 1787. She bore him two sons before she died on March 26, 1789. In the last years of the Continental Congress, Henry served again on a committee to deal with Baron von Steuben, back in America to seek payment for his wartime services. A federalist before the Constitution, Henry saw Shay's Rebellion as irrefutable proof of the need for a strong central government. He supported a plan to apportion the national debt in 1786, not least of all because it would benefit Maryland, and in 1787 he was a member of the committee that formulated the North­ west Ordinance. After the adoption of the Constitution, Henry was a prominent Federalist. As he sought intelligence on the first federal Congress, Jefferson was pleased to note that Henry was a likely choice for senator from Maryland. When the state assembly convened to choose their representatives on December 8 and 9, 1788, the upper house agreed to elect one senator from the Eastern Shore and one from the Western Shore, a practice that continued for a century. On the second ballot, Henry was chosen as the state's first United States senator, representing the Eastern Shore. His opponent had been George Gale (Class of 1774). Henry's western colleague, chosen after a few more ballots, was Charles Carroll of Carrollton. The two Marylanders were among the firmest opponents of the use of titles for and by the national government, a position that endeared them temporarily to their irascible colleague from Pennsylvania, Wil­ liam Maclay. Later, Henry and Maclay also united against a bill aimed at punishing Rhode Island for delaying its entry into the union. But they differed more than they agreed because Henry was less suspicious of a strong central government. In July 1789 Henry backed the ad­ ministration's quest for the power to remove appointive officers with­ out the Senate's consent, an emotional question that was decided by Vice-President Adams's tie-breaking vote. Henry was privy to the machinations of the various factions that struggled over assumption of the national debt and the choice of a capital city but he did not seem to be part of any of them. "All great governments resolve them-

26

CLASS OF 1769

selves into cabals!" he told Maclay. Apparently, he preferred to remain free of such commitments. He worked, appropriately enough, for the selection of Baltimore as the temporary seat of government but he would not make any deals to achieve that end. He even warned Maclay that the debt and capital problems would be combined in a sectional quid pro quo. Yet his own commitment was to the Constitu­ tion, and that was enough to alienate the Pennsylvanian. In the midst of a debate over paying von Steuben, Henry remarked that everyone seemed to want to increase the national debt in time of peace as if that were the only justification for government. Without the debt, he joked, government might be unnecessary. After Maclay grumbled that that could not happen soon enough, Henry tended to avoid his company. In the Senate Henry was a warm supporter of President Washington, with whom his personal relationship was relatively close. In 1787 he had given Washington an antique that once belonged to Oliver Cromwell. As a member of the board of governors and visitors of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, he participated in granting the new president an honorary degree in 1789. He met and dined with Washington frequently. Henry was also active in drafting the legislation that created a national mint. Although he had been angered by the log rolling that put the capital on the Potomac, Henry ultimately favored the creation of the District of Columbia and supported budgetary allocations to facilitate it. He knew that the federal city would be vital if the nation survived its early years and was confident that if the nation failed, the existence of a nearby metropolis would be an asset to Maryland. Although he owned many slaves, Henry had serious personal doubts about the institution of slavery. He joined most northern senators in supporting a naturalization bill that did not carry a property require­ ment, although southerners insisted that such a law was part of an assault on slavery. During the war scare of the mid-1790s, Henry sternly advised a friend from Virginia that the south, more than any other area, should be for peace. The very ideas that gave birth to the United States, he said, had made slaves aware of their own lack of freedom and had shown them how freedom might be obtained. A war would certainly lead to a bloody and successful slave revolt, Henry thought, since people in bondage must want and would eventually have liberty. His sympathy for people without freedom went beyond his ambiv­ alence on slavery to such issues as prison reform and the right of emigration from a repressive regime. The senator from Maryland maintained his balance between the hardening factions in Congress, staying on good terms with Hamilton,

JOHN HENRY III

27

Washington, and Jefferson alike. Apparently, he roomed in the same boarding house with Jefferson while the latter was vice-president, and their growing friendship was reflected in Henry's political opinions. Although he was censured by the Maryland House of Delegates for disobeying its instructions and voting to keep Senate proceedings secret, he was reelected to the Senate in 1794, received two of the state's electoral votes for president in 1796, and then, in a bitter con­ test, was narrowly elected governor in November 1797. He resigned from the Senate to accept that post and urged that Maryland choose a man who could resist British influence as his successor. Henry hoped the governorship would be more restful than the Senate, perhaps allowing him to relax and earn some profit from the schooner he had recently commissioned, but the growing pressure for war with France kept him very busy. He reorganized the Maryland militia with acute attention to detail, justifying the reforms with orthodox public condemnations of France. But privately he was deeply troubled by the prospect of war. Indeed, his opposition to war may have drawn him to the Jeffersonian Republicans, as may his apparent disapproval of Adams's performance as president and of the Alien and Sedition Acts. An informer for arch-Federalist Secretary of War James McHenry reported in April 1798 that Governor Henry actually felt that Jefferson was the only hope for the nation to escape British influence. "Tis time to unmask hypocrites," the informer told McHenry. The governor might have had a hard fight for reelection in 1798. Instead, he retired from public life, disgusted with "the spirit of party and misrepresentation," and particularly with the "calumnies" then being suffered by Jefferson. His health had been failing for several years. On December 16, 1798, barely one month after he left office, Henry died at "Weston." His sons, Francis Jenkins Henry and John Campbell Henry, divided the bulk of his huge estate, the sum of his own and his wife's inheritances; but other relatives, including Rider H. Winder (A.B. 1806), also received bequests. The two boys were put in the care of a guardian who later sent them to the College; but neither graduated. Henry was buried at "Weston" and reinterred some years later at the Episcopal cemetery in Cambridge, Maryland. SOURCES: DAB; F. D. White, Jr., Governors of Md. (1970), 39-42; E. Jones, Hist, of Dorchester Cnty., Md. (1966), 231, 333-35; Md. Leg. Hist. Proj. (which corrects usual errors on birth date); Beam, Whig Soc., 15, 20; Pa. Chronicle, 2 Jan 1769; N.Y. Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, 9 Oct 1769 (commencement); Madison Papers, 1, 45; π, 72-78 ("Orator"); Hamilton Papers, vi, 311-12; ν, 213η; χ, 355-57; χχιι, 296, 301; Md. Arch., XLIII, 37, 45, 157; XLV, 216; XLVII, 489; LXXI, 119, 143, 151, 155, 306; XLvm, 182, 416; Washington Writings, χιχ, 280η; χχιχ, 148; xxxv, 368; xxxvi, 238,

28

CLASS OF 1769

484; LMCC, πι, 55, 85-86, 110, 122-23, 165 ("engagement" on debates), xvi, 179-80 ("more dangerous to our cause"), 185; v, xxxiii-xxxiv, 490η; vn, 627η; VIII, 151 ("fair One"), 159, 455-56; WMQ (3 ser.), 27 (1970), 246-54; J. W. Henry, Letters and Papers of Gov. John Henry (1904), 22-27, 3 1 » 3 2 > 34> 3®· 44· J- T. Scharf, Hist, of Md. (1967), 11, 385, 497, 515; JCC, xi, 556; xiv, 920; Κ. M. Rowland, Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1898), 11, 44, 150-51, 178-79, 188, 249; Jefferson Papers, xiv, 302, 294, 529; E. S. Maclay, Journal of William Maclay (i8go), 36, 116, 224 ("all great governments"), 256, 305, 328, 392-93; P. Smith, John Adams (1962), 11, 775-76; L. M. Renzulli, Jr., Md., the Federalist Years (1972), 37-38, 122, 133-34, 172, 188, ig4, 203-204; R. Ernst, Rufus King (1968), 159, 171; Washington Diaries, iv, 70, 94, 109; MHM, 7 (1912), 316-17; B. C. Steiner, Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (1907), 223, 307; als JH to H. Tazewell, 24 Dec 1797; 13 Mar 1798 ("spirit of party" and "calumnies"), Jefferson MSS. MANUSCRIPTS: MdHi

James Linn JAMES LINN, A.B., A.M. 1772, lawyer and public official, was the son of Sarah and Alexander Linn. His father, an Irish immigrant, was a prominent judge in Somerset County, New Jersey and had accumu­ lated a substantial estate by the time his son was born there in 1750. At the College Linn joined the Weil-Meaning Club, predecessor of the Cliosophic Society. At his commencement he and two classmates participated in an English "dialogue" on "the State of Political Affairs." After serving for one year after graduation as librarian of the Col­ lege, Linn studied law in Somerset County. On May 27, 1771, he married Mary Livingston, daughter of future governor William Living­ ston. He may have assisted in his father-in-law's legal work, for in April 1772, when Livingston was moving permanently from New York to New Jersey, he called upon his clients to settle their accounts with Linn, "an attorney at law in New York" residing in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Linn was certainly practicing on his own in Somerset County before the end of the year. At the beginning of the Revolution, Linn joined the First Regiment of Somerset County Militia as a captain under the command of Lord Stirling. He soon rose to major and when Stirling joined the Conti­ nental Army in January 1776, Linn was elevated to regimental first major. He commanded troops in Newark that summer and officially retained his commission until he resigned on June 28, 1781. His actual service must have been sporadic, however, for he was extremely busy with politics. Linn was a justice of the peace in Somerset County when his father died in 1776· He inherited not only the family's 664-acre estate in Mine

JAMES LINN

29

Brook Valley near Bernards Township but also his father's seat on the county court of common pleas. In May he was chosen, along with Frederick Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1770), William Paterson (A.B. 1763), and President Witherspoon, to represent Somerset County in the Provincial Congress that drafted New Jersey's constitution. Linn also sat in the state's legislative council in 1777 and 1778. For the balance of the war, Linn divided his time between his estate, with its twenty slaves; his militia duties; and his legal practice, at least part of which was devoted to state business. He continued to reside at Mine Brook and paid his taxes to Bernards. In 1787 he was a charter member of the Somerset Lodge of Freemasons, as was his classmate John Beatty. Linn was more prosperous because of family connections than be­ cause of his success at law. He renewed his political career in 1790 when he was elected to the state legislature. As a member of the as­ sembly, Linn voted for the election law of 1790, which clarified the state constitution's definition of suffrage. He had helped to draft the original document and now voted to make unquestionable the right of women to vote in New Jersey. In 1793 the Federalists, mostly wealthy lawyers, who dominated the the legislature were turned out of office and a new majority, with what were known in other states as republican sentiments, was created. There was as yet no genuine Republican party in New Jersey. But its basis was laid in 1793, and the wealthy lawyer from Somerset, James Linn, was a leader of the Republican cause. He was elected to the state's council and served as its vice-president in 1796. A small conclave of anti-Federalists met in Newark in January 1797 to name a "Farmer's ticket" of five to run in the state-wide races for Congress. Linn was one of the candidates. But the young party was poorly organized and all five nominees were defeated. The situation had changed by 1798 when members of Congress were to be chosen in district elections for the first time. The Republican nominee for the largely Federalist Hunterdon-Somerset district, Linn was not expected to win. But his two Federalist opponents weakened one another and Linn took the unusual step of campaigning for himself. He was elected with a clear majority. Three of New Jersey's five congressmen were Republicans. One of the two Federalists was Franklin Davenport (Class of 1773). Perhaps because he represented a district with Federalist leanings, perhaps because of his ties to the Federalist Livingstons, Linn became the butt of a congressional joke that New Jersey actually had two and one-half members in each party. When the presidential election of

30

CLASS OF 1769

1800 went to the House of Representatives, therefore, Federalists and Republicans alike identified Linn as a crucial swing vote. For thirtyfive ballots, Federalists supported Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) in order to keep the presidency from Jefferson, and lobbyists from both sides besieged Linn and three other supposedly essential members. But Linn, who was the teller of the New Jersey delegation, was also a far more loyal Republican than his reputation indicated. Even before the balloting began, he had pledged to stay with Jefferson. It was not he, but James Bayard (A.B. 1784) of Delaware, a Federalist, who, by withholding his vote, decided the election in Jefferson's favor. Jefferson rewarded Linn's loyalty by appointing him supervisor of federal revenue collection in New Jersey. It was a lucrative position but not a sinecure. Linn's primary responsibility was to organize the Republican party in his state. He moved to Trenton in 1801 and was instrumental in the formation of the Republican legislative caucus, the core of the party. Linn was a diligent organizer but not an avid spoilsman. In October, when he was the caucus candidate for clerk of the state supreme court, he refused to promise to oust all Federalist subordinates and replace them with Republicans. He thought it im­ proper to make a "general removal." The result was that "violent men" in the legislature blocked his appointment for two years. Still, Linn continued as a party leader. He was active in the estab­ lishment of an "Association for the Preservation of our Electoral Rights" in Trenton in 1802. That body was the foundation on which a grass-roots party system was built. Linn also served as the Republican party's chief propagandist, publishing weekly essays designed to coun­ ter the "Aristocratic interest," which was "by no means conquered." He identified the bastions of Federalist strength as the clergy and the state bar and he attacked them directly. If success came more slowly than he wished, he was encouraged by the growing opposition to "the Phalanx against us—Priests and Lawyers." By 1808 the Republicans dominated the state, and their efficient political machine was steered by James Linn and his associate James Wilson. In 1805 Linn's control of party affairs was strengthened by his election as New Jersey's secretary of state, succeeding his Federalist lodge-brother John Beatty. He held the post for fifteen years. In 1815 he was unanimously supported for reelection by Federalists as well, since the distinctions between them and older Republicans had begun to disappear. At some point, Linn's first wife died, and he married Penelope Alexander. He retained his farm at Mine Brook, now with only two slaves, until he died on January 5, 1821. His estate was in­ ventoried at $3,261.05, much of it in promissory notes. Apparently

JOHN ALEXANDER McDOUGALL

31

only his widow and one married daughter survived him. Linn was buried near his first daughter at the Lamington Cemetery in Somerset County. SOURCES: B D A C ; E. R. Walker et al., H i s t , of T r e n t o n (1929), 11, 607; Som. C n t y . Hist. Quart., 5 (1916), 278; 3 (1914), 133; 8 (1919), 37, 165; NJA (1 ser.), xxix, 352; xxviii, 102 ("an attorney at law in New York"); (2 ser.), 11, 33; iv, 51; C. R. Williams, Clio. Soc. (1916), 17; N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1769 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (A.M.); NJHSP (n.s.), 7 (1922), 165, 135; 57 (1939), 89; (3 ser.), 6 (1909-10), 79; M i n . of t h e Provincial Congress . . . of N.J. i n t h e R e v . W a r (1872), 367, 445; MS will, no. 474 R.B.M., 21; no. 3143J, N j ; A . D. Mellick, Story of an Old Farm (1889), 297-98; K. Stryker-Rodda, Rev. Census of N.J. (1972), 127; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (!973). 387; Washington Writings, xxxv, 289; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian R e p u b l i c a n s (1964), passim; W . R . Fee, T r a n s i t i o n from Aristoc­ racy to Democracy in N.J. (1933), 91, 98, 225-26; H. S. Parmet and M. B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (1967), 158, 164; Del. Hist., 5 (1952-53), 50, 56-57; A/C, x, 1023-24; I. Brant, James Madison, Secretary of State (1953), 31, 54; Ν. E. Cunningham, Jr., Jeffersonian Republicans in Power (1963), 16; als JL to E. Elmer, 29 Dec 1801 ("Aristocratic interest"); 29 Jan 1802; 2 Feb 1803 ("Phalanx"), Gratz Coll., PHi.

MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

John Alexander McDougall JOHN ALEXANDER MCDOUGALL, A. B., probably was born in 1752 in New

York City. He was the oldest son of Alexander McDougall and his wife Anne (Nancy) Langewell McDougall. His father, a native of Scotland, had migrated as a boy with his family to New York in 1738 and pros­ pered as a privateer and merchant of modest wealth. He had acquired political fame as the "American Wilkes" through his imprisonment in 1770 for published criticism of the New York Assembly after it had voted certain supplies in support of the British troops stationed in New York. Later he served as brigadier and then major general in the Continental establishment, and twice, first in 1781, he represented the state in the Continental Congress. The father was an active member of the Presbyterian church in New York, so the enrollment of his son in the College was a natural develop­ ment; but the date of young McDougall's admission has not been established. At the College McDougall became a member of the American Whig Society, and possibly an original member. He prob­ ably acquired some reputation as an orator, for at the commencement of September 27, 1769, he spoke twice. In a three-way debate of the proposition "Material Substance really exists without the Mind," McDougall led by taking the negative position. Later in the day he participated in another three-sided debate of a proposition not stated in the surviving report.

32

CLASS OF 1769

There is an indication that McDougall began to study law after his graduation, but otherwise the record of his activity remains without entry until June 28, 1775, when he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 1st New York Regiment of the Continental service, two days before his father was commissioned a colonel. The younger McDougall became a part of the movement northward by way of Ticonderoga and Crown Point against the British fort of St. Johns, across the line in Quebec. He seems to have belonged to the company of Captain Wil­ liam Goforth, which joined the army on September 21 as it began the siege of the fort at St. Johns. On October 8 Goforth wrote Colonel McDougall that his son was well and actively engaged in the siege. Again on October 22, Goforth reported that despite fatigue and hard­ ship, John "braves everything and is look'd upon to be a brave soldier." The fort surrendered on Novemebr 2, and the Americans advanced to La Prarie de la Magdeleine on the 5th. There on No­ vember 12, 1775, Lieutenant McDougall died "after a few days Illness of a billious Fever." This advice was contained in a letter of November 19, 1775, from Colonel Rudolphus Ritzema in Montreal to the elder McDougall. After some difficulty in securing the consent of the local priest, young McDougall had been buried with military honors in the churchyard at La Prarie on the day of his death, perhaps because the army was on the move, that being the day the Americans crossed the St. Lawrence to occupy Montreal. He had not married. SOURCES: R. J. Champagne, Alexander McDougall and the Amer. Rev. in N.Y.

(1975); Sister A. M. Shannon, "General Alexander McDougall," unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Fordham Univ. (1957); P. U. Bonomi, A Factious People (1971), 267-75; DAB. The date o£ birth fixed by father's first marriage on 11 Jul 1751, and the obituary of his younger brother, Ronald Stephen, who died in 1786 at the age of 32 (notes by W. M. MacBean in John A. McDougall file, NHi, which also mentions study of law). Beam, Whig Soc., 20; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (com­ mencement); Heitman; als W. Goforth to A. McDougall, 8 Oct 1775, 22 Oct 1775 ("brave soldier"); R. Ritzema to A. McDougall, 19 Nov 1775, NHi; Mag. of Amer. Hist., 1 (1877), g8fi. WFC

Thomas Melvill (Melville) T HOMAS M ELVILL (M ELVILLE), A.B., A.M. 1772, Harvard 1773, mer­

chant, soldier, and public official, was born on January 16, 1751, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother was Jean Cargill Melvill. His mer­ chant father, Allan, was the son of a Scottish immigrant Presbyterian minister in the cadet branch of the family of the earls of Leven and Melvill.

THOMAS MELVILL (MELVILLE)

33

Thomas Melvill, A.B. 1769

Orphaned at age ten, Melvill lived with his maternal grandmother, the sister of the Irish polemicist John Abernethy and a woman of uniquely independent views on almost everything. She sent Melvill to Boston Latin School and then to the College, with the intention that he become a clergyman. At Nassau Hall he probably joined the WellMeaning Club, predecessor of the Cliosophic Society to which he also belonged. He was a member of the trio in his class who presented a "dialogue" at their commencement exercises. Melvill was not drawn to the stern tenets of Calvinism and so did not study theology after he graduated. Instead, he went to Scotland in 1771, possibly to see his relatives, possibly to recover his health. In any case, he was back in Boston in 1773, and with his substantial in­ heritance he established himself as a merchant. Like many young men, Melvill was outraged by British tax policies. He joined the Long Room Club, the group of political activists who met in the spacious upper floor over Edes and Gills's printing shop. There were several such "inner clubs" in Boston, all said to be spon­ sors of the Sons of Liberty. Melvill's colleagues and friends in the

34

CLASS OF 1769

Long Room included James Otis, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, Josiah Quincy, Royall Tyler, and Samuel Adams. Most of the sixteen members were Harvard graduates, and in the fall of 1773 Melvill forged another link to them when he received an honorary A.M. from their alma mater. It was in the Long Room and at the "Freemasons Arms" in the Green Dragon tavern that the Boston Tea Party was planned. Melvill, who was also a Mason, was among the sixty to eighty men who dis­ guised themselves as Indians on December 16, 1773, and tossed the cartons of undelivered tea from the ships in Boston harbor. When he went home the next morning he found some of the tea in his shoes. Preserved in a glass vial, the relic was kept in his family for genera­ tions. Thus quickly and firmly established in Boston's political society, Melvill was elected a clerk of the market in March 1774. That August he married Priscilla Scollay, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in the city. They lived comfortably on Green Street and attended the Brattle Street Church whose pastor, Samuel Cooper, was a fellow member of the Long Room. In April 1775 Melvill's rifle and blunderbuss were seized by the British, as were those of other notorious radicals. He was the desig­ nated aide to Joseph Warren at the time, but Warren's death at Breed's Hill in May left Melvill without a wartime post until May 1776 when he was commissioned a captain in Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Craft's regiment of artillery. The unit's ten companies were raised by Massachusetts specifically to defend Boston. In June, at­ tached to General Benjamin Lincoln's command, Craft's regiment manned the batteries on Nantasket that fired on the remnants of the British fleet, most of which had evacuated Boston in March, and forced the ships out of Boston harbor. Melvill was then promoted to major and third in command under Craft and Paul Revere. Briefly part of the Continental Army at the end of 1776, the regiment was in Rhode Island where Melvill declined a promotion to commissary be­ cause he did not want to be responsible for the poor food or to suffer the predictable abuse from disgruntled and hungry men. Most of Melvill's military duties were administrative and his month­ ly salary of £15 went largely unpaid. In March 1778 he and Revere had to petition the General Court for the privilege of buying their uniforms from the state supplies at the same low price paid by Conti­ nental officers. In November Melvill resigned his commission, express­ ing his regret at having to do so because he could not support his family. He had earned some small income from his shares in privateers.

THOMAS MELVILL (MELVILLE)

35

A civilian again, Melvill served for the rest of the war on the Bos­ ton Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety and on other bodies that governed military and security affairs. In 1779 he was chosen one of the city's firewards, a position he held, except when he asked to be excused in 1784, for more than four decades, even though he was not reimbursed for his expenses until 1818. In 1786 Melvill, with the help of Sam Adams, obtained the state's appointment as naval officer of Boston, effective in October 1787. Fi­ nancial difficulties made him, as he claimed, "in great measure de­ pendent upon that office" for his livelihood. When the federal govern­ ment took control of the port in 1789, therefore, Melvill appealed to Adams and others to help him retain his post, and he was named sur­ veyor of the District of Boston and Charlestown. Unlike some of his counterparts elsewhere he paid strict attention to the details of the job, because even ships with certificates from other ports might some­ times be "as well identified by the cut of [their] sails as by [their] pa­ pers." Although the Republicans were prepared to replace him in a gen­ eral political housecleaning in 1802, he was saved by his reputation. Years later he had the protection of Elbridge Gerry against Demo­ cratic spoilsmen. Melvill lost the port surveyorship only after the Jacksonian Democrats won the election of 1828. He had offended them by being part of the ad hoc union of Federalists and Republicans that was the basis of the Whig Party in Massachusetts and supported John Quincy Adams for president in 1824. A member of the Scotch Charitable Society of Massachusetts since 1786, Melvill was its president in 1799. It was a position commensurate with his now secure wealth and status in the community. He paid $25.40 toward a new sewer in Green Street in 1811, the largest assess­ ment on any private dwelling in the neighborhood. And in 1816 he bought Broadhall, a large estate in Pittsfield, which he retained even while he continued to live in Boston. He was a frequent contributor to the pro-Democratic Pittsfield Sun, urging the development of more and better industry in the United States. Although he was never a serious candidate, Melvill occasionally re­ ceived single token votes in Boston's town meetings for offices in the state government. But in 1820 he was actually chosen one of the city's forty-five delegates to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. And in 1830, after his removal from the port surveyor's office, he won a term in the state's House of Representatives. The Melvills had eleven children, some of them remarkably inept in the management of their money. Perhaps the least fortunate of all

36

CLASS OF 1769

was Allan, whom in 1818 Melvill sent with $6,500 to investigate the family's claim to the huge estate of General Robert Melvill in Britain and to buy goods in France for his own business. Allan died in 1832, owing his father $22,000, but Allan's son Herman was one of the joys of the old man's life. The future author of Moby Dick spent the sum­ mers of 1827 an d !829 with his grandparents and was especially im­ pressed by the model ship, fully rigged and made entirely of glass, that sat on Melvill's desk. Herman Melville must also have been struck by his grandfather's appearance, for almost everyone else in Boston was. Melvill was known as the "last of the cocked hats," who insisted on wearing the fashions of his eighteenth-century youth through nearly one-third of the nine­ teenth century. One young Bostonian, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in one of his best-known poems, "The Last Leaf," immortalized the sad old man with "a crook in his back,/ And a melancholy crack/ In his laugh" who "totter[ed] o'er the ground/ With his cane" in his "old three-cornered hat,/ And the breeches, and all that." Melvill never adjusted to retirement, especially from the fire depart­ ment. He had been president of the firewards and he loved to fight fires. When an alarm rang near his home in the late summer of 1832, therefore, he could not suppress the urge to join the effort. As a result, exhausted and suffering from exposure, he died on September 16. SOURCES: Sibley's Harvard Graduates, xvn, 184-86; R. M. Weaver, Herman Melville (1921), 40-45; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (A.M.); E. Forbes, Paul Revere (1942), 124-25, 198-200, 318-19; E. H. Goss, Life of Col. Paul Revere (1972), 1, 127η, 292, 300-301; Β. W. Labaree, Boston Tea Party (1964), 143; F. S. Drake, Tea Leaves (1884), 66ff; Boston Town Rec., xvm, 152; xxix, 325; xxv, 208; xxvn, 181; xxxi, xxxv, XXXVII, passim; xxxviii, 273; Heitman; U.S. Naval Hist. Div., Naval Docs, of the Amer. Rev., Ν (1970), 582-83; Essex Inst., Hist. Coll., xn, 238; xm, passim; xiv, 74; Mass. Soldiers and Sailors of the Rev. War (1902), 625; G. W. Allen, Mass. Privateers of the Rev. (1927), 282-83, 292; Force, Am. Arch. (5 ser.), 11, 749, 754, 757; H. A. Cushing, ed., Wnimgi of Samuel Adams (1908), iv, 404 n. 2; als TM to unidentified alumnus of CNJ, 6 Jun 1789, Gratz Coll., PHi, ("dependent on that office"); Hamilton Papers, vm, 107 ("cut of [their] sails"); xvi, 44; MHS Col., (7 ser.), vi, 233; MHSP (1 ser.), v, 275; S. G. Drake, Hist, and Antiquities of Boston (1856), 455; J.E.A. Smith, Hist, of Pittsfield, Mass. (1876), 7, 176, 195; Boston Directory 1820, 150; Journal of Debates . . . in the Convention . . . (1821), 5; DAB (grandson); W. H. Gilman, Melville's Early Life and "Redburn" (1951), 11, 38-39, 61; M. R. Small, Oliver Wendell Holmes (!962), 36-37; J. T. Morse, Jr., Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1896), 1, 327. MANUSCRIPTS: MHi

Samuel Niles III SAMUEL NILES III, A.B., Congregational clergyman and public official,

was born in Brain tree, Massachusetts on December 14, 1745. He was the grandson of a prominent clergyman, Samuel Niles (Harvard 1699), and the son of an influential farmer and public official, Samuel Niles, Jr. (Harvard 1731). His father, who was noted for his staunch religious conservatism and legendary for his stubbornness, had married his first cousin, Sarah Niles. The third Samuel Niles was sent to Abington, Massachusetts to pre­ pare for college with the local minister, Ezekiel Dodge (Harvard 1749), whose reading of Jonathan Edwards and reputation for toler­ ance made him a suitable teacher of boys bound for Nassau Hall. Niles entered the College in 1765, joining his brother Nathaniel (A.B. 1766). Nathaniel Niles had already become known for his fondness for arguments. His skill as a debater won him the sobriquet "Botheration Primus" from his classmates, and his equally contentious younger brother soon became "Botheration Secundus." In his commencement exercises, Samuel Niles supported the propo­ sition that "ridicule was not the test of truth." During his senior year he had undergone a religious conversion, so after graduation he re­ turned to Abington to study theology with his former tutor, Ezekiel Dodge. When Dodge's health failed, Niles went to Bethlehem, Con­ necticut to study under Joseph Bellamy. On November 7, 1770, hav­ ing been licensed in Middleborough, Massachusetts, he was in Abing­ ton again to supply the pulpit vacated when Dodge died five months before. After a brief visit to Boston, Niles returned to Abington to re­ ceive the call of the congregation on February 5, 1771. Offered a settle­ ment of £133 6s 8d and an annual salary of £93 6s 8d, he accepted the call and was ordained at Abington on September 25, 1771. Bellamy came to assist him during a revival very soon thereafter. On June 8, 1772, Niles married Mary Dodge, the daughter of his predecessor and tutor, in the church at North Bridgewater. They had two sons and six daughters. Niles's religious conversion had not made him any less argumenta­ tive; it had simply changed the subjects about which he argued. He was a tireless debater of religious doctrine, partial to syllogistic reasoning that confounded opponents who did not dare to challenge his pious premises. He rarely wrote notes for his sermons, preferring simply to study the scriptural texts, which he usually did on horseback. His calm Hopkinsian preaching was popular with the people of Abington

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and they elected him to represent them in the state convention called to ratify the federal Constitution in 1788. At the convention Niles was concerned about the definition of limits on the powers of Congress. He endorsed John Hancock's call for a bill of rights to allay the fears of many delegates. Part of the slim majority that voted to ratify, he was one of several cautious Federalists who would later become Jeffersonians. As an exponent of Hopkinsian theology, particularly of the doctrine of decrees or complete foreordination, Niles became one of the state's better known "Necessarians." The differences among clergymen over such points tended to fragment the established New England church, a process that ran parallel to the growth of political dissent. In 1795 Niles participated with Samuel Spring (A.B. 1771) of Newburyport in the ordination of a minister who had been rejected by another Congregational "sect." In 1801 Niles and Spring were fellow trustees of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, a Hopkinsian group far less ecumenical than its name implied. Niles gave the sermon at the so­ ciety's meeting in May, but according to a skeptical Unitarian minister, William Bentley, the audience of clergymen of all Protestant persua­ sions was drawn more by curiosity than by sympathy. When Niles was chosen to arbitrate a dispute between a neighboring church and its minister, Bentley concluded that the choice was made because Niles had "sophistry enough for any cause." Niles himself preached against the "spirit of disorganization, and . . . resistance to government" when he commemorated Washington's death in 1800. But as an advocate of religious freedom, he was part of that very resistance, like it or not. Supported by Jefferson, he and a few others opposed the strictness of Massachusetts establishmentarianism, if not the theory. Because it was exacerbated by the question of church taxes, the issue politicized the clergy. Niles was a Republican, but not even all of the Republican Congregationalists went as far as he did in opposing the establishment. Niles experienced some of the politico-religious factionalism within his own, usually tranquil, congregation over the issue of whether the church or the town as the legal body of the parish should appoint choristers to lead the hymns. Beginning with a simple dispute over tempo, the argument escalated until on February 23, 1806, the two competing choir groups decided to sing different tunes at the same time. The result was a chaos so unnerving that Mrs. Niles fainted. After carrying his wife from the church, Niles returned and banned all further singing until the dispute was settled. Before that was ac­ complished, the town very nearly divided itself in half.

JESSE REED

39

The church finally split in 1807 when residents of southern Abington formed their own congregation. But their motives were not doc­ trinal. They simply did not want to have to go three miles to worship. The first church itself was separated from the town's control in 1808. Niles represented Abington in the Massachusetts General Court from 1808 to 1811. In November 1811 he suffered a stroke that forced him to abandon his pastoral and political duties. Although still able to ride and to walk with assistance, he could not speak more than a few words at a time. He accepted his handicap with the resignation of a proper "Necessarian" and was often heard to say, "All is done, all done, all right, all right." The church called for an associate pastor in 1813, but on January 16, 1814, before an assistant could arrive, Niles died. His salary had been raised in 1808 to $405, and in 1810 to $500, but he received only 70% of his due. As a result, he left his family deeply in debt. SOURCES: B. Hobart, Hist, of the Town of Abington (1866), go, 92, 98-115 ("All is done"); Sibley's Harvard Graduates, ix, 71-74; xn, 367-69; G. Anderson, "Joseph Bellamy," unpub. Ph.D. dissert. Boston Univ. (1971), 428, 430; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Sprague, Annals, 1, 713-15; NEHGR, 29 (1965), 203; Boston Transcript, 12 Mar 1923; S. Niles, Remarks on a Sermon . . . [of] Sept. 26, 1810 by John Reed (1813); Debates, Resolutions . . . of the Convention . . . (1788), 109, 173, 215; Bentley, Diaries, 111, 465; 11, 27, 165, 374, 410 ("sophistry enough"); S. Niles, Sermon Delivered before the . . . Society . . . May 26, 1S01 (1801), app. 14; S. Niles, Vanity of Man Considered . . . (1800), 21 ("disorgani­ zation" and "resistance"); P. Goodman, Democratic-Republicans of Mass. (1964), 9496; W. G. McLaughlin, New England Dissent (1971), 11, 1074. PUBLICATIONS: see STE; Sh-Sh #s 1056, 29377, 55335

Jesse Reed JESSE REED, A.B., Congregational clergyman, was born in Abington,

Plymouth County, Massachusetts on March 16, 1746, the son of Daniel and Ruth White Reed. The Reeds were one of the most numerous families in Abington and nearby communities; and in so far as their religious beliefs can be ascertained, they appear to have been New Light Congregationalists and somewhat suspicious of the liberal re­ ligious climate of Harvard College. Jesse Reed's uncle, Solomon Reed (Harvard 1739), the New Light minister of Titicut parish in Middleborough, sent his four sons to Yale and Dartmouth in preference to Harvard. Daniel Reed's selection of the College of New Jersey for his son was no doubt more than acceptable to Abington's Calvinist pastor Ezekiel Dodge (Harvard 1749), who prepared Samuel Niles (A.B.

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CLASS OF 1769

1769) for college and who may also have superintended the early edu­ cation of Jesse Reed and Elias Jones (A.B. 1767), another Abington boy who came to Princeton for his collegiate training. After his graduation Jesse Reed probably returned to Massachu­ setts to prepare for the ministry, but the details of his divinity studies have not been discovered. One of his early sermons was heard by Dr. Cotton Tufts (Harvard 1749) of Weymouth, Massachusetts, who noted in his diary for May 31, 1772: "Mr. Williams preached A.M. Mr. Jesse Reed P.M." Mr. Williams was Reed's fellow alumnus Simeon Wil­ liams (A.B. 1765). minister of Weymouth's Second Congregational Church; and the pulpit Williams and Reed supplied that day was ordinarily filled by the elderly William Smith (Harvard 1725) who had recently been in poor health. Not until November 21, 1777, eight years after leaving the College, did Jesse Reed finally receive a call to a settled ministry; but he then fell victim to a congregational squabble in which his doctrinal position was questioned. The call came from the church at Westford, Massachu­ setts by a vote of twenty-one to five. Reed had been engaged to preach there a year earlier after the congregation and town had dismissed their previous minister, Willard Hall (Harvard 1722), who was con­ sidered obnoxious by many because of his Old Light views and his steadfast loyalty to George III. An ecclesiastical council was summoned to meet in Westford on June 17, 1778, to approve the dismissal of Hall and to ordain Reed; and Reed's home church of Abington, now under the care of his New Light classmate Samuel Niles, was among those invited to participate. But Willard Hall, ancient and despised as he was, refused to acquiesce quietly in his deposition. He and a loyal fac­ tion challenged the dismissal before the council and expressed doubts about Reed's theology as well. The dispute dragged on for several months; and although there was to be no reconciliation between Hall and the Westford congregation, neither was Jesse Reed to be ordained. Instead, on October 23, 1778, he received a final payment of £252 for his preaching. After the Westford debacle, Jesse Reed probably returned to Abing­ ton; and on November 18, 1781, he married Ruth Whitman, the daughter of a Weymouth deacon. Now past thirty-five and still with­ out pulpit or prospects near home, Reed moved with his wife to the Deerfield River town of Charlemont, then in Hampshire County, ar­ riving sometime before the birth of their first child on April 1, 1783. Perhaps it was by no coincidence that the Reeds appeared in Charle­ mont shortly after the congregation and town had voted to dismiss their minister, Jonathan Leavitt (Yale 1758). If Reed went to Charle-

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41

mont in hopes of a quick call, however, he was to be disappointed again. Leavitt had lost popularity because of his alleged Arminianism and because of disagreements over his salary occasioned by wartime infla­ tion. After his flock dismissed him on its own authority without con­ vening the usual church council, however, he remained in Charlemont, continuing to enjoy the favor of part of the people. The town eventually agreed to raise £170 to support Jesse Reed as their preach­ er; but Reed's position was complicated by the refusal of Parson Leavitt to leave, and he was admonished by the local ministerial asso­ ciation against preaching in Charlemont before the regular dismissal of Leavitt in 1785. Since Leavitt and most of his supporters resided in the portion of Charlemont that became the new town of Heath in that year, this geographical division of the factions in the Charlemont church seemed to clear the way at last for Reed's formal clerical settle­ ment there. Reed traveled to Boston in January 1788 as Charlemont's repre­ sentative to ithe Massachusetts convention that ratified the federal Constitution; he voted "aye" with the Abington delegate, Samuel Niles. Later in 1788 a new Congregational church was organized in Charlemont to replace the society that had lapsed with the division of the town, and Reed and his wife were among the subscribers to the church covenant. He was accepted into membership after an ex­ amination of his "religious sentiments & experimental knowledge of the holy Religion of Jesus" and after the receipt of a letter from Niles attesting to his regular dismissal from membership in the Abington church. A church meeting on December 10, 1789, voted to consider shortly the "expediency" of extending a call to Reed, but it was apparently not found expedient to ordain him before his death in January 1791. The title page of a sermon published posthumously took note of his bachelor's degree and described him as "Preacher of the Gospel" with­ out the customary designation of the author's church. Ordained or not, he was recorded as "Revd Jesse Reed" in the 1790 census in a house­ hold that included three persons in addition to his wife and four liv­ ing children. Insolvent at the time of his death, he had suffered much in his quest for a pulpit. His widow remarried in 1795, and not until 1842 was Reed's death noted in the College's triennial catalogue. SOURCES: J. L. Reed, R e e d G e n e a l . (1901), 95-96; Sibley's H a r v a r d G r a d u a t e s , x, 398400; xii, 367-69; vii, 78-81, 588-91; Dexter, Yale Biographies, HI, 453; 11, 543-45; D. H. Hurd, Hist, of Plymouth Cnty., Mass. (1884), 487; MHSP, (3 ser.), XLII, 473 ("Mr. Jesse Reed P.M."); E. R. Hodgman, Hist, of the Town of Westford (1883), 269-71; Hist, of Weymouth, Mass. (1923), iv, 755 (which places marriage after birth of first

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child, however); A. Healy, Charlemont, Mass. (1965), 64-65; T. Packard, Hist, of the Churches and Ministers . . . of Franklin Cnty., Mass. (1854), 64-67; abstracts of records of the Congregational Church of Charlemont made by Amos L. Avery and provided by Barbara M. Avery of Charlemont; NEHGR, 1 (1847), 2 33 ; 5 2 ( 1 898), 340; First Census, Mass., 105; Vital Recs. of Charlemont, Mass. (1917), 64. PUBLICATION: STE GSD

Samuel Stanhope Smith SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1772, D.D. Yale 1783, LL.D. Har­

vard 1810, Presbyterian clergyman, educator, and scholar, was the seventh president of the College and the first alumnus to hold the office. He was born on March 15, 1751 (not 1750, as often has been said, even on his tombstone), the year in which his father, Robert Smith, was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Pequea, Pennsylvania. His father served as a trustee of the College from 1772 to 1793. His mother, Elizabeth Blair, was a daughter of Samuel Blair, one of the College's founding trustees, and sister to Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), president-elect of the College for a brief time in 1767. Two younger brothers, John Blair Smith and William Richmond Smith, graduated with the Class of 1773. Samuel's own ties to Princeton were strengthened when on June 28, 1775, he married Ann, the oldest daughter of President Witherspoon, whom he would succeed in 1795. Smith was prepared for college by his father, who conducted a fa­ mous school at Pequea. He was admitted to the College in 1767 as a member of the junior class. During his undergraduate years he ex­ celled in mathematics, acquired a lifelong interest in scientific subjects, and flirted with the idealistic philosophy of immaterialism, an intellec­ tual venture from which President Witherspoon seems to have re­ called him to the solid ground of common sense. While apparently not a founding member of the Whig Society, he was one of its early mem­ bers. At the commencement of 1769 he enjoyed the honor of delivering the Latin salutatory address, the role of the "greatest Scholar" in the class. After graduation Smith returned to Pequea as an assistant to his father in the school. He also began his study of theology with him. In 1770 he was brought back to Princeton, where he served as tutor and continued his preparation for the ministry with Witherspoon. Li­ censed to preach by the New Castle Presbytery in 1773, Smith went to Virginia that year as a missionary.

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Samuel Stanhope Smith, A.B. 1769 BY JAMES SHARPLES

There he quickly won favor and influence among the Presbyterians of the province. His presence served as a catalyst for a growing con­ cern within the Presbytery of Hanover for improvement in the pro­ vision for the education of its youth, with the result that he had a part in the establishment of two academies. In October 1774 William Graham (A.B. 1773), whom Smith had taught at Princeton, was charged with the conduct of an academy in Augusta County that later became Liberty Hall and still later Washington College, forerunner of Washington and Lee University. The response to proposals for the establishment of another academy was such that on February 3, 1775, Smith was chosen as rector of the Prince Edward Academy, which in 1783 became Hampden-Sidney College. On October 24, 1775, he was installed and ordained as pastor of the joint congregations of Cumber­ land and Prince Edward. As the school got underway, the newly mar­ ried rector was joined on the staff by his brother John, his brotherin-law David Witherspoon (A.B. 1774), and Samuel Doak (A.B. 1775). The educational plan was modeled after that of Nassau Hall. Smith

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continued to head the institution until 1779 when he was called back to Princeton as Professor of Moral Philosophy. His brother John suc­ ceeded to his former responsibilities in Prince Edward. While in Virginia, Smith renewed his acquaintance with James Madison (A.B. 1771), whom he visited on occasion at Montpelier; and on his trip north in 1775 to marry Ann Witherspoon and make pur­ chases in behalf of the Prince Edward Academy, he undertook a com­ mission to bring certain pamphlets relating to church-state rela­ tions back to Madison. It was, of course, a subject of vital interest to Smith as a "dissenting" minister, and he has been credited with draft­ ing the important memorial submitted by the Hanover Presbytery to the Virginia legislature in the fall of 1776. The memorial seemed to place the Presbyterians firmly on record as favoring the separation of church and state, in addition to protesting certain disadvantages that they continued to suffer despite the provision of the Virginia Bill of Rights affirming "the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." Representative of Smith's lifelong inclination to have a part in the discussion of public issues is a letter written in early 1779 to Thomas Jefferson, with whom he was not acquainted. The subject was Jeffer­ son's "general scheme of education." Smith claimed to have had no more than "a transient view" of it, but he applauded the plan for a state­ wide system of publicly supported education as one to be welcomed by "every lover of learning and of his country." However, he foresaw serious difficulties, both for its adoption and for its implementation, "from the variety of religious sentiments that exist in the state." His analysis of the effect denominational jealousies might have upon Jef­ ferson's plan was much stronger than was his suggestion for a possible remedy, which was nothing more, nor less, than a vaguely stated "wish for a union, at least of the two capital sects," by which he meant the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians. Unfortunately, Jefferson's answer has not been found, but Smith's response to it, dated April 19, has survived. He apologized for having written "prematurely" and for having been mistaken regarding some details of the plan. But he quickly returned to the main theme of the earlier letter, expressing doubt that the College of William and Mary oould "ever be delivered from the influence of party," and suggesting a possible remedy by locating "the College" in another part of the state, or by providing for "two universities," or by having the state legislature assume a more direct control of the institution. It was a prescient letter with regard both to the fate of Jefferson's bill and the long term history of higher education in the state. It also expressed a

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45

catholicity of view regarding other denominations to which Smith would consistently adhere, though it should be added that his sugges­ tion of a special opportunity for collaboration between the Epicopalians and the Presbyterians carried a potential risk for Jefferson's hope for a complete separation of church and state. In both of these letters, Smith indicated that his personal plans called for an early departure from Virginia. No doubt, he and his fa­ ther-in-law had already agreed upon his return to Princeton, although formal confirmation of his appointment to the professorship by the trustees did not come until the following September. Smith and his family reached Princeton in December 1779 and took up residence in the President's House, with Witherspoon moving to "Tusculum," the house and farm he owned outside the village. Smith had been called to assume much more than the duties of a professorship. Witherspoon was still an active member of the Con­ gress, and Professor William C. Houston (A.B. 1768), who had carried a heavy responsibility for keeping the College going, was himself elect­ ed to Congress in May 1779 and subsequently was acquiring other commitments that effectively terminated his role in the College well before his resignation in 1783. From the first, Smith took over a sub­ stantial part of the president's administrative duties. And Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) later recalled that when he entered the College in May 1782 Smith conducted all instruction with the aid of a single tutor. In 1783 the professorship of theology was added to his duties. Witherspoon had ended his service in the Congress in 1782 but he remained active in the affairs of both state and church, and in 1786 the trustees made Smith vice-president of the College in recognition of the increasingly heavy responsibilities he carried. Those responsi­ bilities continued to grow as the venerable president advanced in age and became totally blind through the last three years of his life. When Witherspoon died late in 1794, there was no need for haste in selecting Smith as his successor, which the trustees did by unanimous vote on May 5, 1795, nor were there problems of transition into the new ad­ ministration. Smith brought to the presidency an unusual range of talent, perhaps the broadest range of any president before or after him. In addition to the normal command of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he read French with ease, though he refused to teach it at Hampden-Sidney because of a distrust of his pronunciation (and it is to be noted that he later engaged a French master for instruction of those students at Princeton who wished to add the study to their normal program). Naturally studious, he found delight in metaphysical speculations. As he ex-

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plained to Madison in 1778, after submitting to that "discerning critic" a lengthy essay on the "knotty question of liberty 8c necessity," everything was "amusing that affords employment to the powers of reason." His religious convictions imposed no restraint upon the full play of his own rational powers. In closing his essay, he invited Madison to "inform me whether you can assign any cause for the existence of a Deity, that may not also be assigned for the existence of the universe alone. I do not doubt his being. But I doubt whether it can be proved by speculative reasoning, Sc is not rather a kind of indelible sentiment of the heart." He found amusement too in the popular literature of the time, and might quote Tristram Shandy in the currently fashionable type of sentimental correspondence in which he indulged with an intimate circle of friends and relatives, including women, for whom on occasion he wrote verse. As a modern scholar has observed, among those who knew him best, he enjoyed "a reputa­ tion for charm, wit, humor, and poetry." The general public seems invariably to have been impressed by his dress and his manners. Tall and by all accounts unusually handsome, with finely formed features and noticeably blue eyes, he was described by Archibald Alexander, in recalling that he had seen him first at a meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, as the most elegant person he had ever seen. Alexander claimed that on this occasion he assumed that Smith was a Philadelphia gentleman rather than another minister of the Gospel. This kind of impression was only partially offset by the fame Smith won as a pulpit orator. It was not by chance that he was chosen to speak in New Jersey's capital city, and in a very real sense for the state itself, on the occasion of George Washington's death. In addition to individually printed sermons, Smith published in 1799 a collection of his sermons in a volume of more than 400 pages. In 1821, two years after Smith's death, Frederick Beasley (A.B. 1797)—who after gradu­ ating from the College had served for two years as tutor there while reading theology with Smith in preparation for a career as an Episco­ palian minister and who at the time was midway through a long term as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania— brought out a two-volume edition of the sermons, prefaced by an anonymous and glowing tribute to their author. For sermons of a by­ gone day, these are surprisingly readable. They are neither lengthy nor burdened by theological abstractions. The literary style is plain and free of oratorical flourishes. One is persuaded to accept the con­ temporary judgment that Smith knew how to put words in the right place. And yet it was said that no one who had not heard Smith speak

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47

from the pulpit could really know how effective he was. Perhaps the delivery was too perfect. Perhaps the oft-repeated story, possibly apocryphal, needs here another mention. It is that John Blair Smith once said to him: "Brother Sam, you don't preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, but Sam Smith and him dignified." Smith was also an active and influential churchman. He is credited with an important part in the reorganization of his denomination that led to its General Assembly, of which he was moderator in 1799. President Smith enjoyed a distinct advantage from the wellestablished reputation he had as a scholar. This depended upon more than the scholarly quality many found in his sermons, for in 1787 he had delivered a significant paper before the American Philosophical Society, to which he had been elected in 1785. Entitled An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species, it addressed an old problem of reconciling the marked diversities found within the human species with the no less evident similarities among its different members. It cannot be said that Smith contributed anything original to the discussion. It even has to be suggested that his general conclusion—that all mankind belonged to the same family and traced back to a single creation as recorded in the Book of Genesis—was predetermined, for to a man of Smith's religious con­ victions, the alternative of multiple creations was unthinkable. Di­ versity, he held, had developed over time as the result of environmental influences, including those that were social. Published at Philadelphia in 1787* the Essay was republished during the next two years at Edin­ burgh and London. One measure of its importance is found in attacks by other scholars that became sharp enough for Smith to issue a second and enlarged edition by way of rejoinder in 1810. In writing the Essay, Smith had shown a more than respectable command of the existing literature. Moreover, his affirmation of the oneness of all mankind was a timely contribution to an emerging debate over the existence of human slavery within a republic com­ mitted to the enlargement of human freedom, though it should be noted that the piece was in no way polemical. It is known that Smith opposed slavery, but evidently he assumed that before the audience he addressed no other approach to the subject was appropriate than that of the philosopher he aspired to be. Above all, the Essay expressed Smith's abiding faith that there was no possible conflict between science and revealed religion. That faith provides the key to the educational reforms that Smith undertook to introduce at Princeton. Without seeking to discount the fundamental place of classical languages and literature in educa-

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tion, he sought to find more time for the college student to study science and modern languages. One device he proposed was a strength­ ening of the requirements for admission that would establish a degree of proficiency in the classics justifying a limitation of further instruc­ tion in that area to the freshman year. Another proposal was to pro­ vide an opportunity for students primarily interested in the sciences to pursue a special program leading to a certificate of achievement, a significant step toward the much later Bachelor of Science degree. The trustees agreed to the latter proposal in 1799, but they abandoned the experiment in 1809, despite a response by students that had led to the award of five such certificates at the commencement of 1805, when forty-two young men were admitted to the first degree in the arts. If Smith failed to achieve all that he hoped for in the way of curricular reform, he was impressively successful in other ways. The College in 1795 was still struggling to recover from the disastrous effects of the war years. Especially critical was the financial problem. Smith's success in 1796 in getting a grant of £600 per year for three years from the state legislature provided only partial relief. The grant was not renewed, and the College remained primarily dependent upon tuition fees for its income. An enrollment of just above 75 students in 1794 had grown to a total of 182 in November of 1805, and the 54 degrees awarded in 1806 was the largest since the founding of the College. A faculty of two professors, including the vice-president, had grown to a faculty of four professors in addition to the president, the usual two or three tutors, and an instructor in French. The professors included John Maclean, father of the later president John Maclean and a graduate of Edinburgh, who had settled in Princeton as a physician and was offering instruction in chemistry at the College before his appointment in 1797 as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Faculty Minutes, which had their beginning in 1787 and for a time dealt with little beyond nagging problems of student discipline, reveal that under Smith the faculty was increasingly drawn into the consideration of academic questions. Smith himself continued to carry a teaching schedule any modern must regard as unbelievably heavy, and the two volumes of his Lectures . . . on the Subjects of Moral and Political Philosophy, published in 1812, bear persuasive testimony to the high quality of the instruction he gave. Smith shrewdly estimated the special opportunity the College faced in the light of its history and the growing competition from other colleges. Conceding New England, from which many students had come before the Revolution, to Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth, he hoped that Princeton might continue "to be the principal resort of

SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH

49

American youth from the Hudson to Georgia." How accurate this estimate was is suggested by the origins of students attending the College in January 1805. From New Jersey there were 32; Pennsyl­ vania, 31; Maryland, 28; Virginia, 22; South Carolina, 13, and Georgia, 9. Of the other states only New York had as many as Georgia. There were 2 from Massachusetts, 2 from Kentucky, and only 1 from Con­ necticut. The high point in Smith's presidency came just after the fire that destroyed Nassau Hall in 1802. It is difficult to be as specific as one would like to be regarding Smith's personal role in the remarkable revival of the College's fortunes that followed this disaster. As one who had a strict regard for authority and its location, he seems to have tried always to work with and through the trustees, whose minutes tell less about his own initiative than they otherwise might have. It is significant that he was a member of the more important of the special committees appointed to cope with the diverse problems arising from the catastrophe, including that for drafting an address to the public. It is also significant that he was sent on a personal fund-raising mission into the southern states that kept him out of residence at the College for a year or more. Even more significant, though, is the way in which the broad constituency of the College, as well as friends outside it, rallied to its support—so much so that sufficient funds were raised not only for the reconstruction of Nassau Hall but also for the construction of two new buildings on the front campus—what is now known as Stanhope Hall and the no longer existing Philosophical Hall. Except for the unhappy sequel which so quickly followed, this achievement would be viewed as an unqualified tribute to the man who headed the institution. Smith has to be blamed in part for what followed, and especially for his unwise handling of a problem of student discipline in 1807. Student discipline was not a new problem, nor was it peculiar to Princeton. The experience in all colleges supports the view that the generation of young men growing up after the Revolution was gener­ ally disinclined to submit to the rigid discipline and routine that was traditional in the American college. Smith, whose political views were those of a Federalist who instinctively distrusted the potential excesses of democracy, as his lectures make clear, seems to have been at one with the trustees in their belief that any challange to authority in the College was properly countered by a strengthening of the laws govern­ ing student conduct. In the spring of 1807 he faced what he took to be a "combination"—that is the word used in the faculty minutes—of students against the officers of the College. After consulting with

50

CLASS OF 1769

trustee Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), son of the signer and also a lawyer, which under the circumstances was unfortunate, the president demanded that all students who had signed a petition seeking recon­ sideration of disciplinary action taken by the faculty against several students publicly withdraw their signature or face suspension. The end result was a tumultuous riot and suspension from the College of 125 students. Perhaps half of them later were readmitted and won their degrees, but the damage had been done. The trustees blamed Smith for letting the worrisome problem of student discipline get out of hand. Memory of the great fire was still fresh, as was the report of a special committee of the board for investi­ gating its origins that had reached the unlikely conclusion that it had been deliberately set. For some of the trustees, no doubt, Smith's educational reforms had gone too far. Among the churchmen, a con­ siderable part of the whole, there was a longstanding dissatisfaction over the declining number of graduates who were going into the ministry. For them, the College was no longer serving its original mission as well as it should, and within the General Assembly, thoughts were beginning to turn toward the possible need for a separate seminary dedicated exclusively to the professional training of min­ isters. The full story is a very complex one and deserves more study than it has received thus far. Here it can only be said that the trustees, already inclined to look over Smith's shoulder, now moved almost to a direct government of the College. Smith's health, never robust, was declining, and there may be some question as to how far he was physically able to carry the full re­ sponsibilities of his office. It has to be noted, though, that two of his more important publications came in the very years of his greatest difficulty with the trustees. Enrollment fell precipitously after 1807, in 1810 to less than a hundred, with drastic effect upon the revenues available for replacement of the four professors who resigned, or were allowed to resign, between 1806 and 1812. The first to go was the Professor of Theology, the last was Maclean. In 1812, the year in which the Princeton Theological Seminary was founded with trustees of the College in the lead, Smith in effect was forced to resign. He was given a pension and a house in which to live out his life. He found employment in writing a lengthy and Comprehensive View . . . of Natural and Revealed Religion, published in 1815, and in a special service to his deceased brother-in-law David Ramsay (A.B. 1765) by bringing Ramsay's History of the United States down to the Treaty of Ghent for publication in 18x8. Smith died on August 21, 1819. To his marriage with Ann Witherspoon there had been born

51

PHILIP STOCKTON

nine children, five of whom survived their father, including John Witherspoon Smith (A.B. 1795). SOURCES: DAB; Sprague, Annals, HI, 335-45; Maclean, History, N, 5-121, 122-46, 325; S. S. Smith, Sermons (1821), 1, 3-60; Sibley's Harvard Graduates, XVII, 232-37; espe­ cially Thorp, Eighteen From Princeton, 86-110; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (commencement); Madison Papers, 1, 45 ("greatest Scholar"), 157, 16061, 194-211 (essay on liberty), 253-58; Beam, Whig Soc., 19; O. Crenshaw, Gen. Lee's College (ig6g), 9; H. C. Bradshaw, Hist, of Hampden-Sydney College, 1 (1976), 1155; Hampden-Sidney College, Gen. Cat. (1908), and Cal. of Board Minutes (1912), 7-25; Foote, Sketches, Va., 323-24, 293-99; Jefferson Papers, 11, 246-49 ("every lover of learning"), 252-55 ("two universities"); J. Witherspoon, Works (1801), iv, 337; A. Green, Life of . . . Witherspoon (1973), 174, 194η; W. D. Jordan's excellent intro­ duction to Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion (1965) in which the text follows the edition of 1810; Trustee Minutes, Faculty Minutes, PUA; broadside Cat. of Officers and Students (Jan 1805, Nov 1805), NjP. PUBLICATIONS; see text, STE, Sh-Sh MANUSCRIPTS; NjP, PHi, PPPrHi, MHi

WFC

Philip Stockton P HILIP STOCKTON, honorary A.B. 1773, and Presbyterian clergyman, probably should have been included in the preceding volume of this series. He was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on July 11, 1746, the son of Abigail Phillips Stockton and John Stockton and a younger brother of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748), trustee of the College from 1757 to 1778. Evidence that he was at some time a student in the College is found in newspaper accounts of the commencement of 1773 where it is stated after the awarding of all other degrees, earned and honorary, that "Philip Stockton, an Alumnus of this College was admitted to the A.B." Unfortunately, the Minutes of the trustees give no indication of the time when he had been a student and show only that the award was by an action separate from the usual vote on the report of members of the senior class who had sustained the examina­ tion for their degrees. The explanation seems quite clearly to have been a desire on the part of the trustees to assist him in a belated decision to enter the ministry, for he was accepted as a candidate by the Presbytery of New Brunswick on October 12, 1773, and licensed to preach by the same body in April 1775. The exact time of his enrollment in the College must be left to conjecture. His marriage on April 13, 1767, to Catherine Cumming, daughter of Robert Cumming and sister of John Noble Cumming (A.B. 1774), argues that he had abandoned his studies prior to that date. That at the age of nineteen he was a member of the freshman

52

CLASS OF 1769

class during the academic year 1765-1766 admittedly is more of a possibility than a probability, but it has seemed advisable to put him with the Class of 1769 rather than to include him, perhaps even more out of place, with the Class of 1773. After a normal period of itineracy, Stockton was called by the church at Oxford, then in Sussex County, New Jersey. His ministry included the unorganized congregation in Mansfield and the church at Knowlton, giving him a parish that stretched for approximately twenty miles. He was ordained at Knowlton on August 11, 1778. Stockton found some of his flock too quarrelsome for his tastes and by October 1780 he was eager to be rid of the Knowlton church at least. On October 12 the presbytery approved his request for dismissal from that congregation, and by 1782, he had also left the pulpits in Oxford and Mansfield. In March 1782 Stockton advertised his farm of 133 acres near Bethle­ hem, Hunterdon County, New Jersey for sale. He may have resided there throughout his tenure at the Sussex churches. He then returned with his family to Princeton, where on the death of his father in 1758 he had inherited half of the father's property on the south side of the "main street." Although he remained a member of the New Brunswick Presbytery, he apparently never again had a formal charge. Fortu­ nately, he was able to live comfortably on his own and his wife's inheritances. In 1785 or 1786 Stockton agreed to buy a large part of the Castle Howard estate in Princeton from President Witherspoon. The prop­ erty had belonged to Captain William Howard's widow and her second husband in 1777, but since they were both Loyalists and had to flee the area, they gave their power of attorney to Witherspoon so that he could sell the estate and send them the proceeds. Instead, the state confiscated Castle Howard and rented it. Witherspoon regained pos­ session in 1785 and charged Stockton £900 for his share of it. Stockton, however, made only one installment payment of £60, and none of even that small amount ever reached the original owners, who complained that Witherspoon had cheated them. Stockton died at Castle Howard on June 12, 1792. His wife and seven of their eight children survived him. Each of the five boys was to receive £300, and the two girls were left £200 each, plus £1,600 when they married or reached the age of twenty-one. The rest of Stockton's estate, valued at £1,500 all told, included livestock, books, and two slaves. The executors of the estate were unable to settle Stockton's claim to two or more lots of land in Ohio until 1806, when John Cleves Symmes, who had sold the land without proper title, agreed to a

ELIHU THAYER

53

compromise settlement. Castle Howard reverted to President Witherspoon in 1793 under a state law that enabled creditors to recover col­ lateral on bad debts. SOURCES: T. C. Stockton, Stockton Family of N.J. (1911), 23-24, 51-52; Webster, MS Brief Sketches, 11; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (quote); NJA, xxix, 55; Trustee Minutes, 29 Sep 1773; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Sussex and Warren Counties, N.J. (1881), 610, 63132; NJA (2 ser.), v, 373-74; Rec. Pres. Chh., passim; Rec. Gen. Assembly, 15, 77; V. L. Collins, President Witherspoon, (1925), 11, 121; A. H. Bill, A House Called Morven (1954), 63; will, #8137-81461^, book 34, 303, Nj; G. A. Boyd, Elias Boudinot (1952), 153; B. W. Bond, Jr., ed., Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes (1926),

!94-9511-

Elihu Thayer ELIHU THAYER, A.B., D.D. Dartmouth 1807, Congregational clergy­

man, was born in Brain tree, Massachusetts on March 18, 1746. He was the son of Nathaniel Thayer, Jr., a farmer, and Mary Foxon Thayer. He was given religious and scholastic training very early and was said to have read the Bible three times by the time he was seven. Thayer entered the College as a sophomore and, although reputedly well liked, remained unusually inconspicuous. Apparently as a result either of his rigorous early education or of his diligence at Nassau Hall, his health was permanently damaged. After graduation he probably taught school in Massachusetts while he studied theology in Stoneham with John Searle (Yale 1745), a student and disciple of Jonathan Edwards, and then with Ezra Weld (Yale 1759) in Braintree. Probably in 1775 Thayer was licensed to preach and supplied the pulpit at Newburyport, Massachusetts. He might have remained there permanently but for the disruptions brought on by the Revolution. Instead, he moved to Kingston, New Hampshire where he succeeded Amos Tappan (Harvard 1758) as pastor of the Congregational church. He was ordained there on December 18, 1776, and received an annual salary of £60 plus the use of the parsonage and twenty cords of wood. Thayer spent the rest of his life in Kingston. On December 28, 1780, he married Hannah Calef of that town. The marriage produced eleven children. Thayer's close friend and neighbor was Governor Josiah Bartlett, at whose funeral Thayer officiated in 1795. When the New Hampshire Missionary Society was formed in 1801, Thayer was elected its first president. He held the position for a decade and authored the society's "Summary of Christian doctrines and duties" for distribution to potential converts. In 1807, the New Hampshire General Association considered pub­ lishing a bimonthly "Religious Repository" and asked Thayer to serve

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CLASS OF 1769

as chairman of the board of editors. The publication of a magazine was almost de rigueur for religious sects, particularly after Harvardbased liberals began their Monthly Theology. The Hopkinsian Massa­ chusetts Missionary Magazine and the Edwardsian Panoplist were the answers of the more conservative churchmen, and one of the latter's founders, Jedidiah Morse (Yale 1783) enlisted Thayer in selling sub­ scriptions. Thayer liked the journal well enough, but thought that its purpose would be better served "were the prevailing [liberal] errors of the present day more explicitly and pointedly exposed." Presum­ ably, Thayer did not hesitate to be so specific in his own periodical. As a respected leader of the church and the author of several pub­ lished sermons, Thayer received an honorary D.D. from Dartmouth in 1807. He found time to teach divinity and classics to several students, including some who were preparing for college and some who were on suspension from Harvard or Dartmouth. His decidedly evangelical approach to religion was not particularly successful in his own church, where only thirty-six new members joined the congregation during his thirty-five years of service. Controversies divided Thayer's church for most of his pastorate. And not until after his death on April 3, 1812, did a significant revival occur in Kingston. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, ir, 104-107; J. Chapman, Hist. Address on . . . Congrega­ tional Chh., Kingston, N.H. (1876), 27-28; S. A. Bates, ed., Rec. of . . . Braintree (1886), 793; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 11, 53-55, 631-33; D. H. Hurd, Hist, of Rock­ ingham and Strafford Counties, N.H. (1882), 372; NEHGR, 1 (1847), 9^» a I s ET to J. Morse, 24 Feb 1806, Gratz Coll., PHi; J. K. Morse, Jedidiah Morse (1939), 75, 80; Gen. Cat. Dartmouth College (igio-11), 579. PUBLICATIONS: see STE; Sh-Sh #s 1403, 13661, 29305, 29939, 42266; Sabin #95229 MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

William Willcocks, Jr. WILLIAM WILLCOCKS, JR., A.B., A.M. 1772, soldier and lawyer, was born at sea in 1750 as his parents, William and Elizabeth Sydenham Willcocks, members of the Church of England, were on their way to America from Devonshire, England. The family settled in Kingston, Middlesex County, New Jersey, near Princeton, and young Willcocks was educated at the College's grammar school. He was an original member of the American Whig Society at Nassau Hall and so was probably active in its predecessor, the Well-Meaning Club, as well. At his commencement, he delivered an English oration on "Oeconomy."

WILLIAM WILLCOCKS, JR.

55

William Willcocks, Jr., A.B. 1769

Willcocks went to New York City to read law after graduation and in 1774 was admitted to the bar there. When the Revolution began, several of the city's independent militia companies united to form the First Battalion of New York Independents under Colonel John Lasher. Willcocks was commissioned a third lieutenant in the "Fuzilier" com­ pany. No two component units of "Lasher's regiment" wore the same uniforms, and the fusiliers were especially distinctive in their blue coats with red facings, bear skin caps, and metal trappings. Their officers included members of the city's most prominent families. For the rest of his life, Willcocks would always be a sort of satellite to New York's highest social and political circles. On January 29, 1776, the officers of Lasher's regiment voted to enter the Continental service for the defense of New York and sent a dele­ gation, chaired by Willcocks, to inform the Provincial Congress of their decision. That spring Willcocks was promoted to captain and company commander of the fusiliers. After participating in the battle of Long Island, the New York Independents disbanded and were incorporated into the brigade of General John Morin Scott, who

56

CLASS OF 1769

took special notice of the fusilier commander. Perhaps as a result, the young captain was promoted and appointed aide-de-camp to Major General William Alexander, the self-styled Lord Stirling, on April 13, 1777. Throughout the spring, Stirling's brigade reconnoitered for Wash­ ington's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. It was probably on that duty that Willcocks was captured by a British patrol that took his horse and weapons but was unable to hold him. In May 1777 Stir­ ling had to retreat from a skirmish at Scotch Plains. In July he was sent with his men to Peekskill, New York to keep an eye on the British. There Willcocks oversaw the hanging of a Loyalist spy. When Howe moved his main force out of New York for an attack on Philadelphia, Stirling's unit was recalled for the defense of the city only to be defeated at the Brandywine in September and then at Germantown in October. By that time, Willcocks had apparently had enough of fighting. He resigned on October 20, 1777, and was succeeded by his assistant James Monroe. Willcocks may have considered settling permanently in New Jersey, for his application for a license to practice law in that state was granted in November 1778. On the previous August 18, he had married Elizabeth Ashfield, the daughter of Lewis Morris Ashfield, a former member of the royal council of New Jersey, at Cranberry Neck. They were to have at least three children. Ultimately, however, Willcocks chose to reestablish his law practice in New York City. His career was greatly advanced in 1784 when he was one of the counsels for the plaintiff in the case of Rutgers v. Waddington, a suit involving questions of the validity of treaties as law, the supremacy of national over state authority, and the principle of ju­ dicial review. It pitted Willcocks and his colleagues, including the state attorney general, against Alexander Hamilton and his associates, who had the support of the Continental Congress. Although the Mayor's Court handed down an equivocal decision, the case was a milestone in the evolution of American constitutional law and was the cause of a heated political controversy over the issue of legislative sovereignty. For Willcocks personally, its significance was twofold. It made his name as a lawyer, and it was the only time in his career that he and Hamilton were on different sides of an issue. Willcocks was hence­ forth one of Hamilton's most loyal agents in New York. By the end of the decade, Willcocks was serving as a justice of the peace of New York City. But Hamilton valued his service less as a politician than as a polemicist. His first important efforts were made in 1792, during the disputed gubernatorial election. Like Hamilton, Willcocks supported John Jay, but the Antifederalists managed to elect

WILLIAM WILLCOCKS, JR.

57

George Clinton by invalidating the votes of three counties on a tech­ nicality that seemed very minor indeed to their opponents. Federalists demanded the impeachment of the canvassers who had made that de­ cision, and Willcocks led the effort with articles in the New York Daily Advertiser. As much as he wanted to defeat Clinton, Hamilton was not eager to push the issue to the point of violence, which seemed a very real danger. Willcocks was less restrained. In July he challenged Marinus Willett, a future mayor of New York, to a duel after they had argued over the election in a tavern. Neither man was injured. His spirit undaunted by defeat in the election, Willcocks next plunged into the controversy over French Minister Edmond Genet. In June 1793, Willcocks wrote an open letter welcoming Genet and lauding the French Revolution. Natutally, he was named to the com­ mittee that organized Genet's welcome to New York in August. In the intervening months, however, the Federalists had seized on Genet's cavalier disregard of American sovereignty and neutral rights and on his obvious disdain for Washington; and thus they were able to mobilize opposition to the minister, his revolution, and his anti-Federalist sup­ porters. WiIIcocks was their man on the inside, and he shocked his colleagues on the committee by refusing to welcome Genet until the Frenchman's conduct had been investigated. He also published two more open letters damning Genet's alleged threat to appeal over Washington's head to the people. Government officials, he argued, "virtually constitute and are the people." He then accused Genet of collusion with "designing men" in the south, thus linking the French Revolution and Republicanism as the "known enemies of the federal government," the nation, and its president. The Republicans countered by charging Hamilton with corrupt administration of the Treasury Department. They chose the right time, for Hamilton's assistant William Duer had already been im­ prisoned on such charges and was obviously guilty of something. Using the testimony of a former departmental clerk, Andrew Fraunces, the secretary's enemies accused him of favoritism in the management of the nation's financial affairs. Hamilton relied on Willcocks, who was apparently involved in Duer's defense, to keep him informed and to try to persuade Fraunces to drop his complaint. In fact, Fraunces did amend his allegations, although he refused to drop them entirely. Ultimately, Hamilton was exonerated by a congressional investigation. Willcocks had recognized the gravity of the threat to his mentor and warned him that he might have "the throat of [his] political reputation .. . cut, in Whispers." He perceived something sinister and conspiratorial in the effectiveness of the Republican rumors, and his

58

CLASS OF 1769

open letters to the newspapers after September 1793 were basically attacks on the Democratic-Republican societies. In his one term in the New York Assembly in 1794, Willcocks was among those Federalists who urged the state to prepare itself for war with France. And by 1798 he had made the final connection between the French Revolution and the Republicans by joining the chorus of those who claimed that the Bavarian Illuminati, the mythical secret society of international anarchists, had destroyed France and were now at work in the United States. The Illuminati panic was the last gasp of dying Federalist power in New York. Evidence of the decline was abundant. In 1799 Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) sponsored the creation of a Republican bank in New York that would enable the party to compete with the Federalists on an equal footing. Burr disguised his project by portraying the bank as a secondary adjunct of a much-needed waterworks and then convinced Hamilton to cosponsor the measure. Willcocks assisted Hamilton in recruiting subscribers to the Manhattan Company. The Republican victory of 1800 seems to have ended Willcocks's political career. He remained active in the militia, but his advance­ ment was not remarkable. Ironically, when Hamilton was asked for his very influential opinion on the names of some candidates for pro­ motion in 1798, he neither endorsed nor opposed Willcocks. In 1799, while commanding some troops at Fort Union, New York, Willcocks was made a major in the United State Infantry. He succeeded to the command in the absence of Colonel William Stephens Smith (A.B. 1774). Willcocks's name appears incidentally in the records of the City Council, but in no extraordinary context. He died in New York on December 20, 1826 and was buried in the cemetery at St. John's Church. SOURCES: Universities and Their Sons, iv, 108-109; alumni file, PUA; N.J. Wills, HI, 358; Beam, Whig Soc., 20; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769 (com­ mencement);. Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct. 1772 (A.M.); N.Y. Mercantile Library Assoc., N.Y. City During the Amer. Rev. (1861), 70-75; Heitman; Cal. N.Y. Hist. Manuscripts, War of Rev. (1868), 1, 223-24; n, 26-27; A. Valentine, Lord Stirling (1969), 198-212; Hamilton Papers, 1, 229-30; xi, 378-79, 559-60, 591η; χπ, 30-31; xm, 245; xiv, 460-71; xv, 277, 317, 323-24 ("Whispers"); xxii, 106, 120, 446-49; Washington Writings, VII, 407; x, 88; G. S. Wood, Creation of the Amer. Republic (1969), 458; H. C. Hacket, Constitutional Hist, of the U.S. (1939), 174; R. B. Morris, Alexander Hamilton (1957), 216-19; E. P. Alexander, Revolutionary Conservative (1938), 162-63; Argu­ ments and Judgments . . . Rutgers v. Waddington (1784); T.E.V. Smith, City of N.Y. in . . . 1J89 (1889), 61; H. Ammon, Genet Mission (1973), 115-18; R. Bull, Jr., Secur­ ing the Rev. (1972), 126-27; Gazette of the U.S., 14 Aug 1793, ("are the people")·, B. Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton (1962), 275-76; E. P. Link, Democratic-Republican Societies (1942), 48, 96, 123, 199; PSQ, 72 (1957), 578-607; 73 (1958), 100-25; MCCCNY, in, 422; iv, 506.

David Zubly DAVID ZUBLY, A .B., A.M. 1774, soldier, public official, landowner, and

possibly a lawyer, was born in Purrysburg, Jasper County, South Caro­ lina, where his father, John Joachim Zubly, was the Presbyterian minister. Pastor Zubly had immigrated from Switzerland in 1744 and in 1746 he married Ann Tobler. In 1760 he took his wife and children to Christ's Church Parish, Georgia in response to a call from a Presby­ terian congregation. He built the Independent Church in Savannah and became one of the wealthiest clergymen in the colony, with ex­ tensive landholdings and at least a dozen slaves. Fluent in several languages, John J. Zubly was also one of the most respected and in­ fluential scholars in the Savannah area. David Zubly did not join either the Whig or Cliosophic societies at the College. In his commencement exercises he defended the proposi­ tion that "Material Substance really exists without the Mind." Almost immediately after graduation, Zubly visited his father's friend Ezra Stiles in Newport, Rhode Island. He was probably back in Princeton a year later to watch his father receive an honorary A.M. from the College. Both David and John J. Zubly were at the College again in October 1774, David to receive his own A.M. and his father to receive a D.D. Meanwhile, both of them had entered politics in Georgia. In March 1772 David ZubIy was elected to represent Acton village in the Georgia general assembly. He was among those legislators who objected to the trend of British policy and may actually have joined the Sons of Liberty. Zubly was a member of the committee of corre­ spondence and was also named a commissioner or surveyor of roads in the "Southern District" of Georgia. John J. Zubly was soon a leading critic of the British government. He prepared Georgia's petition to the king in July 1775 and several other important statements of dissent. And his son was his loyal supporter. When a meeting to condemn the closing of Boston harbor was held in Savannah in July 1774, David Zubly was there. In January 1775 he signed the Non-Importation Agreement and in July of that year he represented Acton in the first Georgia Provincial Congress. By that time, he held a captain's commission in the militia as well. Zubly's father preached the opening sermon to the delegates and was so eloquent that the congress elected him to represent Georgia in the Continental Congress. Dr. Zubly went to Philadelphia in September. He was received in Congress as a man of learning and "warm and zealous spirit." But there were some who had doubts about his dedication to the American

60

CLASS OF 1769

cause. Ezra Stiles suspected that his "avaricious" friend had been "overcome with some of the tempting offers of the Court" and would disappoint those who expected him to fight for independence. And, at least in his prediction, Stiles was right. Dr Zubly would support re­ newed petitions to London but he firmly opposed separation from Great Britain. He could not agree to a republican form of government, which he said would be "little better than a government of devils." When it was discovered in October that he had been reporting Con­ gress's plans to the royal governor of Georgia, Dr. Zubly hurried back to Savannah. Congress promptly adopted the "Secret Pact," binding members not to reveal their proceedings. As his father began to preach against independence, David Zubly's commitment to the Whig cause also eroded. In January 1776, com­ plying with an order from the Georgia Council of Safety, he marched one-third of his militia company to Savannah for the defense of the city. In April he resigned his commission and withdrew from all rebellious organizations. He and his wife, Elizabeth Pye—who was apparently related to his father's second wife, Anne Pye—remained in Georgia and avoided the political storm for as long as they could. Dr. Zubly was less cautious and in June 1776 was arrested as a Loyalist. In the fall of 1777 the Zublys were given the choice of declaring their allegiance to Georgia or leaving the state. Father and son refused to sign the Test Act and were banished, an action that Dr. Zubly especially resented because it was accompanied by the seizure of his land. The family moved to Middlesex, South Carolina, near Purrysburg. There David Zubly prudently took the oath of loyalty to South Carolina and became postmaster. His father continued to buy land, established a ferry across the Savannah River, and factored indigo. Neither of them was involved in politics, however. When the British reoccupied Savannah in 1779, the Zublys returned to that city. This time, it was David Zubly who was the more prom­ inent Loyalist. He again represented Acton in the Loyalist assembly of 1780, voting to declare some rebels traitors and to disqualify all others from holding public office. He was also commissioned a lieu­ tenant in the Loyalist militia. When his father died in July 1781, Zubly inherited more than one-third of the huge family estate, which had earlier been confiscated by the rebels. He never had a chance to profit from his legacy, however, for when Savannah was evacuated by the British in 1782 the victorious Americans banished Zubly and seized his property once more. This time, Zubly went to British East Florida. In July 1783 his wife petitioned the Georgia legislature to receive her claim on confiscated

DAVID ZUBLY

61

land in and near Savannah, but she was ignored. She and Zubly then moved to Nassau, New Providence, the Bahamas. From there Zubly filed his own claims with the British government's commission sitting in Canada in August 1787. Counting the property he had owned or inherited from his father and father-in-law, Zubly claimed nearly 2,500 acres in Georgia and South Carolina. Most of it had been confiscated and sold. The rebels had also destroyed his houses, furniture, stock, and libraries in retribution for his Loyalism and had taken eleven of his slaves. All told, Zubly's claim amounted to more than £5,600. But the adjudication of such claims was a long process and Zubly did not live to learn the result. He died in Nassau on July 14, 1792. SOURCES: DAB (father); GHQ,

19

(1935), 1-16; 22

(1938), 584-90; 1

(1917), 161-65;

Sabine, Loyalists ( 1 8 4 7 ) , 73 2 "33! Stiles, Literary Diary, I , 2 7 , 2 3 6 , 4 4 6 , 5 4 5 - 4 6 ("tempting offers of the Court"); 11, 1 0 - 1 1 ; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 1 2 Oct 1769 (commencement); 1 2 Oct 1 7 7 4 (A.M.); Pa. Chron­ icle, 1 5 Oct 1 7 7 0 ; Col. Rec. Ga., XII, 3 1 4 , 3 3 5 ; xix, 2 5 0 , 2 7 2 - 7 3 ; L. L. Knight, Ga.'s Roster of the Rev. ( 1 9 2 0 ) , 4 5 4 ; R. G. Killion and C. T. Waller, Ga. and the Rev. (1975) 119; W. B. Stevens, Hist, of Ga. (1859), 11, 105, 319-20; LMCC, 1, 194-95 ("warm and zealous spirit"), 521η; HI, 336η; JCC, HI, 491 ("government of devils"); C. F. Jenkins, Button Gwinnett (1926), 73, 137; Ga. Hist. Soc., Coll., v, 28; C. T. Moore, Abstracts of the Wills of . . . S.C. (1969), 330-31; Rev. Rec. Ga., m, 321; On­ tario Bureau of Arch., Second Report (1904), 1, 338-42; Ga. Gazette, 23 Aug 1792. Sprague, Annals, in,

219-22;

CLASS OF 1770

Cornelius Baldwin

Caleb Russell, A.B.

Samuel Baldwin, A.B.

George Smith, A.B.

John Blydenburgh, A.B.

Isaac Smith, A.B.

John Bowden

John Smith, A.B.

John Campbell, A.B.

Robert Stewart, A.B.

Frederick Frelinghuysen, A.B.

John Taylor, A.B.

Joshua Hartt, A.B.

Stephen Tracy, A.B.

Azariah Horton, Jr., A.B.

Caleb Baker Wallace, A.B.

Nathaniel Irwin (Erwin), A.B.

Bedford Williams, A.B.

Thomas McPherrin, A.B.

Matthias Williamson, Jr., A.B.

John Cosens Ogden, A.B.

James Wilson (Willson), A.B.

Nathan Perkins, A.B.

James Witherspoon, A.B.

Josiah Pomeroy

Cornelius Baldwin CORNELIUS BALDWIN, physician, soldier, and public official, was one of

the eight children of Elizabeth and Elijah Baldwin of Newark, New Jersey, and was probably born in 1751. He inherited a share of his father's estate in 1766. Three years later, he joined the Well-Meaning Club at Nassau Hall, just before it became the Cliosophic Society. He left the College without obtaining his degree, however. Before the Revolution, Baldwin studied medicine, possibly in Phila­ delphia, and then returned to New Jersey. In February 1776 he en­ listed as the surgeon of the Second Regiment of Sussex County Militia. That June, when New Jersey answered a congressional call to raise troops for the defense of New York, Baldwin was assigned to a bat­ talion of militiamen from Somerset and Hunterdon counties. Before the unit was dissolved in December, Baldwin participated in the American retreat from New York. The disarray of the army infuriated him, especially since medical supplies were scattered because of poor control. From Morristown, New Jersey he wrote to the surgeon general of the Continental hospital, John Warren, reporting on the chaos. Like Warren, Baldwin sided with John Morgan, chief of the hospital de­ partment, against the partisans of William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754), who was contesting for the post. Baldwin warned Warren that he could expect no help in correcting the hospital's problems from Shippen and his friends. On December 3, 1776, Baldwin rode to Bethlehem, Penn­ sylvania to prepare the new site of the general hospital. He had Wash­ ington's authority to make all of the necessary arrangements with the local Moravians. In May 1777 Baldwin joined the Eighth Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line. On May 12, 1780, he was captured by the British at Charleston, South Carolina, and while the site of his confinement is not known, it was probably Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, which was inundated with American prisoners between 1779 and 1781. After five months Baldwin was exchanged. In January 1781 he joined the First Virginia Regiment of Continentals, serving at Fort Pitt and at Winchester. Baldwin spent most of his time in Winchester, where he had decided to settle, mixing his military duties with a private practice there. Local tradition holds that in December 1781, Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, who was one of Baldwin's patients, died at Baldwin's house in Winchester. The doctor moved to a larger house on South Loudon Street in August 1784 and two months later obtained a license to marry

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CLASS OF 1770

Mary Briscoe, the daughter of Colonel Girard Briscoe, one of Win­ chester's leading citizens. The marriage took place later that year. As one of the two physicians in the growing commercial center of Winchester, Baldwin was one of its social leaders. He was a sponsor of the Winchester Dancing Assemblies and promoted winter socials at McGuire's Tavern. In 1788 he owned taxable property in the town, including one horse and two slaves, and he added a military land bounty of 6,000 acres to those holdings. Between 1795 and 1813 Bald­ win was frequently one of the justices of the Frederick County court of oyer and terminer. In October 1794 James Madison (A.B. 1771) and his new wife Dolly visited Madison's sister in Winchester. When his bride was suddenly taken ill, Madison called for a doctor and Baldwin came. By a "decisive administration of the Bark," Baldwin cured the fever and fits that had so alarmed the newlyweds. Madison's sister was married to Isaac Hite, whose own sister Nelly became Baldwin's second wife. Mary Briscoe Baldwin had died on September 26, 1808, and on November 23, 1809, Baldwin married Nelly Hite. Baldwin was one of the original members of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati, a privilege that cost him £17 in the inflated currency of 1784. When the society was deciding in 1803 how best to allocate its charitable funds, Baldwin voted by proxy with the minority that wanted the money to go to the Winchester Academy, of which he had been a trustee since at least 1798. In November 1805 he personally sponsored the indigent family of a former member for the society's benevolence. As a respected physician, Baldwin wrote to a newspaper in February 1815 to suggest a cure for the current epidemic of "peripneumonia pleurisy" in the Shenandoah Valley. He did not approve of bleeding and blisters but recommended instead that the patients be treated with hot bricks, hot salt, or hot bran with vinegar, camphor, ammonia, opium, sage tea, snakeroot tea, hot toddy, wine whey, and other such remedies. He added weight to his advice by noting that God provided him with a successful practice. Baldwin's marriage to Nelly Hite was a brief one. He was a widower again by May 1813, when he married Mildred Throckmorton who died in September 1816. His fourth wife, Susan Pritchard, managed to survive illnesses, her husband's remedies, and Baldwin himself. He died on December 19, 1826. His marriages had produced five sons, four of whom were physicians and one a justice of the Virginia supreme court. Baldwin's granddaughter was the founder of Mary

SAMUEL BALDWIN

67

Baldwin Seminary, and later Mary Baldwin College, in Staunton, Virginia. SOURCES: Most sources give three marriages for Baldwin, omitting the Hite mar­ riage. H. E. Hayden, Va. Genealogies (1931), 31m; N.J. Wills, iv, 26; Cat. of the Clio. Soc. (1876), 6; Stryker, Off. Reg., 334-35, 376; E. Warren, Life of John Warren (1874), 134; PMHB, 20 (1896), 140-41; 25 (1901), 364 ("the Bark"); Heitman, L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in the Amer. Rev. (1931), 581; VMHB, 2 (1894-95), 255; 54 (1926), 360; 19 (1910-11), 287; K. G. Greene, Winchester, Va. and its Beginnings (1926), 398; S. Kercheval, Hist, of the Valley of Va. (1925), 143; S. E. Brown, Jr., Va. Baron (1965), 187, 189; W. G. Russell, What I Know About Winchester (1953), 49, 46 n. 46; 60 n. 13; Tyler's Quart., 6 (1925), 273; J. E. Norris, Hist, of the Lower Shenandoah Valley (1909), 154, 165-66; T . K. Cartmell, Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants (1909), 105, 135, 153; F. Marton, Story of Winchester, Va. (1925), 266; W. B. Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century (1931), 364; Cal. Va. St. Papers, vm, 381; WMQ (1 ser.), 10 (1901-1902), 120, 121; Ε. E. Hume, Papers of the Soc. of the Cincinnati in . . . Va. (1938), 5, 72, 169, 224, 336; W. B. Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Nineteenth Century (1933), 247 ("pleu­ risy"); Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J. (1879), 132.

Samuel Baldwin SAMUEL BALDWIN, A.B., A.M. 1773, teacher, was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1754, the son of Mary and Nehemiah Baldwin. His father was a farmer who had been "delivered" from jail by his neighbors in 1745, during the Newark riots against the land claims of New Jersey's Proprietors. The family was almost certainly part of the congregation of Newark's First Presbyterian Church, of which President Aaron Burr was pastor before the College moved to Princeton in 1756. When Nehemiah Baldwin died »in 1769, his son Samuel inherited £230 spe­ cifically designated to pay for his college education. A member of the Cliosophic Society, Baldwin participated in a fo­ rensic dispute on the proposition "that national characters depend not on physical, but moral causes" at the commencement of 1770. From Princeton he went to Elizabethtown, New Jersey where for several years he was the usher of the local academy. In 1776 he was in Phila­ delphia for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and from there he went to South Carolina, where one of his brothers had recently died. As the master of his own classical school in Charles­ ton, he was in the town when the British laid siege to it in the spring of 1780. Like all able-bodied men in Charleston, Baldwin participated in its defense, and in April 1780 he was captured by British troops. The American prisoners were ordered to declare their allegiance to the

68

CLASS OF 1770

king or suffer banishment with their families to the hinterland, which was already wracked by partisan violence. The choice may have been easier for Baldwin than for some others, since he was a lifelong bache­ lor. With others who refused to forsake the American cause, he was sent out of the city. The refugees gradually made their way to secure areas, but not until December 1781 did Baldwin reach Philadelphia. After the war Baldwin spent several more years at his school in Charleston where in 1783 he helped to prepare Aedanus Burke's Considerations on the Society or Order of Cincinnati for its original publication. He later returned to New Jersey and taught for a time in Newark. By 1835 he had retired to Newark to live quietly in his house on Broad Street, sustained by his investments in such enterprises as the Passaic and Hackensack Bridge Company. At the time of his death on March 2, 1850, he was the oldest living alumnus of the College. In his will he provided for educational and church-affiliated organizations in which he must have been active, including the American Education Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the American Home Missionary Society. SOURCES: H i s t , o f t h e C i t y o f N e w a r k , N . J .

(1913), 1, 213; N . J . W i l l s , iv, 27; P a . C h r o n i c l e , 1 5 O c t 1 7 7 0 ( c o m m e n c e m e n t ) ; P a . G a z e t t e , 1 3 O c t 1 7 7 3 (A.M.); N J H S P , 2 ( 1 8 4 6 - 4 7 ) , 7 8 - 8 6 ; S C H G M , 3 4 ( 1 9 3 3 ) , 7 9 ; MS w i l l , n o . 1 3 9 1 8 6 , N j ; N e w a r k D a i l y Advertiser, 2 Mar 1850.

John Blydenburgh JOHN BLYDENBURGH, A.B., A.M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman, tavernkeeper and storekeeper, was probably born in Smithtown, Long Island, New York, a community in which the Blydenburghs were numerous and prominent. Although his specific parentage is obscure, records of his later life indicate that he was born on January 18, 1748. At the com­ mencement of 1770 he opposed his classmate James Witherspoon in a Latin syllogistic dispute. Sometime before May 1772 Blydenburgh was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Suffolk, and he may have shared the responsibility of supplying the vacant pulpit in Smithtown with his classmate Joshua Hartt. By late 1774 Hartt was installed as Smith town's permanent pastor and Blydenburgh had moved to Rowley, Essex County, Massa­ chusetts, a town that had been without a minister since May. On September 28, 1775, after he had preached more than twenty times in the Rowley church, Blydenburgh was called to settle there with a salary of £75 and the use of the parsonage.

JOHN BLYDENBURGH

69

There had been intense debate among the parishioners regarding the call, however, and twenty of the leading members voted against Blydenburgh. Rather than divide the congregation, Blydenburgh re­ luctantly declined the offer. As early as July 1775, when he had vowed to stay in Rowley "as long as I can be useful," he believed that some members of the church would do almost anything to prevent his being called and he warned friends to guard their words when speaking to his enemies. Undoubtedly hoping that the differences between him and the dissenters might be solved, he continued to supply the pulpit in Rowley. Four more times, between January 1776 and March 1779, Blyden­ burgh was called by the majority of the Rowley congregation to settle either temporarily or permanently in the town. Each time, the number of dissenters grew, and each time he declined. The question of his employment was the source of bitter quarrels within the church, and the longer the issue persisted, the more strained were relations among neighbors. On December 1, 1779, Blydenburgh accepted a call to preach in Rowley for six sabbaths only, and in February 1780 the congregation voted to submit the dispute to an impartial panel of three, one member appointed by Blydenburgh, one by his opponents, and one by the parish at large. Neither the minister nor his foes ac­ cepted that plan. Later proposals to ask other local clergymen to referee were voted down by the congregation. In the spring of 1780 the citizens of Rowley simply abandoned Blydenburgh. Their search for a permanent minister ended in August 1782 with the installation of Ebenezer Bradford (A.B. 1773). Apparently Blydenburgh had lost his enthusiasm for the ministry as a result of his years in Rowley. While there, he suffered another great loss as well; on February 26, 1779, he had married Hannah Moody of nearby Byfield, where the church records of the ceremony identify him as "John Blydenburgh, M.A." Her death fifty-one weeks later may have severed Blydenburgh's last attachment to Essex County. On November 18, 1781, Blydenburgh married his second wife, Margaret Smith, in Durham, Strafford County, New Hampshire. Al­ though identified in the Durham records of the marriage as "Rev. John Blydenburgh," no record of his serving as a clergyman in New Hamp­ shire has been found. In October 1784 he received a license to operate a tavern or a retail store in Durham, where he participated actively in civic affairs. He was a selectman in 1788 and served as town moderator in 1800. A lay leader of the religious community, he helped plan a new meeting house in 1792 and contributed to the purchase of land for a private cemetery in 1796.

70

CLASS OF 1770

Blydenburgh had at least five children, but only one is known to have survived him. His daughter Margaret taught Sunday school in Durham for many years, inherited her father's house, and never mar­ ried. When she died in 1849, s ^ e left $1,000 to support the abolitionist activities of William Lloyd Garrison. No record of Blydenburgh's death has been found, but the College's triennial catalogues list him as living in 1842 and dead in 1845. SOURCES: Rec. of Suffolk C n t y . (1896), 1002; S. Wood, Hist, of Hauppauge, Long Island, N.Y. (1920), 16; T . Gage, Hist, of Rowley (1840), 24-26, 85-87; Essex Anti­ quarian, 10 (1906), 139 ("John Blydenburgh, M.A."); E. S. Stackpole e t al, Hist, of the Town of Durham (1973), 1, 201, 203, 241, 254-55, 343> 3*>2, 366; n, 336 ("Rev. John Blydenburgh"); NEHGR, 8 (1854), 6, 7; 39 (1885), 236; als JB to J. Avery, 6 JUL 1775, Avery MSS, NjPT ("as long as I can be useful"); Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); Rec. Pres. Chh., 425; N. S. Prime, Hist, of Long Island (1845), 2 4 s '· N . H . State Papers, XVIII, 751; N . H . T o w n Papers, XI, 591-95.

John Bowden JOHN BOWDEN, A .B. King's 1772, A.M. King's 1775, D.D. Columbia

1797, Anglican and Episcopal clergyman, schoolmaster, and college professor, was born on January 7, 1751, in Ireland, where his father Thomas Bowden, an officer in the British army, was then stationed. His father later came to America to fight in the French and Indian War, and young John was brought over by an Anglican minister soon afterward. The family lived in New York and Bowden was educated at home. He entered the College, probably in 1766, but spent only two years there. In 1768 he accompanied his father to Ireland, then came back to America in 1770 and entered the senior class at King's College in New York City in 1771. At his commencement in May 1772, Bowden delivered a discourse comparing "modern and ancient learn­ ing." After studying theology with Samuel Auchmuty and John Ogilvie of Trinity Church in New York, Bowden went to England to enter holy orders. In May 1774 he was ordained a deacon by the bishop of Exeter and a priest by the bishop of London. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel assigned him to a new mission in Skenesborough, New York, but he wanted to go back to New York City. On his own initiative, therefore, he accepted an invitation to serve at Newburgh, New York until a vacancy occurred in the city. For his disobedience, he was dismissed from the service of the society. On November 18, 1774, Ogilvie suffered a fatal stroke, thus creating

JOHN BOWDEN

71

John Bowden, A.B. 1770 BY THOMAS MCCLELAND

the vacancy at Trinity for which Bowden was waiting. The other lead­ ing candidates for Auchmuty's assistant were Benjamin Moore (King's 1768) and John Vardill (King's 1766), the latter in England at the mo­ ment. Vardill was the best known of the three, having been a professor at King's and one of the more forceful supporters of royal government in New York. Apparently as a reward for his political efforts and as a sign of encouragement to other Loyalists, King George appointed Vardill to the chair of divinity at King's and to the open post at Trin­ ity. Rumors of the appointment provoked quick and angry reactions from Anglican Whigs, but the political crisis in the colonies decided the issue. Vardill chose to stay in England, where he became one of the crown's most important intelligence agents during the Revolution. In January the vestry decided to raise £683, of which they would pay Auchmuty's senior assistant £200 and Vardill £50. The balance would be divided between Moore and Bowden, who would share the vacant position. Both men accepted the proposition, with a £50 retainer, on February 10, 1775. Confident of his new post, Bowden had married

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CLASS OF 1770

Mary Jarvis, called Polly, the daughter of a Manhattan hatter, on January 8. As tensions mounted in 1775, Moore also accepted the job of presi­ dent pro tempore of King's College, the ardent Loyalist incumbent having fled. When the city was occupied by Washington's troops in July 1776, all Anglican churches were closed. Bowden took his family to Norwalk, Connecticut. Threatened by Whigs there, he had to slip out of town one night and cross nine miles of Long Island Sound in a small boat. He landed in Suffolk County and was escorted to Jamaica, New York, where his father's regiment of British troops was camped. When Auchmuty died in March 1777, Bowden made a difficult choice. He finally had the chance to become rector of Trinity Church. But a long ailment that greatly hampered his speaking forced him to resign his post on March 14. The vestry accepted his resignation and agreed to pay his salary through that date. Bowden remained in Jamaica throughout the war, living in the va­ cated parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church and often assisting the local Anglican pastor, Joshua Bloomer. His search for a new church of his own led him to Hempstead, Long Island, where Leonard Cutting was rector. The members of that church wanted Bowden to succeed their aging minister, but Cutting would not move aside. From England, Bowden's father consoled his son in 1784 and encouraged him to keep looking for a pulpit. He thought that Newark might be nice. Meanwhile, he urged the impoverished young cleric to invest in land. Late in 1784 Bowden returned to Norwalk, where he still had property, as the rector of St. Paul's parish with a salary of £85. A new church was built under his supervision to replace the one that had been burned during the war. Its consecration in 1786 was the first such ceremony in the United States and was performed by the first bishop of the American Episcopal Church, Samuel Seabury. Bowden was one of Seabury's strongest supporters in the conflicts that troubled the Episcopal Church during its early years, particularly the Latitudinarian challenges to episcopal authority. At a convention of priests in Middletown, Connecticut in August 1785, Bowden was a member of the committee that tried to adapt Seabury's positions on liturgical and governmental questions to the policies of churchmen in more southern states. A compromise of some sort was an absolute pre­ requisite to the creation of a national church, and the so-called Middletown decisions were an important first step. Predictably, the creation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the

JOHN BOWDEN

73

United States drew fire from other denominations. In Connecticut the chief antagonists were the Congregationalists, who denigrated apos­ tolic succession and episcopal ordination. A sermon by Ezra Stiles in 1787 prompted Bowden to reply with a treatise in defense of the episcopacy. It was the first of his many publications on that subject, and like the rest was based upon meticulous scriptural analysis. Re­ gardless of its effect on Stiles, to whom the tract was little more than an "acrimonious" annoyance, Bowden's arguments were very influen­ tial. Some of his fellow Episcopalians considered them unanswerable. Bowden kept up a correspondence with his brother-in-law Benjamin Jarvis, a soldier of fortune who lived in Europe. In 1788 Jarvis urged him to file a claim with Great Britain for the damages done to Norwalk during the war. He told Bowden exactly whom to contact in London and how to proceed; he even half-volunteered to "nock down part of Lambeth Garden wall" to furnish the bricks to rebuild the parsonage in Norwalk. But Bowden had no basis for such a claim and by 1789 was in no mood to file one anyway. His health had taken an­ other bad turn and he had decided to move to St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, in search of a better climate. Jarvis had once lived in the West Indies and expected the new post to help both Bowden's health and pocketbook. On September 15, 1789, Bowden persuaded the Connecticut Convo­ cation to send clerical representatives to the church's General Con­ vention in Philadelphia, again reflecting Seabury's stand against equal representation by the laity. He then resigned from the NorwaIk church and moved to St. Croix. After twenty-seven days at sea, Bowden found the West Indies not at all what he had expected. Not only did his health not improve, but his wife and children were soon very ill. Two of the children had to return to Connecticut in 1790, but two others died in St. Croix. Moreover, his new congregation paid him irregularly, and far less than Jarvis had predicted. By March 1791 Bowden was ready to come home. He and his family moved to Stratford, Connecticut. Again, he was without his own parish, but he offered to assist the local rector, James Sayre. A former British chaplain, Sayre was an arch-conservative churchman who would have nothing to do with Bowden or anyone else who supported Seabury. He refused to accept any departures from the strict Anglican ritual in his parish, and so kept Stratford out of the Connecticut Convocation and the national church. In March 1792 Bowden published "An Address" to the Stratford congregation and a "Letter" to Sayre in which he defended the innovations in litur-

74

CLASS OF 1770

gy and government that were basic to the American church. His im­ pressive logic swayed the laity, and Sayre was forced to resign in the spring of 1793. A frequent member of important committees in the state convoca­ tion, Bowden was one of the priests who studied Seabury's plan for an Episcopal academy. He rejected an invitation to take the pulpit of King's Chapel in Providence, Rhode Island in 1792, deciding instead to open a school of his own in Stratford. He was thus a natural choice to help draft the constitution of the church school in 1795 and to be the institution's first principal when it opened in Cheshire, Connecti­ cut in June 1796. He brought his own pupils with him. Seabury had wanted a college to rival Yale, and the academy offered courses in the range of subjects usually associated with colleges. Although churchoriented, the school admitted students and was supervised by trustees of various denominations. The Cheshire Academy flourished as a pri­ vate school but was never chartered as a college. Not until Washing­ ton College opened in Hartford in 1824 did the Episcopal Church have a college in Connecticut. Seabury died soon after the academy opened and Bowden was the choice of the laity and many of the clergy to succeed him as bishop of Connecticut. Elected in October 1796, he asked to be permitted to de­ lay his decision until June 1797, when he declined the post because of his frail health. In October 1799 Bowden was one of the founders of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. His financial situation remained fairly uncomfortable and he counted on the income from a small farm in Cheshire to keep him solvent. On December 31, 1801, Bowden was elected to the chair of rhetoric, belles-lettres, and moral philosophy at his alma mater, from which he had received his D.D. four years earlier. He resigned from Cheshire to go back to New York. His colleague Benjamin Moore, by then bishop of New York, was the new president of Columbia, but episco­ pal duties so preoccupied him that the day to day administration of the college fell upon the three full professors. Bowden taught courses in English composition, grammar, and literature to all four classes. His busy schedule left little time for moral philosophy. In April 1802 Bowden advertised some of his property in Cheshire, which he valued at $2,400-2,500, for sale. He continued to be interest­ ed in the Cheshire Academy, however, and since his daughter and sonin-law lived in Cheshire, he had frequent opportunities to visit his old home. In 1809 he found the school prosperous, although he wished more students from New York would attend. He dismissed the com­ petition of a new Baptist academy in Wallingford, for he believed that

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75

"neither religion nor learning" would flourish under that sect's tute­ lage. In New York Bowden preached occasionally in several pulpits. His combative dedication to his church was unabated and he published several more trenchant defenses of episcopacy. His Apostolic Origin of Episcopacy Asserted in 1808, in answer to an attack by Presbyterian Samuel Miller, was particularly well-timed, raising the morale of the church when internal divisions were severe. One year later came Bowden's most aggressive work, A Full Length Portrait of Calvinism, in which he condemned the teachings of the "Geneva idol" as "a system of nonsense and impiety." His Essentials of Ordination Stated in 1811 was a scholarly brief for the validity of church ritual. In 1812 Bowden warned his friends in Connecticut to abandon their plan to send priests to New York to heal the divisions in the church there. He predicted that New Yorkers would only resent such meddling and that the situation would be made worse by a "grandembassy" from the north. "Keep the gentlemen at home to mind their own business," he advised. Later that year Bowden undertook an extensive missionary tour of northern New York. He went back to that area, to Ballston Spa, in the summer of 1817. His purpose then was to take the cure. He died on July 31, 1817, however, and was buried at Ballston. The trustees of Columbia paid Bowden's full salary for the semester to his family and also assumed the expenses for his burial and the erection of a head stone at Ballston. Bowden was survived by his wife, one daughter, and one son. The last two years of his life had been marred by tragedy, for two of his grown sons died at sea in 1815 and 1816. Apparently his estate was not large. As late as 1855, his grandchildren had to accept a grant from Trinity Church to save them from ruin. The church gave the money in memory of its former as­ sistant rector who had actually served there for less than two years. SOURCES: DAB; Prot. Episc. Chh. in U.S., Arch, of the G e n . Convention, vi (1912), 270-80; E. E. Beardsley, Address Delivered in St. Peter's Chh., Cheshire . . . (1844), 12-17; Sprague, Annals, v, 304-306; Sabine, Loyalists (1847), 243-44; Christian Jour­ nal, 2 (1818), 1-2; H. Schneider and C. Schneider, eds., Samuel Johnson (1929), iv, 256, 258, 260; K. Scott, Rivington's N.Y. Newspaper (1973), 116; N.Y. Journal or Gen. Advertiser, 28 May 1772; W. Berrian, Hist. Sketch of Trinity Chh., N.Y. (1847), 136, 137, 139; NYHS Coll., πι, 250-62, 264; Columbia Univ. Quart., 28 (1936), 166-80; W . L . Sachse, Colonial A m e r . i n Britain (1956), 197; L . Einstein, Divided Loyalties ('933)' 5 1 _ 7i) M. Dix, ed., Hist, of the Parish of Trinity Chh. (1898), 414; H. Onderdonk, Jr., Antiquities of the Parish Chh., Jamaica (1880), 73; als T. Bowden to JB, 28 Sep 1784, NjR; D. H. Hurd, Hist, of Fairfield Cnty., Conn. (1881), 562; Β. E. Steiner, Samuel Seabury (1971), 241-43, 291, 301, 332; C. O. Loveland, Critical Years ( j 956), 141, 200-201, 274η; Stiles, Literary Diary, 111, 311, 351 ("acrimonious"); J. Bowden, A Letter . . . to Ezra Stiles (1788); A Second Letter . . . (1789); als B. Jarvis to JB, 11 Aug 1788 ("Lambeth garden wall"); 27 Mar, 3 Apr 1789; JB to C. Jar-

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vis, 17 Nov 1789; 30 Jan 1790; 1 Nov 1800; [n.d.]; M. Bowden to daughters, 1790; JB to daughters, 29 Mar 1791; M. Bowden to C. Jarvis, 11 Jul 1791, NjR; J. Hopper, ed., Rec. of the Convocation (1904), 29, 130-31, 142, and passim; J. Bowden, An Ad­ dress . . . To Which is added, a Letter . . . (1792); J. P. Beach, Hist, of Cheshire, Conn. (1912), 246-51; N. R. Burr, Story of the Diocese of Conn. (1962), 448; Rec. Si. Conn., ix, 404; Hist, of the Faculty of Philosophy at Columbia Univ. (1957), 59-60, 105; N. F. Moore, Hist. Sketch of Columbia College (1846), 84-85; als JB to B. Beach, 3 May 1802, 27 Feb 1812, NjR; C. H. Brewer, Hist, of Religious Ed. in the Episc. Chh. to 1835 (1924), 133; J. Bowden, Full Length Portrait (1809); als JB to M. Bow­ den, 26 Aug, 15 Sep 1812 ("grandembassy"); C. C. Moore to M. Bowden, 11 Sep 1817; C. E. Bowden to rector o£ Trinity Chh., 5 Mar 1855, NjR. PUBLICATIONS: see text, STE, and above MANUSCRIPTS: NjR

John Campbell JOHN CAMPBELL, A.B., D.D. Oxford, Anglican and Episcopal clergy­

man and educator, was born near Shippensburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1752, the son of the first wife of Francis Campbell. His father was a merchant, innkeeper, trader, and occasional public official, who, although reputedly born a Catholic, had converted to Presbyterianism. The elder Campbell was unquestionably one of the more enthusiastic members of the Middle Spring Presbyterian Church while Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763) was pastor there, and it was probably Cooper who gave young John his early education. It may have been Cooper's influence that sent Campbell to the Col­ lege, where he was an original member of the American Whig Society and where he opened his commencement exercises, the salutatorian being ill, with an English oration on the "Utility of Studying History." But neither Cooper nor the College was the dominant influence on Campbell's religious persuasion. That role was apparently played by William Smith, the Anglican cleric who was the first provost of the College of Philadelphia. Smith, and possibly nr'ssionaries in Cumber­ land County from the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, led Campbell to decide to enter the ministry of the Church of England. Campbell had to go to England to do so, since the Anglican Church had no bishops in colonial America. A recommendation from so pres­ tigious a minister as Smith opened doors for him that mignt have been closed to other Americans with similar aspir? lions but less impressive sponsors. Although canon law stipulated that the minimum age for a deacon was twenty-three, and for a priest, twenty-four, Campbell was ordained as a deacon of the church on June 1, 1773, by Richard Ter-

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rick, bishop of London. Five days later he was ordained, again by Terrick, as a priest. A major problem for the church in America was the reluctance of colonial ministers to return home after their ordination. While Camp­ bell assured Smith that he wanted to go back, he too succumbed to the allurements of the mother country. Assigned to a church in Liverpool and with good reasons to expect an even better post soon, he was con­ tent to remain in England until the Revolution began. The war then provided an excellent excuse to delay his departure even longer. Be­ fore the end of 1783, he received the king's bounty of £20 to take him to Stratton Major Parish in King and Queen County, Virginia, but he still did not go. Instead, he accepted the rectorship of All Saint's Parish in Hertfordshire, where an additional enticement to stay in England appeared in the person of Catherine Cutler, the mayor's daughter. It was during his tenure in Hertfordshire that he married her. On July 6, 1784, Campbell finally accepted an invitation to be rector of St. John's Church in York, Pennsylvania. His most immediate task was to restore the building, which had been abandoned and used as an arsenal during the war. On February 28, 1785, he supervised the pur­ chase of land for a parsonage and school; and he spent several months thereafter raising money to erect them. Supported by such prominent men as Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) of Philadelphia, Campbell's fund drive collected $5,000 which he used to construct the two-story brick building that opened as York Academy in the fall of 1787. Campbell was its first principal and instructor of divinity and moral philosophy. In 1789 Campbell moved to Carlisle, near his birthplace, to take the pulpit of another St. John's Church. He continued to serve oc­ casionally at York for fifteen more years, but without his personal guidance, the academy failed as a parochial school and was taken over by the state. Campbell remained in Carlisle, his tall, portly presence and florid face fixtures of the local scene until he died on May 16, 1819, leaving his widow and five children. He was buried in the Watts family plot in Carlisle. SOURCES: PMHB, 28 (1904), 62-69; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa.

(1886), [Cumberland] 209-212; Beam, Whig Soc., 20; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (com­ mencement); W. L. Sachse, Colonial Amer. in Britain (1956), 70-79; AASP, 83 (1973), 118; W. W. Manross, Fulham Papers in Lambeth Palace (1965), 310, 330; C. G. Chamberlayne, Vestry Book of Stratton Major Parish (1931) (the absence o£ JCs name confirms his continued residence in England); W. C. Carter and A. J. Glossbrenner, Hist, of York Cnty. (1834), 45-46, 57-58; J. P. Wickersham, Hist, of Educa­ tion in Pa. (1886), 492; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 1, 363η. MANUSCWPTS: Smith Papers, NHi

Frederick Frelinghuysen FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN, A.B., A.M. 1773, teacher, lawyer, soldier, and public official, was the son of the Reverend John Frelinghuysen, a trustee of the College, and Dinah VanBurgh Frelinghuysen. He was born in the parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church at Raritan, Somerset County, New Jersey on April 13, 1753. His father died in 1754 and his mother married Jacob R. Hardenbergh, the eminent Dutch Reformed cleric who became president of Queen's College, later Rutgers. The son, grandson, and stepson of outstanding ministers, Frelinghuysen grew up in a sternly religious home. His mother in­ tended him to be a clergyman as well, but Hardenbergh's strictness may have dampened his own enthusiasm for that calling. It was, however, with the intention of later studying theology that Frelinghuysen entered the College, his education paid for in full by Hardenburgh. At his commencement he spoke on "the Utility of American Manufacturers." As an undergraduate, he did not join either of the literary clubs, but he was admitted into the Cliosophic Society in June 1772, eighteen months before taking his A.M. Although he studied theology for a time, Frelinghuysen never seriously considered entering the ministry. In fact, he never actually became a full member of the church. His interest in public service, which he later attributed to President Witherspoon, led him instead to law. On October 5, 1771, the trustees of the new Queen's College unani­ mously chose Frelinghuysen to be the institution's first tutor. The entire faculty consisted of the tutor and three trustees, including Hard­ enbergh, who also taught. Classes began in November with only a hand­ ful of students in the college and a few more in the grammar school, which was directed by Frelinghuysen's classmate, John Taylor. But the young tutor was confident of success and in April 1772, advertised Queen's as a place to cultivate "Piety, Learning, and Liberty" in young men. He also began his legal training with Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748) in Princeton and possibly with William Paterson (A.B. 1763) in Raritan. In 1773 he turned his full attention to law, leaving Taylor in charge of Queen's, and he was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1774. On January 10, 1775, Frelinghuysen married Gitty Schenk, the daughter of a prosperous merchant, in the Dutch Reformed Church at Millstone, New Jersey. By that time, he was very active in politics. He had been the clerk of the Somerset County meeting that recom­ mended a non-importation agreement in July 1774, and he was cur­ rently on the county's committee of correspondence. On May 11, 1775,

FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN

79

Frederick Frelinghuysen, A.B. 1770

he was elected a delegate to the Provincial Congress where he served as assistant secretary and deputy secretary. He was a member of the New Jersey committee of correspondence in May and June as well. When the assembly adjourned in August, Frelinghuysen was also on the committee of safety. At the end of 1775, Frelinghuysen and William Paterson were of­ ficers in a battalion of Minute Men in Somerset County. When the Continental Congress asked New Jersey to send troops to help defend New York in February 1776, the Provincial Congress promoted Fre­ linghuysen to major and ordered him to go. That order was quickly withdrawn, however, and Frelinghuysen assembled a company of ar­ tillery that he commanded until April, when he resigned. Elected in May 1776, Frelinghuysen served again in the Provincial Congress and then in the convention that wrote a constitution for New Jersey. As an advocate of independence, he tried unsuccessfully to delete from that document a clause providing for possible recon-

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ciliation with Great Britain. For the rest of the summer, he patrolled Hunterdon and Somerset counties, arresting Loyalists and dissidents. Frelinghuysen joined the Continental Army as it retreated westward across the Delaware River late in 1776. He was a major on the staff of Brigadier Philemon Dickinson. Since that staff was on the west bank of the Delaware during the battle of Trenton, the tradition that Frelinghuysen killed the Hessian commander there is probably apocry­ phal. He did cross the river at the end of December when he was or­ dered by General Washington to assemble the New Jersey militia in defense of the state. On February 21, 1777, Frelinghuysen was promoted to colonel in command of the First Regiment of Somerset County Militia. A few weeks later Dickinson ordered him to inventory the estate of a New Jersey Loyalist. It was not to be his last such assignment, for by June he was one of the state's commissioners on forfeited lands. In 1777 Frelinghuysen saw action at Morristown and Middlebrook Heights and in June commanded several militia units in Bergen County. A British officer reported that Frelinghuysen and his men had taken "to their Heels" at the sight of 200 redcoats, but the New Jersey militia were usually tough opponents. At Elizabethtown during the summer, Frelinghuysen was involved in General John Sullivan's at­ tack on Staten Island. The state units fought well, taking more than 100 prisoners; but Sullivan's plans were poorly made, and when the attack failed, Frelinghuysen sent a blunt letter to Governor William Livingston charging Sullivan with "the most unpardonable neglect" and General Dickinson with discouraging men from joining the mi­ litia. He also expressed his fear that once the Continentals left New Jersey, the British would attack in force. Frelinghuysen's regiment moved into southern New Jersey when the British occupied Philadelphia; and in June 1778 it fought its way east­ ward in pursuit of the withdrawing enemy. The major engagement of that campaign occurred on June 28 at Monmouth Courthouse, and the First Somerset Regiment participated. On October 13, 1778, Frelinghuysen was elected to the New Jersey Legislative Council. On November 6 the state legislature chose him to sit in the Continental Congress—not an honor he relished. Indeed, he delayed taking his seat for as long as he could, finally joining the Congress in January 1779. To a friend he vowed that he would "rather, Sir, drink sand and water in the desert of Monmouth in the character of a colonel of the First Somerset Regiment, than to drink Wine in Philadelphia in the character of a Delegate of New Jersey— because Sir, in the first case I should think myself in some measure

FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN

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qualified, but in the latter totally inadequate." He was eager to rejoin his regiment, for the more he saw of slow congressional procedures, the less he liked them. Even his membership on the Board of Treasury did not really interest him. Frelinghuysen did not get along well with another member from New Jersey, John Fell. On March 25, 1779» Fell complained to Governor Livingston that Frelinghuysen and President Witherspoon too often were away from Congress, leaving him alone and the state without a vote. That may have been all the excuse that Frelinghuysen needed. On April 29 he sent his resignation to the speaker of the state assembly, explaining that he was too young, too inexperienced, and more suited to his duties in Somerset County. He offered to account for all of his time if that was needed to answer Fell. Rather pointedly, he also said that he would not even mention the "amazing expense" of attending Congress. In June 1779 Washington asked Frelinghuysen, who was happily back in uniform, for reports on the condition of the New Jersey militia. Continental troops were simply unavailable to defend northern coun­ ties against enemy raids and the general wanted to know how well the state could protect itself. The citizens of Bergen County were heartened to hear in June that Frelinghuysen himself would soon lead the militia north from Trenton. But the troops did not arrive until September, when they were commanded by John Taylor. Claiming ill health, Frelinghuysen had declined the governor's request that he take charge of the state troops at Elizabethtown. Instead, he remained with the Somerset County Militia. In January 1781 several hundred New Jersey miltiamen mutinied, complaining particularly of the depreciation of their pay. Livingston sent Frelinghuysen and Chaplain James Caldwell (A.B. 1759) to calm the troops with promises that their grievances would be redressed. But Frelinghuysen also had orders from Washington, who made clear his intention to crush the uprising as an example. Frelinghuysen was to persuade the militia to stay loyal and to assist the troops that were coming from West Point to suppress the dissidents. By February the mutiny was over and two of its leaders hanged. Although he was a state commissioner to settle the militia's depreci­ ation claims until June 1782, Frelinghuysen spent more time in po­ litical than in military service after the mutiny. In 1781 he was ap­ pointed Somerset County's clerk of the peace and common pleas. In December he submitted to the state a token claim for £16 in losses to the enemy, although he complained privately of a more substantial loss. He was still busy with the problem of forfeited estates. His friend William Paterson was attorney general of New Jersey, and the two men

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frequently cooperated in disposing of Loyalist property, much of which they bought with greatly depreciated currency. By taking advantage of opportunities of which Frelinghuysen kept him apprised, Paterson was able to acquire his 350-acre estate on the Raritan. Although he announced in 1781 that he would not serve again in Congress, Frelinghuysen was elected to represent New Jersey on October 30, 1782. Apparently, he was true to his word, for although Congress was in Princeton after June 1783, he did not attend until October, and then only because he was specifically asked to come and translate the credentials of the Dutch minister. In 1784 he was elected to the state legislature, as he was to be again in 1791 and from 1800 to 1803. He also remained active in the militia. When the state con­ vention to ratify the federal Constitution met in Trenton on December 11, 1787, Frelinghuysen was a member. He was among the majority that approved the Constitution and then voted to offer ten square miles in New Jersey as the seat for the new government. Frelinghuysen was a member of the short-lived New Jersey Land Society in May 1788. Its purpose was to speculate on land in the west, but it could never reach an agreement with the national government and so disbanded. Frelinghuysen's law practice was flourishing, how­ ever, although he lost a notable case in April 1790 when he argued for a suit to deny a former slave his freedom. He was on the winning side in May 1791, however, when he and several other prominent attorneys persuaded the state supreme court to do away with the requirement that lawyers wear bands and bar gowns. He served as county clerk of pleas and sessions in 1786 and 1791 and as county surrogate between 1787 and 1793. A trustee of Queen's College since 1782, Frelinghuysen often took a personal hand in trying to keep the institution going, even serving again as a tutor in 1784. In June 1793 he worked to achieve a union between financially troubled Queen's and the College of New Jersey, but the scheme did not really appeal to either institution and was abandoned. On March 4, 1793, Frelinghuysen was elected to the United States Senate. He was a Federalist but had avoided choosing between the politically antagonistic sectional factions in New Jersey and so was acceptable to many. He was, however, no more enamored of the Senate than he had been of the Continental Congress. In September 1794 he seized a chance to leave Philadelphia by volunteering as a major general in the New Jersey militia to lead troops against the insurrec­ tion in western Pennsylvania. Camp life was more to his liking in spite of the hardships of the march, but he was greatly frustrated at the

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83

rebels' unwillingness to come out and fight. By November, when the expedition was completed, he was happy to go home. Frelinghuysen was late arriving at the special Senate session that opened in June 1795 to consider Jay's Treaty. "He has married a wife," the presiding officer explained to the chamber, "and cannot come." A widower since March 11, 1794, Frelinghuysen married Anne Yard on March 30, 1795, after corresponding with her for at least fifteen months. His new domestic situation made official duties all the more onerous. "God! Nancy," he complained to his bride, "how I do hate Philadelphia." He was confused by the arcane details of the treaty and wished he knew more about commerce. But he assured his wife that it would "not be the first time that I have hazarded a vote." He vowed to go home, determined never again to "sacrifice my domestic happiness to an ungrateful Public." On June 21 he ex­ claimed, "TOMORROW FINISHES MY POLITICAL CAREER." He said that he would rather listen to "the hateful voices of the Guinea hens" than to another Senate debate. But he did not leave. Still com­ plaining, he served late in 1795 and again in 1796. He used his time in the Senate chamber, like several other members, writing letters to his family. In January 1796 he dabbled in land speculations with friends in Philadelphia. In March he presented the unsuccessful claim of Stephen Sayre (A.B. 1757) for wartime services in Europe. And he was thrust into a quarrel between a senator and a representative from Georgia. Frelinghuysen managed to avert a duel, but only after pains­ taking negotiations and after having been unfairly charged with tam­ pering with the privileges of the House of Representatives. The affair left him sicker than ever of Congress and furious at "all cowards." He waited to be sure that Jay's Treaty was approved and in November 1796, he resigned from the Senate. He was immediately reappointed clerk of common pleas in Somerset County. In 1799 he resigned that post to become county judge. He also took in legal apprentices whom he trained for the bar. Frelinghuysen became a trustee of the College in 1802 and spent the rest of his life at home, practicing law. He died of a respiratory infection on his fiftyfirst birthday, leaving his widow and seven children. His three sons, all from his first marriage, were John (Queen's 1792), Theodore (A.B. 1804), and Frederick (A.B. 1806). Frelinghuysen left land to each of his children. The value of his estate was $17,228. SOURCES: DAB;

Η. K. Swan, Raritan's Revolutionary Rebel

(1967); Som. C n t y . Hist.

Quart., 8 (1919), 3 6 ; 1 (1912), 241-42, 173-74. 282; 5 (1916), 243-46; 6 (1917), 308309; 4 (1915), 4 9 ; F. B. Lee, Geneal. and Memorial Hist, of . . . N.J. (1910), 1, 9-11; T. W. Chambers, Memoir of . . . T h e o d o r e Frelinghuysen ( 1 8 6 3 ) , 2 2 - 2 7 ; N.J. W i l l s , viii, 162-63; x, 169-70; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); MS Clio. Soc.

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membership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); R. P. McCormick, Rutgers (1966), 10, 13, 19; W.H.S. Demarest, Hist, of Rutgers College (1924), 83-85, 173-76; NYGBR, 104 (1973), 151; Min. of Provincial Congress . . . of NJ. (1879), passim; Extracts from the Journal . . . of the Provincial Congress of N.J. (1835), 5, 10, 18, 29; Stryker, Off. Reg., 3 3 3 - 3 4 , 3 4 6 ; W . S. Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton (1898), 174η, 251; Washington Writings, vi, 460; xv, 232; xxi, 124, 128-29; A. Messier, First Things in Old Somerset (1899), 64; als FF to W. Livingston, 14 Mar 1777, 9 Dec 1784, 5 Jul 1785, Livingston MSS, MHi; N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 16 Jun 1 7 7 7 ; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. ( 1 8 6 8 ) , 4 7 5 ; T . Thayer, As W e Were (1964), 125; Correspondence of the Executive of NJ., ιηη6-ιη86 (1848), 94-95 ("un­ pardonable neglect"), 141, 155-56, 176, 179; NJHSP (n.s.), 9 (1924), 243; 6 (1921), 21, 83 ("sand and water")·, NJA (2 ser.), 11, 279-80, 489; v, 457-58; LMCC, in, lvi; iv, 118 & n., 185-86; vi, xlviii, 233; VII, xxx-xxxi, 359; JCC, xm, 247, 319, 176, 331; A. C. Leiby, Rev. War in the Hackensack Valley (1962), 207 & n.; Mag. of Amer. Hist., 10 ( 1 8 8 3 ) , P t - 2 > 4 1 8; W M Q ( 3 ser.), 7 ( 1 9 5 0 ) , 3 0 , 3 4 , 3 8 ; J. T . Main, Sovereign States (1973), 323-24; J. J. Boudinot, Life of . . . Elias Boudinot (1896), 1, 402-403; 11, 58-59; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, N.J. ( 1 8 8 1 ) , 5 8 5 ; Elliott's De­ bates, I, 321; R. P. McCormick, Experiment in Independence (1950), 232 Sc n., 2666 8 , 2 6 8 η , 9 3 - 9 4 ; Minutes of the Convention ( 1 7 8 8 ) , 5 , 2 9 ; A. D. Mellick, Story of an Old Farm ( 1 8 8 9 ) , 2 1 9 ; Rutgers College, Gen. Cat. ( 1 9 0 9 ) , 7 ; J. Bogart, Bogart Letters (1914), 35; J. T . Main, Political Parties Before the Constitution (1973), 429; A/C, iv, passim; v, 63, 83, 786-91; als T. Henderson to FF, 24 Sep 1794, Moore Coll; FF to A. Yard, Jan-Nov 1794; FF to A. Y. Frelinghuysen, 9 Jun 1795 ("married him a wi£e" and "hate Phila."), 12 Jun 1795 ("hazard a vote"), 13 Jun 1795 ("ungrateful pub­ lic"), 21 Jun 1795 ("TOMORROW"), 10 Dec 1795 ("Guinea hens"), and Jan-May 1796, passim, Frelinghuysen letters, Gen. MSS, NjP; PMHB, 47 (1923), 153, 164; 71 ( 1 947)· 53 & n., 5 4 - 5 5 , 5 6 , 5 7 ; E. F. McFarland and R. A. McFarland, Frelinghuysen Family in N.J. (n.d.), 2 5 ; J. A. Carroll and M. W. Ashworth, George Washington, vn (!957). 25 on MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, PHi

Joshua Hartt JOSHUA HARTT, A.B., A.M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman, teacher, sur­ veyor, and farmer, was born on September 17, 1738 at "Caledonia," the farm owned by his parents Cornelius and Elizabeth Wicks Hartt in Huntington, Long Island, New York. He joined the Well-Meaning Club at the College in 1768 and was a member of the Cliosophic So­ ciety when he graduated. Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge (both A.B. 1771), members of the Whig Society, used Hartt's name for a character in their "Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca," the unpublished novel that was the major product of the "Paper War" of 1770-71 between the two literary clubs. Hartt's role at the com­ mencement exercises of 1770 was to be the third speaker in a forensic dispute on the topic, "different religious Professions, in any State, if maintained in their Liberty, serve it, by supplying the Place of a Censor Morum." After returning to Long Island to study theology, Hartt was or-

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dained as an evangelist by the Suffolk Presbytery on April 2, 177a. He was said, during his lifetime, to have preached in almost all parts of Long Island, and he may have done some of that as an evangelist. He was at Hempstead in 1772 and certainly in Moriches on February 9, 1773, when he married Abigail Howells. Fourteen months later he was installed as the permanent pastor at the Smithtown Branch church near Fresh Pond in Suffolk County. He also served the nearby church in Southampton and other pulpits in Suffolk. Very soon after his installation his father died, leaving Hartt six acres of land in Hunting­ ton that he farmed, possibly with the help of his one slave. An ardent patriot, Hartt exhorted his parishioners to "beat [their] ploughshares into swords and [their] pruning hooks into spears" dur­ ing the Revolution. After Long Island was occupied in 1776, he was arrested and brought before a British court-martial and admonished to curb his tongue. That did not deter him, and after his next arrest in May 1777, he was confined in the Provost Guard Jail in New York City. Although his wife personally begged for his release, his imprison­ ment continued until Christmas, by which time he was seriously ill and let go on parole. According to tradition, he became a close friend of his fellow-prisoner Ethan Allen. Hartt was once shot at while in the pulpit at Smithtown, but he was not arrested a third time, even though his diatribes against England went on through the War of 1812. His several churches declined be­ tween 1776 and 1783, but he managed at least to keep them together. When peace was restored, Hartt joined a surveying expedition to the New York frontier and helped delineate the borders of Oneida County. He returned to the area as a missionary in 1790, along with Nathan Ker (A.B. 1761). Hartt later served as the town surveyor of Hunting­ ton. In that capacity in 1795, he reported on the town's population to Albany, exclaiming "Thank God we have no lawyers." There is no substantial evidence to connect that outburst to the £3 4s for legal services he paid to Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) in 1791. In January 1793 Hartt opened a boarding school in Smithtown where he taught the classics, mathematics, and even navigation to local youngsters. The 300-pound minister also was reputed to have offered medical advice on everything from bleeding to unguents and purga­ tives to his parishioners. He was, however, best known for the pro­ digious number of marriages he performed. Hartt died a widower on October 3, 1829, at F res h Pond and was buried in his family plot in Northport, Long Island. At ninety he had survived at least one of his ten children. Many years later his youngest son destroyed most of Hartt's personal papers in a fit of pique.

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SOURCES: (Huntington, L.I.) Long Islander, 23 Mar 1928 ("ploughshares into swords"); F. G. Mather, Refugees of /776 from Long Island to Conn. (1913), 387-88; N. S. PrimejHui. of Long Island (1845), 242> NYGBR, 42 (1911). 128-29; 55 (1924), 345; Cal. Ν.Ύ. Hist, MSS, War of Rev. (1868), 1, 398; First Census, N.Y., 166; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); N.Y. Wills, vol, 174-76; P. Ross, Hist, of Long Island (1905), 1, 145. PUBLICATIONS: Sh-Sh #s 28713, 34876

Azariah Horton, Jr. AZARIAH HORTON, JR., A.B., A.M. 1773, possibly a merchant and land­ owner, certainly and briefly a military officer, was probably born at Bottle Hill, Morris County, New Jersey, where his father, Azariah Horton, Sr. (Yale 1735), was pastor of the Presbyterian church. His mother, Eunice Foster Horton, kept a small store to supplement the family income and the Hortons were eventually able to buy a farm. The senior Horton was identified with the early history of the College. He was a classmate of President Aaron Burr at Yale, a cousin of Ezra Horton (A.B. 1754), and, at Bottle Hill (later South Hanover), a neighbor and colleague of trustee Jacob Green (Harvard 1744). It may have been Green who oversaw Azariah, Jr.'s early education. Horton attended the College with help from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, whose fund for pious youth gave him money in 1768, 1769, and 1770. He joined neither of the literary societies at Nassau Hall. The graduation exercises of 1770 took place amidst the furor over the Non-Importation Agreement, from which merchants in New York withdrew in June. Students at the College demonstrated against the New Yorkers in July, and at commencement there were three separate discussions of the issue. Horton's role was to give the opposition to his classmate John Cosins Ogden's defense of the agree­ ment. Horton's career for several years after graduation is obscure. He may have moved to Pennsylvania, for in 1773 James Madison (A.B. 1771) sent his thanks to Horton in Philadelphia for helping him in a business matter. William Bradford, Jr. (A.B. 1772), who lived in Philadelphia, recorded in his journal that Horton was back in the city in May 1776. Horton may also have taken over his family's store. When his father died of smallpox while tending to infected soldiers in March 1777, Horton inherited most of the household library and a silver spoon. The family's three slaves were to be sold. Although his widow and six children received only modest bequests, ranging from five shillings to £30, Reverend Azariah Horton left $533 to the College and the

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Presbyterian church to augment the fund for educating pious youth. In March 1779 the two deputy commissary generals of the Con­ tinental Army's Mustering Department, one of whom was William Bradford, Jr., resigned their posts. The Board of War recommended Horton and Henry Rutgers, Jr. as their replacements, each with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The nominations were approved on April 6. At that time, Horton and his brother were busy selling off the per­ sonal effects of their deceased mother. As soon as that was accom­ plished, Horton composed a memorial to Congress on behalf of the Mustering Department, which was more a civil than a military or­ ganization, asking for parity with the military ranks in salary and benefits. A subcommittee of the Board of War, including Nathaniel Scudder (A.B. 1751), reported on June 25 that the department's per­ sonnel deserved what Horton asked, but Congress as a whole was not in a generous mood. The report was recommitted with a request for Washington's opinion on the necessity for a Mustering Department. The commander in chief consulted his general officers and con­ cluded that, indeed, the Mustering Department was superfluous. On his recommendation, Congress dissolved the department in January 1780. Officers who had served in it for eighteen months prior to that date were allowed one year's pay. Horton, commissioned only ten months before, was not eligible. No doubt he regretted having written the memorial. In 1781 and 1782 Horton apparently lived in Philadelphia, although what he was doing there is not clear. He paid fairly low taxes in both years. By 1784 he may have bought 300 acres in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, to which were added 400 acres in Luzerne County by 1792. In August 1785 he tried to turn some small profit on his brief wartime service when he appealed to Congress to pay him the depreciation on his salary and to authorize a land bounty for him. His appeal was considered promptly, but it was not until May 1786 that he was officially told of the result. The policy of paying deprecia­ tion was not adopted until April 1780, four months after the Mustering Department ceased to exist, and it was not retroactive. Land bounties, moreover, were reserved to military personnel, and the ambiguous nature of the Mustering Department disqualified him from considera­ tion. Horton's appeal was politely and absolutely rejected. Horton probably continued to reside in Pennsylvania until 1793. He was in Philadelphia when the yellow fever epidemic of that year devastated the city and he was one of its victims. His will, dated Sep­ tember 8 and proved on October 28, included a bequest "towards the education of Pious youth . . . and Trustees of Princeton College."

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SOURCES: W. P. Tuttle, Bottle Hill and Madison (1916), 52-53; NJA (2 ser.), 1, 195; 11, 380 & n.; in, 271-72; als AH to W. Kirkpatrick, 8 Nov 1768; to J. Caldwell, 26 Sep 1769; 18 Sep 1770; Gen. MSS., NjP; Pub. Col. Soc. Mass., xix, 246; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); Madison Papers, 1, 84; Pa. Arch., (3 ser.), xiv, 250; xv, 592; xvi, 412; xxiv, 228; xxv, 167; Bradford Journal; A. E. Vanderpoel, Hist, of Chatham, N.J. (1959), 66; N.J. Wills, v, 255-56; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 1, 536-37; JCC, xm, 403-404, 425; xiv, 734, 770-71; xv, 1329-30; xvi, 47; xxix, 623η, 634-35; LMCC, iv, 142, 272; vm, 557-58 Sc η; Washington Writings, xiv, 38g; xvi, 135-36; M. Carey, Short Account of the Malignant Fever (1794), 104; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 714, 715 n. 5: Giger, Memoirs; MS abstracts of Phila. wills, Ph2A:4, Geneal. Soc. Pa. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP

Nathaniel Irwin (Erwin) NATHANIEL IRWIN (ERWIN), A.B., A.M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman,

farmer, and public official, was the son of Mary and Thomas Irwin, a maker of spinning wheels. He was born on October 17 or 18, 1746, in Fagg's Manor, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He probably received his early education at Reverend John Blair's school there. Irwin was apparently one of the founders of the American Whig Society at the College in June 1769. He was certainly one of the more enthusiastic members and in his later years harbored especially fond memories of the club and his fellows. One such colleague with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship was James Madison (A.B. 1771)· At the commencement of 1770 Irwin rebutted the opposition to an argument that "the Study of dead Languages is for the Emolument of Science. . . ." After graduation Irwin may have remained in Princeton for a time to teach at the grammar school and study divinity. The bulk of his theological training, however, was supervised by members of the Pres­ bytery of New Castle, which licensed him to preach late in 1772. At about that time, Irwin was the victim of some sort of calumny by George Luckey (A.B. 1772), another native of Chester County and a future minister. Whatever charges were leveled or exchanged, Madison stood unflinchingly on Irwin's side, convinced that Luckey and "his company" had placed themselves "below contempt" by their "feeble yet wicked assault" on his friend. Madison was eager for news about Irwin and pressed William Brad­ ford, Jr. (A.B. 1772) in Philadelphia for information. In May 1773 Bradford was able to report that Irwin was in the city for a meeting of the synod, having just returned from the "back parts" of Pennsylvania. Whether it was as a result of his missionary tour or, as Bradford

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thought, because he had recently become a disciple of William Cadogan, the British physician who argued that clean living and exercise would cure almost anything, Irwin looked terrible. Bradford feared that the new minister was on the verge of consumption. Irwin recovered sufficiently to resume his missionary work in Penn­ sylvania and Virginia. In September 1773 he was in Orange Counity, Virginia to visit Madison and preach to universal praise in the largely Anglican community. By November he had received a call from the Presbyterian church in Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The pulpit at Neshaminy had been vacant since Charles C. Beatty, a trustee of the College, died in 1772. Irwin filled it in the spring of 1774. In November of that year the First Presbytery of Philadelphia convened at Neshaminy to examine and ordain him. The church was so crowded with celebrants that many were turned away. Irwin's salary was to be £130 per year until a parsonage could be obtained, after which it would be reduced to £100. Since no housing for the pastor was secured during his tenure, his salary remained at the original figure until it was increased by £40 in 1798. It was probably in 1777 that Irwin married Martha Jamison. By 1779 he owned a farm of 200 acres near Warrington Township, two and one-half miles from his church, on the road between Philadelphia and Doylestown. With the help of one slave, he grew enough vegetables and kept enough livestock to make the farm profitable, and sales of its produce supplemented his income. In 1783 his taxes were the third highest in Warrington. Irwin's sound business sense, knowledge of the law, and ability to serve as the local physician when a professional was not available made him a very prominent citizen of Bucks County. But that promi­ nence had its drawbacks, especially since his private life was far from confidential. Although they had two children, he and his wife were not happily married. Her sexual indiscretions were well known to most of the town, but not until August 1781 did Irwin find her in flagrante delicto with a certain Mr. Fenton. Erkuries Beatty, son of Irwin's predecessor and brother of John Beatty (A.B. 1769) and Charles Clinton Beatty (A.B. 1775), wrote to another brother that the pastor had finally "outgeneral'd his wife . . . and caught her in a Dirty act indeed." Beatty supposed that the situation was well enough known that Irwin would not have to bother publishing his version in order to get a divorce. "Oh, poor 'shaminy," wrote Beatty, "what are you re­ duced to . . . to have your minister wearing a pair of Horns." Irwin presented a petition for divorce to the Pennsylvania legislature in January 1783. He withdrew it in February, apparently on his wife's

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plea. But it was resubmitted in November 1784, and within three months Irwin's marriage was dissolved. Another resident of Bucks County with an unhappy marriage was John Fitch, adventurer, specu­ lator, and inventor. He and Irwin became close friends, drawn to­ gether by their common interest in mechanics and in spite of Fitch's bizarre deism. In April 1785 Fitch came to Irwin with an original idea for a steam boat. The pastor found several references to steam engines in his library and assisted Fitch in preparing a plan that could be patented. When James Rumsey accused Fitch of plagiarism, Irwin swore an affidavit for his friend and sent him to James Madison with a request that Madison sponsor a patent in Virginia. The legislature in Richmond was not very interested in the idea and the Fitch-Rumsey debate continued even after both men were dead. In 1790 Fitch had another idea. He wanted to create a new, universal religion, founded in deism, that would combine and supersede all others. He was confident of success both in the hereafter and in the secular world. Seeking a leader for his sect, he naturally turned to Irwin, who alone among clergymen could preach sermons that actually interested and entertained him. He promised the minister that if he accepted the post he would lose some standing for a short time only to become extremely wealthy and powerful. Fitch envisioned Irwin as president of the United States, more important and memorable than "Moses, Jesus Christ, Alexander and Mahomet." Prudently, Irwin declined. On August 25, 1788, Irwin was elected by a county-wide meeting to represent Bucks County in the forthcoming Harrisburg convention to recommend amendments to the newly-ratified federal Constitution. He supported resolves to accept the new form of government while insisting on prompt changes in the direction of greater protection for individual liberty. He took the opportunity of Madison's appointment as secretary of state in 1801 to renew their correspondence after a hiatus of twenty years and to tell his old friend that he was then "rather a politician, than a divine." One of the few Republicans in Bucks County who could compose acceptable resolutions and mani­ festos, his services were regularly required. In 1799 he authored the party's "Addresses to the People," one of which was declared by Justice William Paterson (A.B. 1763) of the Supreme Court to be "actionable under the Sedition Law." Irwin reported to Madison that he was the leading candidate to replace Peter Muhlenberg as Bucks County's member of Congress but that he was not inclined to under­ take the job. In 1802 he served briefly as the appointed county register and recorder, but his failing health and, perhaps, the growing criticism

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of a minister in politics led him to resign in favor of his son-in-law. He exerted substantial influence to make Doylestown the county seat, and a published cartoon portrayed him in shirtsleeves tugging the new courthouse in that direction. He held no other public offices but was frequently an officer of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and later, of the church's General Assembly. In 1793 he chaired the as­ sembly's committee that worked with the College to finance the educa­ tion of pious youth and in 1800 he was named a trustee of the Presby­ terian church in the United States. When the post of permanent clerk of the assembly was created in 1802, Irwin, the immediate past modera­ tor, was chosen to fill it. His health forced him to resign in 1807. Irwin was famous for his sermons, most of which were composed while he rode his horse across local farms. He relished the company of young people and often invited them to his home, where, occasion­ ally, he would entertain them with a selection on the violin. Irwin remarried, probably in 1806. His second wife was a neighbor, Priscilla McKinstry. By that time he had amassed a considerable estate. In the last great controversy of his life, the choice of a location for the new Presbyterian theological seminary, Irwin used both his wealth and his prestige to try to persuade the General Assembly to build the school in Bucks County. When he died on March 3, 1812, he be­ queathed $1,000 to the assembly for the support of the seminary if it were built near the site of the old Log College. But the assembly had already decided that the seminary should be in Princeton and so never received the bequest. Irwin also left money to the Union Library in Hatborough. And he designated one share of stock in the Bank of Pennsylvania, then worth approximately $100, to the Whig Society at the College. The annual interest was to be used as a prize for the best orator in the society. From 1814 until 1857, when the collapse of the bank ended the award, the Irwin Legacy was a coveted prize among Whig members. Irwin was survived by his widow and by his daughter and her family. He was buried on the spot where the original pulpit of the first church in Neshaminy had stood. SOURCES: Most sources give 1756 as year of birth, but NI 's tombstone inscription is

1746. Sprague, Annals, m , 333-35; D. K. Turner, Hist, of Neshaminy Pres. Chh. (1876), 124-68; Pres. Encyc., 372; J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, Hist, of Chester Cnty. (1881); 609; W. H. Davis, Hist, of Bucks Cnty., Pa. (1905), 1, 423; alumni file, PUA; Beam, Whig Soc., 15, 20, 60, 67; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); Madison Papers, 1, 76 & n. ("feeble yet wicked assault"), 86-88 ("back parts" of Pa.), 93-94 & n., 98. Luckey later tutored and boarded with Madison's brother in Va. (G. Morrison, "Brief Hist. Sketch of Rev George Luckey," PPPrHi). Rec. Pres. Chh., 437; Fithian Journal, 11, 246; PMHB, 44 (1920), 200 & n., 227 ("outgeneral'd"); 92 (1968), 446-50; Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xm, 54, 189, 283, 344,

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459· 55°> ^47' 754! Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Papers, HI, 597; First Census, Pa., 57; I. Brant, James Madison, the Nationalist (1948), 370; C. Whittlesey, Life of John Fitch (1847), 97"98; J. T. Flexner, Steamboats Come True (1944), 76-77, 195; T. Boyd, Poor John Fitch (1935), 265 ("Moses, Jesus . . and passim; J. B. McMaster and F. D. Stone, eds., Pa. and the Federal Constitution (1888), 555-57; als NI to J. Madi­ son, 31 Mar 1801, Madison Mss ("rather a politician"); Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820, 75-76, 195, an, 235, 374. PUBLICATIONS: "Memoirs of the Pres. Chh. of Neshaminy, 1724-1782," in JPHS, 2 (1904)' 22iff MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

Thomas McPherrin THOMAS MCPHERRIN, A.B., A .M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman, ap­

parently left no record of his parentage, place and date of birth, or early life. He was among the original members of the American Whig Society at the College and established a friendship with his fellow member James Madison (A.B. 1771) that lasted beyond graduation. His role in the commencement exercises of 1770 was to present the affirmative argument in a Latin syllogistic debate on the proposition "Omnes Homines, Jure Naturae, liberi sunt." On April 16, 1773, McPherrin was licensed to preach by the Presby­ tery of Donegal and immediately ordered to supply a new congregation in Pittsburgh for the third Sunday in November. In 1774 he accepted a call from three neighboring congregations at East and Lower West Conococheague, then in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and Jeru­ salem (later Hagerstown), Frederick County, Maryland. He was or­ dained at Lower West Conococheague, called the "Tent church" of Welsh Run near modern Mercersburg, on August 17. The East Con­ ococheague congregation met near modern Greencastle. The complex arrangement of McPherrin's pulpits stemmed from the Great Awakening, when the churches on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Maryland divided between Old and New Sides. McPherrin's con­ gregations were New Side, and he preached virtually next door to flourishing Old Side meeting houses. There were sixteen ministers in the Donegal Presbytery in 1774. Like the rest, McPherrin had to supply many churches in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Their bur­ dens were eased somewhat by the creation of the Presbytery of Red­ stone in 1775; and by 1786 Donegal was dissolved into two new pres­ byteries, Baltimore and Carlisle. For the rest of his life, McPherrin was a member of the latter body. Even the regular responsibilities of his own three churches were too much for him, however. On June 17,

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1779, he was permitted by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia to sever his relations with Hagerstown. He continued to preach in Mary­ land, but only as an occasional supply. McPherrin supervised the renovation of the Welsh Run church soon after he was ordained. He also bought 200 acres of land on which he kept some horses and cattle. He married, probably for the first time, on February 15, 1798. His bride was Rebecca Davis, and the ceremony was performed by John King, pastor of the Upper West Conococheague church. Two years later McPherrin resigned from the pulpit. When his Old Side neighbor resigned in 1801, the divided congregations on the Conococheague were finally able to reunite. McPherrin died on February 4, 1802. SOURCES: The many variant spellings of the name include McFerrin, McFarrin,

McFerran. Beam, Whig Soc., 18, 20; Madison Papers, 1, 84, 86, 88, 109; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle (1889), 1, passim; W. W. McKinney, Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism (1938), 42; A. Nevin, Churches of the Valley (1852), 135 36, 308; Fithian Journal, n, 33; Pa. Arch. (3 ser.) xx, 215, 351, 528; PGM, 15 (1945), 192.

John Cosens Ogden JOHN COSENS (COZZENS, COSINS) OGDEN, A.B., A.M. 1789, Yale 1782,

merchant, Episcopal clergyman, and political propagandist, was born on November 15, 1751, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was one of the twelve children of a prosperous artisan and occasional sheriff of the town, Moses Ogden, and his wife Mary Cosens. At the College Ogden joined the Cliosophic Society, taking the name of "Zeno," the lawgiver, and he spoke in defense of the Non-importation Agreement at his commencement exercises. He went from Prince­ ton to New Haven, Connecticut, where his sister and brother-in-law, Pierpont Edwards (A.B. 1768), had moved the previous year. There he apparently associated himself with David Wooster, one of the New Haven "interlopers"—successful merchants who were predominantly New Light Presbyterians and political progressives and whose enter­ prise had completely transmogrified the town since the 1750s. Wooster was then the collector of the port of New Haven, and Ogden seems to have been connected in some way with that position. On October 6, 1774, Ogden married Wooster's daughter, Mary Clap Wooster, a granddaughter of former President Thomas Clap of Yale, in a ceremony performed by Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (A.B. 1765). In

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!775' when Wooster accepted a major general's commission in the Continental Army, Ogden unsuccessfully petitioned to be named as the new collector of New Haven. Instead he served as his father-in-law's aide for a time. He may have been the proprietor of Ogden's Hotel in New Haven and by 1780 he was certainly offering room and board to students from Yale College, which granted him an A.M. in 1782. After selling his interest in his father's estate to his sister for £183, Ogden took over Wooster's general store. There he offered a variety of goods for prices to be paid in money, kind, or any of a myriad of securities. Ogden then converted to the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was growing steadily after the serious decline of Anglicanism during the war. With a revised liturgy that omitted prayers to and for the king, the church attracted many new converts from among religious dissenters and social reformers who identified the conservative political order with the Congregational establishment in New England. On September 28, 1786, Ogden was ordained a deacon in the church and licensed to preach by Samuel Seabury, the first Episcopal bishop in America and Ogden's religious mentor. In December Ogden accepted an invitation to become the rector of Queen's chapel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In March 1788 he was ordained by Seabury in Bos­ ton. Ogden's duties included missionary work throughout New Hamp­ shire and in Maine and Vermont. An avid proselytizer, he once sold his new coat to pay for the printing of an English tract on the church. He also fought for church property rights, protesting the alleged seizure of glebe lands and revenue by local governments. Ogden was called upon to act occasionally as a chaplain to the New Hampshire General Court, a task he sometimes shared with Congregationalist Israel Evans (A.B. 1772) of Concord who was in­ variably better paid for his services. The Episcopal chaplain gave the election sermon in 1790, ingeniously comparing Washington to the prophet Ne'hemiah. In February 1791 Queen's Chapel was incorporated as St. John's Parish. That June Seabury delivered a sermon there on apostolic succession that raised the hackles of local Congregationalists. Their spokesman, Samuel MacClintock (A.B. 1751) of Greenland, New Hampshire, was accused by Ogden of having charged Seabury with blasphemy. MacClintock denied the charge but admitted his annoy­ ance with the bishop's "antiquated topick." Now Ogden called MacClintock a liar and attacked the Congregationalists as allies of the pope in persecuting Episcopalians. Greenland's pastor answered that Ameri­ can Episcopalians were much better off than Dissenters in Britain and then sarcastically assured Ogden that all was well and that "no body

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will hurt you, or take away your bishops, your human rites and cere­ monies, or any of your holy play things." Delighted by the attack on Seabury, Yale honored MacClintock with an S.T.D.; at this provoca­ tion, Ogden turned his wrath against Yale as well as the "Pope of Greenland." He also charged Congregationalists with stealing Episco­ pal church lands. Although Congregationalists had mocked Episcopal rites for years, and President Ezra Stiles of Yale did not allow the students there to worship in New Haven's Trinity Church, Ogden's vehemence was too much even for his own parishioners. To keep the peace, they dismissed him in January 1793. Turned out of Portsmouth, Ogden roamed the Connecticut Valley preaching and establishing congregations where he had earlier done missionary work. His home base for a time was a new church in Hartland, Vermont. In 1795 he sent his family to live with Mrs. Wooster in New Haven, where he could not go because of an outstanding warrant for his arrest for debt. On an income of $100 annually, he walked through western New York and then to Canada. He could not find a church there because of questions about the legitimacy of an ordination by Seabury. He was imprisoned briefly for debt in Troy, New York and reduced to begging charity from Governor John Jay and from his fellow alumnus, Governor Isaac Tichenor (A.B. 1775) of Vermont. He was, he told Tichenor, so sick of the evils of mankind that he would prefer "a mission in the Wilderness with a wallet and staff .. . to the best things which this world affords." Ogden's travails led him to conclude that the Congregationalists in New England were trying to establish theirs as the region's exclusive church. He believed that the close ties between the religious and political leaders, especially in Connecticut, created a self-perpetuating and exclusive elite that kept the politicians in power and the ministers at the top of the social order. At the core of the conspiracy Ogden saw Yale College and its new president, Timothy Dwight. The chief op­ ponent of the Federalist power structure in Connecticut was Ogden's brother-in-law Pierpont Edwards, who may well have cultivated Ogden's anti-Congregationalist bias. Frustrated and bitter, Ogden published an angry assault on Yale and the Connecticut establishment in 1798. An Appeal to the Candid, upon the Present State of Religion and Politics in Connecticut asserted that the state was "more completely under the administration of a Pope than Italy" and identified that "Pope" as Dwight. Ogden traced Congregationalist establishmentarianism from the doctrines of Jona­ than Edwards through the incubator of Nassau Hall under Witherspoon and the then current president, Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B.

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1769). He blamed ithe "Calvinist Party" for America's troubles with Europe and charged it with flagrant bigotry and persecution against all other sects. The pamphlet was the first shot in a barrage. A pillar of nascent Republicanism, Ogden joined the protest against the conviction of Vermont's Congressman Matthew Lyon for sedition in October 1798. It was Ogden who carried a petition to Philadelphia to procure Lyon's release. In the city by December, Ogden submitted some of his political writing to the Philadelphia Aurora, the influential anti-Federalist journal. His unsigned attacks on the power structure in Connecticut were irregular features in the Aurora until his death. In 1799 the Republicans were trying to present Thomas Jefferson as the alternative to John Adams and to the religious and political views of New Engand to which Adams was linked. Ogden's pieces on the sins of Congregationalist Federalists in Connecticut, therefore, were significant contributions to the political contest. He detailed Lyon's plight and the case of his own mother-in-law, who he claimed had been impoverished by the machinations of unscrupulous men of affairs and position in Connecticut. He complained especially that the collectorship of New Haven had been snatched from the Wooster family—by which he meant himself—in 1775. He constantly returned to his favorite villains, Dwight and Yale, and widened his attacks to include the presidents of all of the colleges in New England. To insure that his charges were read in Connecticut, where obedient postal officers failed to deliver copies of the Aurora, Ogden mailed the news­ papers in a falsely labeled wrapper. To his enemies, the packages came with postage due. When Dwight and other Federalists tortuously exposed the mythical Bavarian Illuminati as the international revolutionary conspiracy be­ hind Republicanism, Ogden turned the charge back upon its authors. He wrote of the "New England Illuminati"—the men who "conspired" to suppress liberty and retain power in Connecticut and other states. At the beginning of 1799 Ogden went to Litchfield, Connecticut to publish an account of his travels in Canada. He was arrested for not having paid a decade-old debt of $180 to secretary of the treasury Oliver Wolcott. The Republicans howled that it was a political arrest, but Ogden was not released until June when he signed a note of indebtedness. He had continued to write and publish more of his political broadsides from his cell. Indeed, his vicissitudes in Connecti­ cut provided even more material for his pamphlets and for the Aurora. Later in the year Ogden went to Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware to seek a church. His failure there led him to include the Episcopal clerics in those states in his list of conspirators, an ecumenicism of

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vitriol that made his writing more political and less sectarian than it had originally been. Back in Philadelphia in February 1800, he preached a sermon on the ironic subject of "Peace, Charity, and Toleration," and then delivered another batch of polemics to the Aurora. Some of Ogden's newspaper pieces appeared as signed pamphlets in 1799 and 1800, and his notoriety as a Republican propagandist exposed him to Federalist attacks that were as biting as his own. The Ogden described in one such article sounds much more like a hated but able politician than a dedicated divine. Still seeking a pulpit, Ogden died in Chestertown, Maryland on September 26, 1800. He was survived by his wife and three children. The "New England Illuminati" remained a permanent fixture of Republican folklore and Ogden's charges were widely exploited in the election of that year. Ogden would undoubtedly have been pleased to know that Jefferson defeated Adams. It is unlikely, however, that he would have been satisfied. SOURCES: P M H B , 100 (1976), 3-36; V t . Hist., 43

(1975), 103-120; W. O. Wheeler, Ogden Family (1907), 84, 140; NJA (1 ser.), xxiv, 103; xxv, 16-17; N.J. Wills, iv, 312-13; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Packet and Daily Adver­ tiser, 7 Oct 1789 (A.M.); C. Collier, Roger Sherman's Conn. (1971), 37; R- G. Osterweis, T h r e e Centuries of N e w Haven (1953), 102, 129, 208, 211, 261; Vital Recs. of New Haven, Conn. (1907), 1, 416; als JCO to Maj. Beardsley, 7 Feb 1777; to T. Wooster, 18 Feb 1783; to I. Tichenor, 18 Sep 1798 ("mission in the Wilderness"), Gratz Coll., PHi; Stiles, Literary Diary, 1, 393; n , 248, 542; HI, 28, 108; New H a v e n Gazette, 20 May, 5 Aug 1784, 3 Feb 1785; N. R . Burr, Story of the Diocese of Conn. (1962), 104-105, 162-63; B. E. Steiner, Samuel Seabury (1971), passim; S. E. Ahlstrom, Religious Hist, of the Amer. People (1972), 224-25, 368; N. Adams, Annals of Ports­ mouth (1825), 2 86> 347; Amer. Herald, Boston Gazette, 31 Mar 1788; C. R. Batchelder, Hist, of the Eastern Diocese (1876), 1, 66, 198, 248, 272; C h h . Arch. N.H.: Prot. Episc. Diocese (1942), 59, 173, 187, 202; N . H . Churchman, 5 (1952), 6-9; Inventory of C h h . Arch, of Vt., n o . 1, 11-12, 141, 186; H . P. Smith, Hist, of Rutland Cnty., V t . (1886), 374; P. Chase, Reminiscences (1848), 1, 17-18; N.H. St. Pap., xxi, XXII, passim; Sibley's Harvard Grads., xm ("no body will hurt you"); Phila. Gazette, 2 Sep, and 26 Sep 1800; A. Heimert, Religion and the Amer. Mind (1966), 396, 494, 535; Dexter, Yale Biographies, v, 316-17, 385.

PUBLICATIONS: see STE MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

Nathan Perkins NATHAN PERKINS, A.B., A.M. 1773, D.D. 1801, Congregational clergy­ man born on May 18, 1749, was the son of Matthew and Hannah Bishop Perkins of Lisbon, Connecticut, which was then in the parish

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Nathan Perkins, A.B. 1770 BY JOSEPH STEWARD

of the Norwich Congregational church. His father had substantial landholdings and the family was part of Norwich's social elite. Mat­ thew Perkins (Class of 1777) was his younger brother. After an early education under Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754) of Springfield, Connecticut, Perkins entered the College in the fall of 1766. According to his own account of the two literary societies at Nassau Hall, the purpose of the Well-Meaning Club was to assemble the best students together; and the purpose of the Plain-Dealing Club was "to outnumber the Weil-Meaning." His judgment was somewhat biased since he was an active Well-Meaner until the club was dis­ solved; he was also among those instrumental in reviving the organ­ ization as the Cliosophic Society in 1770. Although he was not a prime target of Whig Society attacks in the "Paper War," Perkins was the butt of a later satire by Whig members Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge (both A.B. 1771). In "Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca," they named the author of Bombo's bombastic Latin

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epitaph "Nathan Perkins." It was an obvious play on Perkins's de­ served reputation as a Latin scholar. With the highest academic re­ cord in his class, Perkins was the Latin salutatorian for the commence­ ment of 1770. He was, however, too ill to deliver his address. The illness may have been related to his recent religious conver­ sion. During his last two years at the College, Perkins was so torment­ ed by self-doubts that he required assistance simply to walk to classes. Immediately after graduation he returned to Norwich to study the­ ology with Benjamin Lord (Yale 1714), and within a year he was li­ censed by the Congregationalist New London Association. He preached briefly at Wrentham, Massachusetts but declined a call to settle there. Instead, he went to the "West Society" of Hartford in the fall of 1771. There he reunited a divided congregation, accepted its call, and was ordained as the permanent pastor in West Hartford on October 14, 1772, at a salary of £70 per year. He bought a small farm there in December 1773 and in 1774 married Catherine Pitkin, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Reverend Timothy Pitkin (Yale !747) of Farmington, Connecticut. They were to have nine children. Perkins stayed in his pulpit throughout the Revolution but occa­ sionally delivered patriotic sermons to the troops. He struck up a cor­ dial relationship with President Ezra Stiles of Yale and in 1786 sup­ plied the chapel at that college for several sabbaths. Stiles respected Perkins's ability but suspected his ardor and ambition to be a new "Luther." An adamant New Light, and possibly one with hopes of being elected to the Yale Corporation, Perkins berated Stiles for the selection of some Old Divinity clerics to the college's governing board in 1788. Stiles himself had arranged for the appointment of such "moderates" to make it easier for Yale to get state aid and he was exasperated by complaints from Perkins and other zealots. "New Divy," he complained to his diary, "Hinc illae Lacrymae!" In April 1789 Perkins embarked on a two-month missionary tour through Vermont on behalf of the Hartford North Association. He hated the journey almost from its start. In his journal he constantly bemoaned the rough food, the flea-infested beds, and the rude, un­ cultured people. He greatly missed his home and especiallv his wife's cooking. And he was terribly depressed to find no good beer. As he expected, he was generally well-received in the churches where he preached, but he ostentatiously dismissed the local accolades. "I am," he claimed, "above [such praise] and have a higher end." Yet he took careful note of every plaudit that came his way. To him, Vermont was symbolized by its most famous son, Ethan Allen, who he de­ scribed as one of the "worst infidels" in all history. Henceforth, he

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confined his missionary work to administration, as when he helped to found the interdenominational Plan of Union in 1801. Perkins may have relished praise in Vermont because he received little of it at home. His reputation was not based on his genius in the pulpit. Indeed, when he delivered the Connecticut election sermon in May 1808—at sixty pages, the longest preached between 1792 and 1830—those who knew him were surprised that it was quite good. Rather, Perkins was well known as a teacher and organizer. By his own count, he prepared more than 150 young men for college and trained more than thirty for the ministry. Among them was Noah Webster, who so respected Perkin's ability that he left the Hopkins Grammar School in 1774 to complete his early education with Perkins at West Hartford. Perkins was also extremely active in church coun­ cils, frequently serving as an officer. As a member of the Connecticut Missionary Society in 1799, he coauthored the "Summary of Chris­ tian Doctrine" that the society distributed to the poor. He was also a frequent contributor to the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. In May 1788 the state legislature granted a charter to the grammar school in Hartford upon the petition of the town's agents. One of them was Perkins, who was also named to the school's board of trus­ tees. Seventeen months later the assembly created the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, with Perkins as a charter member. His fascination with the natural sciences always matched his enthusiasm for literature and the arts. In 1792 he was the leading figure in the creation of a lending library in Hartford and then served as the first librarian. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, the power of Connecti­ cut's Congregational clergy began to erode. The Federalist ministers of the established church, even those who, like Perkins, had taken to calling themselves Presbyterians, regarded with jealousy and horror the rise of religious and political liberalism, of toleration, and of poli­ ticians who were more interested in secular than theological questions. Perkins was firmly entrenched among those Federalist clergymen who tried again to reassert their influence over politics and morality, there­ by dividing the Federalist party in New England. The political-religious struggle came to a head over Anglo-American relations from 1808 through the War of 1812. The Federalist clergy op­ posed the administration's anti-British policy and eventually the war it­ self. Preaching on the day after war was declared, Perkins condemned the sins of the nation, singling out slavery as especially heinous. He pre­ dicted that slave-holding states, which incidentally supported the war, and free states could not long survive in one union. In December 1814, when the Hartford Convention met to question the right of the fed-

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eral government to conduct the war as it was doing, Nathan Perkins was invited to be one of the attending clergy by a special act of the convention. In spite of such efforts, the movement for religious toleration in Connecticut succeeded soon after the war, and Perkins seems to have taken the defeat with good grace. In 1817, one year before the state's new constitution established full religious liberty, an Episcopalian was elected lieutenant governor, and a minister of that faith delivered the election sermon. At the annual celebration dinner, Perkins congratu­ lated both men and joked that when he had catechised Children in Hartford years before, he had never dreamed that one of them would grow up to be an Episcopal clergyman and give the election sermon. Although defeated in politics, Perkins still fought for the purity of the church. Disgusted with the liberal theology being taught at Yale, he called two conferences of ministers in his own home in January and September 1833. These produced a "Calvinistic Union," which created the Hartford Theological Seminary. Perkins laid the institu­ tion's cornerstone in May 1834. After 1833 Perkins always had a younger minister to assist him at West Hartford. But he performed most of his own duties until Janu­ ary 14, 1838 when he suffered a paralyzing stroke. He died four days later. In the course of his life, Perkins had delivered more than 10,000 sermons and he had added 600 new members to his church during his sixty-six year tenure. SOURCES:

M. Spinks, H i s t , o f F i r s t C h h . o f C h r i s t . . . W e s t H a r t f o r d , C o n n , [n.d.],

47-84; G. A. Perkins, Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Mass. (1889), 38-39; N. R. Burr, From Colonial Parish to Modern Suburb

(1976), 9; Vital Recs. of

Conn. (1913), i, 191; C. R. Williams, Clio. Soc. (1916), 3, 17

Norwich,

("outnumber the Well

Meaning"); PMHB, 56 (1942), 477; Williams, Academic Honors, 3η, 5; Pa. Chronicle, 1 5 O c t I 1 J 1 JO ( c o m m e n c e m e n t ) ; P a . G a z e t t e , 1 3 O c t 1 7 7 0 State Gazette, 13 Oct 1801 Luther"), 317

(A.M.);

Federalist and N.J.

(D.D.); Stiles, Literary Diary, 1, 296; 111, 274-75

("New Div 5 "'); Public Recs. of

(" n e w

. . . Conn., vi, 129; ix, 282, 403-404;

NEHGR, 14 (i860), 118; 46 (1892), 126; 35 (1881), 311; W. C. Fowler, Ministers of Conn, in the Rev.

(1877), 51-53; DAR Patriot Index, 527; E. S. Morgan, Gentle

Puritan (1962), 416-17; N. Perkins, A Narrative of a Tour through . . . Vt. (1930) ("higher end" and "worst infidels"); and Half-Century Sermon, . . . 13 Oct 1822; I. N. T a r b o x , e d . , D i a r y o f T h o m a s R o b b i n s ( 1 8 8 6 ) , 1, p a s s i m ; H . R . W a r f e l , N o a h W e b ­ ster (1936), 17, 21; L. Bacon et al, Ecclesiastical Hist, of Conn. (1861), 144-45; Banner, To the Hartford Convention

J- M.

(1970), 167, 298, 307, 330; J. H. Trumbull,

M e m . H i s t , o f H a r t f o r d C n t y . , C o n n . ( 1 8 8 6 ) , 11, 4 1 7 ; T . D w i g h t , H i s t , o f t h e H a r t f o r d Convention

(1833), 386-87; Conn. Hist. Soc., Coll., 31

Hist, of Second Chh. in Hartford

(1967), 237; E. P. Parker,

(1892), 191; C. W. Burpee, Story of Conn. (1939),

11, 651; (Newark) N.J. Eagle, 26 Jan 1838.

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Josiah Pomeroy JOSIAH POMEROY, A.B. Yale 1770, was born in Hebron, Connecticut, on June 18, 1745, the son of Reverend Benjamin Pomeroy (Yale 1733) and his wife Abigail Wheelock Pomeroy. His father was a New Light pastor of the First Church of Hebron, and a close associate of his class­ mate at Yale and brother-in-law Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College, of which Benjamin Pomeroy was a founding trustee. Josiah's older brother was Ralph Pomeroy (A.B. 1758), who became a merchant, lawyer, and public official in Hartford, Connecti­ cut. It has been assumed that Josiah was prepared for college, at least in part, by his uncle Eleazar Wheelock, who, before the founding of Dartmouth in 1769, conducted a school primarily concerned with the education of Indian youth at Lebanon, Connecticut. Certainly, a letter from Josiah to Wheelock of October 25, 1766, which shows Josiah seeking to clear himself from some censure imposed by the older man, implies a relationship over and above that of nephew and uncle. Per­ haps it was about this time that Josiah enrolled at the College. No evi­ dence has been found that would fix the exact date of his admission, nor is it possible to say how long he remained at Princeton before transferring to Yale; Dexter's Yale Biographies states only that he "spent most of his course at Princeton College." There could have been a break in his studies, but he has been assigned here to the class to which he belonged as a student at Yale. His relatively advanced age at the time of graduation causes one to wonder if at some time he had contemplated going into the min­ istry. Instead, he seems soon after graduation to have joined his broth­ er in Hartford. Ralph Pomeroy, writing to Eleazar Wheelock on March 16, 1771, reported that his brother had gone to the West Indies; but this could have referred to his brother Eleazar. A letter of February 12, 1773, however, leaves no doubt, for it reports that his brothers Eleazar and Josiah had gone to the West Indies. Presumably, this ven­ ture would have been in association with one or more of the merchants in Hartford who traded with Caribbean ports, and possibly with their brother Ralph. The suggestion that Josiah may have gone into trade, and may more than once have gone to sea, finds further circumstantial support in his work as assistant to Ralph, after the latter became deputy quartermaster general for Connecticut in January 1781, in his marriage about 1788-89 to Mary Cook of Newburyport, Massachu­ setts, and in the fact that at the time of his death obituaries described him as Captain Pomeroy. In fact, however, the record of his career re­ mains stubbornly obscure. As for the length of his residence in Hart-

CALEB RUSSELL

103

ford, it can only be said that a directory for the town in 1799 compiled by a modern scholar from manuscript sources does not include his name. Obituary notices of August 1812 in three newspapers report his death at Hebron and at the age of 67, apparently on July 25. A geneal­ ogy of the family indicates that his marriage had brought to him five children. SOURCES: A. A. Pomeroy, Hist, and Geneal. of the Pomeroy Family (1912) 239-40,

177-79; NEHGR, 57 (1903), 270-71; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 1, 485-88; 111, 391-92; Gen. Cat. Dartmouth College (1910-11), 6, 125; Guide to Microfilm Ed. of Papers of Eleazar Wheelock in Dartmouth College Library (1971), 82, 141, 171; Pub. Recs. of . . . Conn., πι, 289; F. D. Andrews, Business Men of . . . Hartford in /799 (1909); Directory for City of Hartford for . . . /799 (1910), 504, 505; "Hebron Private Recs., Warner Memoranda," Ct St. Lib., 21; Conn. Courant, Conn. Mirror, American Mer­ cury, respectively 4, 10, and 19 Aug 1812. The CNJ student should not be confused with the Josiah Pomeroy living at the time of the census of 1790 at Somers in Tolland Cnty. WFC

Caleb Russell CALEB RUSSELL, A.B., lawyer, businessman, teacher, schoolmaster,

newspaper publisher, and public official, was born on June 4, 1749, in Bridgehampton, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. His parents may have been John and Easter Russell. Russell was a member of neither literary society at the College. At his commencement exercises he supported the proposition that "the Study of dead Languages is for the Emolument of Science. . . ." He re­ turned to Suffolk County and on October 10, 1771, married Lucretia Pierson there. With his father-in-law, Matthew Pierson, he signed the Suffolk County Association in May 1775. The Pierson family later fled to Connecticut to escape British troops. Russell and his wife went to New Jersey. The Morris County Militia included a Private Caleb Russell who may have been the refugee from Long Island. If Russell did serve in any capacity during the war, it would have been one that allowed him to stay close to home, for he was studying law with Judge Robert Mor­ ris in New Brunswick. In 1782 a John Russell died in Morris County, leaving most of his estate to his wife Easter but considerable land and property to a mature son Caleb and other children. The migration of the son with the father to New Jersey in 1775 or 1776 would not have been unusual. In September 1784, Russell was licensed as an attorney by the New Jersey Supreme Court. He established his practice in Morristown,

104

CLASS OF 1770

Morris County, and the size of his subsequent estate indicated that he was successful. On November 28, 1791, twenty-four prominent citizens of Morristown met to organize an academy. Each bought one share of stock for £25. The first president of these original proprietors of the Morris Academy was Jabez Campfield (A.B. 1759), but he soon resigned and the post went to Russell, who had won the contract to build the school, which cost £520, and had bought the land from the First Pres­ byterian Church for £30. In 1792 Russell was appointed to the first of his three successive five-year terms as county clerk. In spite of his responsibilities in that office he agreed to be the first principal of the Morris Academy when it opened with thirty-three students on October 5, 1792. The young scholars paid tuition ranging from 12s to 40s per quarter, depending upon the curriculum they chose. Under Russell's administration the school gained a respectable reputation in New Jersey, New York, and in the South. It had educated 269 students by April 1795. Russell re­ linquished some of his duties at the end of that school year and finally withdrew from direct supervision of the academy in August 1797. An active member of the Presbyterian church in Morristown, Rus­ sell was on its board of trustees after 1795. Shortly thereafter he bought a printing press and in May 1797 began publishing the only newspaper in the area at that time, the Morris County Gazette. Although Russell was actively involved in the weekly's production, he hired a profes­ sional printer, Elijah Cooper, to edit it. When Cooper retired after six months, Russell was the sole editor. In 1798 he hired another profes­ sional, Jacob Mann, who changed the paper's name to the Genius of Liberty. Mann went to Trenton in May 1801, and Russell then gave the successful enterprise over to his son Henry. On Saturday, June 8, 1805, Russell suffered a fatal attack of asthma. He was survived by his wife, eight sons, and one daughter. Tο each of the children he left $25 and a share of his property after their mother died. His estate included more than $1,000 worth of household effects, another $1,000 in cash, and bonds and notes amounting to $6,141. Some of his affluence derived from his membership on the board of proprietors of the Morris Aqueduct, which had been chartered in No­ vember 1799. SOURCES: G. R. Howell, Early Hist, of Southampton

(1887), 437; Giger, Memoirs; Pa. Chronicle, 1 5 Oct 1 7 7 0 (commencement); Hist. First Pres. Chh., Morristown, N.J. [n.d.], 1 8 , 1 9 , 2 5 , 2 7 , 2 0 9 ; F. G. Mather, Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Conn. ('9^). 5°7· !055: Stryker, Off. Reg., 742; will, #642N, #1245^ Nj: nJa (1 ser·)· xxvii, 2 6 7 η ; Hist, of Morris Cnty., N.J. ( 1 9 1 4 ) , 1 , 2 3 0 , 3 4 , 2 5 3 , 2 2 7 ; D. Murray, Hist, of Education in N.J. (1899), 89-90; (Newark) Sentinel of Freedom, 18 Jun 1805;

GEORGE SMITH

105

N.J. Wills, x, 381. The surmise that Russell was the private in the county militia, and the son of John and Easter Russell is supported by K. Stryker-Rodda, Rev. Census of N.J. (1972), 178, which lists only one Caleb Russell and one John Russell in Morris; both in Morristown.

George Smith GEORGE SMITH, A .B., A.M. 1773, lawyer and soldier, was born on De­ cember 20, 1749 in Smith town, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He was the son of Job Smith II, a prosperous Presbyterian farm­ er, and Ruth Smith Smith. In 1768 Smith joined the Cliosophic Society at the College, using as his pseudonym the name of the Roman poet "Horace." In his com­ mencement exercises he presented the negative argument to the propo­ sition that "The Study of dead Languages is for the Emolument of Science, even in a State where every useful and ornamental Branch of Learning is copiously treated in the Language proper to that State." Smith then studied law and, along with William Willcocks (A.B. 1769), in April 1774 was licensed to practice in New York. In May 1775 Smith signed the Suffolk County Association, by which signatories pledged to boycott British goods. After serving on the county committee in 1776, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the First New York Regiment of Continentals. When Long Island fell to the British, he joined soldiers from several New York regiments who escaped to Connecticut, where they assembled under the com­ mand of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Beekman Livingston. Smith par­ ticipated in a nighttime raid on Brookhaven, Long Island in Septem­ ber. In November 1776, when Livingston was about to be given his own regiment, he asked specifically that Lieutenant Smith, "a worthy officer of approved resolution," be included in it. On November 21 the New York Provincial Congress organized the Fourth New York Continental Regiment and transferred Smith to it. On October 5, 1777, while he was apparently still in Connecticut, Smith was named regimental judge advocate. Six weeks later he was promoted to first lieutenant. With his cousin Isaac Smith, who was also an officer in the Fourth New York, he led a small raiding party into Setauket, Long Island in November 1778 and captured a promi­ nent Loyalist whom he took to Norwalk, Connecticut. On October 9, 1780, Smith was in Stratford, Fairfield County, Con­ necticut, when he asked for permission to visit Smithtown to put his family's affairs in order. His father had died shortly before that date, leaving Smith several large lots of land in Suffolk and Ulster counties,

106

CLASS OF 1770

a few head of cattle, and three slaves. Smith was permitted to go to Smithtown under certain conditions, one of which may have been that he spy for the American side while there, for he was later paid for doing some secret service. It is not clear when he left the army, but he must have decided to remain in Connecticut. On October 4, 1781, he married Lucy Beers of Stratford; and on March 1, 1784, he paid £28 15s 4d for a house and some land in that town. Smith's license to practice law in New York expired in 1784, and he successfully petitioned to have it renewed in February 1785. He may have carried on his business in New York City, but he clearly lived at least part of the time in Connecticut. In August 1790 the United States Attorney for Connecticut, Pierpont Edwards (A.B. 1768), recom­ mended Smith to Alexander Hamilton as a man of "good standing" who could be "taken as [a] suret[y]." In November 1796 Smith sold some of his father's estate in Ulster County to a group of Stratford residents. And he was among the original property holders of the borough of Bridgeport, on the west side of Stratford, when it was chartered in 1800. From 1812 to 1815 Smith served as Master of the local Masonic lodge in Stratford. He was still residing there when he died on October 13, 1822. He and his wife had eight children, two of whom prede­ ceased their father. SOURCES: F. K. Smith, Family of Richard Smith of Smithtown, L J . (1967), 134-35, 195; F. G. Mather, Refugees of ιηηβ from L o n g Island t o C o n n . (1913), 569; Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966); Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); NYHS Col., LXXXIV, 73; P. M. H a m l i n , Legal E d u ­ cation in Colonial N.Y. (1939), 141; Cal. N.Y. Hist. MSS, War of Rev., 1, 54, 302; 11, !5, 35, 164; N.Y. Arch., 1, 140, 210; Clinton Papers, 11, 519, 520; H. Onderdonk, Jr., Rev. Incidents of Queens Cnty. (1846), 54, 78; Force, Am. Arch., (5 ser.), HI, 640 ("worthy officer"); N.Y. Wills, ix, 144-45; NYGBR, 44 (1913), 251; 55 (1924), 204; Hamilton Papers, vi, 591 ("suretfy]"); S. Orcutt, Hist, of . . . Stratford and . . . Bridgeport, Conn. (1886), 1, 453; 11, 496; Conn. Courier, 16 Oct 1822.

Isaac Smith ISAAC SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1773, A.M. Dartmouth 1785, Congregational clergyman, was the son of Lemuel and Martha Coit Smith of Sterling, Connecticut. He was born on the family farm on November 30, 1744, the fifth of eleven children. When Lemuel Smith died in 1760 the family homestead was sold for £5,000, and each of his children in­ herited £100. Smith was apprenticed to a shoemaker in his youth, but he chose, when of age, to take up farming like his three older brothers in Plain-

ISAAC SMITH

107

field, New Hampshire. He followed them to Plainfield and was probably there in 1765 when his younger brother and classmate, John, chose him as his guardian. Both young men then decided to enter the ministry. They began their educations in New Hampshire in 1766 and two years later enrolled at the College. There Isaac Smith earned money by making shoes, most of which he sold on occasional trips to Schenectady, New York. With the help of a tutor he became so proficient in the ancient languages that President Witherspoon was said to have recommended him as a teacher in a Latin school near the College. Both Isaac and his brother John were instrumental in reviving the Well-Meaning Club as the Cliosophic Society before they graduated. In the newspaper accounts of the commencement of 1770, John is credited with two parts, while Isaac is not mentioned at all. After graduation, Isaac returned to Connecticut to study theology with Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem and his son-in-law Levi Hart (Yale 1760) of Preston. Licensed in 1771, he visited his brothers in Plainfield, New Hampshire and preached there for a time. In De­ cember he was invited to settle there. The negotiations were lengthy, involving at least one increase in the proferred salary. But Smith was apparently more interested in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where he preached with increasing frequency between 1772 and 1774. When the congregation at Gilmanton finally started to build a meeting house in 1774, it called Smith to be its regular supply. At last he declined Plainfield's invitation. On August 29, 1774, he was asked to settle permanently in Gilmanton with a starting salary of £50 that would increase by £5 annually for five years. The offer also included land for a parsonage, the use of at least thirty acres of other ministerial land, and three free Sundays every year. A competing call for Smith from Ipswich, Massachusetts added urgency to the negotiations and Smith was persuaded. He was ordained at Gilmanton on November 30, 1774. Samuel MacClintock (A.B. 1751) of Greenland, New Hamp­ shire gave the ordination sermon. In 1777 the congregation spent £20 to clear land for a parsonage and gave Smith £75 toward building his house. On January 3, 1777, Smith married Mary Badger, the daughter of General Joseph Badger. They had six children before her death in April 1788. During those years Smith invested heavily in local land, accumulating a substantial estate. In addition to the church, he tended his own school, teaching the classical languages to young men who were preparing for college, some of whom he recommended to Nassau Hall. On November 10, 1791, Smith married his second wife, Sarah

CLASS OF 1770

108

Eaton of Haverhill, Massachusetts. In March 1792 he sat on the com­ mittee that planned a regular academy for Gilmanton for which he wrote the constitution. Smith was on ihe board of trustees when the Gilmanton Academy was chartered in June 1794, and he preached the sermon at the school's dedication. As the number of religious denominations in Gilmanton grew, so did resistance to paying a tax for the support of the Congregational pastor. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, members of other denominations managed to alter the laws so that the minister's tax was divided among all of the town's clergymen. Between 1810 and 1815 the tax was ended completely. That left Smith without any salary, and he was forced to sue the town. In exchange for a lump sum of $1,402, he agreed to withdraw all claims. But his salary was still in peril, since it depended exclusively on voluntary contributions. The town was freed of all responsibility to him by the incorporation of the "First Congregational Society." To make matters worse, ministers themselves were subject to taxation after 1812. On March 22, 1817, Smith was taken ill. He died three days later. During his forty-three years in the pulpit he had officiated at 312 baptisms, 396 marriages, and 1,141 funerals; and he had brought 114 new members into the church. In addition to the six children from his first marriage, there were three more by his second wife, who sur­ vived him. SOURCES: D. Lancaster, Story of Gilmantoη (1845), !81-83, 197, 2θ8 - Ι Ι ; R. F. Law­ rence, N.H. Churches (1856), 471, 490-92; Granite Monthly, 41 (1909), 252-55; C. R. Williams, Clio. Soc. (1916), 17; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Ga­ zette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); Gen. Cat. Dartmouth College (1910-11), 573; First Census, N.H., 91; als IS to CNJ, 23 Sep 1786, Gratz Coll. PHi; N.H. Town Pap., XII, 14-15, 17; D. H. Hurd, Hist, of Merrimack and Belknap Counties, N.H. (1885), 791.

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John Smith JOHN SMITH, A.B., Congregational clergyman, was born on March 7, 1749, in Sterling, Connecticut, the seventh son of a wealthy farmer, Lemuel Smith, and his wife, Martha Coit Smith. He was the classmate of his older brother Isaac, whom he chose as his guardian in 1765. Apparently, his parents put enough faith in numerology that he was required as a boy to "stroke for the King's Evil," that is, to touch victims of scrofula in the superstitious belief that a seventh son could cure the disease. He was always disgusted by the experience.

JOHN SMITH

109

Isaac and John Smith began their education together in 1766 in Plainfield, New Hampshire, where Isaac had a farm; and both enrolled in the College in 1768. They helped create the Cliosophic Society out of the Well-Meaning Club at Nassau Hall. Reports of the commencement of 1770 indicate that John took part in two presentations during his commencement exercises—a rebuttal defense of the Non-Importation Agreement and a Latin syllogistic debate on the proposition "Omnes Homines, Jure Naturae, liberi sunt." Almost certainly, his brother Isaac should have received credit for one of those. Early in 1772 a town meeting in Dighton, Massachusetts voted to hire Smith as the associate pastor of the Congregational church there, to assist the aging minister Nathaniel Fisher (Harvard 1706). Smith was offered a settlement of £75. Some members of the congregation from the eastern and southern parts of town wanted to establish a church closer to their homes, and the issue of convenience had taken on theological trappings and threatened to split the parish. Fisher, who was not entirely reconciled to being put on half-pay in semiretirement, exploited the dissension. He had agreed to calling Smith, but then apparently felt shunted aside. He therefore ostentatiously absented himself from Smith's ordination on April 22, 1772. The town sent a deputation to appease its venerable pastor, who finally agreed not to obstruct Smith's work. The congregation also seemed pacified. Smith's theology suited some of the dissidents, and when Fisher died in 1777, another potential source of discord was removed. In 1797, when practicality truly man­ dated the creation of another church, Smith cheerfully supplied the new pulpit on alternate Sundays until a permanent pastor could be found. Between 1787 and 1789, when the rival western land claims of New York and Massachusetts were resolved, citizens of Dighton rushed into the area of the so-called Phelps and Gorham purchase to stake out their claims. After establishing a settlement at Newtown, New York, they created the Dighton Company to secure their title and supervise the sale of individual lots. A prominent member of the Dighton Com­ pany, Smith went to New York in 1789 and 1790 to help survey the firm's 46,080 acres and was one of the two men in whose name the company received its land. In the course of his surveying tour, Smith preached one of the first sermons to the settlers in the Genesee area. On April 4, 1801, Smith resigned from his pulpit in Dighton to serve as a missionary on the New York frontier. With its thanks, the congregation gave him the unpaid balance of his settlement plus $66 interest. Later that year Smith was in Canandaigua, New York, where

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he called together the church members from all of the nearby settle­ ments, none of which had a church, to preach to them and administer the Lord's supper. This "congregation" existed only on that day, but it was the first in the area. Smith stayed on at Newtown for at least one season. He was also instrumental in founding the Canandaigua Acad­ emy and was on its board of trustees when it opened in 1804. His missionary work took him to several settlements, including Bristol. According to family records, Smith later went to serve as a mission­ ary in central Pennsylvania. By 1813 he was in Nelson County, Ken­ tucky, where he died in 1820. He had married Alice Andrews in Dighton on July 8, 1773. The couple had at least ten children, all of them born before 1800. SOURCES: Family correspondence, alumni file, PUA; D. Lancaster, Story of Gilmanton (1845) 207-208; C. R. Williams, Clio. Soc. (1916), 17; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Stiles, Literary Diary, 1, 226-27; F. W. Hutt, Hist, of Bristol Cnty., Mass. (1924), 1, 716-17; O. Turner, Hist, of . . . Phelps and Gorham Purchase (1851), 168 & n., 198-99; J. H. Hotchkin, Hist, of . . . Western N.Y. (1848), 28, 74; C. F. Milliken, Hist, of Ontario Cnty., N.Y. (1911), 1, 236, 281; R. Davidson, Hist, of the Pres. Chh. . . . in Ky. (1847), 369. PUBLICATIONS: see STE

Robert Stewart ROBERT STEWART, A.B., A.M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman, was known at the College as a native of New York, but no record of his birthplace, parentage, or birthdate has been found. In 1768 he joined the WellMeaning Club at Nassau Hall and two years later was a leader in founding the Cliosophic Society. In the commencement exercises of 1770 Stewart was chosen to deliver the valedictory address, an honor based on both his speaking ability and academic standing. He spoke about "Public Spirit." When he received his second degree in 1773, he delivered an address "On the Rise and Fall of Empires." Some time after graduating Stewart went to New York to study theology under the combined tutelage of Witherspoon, whom he visited in Princeton every Wednesday, and John Rodgers, of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city, a trustee of the College. As he ap­ proached the end of his studies in February 1774, Stewart wrote a long and chatty letter to his close friend Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), providing gossip about schoolmates and a report on his own plans to go to study for a few years at Glasgow. Witherspoon opposed the idea, he said, but Stewart hoped to convince Rodgers that he should go. Meanwhile, he felt that he was "really studying divinity." Suspecting that Burr

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was in love, Stewart also reported that his own heart was "as whole as ever." Indeed, he said, he avoided the ladies, because whenever he went "into the company of the fair sex," he was unable to work "for a week afterwards." There is no record that Stewart ever went to Glasgow, or to any other school in Scotland. He was probably the "Mr. Stewart" at whose house on the East River Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) dined in July 1776. Stewart and Fithian had a long evening together and were joined toward the end of it by Israel Evans (A.B. 1772), with whom they inspected the American defenses for the city. That the records of the Presbyterian church give no indication of the details of his brief career may be explained by the disruptions of the war. The College's broadside Catalogue of 1786, which identifies him as an ordained minister, also lists him among those alumni who were dead by that time. SOURCES: Cat. of Clio. Soc. (1876), 6; C. R. Williams, Clio. Soc. (1916), 17; Williams,

Academic Honors (1902), 4η, 5; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); als RS to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, Gratz Coll., PHi (all quotations); Fithian Journal, 11, 189. MANUSCRIPTS; PHi

JOHN TAYLOR, A.B., A.M. 1773, schoolmaster, soldier, and college professor, was born on August 1, 1751, in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the only son of Jacob Taylor, a farmer, and Rachel Potter Taylor. He joined the Well-Meaning Club at the College in 1768 and re­ mained a member when it became the Cliosophic Society. At his com­ mencement he spoke against the proposition "that National Char­ acters depend not upon physical, but moral causes." Soon after graduation Taylor moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey to assist his classmate Frederick Frelinghuysen, the first tutor at Queen's College. Taylor took charge of that college's new grammar school. When Frelinghuysen left to study law, Taylor succeeded him as tutor of the College. It was he who kept the institution alive throughout the decade. He modified the curriculum from Nassau Hall to suit a smaller student body and added his own expertise at mathe­ matics to give studies at Queen's their own character. In 1773 he en­ couraged the students to form the Athenian Society, a literary club much like the Cliosophians. The group met weekly to read original works and discuss the classics of contemporary thought, and Taylor

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John Taylor, A.B. 1770

participated actively in the sessions. He also trained his pupils in military science. When a regiment of "minute men" was formed in New Brunswick in 1775, he was its captain. On August 16, 1776, the New Jersey state convention appointed Taylor first major of the Second Battalion of Middlesex County Militia. The British occupation of New Brunswick five months later closed Queen's College, and Taylor was able to devote himself to the army for a time. His promotion to lieutenant colonel of the militia coincided with the evacuation of New Brunswick in June 1777. Later that year he and a few students met in an abandoned church at North Branch to revive the Athenian Society and resume classes. There were ten students by July 1779, when Taylor was recalled to active duty as the commanding officer of a regiment of "New Jersey levies"—state troops mustered by Congress and liable to service in New Jersey and nearby states. The command had originally been proferred to Taylor and Frederick Freylinghuysen jointly, but Frelinghuysen's poor health left the post to Taylor alone. He asked his friend John Bogart (Queen's 1771), then in charge of Queen's grammar school at Raritan, to come to North Branch and replace him as tutor of the college. He left explicit instructions as to

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which students were to read Xenophon and which Euclid; which were to be helped in grammar and which in arithmetic or logic; which needed work in geography and which in Greek or Latin. He also left helpful hints on what books might be used and where they could be found and a report on the status of the new blackboard. Taylor assumed his command at Elizabethtown late in July and immediately initiated a correspondence with George Washington regarding British movements in New York and New Jersey. The general particularly valued Taylor's reports, for American intelligence agents in the area were few and unreliable. Taylor's proficiency was welcome. Washington urged him to get as much information as possible, even sending money to pay informers, and told him to report to General Lord Stirling or Major Henry Lee (A.B. 1773). Meanwhile, Taylor's regiment was in sad condition. The over­ crowded troops were ill, and local physicians refused to help unless Taylor promised to pay for their services. He tried to find a hospital but could not. On his own initiative, he decided to send the sick men home to recuperate rather than expose them to possible combat. Taylor sent a full account of his expenses, including medical care, to Governor William Livingston on September 25, in time to answer complaints about his conduct from the state legislature. Although he was by then a full colonel, he also told Livingston that he was eager to be done with the army. The trustees of Queen's College were insisting that he return to teaching. He had recently had to postpone a report to Livingston because of examinations at North Branch and he knew that more such conflicts would arise. Besides, he had been promised full compensation when he accepted the command and he was still waiting. Soon after he sent that message, Taylor was permitted to resign. On October 29, 1779, as clerk pro tempore of the faculty, he advertised the imminent reopening of Queen's College. Within a few months he and the students had to move to Hills­ borough, New Jersey and classes were again interrupted until May 1780. In October the peripatetic college again had to move, this time to Millstone. Six months later it was back in New Brunswick with Taylor still in charge. He returned to his home on Albany Street, close by the Raritan River, and during 1781 he married Jeanette Fitz-Randolph. They were to have three children. A raid on New Brunswick by British and Loyalist troops in January 1782 did not, for once, dislodge Queen's College. The redcoats were only after whaleboats, and the local militia stood its ground. Taylor thought that the English would have suffered more had not the American rifles been clogged with snow and rain.

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Taylor was determined to build Queen's into a major college. He urged Bogart to come back to the grammar school in March 1782 when Andrew Kirkpatrick (A.B. 1775) decided to resign as its tutor. Bogart had another offer from an academy in Albany, New York, but Taylor pleaded with him to stay on in New Brunswick lest the grammar school fail and take the college with it. In May the school in Albany offered Taylor its directorship, but he loyally declined. By November, his opinions had changed, however. Taylor had gone unpaid for almost a year. The trustees wanted him to stay on, but when he asked for a salary of £150, retroactive to 1781, they began to criticize the way he ran the school. They com­ plained of his irregular hours and charged that he ignored the rules. He answered that there were no rules. They wrote some. In his next letter to Bogart, Taylor recommended the job in Albany very highly and hinted that he might follow. After his squabble with the trustees, Taylor apparently continued to teach at Queen's, although irregularly. Finally in 1786 the college offered him £150 per year and the title of professor of mathematics and natural science. He accepted, but in late 1790 resigned to become director of the Latin school and headmaster of the academy in Elizabethtown. Probably in 1794 Taylor moved again. This time he went to Schenectady, New York as director of the Union Academy there. He joined the Presbyterian church in Schenectady, of which he later be­ came an elder, and was a member of St. George's Lodge of Freemasons. He was also the senior tutor at the academy, and thus the acting president of Union when it became a college in 1795. He relinquished his executive responsibilities to the first president of Union College, John Blair Smith (A.B. 1773) on May 1, 1796. When Smith resigned in 1799, Taylor again served as acting president, until Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (A.B. 1765) was selected as the next president. Edward's health and the treasury of Union College declined simul­ taneously. In May 1800 the trustees reduced faculty salaries to cut costs. Taylor's wages went from £350 to £300, but there was no ques­ tion of his leaving the school. When Edwards died in August 1801, Taylor hoped that the trustees would choose Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) to succeed him. Although he was disappointed when they did not, his time under the new president was brief. Taylor contracted yellow fever and died on November 5, 1801. He was buried in the yard of the Presbyterian church in Schenectady. SOURCES: Jerseyman, 1 (1891-92), 33-34; J. Bogart, Bogart Letters (1914), 18-19, 34" 38, 43; Cat. of Clio. Soc. (1876), 6; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement);

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N.Y. Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, u Oct 1773 (A.M.); Rutgers College, Gen. Cat. (1909), 23 (which assigns JT an LL.D. without source or date); W.H.S. Demarest, Hist, of Rutgers College (1924), passim; R. P. McCormick, Rutgers (1966), 13, 14, 17-19, 21; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 1663; Stryker, Off. Reg., 319, 361; NJA (2 ser), HI , 562, 638; v, 358; Washington Writings, xv, 494-95; xvi, passim; Correspond­ ence of the Executive of N.J., 1776-1786 (1846), 176, 177-81; T. Thayer, As We Were (1964), 182; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 560; als JT to A. Green, 30 Sep 1801, Gratz Coll., PHi; J. Pearson, Hist, of Schenectady Patent (1883), 402; J. H. Monroe, Schenectady Ancient and Modern (1914), 155; C. Hislop, Eliphalet Nott (1971), 48, 124; Union College Symposium, 8 (1969-70), 32-33; GMNJ, 49

('974). 27-29· MANUSCRIPTS: NjR, PHi

Stephen Tracy STEPHEN TRACY, A.B., A.M. Dartmouth 1792, Congregational clergy­

man, the son of James and Susannah Bishop Tracy, was born on his family's farm in Windham, Connecticut on April 27, 1749. His father was commissioned a lieutenant in the colonial militia during the French and Indian War and was killed at Fort Edward, New York in 1756, leaving thirty-five acres of land to his young son. Tracy joined the Weil-Meaning Club at the College in 1768 and was still a member when it became the Cliosophic Society in June 1770. After graduation he returned to New England to study theology and by August 1771 he was supplying the new church in Partridgefield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. A town meeting that month agreed to keep him there for two more weeks, and he was given temporary four-week extensions in September and October. But not until Febru­ ary 1772 did the congregation resolve to call him to settle as its first minister. They offered him a salary of £30, to begin three years after his ordination and to be raised annually until it reached £50. Tracy accepted the call and was installed and ordained on the second Wednesday of April 1772. On September 23, 1773, Tracy married Mary Throop, the daughter of Daniel Throop of Lebanon, Connecticut. He did not, however, have an opportunity to settle permanently into his work. In the midst of the revolutionary fervor that spread through Berkshire County in June 1775, a Partridgefield town meeting appointed five of its members to meet with Tracy to discuss a sermon he had delivered on May 28. The basis for that discussion is unclear, but the congregation was obviously distressed by something he had said. Whether the offending statement was political or theological, Tracy refused to retract it, and after ten months of argument, the town voted to withhold his salary and to

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collect no more money for him through taxes. On May 23, 1776, Tracy was dismissed from the church at his own request. He and his family remained residents of the town and within a few years he was in the chair of some town meetings. He also supplied vacant pulpits in the neighborhood, such as the one in Winchester, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. In May 1781 he moved a few miles east to become the first settled minister of the Congregational church on Norwich Hill in Huntington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The newly built meeting house was a crude one-story structure that was replaced by a more commodious and much more comfortable edifice in 1790. However pleased he may have been with the new church, though, Tracy did not manage to remain its pastor. His ministry at Norwich Hill was longer than that at Partridgefield but it ended the same way. On January 1, 1779, Tracy was dismissed as the result of some unspeci­ fied difficulty with his congregation. Once again, Tracy went on residing near his former church. In 1812 he completed a missionary tour of Rhode Island. Three years later he undertook a similar mission in Cayuga County, New York. But he died in Hampshire County on December 22, 1822, leaving his widow and at least seven of their ten children. SOURCES: S. W. Tracy, Tracy Geneal. (1936), 34, 38-43; Gen. Cat. Dartmouth Col­ lege (1910-11), 576; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Hist, of Berkshire Cnty., Mass. (1885), 11, 265-67; R. Γ. Lawrence, N.H. Churches (1856), 309; L. E. Wikander et al, Hampshire Hist. (1964), 135; J. G. Holland, Hist, of Western Mass. (1855), 11, 238, 544.

Caleb Baker Wallace CALEB BAKER WALLACE, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, jurist, and public official, was the eldest son of Samuel and Esther Baker Wallace. He was born in 1742 on his father's farm, in the portion of Amelia County, Virginia that became Prince Edward County in 1754. In 1748 his father obtained a patent for the 2,017 acres on which Wallace was raised. Throughout his youth, Wallace knew several ministers who had close ties to the College, including Samuel Davies, James Caldwell (A.B. 1759), John Todd (A.B. 1749), and Robert Henry (A.B. 1751)· He knew Henry as pastor of the Briery church in Prince Edward County and the Cub Creek church in the neighboring Charlotte County, where the Wallace family moved in 1772. Due largely to the influence of those men, Wallace decided at the age of 25 to get an education.

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With a letter of recommendation from Henry, he went to the gram­ mar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in April 1767. Caldwell was then in charge of the school and took Wallace into his personal care. In February 1769, after having been active in the grammar school literary society, Wallace entered the junior class at the College. By June 1769 he was participating in the establishment of the American Whig Society. He did not take a major part in his commencement exercises, but his talent for artistic lettering attracted the attention of the trustees, who paid him thirty shillings to transcribe the honor­ ary diplomas in 1769. After graduation Wallace remained in Princeton to study with Witherspoon. On October 9, 1771, Wallace presented himself as a candidate for the ministry before the Presbytery of New Brunswick. He was licensed by that body on May 28, 1772 and preached in several pulpits until May 1773, when the Synod of New York and Philadelphia sent him to supply churches in North Carolina and Georgia. He meant to stay in the south and so obtained his dismission from the New Brunswick Presbytery. Wallace stopped to see his close friend and fellow Whig James Madison (A.B. 1771) at Montpelier on his way and then visited his own family at Cub Creek. By the time he arrived in North Carolina, the congregation at Cub Creek had decided to call him as its perma­ nent pastor. He accepted the call in April 1774, joined the Hanover Presbytery, and was ordained at Cub Creek on October 13, 1774. A few months earlier, he had married his cousin Sarah McDowell, and now he and his bride settled on 240 acres near his church. Wallace at once became involved in the presbytery's attempt to influence Virginia's policy on religious freedom. Since 1773 toleration acts had been proposed in the legislature, and in November 1774, as clerk of the presbytery, Wallace worked with moderator David Rice (A.B. 1761) to draft a memorial detailing Presbyterian objections to "toleration" under an established church. No act was passed in that year or the next. When the first state legislature met in October 1776, the presbytery sent Wallace to present its memorial in person. Re­ ligious liberty was embodied in the Virginia Bill of Rights, but antidisestablishmentarian strength in the assembly resisted Thomas Jeffer­ son's crusade to give the principle full effect in law. Wallace publicized the cause in a newspaper debate in October and November, and by December 1776 he had helped to win at least a suspension of taxation for the payment of ministers' salaries. This set a precedent that was not overturned, and so it represented the beginning of the end of established religion in Virginia.

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As a leader of the presbytery in 1775, Wallace joined Samuel Leake (A.B. 1764) in preparing a plan for churches to exercise stricter disci­ pline over "sinners" in their congregations. He was also actively interested in a Presbyterian academy in Augusta County that became Liberty Hall in 1776 under the direction of William Graham (A.B. 1 773)> ant ^ later Washington College. Wallace helped raise funds for the institution and was on its board of trustees. In February 1775 he joined the board of the presbytery's school in Prince Edward County. This school became Hampden-Sidney, the product of the diligent efforts of its first principal, Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769)· Probably in 1776 Wallace's wife died. On May 11, 1779, he married Rosanna Christian of Botecourt County, Virginia, and prepared to leave Cub Creek. He was the moderator of the presbytery meeting in June 1779 when he received a call from two churches in the Buffalo Creek community in Botetourt. In August he and his wife moved onto a 230-acre farm they called Green Spring, a gift from her father. In May 1780 Wallace obtained an additional 152 acres. He was disap­ pointed in his new parishioners, however, for his salary, payable in grain, was frequently either late or of very low quality. In 1780 he determined to leave those "ungrateful people;" but he must have changed his mind, at least temporarily, for in August 1782 he built a grist mill on Green Spring. Wallace also began to take an active interest in politics. He was among the residents of Botetourt County who in January 1781 asked Governor Jefferson to order the speedy execution of a local slave, a frequent runaway and convicted felon, whose incitement of blacks to rebel made him especially obnoxious to the gentry. In May, Wallace and David Rice signed another petition to Jefferson in which they complained about the conduct of the war and suggested a national militia scheme that was among the first to propose removing the state governments from the chain of command. On the recommendation of the county court, Wallace was made a commissioner of peace and oyer and terminer for Botetourt in August 1782. The next month he was appointed to the Virginia commission on land claims in Mont­ gomery and Washington counties, an assignment that took him further west, into the District of Kentucky. By April 1783, when the commissioners were back in Virginia with a "horse load" of reports, Wallace had decided to make Kentucky his permanent home. In May he was chosen to represent Lincoln County in the Virginia Assembly. A legislator for two months, Wallace continued his attack on the established church, and after bitter debate, helped pass a compromise bill permitting civil marriage in some cases. He was more successful

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in his advocacy of education in the Kentucky district. Virginia had authorized a school there in 1780, granting it 8,000 acres of escheated lands, but the project lay dormant until June 1783 when Wallace steered a bill through the assembly to add 12,000 acres and to charter a new board of trustees. The institution he thus helped found was Transylvania Seminary, and he was an original member of the board. The first classes were held at David Rice's home in Danville, Kentucky in 1783. In 1784 the seminary received the library of John Todd. Four years later it was moved to Lexington with additional state support, but Lexington was not especially hospitable to a school dominated by Presbyterians. Other denominations gradually gained influence on the board of trustees, with the result that Wallace's reputation as a de­ fender of true religious liberty was severely tested, and found wanting. Wallace assumed the names "Catholicus" and "Agricola" to defend the seminary in print and to belittle proposals for competing schools. One such attack brought him a challenge from historian John Filson, but "Agricola" refused the duel with biting contempt. "Catholicus" argued for the unity of theology with education. The seminary was nonsectarian, but Wallace would not concede the right of deists, Uni­ tarians, and other heretics to influence it. In 1794 he and his fellow Presbyterians, now a minority of the trustees, resigned from the board when the Unitarian-leaning Harry Toulmin was chosen president of the seminary. The Presbyterians created a sectarian school, the Ken­ tucky Academy, which opened at Pisgah in the fall of 1795. But after Toulmin resigned in 1796, the two schools united, added medical and law faculties, and became Transylvania University, which was char­ tered in 1800. While in the Virginia Assembly, Wallace contrived to be appointed to the new Supreme Court of Common Law, Chancery, and Criminal Justice in Kentucky by Governor Benjamin Harrison. He lacked any formal legal training, but his public service was equal to that of almost anyone else in the district. In accepting the appointment on August 14, 1783, Wallace registered an early complaint against the low salary that came with the job and expressed his doubts that a chief justice would be found. His doubts on that matter were relieved by November, when his former father-in-law, Samuel McDowell, joined Wallace and Harry Innes on the bench. All three were stout defenders of land titles granted by Virginia against competing claims by those who held land by the authority of Congress. The conflict defined the course of Ken­ tucky's history for decades. After Virginia ceded its western lands above the Ohio River to the Confederation in 1784, the court and its supporters, including John Brown (Class of 1778) and James Wilkin-

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son, came to favor separation of Kentucky from Virginia. Wilkinson was the key figure in a conspiracy with the government of Spanish North America against both Virginia and the Union. Actually inter­ ested in a personal fortune, he was on Spain's payroll after 1785. He and his friends constantly criticized Virginia's inability to protect Kentucky from hostile Indians or to persuade the Spanish to reopen the Mississippi River to American navigation. And they complained loudly about Virginia taxes. Wallace was particularly interested in navigation rights, since he was convinced that Kentucky's only chance for survival was its ability to export its goods through New Orleans. Between 1785 and 1788 several conventions in Kentucky petitioned Virginia and Congress for independent statehood. In 1785 Wallace renewed his correspondence with Madison to ask for advice on creating a new state government, but continuing delays made Wilkinson's party more strident. The danger of violent secession from both Vir­ ginia and the United States was very real. Although the separatists uniformly opposed the federal Constitution, it was a federal Congress that accepted Kentucky as a separate state in 1792. Wallace helped write the state constitution in that year and in 1799 was also a member of the second state Constitutional Convention. His role in the Spanish Conspiracy is unclear. Wilkinson named him as an ally and had duped a gullible Spanish governor into turning over several thousand dollars to bribe Wallace and others in Kentucky, but Wilkinson's testimony is hardly reliable. In July 1788 Wallace did propose that a constitution for Kentucky be written, although neither Congress nor Virginia had fully authorized Kentucky's separation. Years later, Wallace not only denied that he favored secession but also denied having suggested the constitution. His false protests on the one issue call into question his denial on the other. While Innes and other colleagues were dismissed or resigned under pressure for their complicity in Wilkinson's schemes, Wallace re­ mained on the bench—after 1792 on the Kentucky Appellate Court— until 1813. However close he may have been to the conspiracy, he was never proved guilty. His reputation as a strong anti-Federalist jurist derived from his avid support of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, his protests against the Alien and Sedition Acts, and his detestation of the Adams administration. He was not coupled with traitors except by equally ardent Federalists and he skillfully used the partisan issue to deflect their charges. Although Wallace's career in the pulpit ended when he moved to Kentucky, he remained an active church member. In March 1785 he participated in the conference of ministers that petitioned for the

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creation of a separate presbytery in Kentucky. He was among the original trustees of the town of Frankfort, founded by Wilkinson in October 1786, and was instrumental in the creation of Woodford County in 1788 and 1789. In December 1787 he was one of the founders of the Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, an organiza­ tion designed to foster two of his pet projects, education and local manufacturing. In 1796 Wallace was chosen as a presidential elector for Kentucky. In court and in the private law practice he opened in Woodford, Wallace never ceased to defend the legitimacy of the land titles that had been in force in the 1780s. He was the lone dissenter when the court permitted suits against those titles in 1795, but public clamor against the decision was so strong that the majority sided with Wallace in the next case. His interest was natural, since he owned at least 13,000 acres throughout the state, much of it by Virginia titles. On the large estate near Midway on which he lived, he kept twenty-four slaves, and his influence in the state constitutional conventions can thus be presumed to have been against the emancipation proposals put forth by David Rice and others. Within a year after the death of his second wife in December 1804, Wallace married a widow, Mary Brown, who lived in Frankfort. In 1813 he reported to his sons that his health was failing and in March 1814 told them of an epidemic in Woodford County. He died in April or May 1814, survived by his third wife and seven of the nine children from his second marriage. In 1920 his body was moved from the family plot on the Midway farm to the cemetery in Versailles, Kentucky. SOURCES: W. H. Whitsitt, Life and T i m e s of Judge Caleb Wallace (1888) is inac­ curate in some particulars; W. S. Ray, Tenn. Cousins (1968), 305; VMHB, 49 (1941),

Beam, W h i g Soc., PUA; Madison Papers, 1, passim; vm, 343η, 218-19,

317; 13 (1905-1906), 40-45; 6 (1898-99), 174, 178; 7 (1899-1900), 33;

go; Trustees' Minutes, 1,

170,

244n, 320-23, 350-57, 369-70, 376-77; KSHS Reg., 35 (1937), 206; 41 (1943), 44, 129-30;

44 (1946). 251-52;

67

(1969),

104; 45 (!947). 325"3°> 1T' 33 (!935). 311- 363"65. 367:

56 (1958). 3o8-H; 39 (1941). a". 222; 30 (1932), 154-55, 163, 299, 309, 313, 319; 54 (1956), 206; 37

(1939), 263-64; 28 (1930), 313; 24 (1926), 200; 57

(1959), 220η, 232,

D. F. Wulfeck, Marriages of Some V a . Residents (1 ser.), VII (1967), 156; H. J. Eckenrode, Separation of Chh. and St. in Va. (1955), 144-45, 147; F. B. Kegley, Kegley's Va. Frontier (1937), 387, 396, 397 ("ungrateful people"), 493, 500, 511, 539, 545; L. P. Summers, Annals of Southwest Va. (1929), 340, 355, 360, 362; Cal. Va. St. Papers, 1, 477-78; in, 289, 480, 482 ("horse load"), 491; iv, 191-92, 194-95; Jefferson Papers, vi, 55-60; Journals of Council of St. of Va., in, 132; J. H. Gwathmey, Hist. Reg. of Virginians in the Rev. (1938), 801; Ε. T. Thompson, Presbyterians i n t h e S o u t h ( 1 9 6 3 ) , 1, 2 4 3 - 4 4 ; Ν. H. Sonne, Liberal Ky. (1939), 47-50, 56-57, 63-66; R. Davidson, Hist, of the Pres. Chh. in . . . Ky. (1847), 2 8 8 - 9 8 ; R. Peter, Transylvania U n i v . ( 1 8 9 6 ) , passim; P. Watlington, Partisan Spirit (1972), passim; R. A. Billington, Westward Expansion (i960), 231-33, 239; Τ. M. Green, Spanish Conspiracy ( 1 8 9 1 ) , 7 6 - 7 7 , 1 3 7 - 3 8 , 1 8 3 , 1 9 7 , 3 7 7 - 7 8 ; J. R. Jacobs, Tar233; 36

(1938), 90; 29

(1931), 5;

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CLASS OF 1770

nished W a r r i o r (1938), 73, 8g, 97, 147; L. H. Harrison, John Breckinridge (1969), 77-78, 81; E. D . Warfield, K y . Resolutions of 1J98 (1887), 97-98; W . R . Jillson, Early Frankfort (1936), 57-58; W. E. Railey, Hist, of Woodford Cnty., Ky. (1975), 248, 60; L. Collins, Hist, of Ky. (1878), 11, 193; 1, 498; als CBW to G. Trotter, 22 Jan 1814, PPPrHi. The author is indebted to Mrs. Baldwin Maull of Princeton for photo­ copies of Wallace's will, dated 28 Jan 1814, which was proved in the May court of Woodford Cnty., and of subsequent accounting and inventory records. MANUSCRIPTS: DLC, PPPrHi, PHi, NjP

Bedford Williams BEDFORD WILLIAMS, A.B., surgeon, was probably from Pennsylvania, although his parentage, background, and much of his career are ob­ scure. The College steward's accounts reveal that he was in arrears £5 4s 8d in payment of his tuition and room rent in September 1770, shortly before the commencement exercises in which he participated in an English "Dispute," opposing the proposition "that different religious Professions, in any State, if maintained in their Liberty, serve it, by supplying the place of a Censor Morum." In 1774 Williams received a warrant for 300 acres of land in Berks County, Pennsylvania, which were surveyed in October. The following June he enlisted as a first surgeon's mate in the Second New York Regiment, which would indicate that he had spent at least some of the time since his graduation in the study of medicine. He was a surgeon in the general hospital of the Northern Department by April 1777, per­ haps attached to troops of the Pennsylvania line. He and seven others from the medical department sent a letter to John Jay, president of 'the Continental Congress, in October 1779 to complain about the un­ certainty of their salaries. The officers promised to serve until the end of the current campaign but demanded that some assurance of regular payment be given them by January 1, 1780, or else it would "be neces­ sary . . . to fill our places with new men." Some steps were probably taken to satisfy the petitioners, for in August 1780 Bedford Williams presented to Congress's Chamber of Accounts a claim for $2,740 as surgeon's pay. Within eighteen months, however, Williams made a new petition, and in February 1782 a committee of the Congress resolved to adjust the accounts of Williams and four other surgeons of the general hospital up to September 1780. Furthermore, it recommended that state legislatures should discharge the depreciation pay of hospital officers who were state residents, and accordingly Williams received his payment in Pennsylvania. On March 8, 1781, Williams married Anne Greenaway in Christ

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(Episcopal) Church, Philadelphia. There were several Greenway or Greenaway families in the city at that time, and she may have been the daughter of Captain William Greenaway, who commanded several ships early in the Revolution. No issue of the marriage is known. Williams himself is listed in none of the Philadelphia directories of the time, and according to the College catalogues he was alive in 1789 but dead by 1792. SOURCES: MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement);

Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xiv, xv, xvi (passim, for Greenway families); xxvi, 329; xxm, 397; (5 ser.), iv, 206; (2 ser.), vm, 276; Cal. N.Y. Hist, MSS., War of Rev., 11, 42; NEHGR, 18 (1864), 30; als M. Treat et al. to J. Jay, 5 Oct 1779 ("with new men"); MS View of accounts . . . Dec 1779-Sep 1780, PCC; JCC, xxn, 70, 81-82; J. W. Jackson, Pa. Navy (1974), 342.

Matthias Williamson, Jr. MATTHIAS WILLIAMSON, JR., A.B., A.M. 1773, lawyer and soldier, was the son of Matthias and Susanna Halstead Williamson of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was the second and only surviving child of that name and was baptized in St. John's Anglican Church on December 31, 1752. His father was a harness and carriage maker who was prosperous enough to own slaves. The senior Matthias Williamson devoted much of his life to public service, frequently as the local sheriff and in 1775 as a member of the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence. In the commencement exercises of 1770 Williamson delivered a speech on the topic, "Every religious Program, which does not by its Principles, disturb the Public Peace, ought to be tolerated by a wise State." Three years later, when he received his A.M. from the College, he presented an oration "On Language." Between the two ceremonies Williamson had been studying law. He was admitted to the bar in New Jersey in 1774. Williamson's father joined the New Jersey militia in 1775 and by October commanded a regiment of light horse. He was promoted to brigadier general in September 1776, succeeding the newly-elected Governor William Livingston. In 1777 he was named assistant quar­ termaster general for New Jersey, and then quartermaster general. Williamson was also active in the military, literally following in his father's footsteps. He rose from captain to major in the state quarter­ master department. In January 1779, as assistant quartermaster gen­ eral, he and nearly fifty others, including Belcher Peartree Smith (A.B. !773), were captured by the enemy at Elizabeth town. They were re-

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leased four months later, and Williamson probably left the army then, although he renewed his activity in the militia after the war. The relative obscurity of the rest of Williamson's life is remarkable in light of his relations with several prominent people. His sister mar­ ried Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776). His brother Isaac became chancel­ lor and then governor of New Jersey. His father remained a prominent citizen of Elizabethtown until his death in 1807. Williamson himself was among the most active parishioners of St. John's and was involved in such community projects as the creation of a library and the restora­ tion of the Elizabethtown Academy, of which he was a trustee. But he was never as prominent an individual as his father, brother, or brotherin-law. One possible explanation for Williamson's not achieving greater professional notoriety is that his personal fortune would have allowed him to retire whenever he wished. He married Henrietta Levy, the only daughter of one of New York City's wealthiest merchants and a cousin of Moses Levy (Philadelphia 1772), later the president judge of the Philadelphia district court. Her dowry and substantial inheritance made Williamson financially secure for the rest of his life. Williamson died in Elizabethtown on March 29, 1836. His estate in­ cluded property from both his father and his wife and had an esti­ mated value of $72,393, over $69,000 of which was in notes. SOURCES: Prot. Episc. Chh. in U.S. A r c h , of t h e G e n . C o n v e n t i o n , v, (1912), 261; GMN/, 3 (1927), 15, 16, 18, 80, 82, 83, 85, 120; NJA (1 ser.), xxix, 251, 292, 546; xxxi, 78; (2 ser.), iv, 149, 153, 155, 171; T. Thayer, As We Were (1964), 102, 105; Stryker, Off. Reg., 350, 834, 837; Washington Writings, XVII, 449 & n.; J. S. Norton, N.J. in (1973), 1 2 8 ; N Y G B R , 7 5 (1944), 156-57; S . A . C l a r k , H i s t , of S t . J o h n ' s Chh. (1857), 1 ^' F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 560, 562, 618; L. Hershkowitz, Wills of Early N.Y. Jews (1967), 158 n. 1 & n. 3, 159; N.J. Eagle, 1 Apr 1836; Inv. #127590, Nj;.

James Wilson (Willson) JAMES WILSON (WILLSON), A.B., A.M. 1773, Presbyterian clergyman, is said in some sources to have been the son of a Matthew Wilson, but no record of his birth date, birthplace, or parentage has been found. He was apparently licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle in April 1770, before he graduated from the College. In the commence­ ment exercises of 1770 he delivered an oration on "The Advantages of Trade and Commerce." During the summer of 1771, Wilson was called to the church at Big Spring, Cumberland County, and to the church at New London,

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Chester County, both in Pennsylvania. He accepted the latter call and was installed at New London on October 15, 1771. He also served oc­ casionally as a chaplain to local militia units. In 1778 Wilson fell from a sled, striking his face against a fence post. The accident left a large wound on his cheek that hampered his speaking. When it showed no signs of healing, he asked to be dismissed from the pulpit. The congregation urged him to stay on, even offering to raise his salary, but Wilson was adamant. On October 27, 1778, the New Castle Presbytery allowed him to resign. He then virtually disappeared from all records. SOURCES: A memorial of the New London church reports that Wilson went south, to the Wye River in Md., where he was a businessman for several years before he died. There was a James Wilson in Talbot Cnty., Md., on the Wye, in 1790, who had a family of ten and sixteen slaves. There were also, however, at least six other James Wilsons in Md. and twenty-five more in Pa. at that time. One of those twenty-five may have been the CNJ graduate, for Wilson's daughter later married Obadiah Jennings, who received an honorary degree from the College in 1831, and was a lawyer and then a Presbyterian minister in western Pa., Ohio, and Tenn.; and many graduates of CNJ were in Washington and Westmore­ land counties after 1780. A clergyman named James Wilson, with an A.M. degree, was a member of the Presbytery of Baltimore without a charge, at least from 1798 until his death before May 1800. He published a discourse on The Utility of the Scriptures of the Old Testament in /797. R. P. Dubois, Hist. Discourse on the . . . New London Pres. Chh. (1876), 6-7; Pa. Chronicle, 15 Oct 1770 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (A.M.); F. L. Weis, Col. Clergy of Middle Colonies (1957), 346 (confuses several careers); Rec. Pres. Chh., 401, 425, 482; Min. Gen. Assem., 1^89-1820, 141, 210; First Census, Md.; First Census, Pa.; W. F. Hamilton et al, Hist, of Presbytery of Washington (1889),

133-35·

James Witherspoon JAMES WITHERSPOON, A.B., A.M. 1773, soldier, was born at Beith, Scot­

land, on November 17, 1751, the third child and oldest son of Presi­ dent John Witherspoon and his wife Elizabeth Montgomery. His younger brothers were John (A.B. 1773) and David (A.B. 1774). He was enrolled as a student at the University of Glasgow in 1764, but after his father's assumption of the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1768, James matriculated as a member of its junior dass. At commencement on September 28, 1770, in a Latin syllogistic dispute with his classmate John Blydenburgh, he supported the following proposition: "Tenentur & obligantur Subdite, ex Lege Naturae, ut Regi suo, immani Saevitia grassantti, vel Civitatis Jura evertenti, re­ sistant, 8c Libertatem suam defendant." He is listed among the mem­ bers of the American Whig Society.

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No clear impression can be had of Witherspoon's activity through several years after his graduation. The A.M. degree in 1773 implies that he may have been engaged in some kind of intellectual pursuit, perhaps teaching or reading for one of the professions, but evidence is far from conclusive. In 1772 he had been designated by the trustees of the College as an agent to assist in implementing his father's hope that the West Indian plantations might be a fertile field for the re­ cruitment of students and funds, but the mission ended abruptly in August when trustee Charles Beatty died in Barbados. That Witherspoon's A.M. was awarded in absentia in 1773 may support the tradition that he was in Savannah, Georgia at some time. He is first unmistakably placed in the spring of 1774 at Ryegate, a township in what was later to be the state of Vermont of which his father was one of four proprietors. John Witherspoon had become involved in a speculative venture for development of land in Nova Scotia through emigration from Scotland as early as 1772. On October 4, 1773, James Whitelaw and David Allen, agents for the Scotch-American Company of Farmers, bought 20,000 acres in the southern half of Ryegate from the president, leaving the upper portion for Witherspoon and the other proprietors. Evidently, James Witherspoon was sent north to clear and develop in this section a property of perhaps 600 acres that was destined long to be known as the Witherspoon tract. President Witherspoon retained an interest in it, and in the township, through many years thereafter. Young Witherspoon apparently remained in Ryegate through most of the summer of 1776, for in July of that year his father reported to David Witherspoon in Virginia that James, Whitelaw, and another person "went over through the woods for intelligence, and when they came to St. John's [in Quebec], found it in the enemy's hands; were in great danger of being taken, and obliged to return through the woods with but one biscuit a piece, to maintain them for two or three days." The President added that the people in Ryegate had "left the town [on July 1] and come to Newbury, where they are making a fort to protect their women and children from the Indians," a withdrawal that Whitelaw's journal indicates was of very brief duration. Another letter to David, of August 26, reported that James was soon expected in Princeton. Possibly James already had decided to enter the military service. A letter of October 30, 1776, from his father to General Philip J. Schuy­ ler, commander in Northern New York, begins: "The bearer James Witherspoon is my eldest son who was lately settling on Connecticut River on New York Government but from the confusion of the times

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could not proceed 8c is now desirous of going into the service of his country. He prefers the Northern Army." James carried a similar let­ ter to General Horatio Gates asking for "assistance and advice" and expressing his father's hope that it might be possible to secure appoint­ ment as aide-de-camp to some general officer. On November 16, 1776, Witherspoon received a commission as "Ma­ jor of Brigade" to Brigadier General William Maxwell of the "Jersey Line." At the beginning of -the following February, President Witherspoon reported to David with obvious satisfaction that "James is aid de camp to General Maxwell, and if his life is spared, will be sufficient­ ly provided for in the army." Unfortunately, his life was not to be spared. By May 1777 "Maxwell's Brigade" had moved from Ticonderoga south to encampments in upper Jersey, and on August 7 James was reported by his father to be encamped at Germantown. James may have been among the portion of the "Jersey Line" participating in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11. He was killed in the action at Germantown on October 4, 1777. Buried at first in a common grave with other casualties, the body was subsequently reburied in the yard of St. Michael's Church, Germantown. He had never married. His right to a pension was exercised by his father in a land warrant issued on May 7, 1789. SOURCES: V. L. Collins, John Witherspoon (1925), 1, 25, 143; 11, 31, 120; Pa. Chronicle, Oct 1 7 7 0 (commencement); Pa. Gazette, 1 3 Oct 1 7 7 3 (A.M.); A. Green, Life of . . • Witherspoon (1973), 142, 167η (on Dr. Witherspoon's "unfortunate land specula­ tions"); A. Alexander, Log College ( 1 8 5 1 ) , 2 4 8 - 4 9 ; E. Miller and F. P. Wells, Hist, of Rygate (1913), 15-46, 239, 557; Vt. Hist. Soc., Proc., (1905-1906), 103-57 (on P- 33 the College is described as having upwards of 100 students, besides about 80 Latin scholars); Christian Advocate, 2 (1824), 398, 399 ("one biscuit a piece"), 444, 445; Force, Am. Arch. (5 ser.), hi, 878; alumni file, PUA ("the bearer James Witherspoon"); Stryker, Off. Reg., 41, 64, 69. Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966). 15

WFC

CLASS OF 1771

Gunning Bedford, Jr., A.B.

James Madison, Jr., A.B.

John Black, A.B.

Joseph Ross, A.B.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge, A.B. William Scott Donald Campbell, A.B.

Samuel Spring, A.B.

Edmund Cheesman, A.B.

James Taylor, A.B.

Philip Morin Freneau, A.B.

Jacob Williamson, A.B.

Charles McKnight, Jr., A.B.

Gunning Bedford, Jr. GUNNING BEDFORD, JR., A.B., A.M. 1774, lawyer, member of the Con­

stitutional Convention of 1787, and jurist, was born in Philadelphia in 1747, the son of Gunning and his wife Susannah Jacquett Bedford. His father was a member of the Carpenter's Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. Tax records indicate that he was a substantial resident of the city without being among its wealthier inhabitants. There seems to be no reason for doubting that his son was the Gunning Bedford who was enrolled at the Philadelphia Academy from 1766 to 1768, and so it is probable that he was admitted to the College at Princeton late in 1768. He became a member of the American Whig Society and possibly was an original member on the occasion of its organization in June 1769. Tradition would have his marriage to Jane Ballareau Parker, daughter of the printer James Parker, the outstanding event of his undergraduate years. Indeed, the story is that his wife brought their first child to Princeton in September 1771 for commencement, and that Mrs. Witherspoon cared for the baby while its mother attended the exercises at which her husband delivered 'the valedictory oration on "Benevolence." It is a pretty story and one finds no satisfaction in chal­ lenging its authenticity, but the fact seems to be that the marriage oc­ curred in 1772 or early 1773, an assumption supported by the birth of the couple's first child on October 14, 1773. Perhaps the story can be attributed to a visit by Mrs. Bedford to Princeton for the commence­ ment of 1774, when her husband was present to receive his master's degree. Bedford studied law with Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757), and probably was licensed to practice law in Philadelphia in 1774, the year in which he received a license for practice in nearby Chester County. He evi­ dently continued his residence in Philadelphia until the summer of 1779. From Philadelphia in January 1779 he wrote to Caesar Rodney, then president of the state of Delaware, that he was thinking of moving to that state because of a report that he had received from his cousin, also named Gunning Bedford, that Rodney might appoint him as state attorney general. Later letters to Rodney indicate that the deci­ sion to move had been made by April, but evidence that he immediate­ ly secured the desired appointment has not been found. Apparently, he was first appointed attorney general in 1784. He held the office until 1789, when President Washington named him the first United States judge for the District of Delaware, an office he held for the rest of his

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Gunning Bedford, Jr., A.B. 1771 ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES WILLSON PEALE

life. According to family tradition, he settled first at Dover, did not like the climate, and soon moved to Wilmington. The later years of his life were spent at "Lombardy," a place he purchased above Wil­ mington in Brandywine Hundred. Historians have experienced more than a little difficulty in keeping the careers of the two Gunning Bedfords separate. Not only were they contemporaries who became politically active residents of the same state, but both of them lived in New Castle County. In their life times, the Princeton graduate on occasion might be distinguished from the other by reference to his residence in Wilmington or its neighborhood, and on occasion the other might be known as Gunning Bedford, Sr., he being some five years the older, but such usages were not consistently followed. It is even possible that at some time or other both men were known as Gunning Bedford, Jr., although it is evident that the Princeton graduate was more commonly so described. And not only were both of them in the Continental service during the

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Revolution, but later each of them might be known as Colonel Bed­ ford. There seems to be no room for doubt that it was the Princeton graduate who in July 1775 was appointed deputy muster-master-general by the Continental Congress, for the Pennsylvania Packet of July 24, 1775, announced the appointment of "Gunning Bedford, Esq.; of this city" as muster-master-general of the Continental Army. Actually, he was promoted by the Congress to that rank, after service as a deputy, on June 18, 1776. His service in that capacity was terminated on April 12, 1777. Because of his residence in Philadelphia at the time and the impetuosity for which he seems to have been known, it is probably safe enough to assume that it was the Princeton graduate who in the following June was sharply reprimanded by the Continental Congress for a challenge he had issued to Jonathan D. Sergeant (A.B. 1762) be­ cause of words spoken on the floor of the Congress, which caused the challenge to be viewed as a "high breach of the privileges of this house." Bedford himself was elected to represent Delaware in the Congress on February 1, 1784, again on October 26, 1784, and finally on November 4, 1785. Through the first two of these terms, his record of attendance was poor, and during the third he did not attend at all. He was present for two intervals at Princeton while the Congress sat there in the summer and fall of 1783. Along with other members, Bed­ ford saw in the necessity for the Congress to move out of Philadelphia some hope that his own state might become the seat of the govern­ ment. Bedford has been credited with service in the state legislature, but this is questionable. One tends to be persuaded that the Gunning Bedford who represented New Castle County in the lower house 17841787 was the older cousin by the care that the clerk took in recording that on February 3, 1787, in a joint meeting with the upper house, it was Gunning Bedford, Jr. who was elected to represent the state at the Constitutional Convention. In the preceding year he had been chosen a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, but did not attend. Bedford's first attendance at the Philadelphia Convention was on May 28. Through the long, hot summer he repeatedly participated in the debates, and on September 17 signed the final document. As did the Delaware delegation generally, he favored a stronger central gov­ ernment, but he outdid his colleagues in the vehemence with which he insisted on maintaining an equal voice for the several states in its control. On June 30, after it had been decided that representation in proportion to population would be the rule for the lower House of the legislature and the question was representation in the upper house,

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Bedford went so far as to insist that "there was no middle way between a perfect consolidation, and a mere confederacy of the States." Further­ more, he warned that if the large states went so far in their quest for power as to force a dissolution of the Confederation, "the small ones will find some foreign ally, of more honour and good faith, who will take them by the hand, and do them justice." He later apologized for his remarks, denied that he intended an invitation for foreign inter­ vention, and explained that "the habits of his profession" made warmth of expression both "natural and sometimes necessary." He served on the grand committee of delegates that brought in a report helping to prepare the way for the compromise giving equal represen­ tation for the states in the Senate. William Pierce, the Georgia delegate who left useful comments on his colleagues, found Bedford "a bold and nervous Speaker" with a "very commanding and striking manner," a man who was "warm and im­ petuous in his temper, and precipitate in his judgment." Having said this, he then underestimated Bedford's age by eight years and de­ scribed him as "very corpulant." Back at home, Bedford supported ratification of the new Constitution and was a member of the state convention that, on December 7, 1787, by a unanimous vote, made Delaware the first of the states to ratify it. By his appointment to the Federal bench on September 26, 1789, Bedford was somewhat removed from the main arenas of political con­ flict, both state and national. The indications are that otherwise he would have become in time an active Federalist, as did his kinsman. In the work of the district court, never very heavy, he was associated with Justice Samuel Chase, and at the time of the latter's unsuccessful im­ peachment in 1805, Bedford offered such assistance as he might be able to give. He remained active in the social and literary life of the Wilmington community. A trustee of the Wilmington Academy, he took the lead in an effort in 1803 to elevate it to the status of a college. He had been a Mason since 1782, was the principal speaker at Masonic ceremonies occasioned by the death of Washington in 1799, and became the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Delaware in 1806. Bedford died on March 30, 1812, and was buried in the graveyard of the First Pres­ byterian Church, to which he had belonged. In 1858 his daughter erected a monument at the site of the grave with an unusually lengthy, and on some points possibly misleading inscription. This monument, together with the body, was moved to the lawn of the Masonic Home of Delaware in 1921. Bedford fathered five children, four girls and a son. Two of the girls died young, and of the three children who sur­ vived their father, none was married.

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SOURCES : The author of this sketch owes much to the advice and information pro -

vided by Messrs. Harold J. Littleton of Wilmington and John A. Munroe of the University of Delaware. The kind of difficulty historians have faced is indicated by the published return in the Del. Arch. I, of field and staff officers for Col. John Haslet's regiment as of April 1776, which lists Lt. Col. Gunning Bedford, Jr. as second in command, and Deputy Muster-Master-General Gunning Bedford as the officer responsible for the return. It seems almost certain, whether through edi­ torial or other mistake, that the roles of the two men in this instance have been reversed. Several letters from the older Gunning to his brother-in-law George Read (W. T. Read, Life and Correspondence of George Read [1870], 170-73, 196-97, 200-2, 209-12) leave no doubt that he was the officer in Haslet's regiment a few months later at the time of the Battle of Long Island, and that it was he who later in the fall sustained a minor wound at White Plains. There also seems to be little, if any, reason for doubting that he was the Col. Bedford to whom in January 1777 Wash­ ington offered the command of the regiment, after Haslet's death in the action at Princeton. In the published Washington Writings, vi, 485, VH, 243, it is indicated that the offer was made to Lt. Col. Gunning Bedford, Jr., but in the original letterbook the letter is addressed simply to "Col. Bedford." It perhaps should be added that the offer also included a promotion for Maj. Thomas McDonough, who in the re­ turn of the preceding April had been third in command. Both officers declined to continue in the service and instead, during the next year, accepted commissions in the state militia with the respective ranks of colonel and lieutenant colonel. The elder Bedford later rose to the rank of brigadier-general, before his election as gov­ ernor of the state in 1796, the year before that of his death. On the question of Bedford's marriage to Jane Parker, see the letter of Gov. William Franklin to his father Benjamin Franklin (Franklin Papers, XIX, 81-82) on 28 Feb 1772, which states that Jenny Parker "is about marrying, or is married to a young fellow not of age, and apprentice to a Lawyer." A letter from Jane to Ben­ jamin Franklin, signed Jenny Bedford and dated 2 Feb 1773, and his response from London on 9 Apr, are found in A. H. Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, VI, 35-39. The author is indebted to Mr. Littleton for the information that Juliana Bedford was born on 14 Oct 1773 and baptized on 24 Mar 1774, according to the records of the Second Presbyterian Church, Phila. Brief sketches for both Bedfords are found in DAB, and for the younger, in Read, George Read, 510-11; H. C. Con­ rad, Hist, of Del. (1908), 1, 998-99; E. W. Cooch, Del. Historic Events (1946), 26-33; C. E. Green, Northern Light (Apr 1976); and esp. J. P. Nields, Gunning Bedford, Junior (1907). See also PGM, 30 (1977), 1-21; Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xiv, 177, 237, 419. Τ. H. Montgomery, Hist, of Univ. of Pa. (1900), 532; Beam, Whig Soc., 15, 20; Alex­ ander, Princeton, 139; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Pa. Journal ir Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (A.M.); Franklin Papers, xix, 61-82 ("Fellow not of Age"); J. H. Martin, Bench and Bar of Phila. (1883), 2 4 s > 2 4$; G. H- Ryden, Let­ ters . . . Caesar Rodney (1933), 291, 296-97, 298; Governor's Register, 1, 36; Del. Arch., 11, 987, 988; JCC, vn, 331; vm, 458-61, 466; C. L. Ward, Del. Continentals (1941), 75, 88, 160, 494, 538; LMCC, vn, lxiv, 180, 203, 207, 393, 443, 446; vm, lxxxiv; J. A. Munroe, Federalist Del. (1954), 100, 105-108, 267; Min. of the Council . . . /776-/792, 788, 813, 815, 873, 878-79, 950, 971, 1039; Journals of House, 1782, 1784-89; E. H. Scott, ed., Journal of the Federal Convention (1894), 1, 280-82, 295 (for quotes); M. Farrand, Records of Federal Convention, HI (1911), 92 (Pierce); Elliot's Debates, I, 319. For GB's career as judge, Nields is the most informative. PUBLICATIONS: A Funeral Oration Upon the Death of Washington, Wilmington (1800) WFC

John Black JOHN BLACK, A. B., A.M. 1782, Presbyterian clergyman, according to

tradition was a native Carolinian who most commonly was said to be from South Carolina. Actually, he was probably born in Pennsylvania, the state in which his entire ministerial career was spent, the son of Robert and his wife Ann Black. At the time of Robert's death in 1746 the Blacks were residents of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and evidently had eight surviving children, of whom John may have been the sixth born. If this was in fact the family to whom the graduate be­ longed, his birth occurred no later than 1746, and possibly as early as 1740 or even earlier. Presumably he entered the College at the rela­ tively advanced age known in other instances to represent a late com­ mitment to study for the ministry. A usually reliable source indicates that he "entered the Junior Class half advanced in May, 1770." Al­ though he has been described as a participant in the so-called "Paper War" between members of the Whig and Cliosophic societies, he is not listed as a member of either organization. At commencement on September 25 Black supported the proposi­ tion that "Moral Qualities are confessedly more excellent than natural; yet the latter are much more envied in the Possessor, by the Generality of Mankind; a sure Sign of the corrupt Bias of human Nature." Having studied theology after graduation, though it cannot be said with whom, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Donegal on October 14, 1773, was called in June 1774 by the congregation of Upper Marsh Creek (Gettys­ burg) in York County, and was installed as its pastor on August 15, 1775. On November 15, 1773, he married Elizabeth Newall, whom Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), on a visit to their home in late June 1775, considered "a smart pleasant Wife." Fithian also recorded in his journal that he and Black "played for our Diversion 8c Amusement many Airs on the German Flute." Black continued in this pastorate until 1794, having come under the jurisdiction of the newly organized Presbytery of Carlisle in 1786. A biographical sketch of Black found in a manuscript volume of "Notices of Distinguished Alumni," in the Princeton University Library, de­ scribes him as a man of "lively genius," quick discernment, and de­ cisive character, whose chief fault was a peremptory turn of mind. "What he saw clearly he expected others to see also," the account continues, "and was impatient with them if they hesitated." One of the things he saw clearly in the life of his rural parish was the harmful effect of intoxicating beverages, and in a move that entitles him to distinction as one of the forerunners of the modern temper-

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ance movement, he drew up a pledge that he asked his people to sign. They were not to "make a common, much less a frequent, use" of liquors; they were "to shun the company of drunkards" and of "places where liquors are sold;" they were to limit the liquor supplied to laborers in the harvest or at house-raisings; and finally the pledge read: "at vendues which any of us may make we will not afford any of it at all." Reportedly only three members of his congregation signed, and his urging of the question created more than a little ill will, so much so that in 1792 he undertook to resign his pulpit. His presbytery talked him into continuing, but the damage had been done, and in 1794 he was regretfully allowed his release. For several years after 1794 Black had no regular assignment, al­ though for a time he served a nearby Dutch Reformed congregation. He is said to have received several invitations to settle, one of them as successor to James Hunt (A.B. 1759) in Montgomery County, Mary­ land, but he declined because of his strong opposition to slavery. On a visit to the strongholds of Presbyterianism in Virginia, the Valley and Prince Edward County, he found that the same consideration argued against settlement in that state. Eventually, in 1800 he transferred to the Redstone Presbytery and accepted appointment as a supply for the Unity and Greensburg congregations of Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania. He gave up this assignment in April 1802 and died on the following August 16. His career evidently was one of great promise in its earlier stages. Perhaps no better indication of the standing he acquired before raising the temperance issue can be found than in his election as one of the six delegates representing York County in the Pennsylvania conven­ tion, which in December 1787 ratified the Constitution of the United States. He seems to have taken no significant part in the debates of the convention, but he was among the majority of forty-six, as indeed was the entire York delegation, who voted in favor of ratification. This seems to have been Black's only venture into politics, but he continued .to be an active supporter of education. He had been asso­ ciated with Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) in the founding of Dickinson College and had served it as a charter trustee from 1783 to his death. Early in 1802 he became an original trustee of Jefferson College. Black's wife predeceased him by a year or two. His will, drawn on August 12 and proved in Westmoreland County on August 23, 1802, shows that he was survived by five children, two sons and three daughters. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA ("entered" CNJ); PGM, 6 (1915), 39; 15 (1947), 188; Pa.

Chronicle, 7 Oct, 1771 (commencement); D. Elliott, Life of Rev. Elisha Macurdy

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(1848), 266-68; Giger, Memoirs; Centennial Memorial of Presbytery of Carlisle (1889), 11, 66-69 (temperance pledge); J. Smith, Hist, of Jefferson College (1857), 6365; J. B. McMaster and F. D. Stone, eds., Pa. and the Federal Constitution (1888), 213, 237, 425, 718-19; PMHB, 10 (1886), 454-55; Fithian Journal, 11, 34 ("Wife," "German Flute"); Butterfield, Rush Letters, I, 298, 300-1, 343; C. C. Sellers, Dickin­ son College (1973), 62, 65-66, 91, 120, 482. PUBLICATIONS: STE; and notice advertisement, Pittsburgh Gaz., in West. Pa. Hist. Mag., 8 (1925), 191; also see PMHB, 10 (1886), 455 MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, PHi WFC

Hugh Henry Brackenridge HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE, A.B., A.M. 1774, poet, novelist, satirist,

polemicist, Presbyterian clergyman, teacher, lawyer, jurist, publisher, editor, and public official, was born Hugh Montgomery Breckenridge (he changed his middle name and the spelling of his last name in 1781),

Hugh Henry Brackenridge, A.B. 1771 BY GILBERT STUART

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in Kin tyre, near Campbellstown, Scotland in 1748. Five years later his father, William Breckenridge, brought his impoverished family to Pennsylvania, where they settled on a poor farm in the "Barrens" of York County. Encouraged by his mother, Brackenridge arranged for his own education with a local minister, whom he paid by doing chores, and with John Blair, later a trustee of the College, the pastor at Fagg's Manor, thirty miles away. At the age of fifteen, Brackenridge had mastered enough Latin, Greek, and mathematics to teach in a free school in Gunpowder Falls, Maryland, near his home. Younger and smaller than some of his stu­ dents, he established his authority by felling one unruly brute with a fire log. After three years he entered the College as a freshman and supported himself by teaching for two hours every day in the grammar school. Among his closest friends at Nassau Hall were his classmates James Madison and Philip Freneau, and William Bradford (A.B. 1772). It was they who were most instrumental in establishing the American Whig Society in 1769. In the "Paper War" of 1770-1771 with the Cliosophic Society, Brackenridge, Madison, and Freneau authored almost all of the important Whig literature, including the unpublished novel, perhaps the first work of that genre written in America, called "Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca," written by Brackenridge and Freneau. Brackenridge took time from his teaching, the "Paper War," and the ghost writing of exercises he sometimes did for fellow students, to win the highest academic honors in his class. At his commencement, he delivered the salutatory address, "De Societate Hominum." He also recited a poem on "The Rising Glory of America," composed with Freneau. It was received enthusiastically and was published in 1772. After graduation Brackenridge stayed on to teach at the grammar school and studied theology with Witherspoon. In the fall of 1772 he accepted an invitation to be the master of an academy at Back Creek, Somerset County, Maryland. Freneau soon followed as his assistant but disliked teaching and left after one year. Brackenridge took his responsibilities so much to heart that in early 1774 he suffered what amounted to a nervous breakdown, the effects of which troubled him for the rest of his life. Madison, who did not hear of his friend's illness until its crisis passed, was greatly distressed that America might lose so young a genius. Later that year Brackenridge returned to Princeton to receive his second degree and at that commencement recited a poem on "The Progress of Divine Light." He sent copies of the published poem to

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Bradford and Madison, hoping that they would circulate it. It was not a time for contemplative poetry, however. Madison thought the subject "frightful," but was sure that Brackenridge's efforts, if directed to politics, would find instant acclaim. The indifference with which his work was generally received ended Brackenridge's interest in serious poetry. He went back to Maryland to take up the more congenial task of directing a "paper war" against a rival academy, the Eden School, and its Loyalist teachers. Although they were never published, his Hudibrastic satires pleased his friends. In 1775 Brackenridge produced two patriotic dramas in verse, The Battle of Bunker's Hill and The Death of General Montgomery, both written for his students at Back Creek and published within two years. He left teaching, probably in 1776, to join the army as a chaplain. His sermons, published in 1778 as Six Political Discourses founded on the Scriptures, were theological only insofar as they recalled Old Testa­ ment accounts of the destruction of the enemies of Israel. Brackenridge was probably licensed to preach by the Donegal Pres­ bytery before he joined the army, but the official announcement of a license to "Hugh Montgomery Brackenridge" was made by the First Philadelphia Presbytery in May 1778. It was almost precisely at that time that Brackenridge abandoned the idea of being a minister, a voca­ tion forced on him by his parents. For the rest of his life he held a very utilitarian view of religion, was suspicious of creeds and sects, and thus earned a reputation among more devout brethren as an apostate. One year after it announced his licensing, the presbytery also announced his resignation. In 1778 Brackenridge was in Annapolis, Maryland to study law with Samuel Chase. At the end of the year he went to Philadelphia with enough money to found the United States Magazine with printer Francis Bailey. While Brackenridge wrote most of the magazine's con­ tents, including the beginnings of a history of the United States, other contributors included Freneau and Governor 1 Villiam Livingston of New Jersey. From January through July 1779 Brackenridge serialized his autobiographical "Cave of Vanhest" in the magazine, telling of his past loves for poetry and theology and of his current affection for the law. In July he also published the "Eulogium" for American war dead, which he had been invited to deliver before a very distinguished audience in Philadelphia. Politically and financially, it was not a propitious moment for a new magazine in Philadelphia, and the journal's quality declined with Brackenridge's interest and ability to finance the enterprise. Not even the 1,000 livres he received from French plenipotentiary Conrad

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Alexandre Gerard to write pro-French propaganda was enough to sustain the magazine. Brackenridge, who replaced Tom Paine as a propagandist in France's employ, continued that activity under Ger­ ard's successor until 1781. The United States Magazine, however, ended publication in December 1779. Brackenridge was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in December 1780. Within four months he moved west to the frontier village of Pittsburgh. Many years later he explained that he had wanted to at­ tain political and social prominence, which he felt was beyond him in a city already crowded with eminent men. In April 1781 he joined the Westmoreland County bar and almost immediately became one of the most highly sought lawyers in the area. He was also Pittsburgh's greatest advocate, contributing many articles to Freneau's Freeman's Journal in Philadelphia on the advantages of settling the region. As a partisan of the west, he learned of the plot in 1782 to create a seces­ sionist state, Vandalia, from parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and western territories. But as a nationalist, he testified against the plotters and supported a law to equate secessionism with treason. One of Brackenridge's passions was a hatred for the Indians of the frontier. The Freeman's Journal of May 28, 1783 featured his pro­ posal to drive the natives northward, where the climate could destroy them. Yet in the face of threats of violence from angry mobs, he de­ fended a Delaware Indian accused of murder in 1785; and he argued against traders who regularly cheated the Indians with whom they dealt. Brackenridge tended to support the claims of local settlers against those of absentee landlords. In 1783 he defended a group of squatters on land owned by Washington and lost the case. When he vacationed in Warm Springs, Virginia in 1784, he encountered Washington in person. He did everything he could to amuse the general, including composing a masque for the occasion, which was published in 1787. His efforts, however, had no apparent effect on the stolid national hero; although tradition holds that Washington would chuckle all night in the privacy of his own room. Probably late in 1785 Brackenridge married a woman of whom no account remains. In May 1786 she bore him a son, Henry Marie Brack­ enridge. Brackenridge's long and close relationship with the Marie family may indicate that his wife was a member of that family. Brack­ enridge lived in town, but he accumulated several hundred acres of farmland around Pittsburgh by 1788 at the latest. To publicize his many causes, Brackenridge encouraged John Scull to establish the Pittsburgh Gazette in 1786. He was one of the news-

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paper's regular contributors. The assorted articles were collected in his Gazette Publications of 1806. Carefully designed to promote his own political ambitions, his pieces argued for navigation rights to the Mississippi River, lenient debt terms for western settlers, better trans­ portation in the west, new schools, and the establishment of a new county with Pittsburgh as its seat, to give the growing frontier town the political influence it deserved. The rural areas around Pittsburgh were populated by poor farmers whose demands for debt relief made them radicals in the eyes of the monied elite of the town. In 1786 Brackenridge was elected to the state legislature with the support of those radicals. But he was not one of them, and his record in the assembly led both radical westerners and more conservative easterners to distrust him. In the legislature he fought successfully for better roads, the creation of Allegheny County, and the establishment of the school that later became Pittsburgh Academy. He sponsored a bill to incorporate a nonsectarian Christian church in Pittsburgh on the theory that there were not enough people of any one denomination to make a congregation. But with the help of John McMillan (A.B. 1772), the Presbyterians in Pittsburgh managed to produce a charter for a Presbyterian church to which Brackenridge very grudgingly assented. "Wherever priests come," he grumbled, "they make trouble." Brackenridge defected from the radicals by opposing the easy pay­ ments plan for land debts that he had promised to support. He was persuaded by eastern conservatives, notably Robert Morris, that the scheme was unsound. Moreover, he supported the renewed charter of the Bank of North America, sided with the east on the question of locating the state capital, voted for a salt tax, and strongly advocated the new federal Constitution, all of which completely alienated him from his rural constituents. He fought hard, as he had promised to do, for navigation rights to the Mississippi, but on that issue he met opposi­ tion from conservatives and radicals alike. The western leader, William Findley, preferred delaying the question to risking defeat, and thus earned Brackenridge's hatred. When he went back to Pittsburgh, Brackenridge had almost no political base left. Only because of his support for the Constitution was he accepted, albeit suspiciously, among the Federalists. He led the celebration in Pittsburgh when the Constitution was finally ratified, although he had failed to be elected to the state ratifying convention and had lost his bid for a second term in the legislature. In 1788, he was among the first lawyers admitted to the new Allegheny County bar.

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Brackenridge's political philosophy might best be described as democratic elitism. He was a Federalist in the sense that he favored a strong central government, but on many issues he agreed with antiFederalists. Yet he despised the tendency of the "anti's" to elevate incompetent "bogtrotters" to positions of power. That criticism was the theme of his greatest literary achievement, the picaresque novel Modern Chivalry, the first parts of which were published in 1792. It was on the basis of issues, chiefly the Washington administration's fiscal policies, that he became a permanent anti-Federalist in 1789 or 1790. A widower since 1787, Brackenridge married Sabina Wolf, the daughter of a poor German farmer, in 1790. He had asked for her hand when they first met, and as soon as they were married, he packed her off to Philadelphia to be educated. He also sent his young son to live with a French family in Louisiana for several years. He was never close to the boy, who recalled his father with as much fear as respect, and very little love. Brackenridge's anti-Federalism was apparent in his contributions to Freneau's National Gazette in Philadelphia in 1791 and 1792, in his support for the French Revolution, and in his advocacy of a sort of direct primary election scheme that would destroy the power of Federalist cliques. Like Freneau and the western radicals, he opposed especially the federal excise tax on whiskey. Typically, however, his role in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 left him with enemies on both sides. He encouraged resistance to the tax but opposed a violent con­ frontation, with the result that easterners believed him a traitor and westerners accused him of selling out their cause. While Albert Galla­ tin, whose role in the crisis was almost as controversial, emerged with greater political influence, Brackenridge was once again caught be­ tween extremes. He was ultimately exonerated of all federal charges of rebellion and he hurriedly published his Incidents of the Insurrection to explain and excuse his conduct. Perhaps in search of a forum to explain himself further, Brackenridge ran for Congress in 1794. His successful opponent, Gallatin, was sponsored by John McMillan, the most influential clergyman in western Pennsylvania, who said he could not trust a man who had left the church and had "learned to swear." Even Gallatin's victory, how­ ever, did not engender in Brackenridge the contempt he usually felt for his opponents. He always had a bemused respect for McMillan, whom he satirized gently, and a friendly sense of rivalry with Gallatin. In 1796 he tried indirectly to persuade McMillan to change Gallatin from a foe to a friend of Jay's Treaty. While Brackenridge personally

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favored the treaty, his purpose was to undercut Gallatin's position among his anti-Federalist constituents, thus giving Brackenridge him­ self a chance to run again. Gallatin was unpersuaded. In 1796 Brackenridge was approached by a French agent who was trying to foment a revolution against the United States in the west. But the Frenchman had misread his man. Brackenridge promptly in­ formed his bitter political rival, Pennsylvania's Federalist senator James Ross, of the plot. The flexibility of Brackenridge's politics was further illustrated by his encouragement of a settlers' organization to press claims against eastern land companies at the same time that he was accepting fat retainers to represent those very companies. In 1798, when anti-French sentiment was rampant and Gallatin's reelection was far from certain, Brackenridge waited in vain to be asked to run by either Federalists or Jeffersonians. When the Federal­ ists decided to back one of his worst enemies, John Woods, Brackenridge persuaded another Federalist foe, Presley Neville, to run, too. That maneuver split the conservatives and Gallatin was reelected. Since the Whiskey Rebellion, Brackenridge's writings had been banned from Scull's Federalist Pittsburgh Gazette, and the lawyer had had to send his many satires and polemics to Philadelphia. In 1799 he arranged to bring John Israel, a Jewish printer, to Pittsburgh to pub­ lish the Tree of Liberty. Federalists, who already called Brackenridge a Jacobin, then resorted to anti-Semitism to attack him and the new publication of which he was the guiding spirit. The first issue of the Tree appeared in the spring of 1800, some five months after Brackenridge was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by the new Republican governor, Thomas McKean. By 1800 traditional western suspicions of authority had focused on the legal profession, and especially the judiciary. In 1803, as moderate Republicans, Brackenridge and McKean supported the impeachment and removal of Alexander Addison, the controversial Federalist presi­ dent judge of the state's western district. In 1804, however, Brackenridge himself was almost a victim of antilawyer radicalism. His Federalist colleagues on the bench were threatened with impeachment for a decision in which Brackenridge, though absent, concurred. He asked to be included in the impeachment trial because he believed, as he had written in Modern Chivalry, that "when the people madly destroy confidence in the judiciary, they destroy all security for their own rights." His action convinced the radicals that all lawyers were evil, and while Brackenridge was not named in the impeachment, the legislature demanded that McKean remove him from the court. The governor refused and the other three judges were acquitted, but the

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episode completed Brackenridge's alienation from the radicals. In the election of 1805, McKean led a ticket of moderate Republicans who called themselves the Tertium Quids and with Brackenridge's en­ thusiastic support in the Tree of Liberty was reelected over Federalist and radical opposition. Brackenridge had moved his family to Carlisle in 1801, and in 1803 he became a trustee of Dickinson College there. In that capacity he was involved in the movement to reduce the institution's religious affilia­ tions. He corresponded irregularly with Thomas Jefferson, at one point in 1801 to recommend General James Wilkinson for command of the American army. He liked Wilkinson because he was a westerner; but he did not yet know of the general's shady schemes to separate parts of the region from the United States. By 1807, when his son was studying law in Pittsburgh, Brackenridge was terribly worried that the boy might succumb to the blandishments of Wilkinson's occasional partner Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). Although his contributions to periodicals were plentiful, Bracken­ ridge's literary output declined after he joined the court. He produced his Spirit of Public Journals in 1806; and on a visit to Pittsburgh in 1811 he composed An Epistle to Walter Scott after reading some of that poet's works. Revisions and additions to Modern Chivalry con­ tinued until 1815. But the most important work of his last years was Law Miscellanies, published in 1814 after more than seven years of study that began when Pennsylvania revised its legal code. Although it covered a wide range of topics, the book's thrust was a defense of the English common law as an essential root of American jurisprudence. Brackenridge had a reputation for slovenliness, eccentricity, and drunkenness that undoubtedly had some basis in fact and was embel­ lished by his enemies. He and his second wife had three children, boys born in 1797 and 1801 and a girl born in 1804. His relationships with fellow jurists and politicians of almost all persuasions remained vigorously antagonistic until his death on June 25, 1816, in Carlisle. He was buried as a member of the Masonic Order and of the Honor Roll of the Society of St. Andrew. Henry Marie Brackenridge lost many of his father's private papers while traveling on the Mississippi River after it was finally opened to American navigation. SOURCES: C. M. Newlin, Life and Writings of Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1932), especially 86 ("Wherever priests come"); D. Marder, Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1967); DAB; PMHB, 63 (1939), 40, 51; 7 (1883), 148; 71 (1947), 56-57; 62 (1938), 342-47; 91 (1967), 12-13, 19-21, 50-51; 61 (1937), 125; 54 (1930), 335-54; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (A.M.); Madison Papers, 1, passim; M. C. Tyler, Literary Hist, of the Amer. Rev. (1900), n, 210-24, 297-300; Rec. Pres. Chh., 480, 483; F. M. Eastman, Courts and Lawyers of Pa. (1922), 11, 291-92; L. N. Richardson, Hist, of Early Amer. Magazines

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(1931), 196-210; West. Pa. Hist. Mag., 29 (1946), 147-52; 10 (1927), 165-69, 172, 210-12; 5 (1922), 101, 197; 11 (1928), 185; 38 (1955), 3, 83-89; 20 (1937), 33-34, 181-83, 233-34, 255, 260; 39 (1956), 169-73; 43 (19 60 )' 55; 54 (!97 1 ). 375-8¾; 5° ('9 6 7). 3°5"3 6 ; 2 ('9'9). 229-30, 230η; 32 (1949), 11-12, 25-36, 115-16; 36 (1953), 88-ioo, 144-45; 1 6 ('933). '93-95; 57 (1974), 373; '9 ('93 6 ). 21-23; 8 ('925). 221, 228-29, 231; 21 (1938), 222; 13 (1930), 158; 46 (1963), 61, 63; Washington Writings, XVL, 249-50; W. E. O'Donnell, Chevalier de La Luzerne (1938), 59-60, 6on; W. H. Horn, Horn Papers (1945), 11, 451; S. J. and Ε. H. Buck, Planting of Civilization in Western Pa. (1939), passim; R. L. Brunhouse, Counter-Rev. in Pa. (1942), 276, 189, 190, 197, 213; Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xxn, 398, 484; xxvi; passim; (2 ser.), iv, 13-17, 140-44, 301-303, 427; WMQ (3 ser.), 4 (1947), 48; 9 (1952), 514-15; W. W. McKinney, Early Pittsburgh Presbyterianism (1938), 72-75; J. B. McMaster and F. D. Stone, eds., Pa. and the Federal Constitution (1888), 27-73; J. T. Main, Political Parties Before the Consti­ tution (1973), 56, 192, 198η; S. Sack, Hist, of Higher Education in Pa. (1963), 1, 79; S. H. Killkelly, Hist, of Pittsburgh (1906), 106; Southern Literary Messenger, 8 (1842), 1-19; H. M. Brackenridge, Recollections of Persons and Places in the West (1868); R. Ketcham, James Madison (1971), 327; Ν. E. Cunningham, Jr., Jeffersonian Republicans (1957), 40-41; C. W. Dahlinger, Pittsburgh (1916), 195-99; Ε. I*· Link, Democratic-Republican Societies (1942), 55, 145η, 2οι; Hamilton Papers, xvn, 96η, 156, 361, 362η, 378, 382-87; R. Walters, Albert Gallatin (1957), 73-80; D. R. Guthrie, John McMillan (1952), 166, 168 ("learned to swear"), 171-72; H. Adams, Life of Al­ bert Gallatin (1879), 150; L. D. Baldwin, Pittsburgh (1937), 173-74; S. W. Higgenbotham, Keystone in the Democratic Arch (1952), 53-54, 67, 92; C. C. Sellers, Dickin­ son College (1973), 129, 145, 150; Hist. Cat. of St. Andrew's Soc. of Phila. (1907), 1, 380. PUBLICATIONS: see text, D. Bell, Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca (1975) MANUSCRIPTS; PPiU

Donald Campbell DONALD CAMPBELL, A.B., A.M. 1774, public official and probably a merchant, was the son of Archibald Campbell, a Scottish physician, merchant, and public official in Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth Tucker Campbell, the sister of Henry Tucker, a president of the Council of Bermuda. He was born in the early 1750s, in the parish of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Norfolk, of which his father was an active member, and in his childhood lived on the family plantation three miles from the town. In 1768 and 1769 his father's home was attacked by mobs protesting the doctor's efforts to inoculate the popu­ lation against smallpox. Campbell joined the American Whig Society at the College and at his commencement delivered an English oration on "The Advantages of an active Life." But he apparently did not take the theme too seriously. He moved back to Norfolk after graduation and for twenty years lived a life of remarkable obscurity, not even bothering to return to Princeton to collect his second degree, which was awarded in absentia.

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Campbell's father had signed the Virginia Association in June 1770 but opposed any more radical resistance to British rule. In 1775 his father enlisted in the service of the royal governor of Virginia as a justice of the peace, administering oaths of allegiance. After the battle of Great Bridge in December 1775, Dr. Campbell was tried by local Whigs as a Loyalist, and his protestations that he had been coerced into the governor's service did not impress the court-martial. He was convicted and allowed to go free on parole for the sake of his family. By 1781 he was employed by the Americans as a physician for the Norfolk area, but in September of that year he was under arrest again. This time he was charged with bringing smallpox patients into the American camp, an action that cast serious doubt on his dedication to the Revolution. Between 1782 and 1783 Dr. Campbell fled to Ber­ muda, taking with him most of his family and the bulk of an estate for which he was supposed to be the executor. His property was marked for confiscation. Apparently, Donald Campbell remained in Norfolk to care for his father's business affairs, which included some wharf property and shares in a rope company and a distillery. Through his efforts and some oversight, the property was never actually confiscated, and after the war Campbell remained in charge. He was a very close friend of his cousin, St. George Tucker, who served with distinction in the Con­ tinental Army, and he corresponded with the Campbells and Tuckers who were in Bermuda. In June 1789 Campbell's father filed a claim with the British authorities in Canada for approximately £5,000 in compensation for his losses as a loyal subject of the crown. He then returned to Norfolk temporarily and found his son a prominent member of the community. Donald Campbell was an alderman of Norfolk from 1790 until 1794. As such, he was involved in the administration of the Norfolk Acad­ emy. In 1791 he signed a petition asking that a branch of the national bank be established in the city; and in 1792 he was a local supervisor of subscriptions for the creation of a separate bank. In 1794 he was one of the commissioners who distributed state aid to refugees from the revolution in Haiti. Campbell never married, but he did have two sons with Rebecca Stammers of Norfolk. In 1794 or 1795, while he was seriously ill, he was visited by St. George Tucker who urged him to marry the woman. Campbell agreed to the wedding but died before he could keep his promise. Tucker became the guardian of his sons. The date of Camp­ bell's death is uncertain, but on March 10, 1795, one of his Tucker cousins in Bermuda lamented in a letter that Campbell's "Race was

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not a long one." The Donald Campbell of Norfolk beside whose "new house" a camel was exhibited in May 1795 must have been a member of one of the many other Campbell families in Virginia. SOURCES: Bermuda Hist. Quart., 3 (1946), 74η; 4 (1947), i6, 19, 158-59; 7 (1950), 106, 142; 9 (1950), 270 ("Race not a long one"); Hening, Statutes, vm, 269; xni, 599; A. G. Walter, Vestry Book, Elizabeth River Parish (1967), passim; VMHB, 73 (1965), 413-14; 8 (1900), 290; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (A.M.); Va. Hist. Reg., 3 (1850), 23, 79; W. B. Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century (1931), 255-56; D. J. Mays, Edmund Pendleton (1952), 75; Cal. Va. St. Papers, 11, 366, 412; in, 83; v, 129, 312, 556; vii, 168, 170, 224-25; WMQ (2 ser.), 16 (1936), 40; (3 ser.), 5 (1948), 264; M. A. Cole­ man, St. George Tucker (1938), 16, 32, 121-22; Ontario Bureau of Arch., Second Re­ port (1905) 11, 131-33; Lower Norfolk Cnty., Va. Antiquary, 2 (1899), 60; 1 (1897), 29-30; Tyler's Quart. Mag., 1 (1919-20), 71.

Edmund Cheesman EDMUND CHEESMAN, A.B., was born in Philadelphia, the son of Samuel and Mary Cheesman. The exact date of Cheesman's birth has not been discovered, but since he was baptized together with a younger sister in Philadelphia's Second Presbyterian Church on February 18, 1753» the year 1750 or 1751 seems likely. His father, a shoemaker, entered young Edmund in the Acadaemy of Philadelphia in 1762. Cheesman's mother died, and his father then married Sarah Tennent, widow of College trustee Gilbert Tennent. It may have been her influence that directed Cheesman to Nassau Hall. Enrolled in the College, Cheesman became a member of the Ameri­ can Whig Society. At his commencement he took the negative in a debate on the thesis, "Moral Qualities are confessedly more excellent than natural; yet the latter are much more envied in the Possessor, by the Generality of Mankind; a sure Sign of the corrupt Bias of human Nature." Little record of Cheesman's activities after graduation has survived. He returned to Philadelphia, whence on November 16, 1772, he wrote to Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) asking Fithian "to re­ member me to all the girls," and to send him a tune called "Love in a village, or the sheep in clusters." But little time for enjoying either women or songs was left to Cheesman. "I am sorry to inform you that you have lost another of your fellow-Graduates; I mean Neddy Chesman," William Bradford (A.B. 1772) wrote to James Madison (A.B. 1771) on December 25, 1773. "His exit was very sudden. He took to his bed on Sunday Evening 8c the next Saturday was a Corps. Tis just too weeks since he died."

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SOURCES: MS records supplied by F. J. Dallett, alumni file, PUA; Τ. H. Montgomery,

Hist, the Univ. of Penn. (1900), 534; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); EC to Fithian, 16 Nov 1772, MS Fithian Journal, 1767-1773, 11, NjP; Madison Papers, i, 103 ("Neddy Chesman"); als J. Davenport to A. Burr, 19 Feb 1774, PHi. JMcL

Philip Morin Freneau PHILIP MORIN FRENEAU, A.B., poet, teacher, soldier, seaman, merchant,

journalist, and farmer, was born on January 2, 1752, at his family's home in New York City. His father, Pierre Fresneau, an Anglican son of Huguenot immigrants, was a successful merchant in New York. His mother, Agnes Watson Fresneau, was a member of a Scottish Presbyterian family of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Although his parents retained the French spelling of the name, Philip Freneau anglicized it for himself. A smallpox epidemic in 1752 drove the family from New York to Monmouth County. There Fresneau built "Locust Grove," the home in which his children were raised. For several years he was a seagoing merchant but in 1762 he bought "Locust Grove" and 200 more acres from his wife's relatives. The farm and various investments yielded a respectable fortune. When he abandoned the sea in 1762, Fresneau sent his son Philip to a primary school in New York City. After five years there, the youngster completed his preparation for college at the Mattisonia Latin School in Monmouth County, where the headmaster was College trustee William Tennent and the teacher was Alexander Mitchell (A.B. 1765). In spite of £1,300 in debts left by Pierre Fresneau when he died in October 1767, the family was able to obey his wish that his son be sent to the College to study for the ministry. Freneau entered the sophomore class at Nassau Hall on November 7, 1768, having done so well in his entrance examination that President Witherspoon con­ gratulated Mrs. Fresneau on the boy's early education. Freneau gave his strong interest in poetry free range at the College, immersing himself in the works of classical and modern writers. His own first efforts were in the currently fashionable melancholy vein, but he soon developed his peculiar talent for satire as well. As a mem­ ber of the American Whig Society he sharpened that ability in the "Paper War" of 1771, for he was the leading persecutor of Che rival Cliosophians. With his closest friends, classmates James Madison and Hugh Henry Brackenridge, he wrote Whig's "Satires against the Tories." Brackenridge found composing difficult; Madison's were the

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Philip Morin Freneau, A.B. 1771 BY JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY

crudest efforts in the lot; but to Freneau the doggerel verses came easily. These early poems, like Freneau's later work, abounded with classi­ cal and biblical allusions, with Latin-based words and phrases, and with alliteration. Beyond their form, however, the "Satires" were characteristic of Freneau in tone. While Brackenridge's contributions were consistently written with rambunctious good humor, Freneau's were vicious to the point of cruelty and, in spite of the tradition that the "Paper War" was all in good fun, tinged with malice. The most significant production of the "Paper War" was jointly authored by Freneau and Brackenridge. "Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca in Arabia," a fanciful, jejune work, was the first lengthy piece of pure fiction written in America. Its pervasive jocularity re­ vealed Brackenridge's influence, but the mordancy of observation was pure Freneau. Even during his college days, Freneau's private compositions dwelled

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on the pleasures of nature and of solitude. But causes always bestirred him, calling lightening from his quill. During their last months as students, he and Brackenridge collaborated on "The Rising Glory of America," a paean to the spread of British civilization across the con­ tinent that Brackenridge read at the commencement of 1771. Combin­ ing history with prophesy, the poem expressed confidence that com­ merce and the liberties of Englishmen would tame nature and even the "savage race" that lived in the forests. Within a few years, Freneau had greatly changed the poem: praise of England was replaced by con­ demnation; the benighted Indians of the original version became the heroic noblemen of Rousseau's ideal; and commerce seemed more bane than boon, for in his maturity Freneau equated civilization with cor­ ruption. But in 1771 the poem was a major literary achievement and was received enthusiastically by the audience that first heard it. For some reason Freneau was not present to enjoy the ovation. His part in a forensic dispute on the question "Does ancient Poetry excel the modern?" was read for him by a fellow graduate. By the spring of 1772 Freneau had taken a teaching position in Flatbush, Long Island, a decision he quickly regretted. Full of scorn for his students and disgust for their parents, he escaped to Princeton after only thirteen days. There he was permitted to pursue his own studies without paying tuition. Late in 1772 Freneau went to Somerset County, Maryland as the assistant to Brackenridge, who was teaching at the Back Creek Academy. He found pedagogy no more attractive in the south than in the north, however, and vowed never to face stu­ dents again. He considered going to England to be ordained in the Anglican church, but doubting that he could afford the journey, he decided to study medicine in those moments when he could hide from the young scholars. Meanwhile, he cultivated a beard. The turning point in his career came with the publication of The Rising Glory of America in 1772. It was followed by another small volume, The American Village, which featured a poem entitled "The Miserable Life of a Pedagogue." With the welcome end of the aca­ demic year at Back Creek, Freneau went to Philadelphia, once more determined to study divinity. After one year he decided that that, too, was a waste of time. For the rest of his life he rejected religious ortho­ doxy of all sorts, adopting instead a version of deism that was con­ sistent with the religious convictions on which he had been raised. Fully one year before the Declaration of Independence, Freneau had pronounced the separation from England inevitable. His Ameri­ can Liberty and A Voyage to Boston were published in 1775, along with a somber religious work, The House by Night. In June his "To

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the Americans, on the rumored approach of Hessian forces" appeared in the New York Mercury. A typically scathing attack on England, it and several subsequent pieces with the same theme established Freneau's reputation as the "Poet of the American Revolution." But he resented the intrusion of war into his art and in February 1776 he set sail for St. Croix in the Virgin Islands "to court in softer shades the unwilling muse." Through his father's business associates and his mother's relatives, Freneau found housing and possibly employment during his selfimposed exile. He also took part in some privateering expeditions before sailing back to New Jersey in July 1778. The devastation wrought by the war convinced him to enlist in Captain Barnes Smock's company of the First Regiment of New Jersey Militia, in which his duties were chiefly those of scout and guard. After participating in a few skirmishes, he was promoted to sergeant. While still in the militia, Freneau signed on as master of the sloop Indian Delaware, on which he sailed to the Caribbean in October 1778. Four months later he de­ livered $4,000 worth of cargo in the United States. Between 1775 and 1778 Freneau wrote poems to praise nature and condemn slavery, with which he had come into contact on St. Croix. But it was still the Revolution that inspired his most important work. American Independence was published in Philadelphia in 1778, and in 1779 'he contributed patriotic pieces to Brackenridge's United States Magazine. As captain of the privateer John Couster that summer, Freneau was wounded during an exchange with a British vessel. In September he sailed as supercargo on another voyage to the West Indies. He saw his last military action in December 1779, when he helped capture the ice-bound brig Britannia off the New Jersey shore. In May 1780 he resigned from the militia. On May 25 Freneau set sail for Philadelphia on the privateer Aurora. It was captured by a British frigate and Freneau's name was found on a roster of a gun crew. He was thereupon imprisoned among the seamen until a Loyalist in New York recognized him and he was moved to the officer's cells. On May 28 he was confined on the prison ship Scorpion in the Hudson River, from which he escaped on July 13. The horrors of those weeks inspired his "The British Prison Ship," one of the most telling pieces of anti-British propaganda written dur­ ing the war. Left with a reputation and no money, Freneau assisted Francis Bailey, publisher of the Philadelphia Freeman's Journal, from July 1781 until the summer of 1782. He then became clerk of the Philadel­ phia post office. January 1785 found him a printer in the shop of

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Patrick Rice, but illness forced him to leave Philadelphia in June. After recuperating at Pacolet Springs, South Carolina, he returned to Monmouth County in October. As master of the Monmouth, he was back in the south at the end of the year, visiting his brother Peter in Charleston and soliciting freight for his vessel. Between 1786 and 1789 Freneau captained three different ships in the trade between Phila­ delphia, Charleston, and the West Indies. While he was at sea, Freneau's literary efforts were collected and pub­ lished by Francis Bailey. The first volume of Poems appeared in 1786 and was moderately successful. Miscellaneous Works, in 1788, was well subscribed but not very popular as interest in poems about the Revo­ lution waned. Before he abandoned maritime commerce in November 1789, Freneau's only new works to appear in print were his contribu­ tions to various newspapers. By March 1790 Freneau was an editorial assistant on the Daily Advertiser, published in New York by Francis Childs and John Swaine. On April 15 he married Eleanor Forman, daughter of Samuel and Helena Denise Forman and sister of Jonathan Forman (Class of 1774) of Monmouth County. Freneau's occasional verses in the Daily Ad­ vertiser ridiculed the venality and pomposity of Congress and of the men who made fortunes with their influence. Although he also con­ tributed antislavery essays and was a member of the local Society for the Manumission of Slaves, his abolitionism was idiosyncratic, for he later owned slaves himself. He was soon disillusioned with the policies of the Washington administration, which he associated with American "aristocrats" who, he believed, were plotting to impose an Englishstyle monarchy on the United States. By the end of 1790 his antigovernment diatribes in the Daily Advertiser were as vituperative as his doggerels at the College had been. In January 1791 James Madison, Henry Lee (A.B. 1773), and John Beckley, clerk of the House of Representatives, persuaded Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to invite Freneau to Philadelphia as the publisher of a newspaper that would compete with John Fenno's Gazette of the United States, the administration's organ in the new seat of government. Jefferson offered Freneau the post of translating clerk in the State Department, which had been vacant since John Pintard (A.B. 1776), Freneau's friend and fellow worker at the Daily Advertiser, had decided to stay in New York when the government moved south. The job paid only $250 annually but demanded very little time. Thanks chiefly to Madison's persuasion, and after meeting Jefferson in May, Freneau agreed to the proposal. The first issue of the semiweekly National Gazette went to press on October 31, 1791.

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At first the paper offered reasoned discussions of national issues featuring essays by Madison and editorials based on documents that were quietly released to Freneau by Jefferson. Copies of the journal went to such administration leaders as Vice-President John Adams, who in November 1791 found no reason to take particular offense. Then, between February and May 1792, Freneau unleashed his wrath at the Federalists, and particularly at Adams, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and the hapless Fenno. His diatribes enunciated the ideological basis for an organized opposition to the administration and exacerbated the tension between Hamilton and Jefferson that ultimately produced the two political parties. Always sensitive to criti­ cism, Washington took Freneau's essays as personal insults and "out­ rages on the common decency." In August 1793 Washington's cabinet found him in an uncontrollable rage because "that rascal Freneau" had delivered a copy of the National Gazette to his door. The list of subscribers to Freneau's newspaper dwindled during those months, and when a yellow fever epidemic swept Philadelphia in October 1793, the National Gazette had to cease publication. But its effect upon American politics was lasting. Federalists never forgave Freneau, whose reputation as a poet was now overshadowed by Ham­ ilton's charge that he was a political hack in Jefferson's employ. Ideological and partisan divisions in the government had been widened beyond hope of reconciliation by the time Freneau resigned from the State Department and went back to Monmouth County in October 1793. Freneau's financial situation was desperate when he began the Jersey Chronicle, a weekly, on May 2, 1795. That project lasted only one year. In 1796 he joined the Deistical Society of New York, a group accused by Federalists of being a Republican front organization. One fellow member, DeWitt Clinton, urged Freneau to begin another newspaper in New York to help build a Republican organization in the state. Neither that scheme nor his plans for a partnership with publisher Thomas Greenleaf ever materialized, but in March 1797 Freneau and Alexander Menut issued the first edition of the New Yorik Time Piece, which Freneau intended as an objective showcase for all serious points of view. Free from controversy, it found its readers among the fashionable women of the city and soon took on a sentimental tone so tame that Freneau dared to send copies to Washington at Mount Vernon until the former president politely asked to be removed from the mailing list. But Freneau could not contain himself for long, and a series of slashing attacks on Federalism in the fall of 1797 left the

PHILIP MORIN FRENEAU

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newspaper with almost no readers and Freneau with almost no money. In January 1798 he abandoned the Time Piece to Matthew Davis and went back to sea. During a decade of commercial activity he continued to write for newspapers. In March 1799 he began a series of essays in Philadelphia's Republican Aurora, each of them signed by "Robert Slender, O.S.M." ("One of the Swinish Multitude"), which were collected for publica­ tion later that year. He also published three sets of "Stanzas to the Memory of General Washington," in which he decried the hyperbolic hero worship of the late president, who he declared should be ap­ preciated realistically for his courage and integrity. Not until 1807, when the Embargo Act curtailed trade, did Freneau finally retire from the sea. Settled again at Mount Pleasant, his home in Monmouth County, Freneau completed another edition of his Poems in 1809, the first over which he had time to exert full editorial control. The list of subscribers included Jefferson and Madison, and the volume caught the crest of a new wave of Anglophobia. The last of Freneau's volumes to appear in his lifetime was A Collection of Poems on American Affairs, most of them relating to the War of 1812. It was published in 1815, however, when the subject was already passe. He planned another collection in 1822 but never settled down to the task. Between 1810 and 1816 he contributed frequently to the Aurora, but his financial situation remained difficult. In 1812 and 1813 he had had to sell or mortgage most of his land in New Jersey. In October 1818, while Freneau, his wife, and their four daughters were at church (apparently a habit in which he indulged his loved ones), their home at Mount Pleasant, and with it almost all of the poet's books and manuscripts, were destroyed by fire. The family moved temporarily to a half-furnished farmhouse nearby and then to a farm at Freehold which had once belonged to Freneau's brother-inlaw. Thereafter, Freneau's works appeared exclusively in such local papers as the Trenton True American. They included a touching "Ode on a Remote Prospective View of Princeton College" in 1822. His last publication was a poem on the battle of Monmouth that ap­ peared in the True American on June 30, 1827. On the night of December 18, 1832, on his way home from a regular meeting with friends at a Freehold tavern, Freneau was confused by a sudden blizzard, lost his way, and died in the marshes. A federal pension for which he had applied was granted to his widow in April

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1839. He was buried on a hilltop at the site of Mount Pleasant. Almost seventy years earlier, during the "Paper War" at Nassau Hall, he had written what might have been his own epitaph: I burn, I hasten to engage To vent my poison with a serpent's rage. SOURCES: L. Leary, T h a t Rascal Freneau (1941); J. Axelrad, P h i l i p Freneau (1967); M. W. Bowden, Philip Freneau ( 1 9 7 6 ) ; P. M. Marsh, W o r k s of P h i l i p Freneau ( 1 9 6 8 ) ; M. S. Austin, Philip Freneau ( 1 9 0 1 ) ; S. E. Fprman, Political Activities of Philip Freneau (1902); M. C. Tyler, Literary Hist, of the Amer. Rev. (1898), 1, 11, 2 3> !77-79. 4 ι 4~ ι 5> 425; π, 2 4 6 - 7 6 ; V. L. Parrington, Main Currents i n A m e r . Thought (1930), 367-81; P. Marsh, Philip Freneau's Published Prose (1970), 10-17; PMHB, 56

(1932), 88-92; 63

(!943)- 49"6°: WMQ

(3

ser.),

(1939), 45; 72 26

(1948), 54, 57, 61; 71

(1969), 344-46; 3

(1946), 269-79;

(1947), 74-76; 67

D. S. Freeman,

George Washington, vi (1954), 340η, 351-52, 360-62, 365-66 & η., 370, 383η, 402-13; NJHSP, 5 7 ( 1 9 3 9 ) , 1 1 2 - 1 8 , 1 6 3 - 7 0 ; 7 2 ( 1 9 5 4 ) . 1 0 0 - 1 0 2 ; 6 5 ( 1 9 4 7 ) , 1 9 4 ; N.J. W i l l s , IV, 1 53-54; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Madison Papers, 1, 77-79 & n., 103, 104η;

MS "Satires against the Tories," NjP ("serpent's rage"); N. F. Adkins,

P h i l i p Freneau and t h e Cosmic E n i g m a ( 1 9 4 9 ) ; A. Heimert, R e l i g i o n and t h e A m e r . Mind (1966), 480η; Ε. P. Link, Democratic-Republican Societies (1942), 154; A. F. Young, Democratic R e p u b l i c a n s of N.Y. ( 1 9 6 7 ) , 1 8 4 , 1 8 5 , 2 5 4 , 4 0 4 ; Jefferson Papers, xvi, 2 3 7 , 2 4 6 ; xvii, 3 5 3 η , 3 5 6 η , 3 5 8 η ; MHi Cat., HI , 1 7 1 ; R. Ketcham, James Madison (1971), 108, 323, 326-27, 386; Ν. E. Cunningham, Jr., Jeffersonian Republicans (1957), 13-19; and Jeffersonian Republicans in Power (1963), 255; Adams Papers, in, 225; J. C. Miller, Federalist Era ( i 9 6 0 ) , 9 1 - 9 2 ; H a m i l t o n Papers, xn, passim; W a s h i n g t o n Writings, xxxn, 24 ("outrages on common decency"); xxxv, 488; P. L. Ford, ed., Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1 (1892), 254 ("that rascal Freneau"); J. H. Powell, Bring O u t Y o u r Dead ( 1 9 4 9 ) , 1 5 0 , 2 5 5 - 5 7 ; S. I. Pomerantz, N.Y., a n A m e r . City

als PF to J. Madison, 1 Dec 1796; 12 May 1809; to T. Jefferson, 27 May NjP; to T. Jefferson, 1 7 Jun 1 8 0 3 , Jefferson MSS; Princeton U n i v . Library

(1938), 220; 1809,

Chronicle, 2 (1941), 65-75; GMNJ, 3 (1928), 161.

PUBLICATIONS: see text; V. H. Paltsits, A Bibliography of P h i l i p Freneau NJHSP, 75 (1957), 197-205; Marsh, above

(1903);

MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, NjR, PHi

Charles McKnight, Jr. CHARLES MCKNIGHT, JR., A.B., A.M. 1774, physician and surgeon, was

the oldest son of Charles and Elizabeth Stevens MacKnight. His father, a trustee of the College, had immigrated from northern Ireland in 174° a nd was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian churches of Allentown and Cranbury, New Jersey in 1744. Young Charles was born in Cranbury on October 10, 1750, and moved with his parents to a 220acre farm in Allentown a few years later. In 1767 the family moved again when the father was called to the united congregations at Shrewsbury, Middletown, and Shark River, New Jersey. They lived on a 76-acre farm in Monmouth County.

CH A R L E S MC K N I G H T ,

JR.

157

Charles McKnight, Jr., A.B. 1771

McKnight (he shortened his last name) was prepared at the Mattisonia Grammar School, of which his father was a founder, in Lower Freehold. At the College, he was an original member of the American Whig Society. He spoke twice at his commencement, once against the proposition, "Mendaciem est semper illicitum," and once on the ques­ tion, "Does ancient Poetry excel the modern?" After graduation McKnight went to Philadelphia to study medicine with William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754), but before completing those studies he enlisted in the Continental Army. In August 1775 he was a surgeon with the general army hospital of Cambridge and Roxbury, Massachusetts. When Congress established a Flying Camp, a mobile re­ serve of militia and state troops in June 1776, McKnight was assigned to its Pennsylvania Battalion.

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Stationed in the Kills of New York that fall, McKnight worked with General Washington on the problem of care and evacuation of the sick and wounded. His immediate commander, General William Heath, sent him to establish a hospital in Fishkill in December, and he remained there even after the Flying Camp was dissolved at the end of the year. The authority of John Morgan as director general of the Hospital Department was under constant assault by McKnight's old teacher Shippen, and by 1776 their feud threatened to dissolve the department in chaos. In January 1777, over the protests of another of Shippen's former students, Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), Congress dismissed Mor­ gan and named Shippen director general. But the quarrel went on throughout the war, and it may be a mark of McKnight's professional­ ism—or an indication of his political adroitness—that he managed to rise as a military physician with support from both sides. In April 1777 McKnight was named senior surgeon of the Flying Hospital in the Middle Department. Eight months later he was recom­ mended by Rush to be the surgeon general of the Northern Depart­ ment, but the appointment was not forthcoming. At Valley Forge McKnight organized the complicated evacuation of American casualties from the winter camp. He then went to the general hospital in Prince­ ton and was there in February 1778 when, upon Shippen's recommen­ dation, Congress elected him surgeon general of hospitals in the Middle Department. While on a tour of his command that spring, McKnight married Mary Morin Scott Litchfield of New York, the daughter of American political leader and general John Morin Scott, the sister of Lewis A. Scott (Class of 1777), and the widow of a British officer. She stayed in Manhattan during the British occupation, and her family ties to both sides enabled her to pass important military information from the city to her father while her husband continued his service. The joys of a new marriage were somewhat dampened for McKnight by the death of his elderly father, a chaplain in the army who had been wounded, captured, and mistreated by the British. McKnight spent most of his time as surgeon general in New York state. In August 1780 he stayed at Fishkill and was on duty at West Point, then commanded by Benedict Arnold. When the Hospital De­ partment of the army was reorganized in October, McKnight was named one of three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals, un­ der a director general (Shippen), and a chief physician and surgeon of the army. His new position was roughly equivalent to the rank of full colonel and carried a salary of $120 per month. He remained in New York, and his wages were charged to that state.

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159

When Congress reduced the Hospital Department in 1782, McKnight was one of those retained. That fall he was probably directing the hospitals along the Hudson in Dutchess County. Except for a brief tour as surgeon to a regiment of New York militia in 1787, his military service ended with the war. McKnight then made New York City his permanent home. He was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati and joined the New York Medical Society. He quickly established himself as one of the city's most prestigious physicians and most active citizens. He was the first Port Physician for New York, appointed in May 1784 before that title was used. He was also one of the original state regents for educa­ tion. In 1787, when the regents created a board of trustees for Columbia College, where McKnight had been a professor of anatomy and sur­ gery since 17.85, he was also named to a seat on that body. He resigned as regent, trustee, and professor at the end of 1787. His private practice, conducted from his home at 50 Smith Street, served some of New York's most prominent families. Like many military physicians, he was a progressive surgeon, willing to experi­ ment. Indeed his most famous case, the successful removal of an ab­ dominal extrauterine fetus, was a breakthrough worthy of treatment in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London. When Washington was taken seriously ill in New York in May 1790, McKnight was one of the doctors called in to treat him. In that case, his extremely pessi­ mistic prognosis proved wrong. McKnight shared the most lucrative practice in the city with Rich­ ard Bayley, a partnership that may have been political, for Bayley was a former Loyalist. McKnight's patients were so numerous that he had to keep a personal carriage in order to visit all of them, a rare luxury at the time. He dabbled in oculism while practicing gynecology, sur­ gery, and general medicine, and occasionally went to Philadelphia as a consultant or specialist. Between 1784 and 1786, McKnight had invested heavily and profita­ bly in forfeited Loyalist land in and around New York. In addition, he received 450 acres in Ohio as a bounty for his military service. All of his substantial estate, including two slaves, went to his wife when he died, a victim of pneumonia, on November 16, 1791. He was buried in the Scott family plot at Trinity Church in New York. His son and four of his five daughters also survived him. SOURCES: NYGBR, 67 (1936), 113-17, 257-65; 48 (1917), 62; 55 (1924), 29; 59 (1928), 112; D. Hosack and J. W. Francis, Amer. Med. and Philos. Reg. (1814), 11, 426-28; J. Thacher, Amer. Med. Biography (1828), 1, 383-84; Sprague, Annals, πι, 115η; J. G. Symmes, Hist. Sketch of the First Pres. Chh. of Cranbury, N.J. (1869), 10-11; Med. Soe. of N.J., 56 (1959), 630; NJA (2 ser.), v, 433; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (A.M.); Beam,

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Whig Soc., 20-21; Washington Writings, vr, 66-67, 86 8c n.; x, 141; xvn, 222 & η.; xx, 218, 252; xxi, 450; Force, Am. Arch. (5 ser.), 111, 752, 1060; cf. Shippen (A.B. 1758); W. J. Bell, John Morgan (1965), 200-39; J. M. Toner, Med. Men of the Rev. (1876), 89; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 1, 161, 163η; PMHB, 35 (1911), 296; JCC, x, 186; xviii, 908; W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith n, (1958), 380; J. T. Headley, Chaplains and Clergy of the Rev. (1864), 70; R. J. Koke, Accomplice in Treason (1973), 103; L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in the Amer. Rev. (1971), 329-31; Mil. Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y., 1, 133; J. G. Wilson, ed., Memorial Hist, of N.Y. (1893), HI, 18, 100; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Officers and Alumni (1936), 13, 31, 72; M. J. Lamb, Hist, of the City of N.Y. (1880), 11, 284; T.E.V. Smith, City of N.Y. in 1789 (1889), 94; J. J. Walsh, Hist, of Medicine in N.Y. (1919), 1, 19899; W. S. Baker, Washington After the Rev. (1898), 182; A. C. Flick, Loyalism in N.Y. During the Amer. Rev. (1901), 245, 254; N.Y. Wills (1905), 191.

James Madison, Jr. JAMES MADISON, JR., A.B., LL.D. 1787, public official, political phi­ losopher, and fourth president of the United States, was born on March 16, 1751, on the Rappahanock River plantation of his maternal grandparents. His father, James Madison, Sr., was the principal planter of frontier Orange County, Virginia. His mother was Eleanor Rose Conway Madison of King and Queen County. Surprisingly little is known of Madison's early years. His father, who divided his time between his plantation and county affairs, took pains to provide his son with the best elementary education available. At the age of eleven, James, Jr. was reading his father's collection of The Spectator with pleasure. In 1762 the boy traveled seventy miles to King and Queen County to attend the school kept by Donald Rob­ ertson, where he was trained in ancient and modern languages and in mathematics. Beginning in 1767 he received further instruction at home from Thomas Martin (A.B. 1762), who was living with the Madison family after his appointment as rector of the Brick Church, St. Thomas parish. Madison might have been expected to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg like many aspiring young Virginians of his family's station. But he was deterred by his father's dislike of the high church leanings of some of its faculty and was attracted, instead, to the College of New Jersey by President Witherspoon's reputation. His tutor, a loyal alumnus, also encouraged him to attend Nassau Hall. The College had begun to feel the winds of revolutionary politics by 1769, but Madison's two years of study were spent in reasonable tranquility. Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), later Witherspoon's successor as president of the College, became Madison's tutor and last-

JAMES MADISON, JR.

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James Madison, Jr., A.B. 1771 BY JAMES SHARPLES

ing friend. And Witherspoon himself served as Madison's moral pre­ ceptor and faithful champion. During his years at Nassau Hall, Madison mastered the classics and the great works of the Scottish Enlightenment, sometimes sleeping less than five hours a night in spite of his somewhat sickly disposition. "Jemmy," as he was affectionately called, also revealed a side of what others, usually meeting this soft-voiced man on serious public occa­ sions, later mistook for a dour and stiff personality. As one of the earliest members of the American Whig Society, he spent much of his time debating with its members the affairs of government and society and writing lusty, ribald doggerel for the "Paper War" against the Cliosophic Society. Witherspoon, however, is said later to have told Thomas Jefferson "that in the whole career of Mr. Madison at Prince­ ton, he had never known him to do or say any indiscreet thing." Madison took his degree in the fall of 1771 but remained at the College until the next spring to learn some Hebrew under Witherspoon's tutelage and to read some law. Returning in 1772 to the pre-

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Revolutionary calm of the Virginia piedmont, he buckled down to a regimen of reading and tutoring his younger siblings. He had warned Bradford to avoid "those impertinent fops that abound in every city;" yet he himself felt isolated on the farm. Depression and doubt beset him at the very time that his brilliant mind and celebrated convic­ tions were taking mature shape. Given Witherspoon's influence, Madison might have entered the pulpit, but possibly because of his thin voice he did not do so. The practice of law, it seems, did not appeal to him either. What might otherwise have become of this promising but unsure young man is im­ possible to say. As with so many of his generation, however, the Revo­ lution helped resolve the dilemma. It gave his life a focus, at last re­ leased his energies, and dispelled his gloom. Not hardy enough to join the army, he instead, at age twenty-three, helped govern Orange Coun­ ty as a member of its committee of safety in 1774. He helped draft the state's first constitution as a member of the Virginia general convention in 1776 and served the first of his three terms in the state assembly at its original meeting that year. One of Madison's principal concerns as a member of both the convention and the House of Delegates was the promotion of religious liberty. He was instrumental in the enactment by the assembly in January 1786 of Jefferson's celebrated "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom." During these early years of public service Madison continued to har­ bor doubts about his own capacities. Even after his election to the Vir­ ginia Council of State in 1778, his lack of self-confidence was obvious enough to elicit from Samuel Stanhope Smith the exasperated wish that "you had the same high opinion of yourself that others have." Yet he steadily accumulated the respect of others with whom he served in Virginia and in the Continental Congress from 1780-1783 and from 1786-1788. The youngest member of Congress when he entered that body, Madison was also one of the most active. He devoted himself fully to the concerns common to all of the states. He returned to Princeton at least once during this period, when the Congress fled Philadelphia to escape a mutiny of Pennsylvania recruits in the sum­ mer of 1783. After the war Madison was troubled by the weakness of the Con­ federation and turned his attention to strengthening the union. He attended the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, was the guiding spirit behind the Virginia Plan, which brought a working federalism into being. The three-fifths ratio for counting slaves in the population derived directly from a Madison plan to solve a fiscal problem in the Continental Congress in 1783.

JAMES MADISON, JR.

163

Without his careful note-taking, most of the proceedings and debates of the Philadelphia Convention might have been lost to history. His presence and intelligence, acknowledged by almost everyone, won him enduring renown as "Father of the Constitution." Once the new federal charter was written, Madison worked to secure its acceptance. And in that effort his part was nothing less than essen­ tial. His arguments in behalf of the Constitution at the Virginia ratify­ ing convention in June 1788 were responsible for carrying that crucial state. Moreover, he coauthored with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay the nation's greatest contribution to western political science, the Federalist Papers, written in 1787 and 1788 to win over doubters and opponents of the new Constitution. Madison's 10th Federalist over­ turned conventional arguments about the dangers of an extended republic and provided an enduring analysis of the social bases of political factions with a plan to check their worst effects. It worked a revolution in political theory and is rightly considered a classic of American thought. For his service during this period, the College awarded Madison a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, in 1787. Witherspoon wrote Madison to say that Pirincetonians were proud to recognize in this way "one of their own sons who had done them so much honor by his public service." Madison served in the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1797. In the initial session of the First Congress he sponsored the Bill of Rights. In the next session, encouraged by Jefferson, he became a leader of the legislative opposition to Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and thus helped lay the basis for the Democratic-Republi­ can Party, the first modern political party in the world. Midway in his congressional service, Madison was introduced by Senator Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) to Dolly Payne Todd, a young and much sought-after Philadelphia widow. They were married on Sep­ tember 15, 1794; and as Jefferson feared, Madison quickly tired of public affairs. After completing his next term, he retired from Con­ gress to divide his time between scholarly pursuits and the supervision of his family's plantation, "Montpelier." Still in his forties, however, Madison was not to enjoy an early re­ tirement. In 1798, in protest against the Federalists' Alien and Sedition Acts, he wrote the controversial Virginia Resolutions, which put for­ ward for the first time the doctrine of state interposition. Much to Madison's consternation, that doctrine would deeply influence the later theories of nullification and secession. Upon the election of Jeffer­ son to the presidency in 1801, Madison became secretary of state and chief presidential adviser. After eight years of taxing service in that

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post during the era of the Napoleonic Wars, he was elected fourth president of the United States in 1808. Madison's two terms in the White House were fraught with difficul­ ties born of war, sectionalism, and bitter partisan struggles. Com­ mercial nonintercourse, sponsored first by Jefferson and continued by Madison, failed to preserve America's neutral rights in the midst of the European conflict. On the president's recommendation, Congress declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. The war was strongly opposed by New England Federalists. Further, Madison's efforts as commander in chief were impeded by military unpreparedness, the consequence of congressional irresolution and fru­ gality, and by incompetent generals and financial uncertainties. In spite of the burning of the new national capital and his forced evacua­ tion from the White House in 1814, Madison saw the nation through its "Second War for Independence." Britain's threat to the growing republic had ended. In 1817, after more than forty years of public service, Madison re­ tired from office. He helped Jefferson found the University of Virginia and then served as that institution's rector from 1826 to 1834. He was also a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829 but was dissatisfied with the document that emerged, largely because of its uncompromising position on slavery. Generous in his support of several educational institutions, Madison always retained a lively interest in the College of New Jersey. In 1796 he made a contribution toward the purchase of materials for instruc­ tion in chemistry. And in 1826 he accepted election as first president of the newly formed Alumni Association of Nassau Hall, a post he held until his death at Montpelier on June 28, 1836. He had rejected advice to take stimulants so that he could live until July 4 and thus die like Adams and Jefferson on Independence Day. Madison left $1,000 to the College library from the proceeds of his posthumously published "Notes" on the debates in Philadelphia. It was the largest gift to the library before the Civil War. Princeton's sense of Madison's place is perhaps best revealed by the order of honors listed on the plaque beneath one of his portraits at the University: James Madison—Class of 1771 First President of the Alumni Association Fourth President of the United States Madison's greatest contribution to the nation's history was his ability to translate theory into institutions and practice. No more apt characterization of him can be found than Jefferson's in 1812: "I do

WILLIAM SCOTT

165

not know in the world a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to genuine Republicanism; nor could I in the whole scope of America and Europe point out an abler head." SOURCES: The bibliography for James Madison has reached proportions that make it

inadvisable to attempt here a full listing. There follows no more than a list of specific reference citations. PUA; DAB; W. Thorp, Eighteen from Princeton, 137-57; I. Brant, James Madison (6 vols., 1941-61), 1, 273-74 (Jefferson's description); R. Ketcham, James Madison (1971), esp. 369 ("any indiscreet thing"); Wertenbaker, Princeton; V. L. Collins, President Witherspoon (1925), 1, 125, 127, 132; 11, 6off, 205; Beam, Whig Soc., 25-29; D. D. Egbert, Princeton Portraits (1947), 250-57; Madison Papers, 1, 75 ("impertinent fops"), 194 ("same high opinion"); JPHS, 28 (i960), 65-70; A. Koch, Jefferson and Madison (1950). MANUSCRIPTS: DLC 1 NjP, ViU, CSMH, NHi, PHi, NcD, LN, T, Nc

JMB, Jr.

Joseph Ross JOSEPH Ross, A.B., was one of the original members of the American Whig Society at the College and a good friend of his fellow-member and classmate James Madison. At his commencement he delivered an English oration on "The Power of Eloquence." Beyond those brief traces of his student days, no record of his life has been found. His death, on the other hand, clearly occurred before October 13, 1772, when William Bradford (A.B. 1772) reported it to Madison. SOURCES: Beam, Whig Soc., 20, 21; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771

(commencement);

Madison Papers, 1, 73, 74 n. 10.

William Scott WILLIAM SCOTT, A.B. Harvard 1771, innkeeper, was born in Palmer, Hampshire (later Hampden) County, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1750, the second child and eldest son of Lieutenant William and Abigail Scott's four children. The Scott family had over 500 acres in Palmer, and William's grandfather was an original settler there. His father held several local offices, besides owning the only slave recorded in a 1765 census of the town. Scott's attendance at the College has been inferred from the cir­ cumstances of his transfer to Harvard, which he entered in the middle of his junior year. Why he made the move is uncertain, but a religious motive may account for his initial enrollment at Princeton. His father was active in Palmer's church, a Presbyterian congregation that fol-

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lowed the Church of Scotland's conservative line, and in 1761 he served on the committee that invited Moses Baldwin (A.B. 1757) to be the town's minister. The latter's influence may have been decisive. Never­ theless, young Scott took his degree at Harvard. In later life William Scott was an innholder. His tavern, "respectable in appearance," though without "correspondent Entertainment" (at least in 1786), was located in Palmer on the route to Boston. His public career is confused with that of his father, since they shared the same name, although the lieutenant is often distinguished by that title and was clearly a more significant citizen than his son. But since the father died in late May 1790, that year's census return surely refers to the younger man's household, formed December 21, 1774, when he married Violett Burt of Springfield, with whom he had four children. Scott's first wife died May 28, 1792, and the following November he published his intention to marry Mrs. Suse Newcomb, probably of Somers, Con­ necticut. On the basis of a notation in the Harvard archives, the modern author of Sibley's Harvard Graduates considers Georgia as a possible later residence for Scott. His death is noted in the Harvard triennial catalogue of 1806. SOURCES: Sibley's Harvard Graduates, xvn, 630-31 (where his birthdate is mistakenly given as 1749); Vital Records of Palmer, Mass. (1905), 67, 160; Ε. H. Temple, Hist, of Hampden Cnty., Mass. (1902), 111, 134; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 171-72; Winthrop Sargent, MS Diary, 20 Jun 1786, MHi ("respectable in appearance"); First Census, Mass., 120. JMR

Samuel Spring SAMUEL SPRING, A.B., A.M. 1774, Dartmouth 1789, D. D. Williams 1806, Congregational clergyman, was born on February 27, 1749, in the Northbridge section of Uxbridge, Massachusetts. His father, Colonel John Spring, wanted him to stay at home to help manage the family's large farm and its slaves; but his mother, Sarah Read Spring, had hopes that her son would become a minister. When Spring was eighteen, his father relented and allowed him to prepare himself under the local pastor, Nathan Webb (Harvard 1725), and then to enter the College. In June 1770 Spring joined the Cliosophic Society and became its most effective spokesman during the "Paper War" with the Whig Society. Naturally, he was also the favorite target of the Whigs, who called him Clio's "poet laureate." James Madison (A.B. 1771) advised Spring to refrain from writing poetry, lest he be "transformed into an

SAMUEL SPRING

167

Samuel Spring, A.B. 1771 ass." His classmates Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge made Spring the butt of their satire in Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca, both under his own name and as Aliborah the Skipper. At the commencement of 1771 Spring delivered an English oration on "The Idea of the Patriot King." He then stayed in Princeton to study theology with President Witherspoon. After a few months Spring went to Bethlehem, Connecticut to be tutored by Joseph Bellamy. From there he moved to Newport, Rhode Island to study with Samuel Hopkins. He completed his theological training under Stephen West (Yale 1755) in Stockbridge, Massachu­ setts. In May 1772 he wrote to one of his closest college friends, Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), to recommend theological education, reminding his fellow Cliosophian of his parents' wish that he enter the ministry. Burr followed Spring to Bethlehem to stay with Bellamy for a time. Licensed in 1774, Spring returned to Newport to supply Hopkin's church while his mentor was away. When the Revolution began, he enlisted in the Continental Army as a chaplain. Spring was in the

168

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Boston area in August 1775 and volunteered to be chaplain of Benedict Arnold's brigade in the invasion of Canada. His sermon to the troops before they embarked in bateaux from Newburyport, Massachusetts impressed the congregation there, which was looking for a new pastor. On September 18, 1775, Spring and his unit departed for Quebec. Spring was an extremely diligent chaplain. Whatever the hardship, he saw to it that the troops were always drummed to hear him preach; and he preached at length. He also renewed his friendship with Burr on the expedition. Both men were present during the attack on Que­ bec, and Spring is sometimes credited with helping the wounded Arnold from the field. Many years later, the chaplain debunked the legend that Burr had carried Richard Montgomery's body back to American lines. Declaring that he had seen what happened, Spring said that Burr had tried to help his fallen commander, but that Montgom­ ery was too big and the snow too deep for the diminutive Burr to man­ age. It is unlikely that Spring could have seen Montgomery fall and help Arnold, too; so one or both of the stories is probably untrue. During the retreat from Canada, Spring continued to insist on regular prayer meetings in which he vehemently denounced deism and other heresies. In August 1776, when the chaplain had to leave his unit to recover from an attack of rheumatism, the troops actually celebrated his absence. They could bear no more of his zeal. He re­ turned to the army in November, but resigned one month later to accept an invitation to preach as a candidate in the Newburyport church. In April the congregation asked him to stay there and on August 6, 1777, he was ordained. His salary for the first year was £140. Within four years, inflation had raised it to £10,000. By the time of his settlement at Newburyport, Spring's theological opinions were firm. He was a dedicated disciple of Hopkins, a rigid evangelical Calvinist. For the rest of his life he proved himself a con­ tentious defender of religious purity as he defined it, never shrinking from an opportunity to confront those who differed with him. He began by abolishing the use of the Half-Way Covenant at Newbury­ port. And while many disagreed with him, few ignored him. In 1779 Spring married Hopkins's daughter Hannah. A founder and trustee of the Massachusetts Missionary Society in 1779, Spring wanted to use the organization to spread Hopkinsian theology. He was later the editor of the society's organ, the Massachu­ setts Missionary Magazine. Ezra Stiles sneered at his pretensions to being a "Luther," but recognized his growing influence, much of which stemmed from his frequent disputes with other ministers over the de­ tails of theological doctrine. From 1789 until 1794, for example, he

SAMUEL SPRING

169

argued with David Tappan (Harvard 1771) of West Newbury over some very minor doctrinal questions. The Unitarian William Bentley found Spring's activity totally pernicious and saw its only effect in the embitterment of men's minds. Ironically, Spring was often called upon to settle disputes among the clergy, thus increasing his opportunities to expound his own positions. His fervor occasionally reduced his disagreements with other ministers over religious minutiae to personal feuds. In 1801 Spring led a Hopkinsian revival at Newburyport. But his zeal soon developed a political side. Divisions among the clergy were already pronounced when the Federalist-Congregationalist establish­ ment in Massachusetts began to suffer from the growth of Republi­ canism. Federalist ministers fought to retain their special social posi­ tion by lumping the Republicans with heretics. Like most such Federalists, Spring had voiced his approval of the French Revolution when it began, but within a few years had reversed himself to find in France the roots of the corruption he saw in America. In April 1803 he preached a Fast Day sermon condemning President Jefferson as a deist. As his insistence on religious and political conformity grew more belligerent, he appeared to Bentley and other liberals as a greater source of evil. In 1805, when a Unitarian became president of Harvard, Spring and other Hopkinsians decided that more effort from them was needed. Spring had been instrumental in creating the Massachusetts General Association, founded in 1803 to fight Unitarianism. He also worked with Jedidiah Morse to begin the Panoplist, a conservative-to-moderate journal that subsumed the Missionary Magazine and to which Spring often contributed under the name "Philalethes." He was also a founder and officer of the American Board of Foreign Missions. His favorite project, however, was the creation of an Hopkinsian theological sem­ inary in Massachusetts. After raising $30,000 for the school he planned to open in West Newbury, Spring found that the more liberal trustees of Phillips Academy were also preparing to establish a seminary at Andover. For two years he resisted all efforts to combine the two projects. When Andover Seminary was chartered in 1807, however, Spring was forced to admit that another school would be counterproductive. He there­ fore set about securing the best terms for a merger. In 1808, having written the creed for faculty members and insisted upon the creation of a board of visitors to represent the "Associate Founders" from his own school, with a virtual veto over prospective teachers and curricula, Spring assented to the opening of Andover Theological Seminary as a

170

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joint venture. He became one of its strongest supporters and a member of its board of visitors. Bentley and other liberals called Andover the "Jesuit College" and regarded it as the symbol of atavistic Hopkinsian influence. After it was founded, Federalist clergymen such as Spring and Joseph Eckley (A.B. 1772) of Boston redoubled their attacks on the Republican ad­ ministration. It was not Andover, but politics that was the cause of those attacks. The Federalist clergy led New England's opposition to the War of 1812. Even when he was thought to be fatally ill in 1814, Spring left his bed to lambast the government. It was as if, Bentley thought, he would be more welcome in heaven "by leaving a hotter h[ell] behind him." In his opposition to the war, Spring renewed in earnest his once friendly rivalry with James Madison. On August 26, 1812, he wrote to the president, recalling their collegiate friendship and a visit he had made to Montpelier many years earlier. But the thrust of his letter was an exposition of New England's attitude toward the war. Madison replied on September 6. He was glad that Spring remembered their friendship, but he was firm in denouncing antiwar activities in the north. He denied Spring's assumption that the administration was in league with Napoleonic France and insisted that the conflict could never end successfully until it was clear to Britain that the United States was truly united. The war began the final decline of the Federalist clergy in Massa­ chusetts. Spring was as contentious as ever, but his influence waned. He continued to be active in the missionary societies, at Andover, and in his own church. After 1811 much of his time was devoted to raising money to repair the nearly $600,000 worth of damage done by a fire in Newburyport. He traveled as far as Virginia to solicit help. He also served occasionally on the town's school committee. Three of Spring's eleven children graduated from Yale, an institu­ tion that was governed more in accord with his theological tastes than either Harvard or Nassau Hall. His son Gardiner Spring (Yale 1805) became a prominent clergyman in New York City. According to tradi­ tion, Spring had one last meeting with Aaron Burr in New York while he was visiting Gardiner there. Appalled by some of Burr's opinions, Spring vowed never to see the man again. On January 10, 1819, Spring preached his final sermon. He died on March 4, and was buried in the New Hill cemetery at Newburyport. Informed of the death, William Bentley recorded his grudging respect for the man he found an intolerant and dangerous, but always for­ midable, opponent. SOURCES: DAB·,

Sprague, Annals,

11, 85-89; Madison Papers, 1, 63

("poet laureate . . .

JAMES TAYLOR

171

ass"), 67 n. 3; M. D. Bell, ed., Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca (1975), xxiii-xxiv, 4; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (A.M.); Gen. Cat. Dartmouth College (1910-11), 574; G. Anderson, "Jo­ seph Bellamy," unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Boston Univ. (1971), 436-37; H. Alexander, Aaron Burr (1937), 13-14; S. H. Wandell and M. Minnigerode, Aaron Burr (1925), r > 33' 55· Stiles, Literary Diary, 1, 440; in, 274 ("Luther"); J. T. Headley, Chaplains and Clergy of the Rev. (1864), 89-106; K. Roberts, March to Quebec (1938), 222, 376, 437 n. 5; N. Schachner, Aaron Burr (1937), 521 n. 15; PMHB, 59 (1935), 345, 35, 356, 357; J. J. Currier, Hist, of Newburyport, Mass. (1906), 273-75, 313; Sibley's Har­ vard Graduates, xvn, 640; MHS Col. (5 ser.), 111, 160-61; S. Spring, Moral Disquisition (1794); Bentley, Diaries, 1, 89, 160-61, 243, 250; 11, 165, 230, 443, 363-64; in, 20, 23, 163, 410, 412, 429, 438; iv, 102, 178, 201, 253 ("hotter h."), 579; A. E. Morse, Federalist Party in Mass. (1909), 90, 92, 94; NEQ, 8 (1935), 548; J. K. Morse, Jedidiak Morse (1939), 80, 107-15; Panoplist, 1808-1811, passim; Andover Theol. Sem., Gen. Cat. (1909), 61; O. D. Williams, Andover Liberals (1941), 3-6; J. M. Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention (1970), 165-66; L. Woods, Hist, of Andover Theological Sem­ inary (1888), 72-132; R. Ketcham, James Madison (1971), 538; G. Hunt, ed., Writ­ ings of James Madison (1908), vm, 214-15; Dexter, Yale Biographies, v, 791-801; Missionary Herald, 15 (Mar 1819), 144. In addition, the contribution of Mr. George A. Vondermuhll, Jr., is greatly appreciated. PUBLICATION;: see STE; Sh-Sh #s. 3107, 7300, 7301, 9412, 9413, 9414, '3629, 16242, 18677-78, 21401, 21402, 21403, 35993, 38996, 42194, 45782, 45783, 49185; An Exposi­ tion of the Principles of the Roman Catholic Religion . . . by Philalethes (1830).

James Taylor JAMES TAYLOR, A.B., has not been identified, for no basis has been found for the selection of one man among the many who bore the name. At the College he was probably an original member of the American Whig Society when it was founded in 1769. At his commence­ ment exercises on September 25, 1771, he spoke twice, once in opposi­ tion to the proposition "Mendacium est semper illicitum" and also in a dispute on the superiority of man's moral qualities over his natural ones. SOURCES: Beam, Whig Soc., 20-21; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (commencement). A James Taylor, born around 1750, was a major in a Pa. regiment during the Revolu­ tion, perhaps serving as judge advocate of the Northern Army, and died around 1815. Pa. Arch. (5 ser.), ni, 8, 20, 33; (2 ser.), x, 133; DAR Patriot Index, 667 (which distinguishes between him and the sergeant of the same name who died in Ky. in 1844 and with whom some sources have confused the major). Another James Taylor was a public official in N.C. who between 1788 and 1792 was in turn secretary of state, assemblyman from Rockingham Cnty., and secretary to the founding board of trustees of the Univ. of N.C., an institution with ties to CNJ. R.D.W. Conner, Manual of N.C. (1913), 783; and Doc. Hist, of Univ. of N.C. (1953), 1, 67, 75, 78; St. Rec. N.C., xxi, 386, 399, 908, and passim; XXII, 7, 39. The graduate might also have been the student at Donald Robertson's school in Va. from 1758 to 1763, contempo­ rary with James Madison (A.B. 1771). If so, Taylor could have been the son of Col. Francis Taylor, but he is not to be confused with James Taylor of Caroline (17321814) or James Taylor of Orange (1738-1808). VMHB, 33 (1925), 197, 291; 34 (1926), 142; H. E. Hayden, Va. Genealogies (1931), 680. JMR

Jacob Williamson JACOB WILLIAMSON, A.B., for more than a century has been mistakenly

identified in the alumni records of Princeton University as James Williamson. In the Minutes of the trustees recording the award of his degree, in several newspaper accounts of the commencement exercises of September 25, 1771, and in the periodically published general cata­ logues of the College through that of 1851, his name is given as Jacob Williamson. The origin of the mistake is made apparent by a glance at the next general catalogue to be issued, that for 1854, where for the first time the name is rendered as Jacobus Williamson. It had been customary in these catalogues to use the Latin form of baptismal names, and Jacobus was the Latin for James, as with Jacobus Madison, to use as an example the most famous of Williamson's classmates. Those responsible for compiling earlier catalogues obviously had kept the Jacob in order to avoid confusion, but someone in preparing copy for the catalogue of 1854 corrected what he took to be an obvious error, and so Jacob acquired the name of James. The error has been perpetuated in the General Catalogue of 1908, the latest to be issued, and also in the much more recent General Catalogue of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society. It is of interest to note that an old manu­ script list of early members of the Cliosophic Society that has survived in the University Archives correctly gives the name as Jacob. It also adds the helpful information that Jacob Williamson was from New Jersey. There were several Jacob Williamsons who lived in New Jersey during the latter part of the eighteenth century, but there is good reason for believing that the Princeton graduate was the second sur­ viving son, born on February 2, 1755, of General Matthias Williamson of Elizabethtown, Essex County. His father was one of the more prominent residents of the town—vestryman and later churchwarden of the Anglican/Episcopalian St. John's Church, a leading Whig as the Revolution approached, and brigadier general of the state militia in succession to Governor William Livingston in 1776. His mother was Susanna Halstead. An older brother was Matthias Williamson (A.B. 1770). Jacob Williamson probably was prepared for college at the Latin grammar school in Elizabethtown, and probably during the tenure as master there of Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763). No evidence for the date of Jacob's admission to the College has been found. It can only be noted that the Cliosophic list mentioned above fixes the date of his admission to that society at November 21, 1770. In the so-called "Paper

JACOB WILLIAMSON

173

War" between the two literary societies in 1771, he may have acquired a certain immortality through the following lines of doggerel verse written by James Madison: While eckley's skin 8c jakes together When tan'd will make a side of leather Just fit to cloath McOrkle bum It has been assumed that Williamson was Jake, and were any more evidence as to his real name needed, this very poor literary effort could be cited. In the commencement exercises of the following Sep­ tember, at which incidentally for some reason Madison did not speak, Williamson spoke twice. In the forenoon he defended the proposition, "Mendacium est semper illicitum" in a syllogistic debate with two of his classmates. And in the afternoon session, he participated in "an English forensic Debate" of the question, "Does ancient Poetry excel the modern?" In opposition to another classmate destined to be re­ membered as a poet, Philip Freneau, Williamson defended modern verse. His later life remains a mystery, except for the personal tragedy recorded in his father's will. The will, dated October 31, 1807 and proved on the following November 21, made bequests of real property and a monetary supplement ranging between £300-400 to each of three surviving sons (Matthias, Benjamin, and Isaac), to a surviving daugh­ ter who was the wife of Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776), and to the widow and children of deceased son William. In other words, the bulk of the estate was distributed through five major bequests of land and money. But for his son Jacob the will set aside the interest on £700 for his support during his lifetime. The explanation is found in the fur­ ther provision that "in case my said son Jacob shall hereafter recover his reason Sc become capable of transacting business in a reasonable & prudent manner, then my Will is, that my said Executors . . . may at their discretion let him have any part of the said sum . . . that they shall think prudent." It was also provided that should Jacob live for two years before his death with one of the grandchildren, this "child" was to have in compensation £150. Little here can be added. No indication has been found that Jacob saw military service during the war, or that he was married. Tax records for 1779-1780 show a Jacob Williamson living as a single man in the town ward of Elizabeth Township, where his father and brothers lived also. There are several Jacob Williamsons on the militia rolls for 1 793' but counties other than Essex. The College's catalogue for 1836 was the first of those triennial publications to note Williamson's death.

174

CLASS OF 1771

SOURCES: GMA'/, 3 (1927), 14-19; NYGBR, 67 (1936), 205, 75 (1944), 156-57; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth (1868), 412, 664; T. Thayer, As ~We Were (1964), 102, 105, 120, 122-24, !67: S. A. Clark, Hist, of St. John's Chh. (1857), 68, 89, 164, 169; Stryker, Off. Reg., 350; Princetonians, ιη^8-ιη6ί, 440; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, Gen. Cats., PUA; Madison Papers, 1, 64 (verse); Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771 (com­ mencement); N.J. Wills, xi, 376-77; will, no. 10509G, Nj (father's will). The last para­ graph of text is based upon a search by Stryker, Off. Reg., which reveals that there were several Jacob Williamsons in service but from other counties, notably Hunter­ don; K. Stryker-Rodda, Rev. Census of N.J. (1972), 236; also in GMNJ, 43 (1968), 36; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1J93 (1973); W. H. Shaw, Hist, of Essex if Hudson Counties (1884), 33-37; NJA (1 ser.), XXII, 439 (which shows three marriage licenses for a Jacob Williamson of Amwell Township, Hunterdon Cty., the latest in 1785). WFC

CLASS OF 1772

Isaac Alexander, A.B.

Andrew Hunter, Jr., A.B.

Moses Allen, A.B.

Robert Keith, A.B.

Robert Archibald, A.B.

William Linn, A.B.

William Bradford, Jr., A.B.

William Smith Livingston, A.B.

Andrew Bryan, A.B.

George Luckey, A.B.

Aaron Burr, A.B.

Archibald McClean

John DeBow, A.B.

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle,

Joseph Eckley, A.B. Israel Evans, A.B. Ebenezer Findley, A.B. Philip Vickers Fithian, A.B. James Grier, A.B. Andrew Hodge, Jr., A.B.

A.B.

John McMillan, A.B, Oliver Reese, A.B. James Templeton, A.B. Hunloke Woodruff

Isaac Alexander ISAAC ALEXANDER, A.B., schoolmaster and physician, was born about

1747, the son of Abraham Alexander (1717-1786). Neither the name of his mother nor the place of his birth has been determined. He may have been born in Maryland, whence an impressive number of Alex­ anders migrated at mid-century to western North Carolina, where they became progenitors of an unusually large clan. Nathaniel Alex­ ander (A.B. 1776) was probably a cousin, and Joseph Alexander (A.B. 1760) may have been a relative. In 1762 Alexander's father was one of the original justices of the peace for the newly established Mecklen­ burg County, a representative of the county in the provincial assembly as early as 1769, and a leading member of its committee of safety in 1 775- Where Alexander prepared for college is not known. On January g, 1771, Alexander joined the Cliosophic Society at the College—in time to become an object of ridicule by James Madison of the Whig Society in the famous "Paper War" of 1771. His college friends, however, included two Whig classmates, Andrew Hunter and Philip Fithian. On their commencement day, Alexander disputed with Fithian the proposition that "Political Jealousy is a laudable Passion." After graduation Alexander returned to his father's home near Charlotte, from which, on April 29, 1773, he wrote to Hunter that he was teaching "the school in this place" at a salary of £80 per annum. The school is unlikely to have been any other than Queen's College or Museum, an academy that seems to have functioned, despite royal disallowance of the act of 1771 incorporating it, through the years leading to its reincorporation by the state legislature as Liberty Hall in 1777· Alexander's father had been one of the founding trustees and was continued on the board by the act of 1777, which designated young Alexander as president. That he continued in that office at least until November 22, 1778 is indicated by a diploma signed by him and his father on that date. While teaching, Alexander also may have been reading medicine. No evidence has been found for the M.D. degree often erroneously assigned by later writers to anyone known to have practiced medicine in this early period of the profession's history, and just when he began to read or to practice remains uncertain. Tradition assigns to him credit for service as a surgeon with the army at the time of Gates's defeat at Camden in August 1780 and even with attendance to the mortal wounds received by Baron De Kalb there. That Alexander probably saw some such service toward the end of the war is indicated

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by his success, appatently with the aid of William R. Davie (A.B. 1776), in securing from the North Carolina legislature in 1789 a duplicate of a lost certificate of compensation due "for services per­ formed in hospitals and the late armies, and for medicine." He is reported to have been one of the purchasers of "physic" at the public sale in 1782 of the property of Dr. Ephraim Brevard (A.B. 1768). It has been suggested that Alexander began his practice in Charlotte, and that he transferred it to Camden, South Carolnia, about 1784. A letter of David Ramsay (A.B. 1765) in August 1787 establishes his presence there by that date. Whatever may be the time at which he moved to Camden, the remainder of his life belonged to that community. He was among the ten leading citizens who formally greeted President Washington on the occasion of his visit there during a tour of the southern states in 1791· In 1794 Alexander served as intendant, or mayor, of Camden. He represented the county in the state legislature in 1796 and was among the original trustees of South Carolina College, founded in 1801 and later to become the state university. At his death on January 13, 1812, he was described in the public press as "an old and respectable inhabi­ tant of the place." An elder in the Presbyterian church, he was buried in its graveyard. Alexander was twice married, first to Margaret, daughter of Dr. William Brisbane of Charleston, and in 1807, a year after her death, to Sarah Thornton, formerly of New York and sister to a local merchant. He fathered one daughter by the first marriage and two sons by the second. SOURCES: SCHGM, 37 (1936), 85 ("inhabitant"); 25 (1924), 50; 26 (1925), 229; 30

(1929), 60; 31 (1930), 163; F. A. Olds, Abstract of N.C. Wills (1910), 184; W. S. Ray, Mecklenburg Signers (1946), 323, 414-15; J. H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Mem­ oirs (1884), 263. If Dorcas Alexander, who heads the list of beneficiaries in Abra­ ham's will, be assumed to be his widow and only wife, that would be the given name of Isaac's mother. "Darkus" Alexander in 1790 headed a family of 4 white males, 3 females, and 8 slaves (First Census, N.C., 159); DAB (father); Col. Rec. N.C., vi, 799; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Madison Papers, 1, 65, 67η.; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); als IA to A. Hunter, 29 Apr 1773, NjP; St. Rec. N.C., 516; T. J. Kirkland and R. M. Kennedy, Hist, of Camden (1905), 35, 191, 290, 309, 342-43; APS Trans., (n.s.) v. 55, pt. 4 (1965), 113; D. A. Tompkins, Hist, of Mecklenburg Cnty. (1903), I, 81; D. W. Hollis, Univ. of S.C., 1 (1951), 24.

WFC

Moses Allen MOSES ALLEN, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born on September 14, 1748, one of the fourteen children of Joseph and Elizabeth Parsons Allen of Northhampton, Massachusetts. His father, a prosperous farmer, was one of the few courageous defenders of the family's parson and friend Jonathan Edwards during the religious controversy of 1749-1750. Moses Allen's mother was the most popular midwife in the area, said to have tended births of 3,000 children before her death at age 84. At the College Allen joined the Well-Meaning Club, one of two rival literary organizations established in the 1760s whose competition had since been a source of vexation to the faculty. A College edict disbanded both clubs in 1769. The die-hard Well-Meaners refused to heed the order for more than a year, but the competing Plain-Dealers reorganized at once as the American Whig Society and gained the faculty's recognition. Apparently led by Moses Allen, the WellMeaners followed suit in 1770 by creating the Cliosophic Society. The establishment of Whig and Clio in no way abated the rivalry between the two groups. By 1771 they were engaged in a "Paper War" with arsenals of biting doggerel satire. Captained by the likes of Hugh Henry Brackenridge (A.B. 1771) and James Madison (A.B. 1771), the Whigs branded the Cliosophians as "Tories," a term of op­ probrium rather than a political description. And Allen was a constant target of their barbs. "What use for Allen with his twisted nose," asked Brackenridge in "The Origin of the Tories." Madison, in his "Clio's Proclamation," identified Allen as "the founder of the crew . .. a pest/ A dunce a fool an ass at best" whose mind was suited to a place where one might "whore and pimp and drink and swear/ Nor more the garb of christian wear." Although pursued in fun, the "Paper War" revealed the depth of commitment by the members to their respective societies. It was a loyalty that never waned. In January 1772 Allen wrote to his friend and "dear little fellow" Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) with advice on how the Cliosophians might protect themselves against Whig attacks by adding particularly useful new members. At the time, Allen was the successful head of the Mattisonia Grammar School in Lower Freehold, New Jersey, where he taught Latin and Greek and gave special atten­ tion to the "reading and pronunciation of the English Tongue." The patrons of the school included William Tennent II and Charles McKnight, Sr., both trustees of the College, and Nathaniel Scudder (A.B.

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1751). Allen urged Burr to take special pains to expedite Dr. Scudder's postgraduate admission to Clio, an effort that was successful. In May 1773 Allen went to Philadelphia to apply to the Presbytery of New Brunswickk for a license to preach, and even by that action he elicited the scorn of Whig veterans of the "Paper War." William Bradford (A.B. 1772) wrote to Madison that Allen and his like were "more capable of being beneficial to the state by their hands than by their heads." The Presbytery was more receptive and Allen was licensed on February 1, 1774. Emaciated by a fever that had plagued him all winter, Allen set off from Massachusetts for South Carolina to take up the pulpit at the independent church in Wappetaw, Christ's Church Parish, near Charleston. Only two years before, he had expressed to his fellow Cliosophian Burr his great sympathy for their "brother" Samuel Eusebius McCorkle (A.B. 1772) who, because he was about to go south, would have to be "surrounded by Wiggs." On his way south, Allen stopped at the Madison family home in Orange County, Virginia, late in 1774. No longer the exuberant boy of the "Paper War," Madison disapproved of the new minister's will­ ingness to "superadd the Airs of a fine Gentleman to the graces of the Spirit," and of Allen's having retained his "primitive Levity." But the Cliosophian's two sermons in the local church impressed even the dour Madison, who concluded that Allen might be "one of those Genius's that are forme[d] for shifting in the world rather than shining in a College." Allen was ordained at Wappetaw in March 1775. In July he married Elisabeth Odinsell of Georgia. Two years later he resigned from his post to assume the pulpit at the Presbyterian Church of Midway, St. John's Parish, Georgia, a settlement founded by the descendants of Massachusetts Puritans twenty-five years earlier. Almost immediately, Allen was in the middle of the political storm that came to Georgia with the Revolution. St. John's Parish was the center of revolutionary fervor in an other­ wise cautious province, and the spirit of the place suited Allen per­ fectly. In spite of threats from many nearby Loyalists, he called upon the people to take up arms against Great Britain. Indeed, he quickly gained a reputation as one of the most dedicated and influential revolutionaries in Georgia. When an expedition of 350 militiamen was organized to fight the Indians and Loyalists on the southern frontier in early 1778, Allen promptly volunteered to be its chaplain. Added to the forces of Major General Robert Howe of the Con­ tinental Army, the Georgia Brigade helped dislodge the enemy from

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Ft. Tonin and prepared to move against St. Augustine. But uncertain lines of command and the refusal of local leaders to respect Howe's authority kept the tentless troops in open swampland until disease forced them to retreat. This fiasco began a series of military disasters for Georgia, where morale was low in spite of Allen's exhortations. In November 1778 the British sent an expedition of more than 4,000 men from New York and Florida against Georgia as part of their strategy of seizing the American coasts in order to protect their dangerously distended logistics train. Although the redcoats from the south encountered almost no serious opposition, a makeshift breatswork near Ogeechee Ferry forced them to make a temporary withdrawal, burning farms and houses as they went. Due largely to Allen's notoriety, Midway was given special British attention. The church and the minister's home were both put to the torch. When the English troops from New York arrived on December 23, 1778, Savannah was doomed. With Allen in the thick of the battle, the British quickly surrounded Howe's badly placed troops, who suffered nearly 50% casualties. Allen was among the many prisoners. Although most captured officers were sent to nearby Sunbury on parole, Chaplain Allen and a few others were singled out as particu­ larly dangerous traitors and thrust, along with the captured private soldiers, aboard prison ships in the Savannah River. He was per­ mitted to share a stateroom on the Nancy with other officers, but Allen suffered the immense hardships of a cruel imprisonment. Al­ though greatly weakened by. his confinement on starvation rations, he tried to escape by jumping overboard on February 8, 1779. He drowned in the attempt, and his body washed ashore on Tybee Island. Several fellow prisoners asked for permission to bury the chaplain properly, but Captain Samuel Tait of the Nancy declared Allen fit only for a traitor's grave. His body was dropped in the swamp mud, atop the half-exposed corpses of others who had died on the prison ships. Allen was survived by his infant son, Moses, and by his widow, who remarried. SOURCES: J. T. Headley, Chaplains and Clergy of the Rev.

(1864), 331-40; Giger, Memoirs; Madison Papers, 1, 67η ("a pest/A dunce"), 86 ("by their hands"), 136-37 ("Levity"); J. R. Trumbull, Hist, of Northampton (1902), 11, 1 8 8 , 8 3 4 ; S. Clark, An­ tiquities Hist, and Graduates of Northampton ( 1 8 8 2 ) , 2 9 - 3 0 , 1 6 0 ; Beam, Whig Soc., 11-12, 22-24, 4*5-47, 51 ("twisted nose"); als MA to A. Burr, 23 Jan 1772, Gratz Coll., PHi; NJA (1 ser.), xxvni, 41; Fithian Journal, 1, 35; Webster, Ms Brief Sketches, 11; Rec. Pres. Chh., 451; als R. Stewart to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, Gratz Coll., PHi; SCHGM, 11 (1910), 106; D. Higgenbotham, War of Amer. Independence (1971),

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354-55; L. L. Knight, Ga.'s Roster of the Rev. (1920), 375; Ε. M. Coulter, Short Hist, of Ga. (1933), 90, 112-13, 127-28; R. G. Killion and C. T. Waller, Ga. and the Rev. (1975), 187-89; D. Ramsay, Hist, of the Rev. in S.C. (1785), 11, 6-7; GHQ, 32 (1948), 149-56.

Robert Archibald A.B., A.M. 1775, Presbyterian clergyman and schoolmaster, was the son of William Archibald, who migrated from Chester County, Pennsylvania to Rowan County, North Carolina at some time after 1740 and before 1762. The name of his mother and the time and place of his birth have not been found, nor is it known where he prepared for college or just when he was admitted to Nassau Hall. It was in time, however, for Philip Freneau (A.B. 1771) to lend Archibald a modest degree of immortality through a verse on "The Distrest Orator, Occasioned by R.A. 's memory failing him in the midst of a public discourse he had got by rote." The verse begins: ROBERT ARCHIBALD,

Six weeks and more he taxed his brain, And wrote petitions to the muses— Poor Archibald! 'twas all in vain For what they lent your memory loses. Because Freneau was a member of the Whig Society, this jibe might be viewed as a part of the famous "Paper War" of 1771 between the two literary societies, except for the evidence that Archibald did not join the Cliosophic Society until August 5, 1772. The record of Archibald's life for the period after his graduation on September 29 indicates an unbroken progress along the usual route to qualification as a minister and thus calls into question the tradition that for a time he studied medicine. He was licensed to preach by the Orange Presbytery in the fall of 1775, and his classmate Philip Fithian in the following December reported him as one of nine "poor itinerant Preachers" then in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Thereafter he probably was transferred close to his home in North Carolina, for he was ordained on October 7, 1778 as pastor of the Rocky River and Poplar Tent congregations, then in Mecklen­ burg County, which apparently had been served by missionaries since the death of Hezekiah J. Balch (A.B. 1766) in 1776. Except for the distaste some of his parishioners had for his insist­ ence upon the use of hymns by Isaac Watts, Archibald seems to have

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enjoyed a relatively quiet tenure in his pulpits for about twelve years. During this time he probably was married, for the census of 1790 shows him to have been then head of a household including 1 free male under 16, 3 free white females, and 4 slaves, a listing which calls into question the family tradition that in 1790 he married Catherine Shelby, the daughter of Moses Shelby, unless it be assumed that this was a second marriage. During this period he also taught school at Poplar Tent, became a trustee of the Salisbury Academy in 1785, and acquired a reputation for scholarship that brought him nomina­ tion in 1793 for the proposed post of "professor of Humanity" at the University of North Carolina. His failure to receive the appointment, though it should be said that there is no evidence that he applied for it, may be attributable to the fact that he had fallen a victim to heresy—a fall from grace that makes it difficult to judge the surviving memory of his career among his orthodox fellows. William H. Foote, who has provided the fullest, and usually the most dependable, account of Presbyterianism in western North Carolina, an account made all the more useful because it does not overlook tradition, described Archibald as "a man of talent" and "amiable disposition" who was "considered a good classical scholar." But he also described him as "careless in his manners, and extremely negligent in his dress," and to this added the charge that "domestic afflictions, fancied or real, preyed upon his spirits" to an extent that made him on occasion indulge "to an un­ warrantable degree in intoxicating drinks." Perhaps he did, or perhaps the charge is rather a measure of Archibald's apostasy, for he is reported to have moved by way of Arminianism to acceptance of the doctrine of "Universal Salvation." Presumably this identified him with the view that "it is the purpose of God, through the grace revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ, to save every member of the human race from sin." It was a doctrine destined frequently to find favor in frontier communities, where it could be accompanied by a strong evangelical impulse; but among the Pres­ byterians of North Carolina the reaction was anything but favorable. Later, the Reverend E. W. Caruthers (A.B. 1817) assembled informa­ tion on the affair for his Life of David Caldwell (A.B. 1761), a work upon which Foote drew heavily. There being no surviving records of the presbytery for this period, Caruthers quotes from the records of the Synod of the Carolinas for October 4, 1794. The presbytery having reported its investigation of the issue, the synod advised that "the members of the Orange Presbytery resolve themselves into a Presbyterial capacity" and immediately reach a decision. Accordingly,

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the members present, who did not include Archibald, decided that he should "be suspended; and he is hereby suspended from the exercise of his ministerial office, and from the communion of our church." The synod then ordered that all congregations be advised of this decision, and warned against reception both of the doctrine and of "Mr. Archibald as a minister of the gospel, in his present standing." In consequence, Caruthers relates, the Orange Presbytery required each minister in its jurisdiction to submit a written sermon in refutation of the doctrine, and then selected the one by David Caldwell for delivery before the assembled presbytery in Archibald's former church. According to Caruthers, the suspension "was intended to be disci­ plinary, by awakening reflection and giving him space for repentance; but as he grew worse instead of better, he was formally deposed at Mount Bethel church, Nov. 24th, 1797." On the following January 29 the North Carolina Journal carried a notice that there was then in press at Halifax a work by Archibald entitled "The Universal Preacher," but no copy of this assumed rejoinder has been located. It is difficult to determine what Archibald did thereafter. Caruthers reports that he continued to preach "wherever he could get hearers," chiefly in South Carolina, and repeated at third hand a story of his ultimate murder in that state. Foote significantly omitted the murder, although he repeated the anecdote of an "old Irish lady" who in South Carolina put Archibald to rout in a doctrinal dispute. The Princeton University Archives contain a communication from his great granddaughter affirming that he went from Poplar Tent to Wilkes County, Georgia, where he operated a classical school until his death on June 21, 1808. Efforts to confirm this in available histories of that county have been unsuccessful. The College cata­ logue of 1824 lists Archibald as dead. SOURCES: R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 95-97; First Census, N.C., 159; PUA; Giger, Memoirs ("six weeks and more"); alumni file, MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; als M. Allen to A. Burr, 23 Jan 1772, Gratz Coll., PHi; Fithian Journal, 11, 139; Rec. Pres. Chh., 486, 493-94; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 246, 290-91, 427, 441-44 ("talent . . . scholar . . . careless,"), 482; Caruthers, Caldwell (1842), 196, 250, and esp. 253-57 ("hereby dismissed"), 273-302; St. Rec. N.C., 1, 270; S. E. Ahlstrom, Re­ ligious Hist, of the Amer. People (1972), 482-83 (Universalism). PUBLICATIONS: see text. STE notes announcement of "The Universal Preacher" in N.C. Journal, but confuses the author with a New England clergyman of the same name. WFC

William Bradford, Jr. WILLIAM BRADFORD, JR., A.B., A.M. 1775, hon. A.M. Pennsylvania, 1781, lawyer, jurist, and public official, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 14, 1755, the son of the "patriot printer" William Bradford and Rachel Budd. At an early age Bradford was placed under the care of the Reverend Richard Treat (Yale 1725), a trustee of the College of New Jersey and the Presbyterian minister of Abington, Pennsylvania. The boy was enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy in 1762; but he remained there only a short time before returning to Treat, with whom he completed his early education. According to an account of Bradford's life preserved by his family, the elder Bradford intended his son for a career in the insurance com­ pany he had established in Philadelphia; but William Jr. came to Princeton in 1769 instead and finished his college course in three years. A member of the American Whig Society, Bradford was a close friend of fellow Whigs Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Philip Freneau, and James Madison (all A.B. 1771). All were students with exceptional

William Bradford, Jr., A.B. 1772 BY CHARLES WILLSON PEALE

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talents, and Bradford, who was subsequently to be recognized as a gifted orator, distinguished himself at his friends' commencement in 1771 by winning the first prize for public speaking in a contest among underclassmen. At his own commencement Bradford delivered a valedictory oration on "The Disadvantages of an unequal Distribution of Property in a State." Bradford's friendship with James Madison was maintained after they both left Nassau Hall by means of regular correspondence from the time of Bradford's graduation in 1772 until 1775. The letters are noteworthy both for their frequent and often witty references to Bradford's and Madison's "Nassovian friends" as well as for the maturing reflections of the two young writers on the deepening crisis in American affairs. Madison, in his "Obscure Corner" in Virginia, looked to Bradford "at the Fountain-Head of Political and Literary Intelligence" in Philadelphia to keep him informed and supplied with papers and pamphlets. Both graduates were uncertain of their future choices of professions; and the ill health of each prompted numerous observations, melancholic and prolix, on the illusory fame of this world. In his first letter to Madison, Bradford wrote: "I am so far from expecting Happiness hereafter that I look for little but trouble & anxiety. I leave Nassau Hall with the same regret that a fond son would feel who parts with an indulgent mother to tempt the dangers of the sea." The fond son returned to his alma mater early in 1773 in order to continue his studies of history and morality, probably under the supervision of President Witherspoon. Bradford spent part of that summer in Abington with his old mentor Richard Treat so that he might "have Liberty to examine with attention the several callings in Life." Although he had composed sermons at Princeton, Bradford concluded that he was better equipped for a career at the bar. Madi­ son, whose advice Bradford solicited, agreed with his friend's choice; but he also urged Bradford to keep the ministry "obliquely in View." By May 1774, when Madison visited him in Philadelphia, Bradford had been reading law for several months with Edward Shippen, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer. After the meeting of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774, Bradford and Madison devoted their letters to political sub­ jects. Bradford was particularly well informed because his father and brother were the official printers for the Congress. Little of the corre­ spondence has survived after 1775, the year Bradford received his A.M. and spoke again at Nassau Hall on "The Pernicious Effects of Arbi­ trary Power." Within a year Bradford had joined the Continental Army in order

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to defend his newly-independent country against the "arbitrary power" of the British crown. In the first flush

of enthusiasm for military serv­

ice, he wrote his former classmate Aaron Burr, who was now also in the army: "I have thrown away my books and taken up the sword. A military life . . . is perfectly agreeable to me: the more so, when I reflect that I am following the path that many of the sons of Nassau Hall . . . have trod with so much honor." Chosen a brigade major in 1776 and then appointed captain in a Pennsylvania regiment, Brad­ ford was elected deputy commissary general of musters with the rank of lieutenant colonel by Congress on April 10, 1777. Although dili­ gent in his responsibilities, he was troubled by poor health and by the inadequate compensation provided for his office. His letters to his family from camp, however, show no signs of discouragement; and he expressed strong opposition to treating with the British peace com­ missioners appointed in April 1778. By December of that year Brad­ ford's broken health forced him to retire to the home of a brother-inlaw in New Jersey. Congress accepted his resignation from the army on April 1, 1779. Returning to his legal training, Bradford settled in York, Pennsyl­ vania as an assistant to a local attorney and was shortly admitted to the bar. Still convalescing, he remained in York for about one year, making at least one journey to the springs in Berkeley County, Vir­ ginia for his health. In July 1779 Bradford received a letter from Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757), then president of Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, requesting him to consider accepting public em­ ployment. The following year, at the age of twenty-five, Bradford was appointed attorney general of Pennsylvania, also serving as register of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. In 1782 he was one of the Pennsylvania agents who successfully argued the state's case before the congressional commission charged with settling the Wyoming land dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. During his eleven-year tenure as attorney general, Bradford re­ mained largely aloof from the partisan disputes that marked Penn­ sylvania's political life under its Constitution of 1776. In 1784 he ap­ peared before the assembly as counsel for a projected new Bank of Pennsylvania

(a possible rival to Robert Morris's Bank of North

America), but only because he believed that the proposed bank had the support of all political groupings in the state. In October of that year Bradford married Susan Vergereau Boudinot, the only daughter of Elias Boudinot, former president of the Continental Congress and longtime trustee of the College. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society on January 22, 1785. A supporter of the federal Constitution, Bradford, like Boudinot,

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was a conservative; and the younger man frequently commented on the politics of the new republic in his letters to his father-in-law. Al­ though he was somewhat disappointed with the congressional ticket framed in 1788 by the friends of the federal Constitution in Pennsyl­ vania, Bradford was pleased with Boudinot's successful candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey. "The house of Representatives," the Pennsylvania attorney general confided to the New Jersey politician, "will afford a greater field for talents, & usefulness than the Senate. That assembly will undoubtedly be in a greater degree a popular one in which eloquence 8c abilities will have a greater chance for success than in the solid body of Senators." Greatly interested in the work of the first Congress, Bradford recom­ mended his old law teacher Edward Shippen to Boudinot for appoint­ ment to the federal judiciary and made detailed comments for his father-in-law on a draft of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The public issue of greatest concern to Bradford, however, was the funding of the national debt. He approved of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's Report on Public Credit as soon as he learned of the details, and he endorsed the proposed federal assumption of the debts of the states: "It will cut up by the roots all those jealousies and heart-burnings which have taken place between the different states, upon the subject of contribution to the general defence: Sc by blending all Interests in support of the federal Gov. it will take away those state interests, from the operation of which the Union has much to fear." Bradford's sentiments were very different from those of his old college companion James Madison, who led the opposition to Ham­ ilton's program in the House of Representatives. Although he con­ demned the speculation in public securities that followed the unveil­ ing of the funding proposals, Bradford himself may have become worth almost £30,000 through the enactment of the program. Twenty years later, after Bradford's death, this was suggested by his friend Benja­ min Rush (A.B. 1760), whose recollections were not always reliable. Bradford was also involved in other business ventures, including John Cleves Symmes's Miami River land grant and the Society for estab­ lishing useful Manufactures, the pioneer industrial corporation of New Jersey. Bradford also welcomed the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790, the adoption of which was a triumph for the elitist and socially conserva­ tive leadership of the Pennsylvania Republicans. In April 1791 he was urged by Governor Thomas Mifflin to accept a seat on the Pennsyl­ vania Supreme Court, an appointment that was made four months

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later. Although he was reluctant to part with the lucrative private practice he had maintained while attorney general, Bradford hoped his new office might eventually lead to a position in the federal judici­ ary. His health was again delicate, and this was another consideration in his early retirement from the bar. In 1793 Bradford learned to his dismay that Mifflin's critics were airing his name as a possible successor to the governor. "To be the choice of a whole people may be acceptable enough," he admitted to Boudinot, "but to obtain that troublesome office, by a small majority —to be the elect of a party—8c to have every measure opposed 8c every motive misrepresented . .. is the life of a slave 8c not of a freeman." Although he escaped the governorship, Bradford received wide­ spread attention for his authorship of an essay, published that year, advocating the elimination of the death penalty except for murder and high treason. Bradford's opinions on this subject were similar to those of his friend Rush; and his work was well received by David Ramsay (A.B. 1765) in Charleston, South Carolina and in England, where the essay was reprinted in 1795. Believing that "early education prevents more crimes than the severity of the criminal code," the supreme court justice urged the establishment in Pennsylvania of a public school system. His recommendations on capital punishment were in­ corporated in a Pennsylvania statute of 1794 restricting the death penalty to cases of first degree murder. In January 1794 Bradford was appointed by Washington to be attorney general of the United States as successor to Edmund Ran­ dolph, who had become secretary of state on the resignation of Thomas Jefferson. Glad for the change of office, Bradford was eager to return to the private practice that the minimal responsibilities of his new position would allow him. Trusted and respected by the president, the attorney general was chosen by Washington as one of three commis­ sioners sent by the administration to western Pennsylvania in August 1794 in the hope of quelling the Whiskey Rebellion. Bradford shared the president's serious alarm over the disturbances in the west, blaming the violent opposition to the excise on the multiplying democratic societies: "I am satisfied there is a formed 8c regular plan for wrecking & perhaps overthrowing the General Govt.," he advised Boudinot in a letter to be kept secret. "If the friends of the Union slumber 8c sleep much longer it is possible the Democratic Societies may give us cause to regret our weakness." The conciliatory mission of the federal commissioners was a failure. They were unable to reestablish civil order in the western counties; and Bradford was troubled by the conduct of his college friend Η. H.

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Brackenridge, whose part in the crisis was somewhat ambiguous. Brad­ ford concurred with Washington's decision to assemble the imposing army that finally frightened the "Whiskey Boys" into submission. The attorney general regarded the strong show of force as absolutely neces­ sary in order to crush "this new revolutionary spirit." He was relieved to think in March 1795 that the democratic societies had at last been "paralyzed & enfeebled." Fearful of the "French-mania" that was encouraged by the demo­ cratic societies, Bradford was firm in his support for Jay's Treaty with Great Britain. A few weeks before Washington signed the treaty, the attorney general became aware of letters suggesting that Secretary Randolph had made improper overtures to the French ambassador; but he took little part in the events leading to Randolph's resigna­ tion. He died of a fever at his father-in-law's country estate near Phila­ delphia on August 23, 1795Not quite forty at his death, Bradford had prophesied in 1778 that his "crazy constitution" would not allow him a long life. He died in spite of the exertions of his friend and physician Rush, who recorded in his diary: "Never did I labour more to save a life. He objected to being bled 'til the 5th day of a malignant fever, in which time effusion probably took place in his brain. He expected his death, and often spoke of it." Elias Boudinot's account of Bradford's last days also sug­ gests that the weakened man was averse to Rush's controversial bleed­ ings. Bradford's childless widow survived him by almost sixty years, dying on November 30, 1853. SOURCES: All manuscript citations are to Bradford papers at PHi, most of them in the Wallace Coll., including a MS sketch. DAB; G. A. Boyd, Elias Boudinot (1952),

esp. 154-55 ("the House of Representatives"); J. J. Boudinot, Life • • . Elias Boudinot (1896), 11; J. M. Wallace, An Old Philadelphian (1884); Τ. H. Montgom­ ery, Hist, of the Univ. of Pa. (1900), 533; PMHB, 63 (1939), 39-40; 40 (1916), 341-42; C. M. Newlin, Life and Writings of Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1932), 11; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement): N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (A.M.); for Bradford-Madison correspond­ ence with annotations, see Madison Papers, 1, esp. 71-161, with quotation on hap­ piness on 73; als W. Linn to WB, 2 Oct 1774, Bradford Coll.; WB to A. Burr, 30 July 1776, Gratz Coll. ("military life"); Heitman, 116; JCC, vn, 252; xm, 403; MHSP (1), v, 49; als WB to B. Bradford, 5 Dec 1778, Wallace Coll., 1, 71; n.d., Wallace Coll., 1, 74; J. H. Martin, Bench and Bar of Phila. (1883), 64, 251 (which is in error on date); als WB to R. Bradford, n.d., Wallace Coll., 1, 80; Col. Rec. Pa., xii, 550; Gen. Index to Col. Rec. and Pa. Arch. (1 ser.) (i960), 38, 451; R. L. Brunhouse, Counter-Rev. in Pa. (1942), 102, 150-51; Susquehannah Papers, vn, passim; subsequent volumes (Wyoming dispute); APS Proc., 27 (1889), *35! APS Trans, (n.s.), 55, pt. 4 (1965), 134-35; Doc. Hist. Fed. Elec., 1, 341; als WB to E. Boudinot, 28 and 30 Jun 1789, Wallace Coll., 1, 206, 207; 17 Jun 1790, Wallace Coll., π, 11 ("up by the roots"); Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 964; R. P. McCormick, Experiment in Independence (1950), 23m; als WB to E. Boudinot, 13 Oct 1792, 17 Oct 1794, Wallace Coll., 11, 73, 101; [WB to E. Boudinot] 5 Jan 1790, Wallace

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Coll., II, 9; D. M. Arnold, "Political Ideology and the Internal Rev. in Pa., 17761790," unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Princeton Univ., (1976), esp. 317-19; als WB to R. Bradford, 11 Aug. [1791], Wallace Coll., 11, 52; WB to E. Boudinot, 10 Jul 1793, Wallace Coll., 11, 79 ("troublesome office"); W. Bradford, An Essay how far the Punishment of Death is Necessary in Pennsylvania (1793), 45 ("early education"); als WB to J. M. Wallace, 28 Jan 1794, Wallace Coll., 11, 92; L. D. White, The Federalists (1948), 164-72; als WB to E. Boudinot, 1 Aug 1794, Wallace Coll., n, 97 ("formed and regular plan"); WB to J. Yeates, 19 Sep 1794, Gratz Coll. ("new revolutionary spirit"); WB to S. Bayard, 30 Mar 1795, Gratz Coll. ("paralyzed and enfeebled"); H. M. Brackenridge, Hist, of the Western Insurrection (1859), 192; L. D. Baldwin, Whiskey Rebels (1939), i86ff; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), iv, passim; Hamil­ ton Papers, xvm, 394, 527η; xix, 86-87; a ^ s WB to R. Bradford, 20 Jul 1778, Wallace Coll., i, 63 ("crazy constitution"); Rush, Autobiography, 234 ("never did I labour more"), 372-76. PUBLICATIONS: see STE MANUSCRIPTS: MHi, NiP, PHi GSD

Andrew Bryan ANDREW BRYAN, A.B., lawyer, may have been born in New Castle County, Delaware, where his name recurs in eighteenth-century wills, and where he is known to have been situated in 1774-1775. A member of the American Whig Society, Bryan was an acquaintance of his fel­ low Whigs James Madison (A.B. 1771), William Bradford (A.B. 1772), and Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772), whose gossipy letters reveal some­ thing of Bryan's personal life. Bradford informed Madison from Philadelphia on May 27, 1773 that "Brian is married to Miss Amelia Horner—nay has been so ever since last summer tho' they never acknowledged it till the fruits of it appeared in a fine Daughter. He is licensed to plead 8c is now gone to Baltimore. What could be the reason of his marrying her would be hard to determine. It could not be love— perhaps it was pity. Indeed I know no place so overstocked with OldMaids as Princeton." The birth of Bryan's daughter on March 27, 1773, only five months after his graduation, was very likely a source of some speculation on the part of Princeton's old maids and a cause of some consternation to College officials. Madison found the news to be consistent with Bryan's character. "Poor Brian," he reminded Brad­ ford, "has long been intoxicating his brain with Idleness & disapation. I hope this larger draught of folly he has now taken will sober him again. I seriously pity him." Madison's judgment was seconded by Hunter who censoriusly conveyed the news of Bryan's intended career at the bar to Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) with the suggestion that "if infamy were law or lies were Gospel he might get license either to plead or preach."

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Bryan was still in Baltimore and in good health when he sent Fithian a letter on January 21, 1774· In August of that year his young daughter died; and on November 16, 1774, he was admitted to the bar of New Castle County, Delaware. A second daughter born in February 1775 was baptized in June at the Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church in Wilmington, but she died in November 1776. What became of Andrew Bryan and his Princeton wife thereafter has not been learned. The name appears in printed New Castle County wills of 1777, 1781, and 1795; but it does not occur in the 1800 Delaware census returns, the first surviving returns for that state. Bryan's relationship, if any, with the Maryland Revolutionary War officer of the same name is unknown. SOURCES: A possible father was Andrew Bryan of New Castle Cnty., who died in

1777, leaving a son of the same name; see Cal. Del. Wills, New Castle Cnty. (1969), 87 and passim. Madison Papers, 1, 86 ("Brian is married"), 89 ("Poor Brian"); Fithian Journal, 1, 35-36 ("if infamy were law"), 138-39; PMHB, 22 (1898), 385; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. (1885), 1, 563; Hist. Soc. Del., Papers, ix, 631; R. V. Jackson, ed., Del. 1800 Census (1972); Heitman (1893). Other Andrew Bryans are known to have resided in Chester Cnty., Pa., 1765-81; in Albermarle Cnty., Va. in 1777; in Campbell Cnty., Va. in 1782-83; and in Bourbon Cnty., Ky. in 1796-1800. Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xi, 74, 430, 575, 741; xn, 101, 414, 566; Jefferson Papers, 11, 129; VMHB, 36 (1928), 261; KSHS Reg., 28 (1930), 292; 29 (1931), 30; G. G. Clift, "Second Census" of Ky. (1954), 38. GSD

Aaron Burr AARON BURR, A.B., LL.D. 1803, soldier, lawyer, public official, vicepresident of the United States, and traditional bete noire of American political history, was born on February 6, 1756 in Newark, New Jersey, where his father, Aaron Burr (Yale 1735), was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and president of the young College of New Jer­ sey. The College and the Burr family moved to Princeton in the fall of 1756, and in September 1757 President Burr died. Young Aaron was left in the care of his mother, Esther Edwards Burr, for only a few months. In February 1758 her father, Jonathan Edwards (Yale 1720), succeeded to the presidency of the College; and by April both he and his daughter were dead. Aaron Burr, Jr. and his sister Sarah were taken first into the household of Dr. William Shippen in Philadelphia, and then in 1759 into the guardianship of their maternal uncle Timothy Edwards (A.B. 1757) in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Edwards's mar­ riage to Rhoda Ogden, the daughter of Robert Ogden of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, brought the two Burr children back to the province

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Aaron Burr, A.B. 1772 BY GILBERT STUART

of their birth in 1760. There Aaron's childhood companions included his uncle's young brothers-in-law Matthias and Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773). His education was supervised by Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763), who married Sarah Burr in 1772. Only days before the death of her husband, Esther Burr had de­ scribed her son as a "little dirty Noisy Boy . . . very Sly and mischie­ vous," who "is very resolute and requires a good Governor to bring him to terms." His willfulness certainly showed in his determined preparation for enrollment in the College. Denied admission because of his age in 1767, he entered the sophomore class in November 1769. His financial needs at Nassau Hall were seen to by his uncle, as is shown by Edwards's correspondence with Jonathan Sergeant, treas­ urer of the College, and Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755)» the steward. However prodigal Burr may have been with money during his student years—and he certainly and egregiously was for the rest of his life—

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his guardian and the officers of the College protected him from the consequences. Throughout his career, Burr tended to avoid binding affiliations with organizations whose leadership was firmly in someone else's hands. Generally he preferred to associate with groups in which he could rise to leadership on the basis of his own considerable ability, but without having to compete with others of equal caliber. In early 1771, when the American Whig Society at the College included such stellar personalities as James Madison, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Philip Freneau (all A.B. 1771), and William Bradford (A.B. 1772), Burr joined the Cliosophic Society using the pseudonym "Cyrus." His correspondence with Moses Allen (A.B. 1772), who had been the prime mover in Clio's formation and who by early 1772 had left Nassau Hall to teach school, reveals that Burr inherited Allen's place as leader of the club although he was younger than its other members. He also managed better than most Cliosophians to stay on good terms with the Whigs, even during the "Paper War" between the two societies. Burr seems to have escaped that ribald exchange without once being the butt of a Whig satire. Another of Burr's correspondents while he was in college was William Paterson (A.B. 1763), who was especially attentive to Burr's training in elocution. As he had previously for John Davenport (A.B. 1769), Paterson sent Burr suggestions for declamatory exercises and at least one full outline for a talk on "dancing." Paterson's draft of an oration on "The Passions," the basis for Davenport's commencement speech, also found use in two of Burr's classroom presentations. Burr won no special honors as a speaker or a scholar at Nassau Hall. His role in the commencement exercises of 1772 was to deliver an address on "Castle Building." Burr remained in Princeton for a few months before heading north to visit his uncle Timothy, who had gone back to Stockbridge, and his sister and brother-in-law Reeve in Fairfield, Connecticut. He then went to Bethlehem, Connecticut to study divinity with Joseph Bellamy, a step he took more out of respect for his father's wishes than out of a commitment to enter the ministry, for as he told his sister, he was "pretty much of a Quixote" who longed for his share of life's adven­ tures. In fact, he had been in Bethlehem barely a month before friends and relatives chided him playfully for being in love. During his long life Burr spent more time in amorous relationships than most men did in their vocations. Women were always his closest friends and greatest admirers, and the likelihood of his choosing a profession that would require him to abstain from their intimate company was

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never very high. In February 1774 he asked his uncle Timothy for advice on whom he might select to tutor him in law, and Edwards somewhat glumly answered that whether Burr chose Reeve or his uncle Pierpont Edwards (A.B. 1768) was a "matter of indifference" to him. Reeve was chosen, and Burr went back to Litchfield that summer. His taste for excitement was whetted by the mounting colonial crisis, and while he did well in his studies, Burr was soon bored once again. "I find this propensity to action," he wrote to Matt Ogden, "is very apt to lead me into scrapes." By July 1775 it had led him and Ogden into the army. Bearing letters of introduction from John Han­ cock, the two young men joined Washington's forces in Massachusetts. In September Captain Burr informed his relatives that in spite of what all of them believed was his fragile constitution, he was about to depart with the army for Quebec. Reeve made one last attempt to recall Burr to a quieter life with the hope that his brother-in-law's "curiosity was fully gratified," but Burr's embarkation on the Quebec expedition was the beginning of a remarkable career that was charac­ terized by a proclivity toward self-destruction and a catlike instinct for survival. The news of the American defeat at Quebec arrived in Connecticut and Pennsylvania along with reports of Burr's heroism, and relatives no longer tried to persuade him to leave the army. Wil­ liam Bradford wrote from Philadelphia of his pride in Burr for the sake of himself and of all alumni of Nassau Hall. During the spring of 1776 Burr served as an aide-de-camp to Wash­ ington in New York City. He found his duty tedious and his com­ mander uninspiring and was on the verge of resigning when he was transferred with the rank of major to the staff of General Israel Put­ nam in June. With Putnam he was part of the American retreat from Long Island and New York. After service in New Jersey and the Hud­ son Valley in the spring and summer of 1777, Burr was appointed a lieutenant colonel in Colonel William Malcolm's Additional Con­ tinental Regiment. His response was an angry complaint to Washing­ ton about the tardiness of his promotion. The rest of Burr's military service, from Valley Forge, to Monmouth Courthouse, to the Hudson Valley again, was marked by his heroism under fire, his creditable performance of administrative duties, his failing health, and the growing mutual antipathy between him and Washington. It must have been with a sense of relief that the com­ mander in chief accepted Burr's resignation in the spring of 1779. Even after he left active duty, however, and in spite of his chronic illness, Burr volunteered to serve in two more military emergencies, including the British raid on New Haven in the summer of 1779,

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during which Burr rallied the undergraduates at Yale to the defense of the town. By March 1781 Burr had decided to complete his legal training with Thomas Smith (A.B. 1754) in Haverstraw, New York. Six months of intensive work and the friendly help of Justice Robert Yates of the state supreme court led to Burr's license to practice law in January 1782. On July 2 he married Theodosia Bartow Prevost, the widow of a British officer, and within a few weeks the couple and her two sons had settled in Albany. Although Burr's practice quickly flourished and extended to New York City, where he moved his family in 1783, he was soon and con­ stantly short of money due to a combination of generosity and impetu­ ous speculation. In 1784 he was elected to the state assembly, but with no pronounced loyalties to any of the recognized factions of state politicians. His single term was notable for his ill-considered advocacy of total and immediate abolition of slavery in the state, a proposal so radical that opponents of abolition supported its inclusion in the pending legislation so as to insure the defeat of the whole bill. Burr returned to the full-time practice of law in 1785, and in 1786 he ac­ cepted the rank of lieutenant colonel commandant in the New York County Militia. He failed to be elected to the assembly again in April 1788, when he ran on a Clintonian, or antifederalist ticket, and he de­ clined to compete in the special election for the New York convention to consider the federal Constitution that summer, although the Clintonians had listed him among their possible candidates. In fact, Burr seems not to have taken a public position on the Con­ stitution. Had he done so, he would almost irrevocably have cast his lot with one or the other major political faction in the state, and such commitments were usually anathema to him because they reduced his freedom to maneuver. New York's ratification he welcomed as sensible and "fortunate," but only in private correspondence. In the gubernatorial race of 1789, Burr was the only prominent nonFederalist in New York City to support the unsuccessful candidacy of his friend Robert Yates, a moderate anti-Federalist who was nominated by the Federalists after he had come to support the Constitution. Be­ cause Burr's decision was obviously based on personal connections, however, it seemed to raise him above partisanship, and it won him friends among Federalists without incurring the enmity of antiFederalists. In fact, his nonpartisan reputation, along with his stand­ ing in the legal community, was responsible for his selection by Gov­ ernor George Clinton in September 1789 as attorney general of New York. And when the powerful Livingston family defected from Fed-

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eralism to make an alliance with the Clintonians in 1790, Burr, uncommitted to either faction and with ties to moderate Federalists, was the ideal choice of the newly merged interests to oppose Federalist Philip Schuyler's reelection to the United States Senate. His victory in that contest in January 1791 seemed to put him permanently in the anti-Federalist ranks, and it certainly earned him the enduring re­ sentment of the party in New York that was dominated by Schuyler's son-in-law Alexander Hamilton. But Burr, although regularly con­ siderate of the interests of the Clinton-Livingston alliance, also recog­ nized its instability and did not close all of his possible avenues to the Federalists. The result was the emergence of a Burr-ite subparty that made Burr seem indispensable to all other parties at the same time that it caused them to suspect him of disloyalty and subterfuge. The constant complaint of the leaders of New York political factions was that Burr lacked a passionate devotion to any organization or prin­ ciple other than his own. As senator, Burr's record underscored his independent turn of mind. He did not completely oppose the Bank of the United States, as did the Clintonians, but he had reservations about the haste with which the Hamiltonians proceeded with the project. He carefully avoided putting his own opinions on controversial subjects in writing, a device that he hoped would keep his options open but that more often left him vulnerable to the accusations of his multiplying political enemies. He endorsed the French Revolution and read Freneau's antiFederalist National Gazette; but Burr was never close to the Living­ ston faction, and his quarrels over patronage with Governor Clinton exacerbated tensions within the anti-Federalist alliance. Although he was privy to the meetings in New York in May 1791 that were to lay the basis for a New York-Virginia anti-Federalist axis, Burr disclaimed any intention to oppose the Washington administration for purely partisan reasons. When Burr urged Yates not to run against Clinton in 1792, the governor's friends suspected that the senator was trying to engineer his own candidacy. Some Federalists welcomed the idea, but Hamil­ ton's opposition ended Burr's chances for a Federalist endorsement. A controversy over the ballots in the contest between Clinton and John Jay was referred to Burr and his Federalist colleague in the Senate, Rufus King, for advice. King seized the chance to help Jay's cause, but Burr tried hard at first to avoid being involved. When he made his recommendation, it was to support the Clintonian claims, and he was promptly accused by bitter Federalists of having plotted to intercede all along. Federalists like Robert Troup, who had earlier

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hoped that Burr would be their candidate for governor, now attacked him for a "shameful prostitution of his talents" that was "decisive . . . proof of the real infamy of his character." His recommendation in the ballots controversy notwithstanding, Burr was embarked on a feud with Governor Clinton that only worsened with time. In the fall of 1792 he explored with Federalists and anti-Federalists alike the possibilities of his running for vicepresident, a post that all anti-Federalists expected to go to New York and that most of them assumed Clinton wanted. On October 2 the governor appointed Burr to a seat on the state supreme court. Fed­ eralists supposed that it was Burr's reward for his help in the election. In fact, it was Clinton's way of removing Burr from the vice-presidential contest. Clinton was nominated by a party caucus in which Virginians expressed their lack of confidence in Burr, but Burr de­ clined the court appointment to await a new opportunity. Throughout 1793 Burr was preoccupied by his wife's declining health. His ideal woman would be hard to identify, but Theodosia Prevost Burr must have come close, particularly because of her wit and intellectual vigor. Burr's reputation as a philanderer has never included serious charges of infidelity to her, and indeed, might be explicable by his apparent belief in the equality of women with men, for he could not form a lasting attachment to a woman of a less inde­ pendent character than Theodosia. His careful attention to the educa­ tion of their one surviving child, also named Theodosia, who was the center of his personal life for many years, reveals his determination to make of her a woman of perfect self-reliance and, in the terms of the eighteenth century, of almost masculine accomplishments. As his wife's condition worsened in the second half of 1793, Burr sought the advice of every noted physician he could find, including Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who prescribed doses of hemlock without ever hav­ ing examined Mrs. Burr in person. Her condition never improved, and she died in May 1794. That spring Burr again briefly explored his chances for the governor­ ship with the support of dissident members of both major parties. He ran for the vice-presidency as a Republican in 1796, but suspicions among the Virginia wing of the party that he was interested only in his own advancement led not only to the defeat, which even he had an­ ticipated, but also to his receiving only one of Virginia's electoral votes, a result he always attributed to the less than rigorous loyalty of his southern copartisans. Burr was elected to the state legislature in April 1797 and used his position to help the Holland Land Company's interests in the state,

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a service that the company rewarded by forgiving much of Burr's huge debt to it. From August to December 1797 he served as James Monroe's intermediary in a dispute with Hamilton that promised for a time to end in a duel. The contest was avoided thanks in part to Burr's media­ tion, but Monroe was not satisfied that Burr had conducted himself in Monroe's best interests. The issue centered on Hamilton's relation­ ship with an accused swindler, John Reynolds, and his wife; and as was usual for Burr, he emerged from the business without the con­ fidence of either side and with a reputation for having seduced Mrs. Reynolds to boot. In the assembly, Burr also campaigned for a new state bankruptcy law, in which his personal stake was substantial; and he was deeply involved in ongoing preparations for the defense of New York City in case of a war. But his most notable accomplishment was the creation of the Manhattan Company, which gave the Republicans of New York their own bank, and thus a measure of financial equality with the Federalists. It was a major contribution to the success of New York Republicanism for the next generation. Defeated for reelection in the Federalist surge of April 1799, Burr was able to regain a seat in the assembly from Orange County in χ800. In that election he was the dominant factor in reuniting the squab­ bling Republican factions, a feat of political ingenuity that both assured the return of Republican presidential electors for New York in 1800 and catapulted Burr to the party's nomination for vice-president. Party discipline, however, proved more effective than anyone had expected, and Burr received the same number of electoral votes as his running mate, Thomas Jefferson. The election went to the House of Representatives, where Federalists eagerly worked for Burr's election. Burr himself flatly and unambiguously disclaimed any interest in betraying Jefferson and taking the presidency. But he did not and would not promise not to serve if elected. He knew, from Jefferson's own advice, that some Federalists hoped to avoid a final choice in the House, thus allowing the Senate to name a president pro tempore until a new election could be held. Burr told anxious Jeffersonians that, rather than so subvert the Constitution, he would prefer to be president. He went from Albany to Baltimore during the House de­ liberations, but he did not go on to Washington although his presence there might have made the crucial difference in his favor. Nor did he encourage anyone in the House to urge his election over Jefferson. Meanwhile, his old foe Hamilton worked vigorously to convince his fellow Federalists to vote for Jefferson. Hamilton did not trust Burr because he was independent and because he was notoriously incompe-

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tent in the management of his personal finances. Ironically, Hamilton declared that Burr, who he said had no scruples, could not be trusted to make a deal with the Federalists; Jefferson, on the other hand, he thought could be persuaded to do so. There was no deal, but some Federalists believed that one had been struck and Jefferson was elected president on the thirty-sixth ballot in the House. While Burr accepted the decision with perfect equanimity, the contest had sealed his doom in national politics. Federalists felt betrayed because he did not join them; Republicans suspected that he had tried to usurp the presidency. Burr did nothing to reassure the president's friends in February 1802, when as president of the Senate he broke a tie and voted to re­ commit the administration's Judiciary Bill of 1802 to committee. The bill was written to repeal the Act of 1801, passed by a Federalist Con­ gress, which had authorized President Adams's "midnight appoint­ ments" at the same time that it inaugurated major reforms in the ju­ dicial system. Burr doubted the wisdom of repeal, wondering if it "would be constitutionally moral" or fair. The bill eventually passed in spite of Burr, and Republicans had one more cause to suspect him. The Clintonians and Livingstonians in New York, wary of his political leverage, exploited any opportunity to discredit him as fiercely as the Federalists continued to do. By the end of 1802 Burr understood that he would not again be nominated as Jefferson's vice-president and he began to prepare for a race for the governorship of New York. To that neither Livingstonians nor Clintonians would agree. Burr also repudiated the support of New England Federalists who were contemplating the secession of the northern states, and in the bitter election of 1804 he was defeated by Morgan Lewis (A.B. 1773), a Livingston son-in-law who had Republi­ can and Federalist backing. The publication of an attack on Burr's character during the campaign, including an alleged quotation from Hamilton, led Burr to demand an explanation from his persistent rival. Hamilton refused to give a direct reply, and the result was the famous "interview" between him and Burr at Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11. The pistols used belonged to Hamilton's brother-in-law and were equipped with special hair-trigger devices of which Burr was not aware. Nevertheless, it was Hamilton who fired prematurely; Burr's shot was true and, within twenty-four hours, fatal. Even Re­ publicans, who for years had vilified Hamilton, now mourned him. The duel provided everyone who distrusted Burr as a political ally with a reason to brand him as a pariah. Already interested in the fate of the Floridas and lands in and to the west of Louisiana, Burr headed south to allow passions to cool

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while New York and New Jersey disputed, as he told Theodosia, over "which shall have the honour of hanging the vice-president." He re­ turned to complete his term of office by presiding over the impeach­ ment trial of Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, a task he performed with such fairness that even the most partisan Republi­ cans grudgingly voiced their admiration. Burr then embarked on the most controversial of all his adventures, one whose true nature may never be fully known. On the basis only of the reliable evidence produced against him at his trials in Kentucky and Richmond and in the historical record, it seems clear that he was contemplating a war between the United States and Spain, something that might reasonably have been anticipated in those years. His specific purposes undoubtedly included the exploitation of land purchases he had made on the Washita River, probably included arrangements for a canal in the Ohio Valley with friends such as Edward Livingston (A.B. 1783) and John Brown (Class of 1778), and may well have in­ cluded his dream of establishing himself in a position to lead forces against Spain's American empire, particularly Mexico. His friends, if not he personally, contemplated his return to political life as a repre­ sentative from Kentucky or Tennessee. But the highly public nature of his journeys west and the assembly of a tiny, motley group of poorly armed men in a few boats on the Mississippi lends no credence to the charge that Burr was plotting to incite the secession of western states. His habit of circumspection in his letter-writing afforded him little defense, however, against the allegations of treason raised by his erst­ while collaborator, James Wilkinson. Wilkinson's assertions were supported by hysterical rumors from western adventurers and by the fantastic scenarios described by such confederates as Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776) as he tried to obtain money for the enterprise from foreign ambassadors, including the representative of Spain. In the end, Burr, who was defended by Luther Martin (A.B. 1766) and others, was acquitted on the basis of rulings by Chief Justice John Marshall that required the strictest possible definition of the constitutional pro­ visions against treason. Still subject to prosecution in Ohio for the misdemeanor of raising an armed force against a friendly power, Burr fled the country. For the next several years Burr traveled in Europe. In France he appealed to Napoleon for assistance in a scheme to liberate Spanish America, but once again there was no hint in his correspondence of any actions direct or otherwise against the sovereignty of the United States. His derogation of the Madison administration and his claim to the leadership of a powerful political following, both features of his

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petitions to the French government, should properly be regarded as rhetorical devices designed to make his scheme attractive to the emperor. Napoleon, however, dismissed the plan, and Burr, after a frustrating exchange with the American minister John Armstrong (Class of 1776), at last obtained his passport and left France. Captured by an English ship, he was detained for some months in London. In May 1812 he arrived in Boston, almost penniless. Although he was spurned by former friends, such as Jonathan Mason (A.B. 1774), he managed to raise enough money to resume his legal practice in New York. His tragedies were not over, however. In the summer of 1812 his grandson, the only child of Theodosia and her husband Joseph Alston, died. In December Theodosia herself was lost at sea while on her way from South Carolina to see her father. Never fully recovered from that staggering loss, Burr built up his law office, continued to lose or give away money, and, if anything, re­ doubled his amatory adventures. Toward politics he adopted the atti­ tude of a cynical elder statesman. Toward the liberation of Mexico and the rest of Spanish America he directed a sympathetic but rela­ tively passive interest. He habitually took under his wing the children or orphans of destitute clients, and they were devoted to him as their guardian and mentor. His correspondence was full of letters from women of all ages and all stations, the tone of which suggests some­ thing much more than an attorney's business with clients. Burr cer­ tainly fathered at least three, and probably more, illegitimate children; two of them may have been born while he was in his seventies. On July 1, 1833, Burr married the widow Elizabeth Jumel, appar­ ently with no other object than to have access to her considerable fortune. Divorce proceedings began in July 1834, and were highlighted by gamily explicit testimony to Burr's adulterous behavior. The final decree was issued on September 14, 1836, the day on which Burr died at Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York. Throughout his life Burr retained a fondness for the College, where he was stationed for a time during the war and which he visited occasionally while in the Senate. In 1802, after a fire destroyed Nassau Hall, President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) appealed to Burr and Madison as two of the "most distinguished" sons of the College for help in raising money to replace the 3,000 books lost. The fund drive was a success, for by April 1803, when Burr was honored by the trustees with the doctor of laws degree, trustee Joseph Bloomfield could report to him that the College was restoring Nassau Hall and

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erecting two new buildings "for the more convenient and advanta­ geous accommodation of the Students." Burr pledged some of his own money to the rebuilding, but his most significant donation to his alma mater was the portrait of his father by John Singleton Copley which, it seems, was to go to the College after Burr's death. Copied by Copley, apparently from an engraving, the portrait was again copied for exhi­ bition in Nassau Hall. The fate of the Copley version is unknown. It was Burr's wish to be buried near the parents he had never really known. Accordingly, his body was transported to the College chapel on September 16. At three in the afternoon students from the College and the Theological Seminary joined a public assembly to hear funeral sermons by President James Carnahan (A.B. 1800) and others. Then, accompanied by a volunteer company of "Mercer Guards," an honor guard from the Cliosophic Society, and Burr's childhood play­ mate, former Governor Aaron Ogden, the coffin was taken to the Princeton cemetery and placed in a spot chosen for it by Professor and future President John Maclean (A.B. 1816). Burr was buried at the foot of the graves of his parents and his grandfather Edwards in "President's Row." He is the only person buried there who was neither a president of the College nor the wife of a president. A simple head­ stone was later erected by a local mason who had been hired by mem­ bers of the Edwards family. SOURCES: The bibliography of Aaron Burr is immense. The most recent biography is M. Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President, 1J56-1805 (1979). Others are H. S. Parmet and M. B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (1967); J. Parton, Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1858); S. H. Wandell and M. Minnigerode 1 Aaron Burr (1925). G. Vidal, Burr (1974), a novel, is not without merit for its historical basis. DAB includes a masterfully condensed biography by I. J. Cox that, however, reflects obsolete assumptions about the "conspiracy." A useful corrective is F. S. Philbrick, Rise of the West (1965), 234-52. The most recent bibliography of Burr is S. H. Wandell, Aaron Burr in Literature (1936). In 1978 the Papers of Aaron Burr (Burr Papers) were collected and issued in mi­ crofilm under the editorial direction of M-J. Kline. Much of the earlier papers were previously published in M. L. Davis, Memoirs of Aaron Burr (1858); Davis, ed., Pri­ vate Journal of Aaron Burr (1838); and M. Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia (1929). The Burr Papers and the published and unpublished collections and documents listed below have been the primary sources for this brief biography. Limitations of space, and a preference here to accentuate Burr's connections with CNJ, have prohibited any attempt to provide a thorough discussion of his career. Many details may be obtained by reference to the index of this volume. Specific references to Burr in the collections below, too numerous for individual citation, may also be ascertained from the index to each. Jefferson MSS; Madison MSS; Washington Mss; PCC; A jC; Jefferson Papers; Wash­ ington Writings; Hamilton Papers·, H. P. Johnston, ed., Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay (1891), esp. m, 428-29 ("prostitution of his talent"); C. R. King, ed., Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (1895); B. C. Steiner, Life and Corre­ spondence of James McHenry (1907); Van Doren, Correspondence, esp. 198 ("hang­ ing the vice-president"); Reports of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr (1808);

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W.H.W. Sabine, Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, hi (1973), 1, 4; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), 11, 1146, 1689; (5 ser.), 1, 603, 887, 901; 11, 552; P. L. Ford, ed., Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1904-1905); H. C. Lodge, ed., Works of Alexander Hamilton (1904). In Burr Papers, see esp. als W. Paterson to AB, 17 Jan 1772 ("dancing"): T. Ed­ wards to AB, 11 Feb 1774 ("matter of indifference"); T. Reeve to AB, 9 Sep 1775 ("curiosity fully gratified"); J. Bloomfield to AB, 3 Apr 1803 ("accommodation of the Students"); S. S. Smith to AB, 13 Mar 1802; AB to S. Reeve, Oct 1773 ("Quixote"); to M. Ogden, 2 Feb 1775 ("propensity to action"); to R. Oliver, 29 Jul 1788 ("for­ tunate"); to B. Bidwell, 1 Feb 1802 ("constitutionally moral''). Also see Maclean, History, 1, 154-91; Hageman, History, 1, 425, 427; New England Quart., 3 (1930), 315 ("dirty Noisy Boy"); MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); A. Zilversmit, First Emancipation (1967), 148-49; Mil. Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y., 1, 108; A. F. Young, Demo­ cratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), passim; PSQ, 72 (1957), 578-607; 73 (1958), 10025; M. Borden, Federalism of James Ashton Bayard (1955), 73-76, 79-95, 106, 113, 128, 144, 198; J. S. Pancake, Samuel Smith and the Politics of Business (1972), 54-58; F. A. Cassell, Merchant Congressman in the Young Republic (1971), 95-102; Prince­ ton Whig, 26 Sep 1836; KSHS Reg., 71 (1973), 69-74, 83-86; als J. Maclean to editors of Pres. Journal, 26 Jan 1876, PUA; Smithsonian, Nov 1976, 94-97. D. D. Egbert, Princeton Portraits (1947), 32. For a discussion of the applicability of Burr's Clio. Soc. pseudonym, see J. McLachlan's essay in J. Eadie, ed., Classical Tradition in Early Amer. (1977). MANUSCRIPTS: NHi, NjP, ViU, ScU, PHi, MoU, CSmH, NRU, CSt, CtHi, TxU,

MdHi1 NNC, NN, MoHi

John DeBow JOHN DEBOW, A. B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born in 1745, prob­

ably in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but possibly near Freehold, New Jersey, the son of Solomon DeBow, a descendant of a Dutch family of New Amsterdam who migrated to North Carolina about 1753 and settled on Hico Creek in that part of Orange County that became Caswell County in 1777. Of his mother, nothing seems to be known except that she was of an English background. His father apparently prospered before his death in 1767. When young DeBow was about ten, Hugh McAden (A.B. 1753) twice visited Ks home on one of the early missionary tours by a Presbyterian minister into Carolina. Later DeBow probably fell under the influence of Henry Pattillo, whom still later he would succeed as pastor of the Hawfields and Eno congregations of Orange County. Where he was prepared for college is unknown, as is the time of his admission to Nassau Hall. He did not belong to either of the literary societies, and on the ο ay of gradu­ ation his participation in the exercises seems to have been limited to receiving the degree. Once graduated DeBow moved promptly into the ministry. His class­ mate Andrew Hunter, Jr. in June 1773 advised Philip Fithian, another

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classmate, that DeBow was among those who were "getting into business as fast as possible" and were already "under trials by a pres­ bytery." By May 1774 he had been licensed by the New Brunswick Presbytery and assigned by the synod to missionary work under the direction of the presbyteries of Hanover and Orange through the term of a full year. For some reason, later found acceptable by the synod of May 1775, he did not accomplish this mission and was then given another assignment to Carolina for a term of nine months. Presumably it was toward the end of this tour of duty that he served as chaplain to a detachment of North Carolina militia moving against a concentration of Tories at Cross Creek (Fayetteville) on the Cape Fear River. Whether he or the troops he served saw action in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, farther down the Cape Fear, on February 27, 1776, cannot be said, but it was an important victory for the Whigs, and DeBow became a central figure in an anecdote helping to perpetuate its memory. The story is that DeBow in a thanksgiving sermon preached at the Hawfields Church was so fulsome in acknowl­ edging the state's indebtedness for this victory to the Almighty that one member of the congregation walked out in protest of the failure to give Colonel Richard Caswell, one of the commanders, a part of the credit. In the following May, DeBow was present at the meeting of the synod to which the New Brunswick Presbytery reported that he had been ordained, and to which he himself appealed for supplies in behalf of North Carolina. He continued as pastor at Hawfields and Eno from 1776 to his death on September 8, 1783, at the age of 38. In addition to his pastoral duties, he may also have taught school. In 1777 he pe­ titioned the governor and general assembly for assistance in a school he planned to open "the first of May next" for the education of "poor and pious youth" in which he described himself as trustee of a sum of more than £500 contributed by gentlemen in Pennsylvania for the purpose. He also announced that he had engaged tutors from New Jersey, but no action on this petition seems to have been taken. DeBow was married and was survived by at least two sons and possibly a daughter. His widow remarried, and two of her sons by DeBow in 1796 came under the guardianship of Archibald Murphey, who had married DeBow's sister. SOURCES: W. H. Hoyt, Papers of Archibald D. Murphey (1914), 11, 411η; I, gn; F. A.

Olds, Abstract N.C. Wills, 218; Col. Rec. N.C., 1203; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 1, 35; Madison Papers, 1, 86; alumni file, PUA; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 226; E. W. Caruthers, Rev. Incidents (1854), 118-19; H. S. Turner, The Dreamer Archibald DeBow Murphey (1971), 5, 144, 222. WFC

Joseph Eckley JOSEPH ECKLEY, A.B., A.M. 1775, D.D. 1793, Congregational clergyman,

was born in London, England in 1750. He was the oldest son of Katherine and Thomas Eckley, a gentleman farmer, who migrated to New Jersey and settled in Hanover, Morris County by 1767. Having already received an elementary education, possibly from former trustee Jacob Green, which was supplemented by access to his father's considerable library, Eckley entered the College. He joined the Cliosophic Society in 1770, and so was an active member during the "Paper War" with the Whig Society in 1771 and 1772. In "Clio's Proclama­ tion," a doggerel attack on the Cliosophians, Whig leader James Madison (A.B. 1771) aimed one of his barbs at Eckley, whose skin, he wrote, "when tan'd will make a side of leather/ Just fit to cloath McCorkle [Samuel Eusebius McCorkle (A.B. 1772)] bum." Madison's suggestions for the subsequent use of McCorkle's leather-bound hind­ quarters are indicative of the level of vituperation in the "Paper War." At the commencement of 1772 Eckley discussed the "Advantages of Political Liberty." He then remained in Princeton for a time to study theology with President Witherspoon, and possibly in order to be near home, for his mother had died in an accident only a few months earlier. He then continued his theological education with Joseph Bellamy in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Eckley was back in New Jersey in August 1775, trying to recover his health before being examined by the Presbytery of New York. That body licensed him to preach on May 7, 1776, and sent him to supply pulpits in Albany, New York. Eckley went from Albany to Massachusetts, serving at several Boston churches in 1777. The congregation of the Old South Church, which had dispersed while occupying British forces used its meeting house as a riding school, reorganized in the fall of that year and took an interest in Eckley. He preached to them in King's Chapel, an Anglican church that was available because its own congregation had scattered. In August 1778 he was invited to settle as the permanent pastor of Old South Church. Even though it was newly reorganized, the Old South congregation was badly divided over whether the children of noncommunicants should be baptized. Asked his opinion by the elders, Eckley equivo­ cated, saying that such baptisms might be permissible under certain circumstances. Apparently, that pleased almost everyone. For nearly eleven months, the congregation repeated its offer, constantly adjust­ ing the salary upward to meet rising living costs, and on July 31, 1779, Eckley accepted on the condition that he could take six or eight weeks

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every second year to visit friends. He had already obtained his release from the New York Presbytery in October 1778. With a £100 advance and a salary that was equivalent to £4 per week in specie (to which it was converted in 1780), plus the rent on the parsonage, Eckley was ordained at King's Chapel on October 27, 1779· Not until 1788, five years after the congregation moved back to its own church, did he baptize the child of a noncovenanter. Eckley's moderate theological opinions made him an exception in Boston, where church doctrines were in constant flux. Besides the Half-Way Covenant, many issues divided clergymen of the same per­ suasion. Eckley, for example, did not accept the conventional view of the Trinity. In February 1782 he and the elders of his church found themselves in a very heated debate over that subject when they at­ tended the ordination of another minister. The argument was so in­ tense that Old South's delegation stormed out of the ceremony. Eckley was soon regarded as an Arminian by some, and his middleof-the-road position on Universalism tended to reinforce such opinions. In 1787 he was one of the few Congregationalists in Boston who open­ ly defended the ordination of James Freeman at the Episcopal King's Chapel. Freeman was a Unitarian and therefore unacceptable to the Episcopal hierarchy. Most Congregationalists merely accepted him as a colleague but Eckley, who was indebted to King's Chapel for its hos­ pitality between 1779 and 1783, actively championed Freeman and was the first to propose an exchange of pulpits with him. He thus gave more ammunition to his critics. Most of those critics, however, did not live in Boston. In fact, Eckley was one of the more conservative ministers in the city. Of all of the Congregational churches there in 1804, only Old South remained or­ thodox. Eckley was a close associate of Jedidiah Morse, a leader of the resistance to the theological liberalism that poured out of Harvard. Old South's pastor supported efforts to keep "illiterates" out of the pulpit in Massachusetts in 1790. He backed Morse's proposal in June of that year to establish a continual correspondence between the Massa­ chusetts (Congregational) Convention and the more conservative Presbyterian General Assembly. Thanks largely to Hopkinsian oppo­ sition, the convention never accepted Morse's plan, but the idea led to the subsequent formation of the Massachusetts General Association, which accepted the shorter catechism used by Presbyterians. Eckley worked to persuade his colleagues to move closer to the Pres­ byterians. In 1791 he invited Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) of Philadelphia to his home to discuss the matter. While there, Green had occasion to attend a meeting of the Boston Association of clergymen, and he came

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away puzzled. The bimonthly sessions were supposed to deal with theology, but the ministers in Boston disagreed so sharply on that sub­ ject that their meetings had become amiable social gatherings where theology was never even discussed. Like other Presbyterians, Green concluded that Eckley must have been at least an Arminian to be so friendly with so many heretics. Eckley's membership on a Harvard committee to plan commencements in 1801 tended to make such as­ sumptions more credible. But he was a liberal only to clerics who were unfamiliar with the Boston milieu. Although his colleagues to the south had their doubts about him, Eckley was a respected member of his community. In 1785 he was the chaplain of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in 1784 served the state senate as well. He preached the official sermon to cele­ brate the treaty of peace with Great Britain. In November 1787 he was a charter member of the New England Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Indians. Between April and May 1786 he sent copies of Boston newspapers to George Washington, having been asked to do so by historian William Gordon. Washington politely re­ quested that he not continue the practice. From 1800 until 1808, and again in 1809, Eckley was a member of the Boston School Committee. Politically, he was a firm Federalist and, although he was raised in a family that had at least three slaves, he was also a dedicated abolition­ ist. As late as December 1808 he delivered a scathing sermon against the "infidel" president and the French Revolution. The influence of liberal theology seemed to force Eckley into in­ creasingly less orthodox positions in order to prevent his church from accepting Unitarianism. In 1804 he sided with the pew proprietors in their effort to gain a voice in the disposition of church funds. His Dudleian lecture at Harvard in 1806 was a defense of Presbyterian ordina­ tion that included ready acceptance of episcopal ordination as well, a sort of theological chacun a son gout. He even assisted Baptist minis­ ters in Boston during a revival of 1803 and tried to institute a similar phenomenon at Old South with such devices as Friday evening services. A neighboring Unitarian regarded such measures with contempt and thought that Eckley was "willing to be damned for the glory of God." Eckley's own congregation was unhappy about his lack of evangelical appeal. Since his ordination, Eckley had admitted only two people each year into the church. That was not enough for the members, who called Joshua Huntington (Yale 1804) to be their associate pastor. Soon after Huntington arrived, Eckley visited New York, where he was taken ill. He was able to return to Boston, but in April 1811 an­ other attack of the same illness proved fatal. Eckley was survived by

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his wife, Sally Jeffries, whom he had married on April 25, 1781, after having lived with her family for two years. He was her second husband and by 1790 there were as many as seven children in their household. Eckley undoubtedly left his heirs a sizable estate. In 1798 he owned approximately $14,000 worth of property in Boston, including the three-story brick house with thirty windows in which he lived, and he continued to acquire land. A "wheelbarrow load" of his manuscript ser­ mons was received by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society in 1845. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, 11, 137-40; H. A. Hill, Hist, of Old South Chh. (1890), 11, passim; W. O. Wheeler, Graveyards at Whippany and Hanover (1894), 43; will, #8i8N, Nj; N.J. Wills, VII, 92; vrn, 119-20; Madison Papers, 1, 64 ("Clio's Proclama­ tion"); Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); N.Y. Gazette if Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (A.M.); NJA (1 ser.), xxvm, 221-22; G. Anderson, "Joseph Bellamy," unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Boston Univ. (1971); MHSP (2), LXIII, 359-60, 537; LXVI, 150; MHS Coll. (6 ser.), iv, 144, 225; Ε. M. Wilbur, Hist, of Unitarianism (1952), 273, 392-93; C. Wright, Beginnings of Unitarianism in Amer. (1955), 253; Bentley, Dia­ ries, I, 146; πι, 431 ("damned for glory"); iv, 19; W. B. Sprague, Life of Jedidiah Morse (1874), 72-74, 76-83; J. K. Morse, Jedidiah Morse (1939), 35-36, 61, 83; Pub. Col. Soc. Mass., xvm, 365; Washington Writings, xxvm, 419-20; Boston Town Rec., xxv, passim; xxx, 448; xxn, 7, 8, 63, 331; xxxm, 226-27; First Census, Mass., 194; NEHGR, 16 (1862), 204. PUBLICATIONS: see STE; Sh-Sh #s. 2172, 10338, 10339, 14914, 17421, 17422. MANUSCRIPTS: MWA, CtHi, PHi, MHi

Israel Evans ISRAEL EVANS, A.B., A.M. 1775, A.M. Dartmouth 1792, Presbyterian clergyman, was born in 1747 in Tredyffin, in the "Welsh Tract" of Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was the son and grandson of two contentious and controversial Old Side pastors of the Great Valley Church. His father, Samuel Evans (Yale 1739) was discharged from his post in 1751 after making several unauthorized and unexplained trips to London. Evans was a member of the Whig Society at the College and was chosen to disclaim on "the proper Employment of the Time of Youth" at his commencement exercises. After graduation, he remained in Princeton to study theology under President Witherspoon. He was thus a witness to the wave of religious conversions at the College in 1.772-73. Apparently, he disapproved of what he saw. Noting that some of their mutual acquaintances had been "hopelessly converted," Evans wrote to his classmate Philip Fithian that he wondered "if so many bid fair for the kingdom of heaven and yet come short, what reason for

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Israel Evans, A.B. 1772

strict and frequent examination in order to know whether we be in the faith of our Lord." Evans preached his first exercise, a one-hour sermon, at a meeting of the Philadelphia Presbytery in May 1774. Licensed in early 1775, Evans enlisted as the chaplain of the First Regiment of the New York Line, with which he marched to Quebec that winter. When the expedition returned, he was ordained as a chap­ lain and recommissioned with the First and Second New York Regi­ ments. Evans's service continued throughout the entire Revolution, a fact of which he was duly proud. According to tradition, Evans managed to include a kind of escape clause in each of his prayers before battle. If Divine help was not pos­ sible, he asked that the Lord at least "stand neutral and let flesh and blood decide the issue." His optimism for the American cause was un­ flagging, even after successive defeats. Fithian, who met Evans after the British seizure of Manhattan, worried that the "poor boy" might "grow used to retreating." But Evans was not dismayed. In November 1776, when he stopped at Livingston Manor on his way to Albany, he

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explained the desperate plight of the Continental Army to the resi­ dents and then assured them of that army's determination to prevail. His detailed knowledge of the rosters and movements of the troops was prodigious. Evans was present at Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in October 1777. He spent that winter with his new unit, the Third New Hamp­ shire Regiment, at Valley Forge. There he met Lafayette and the commander in chief, of whom he remained a dedicated admirer. In June 1779 the New Hampshire Brigade was attached to the West­ ern Army under General John Sullivan, which was assigned to avenge the "Wyoming Massacre" of the previous year by crushing the Indians of the Six Nations and their British allies in northern Pennsylvania and western New York. When the unit's morale sagged, Evans ex­ horted the troops to find again the "patriotic zeal" that originally had nurtured the Revolution. After the arduous campaign ended, Evans preached a celebrating sermon in which he was especially eloquent on the opportunities for the expansion of liberty—and the church—into the newly pacified territory. Back in New Jersey in 1780, Evans preached the eulogy for his unit's commander, General Enoch Poor, who was killed in a duel with a French officer. The ceremony at Hackensack was as elaborate as pos­ sible under the circumstances, and the mourners included Washington and most of his general staff. In October 1781 Evans and the commander in chief met again, this time at Yorktown, Virginia. As usual, Evans was not content to stay safely behind the lines. He was so close to the front at one point that a British shell's explosion covered his hat with sand. Evans was shaken, but Washington, with his typical stoicism, quietly advised the chap­ lain to save the hat as a souvenir. It was Evans, standing before the massed troops on the battlefield, who preached the sermon in celebration of the victory at Yorktown. He dedicated his remarks to Lafayette and praised France's King Louis XVI as "the defender of the rights of man." He also included his stand­ ard paean to Washington, especially praising the general's genius for successful retreats. In December 1782, at Newburgh, New York, the chaplain helped persuade the commander that the army should erect a new public building in the town. It was Evans, too, who was chosen to deliver the sermon on the "Day of Thanksgiving" in New York City in December 1783. Evan's annual salary with the New Hampshire Brigade was £525, when he could get it. The congressional decision to pay "depreciation" (i.e., to compensate soldiers for the tremendous wartime inflation)

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raised his wages and thereby sent them even deeper into arrears. Gen­ eral Sullivan commended the chaplain's case to New Hampshire offi­ cials, but Evans had to repeat his claim until October 1784, when the state paid him £517 17s 6d to settle the debt. In 1784 Evans returned to the Philadelphia Presbytery. Two years later, he was released to accept the call of the church in Weymouth, Massachusetts. On his way, however, he heard reports of a dispute between that town and its church, and so he decided to supply the va­ cant pulpit in the large Old North Church in Concord, New Hamp­ shire. In May 1786 he married Huldah Kent of Charlestown, Massachu­ setts. Evans was called to be Concord's permanent minister in September 1788. The congregation offered him £90 annually, use of the parsonage while he served, and a settlement of £200 in building materials. Evans demurred. In October, the proposed salary was increased by £15 in lieu of the settlement, and three acres of meadowland were added. Evans hesitated. He dickered with the town elders, some of whom promised that the salary would be increased soon if he would accept the post at once. Still, he stalled. He visited Ezra Stiles in New Haven in early March 1789, possibly to seek advice, and then gave an unenthusiastic acceptance to his congregation. In his letter, Evans urged his flock to place more importance in en­ couraging their ministers than in a method of settlement that could leave clergymen, even after they had served for many years, as "the most miserable beggars." Although he said that he was not concerned about his own old age, since he hoped to die in the pulpit, he obviously did not want to repeat the life of penury he had lived in the army. While he disapproved of their "written proceedings," he declared his approbation of the members of his church; and with the reminder that several of them had promised to do better by him, he accepted the post. The townspeople expected as much, for in February, at the same town meeting that helped elect Samuel Livermore (A.B. 1752) to Congress, they had created a committee to see to Evans's installation. The cere­ mony took place in July 1789, and the sermon was preached by Evans's classmate from the College, Joseph Eckley, then pastor of Boston's Old South Church. Evans acted as the chaplain of the New Hampshire General Court between 1788 and 1792, at a salary of £2 per session. His occasional colleague in that post was the Episcopal minister from Portsmouth, John Cosens Ogden (A.B. 1770). He was chosen to deliver the election sermon of 1791, an eloquent appeal for the selection of men "actuated by principles of love and obedience to God, and animated by a gen-

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erous benevolence to mankind." He took the occasion to remind the voters that the Revolution had created a new society that could look to Europe to learn why it should "fear the affluence of gold; fear too unequal distribution of riches." Once again, it was a call for a renewal of the spirit of 1775-76. Dartmouth College honored Evans with an A.M. in 1792. A good friend of John Wheelock, Dartmouth's second president, the minister joined that college's board of trustees in 1793. In the will he composed in 1794, Evans bequeathed more than $7,000 in money and property to the institution after he and his wife had both died. He wanted the money to be used to create a professorship of oratory and belle-lettres. Where Evans found so sizable a gift is not known. It may have come, in part, from his wife's wealthy brother. Certainly, it was not all due to Evans' salary, for he was rarely able to collect even the amount he had first been offered. In 1794 he demanded that the congregation meet its obligations to him and went so far as to prescribe a new dis­ bursement system for church funds. By 1797 he had had enough, and in April announced his intention to resign. An eloquent speaker, Evans was also known for his love of pomp and show. He wore a wig and cocked hat at formal functions and rode in a two-horse carriage when the simpler chaise was more common. He was never accused of humility and was a reputed admirer of good horses, good music, and good living. Indeed, part of his frustration with his congregation may have stemmed from the objections raised by some members to his introduction of music into the church. It is just as likely that he was simply bored by the routine of a town cleric. After leaving his pulpit with the town's highest commendations on July 5, 1797, he stayed in Concord, never seeking another post, al­ though he did continue as clerk of the New Hampshire Ecclesiastical Convention. Evans died on March 9, 1807. When he was told on his deathbed that he might soon sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he added ve­ hemently, "and with General Washington, too." In 1831 his widow was awarded an annual federal pension of $600. The Evans Professor­ ship at Dartmouth was created in 1838, after Huldah Evans's death. SOURCES: Granite Monthly, 33 (1902), 285-301 ("stand neutral," "fear the affluence of gold"); J. T. Headley, Chaplains and Clergy of the Rev. (1864), 300-307; N.H. St. Pap., χ, 38η ("and Washington, too"); xv, 726; xvi, 208; XVII,459-460; xx; xxi; xxii, passim; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 1, 623-24; Fithian Journal, 1, 30 ("hopelessly con­ verted"), 165; 11, 189, 334; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (A.M.); N.Y. Arch., xv, 527; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 1400; F. Kidder, Hist, of First N.H. Regt. (1806), 45; H. P. Moore, Life of Gen. John Stark (1949), 447; J. Thacher, Military Journal (1854), 212, 280; R.I. Hist. Tracts,

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no. 7; W.H.W. Sabine, Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, n, (1958), 37-38, 251; Wash­ ington Writings, χι, 78η; xxv, 464; L. Gottschalk, Lafayette and the Close of the Amer. Rev. (1942), 327 & n.; O. G. Hammond, ed., Letters and Papers of Maj. Gen. J o h n Sullivan (1939), in, 196; Rec. Pres. Chh., 530; J. O. Lyford, ed., Hist, of Con­ cord, NM. (1903), passim; Concord (N.H.) Town Records, passim, esp. 250-52 ("miserable beggars"); Stiles, Literary Diary, m , 345-46; A. Heimert, Religion and the Amer. Mind (1966), 498 ("patriotic zeal"), 531; B. P. Smith, Hist, of Dartmouth College (1878), 82-83. PUBLICATIONS: see STE MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

Ebenezer Finley E BENEZER F INLEY, A.B., was born about 1754 at West Nottingham, Maryland, a son of Samuel Finley, president of the College from 1761 to 1766, and his wife Sarah Hall. He was a younger brother of Joseph Finley (A.B. 1765) and Samuel Finley (A.B. 1765), and a cousin of Jo­ seph Lewis Finley (A.B. 1775) and John Evans Finley (A.B. 1776)· It is not known where he prepared for college or when he was admitted to Nassau Hall. He became a member of the American Whig Society. At his commencement on September 30 he appeared twice in the ex­ ercises preceding the award of degrees—first in a debate of a Latin proposition relating to "Amor Patriae," and second, as one of three presenting a dialogue on "the proper Employment of the Time of Youth" that was described as having been composed by a graduate of the College. Little is known of Finley's activity immediately after his graduation. Probably he returned to Maryland, and possibly he was teaching school there, although the appearance of his name in the accounts of the merchant Thomas Patterson would indicate that he spent at least some time in Princeton in 1773 and 1774. Early in 1774 William Bradford (A.B. 1772) wrote James Madison (A.B. 1771) that he recently had re­ ceived a letter from Finley advising him of the illness of Hugh Brackenridge (A.B. 1771), who then was teaching in Somerset County, Maryland, but only with the coming of the war does the record become relatively complete. On December 14, 1776, Finley was commissioned by the Maryland Council of Safety as a third lieutenant in Captain Nathaniel Smith's company of "Matrosses," a now archaic term for ar­ tillerymen. By the following spring he had transferred to Captain Richard Dorsey's company and on May 17, 1777, he was promoted to second lieutenant and described as stationed with his company at Balti­ more. On July 4 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant. Ebenezer

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Hazard (A.B. 1762), visiting Baltimore on tour as surveyor of the post­ al services, recorded in his journal under the date of July 5: "Sammy & Ebenr. Finley are at Baltimore, the latter as a Lieut, of Artillery, 8c commands the Fort; the former as a Surgeon in the Hospital." He commented upon meeting there also Luther Martin (A.B. 1766), "an old Acquaintance at College." On December 13, 1777, a communication from Baltimore advised Governor Thomas Johnson that Dorsey's company was ready to march, and at some time before Washington broke camp at Valley Forge late in the next spring, the company joined his army. By September 29, 1779, when the Maryland State Council made provision for payment due him, Finley had been promoted to the rank of captain-lieutenant. Official state papers still carried him at that rank in May 1780, but one more promotion awaited him. The way had been prepared in the preceding fall, when Maryland decided to commit a third artillery company to the Continental service. On hearing this, Finley and another junior officer demanded that they be given preference in its staffing, but by the time this demand reached Annapolis the company had been organized. Recognizing the merits of the two young officers, the governor and council then proposed that Maryland's three companies become four and be constituted a separate corps with a major in command, thereby opening an opportunity for promotion of the two. Henry Knox, commanding the artillery, vetoed the separate corps, but agreed to the four companies, subject to Wash­ ington's approval. Whatever may have been the final outcome of this proposal, Finley had been put in line for promotion, and a return of officers for September 1780 shows him as a captain of artillery. Perhaps the critical consideration was Finley's inclusion in that part of the Maryland Continentals sent in the summer to reinforce the Southern Army. On October 25 he wrote from Hillsborough, North Carolina, where remnants of General Horatio Gates' army had fallen back after its defeat at Camden, in behalf of six enlisted men who had completed their term of service. Finley apparently remained with the Southern Army until early in 1782, for in April of that year Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), Finley's first cousin, wrote to General Nathanael Greene, successor to Gates in command of the Southern Department, acknowledging Greene's letter (dated February 1, 1782) "by Captain Finley." We are fortunate to have another account of his military service, for Greene on occasion detached him for assistance to "Light Horse Harry" Lee (A.B. 1773), who in his Memoirs credits Captain Finley with help in the reduction during the spring and early summer of 1781 of several of the British forts.

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After the war Finley drops from view, except for a land warrant for 200 acres and an indication that he may still have been in the army at the beginning of 1783. He is said to have gone to Ohio and never to have married. In the College General Catalogue of 1789 he is listed as dead. SOURCES: There has been some confusion regarding Finley's identification, partly be­ cause President Samuel Finley had a brother James whose children included John E. Finley (A.B. 1776) and apparently the Ebenezer Finley who on 31 Jan 1781 was mar­ ried to Jane Kinkaid [PGM, 14 (1940-44), 72]. Given the date of General Greene's letter to Rush, this Ebenezer has to be considered a different person. The subject of this sketch also is often confused with his brother James Edwards Burr Finley, who became a physician and practiced in South Carolina. Maclean, History, 1, 283; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Patterson Acct. Bk., 5; Madison Papers, 1, 109; Md. Arch., xn, 528; xvi, 257, 308; xvm, 365, 477, 573, 579; xxi, 539; XLIII, 168, i6g, 390-91; XLV, 98, 158-59; H . Lee, Memoirs, 11 (1812), 68, 69, 82, 83, 105, 107; In­ dex, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966); MHM, 46 (1951), 53 ("Sammy and Ebenr."); Butterfield, Rush Letters, 1, 268 ("by Captain Finley"). WFC

Philip Vickers Fithian PHILIP VICKERS FITHIAN, A.B., A.M. 1775, teacher and Presbyterian clergyman, the son of Joseph and Hannah Vickers Fithian, was born on his father's farm in Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey, on December 29, 1747. He received a rudimentary education from the local minister, Andrew Hunter, who was the uncle and guardian of Fithian's classmate and friend, Andrew Hunter, Jr. For more advanced academic training, he entered the school run by Enoch Green (A.B. 1760) in Deerfield, New Jersey, on August 17, 1767. When Green married Mary Beatty, the sister of John (A.B. 1769) and Charles Clinton Beatty (A.B. 1775) in June 1770, Fithian met the bride's sister Elizabeth. His instant infatuation with the girl soon de­ veloped into serious affection. In his many letters to her, some of them signed "Philander," he called her "Laura" and "Eliza." They met fre­ quently in Deerfield and then in Princeton, where Fithian and Hunter entered the junior class of the College on November 22, 1770. Fithian enjoyed college life, as much for its discipline as for its diversions. The students awoke each morning by 5:00 and attended mandatory prayers by 5:30. Truants were fined or reprimanded. Be­ fore breakfast at 8:00, there was time to study, and before recitations at 9:00 there was time to exercise or play. Late morning study time ended with dinner at 1:00 in the afternoon, after which the students were free until another study period began at 3:00. At 5:00 there were evening prayers; supper was at 7:00; and then more time to study

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Philip Vickers Fithian, A.B. 1772

until 9:00 or later. On Sundays the young scholars attended two wor­ ship services, one at church and one at Nassau Hall. Fithian was par­ ticularly impressed by President Witherspoon's sermons, which he pronounced "almost inimitable." As interesting to Fithian as his studies was the diversity of the student body, for he believed -that he learned about other people and about himself by observing the world around him. The journals he maintained for most of his life are full of such observations, and so constitute one of the most valuable primary sources for the history of his time. Along with Hunter, he joined the American Whig Society, and he was one of its most active members during the "Paper War" with the Cliosophians in 1771. After his parents died suddenly in February 1772, Fithian tended to family business in Greenwich for several months while Hunter sent him news from Nassau Hall. He was back in Princeton in time for commencement, in which he spoke in defense of the proposition that "Political Jealousy is a laudable Passion."

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In October or November 1772 Fithian returned to Greenwich to study theology with Hunter's uncle. In December he went back to Deerfield to continue those studies and to learn Hebrew from Green. In June Hunter, who was still in Princeton, wrote to his friend of a teaching opportunity in Virginia. Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County had asked Colonel Henry Lee to help him find a tutor for the Carter children. Lee conveyed the request to his son Henry, Jr. (A.B. 1773), who suggested Fithian's name. Witherspoon endorsed the idea, and Fithian's immediate reaction was favorable. He disapproved of the haste with which some of his contemporaries entered the ministry and wanted to be sure that he was fully prepared before he was licensed to preach. Friends and relatives urged Fithian not to go to Virginia, where the climate was "sickly" and the people "profane." They advised him to settle into "some constant Employment" at once. They warned him that Virginia was no fit place for an aspiring Presbyterian cleric, that he would find no Calvinism there, and that he would be forced to spend all of his money on socializing. Fithian was torn. He was attracted by Carter's offer of £35 sterling per year, plus room, board, a horse, and a servant. He was excited by the prospect of studying a different society, especially one dominated by the mysterious Anglican church. At one point, he actually wrote to Witherspoon to ask that he be excused, but the president was not in Princeton to receive the letter. Finally, Fithian decided to accept the position after all, provided that his teaching duties would not impede his own studies. He left Greenwich on October 20, 1773 and opened classes at Nomini Hall on November 1. His eight students included Carter's two sons, five daugh­ ters, and nephew, and the curriculum ranged from Latin grammar for the oldest boy to the alphabet for the youngest girl. Virginia was, as predicted, very different from New Jersey. Fithian was struck by such local customs as that of the women covering their faces in cold weather. When he first arrived, he simply assumed that an inordinate number of women suffered from mumps. He was uncom­ fortable at the many social gatherings, but more because he had never learned to dance than because he disapproved. What were small virtues in the north became important in Virginia. He was especially fond of Carter's sixteen-year-old daughter, for example, because she was one of the few people who never swore. Presumably, the younger girls were not so restrained. Fithian also developed a strong aversion to slavery, both because of its inhumanity and because of its impracticality. With Mrs. Frances Tasker Carter, whom he found a remarkable person, he agreed that by

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selling all of his many slaves and collecting interest on the price, Carter could earn more money than the labor of the slaves produced. He believed that persons who were treated like animals behaved like animals and he found that injurious to their souls and to their industry. Moreover, Fithian believed that slavery had a deleterious influence on free society. A man who paid to own another man somehow felt himself innately superior. That, Fithian supposed, was at the root of a social system based on class and infested with snobbery. He warned John Peck (A.B. 1774), who succeeded him at Nomini Hall, that a young man with a college education would be treated in Virginia as if he were worth £10,000, whatever his actual wealth. His advice to Peck was to "lower your price to £5,000" since truly rich young men were expected to be expert dancers, boxers, fencers, fiddlers, and card play­ ers, and a proper Presbyterian lad from the north would only be em­ barrassed if too much were assumed about him. Religious practices in his area of Virginia shocked Fithian. He found that there were three divisions of time at local churches. Before the serv­ ice, men talked about business. During the service, the pastor delivered a very brief, very cold, and very dull sermon. After the service came a general social hour. He was greatly relieved to get back to appropriate­ ly sober Presbyterian sabbaths in New Jersey when he came home on a visit in April 1774. On that trip, he also presented himself for examina­ tion to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and on May 18 he passed the first test on the road to obtaining a license. After seeing Elizabeth Beatty as often as he could, he went back to Nomini Hall. Fithian was much fonder of Virginia when he returned. His relation­ ship with the Carter family was consistently cordial, and Carter wanted him to remain. But the tutor missed his home and his Laura, and he was determined to begin his true career. He promised to help secure his replacement, eagerly awaited Peck's arrival, and left the plantation for good on October 20, 1774. After completing the presbytery's ex­ amination, he was licensed on December 6. His first sermon, in Green's Deerfield church, was on December 18. Fithian was part of the mob in Greenwich that seized and burned several crates of English tea from the sloop Greyhound on December 22, 1774. He may have been inspired to that action when he witnessed a similar incident in Annapolis on his way home from Virginia. For several months, he supplied pulpits throughout New Jersey, but the Philadelphia Presbytery had no assignment for him. He therefore sought and obtained permission to find a new affiliation on April 4, 1775. Bidding a tearful farewell to Elizabeth Beatty, he and Hunter

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went to the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania where on June 21 the Presbytery of Donegal assigned them to missionary tours. Fithian's route took him through western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir­ ginia. Three months on the frontier were yet another extension of Fithian's education. He learned that he did not like the rude customs of western life, such as sleeping in the same room with an entire family and being gawked at by the women. He learned that he was frightened by In­ dians in almost any situation. And he decided that of all the possible virtues in a woman, "divine neatness" was the most important. Women who were sloppy housekeepers he called "sluts," and he described them by quoting the recipe for witches' brew in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Fithian ended his tour in Virginia, where he rejoined Hunter. They traveled together to Princeton to take their second degrees and then both went back home to marry. Fithian's wedding to Elizabeth Beatty took place on October 25, 1775. Within three weeks Fithian and Hunter were off again on a mis­ sionary tour of the frontier. They found Virginia in revolutionary tur­ moil and at Stephensburg were advised to go no further. Ardent Whigs, they returned to New Jersey in February 1776 to serve the American cause. Their chance came in June, when the New Jersey Provincial Congress raised five battalions of militia to reinforce New York. On June 26 Fithian was appointed chaplain of Colonel Silas Newcomb's Battalion in General Nathaniel Heard's Brigade. Hunter joined another battalion in the same unit. Their salaries were $33-1 /3 per month. Fithian made his will on July 2, then went to Philadelphia to find companions with whom to ride north. He spent the night of July 11 in Princeton and joined his unit in New York the next day. He found the city's situation desperate. Streets were barricaded, women and children had been evacuated, and soldiers were everywhere. After eight days of watching the British fleet, the brigade moved to Long Island, where on July 28 Fithian preached to three full battalions, the biggest audience he ever faced. At the end of August, Long Island fell to British troops whose behavior Fithian felt was barbaric. The Americans retreated to New York, and on September 9 Fithian's unit moved to "Mount Wash­ ington" in Harlem Heights. Much of Fithian's time was spent with the sick and wounded in field hospitals. Hygienic conditions were abysmal, the drinking water was contaminated, and the chaplain suffered, like most of his col­ leagues, from dysentery. A particularly violent attack of "camp fever" on September 22 began his last illness. With Hunter and other friends

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about him, he died on October 8, 1776. He was buried in an un­ marked grave at Mount Washington the next day. His widow, who inherited an estate worth £316, later married his cousin Joel Fithian. SOURCES: In addition to Fithian Journal, 1 and 11, there exists in the Princeton Uni­

versity Library a manuscript juvenile journal which Fithian began in 1766. These three, together, constitute one of the most important historical collections available to students of American politics, education, society, and religion in the era of the Revolution, for Fithian was a careful and candid diarist. The journals reveal a sympathetic, alert young man whose perceptions of the world were always fresh. They provide a wealth of information, of course, about the College and his fellow students; but they are equally valuable as an index to the changes wrought upon the American consciousness during an epochal decade. Fithian's sense of alienation in the slave-holding south undoubtedly was typical of the difficulty experienced by residents of all of the colonies as they lived through the birth of a new country in which parochial loyalties had to be accommodated to an eclectic nationalism. His ad­ ventures as a backwoods preacher were perfectly consistent with those of so many youths who were the vanguard of civilization and learning on the frontier but who did not keep a record o£ their labors. His views on politics and his role in the Revo­ lution may be taken as a model for those of countless others who were drawn into the war and determined to do something that had never been done before. Even his unglamorous death is a reminder that no war, and especially not the American Revolution, can be glorious all of the time. And his personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions, while in many ways typical of his time and place, were also in many ways timeless and universal. Other sources include: H. D. Parish, ed„ Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian (1957), esp. 167-68 ("£5,000"); F. D. Andrews, Philip Vickers Fithian (1932); Beam, Whig Soc., 46; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, g Oct 1775 (A.M.); VMHB, 49 (1941), 1; L. Morton, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall (1941), passim; als PVF to E. Green, 26 Jan 1775, Gen. MSS, NjP; F. D. Andrews, Tea-burners of Cumberland Cnty. (1908). PUBLICATIONS: see above MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, PHi

James Grier JAMES GRIER, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born at Deep Run, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (about seven miles from Doylestown) in 1750 or 1751, the first of the eleven children of John Grier and his wife Agnes Caldwell, immigrants from Ireland. The father was an elder of the Presbyterian church at Deep Run. At Nassau Hall Grier was a member of the Cliosophic Society and in 1770, during George Whitefield's last American tour, a time of great religious excitement at the College, underwent a religious conversion. As the best scholar in his class, Grier delivered a Latin salutatory ad­ dress, "De Utilitate Scientiarum Excoleudarum," at his commence­ ment. After graduation he studied theology with President Wither-

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spoon, and in 1773-1774 served as a tutor in the College. "Grier is a worthy fellow," a fellow student, James Madison (A.B. 1771), com­ mented on hearing of the appointment. "I am pleased with his prefer­ ment; tho' his want of Majesty and Economy may be unpromising, he has integrity 8c Industry two very useful requisites." Grier's industry and integrity would be confined largely to the fam­ ily and neighbors he had been reared among in Deep Run. Licensed by the First Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1775, he was ordained in June of the following year and took up the pastorate of the Presby­ terian church at Deep Run. He served there for the rest of his life. It was probably about the time of his ordination that Grier married Jane Ten Broeck, daughter of John Ten Broeck, a well-to-do farmer of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. A daughter Jane was born of this union. After the death of his wife, Grier married Mary Ferguson of Deep Run, who bore him three daughters and a son, John Ferguson Grier (Dickinson 1803). Grier's industry was undeniable. For various periods he also served a neighboring Presbyterian congregation at Tinicum, and he prepared his youngest brother, Nathan, for the College of Philadelphia. After Nathan graduated Grier supervised his divinity studies. Fifty of Grier's sermons survive in manuscript. In his tiny church—only about fifty feet square—Sunday after Sunday he addressed family and neighbors thus: "There cannot be a greater proof of the total depravity of hu­ man nature than to see men wantonly rising up against the hand that feeds them 8c kicking against the God of all their mercies. . . . Creator! how art thou degraded! O Man! how art thou fallen!" One of Grier's parishioners recalled that "it was not possible to hear him preach and refrain from tears." For the larger part of his adult life Grier suffered from tuberculosis. He seldom attended meetings of his synod, and in his last years had to deliver most of his sermons while seated. Grier died at Deep Run on November 19, 1791. "I think it and you know it," the Reverend Na­ thaniel Irwin (A.B. 1770) told Grier's family and congregation in a funeral sermon, "that his life was a pattern of piety and good morals. His piety was fervent, yet rational. His morality strict, yet enlightened and liberal. In politics he was a republican: in friendship an enthusi­ ast: in divinity a Calvinist, but of the most moderate kind." SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, 111, 466-67; Giger, Memoirs, 1; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Madison Papers, 1, 89 ("integrity and Industry"); Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Papers, 4 (1917), 108-18; W.W.H. Davis, Hist, of Bucks Cnty., Pa. (1905), 11, 9-10; J. Grier, Ms sermon dated 11 Oct 1780, PPPrHi ("depravity"); N. Irwin, A Sermon Delivered . . . on the Occasion of the Death of the Rev. James Grier, . . . (1792), 10.

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PUBLICATIONS: A letter of 1791 from Grier to his brother Nathan was published in

the Evangelical Intelligencer 1 (1806), 581-83. MANUSCRIPTS : PPPrHi

JMcL

Andrew Hodge, Jr. ANDREW HODGE, JR., A.B., merchant, was born in Philadelphia, Penn­ sylvania on March 1, 1753. His father was Andrew Hodge, Sr., a promi­ nent Presbyterian layman, importer, and merchant. His mother was Jane McCulloch Hodge, who was also the paternal aunt of James McCulloch (A.B. 1773). It was the Hodge family that played host to John Witherspoon when he arrived in Philadelphia from Scotland in 1768. Witherspoon and Andrew Hodge, Sr. were associates in the short-lived Philadelphia Company, which tried and failed to establish a colony on Nova Scotia before 1770. Hodge went to the College as a freshman in 1769 and was active in founding the American Whig Society. He was joined at Nassau Hall in 1770 by his brother Hugh (A.B. 1773) and in 1771 by his cousin Hugh Hodge, Jr. (A.B. 1774). At his commencement exercises, Hodge participated in a three-sided "dialogue" on "the proper Employment of the Time of Youth." From Princeton Hodge returned to Philadelphia to read law as a clerk to Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757). He gave up his studies at some time after August 1775 to join the army, and was present at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In his later years he sometimes bragged that he had captured a British cannon in the latter encounter. Hodge's unit was probably Colonel John Cadwalader's Brigade of Philadelphia Militia, in which he was a captain in 1777. That year the British burned his father's house in Philadelphia, an event that may have de­ termined Hodge to devote himself to the family's business affairs. His father took him as a partner before 1779, when their several enter­ prises owned at least six privateers. Another of the partners was Hodge's brother-in-law John Bayard, the father of James A. (A.B. 1777), Andrew (A.B. 1779), Samuel (A.B. 1784), and Nicholas (A.B. 1792). Bayard's brother James Ashton married another of Hodge's sisters and was the father of James A. Bayard, Jr. (A.B. 1784). In August 1780 Hodge was called upon to serve in the militia once again but was "excused on appeal," undoubtedly because of his in­ volvement with his father's business. After the Revolution, however, he continued on the rolls of the city militia. On September 6, 1781, he

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married Anne Ledyard. One month later he and his brother Hugh were instrumental in preventing a mob from destroying the houses of some Loyalists in Philadelphia. With permission from the Pennsylvania Executive Council, Hodge went to occupied New York in March 1783 in a futile attempt to revive his firm's import trade. The business continued to suffer even though Hodge's brother Hugh was enlisted as another partner, probably in 1783. The decline was due in part to the nagging dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut over titles to land in the Wyoming Val­ ley, where Hodge holdings were extensive. The family also owned many valuable pieces of property in Philadelphia, most of which, along with control of the firm, devolved upon Andrew Hodge, Jr. when his father died in 1789. But the business was little more than marginal after 1783, and Hodge's financial troubles prevented him from giving his eight children, including the father of John Ledyard Hodge (A.B., 1853), a proper education. The center of Hodge's business was on Water Street, and when that area was identified as the source of yellow fever in 1793 and 1795' enterprise suffered greatly. All hopes for saving it evaporated when embargoes against trade with European belligerents were imposed in the early nineteenth century. As a result, Hodge decided to retire. He retained his property in Philadelphia, including a house on Eighth Street, but lived at least part of the time in the Wyoming Valley. Later generations of the Hodge family figured prominently in the history of northeastern Pennsylvania for many years. Hodge may occasionally have resumed his business activities, and it is possible that he was the "Mr. Hodge" who carried a book from Ben­ jamin Rush (A.B. 1760) to Minister John Quincy Adams in Russia in 1810. For the most part, however, he lived the life of a retired man of property until he died in May 1835. SOURCES: H. L. Hodge, Memoranda of Family Hist. (1903), 12-16; A. A. Hodge, Life of Charles Hodge (1880), 6-7; Alexander, Princeton, 153-53; A. Green, Life of . . . Witherspoon (1973), 120; PMHB, 51 (1927), 280-83; 13 (1889), 302; 16 (1892), 105; MS Steward's list, PUA; Beam, Whig Soc., 21; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commence­ ment); J. F. Roche, Joseph Reed (1957), 236 n. 57; Index, PCC; Min. of Supreme Exec. Council of Pa., xi, 661-62; xm, 543; Pa. Arch. (6 ser.), 1, 366; 111, 952, 1087, 1135, 1284; (2 ser.), ix, 574; xm, 585; (3 ser.), xxv, 166, 167, 168; xxvi, 89, 95; xiv, 560, 837; xv, 331, 587, 489, 603, 626, 673; xvi, 404, 476, 497, 837; Susquehanna Papers, VH, 377; Desilver's Phila. Directory, 18}y}6, 92; Wyoming Hist, and Geol. Soc. Proc. and Coll., 10 (1908-1909), 236; Rush, Autobiography, 290.

Andrew Hunter, Jr. ANDREW HUNTER, JR., A.B., A.M. 1775, Presbyterian clergyman and

teacher, was the son of David and Martha McIlhenny Hunter. His fa­ ther was a British army officer and the family probably lived near the McIlhenny home in York, Pennsylvania when Hunter was born in 1750 or thereabout. Subsequently the family moved to Virginia, and still later David Hunter's brother Andrew, minister of the Presby­ terian church in Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey, took his nephew and namesake into his own household, probably to assist in his education. The wife of Andrew Hunter, Sr. was Amy Stockton of Princeton. Hunter grew up with his classmate and close friend Philip Fithian. They both received their earliest education from Hunter's uncle, and since Fithian was prepared for college by Enoch Green (A.B. 1760) in Deerfield, New Jersey, it is likely that Hunter also studied there. On

Andrew Hunter, Jr., A.B. 1772 BY CHRISTIAN GULLAGER

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November 22, 1770, Hunter and Fithian were examined by President Witherspoon, the tutors, and some resident graduates and admitted to the junior class at the College. They both joined the American Whig Society. In the spring of 1772, when Fithian's parents died suddenly, Andrew Hunter, Sr. virtually adopted his nephew's friend, and while Fithian dealt with personal affairs in Greenwich, Hunter sent him re­ ports of life at college. At commencement, Hunter defended the proposition that "A mixed Monarchy is the best Form of Government." He remained in Princeton to teach at the grammar school, a job that allowed him time to study theology with his uncle. Fithian and Hunter were both in Greenwich in December 1774, when they joined a mob that burned some crates of English tea. Hunter had received his license to preach from the Philadelphia Presbytery six months earlier and had been supplying churches in New Jersey ever since. With assignments from the Presbytery of Done­ gal, he and Fithian began separate missionary tours in June 1775. In September they went together to visit Hunter's family in Virginia and then returned to New Jersey, both of them to receive their second de­ grees and then to be married. Hunter's wedding was on October 2. His wife was Ann Riddell, sister to the wife of Andrew Hunter, Sr. Bridegrooms of only one month, Hunter and Fithian went back to Virginia in November, agreeing that when their tour ended, they would join the army. In June 1776 they were appointed chaplains in General Nathaniel Heard's Brigade of New Jersey Militia, then on its way to reinforce New York. After accompanying the unit as it retreated from Long Island and New York City, Fithian died of camp fever on October 8. Hunter, who suffered occasionally with the same affliction, remained with the troops as they pulled back to New Jersey. The enlistments for Heard's Brigade expired in December 1776. When New Jersey raised troops for the Continental Army in June 1777, Hunter was named chaplain of the Third Brigade, and on June 15 was assigned to General William Maxwell's command. It was prob­ ably at that time that he was ordained. He was at the battle of Mon­ mouth in July 1778, and just before the British surprised Elizabethtown on February 25, 1779, Hunter hurried to warn Governor William Livingston. The governor was safe, but Hunter was captured on his way back to camp. He managed to escape during the night. In the spring and summer of 1779 he accompanied General William Sulli­ van's expedition against the Indians in Pennsylvania and New York, and then in September 1780 joined the Third New Jersey Regiment of Continentals, with which he went to Virginia one year later. He was

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present at the battle of Yorktown and was still active in the army as late as January 1783. Hunter returned to New Jersey after the war. He was an original member and first secretary of the state's Society of the Cincinnati in June 1783. In 1784 he opened an academy at Bridgeton in Cumberland County. After two years of teaching, he assumed the pulpits of the Blackwood church in Gloucester, Camden County, and the Woodbury church in Gloucester County. In 1788 he was elected a trustee of the College and one year later was a delegate to the first Presbyterian Gen­ eral Assembly. Hunter was active in politics during New Jersey's first congressional elections in 1789. As part of the "East Jersey" party, he campaigned for Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776). The opposition, a coalition of wealthy interests called the "West Jersey Junto," dominated Camden and Gloucester counties; and after a scurrilous campaign they defeated the East Jerseyites, whom they called "radicals." In 1791 Hunter began another academy. This one was near his church in Woodbury, on land deeded to him and others by Joseph Bloomfield, later a trustee of the College and governor of the state. One of Hunter's pupils was the future attorney general and secretary of state of the United States, Richard Rush, whose father, Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), wanted particular attention paid to the boy's spell­ ing. In 1793 Hunter's wife died, leaving him with a daughter, Anne, and a son, also named Andrew. In June 1794 young Andrew was suspended from the senior class of the College for being "absent with­ out leave." President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) urged Hunter to come to Princeton at once to speak with the young man, but fatherly advice was not enough. Andrew Hunter III was expelled from the College on July 16, 1794, charged with having been "negli­ gent of his duties after repeated trials and reproofs." On October 13, 1794, Hunter married Mary Stockton, one of the re­ markable daughters of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748), another of whom was Dr. Rush's wife, Julia. Three years later, Hunter resigned from his pulpits and his academy, and probably from his post as chaplain of the state militia, because of ill health. He retired for seven years to a farm on the Delaware River, near Trenton, but continued to be ac­ tive in the Presbyterian General Assembly, which recorded that he was a member of the New Brunswick Presbytery "without a charge." While not personally involved, Hunter was disturbed at the turn of politics in 1800, fearing that factionalism might destroy the federal government. It was not the election of Jefferson that troubled him,

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for he apparently had no well-defined party loyalties. Rather, he was appalled at the prospect that the election process might be so cor­ rupted by the "detestable jargon" of newspapers and zealots that the work of the Framers would collapse. Hunter came out of retirement to help raise money for the College after the fire that destroyed Nassau Hall in 1802. He reported to his fellow trustees on April 4, 1804 that he had raised $526, with another $258 pledged. It was at that meeting of the board that the College's chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was divided into pro­ fessorships of Mathematics and Astronomy and of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. Hunter resigned his seat on the board to accept the first of those positions, effective in May. He enthusiastically supported President Smith's emphasis on "every branch of science, and of Natural Science particularly," in the curriculum. Hunter bought property in Princeton, where he joined the local fire company and, with his wife, was active in the Presbyterian church. After a riot at the College in 1807, the institution's enrollment and finances both declined, and Smith's authority began to erode as well. In 1808 two faculty positions, including the chair of Mathematics and Astronomy, were discontinued. Hunter resigned from the faculty and rejoined the board of trustees. Almost immediately, Benjamin Rush urged him to accept the vacant presidency of Dickinson College, with its annual salary of $1,000, but in 1809 Hunter declined. Instead, he took charge of the Allison Academy in Bordentown, New Jersey. Robert Thompson, chaplain of the United States Navy, died in 1810, leaving vacant the post of teacher of midshipmen at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. With the help of Congressman William Helms, Hunter was named to replace Thompson at a salary of $40 per month and two rations per day, plus an additional $20 monthly and a third daily ration as a bonus for teaching the midshipmen. On Au­ gust 21, 1811, Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton directed Hunter to teach the history of navigation and any other subjects he thought ap­ propriate. Hunter liked Washington and, unlike his brother-in-law, Congressman Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), was comfortable with the administration of James Madison (A.B. 1771), who invited him to the White House occasionally. The coming of war in 1812 alarmed Hunter, who feared that the nation was both militarily and financially unprepared. He was par­ ticularly concerned about his son Richard, a midshipman and later a naval officer based in Savannah, Georgia and Portsmouth, New Hamp­ shire. When the British burned Washington in September 1814, Hunter joined other government officials in sanctuary in Virginia,

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leaving his wife at home to face the enemy. After the war, he paid $5,000 for a house on Capitol Hill which became a favorite gathering place for some of the city's most distinguished residents. Hunter's in­ terest in science was manifested in his active support of the Washing­ ton Botanical Society, of which he was a founder in 1816. Hunter continued as senior naval chaplain and teacher until he died in Washington on February 24, 1823. His son Andrew, who had overcome his disgrace at the College and studied law with Samuel Leake (A.B. 1774), had been dead since 1814. Hunter's daughter Anne married a Mr. Charles Gordon of Trenton. In addition to Richard, there were four other children of his second marriage, including David Hunter, a distinguished army officer; Lewis Boudinot Hunter (A.B. 1824), a naval surgeon; and Moses Hunter. A daughter, Mary, married one of her Stockton cousins and, after his death, married Charles Hodge (A.B. 1815), the son of Hugh Hodge (A.B. 1773). In 1856 the family filed a claim for arrears in Hunter's pay as a chaplain in the Revolution. SOURCES: DAB; Fithian Journal, 1, ir, passim; T. C. Stockton, Stockton Family of

N.J. (1911), 80-81; F. D. Andrews, Tea-Burners of Cumberland Cnty. (1908), 28-30; NJHSP (3 ser.), 6 (1908), 1-3; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); N.Y. Ga­ zette ir Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (A.M.); als I. Alexander to AH, 29 Apr 1773; J. Bloomfield to AH, 20 Jun 1794; AH to D. Hunter, 24 Feb 1801 ("detestable jar­ gon"); 31 Oct 1806; B. Rush to AH, 5 Apr 1809; AH to S. Sayre, 30 May 1811; AH to R. Hunter, 20 May 1813; 5 Sep, 10 Nov 1815; 20 Nov 1820; M. Hodge to A. Cummings, Sep 1856, Gen MSS, NjP; Stryker, Off. Reg., 25-26, 334-35; Rec. Pres. Chh., 462, 482; A. Hunter, MS War Diary, NjP; N.J. Gazette, 3 Mar 1779; MHi, Cat., IV, 34; Soc. of the Cincinnati in . . . N.J. (1960), 20; Min. Gen. Assem., 1J89-1820, 16, 88, 100, 120, 136, 169, 288; WMQ (3 ser.), 6 (1949), 243; Butterfield, Rush Letters, I, 327, 329η; II, 619; als S. S. Smith to AH, 12 Jun 1794, Smith Papers, NjP; Faculty Minutes, PUA ("negligent of his duties"); Maclean, History, 11, 57, 60; APS Trans. (n.s.), v. 55, pt. 4 (1965), 158 ("every branch of science"); Hageman, History, 11, 19, 105, 271; Wertenbaker, Princeton, 144; C. C. Sellers, Dickinson College (1973), 138; J. D. Magee, Bordentown (1932), 91; als Μ. E. Stewart to A. T. Stewart, 20 Mar 1809, PHi; U.S. Naval Inst., Proceedings, 32 (1906), 902-903; 72, pt. 1 (1946), 685; A. H. Bill, House Called Morven (1954), 74-75, 80-81; W. B. Bryan, Hist, of the National Capital (1916), π, 29η. MANUSCRIPTS: NJP, PHi

Robert Keith ROBERT KEITH, A.B., A.M. 1775, Presbyterian clergyman, was the sec­ ond child and first son of William and Margaret Stockton Keith, who owned a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was born no later than 1751. A younger brother was Isaac Stockton Keith (A.B. 1775).

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At the College Keith joined the American Whig Society. His role at his commencement was to oppose in Latin the proposition that "Amor Patriae non debet Virtus haberi, nisi ad Benevolentiam erga Universas referatur." After graduation he studied theology and in May 1773 pre­ sented himself to the First Presbytery of Philadelphia as a candidate for licensing. His classmate William Bradford reported Keith's appli­ cation, along with those of Moses Allen and John DeBow of the same class, to James Madison (A.B. 1771) with the sarcastic judgment that all three men would serve their country better "at the Tail of the plow" than in the pulpit. Madison agreed that the three candidates would be more useful at "rustic employment," but he tolerantly wished them well. The presbytery examined Keith and the others on May 17, 1774. Keith's exercise was a sermon that lasted forty-four minutes. He preached as a licentiate in southern New Jersey for a time and then went to Pennsylvania, where his performance in the pulpit surprised the dubious Bradford. "I expected it would have been bad," Bradford wrote to a friend, "but it was execrably so." In June 1775 Keith at­ tended a meeting of the Presbytery of Carlisle, which assigned him to a missionary tour west of the Alleghenies. The tour was over by Oc­ tober, when Keith was in Princeton to receive his A.M. and to watch his brother Isaac graduate. In August 1776 both Keiths visited Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), who was then a chaplain with the army in New York. Robert Keith ex­ pressed his desire to join the army, too. Indeed, one month earlier he had arranged to become the chaplain of the Bucks County Battalion in the Pennsylvania Flying Camp, an appointment that was confirmed by the county's committee of safety on August 12. The First Philadel­ phia Presbytery ordained him as a chaplain later that year. The Flying Camp helped build Fort Washington in New York and in November 1776 was among the units stationed there when the fort fell to the British. Apparently, Keith was taken prisoner, held in New York City, and then released on parole in February 1778. The rest of his military career is obscure, but it is certain that on October 7, 1779 he married Mary Adams in the Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, Delaware. He received a depreciation allowance from the army, which indicates that he was still on active duty by April 1780, when Congress raised military salaries to compensate soldiers for the debasement of the currency. He died, probably in 1784, and certainly before May 1785. SOURCES: T. C. Stockton, Stockton Family (1911), 242 (incl. death); Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); N.Y. Gazette ir Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (A.M.);

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Madison Papers, i, 86 ("Tail of a plow"), 89 ("rustic employment"); Fithian Journal, i, 165; 11, 32-33, 34-35 & n., 205, 256; als W. Bradford to W. Linn, 14 Nov 1774, PHi ("execrably so"); Centennial Memorial of Presbytery of Carlisle, 98; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), xv, 634; (5 ser.), iv, 229; PMHB, 15 (1891), 288; 4 (1880), 120-21; 24 (1900), 464; Rec. Pres. Chh., 477, 507 (incl. death); Del. Hist. Soc., Papers, ix, 751.

William Linn WILLIAM LINN, A.B., D.D. Columbia 1789, Presbyterian and Dutch Re­ formed clergyman and schoolmaster, was the oldest of William and Susannah Trumble Linn's children. He was born on February 27, 1752, probably on his father's farm near Shippensburg in Cumber­ land County, Pennsylvania. His mother died in the fort at Shippensburg, where the family sought refuge from Indian attacks in 1755. Linn received his primary education at home and from George Duffield (A.B. 1752), the minister of the Big Spring and Carlisle churches in Cumberland County. He then attended the school run by Robert Smith in Pequea. In 1769 he entered the College as a sopho­ more. Linn won the second prizes in Nassau Hall's first undergraduate competitions on reading the English language and public speaking,

William Linn, A.B. 1772

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which were conducted during the commencement in 1771. He also joined the American Whig Society. At his own commencement he de­ livered an oration on "Independence of Spirit." From Princeton Linn went back home to study theology under Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763), minister of the Linn family's own church at Middle Spring. He interrupted his training in the spring of 1773 to become the master of a "select" school at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Montgomery in Philadelphia. The reasons for his move may have been more than professional. On January 10, 1774, he married Rebecca Blair, the daughter of John Blair, the late professor of divinity and trustee of the College, in Philadelphia. At the end of the school term in 1774, Linn was back home again to complete his studies with Cooper. He was licensed to preach by the Donegal Presbytery in early 1775 and served for several months thereafter as an itinerant in west­ ern and central Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. His classmate Philip Fithian heard him preach in the Shenandoah Valley in 1776 and noted that while the content of the sermon was sound, Linn seemed to lack the "Fire and Vehemence" that earned him a prize for speaking at college. On February 15, 1776, Linn was appointed chaplain of Robert Magaw's Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion and was then ordained by the First Presbytery of Philadelphia. The unit was assigned in June to join General Thomas Mifflin's Brigade in New York, where it helped build Fort Washington. During the battle of Long Island, the Fifth Pennsylvania moved from the fort to New York City and during Sep­ tember and October it was at Morrisania and Harlem Heights. It dis­ solved when Fort Washington was captured in November. Apparently before that happened, Linn resigned from the army for family reasons. On April 9, 1777, he was called to fill the pulpit at the Big Spring church, Duffield having decided to concentrate on his con­ gregation at Carlisle. Linn was installed at Big Spring on October 3. He lived on a farm nearby and was active in the Donegal Presbytery. When Dickinson College was founded in 1783 in Carlisle, Linn was among the original trustees. The first secretary of the board, he already had a reputation as an able preacher. When another trustee, Ben­ jamin Rush (A.B. 1760), contemplated the faculty at Dickinson, he urged his colleagues to appoint Linn as a professor. Rush thought that Linn might also become associate pastor at Carlisle. But when neither appointment was forthcoming, Rush consoled Linn with assurances that he was too talented to waste his time teaching boys to read. Rush did not want to see "Columbus chained to an oar." He suggested that

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Linn might come to Philadelphia, instead, to be the associate minister at the Second Presbyterian church there. Linn may have had his heart set on that professorship, for although he remained on the board of Dickinson College until 1787, he did not stay in Carlisle or go to Philadelphia. In 1784, having accepted an in­ vitation to be the first active president of Washington Academy in Somerset County, Maryland, he transferred from the Donegal to the Lewes Presbytery and moved south. The academy's trustees raised £5,000 to pay his salary and to buy new equipment, and Linn taught oratory, natural philosophy, and moral philosophy for more than a year. On November 8, 1785, he moved again to supply as a candidate for the pulpit of the Presbyterian church in Elizabethtown, New Jer­ sey. By May 1786 Linn was a member of the Presbytery of New York and had accepted a call to settle in Elizabethtown. He was installed there on June 14, 1786 in a ceremony conducted by Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757). But his tenure at Elizabethtown was brief, even for him. In October he accepted a call to be the associate of John H. Livingston at the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. Linn had by then become one of the best known ministers in the central states. Indeed, his call to New York was probably inspired by his influential advocacy of unity among Protestant sects. A general cooperation among Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian ministers had begun in 1785, and Linn was one of its strongest supporters. He ar­ gued that Christianity could be catholic without total conformity, and so his change of denominations was simply an extension of his prin­ ciples. An active member of the Reformed Dutch Synod of New York and New Jersey, in 1787 Linn became a regent of the state of New York and a trustee of Queen's College in New Jersey. His reputation as a minister was such that on May 1, 1789 he was elected the first chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. His rival for the post was the prestigious John Rodgers of the First Presbyterian Church in New York. In addition to his salary of £400 from his church, Linn was paid $500 to be the House chaplain. He was friendly with several members of Congress and took an active interest in the question of the per­ manent location of the national capital. As chaplain, Linn received a D.D. from Columbia College and began an acquaintanceship with President Washington. He was reappointed by the House in 1790.

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An ardent Whig, Linn was an early supporter of the French Revolu­ tion and of the Tammany Society in New York. In 1791 he delivered a sermon on the "Blessings of America" before the society, condemning Edmund Burke and praising the spirit of revolution in Europe. But while the Tammany Society continued to encourage revolutionary zeal, Linn did not. Gradually, his opinions on religion and politics hardened. Although he continued to pursue cooperation among Chris­ tian churches, he did so with some reservations. As one of the leading trustees of Queen's College, where he presided over the commence­ ments of 1791 and 1792, he voted against a proposal to unite that in­ stitution with the College of New Jersey. Most of the trustees who voted with him in October 1793 were Dutch Reformed ministers who were suspicious of the Presbyterians at Nassau Hall. Linn was also one of the staunchest opponents of the Episcopal Church in New York. Linn was an associate of some prominent future Republicans in establishing the Humane Society in New York in 1794. But that was one of his last associations with such men. He first began to criticize the French Revolution openly in his Discourses on the Signs of the Times. Published in 1794, it was another appeal for cooperation among churches, but it also raised some doubts about a revolution that was dominated by deists. In his private correspondence, Linn expressed his mounting alarm at the growth of political parties, whose "violent and abusive" tactics depressed him. His disappointment at events in France continued, and he made a connection between revolutionary excesses abroad and political dissent at home. By 1798, when he sent Washington a copy of one of his sermons in which the former President was prominently mentioned, Linn was an active Federalist. It was, therefore, predictable that he would be in­ vited to deliver the eulogy for Washington before the New York So­ ciety of the Cincinnati. On February 22, 1800, after having been in­ ducted into the society, Linn gave the eulogy in his own church, point­ edly emphasizing those qualities in Washington that he found lacking in the Republicans. He listed "reverence for the Sabbath," "acknowl­ edgement of a Providence," and "attendance upon the institutions of religion" among them. Linn prided himself on not bringing politics into his preaching. During the election of 1800, however, the temptation to do so was almost too much for him. He published a tract called Serious Con­ siderations on the Election of a President in which he attacked Thomas Jefferson as everything from a deist to a slave owner, and warned that Jefferson's election would loosen the nation's bonds and dishonor God. Jefferson's election tended to quiet Linn's political expression. The

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minister continued to be active in his church, however, and his ora­ torical skills were still much in demand. He managed to raise the con­ siderable sum of $1,100 with just one sermon on behalf of the church's parochial school. On November 20, 1804, one day after he married his daughter to the Quaker novelist Charles Brockden Brown, Linn joined in founding the New York Historical Society. Linn's son, the Reverend John Blair Linn, died suddenly in 1804, and Linn never recovered from the shock. In 1805 he resigned his post and moved to Albany, but he would not retire. He supplied part of the time in the Dutch Reformed church in Albany and then, in 1807, was offered the presidency of Union College in Schenectady. He never served in that office. After a crisis of two days, he died on January 8, 1808. Linn's first marriage had produced ten children, five of whom pre­ deceased their father. A widower, Linn married Mrs. Catharine Kip Moore of New York sometime before she inherited a substantial estate, including four slaves, from her mother in 1798. She bore him two chil­ dren before she died. Linn's third wife was Mrs. Helen Hanson of Greenbush, New York. Before his death, they had one child. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, ix, 75-79; Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Car­ lisle (1889), 56-59; Williams, Academic Honors, 5, 6; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 1, 37; π, 33, 90, 181 ("Fire and Vehemence"), 228 Sc n.; Pa. Gazette, 19 May 1773; PMHB, 41 (1917), 350; Madi­ son Papers, 1, 109, lion; Rec. Pres. Chh., 462, 472, 507; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), x, 103-105, 142; (3 ser.), xx, 343, 470, 628; A. Nevin, Churches of the Valley (1852), 52-53; G. L. Reed, Alumni Record, Dickinson College (1905), 11; C. C. Sellers, Dickinson College (1973), 65, 66, 482; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 1, 319, 321 n. 7, 331-33 ("Columbus chained"); L. J. McCormick, Church-State Relationships in Education in Md. (1942), 85; MHM, 44 (1949), 204, 209; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 594-95; WMQ (3 ser.), 4 (1947), 150; N.Y. Mag., 6 (Jan 1795), 26-27; N.Y. Ecclesiastical Rec., vi, 4345, 4348, 4352, 4366; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Officers and Alumni (1936), 283; Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Chh. of . . . N.Y. (1928), 28; T.E.V. Smith, City of N.Y. in . . . ij8p (1889), 133-34, 136; Hamilton Papers, xm, 67, 70; E. S. Maclay, Journal of William Maclay (1890), 50, 53, 158, 168, 247; W. S. Baker, Washington After the Rev. (1898), 164; N.Y. Hist., 34 (1953), 80-81; W. Linn, Blessings of Amer. (1791); W.H.S. Demarest, Hist, of Rutgers College (1924), 174, 176; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 418; als WL to J. B. Linn, 24 Jul 1797, PHi and W. Linn, Discourse on National Sins (1798); Washington Writ­ ings, xxxvi, 281; Ε. E. Hume, George Washington's Correspondence Concerning the Soc. of the Cincinnati (1941), 394-95; W. Linn, A Funeral Eulogy . . . (1800); D. Clinton, A Vindication of Thomas Jefferson (1800); C. E. Corwin, Manual of the Reformed Chh. in Amer. (1922), 397; H. R. Warfel, Charles Brockden Brown (1949), 227; NYGBR, 34 (1903), 233; J. Munsell, Annals of Albany (1854), V, 14; R. H. Kilby, N.Y. Hist. Soc. (1905), 5-6; N.Y. Wills, xv, 104-106. PUBLICATIONS: see STE; Sh-Sh #10735, MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

AN

D above

William Smith Livingston WILLIAM SMITH LIVINGSTON, A.B., soldier, lawyer, public official, was

the fifth child and second son of Robert James Livingston, a merchant in New York City, and Susannah Livingston, the daughter of the New York jurist William Smith, an original trustee of the College, and the sister of Chief Justice William Smith of New York and Quebec. He was born on August 27, 1755 and baptized in the Presbyterian church in New York by the Reverend Aaron Burr, then president of the Col­ lege. Livingston was the older brother of Peter R. (A.B. 1784) and Maturin (A.B. 1786) and the cousin, uncle, or nephew of several Liv­ ingstons and Smiths who were also fellow alumni. Livingston entered Nassau Hall before April 1770, when he trans­ acted some business in Princeton on behalf of James Madison (A.B. 1771). Like Madison, he was a member of the American Whig Society, but the two men apparently had a falling out before the commence­ ment of 1772. When Livingston's classmate William Bradford, Jr. in­ formed Madison that Livingston had received his degree, Madison re­ plied that he was not sorry to hear it, although some people might think that he should be. The future president thought that Livingston had promise, if he would only be "sensible to his opportunities and encouragements." In January 1775 Bradford told Madison that his "quondam Chum" Livingston had been married in a "run a way match." The wedding occurred on November 9, 1774, and the bride was Catherine Lott, the daughter of Abraham Lott, a merchant from Morris County, New Jersey. Livingston's father had died in 1771, and the young bride­ groom was probably living on his respectable inheritance. On September 14, 1775, Livingston was commissioned fourth lieu­ tenant of fusilliers in Colonel John Lasher's regiment of New York militia. With a minority of the officers, he voted against incorporating the unit into the Continental Army in January 1776. As a captain, Livingston led a detachment to Long Island in June, vainly pursuing an alleged conspirator against the life of George Washington. When he was elected battalion major on June 24, his vacated captaincy went to William Willcocks (A.B. 1769). Livingston then hunted Loyalists in Massachusetts and New York for a few weeks. On August 12, 1776, he was named brigade major in General Lord Stirling's command. The assignment did not appeal to him—a year later he was reputed to have fought a duel with Stirling—and on August 15, 1776, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Nathanael Greene, with whom he served on

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Long Island. While he reported to Washington on enemy troop move­ ments, he probably did not take part in the battle of Long Island be­ cause Greene was too ill to participate. On August 31, 1776, Livingston was arrested for ordering one soldier to shoot another. Always short-tempered, he may have been trying to enforce discipline among sullen troops in retreat. He was apparently never tried for the offense, and he remained on Greene's staff until he was wounded at the battle of Princeton. On January 11, 1777, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of Colonel Samuel B. Webb's Ad­ ditional Connecticut Regiment of Continentals and assigned to the Hudson Valley, where General Israel Putman was in command. In April Livingston reported to Washington on the strength of Webb's unit, but, as the general discovered from another source, his report was exaggerated. Washington decided not to send Webb all of the supplies Livingston had requested. Nevertheless, he also chastised Webb for leaving his second in command in Connecticut as a recruiter. A campaign was imminent, and Washington wanted Livingston's tal­ ents on the battlefield. With sixty new men, Livingston rejoined his regiment at Peekskill, New York in May. In August he went under a flag of truce to British lines to request permission to bring supplies to American prisoners. True to his nickname, "Fighting Bill," he man­ aged to start an argument with Loyalist governor William Tryon. Blows were exchanged and Livingston was arrested. The British want­ ed him to go back to his own lines, but Livingston, insisting that he was a prisoner of war, had to be forced out of the enemy camp. He immediately charged Tryon with violating a safe conduct. Although his regiment was miles from forts Clinton and Mont­ gomery, Livingston visited the latter post on October 6, 1777, when it was surrounded by British troops. General George Clinton appointed him to deal with the enemy officer who brought a demand for the fort's surrender. Livingston calmly told the Englishman that he could not discuss surrender, but that he could promise that the British would be treated well if they laid down their arms. The fort and its garrison were captured three hours later, and Livingston was sent as a prisoner to New York. At first, he was reported killed in action, and the account of his capture later told by British officers was that he had saved him­ self by advising the first redcoats to enter Fort Montgomery that his sister was the wife of an officer in His Majesty's Army, which she was. The American prisoners were roughly treated until news of the British defeat at Saratoga reached New York. They were then sent on parole to Long Island, but when an American landing was expected

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there, they were confined between decks on prison ships. On December 2 Livingston and a few others slipped over the rail of the Martel and escaped. Barely content with his superior officers, Livingston was even more critical of them after his imprisonment. He called General James Varnum of Rhode Island a "sot" to his face. When General Alexander McDougall, father of John Alexander McDougall (A.B. 1769), replaced Putnam in the Hudson Valley in March 1778, Livingston welcomed the departure of the "well meaning, credulous old man." Nevertheless, he was eager to get back into action. All he needed was a horse. His had been lost at Fort Montgomery, along with his weapons and silver-plat­ ed bridle and saddle. He told General George Clinton that as soon as he could buy a horse, or steal one from a Tory, he would leave his home in Beaverswyck, New Jersey and rejoin the army. He was in the saddle again in August, serving as commander of his old regiment while Webb was a prisoner of war. As part of Greene's command, and, unfortunately for Livingston, under the direction of Varnum1 the regiment participated in the unsuccessful effort to recap­ ture Newport, Rhode Island. At the battle of Quaker Hill, on the north of Aquidneck Island, Livingston commanded a rear guard ac­ tion that allowed the main body of American troops to escape al­ though he was twice wounded and lost yet another precious mount. His performance drew high praise from Greene. Livingston returned to Beaverswyck and on October 10, 1778 asked Washington's leave to resign his commission, a decision his Loyalist uncle William Smith, Jr. took as proof of the brittleness of the Ameri­ can cause. Washington agreed to accept the resignation, but some con­ fusion regarding Livingston's accounts kept his name on the roster of active officers for a full six months after he resigned. At Beaverswyk, where he fought at least one more duel in December 1779, Livingston stayed in close contact with his friends in the army. Still an advocate of strict military discipline, he was delighted to learn that an abortive mutiny of Pennsylvania troops in May 1781 had been thoroughly and ruthlessly crushed. Livingston also cared for his widowed mother, who was living in Princeton while her younger sons attended the College. She rented a house from President Witherspoon and took in boarders to pay her boys' tuition. In March 1781 Livingston reported that Witherspoon had evicted her and rented the house at a higher price. Livingston tried to go to New York to raise money for the purchase of another house in Princeton but was unable to obtain a pass to the occupied

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city. He had to wait until his mother's relatives in New York could send the funds. Livingston was admitted to the New Jersey bar in April 1780. He must also have been admitted to the New York bar, but for some reason, he was enjoined from practicing in that state. In July 1782, when he wrote to his friend and classmate Aaron Burr to congratulate him on his recent marriage, Livingston also asked for Burr's help in having the injunction lifted. It was, and in 1784 he was a party to sev­ eral important salvage suits in New York City. In 1786 Livingston had an office at 52 Wall Street, near those of the other leading attorneys in the city. That May he moved to 50 Smith Street, and later that year was elected to the St. Andrew's Society. In April 1788 the rumor that medical students were robbing graves for cadavers prompted a riot in New York. Pursued by mobs, doctors and students sought sanctuary in the jail. Livingston joined in the building's defense, during which one of his slaves was killed and both John Jay and General von Steuben were wounded. On July 2, 1788, Livingston carried the news that Virginia had rati­ fied the Constitution to the New York Convention in Poughkeepsie. Three weeks later he was the deputy grand marshal of a parade in New York City to celebrate ratification by ten states and to convince the assembly in Poughkeepsie to follow suit. Even after New York ac­ cepted the Constitution a few days later, however, opponents of fed­ eralism refused to give up their fight. In August Livingston led a mob in attacking the shop of an opposition printer, Thomas Greenleaf, and would have been killed had Greenleaf's pistol not misfired at point blank range. In 1790 Livingston and an associate obtained the repeal of the act of banishment against his uncle William Smith, Jr. so that the former Loyalist could visit New York in order to help his relatives untangle their financial affairs. After that, Livingston devoted most of his time to politics. Like his prominent kinsmen, he was an early and ardent Federalist in a state dominated by anti-Federalist Clintonians. He was elected to the New York Common Council as an assistant in October 1791 but was disqualified because he could not prove that he was a freeman of the city or a freeholder in the First Ward. Later that year he was elected with a large plurality to the state assembly, in which he served for two sessions. At the beginning of the gubernatorial campaign of 1792, he supported the Federalist candidate John Jay. But during that year, the Livingston family changed its political loyalties, and evidence of the shift is abundant in William Smith Livingston's career.

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Once an attorney for Federalist William Duer, Livingston sided against the Hamiltonians in the bank controversy of 1792. He also stood with the Clintonians in the debate over vote canvasses for the election that Jay ultimately lost. But Livingston did not have enough personal prestige to sustain him after such a political turnabout. Hamiltonians called him "that Whore in Politics," and Clintonians, such as Thomas Greenleaf, never forgave him for his role in 1788. He tried to win support by embracing issues dear to the powerful General So­ ciety of Mechanics and Tradesmen in New York, but the mechanics also refused to trust him. The result was that his once considerable ability to win votes vanished and he lost his bid for a seat in Congress to a Federalist in 1793. Livingston might have recovered his political standing, but he died suddenly on June 25, 1794. He left his widow and the four of their eleven children who were still alive; and his estate probably included the one slave he owned in 1790. He was buried in the Lott family vault in New York City. SOURCES: E. B. Livingston, Livingstons of Livingston Manor (1910), 242 n. 2, 247 n. 2, 254-58, 275-76, 525-26, 533-34; Mag. of Amer. Hist., 6 (1881), 277; NYGBR, 71 (1940), 227, 229; 74 (1943), 75; Madison Papers, I, 4g, 73, 76 ("sensible to oppor­ tunities"), 132 ("quondam Chum"); NJA (2 ser.), 11, 397; HI, 71; (1 ser) χχνιι, 276η; N.Y. Wills, vii, 395-96; N.Y. Mercantile Library Assoc., N.Y. City During the Amer. Rev. (1861), 74-75; W. S. Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton (1898), 292η; R. Κ. Showman, ed., Papers of Gen. Nathanael Greene, I (1976), 216η, 241, 242, 246η, 287, 289, 290, 330; Cal. of Correspondence of George Washington . . . with the Officers (1915), 137, 171, 172; Washington Writings, v, 423, 501; VII, 9, 369-70; xxv, 152-53; W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, 11 (1958), 283 ("sot"), 196, 200, 235; 01, (1971), 118, 99 & n., 54; W. C. Ford, ed., Correspondence and Journals of Samuel Blachley Webb (1893), 1, 230, 335-36; hi, 232; Clinton Papers, n, 548-49, 569-71; in, 90-91 ("credulous"), 311-12, 727; vi, 680-83; JCC, xxm, 628; J. W. Webb, Reminiscences of Gen. Samuel Webb (1882), 149, 244-45; NJHSP (2 ser.), 1 (1867-69), 90; J. Goebel, Jr., Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton (1969), 11, 881-85; Ν. Y. Directory (1786), 63, 132, 75; S. I. Pomerantz, N.Y., an Amer. City (1938), 401402; MCCCNY, i, 623, 675-78; J. T. Headley, Great Riots of N.Y. (1873), 62; L. G. DePauw, Eleventh Pillar (1966), 214-15; Α. Γ. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 120, 283 & n., 302, 334 -35; L.F.S. Upton, Loyal Whig (1969), 199; N.Y. Red Book (1895), 372; Hamilton Papers, 1, 587; xm, 247 n. 7; xi, 172 n. 6; xni, 48081 & n. 5 ("Whore in Politics"). MANUSCRIPTS; NjP, PHi

George Luckey G EORGE L UCKEY, A.B., A.M. 1775, Presbyterian clergyman, was born

about June 1751, presumably in Oxford township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where his father Hugh Luckey in later years was one of

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the more substantial farmers. According to family tradition, the father had migrated from Ireland in 1735 and after his marriage to Jane Findlay had become the head of a large family. Their daughter Sarah married James Dunlap (A.B. 1773). George possibly was prepared for college by Reverend John Blair of nearby Fagg's Manor, but it is im­ possible to say just when he entered upon his studies at Nassau Hall. He joined neither of the literary societies, but one clue to his activity while he was perhaps still in residence suggests that he may have made common cause with some of the Cliosophics in an attack upon the Whig Nathaniel Irwin (A.B. 1770). It is found in a contemptuous reference by James Madison in a letter to William Bradford of early November, 1772, to "Lucky and his company after their feeble yet wicked assault upon Mr. Erwin." At the commencement exercises of the preceding September, Luckey had taken the negative in a debate with his classmate Andrew Hunter on the proposition that "A mixed Monarchy is the best Form of Government." The fact that he received his second degree after the normal lapse of three years suggests that he may have begun his theological studies shortly after graduation, but he may have been teaching school, as recent graduates often did. It is known that he spent Christmas of 1773 with James Madison at Montpelier. Madison obviously had changed his mind about Luckey, for he reported to Bradford in a letter of the following January that the two had "talked so much about old Affairs & Old Friends that I have a most insatiable desire to see you all." Indeed, he also reported plans to accompany Luckey to Philadelphia during the coming spring. A later letter of April 1 clearly indicates that Luckey was within easy reach of Montpelier and that he planned after the trip to Philadelphia to return to Virginia, for Madi­ son asked Bradford to forward by Luckey "whatever publications you think worth sending" in the event that Madison himself could not make the journey. Actually Madison reached Philadelphia at the beginning of May, as possibly also did Luckey. Perhaps the family tradition that Luckey was serving as tutor in the Madison family has at least some basis in fact. The suggestion that has been made that Luckey during his stay in Virginia was an itinerant preacher is called into question by the fact that he was not yet licensed to preach. At the May meeting of the synod in 1777, the New Castle Presbytery reported that it had licensed George Luckey. For the next several years he probably was engaged in some form of itinerant work. In the manu­ script history that he wrote in 1793 of the Bethel and Centre congre­ gations he was destined to serve for almost forty years, he tells of preaching in 1783 as "a licensed candidate" a few sabbaths at Bethel,

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in Harford County, Maryland, "without expectation of settling in that part of the church." But soon, his account continues, he agreed to serve the church for half a year, "at the end of which period, a friendly disposition being apparent among the people,. .. together with a great unanimity in drawing up a call," he decided that he should accept their invitation to settle. No doubt of help in making the decision was his recent marriage on April 9, 1783 to Elizabeth Buchanan, also of Chester County, Pennsylvania. His ordination seems to have come in 1784. Included in his pastorate was the newly organized congregation of Centre, located some eight miles from Bethel across the state line in York County, Pennsylvania. Luckey resided near Bethel and obviously found more satisfaction in the service of that church than of that in Centre, which he thought showed somewhat less of the maturity, steadfastness, and unanimity of the older congregation. It is evident that he found a special satisfaction in the neighborly relations main­ tained at Bethel with the members of other denominations, mention­ ing particularly the Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Quak­ ers, and Methodists in the order of their numerical strength in the community. It was the custom, he declared, for many of these whenever their own minister was absent from his pulpit to attend the services at Bethel. He began his ministry as a member of the New Castle Presbytery, was later incorporated in a newly organized Presbytery of Baltimore, and after 1799 was returned to the jurisdiction of New Castle. This last may be in some way responsible for the mistaken assertion found in some sources that in 1799 he resigned his pastorate. Actually he con­ tinued as the active minister at Bethel until about 1820, when his failing health evidently forced the congregation to depend upon sup­ plies. No regular replacement was installed until after Luckey's death on December 6, 1823. His will was proved in 1824 ' n Harford County. Although specific information regarding his children has not been found, a manuscript sketch of his life by George Morrison, evidently the son of the George Morrison who succeeded Luckey at Bethel and was later himself a pastor of that church, observes that there "are left but few of his linear descendants & the name in the state of Maryland is well nigh extinct." But this last could be the result of migration out of the state, and the slim file on Luckey found in the Princeton Univer­ sity Archives suggests that there have been persons in other states who claim descent from George and Elizabeth Luckey. SOURCES: G. Morrison, Ms sketch, PPPrHi; Alexander, Princeton; Giger, Memoirs; Webster, MS Brief Sketches; Pa. Arch., (3 ser.), xr, 36, 150, 331, 485, 603, 711; XII, 70,

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287, 449; alumni file, PUA; Madison Papers, 1, 76 ("wicked assault"), 106 ("insatiable desire"), 113; I. Brant, James Madison, Va. Revolutionist (1941), 133; R- Ketcham, James Madison (1971), 59; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Rec. Pres. Chh., 477, 480, 542; Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820 (1847), 214> 242, 2^7> 289; G. Luckey, Ms "A Brief History of the Churches of Bethel and Centre, Presbytery of Baltimore," (1793), PPPrHi; W. W. Preston, Hist, of Harford Cnty. (1901), 175; PGM, 14 (1942), 73; J. Hume, Index to Wills . . . Harford County, Md. (1970), 96. PUBLICATIONS: Sermons on the Times, Baltimore, 1812 MANUSCRIPTS; PPPrHi WFC

Archibald McClean ARCHIBALD MCCLEAN, physician, was a son of Archibald McClean of Horsham Township, Philadelphia (later Montgomery) County, Penn­ sylvania, who died late in 1773 in his seventy-fifth year, after service through many years as a justice of the peace and in his last years as a member of the provincial assembly. No date of birth has been estab­ lished for the son. Nor can it be said that positive evidence of his at­ tendance as a student in the College has been found. However, the records of the College for the period in which he may have been a student are exceptionally incomplete, and a number of considerations argue that he probably did attend, perhaps as a member of the Class of 1772. On file in the Princeton University Archives are two independent inquiries from descendants, one giving a specific provision in the father's will, which are indicative of a strong family tradition that the younger Archibald received a part of his education at Princeton. That assumption finds support in an informative history of Montgomery County which specifically states that he was "educated at Princeton College." It is further stated that the father was buried in the graveyard of the Abington Presbyterian Church, of which Richard Treat (Yale 1725), a founding trustee of the College of New Jersey, was the pastor for more than forty-five years before his death in 1778. Ministers having a close connection with the College were often instrumental in direct­ ing young men to it. Although the family's spelling of the name seems to have been con­ sistently McClean, it is possible that the "Archibald M'Clane" enrolled in the Academy at Philadelphia in 1767 was one and the same as the later student at Nassau Hall. Such an assumption regarding his pre­ paratory studies seems to be consistent with the decision to place McClean as a some time member of the Class of 1772. Another con-

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sideration is found in the provision in his father's will, dated in 1772, for a fund to cover the cost of the son's medical study at the "Hospital in Philadelphia," which implies a commitment already made and per­ haps study actually already under way. After finishing his medical studies McClean seems to have returned to Horsham for the purpose of establishing his practice. His name was linked with that of Richard Treat by Thomas Davis in a will of No­ vember 1777 giving recognition to several of the latter's friends. By 1778, and possibly earlier, McClean had become the surgeon of the Fourth Battalion of the Philadelphia County Militia; he would serve in the capacity of a surgeon in the militia through several years follow­ ing the war. In September 1778 he and his brother-in-law Robert Lollar, who later by a bequest would give his name to Lollar Academy in Hatboro, prepared an inventory of the household goods of Hugh Ferguson, who was charged as a Tory and had married Elizabeth Graeme of Graeme Park, the single most substantial property in the township. McClean was a neighbor of the Fergusons, and if one may judge by tax records, he himself held a substantial property. With time his practice became a large one extending into neighboring townships. He has been described as six and one-half feet tall, a man of wit and jovial disposition, a devotee of strong drink and a "free thinker." The story is told of an exchange with Mrs. Ferguson, who incidentally was not a Tory, which began about 1790 upon her erection of a tombstone over the grave of her favorite dog. McClean on hearing of it wrote in verse a satirical epitaph for the dog; and she responded with an "Epitaph on Dr. Archibald McClean" that contained the following lines: With farmers he his grog would take, With tradesmen quaff a sling, With gentlemen Madeira drink, And brisk the bottle fling. He lov'd his bowl, his joke, his friend, I dare not say his lass; And when the sick in haste did send, Reluctant left his glass. There were also references to his "free thinking," and he replied in a verse equal in quality to hers that ended: If he no pleasure knows when gone, No pain can he endure. There seems to be no doubt that Dr. McClean was a man of real attain-

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ments. The range of his interests, or else of his sense of responsibility, is suggested by the membership he acquired in 1783 in the Hatboro Library. McClean was drowned on May 13, 1791, while attempting to cross a flooded stream on horseback. He is said to have been survived by a widow and four children. He probably had lost two or three children, for the census of 1790 showed that he headed a family that included in addition to himself one free male above 16, three under 16, and four free white females, presumably including his wife. SOURCES: T. W. Bean, Hist, of Montgomery Cnty. (1884), 877, 361, 364 (verse), 639,

725, 727; letters of Maj. Stuart R. Carswell, 16 Mar 1935, and Archibald McLean O'Brien, 29 Mar 1935 (citing father's will), 16 Apr 1935, PUA; Τ. H. Montgomery, Hist, of the XJniv. of Pa. (1900), 544; Abstracts of Philadelphia Wills, Pa. Geneal. Soc., Ph. 2A:5; Pa. Arch. (6 ser.), 1, 780; HI, 647; XII, 659; (3 ser.), xrv, 613; xv, 52, 420; First Census, Pa., 163. DAR Patriot Index, 457, lists an Archibald with the date of death 13 May 1791 and a wife named Anne Charlesworth, but his 1740 date of birth hardly fits the assumption that he began his medical studies about 1772. WFC

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle SAMUEL EUSEBIUS MCCORKLE, A.B., D.D. Dickinson College 1792,

Presbyterian clergyman and educator, was born August 23, 1746, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Alexander McCorkle and his wife Agnes Margaret Montgomery, a sister of Joseph Montgomery (A.B. 1755). The family seems to have migrated from Pennsylvania in 1750 and, after a brief sojourn in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, to have settled in Rowan County, North Carolina by 1756. There the father was a substantial farmer who in 1790 owned six slaves. Young McCorkle was prepared for college at the school conducted by David Caldwell (A.B. 1761), located in what became Guilford County in 1770. McCorkle entered the College some time before December 5, 1770, when he was admitted to membership in the Cliosophic Society in which he took or was assigned the fictitious name of "Virgil." His mem­ bership made him a principal target in the so-called "Paper War" in which Brackenridge, Freneau, and Madison of the Whig Society, in crude and often lewd verse, lampooned their "Tory" rivals of Clio. "Will" or "Billy," as his nicknames seem to have been, apparently was a moody person. A letter from Moses Allen to Aaron Burr in Janu­ ary 1772 reports that McCorkle was very dejected at the prospect of returning after graduation "to the southward," where he would be

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"surrounded by Wiggs." The letter suggests that he even may have been considering a move to the Whig Society. More than three years after his graduation, Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) recorded in his journal that he had heard that McCorkle was "perplexed with Melancholy," had invited him for a visit, and had found him "indeed in deep Distress!" Fithian attributed this distress to disappointment in a love affair, though he did not otherwise discount McCorkle's professed difficulty in deciding between a call for acceptance of a Virginia pulpit and invitations from Carolina. It is likely that McCorkle came to the Col­ lege with a view to entering the ministry, but a final commitment may have awaited the religious revival occurring at Nassau Hall during his last year. A fragment of a spiritual diary he began on April 11, 1772 survived to record how the writings of Hopkins and Edwards, among others, had brought to him a new discovery of "the justice of God, the mercy of a Saviour, and the expediency of the Gospel," together with a "considerable comfort." After graduation he began studying for the ministry with his uncle Joseph Montgomery in Delaware. McCorkle was licensed to preach in 1774 by the New York Presbytery and for about two years thereafter was on a missionary assignment in the Vir­ ginia Valley. Having been transferred from the Hanover to the Orange Presbytery in October 1776, he was ordained on April 2, 1777, as pastor of his own home church, Thyatira, in Rowan County. He remained as pastor of that congregation until his death. His classmate William Bradford, Jr., on hearing him preach in 1774, advised Madison that the sermon contained little instruction, though he conceded it was better than many he had heard. To William Linn, another classmate, Bradford subsequently confided that he had "a great inclination to laugh" at McCorkle, perhaps because the memory of the "Paper War" was still fresh. That McCorkle later attained stature as a pulpit orator is indicated by the fact that no less than ten of his sermons had been published by 1800. In 1850 Reverend E. W. Caruthers recalled, from the memory of his youth, McCorkle's "tall and manly form, his grave and solemn countenance, his impressive and thrilling tones," and his practice of doing without notes in the pulpit. Caruthers recorded also McCorkle's reputation for inefficient management of the farm from which he needed an adequate supplement to the salary drawn from his congre­ gation. The story is that he decided on occasion to improve the returns from the farm through closer personal supervision of his slaves at their work in the field and accordingly took his books with him into the field, but with the result only that his hands discovered after he became

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engrossed in his reading that by moving across the field they might find an opportunity for a recuperative nap. The slaves according to Caruthers were "the patrimony of his wife," and according to the census of 1790 there were six of them. Perhaps he also was indebted for the farm to his marriage about July 1776 to Margaret Gillespie, who by her mother's second marriage was the halfsister to John Steele, later a prominent Federalist leader in the state. If McCorkle neglected his farm, it is understandable, for he com­ bined with his ministerial career a notably active interest in education. In 1777 he became a trustee of Liberty Hall, as the previously estab­ lished academy at Charlotte was redesignated in an act of incorpora­ tion by the state assembly. In 1784 he was among the founding trustees of the Salisbury Academy, a group including six other graduates of Nassau Hall. Liberty Hall apparently had been defunct since Cornwallis's invasion of the state in 1780, and the new institution was in­ tended as its replacement. Aside from its legislative charter, the Salis­ bury Academy has a very shadowy history, one of the few specific references to it being that of McCorkle in 1793 to several addresses he had made "to the students of the late Salisbury academy, on re­ ligion, morals and literature." He has been consistently credited with the operation from about 1785 of a school of his own at Thyatira, several miles distant from Salisbury, to which he gave the name of Zion-Parnassus. That he was fond of this combination of names is shown in the following quotation from the address he delivered at the laying of the cornerstone for the first building of the University of North Carolina in 1793: "May this hill be for religion as the ancient hill of Zion; and for literature and the muses, may it surpass the ancient Parnassus!" McCorkle had a major role in the founding of the University of North Carolina. William R. Davie (A.B. 1776), the generally accepted "Father of the University," credited him with drafting a bill for the establishment of a university that failed of enactment in 1784. In 1789 McCorkle became an original trustee of the institution, the only one who was a clergyman or who had taught. From the first he was active in its behalf, and not merely on trustee committees charged with de­ termining important questions regarding the institution's governance and plan of study. As the university's historian has observed, McCorkle "worked for it, begged for it, preached for it." His preaching brought a contribution of $42 from his own congregation, the only congrega­ tional contribution made in the early history of the university; but his preaching in its behalf extended well beyond his own congregation. In 1795 he published a sermon, or composite of sermons, at Halifax,

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under the title of A Charity Sermon. The sermon was first delivered at Salisbury in July 1793 and thereafter before other audiences, includ­ ing the Synod of the Carolinas in October and the state assembly in December. Its stated purpose was to solicit funds for support of the university, "the new founded temple now rising up, and solemnly dedicated to learning, on Chappell-Hill." The historian who turns to it finds disappointingly little about the history of the university or McCorkle's own identification with it. Instead, its pages unfold a thorough exegesis of the long popular text on Faith, Hope, and (especially) Charity. His method, in other words, was to stimulate among his hearers a charitable regard for the new undertaking and to refute with the authority of scripture itself those who were enemies of learning. Before the synod he emphasized the need for "well educated ministers of state, who shall protect and favor religion." Before the legislature he stressed the utility of "public knowledge" encouraged and promoted by "seats of literature." "Reflect on the importance of literature to religion," he admonished, "and of religion to the state." Toward the end of 1793, in several issues of the North Carolina Journal, he announced plans for the January opening of a school in the Thyatira meeting house under the patronage of "the Trustees of the late Salisbury academy." The school was "intended as a nursery for the University." Arrangements had been made for boarding the students in the neighborhood. "A very good electrical machine" was already on hand, and the trustees were to provide "a set of globes, a barometer, thermometer, microscope, prismatic glass, and set of sur­ veying instruments complete." The purpose was "to teach young men the first rudiments of language and science, and so to prepare them for a more complete education at the University." McCorkle proposed "to spend four days every week in teaching himself, and to provide a capable Usher on the other days, which he designs to devote to his parochial charge." The school perhaps can be viewed as a development of his Zion-Parnassus, although the advertisement states that at the time there was no grammar school nearby. It is said that McCorkle trained six of the first seven students to graduate from the university, which opened its doors early in 1795. It was widely anticipated that McCorkle would become the first president of the university, a prospect that was strengthened when in December 1795 he was elected to head the faculty as professor of moral and political philosophy and history. It had been agreed that this pro­ fessor would function as executive head until the office of president was filled and that he should have "temporary use of the Presidents House." Contrary to what often has been said, McCorkle accepted the

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OHN

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ILLAN

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appointment, but on the condition that should he be required to sur­ render the president's house, his salary would be proportionately sup­ plemented. The trustees elected to regard this conditional acceptance as a refusal of the appointment. There seems to be no cause for doubt that Davie was primarily responsible, perhaps because he distrusted McCorkle's executive ability, perhaps because he feared that the ap­ pointment would lend to churchmen too much influence in the de­ velopment of the university. McCorkle remained on the board until 1801, and there is no certain evidence that he shared the bitterness of his brother-in-law John Steele toward Davie. There is reason for believing that thereafter his pastoral duties claimed the larger part of his time and energy. In 1802 he took an active part in the great revival sweeping through the western Carolinas and joined James Hall (A.B. 1774) in offering testimony for publication in Philadelphia that the revival was indeed a work of the Lord. He suffered from declining health for some time before his death on June 21, 1811, leaving his widow, five sons and one daughter, and unusually specific instructions for his funeral. SOURCES: J. F. Hurley, Prophet of Zion Parnassus (1934); R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 119-20, 190; J. Rumple, Rowan Cnty. (1881), 263; First Census, N.C., 178; Sprague, Annals, in, 346, 348-49 ("tall and manly form"); Foote, Sketches, N.C., 351-63 ("considerable comfort"); alumni file, PUA; MS Clio Soc. membership list, PUA; Beam, Whig Soc., 47-57; C. M. Newlin, Hugh Henry Braekenridge (1932), 11-14; Madison Papers, 1, 61-68, 127, 128η ("inclination to laugh"); als M. Allen to A. Burr, 23 Jan 1772, Gratz Coll., PHi ("surrounded by Wiggs"); Fithian Journal, 11, 143 ("perplexed by melancholy"); E. W. Caruthers, David Caldwell (1842), 196; Rec. Pres. Chh., 451, 494; W. M. Wagstaff, Papers of John Steele (1924), 11, 759, 762; St. Rec. N.C., xxiv, 30, 680; xxv, 22; A. Henderson, Campus of the First St. Univ. (1949), 6-8; R.D.W. Connor, Doc. Hist, of Univ. of N.C. (1953), 1, 251-53 ("nursery" and "to the students"), 269-70; 11, 5, 25-26, 40; K. P. Battle, Hist, of Univ. of N.C., ι (1907), 38 ("worked for it"), 39, 40 ("may this hill"), 59-60, 99-100 ("Presidents House"), 123; B. P. Robinson, William R. Davie (1957), 224, 250-52; J. Hall, Narra­ tive of a most extraordinary work of Religion . . . (1802). PUBLICATIONS: see STE WFC

John McMillan J OHN M C M ILLAN, A .B., A.M. Jefferson College 1805, Presbyterian minister and educator, was born November 11, 1752, at Fagg's Manor, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of William and Margaret Rea McMillan, who as immigrants from Northern Ireland had settled on a farm there about a decade earlier. He began his preparation for college under the tutelage of Reverend John Blair at Fagg's Manor, and after

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Blair was called to join the faculty at Princeton in 1767, continued his studies with Reverend Robert Smith at Pequea, Pennsylvania. By his own later account, McMillan entered the College in the spring of 1770 and was admitted to the sophomore class. He is not listed among the members of either of the literary societies, nor was he among the four­ teen of the twenty-two members of the Class of 1772 who spoke at their commencement on September 30. After graduation McMillan returned to Pequea for study with Robert Smith in preparation for the ministry. He was licensed to preach by the New Castle Presbytery on October 26, 1774. For the better part of two years he followed the peripatetic life of a new licentiate, supplying various pulpits within the New Castle and Donegal presbyteries and journeying in the summer of 1775 southward into Virginia and thence northwestward to the Fort Pitt area. During the following winter he rode much the same route on a second mis­ sionary tour. His classmate Philip Fithian, on seeing him in Virginia during December, thought him "pretty much weatherbeaten" from "riding, studying, and preaching." By the spring of 1776 he had de­ termined to settle permanently over the mountains, and apparently had agreed to become pastor of the Chartiers Creek and Pigeon Creek congregations in the area claimed by Virginia as a part of its Yohogania County, later to become, after settlement of the boundary be­ tween the two states, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Having se­ cured dismissal from the New Castle Presbytery for acceptance by the Donegal Presbytery, McMillan was ordained by the latter at Chambersburg on June 19, 1776. On August 6, 1776, he married Catherine Brown, also of Chester County, but more than two years would elapse before he felt it safe to take his wife into the troubled backcountry, where Indians, inclined to favor the British, posed a threat to the settlers. Through these first years of his pastorate, McMillan lived a life not greatly different from that of an itinerant missionary. His wife and their first child joined him in November 1778 to take up residence in a log cabin that was raised, with the help of his parishioners, on a farm of some 300 acres he had purchased in the preceding year. Over the years he would farm as well as preach, and being a man of thrift he would considerably enlarge his holdings, a small part coming perhaps in reward for service in the militia toward the end of the war. Late in life he recalled that he and his wife moved into their home on December 16, 1778, "but we had neither bedstead, nor table, nor chairs, nor stool, nor bucket. All these things we had to leave behind us; there being no waggon road at that

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time over the mountains, we could bring nothing with us but what was carried on pack horses." McMillan secured release from the pastorate of Pigeon Creek in 1793, but he served Chartiers Creek until 1830. For much of that time he also continued the work of a missionary and was responsible for the organization of a number of new congregations in western Pennsyl­ vania. With more than a little justification, he would be remembered as the pioneer of Presbyterianism in that area. His sermons seem to have been remarkable chiefly for their careful preparation and for their forceful delivery in a voice, it was said, that could be heard a mile away. He was tall, stoutish, ungainly, and coarse-featured, and many found his manner, in or out of the pulpit, forbidding, but some­ how his preaching was effective. Toward the end of his life he liked to recall the revivals that brought marked accessions to the membership of his congregation in 1781, 1795, 1799, 1802, and 1823. his recollec­ tion the revival of 1802 stood out, because it was then, as he put it, "that the body was more generally affected." There was no suggestion that this phenomenon in any way disturbed him. "As far as I could observe," he wrote, "the bodily exercise never preceded but always followed upon the mind's being deeply impressed with a sense of some Divine truth." Remarkably faithful in the performance of his denominational obligations, he was an original member of the Red­ stone Presbytery in 1781 and of the Presbytery of Ohio in 1793. He served as moderator of the Synod of Virginia in 1791 and of the Synod of Pittsburgh in 1803 and 1816. In addition to farming and preaching, McMillan taught school. From an early date he was on the lookout for pious young men who might become ministers, and to these he offered instruction, apparently without charge, in Latin and Greek, at first in his home and later in a cabin constructed on the grounds for that purpose. His interest in more adequate provision for the education of the area's youth is indicated by his collaboration with Reverends Joseph Smith (A.B. 1764), Thaddeus Dod (A.B. 1773), and John Clark (A.B. 1759) in 1787 for the purpose of establishing an academy in the town of Washington, the county seat. When this school was slow to develop, he became a leader in the establishment of another academy at nearby Canonsburg, which in part because of his own contributions to its support got off to a sufficiently good start for him to give up his school. He later wrote that at the time he still had a few students, but "finding that I could not teach, and do justice to my congregation, I immediately gave it up, and sent them" to the new academy.

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He served as trustee of the Canonsburg Academy and undoubtedly had a leading part in an effort during the very year of its founding to bring the sponsorship of the Synod of Virginia to its support. The proposal, committed for study to a committee headed by Joseph Smith, looked forward to the development of more than a mere academy; by implication, certainly, it anticipated the elevation of the institution to the status of a college bearing the name of Jefferson by act of the state legislature in 1802. Final action on the report of Smith's committee pledged the synod to the support of "two general institutions for learn­ ing"—one in Rockbridge County, Virginia, under the presidency of Reverend William Graham (A.B. 1773), the other in Washington County, Pennsylvania, "under the care of the Rev, John M'Millan." Graham then was head of Liberty Hall at Lexington, forerunner of Washington and Lee University. The Hanover and Lexington pres­ byteries were charged with supervision of the one, Redstone Presbytery, of the other. Each institution was to be committed primarily, but not exclusively, to the training of clergymen, and in addition to the "learned languages and usual circle of sciences," the program of study was to include religious instruction throughout the course according to the teachings of the Presbyterian faith. The plan also included a provision for the collection of funds in each of the presbyteries to cover the cost of educating pious but indigent young men who might not otherwise be able to prepare themselves for the ministry. In this enabling legislation, the term "seminary" was used more than once, but it was a term not yet primarily identified with institutions exclusively concerned with the training of clergymen. Perhaps the plan can be viewed, however, as a significant step in that direction. The practical effect for the moment was limited. In Virginia the funds raised seem not to have been sufficient to lend to Liberty Hall and its successors a peculiar identification with the Presbyterian Church. In Washington County the funds must have been com­ parably small, for within a decade the Canonsburg Academy, which secured a state charter in 1794, was turning under McMillan's leader­ ship to the state for financial support, and with a modest degree of success. When Jefferson College received its charter in 1802, McMillan was president of the board, but he promptly resigned in order to qualify for appointment as the professor of divinity. In that capacity he served through many years. From the beginning of his teaching, his goal was to make the Presbyterian churches of the west self-sufficient in the supply of properly trained ministers. And it is not surprising to find him in the forefront of the movement that led in the later 1820s to the establishment of the Western Theological Seminary of the

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Presbyterian Church at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on the ground that the theological seminary located at Princeton since 1812 was too far away. By that time, age was taking its usual toll, which included a declining capacity to shape the course of events. McMillan undoubt­ edly had hoped for the new seminary to be located on the campus of Jefferson College. McMillan suffered another disappointment as well; Washington Academy, of which he had been an original trustee, after its first faltering steps, had gained strength and had secured in 1806 a charter as Washington College. The resulting division of available resources, and a rivalry which at times took on an ugly aspect, argued for unification of the two institutions, and McMillan was among those who sought to work out an agreement. But the union in the form of Washington and Jefferson College did not come until 1865, long after McMillan was dead. Although McMillan never held a public office, he did have great political influence. As early as 1786 Hugh Brackenridge (A.B. 1771), who of course had known McMillan in college, paid humorous tribute to his power in the following verses, first published in the Pittsburgh Gazette by way of announcing his refusal of an irresponsible challenge to a duel: McMillan the ecclesiastic Will burn me with religious caustic; Tell all the people that the devil, Has bound me hand and foot to evil. Can I avoid the horrid fury Of Presbyterian judge and jury? No. No. 'Tis best t'avoid the sin, And sleep as usual in my whole skin. As the verse suggests, McMillan owed much of his influence to the simple fact that he was the leading Presbyterian of a county in which many of the more influential residents were also Presbyterian, in no small part through his own efforts to keep them in that identification. The supreme test of his authority came with the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. His deep commitment to the rule of law overrode the sympathy he felt for fellow farmers who had found in distilled whiskey a con­ venient way of transporting the product of their labors over the moun­ tains to eastern markets and who had a way of confusing their re­ sistance to Hamilton's excise duty with their fathers' resistance to the Stamp Act. McMillan knew better and worked diligently, to the extent even of threatening exclusion from the communion table, to persuade his people to accept a peaceable submission to the government, and

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with good effect in his own part of the county. His decisive action ap­ parently reflected no distaste for whiskey itself. A story that has been often told of him is of a pause for a drink with a fellow minister at a tavern. His associate insisted on saying a grace before drinking the whiskeys they had ordered and continued at such length that McMillan drank both of them, and then advised his startled colleagues: "We must watch as well as pray." His support of the government in 1794, together with his support of the Jay Treaty and of a longtime friend and Fed­ eralist James Ross, who was running for governor in 1808, has led to the conclusion that McMillan was a Federalist. He may have been, but his most important political act was putting forward Albert Gallatin's name as a candidate for Congress late in the fall election of 1794, per­ haps for fear that Brackenridge, who had abandoned an early plan to become a clergyman, might win. Gallatin won and so was launched a long career of distinguished service in the national government. In March 1832 McMillan wrote a lengthy letter, summarizing his career, to President James Carnahan (A.B. 1800) at Princeton, at the latter's request. In ending it, he said: "I am yet able to preach, though my memory is much failed, so that I am obliged to make more use of notes than formerly; yet my lungs are still good, and I can bawl almost as loud as ever." Carnahan had prepared for college at the Canonsburg Academy. McMillan died on November 16, 1833. His wife had predeceased him in 1819. They had seven children, three sons and four daughters, all of whom survived their mother, and all but one, a son, their father. His will, dated April 23, 1832, disposed of some 669 acres of land (he is known to have acquired better than a thousand acres), and provided for cash bequests that added up to more than $2,000. He left also 135 manuscript sermons, the lectures he had given on theology at Jefferson College, and a journal of his travels and preaching that began with the day of his license to preach. Here the record of his preaching carries through September 1831 and shows him almost to the end so often in a pulpit that one reads with fuller understanding his explanation for his retirement in the preceding year. Said he, "I could no longer per­ form the duties of a pastor." SOURCES: All accounts credit him with a D.D. degree from Jefferson College in 1807,

but the official Cat. of Washington and Jefferson College (1889) lists only the A.M. of 1805. Sprague, Annals, m, 350-55, is McMillan's own account of his life, with minor amendments of the text and the omission of the better part of two paragraphs toward the end. The omitted parts can be found in D. R. Guthrie, John McMillan (1952), the best study of his life, where the letter is reprinted from The Pittsburgh Christian Herald, 14 Dec. 1833, as Appendix C. Sprague and Guthrie are the source of all quotations from McMillan in the text. A. Alexander and J. Carnahan, MS "Notices of Distinguished Graduates," NjP; D. M. Bennett, Life and Work of Rev.

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J o h n McMillan (1935), esp. 215-24 (will and inventory); B. Crumrine, Hist. Wash­ ington Cnty. (1882), 292, 438-44, 871-72, 876-78; F. J . Collier, Chartiers Chh. and Its Ministers (1875); JPHS, 33 (1955)1 63-85; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 11, 138-40 ("pretty much weatherbeaten"); Rec. Pres. Chh., 462, 477; Hist, of Presbytery of Washington (1889), 7, 10, 392-93; J . Smith, Hist, of Jefferson College (1857), 2iff, 21η; O. Crenshaw, General Lee's College (1969), 14; Min. Gen. Assem., 1821-1835, 144, 148, 155, 169-70, 208, 235; L. D. Baldwin, Whiskey Rebels (1939), 48-49 (Brackenridge verse), 205, 218-19; R. Walters, Albert Gallatin (1957), 82. Three surviving parts of McMillan's Journal (1774-1791, 1820-1831) are printed as Appendix A in Guthrie's study. PUBLICATIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS: see detailed Bibliography in Guthrie. WFC

Oliver Reese OLIVER REESE, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was probably the son of Rees Rees, who owned a farm in Red Lion Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. At the College he joined the Whig Society and spoke on "passive Obedience and Non-Resistance" at his commence­ ment exercises. After graduation, Reese studied theology with President Witherspoon. But he was frequently distracted by pretty young women. His most ardent pursuit was of a certain "Amanda," who lived in Prince­ ton. He was not concerned that his love life might hinder his career, however. "I study divinity one hour and think of the ladies the next," he told his classmate Philip Vickers Fithian, "so that in a short time I expect to be a most eminent Divine." The diversion must have taken some toll, for after preaching one sermon before Witherspoon in early 1773, Reese wondered "if they [will] get me to preach another." He meant to move to Trenton later in the year to practice his delivery. Originally a candidate of New Castle Presbytery, Reese was adopted by the Presbytery of the New Brunswick in May 1773. He was licensed to preach on February 1, 1774. Amanda was still much on his mind at that time, and his classmates speculated that he might actually marry the girl soon after he was licensed. Reese visited Philadelphia for a time in late 1774, on his way south. He may have been called to the church at Amwell, New Jersey but he decided to go to South Carolina instead. He supplied the church at Wilton, near Charleston, for a few months and was successful enough to be called to settle there. On March 27, 1775, a committee of three ministers, including William Tennent, Jr. (A.B. 1758) of the Inde­ pendent Church in Charleston, met in Pon Pon to examine and ordain Reese. It was obviously an occasion of some importance for both Reese,

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who bought two new suits of clothes costing £20, and the congregation, which arranged a dinner for "fifty persons and 15 boys" at a cost of illla July Reese was reporting to his friends in the north on the panic in Charleston over a rumored slave revolt. Stories abounded that the slaves and Indians, on their own or incited by British agents, were about to rise up against the local authorities. Charleston's citizens patrolled the streets for a few months, while some slaves, Loyalists, and Britons were arrested, jailed, or executed. By the end of July, the panic had subsided. The Wilton Church may have been so extravagant in celebrating Reese's ordination because its two most recent pastors had died within less than five years. The new minister was a young man and a good prospect to stay with his flock for some time, so an elegant welcome was not inappropriate. It was not well advised, however. His new suits barely worn, Reese died on October 7, 1775. His classmate William Bradford composed a "Pastoral Elegy" in his memory. SOURCES: Cal. of Del. Wills, New Castle Cnty. (1969), 76; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 1, 27-28, 31-32 ("eminent Divine"), 35 ("preach another"); Webster, MS Brief Sketches, HI; Rec. Pres. Chh., 451; Madison Papers, 1, 109, 128η, 156, 157η, mn; SCHM, 61 (i960), 152; 62 (1961), 111-12, 172; 10 (1909), 222; G. Howe, Hist, of Pres. Chh.. in S.C. (1870), 1, 399-400.

James Templeton A.B., A.M. 1787, Presbyterian clergyman, school­ master, and farmer, was a member of a large family, one group of which migrated from Chester County, Pennsylvania to northwestern North Carolina in the 1740s. From the direction of Templeton's ca­ reer, it is likely that he was part of that branch. He may have been the son of either David or James Templeton, brothers who settled in Rowan County. Although he did not join either literary society at the College, Templeton was friendly with both Whigs and Cliosophians. In the "Paper War" of 1771, one of the fictional signers of Whig's "The Cliosophian Club in Distress" was "Harry Templeton," but it is impossible to ascertain whether the use of his name was intended to include him in the ridicule or to align him with the perpetrators. His friends among his classmates included Philip Fithian and Andrew Hunter, both Whigs, and Isaac Alexander of Clio, who was also from North Caro­ lina. On April 29, 1773, Alexander wrote to Hunter to tell him that J AMES T EMPLETON,

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Templeton was studying theology. Since Alexander presumed that Hunter, then a tutor at the College, had been at Nassau Hall when Templeton left, it is possible that Templeton had begun his theo­ logical studies with Witherspoon in Princeton. That possibility is enhanced by the fact that when Templeton ap­ peared at a meeting of the Hanover Presbytery in Timber Ridge, Vir­ ginia on April 12, 1775, he supported his application to be a candidate with Witherspoon's certification of his good character. The presbytery accepted him and agreed to examine him for a license in June. Only two ministers, one of them Samuel Leake (A.B. 1764), managed to at­ tend the June meeting but they pronounced Templeton qualified. The full presbytery agreed and granted his license on October 25. Almost immediately Templeton moved to North Carolina. On Sep­ tember 2, 1778, he was accepted into the Presbytery of Orange. Sources differ as to the date of his ordination, but it occurred sometime be­ tween 1779 and 1782, when the presbytery reported it to the synod. By 1783 he was installed as minister of the Quaker Meadows Church in Burke County, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Mor­ gan Academy. He was the first president of the school's board of trus­ tees, another member of which was Waightstill Avery (A.B. 1766). On April 13, 1785, Templeton joined the newly organized Presby­ tery of South Carolina. The Synod of the Carolinas assigned him to a missionary tour in southern South Carolina and Georgia in October 1791, and two years later Templeton was chosen moderator of the synod's meeting at Sugar Creek. He preached occasionally in northern South Carolina churches and in 1794 was assigned as the stated supply of the one in Nazareth, Spartanburg County. There Templeton devoted much of his time to education. In the spring of 1797 he founded the Spartanburg Philanthropic Society, which was incorporated before the end of the year to establish schools and provide teachers and supplies. The first school was probably the short-lived Eustatie Academy, but at least two other institutions, the Minerva School and the Rock Spring Academy, prospered. It was also Templeton who took charge of raising funds for the society and who was the primary agent for ordering books for the schools. It is possible that by 1802 Templeton was so preoccupied with the schools that he resigned from the Nazareth Church. He continued on the rolls of the Second South Carolina Presbytery but "without a charge" after that year. It was also then that he published his Explana­ tion of the Trigonometrical Quadrant, an explication of his own device for teaching mathematics. An autographed copy of the book went to Professor John Maclean at Nassau Hall.

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Templeton explained in the preface that he had conceived the idea in order to aid a school near his home. He also apologized that the book was not better written because of some unspecified difficulties in his personal life. Those may have been the troubles on which he ex­ panded in a letter to a friend in 1807. He had by then been quite ill for several years, had fallen into debt, and had been betrayed by people with whom he had to deal in his "building and farming work." Hound­ ed by creditors, he had many enemies in Spartanburg by 1807. But the crowning insult was the charge by a local woman that he was a drunk­ ard. That hurt, he said, more than everything else. He protested vehe­ mently that the accusation was "false as Hell," and he was very bitter. "I have sometimes of late thought," he wrote, "that I should become a perfect misanthrope." It is not clear whether Templeton ever married. No family is men­ tioned in his correspondence, but a James Templeton who lived in Burke County, North Carolina in 1790 apparently did have a wife and five children. Templeton resided in Spartanburg County and re­ mained an unassigned member of the presbytery until his death in 1818 or 1819. SOURCES: N.J. Journal and Political Intelligencer, 10 Oct 1787 (A.M.); R. W. Ramsey,

Carolina Cradle (1964), 46, 47; Fithian Journal, 1, 15 ("Harry"); als I. Alexander to A. Hunter, 29 Apr 1773, NjP; Foote, Sketches, Va., 443, 446; Giger, Memoirs, 11; Jiec. Pres. Chh., 494; Webster, Ms Brief Sketches, 1; E. W. Caruthers, Life and Character of the Rev. David Caldwell (184a), 250; NCHR, 39 (1962), 11; St. Rec. N.C., 286, 287, 388; G. Howe. Hist, of Pres. Chh. in S.C. (1870-83), 1, 625; 11, 754; J.B.O. Landrum, Hist, of Spartanburg Cnty. (1900), 50-51, 54-55; W.P.A., Hist, of Spartanburg Cnty. (1940), 94-95; "Copy of Mr. Templeton's commission to solicit Donations" (1801), 6 Jan 1806, PHi; F. D. Jones and W. H. Mills, eds., Hist, of Pres. Chh. in S.C. (1926), 15 ("without a charge"); als J. Templeton to W. Williamson, 7 Apr 1807, PPPrHi ("building and farming . . . misanthrope"); First Census, N.C., 110; W. J. Beecher, Index, Pres. Ministers (1883). PUBLICATIONS; see text MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi, PHi

Hunloke Woodruff H UNLOKE W OODRUFF, physician, was born in Elizabeth town, New Jer­ sey on October 23, 1754. His parents were Anne Hunloke Woodruff and Joseph Woodruff (A.B. 1753), a wealthy merchant. When his fa­ ther died in February 1769, Woodruff inherited all of the family's property, minus £500 that went to his stepmother, Rebecca. William Peartree Smith, a charter trustee of the College, and Elias Boudinot, a

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future trustee, were named Woodruff's guardians. The estate was valued at £1,687 9s 4d, including four slaves. Woodruff was a student in the College at the time of his father's death. But when liens against his grandfather's estate forced the sale of his inheritance in February 1772, he did not return to Nassau Hall. In­ stead, he went to live with his father's sister, the widow of Joseph Treat (A.B. 1757), in New York City. There he studied medicine with her brother-in-law Malachi Treat and attended private lectures on anatomy at King's College. He had ended his studies by July 1775, when he joined the First New York Regiment of Continentals as a surgeon's mate. He was with the unit on the Canadian frontier until March 1776, when it disbanded, and he then joined the Third New York Regiment as a surgeon. In November 1776 he transferred to Col­ onel Henry Beekman Livingston's Fourth New York Regiment, serv­ ing in upper New York State. Stationed at Fort Schuyler in 1777 and 1778, Woodruff frequently treated victims of Indian attacks. He also established personal ties to Albany, where his aunt had moved when New York City fell to the British. In May 1779 Woodruff married Maria Lansing, called Polly, the daughter of Colonel Jacob Lansing of Albany. Soon thereafter, he rejoined the Third New York as it marched with General William Sullivan against the hostile native tribes in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1780 Woodruff joined several brother officers in resigning from the army because New York had made no provisions to compen­ sate them for the severe depreciation of their pay. Woodruff settled in Albany, where his in-laws and the Yates family, to which he was also very close, were leading antifederalists in the late 1780s. Woodruff was politically active, too, but less prominently. He was a regent of the state university from 1784 to 1787 and was elected as an assistant to Albany's Board of Aldermen and Assistants in Sep­ tember 1786. He served on several town committees, was secretary of the board of trustees of Washington Academy in the city, and served as a surgeon in the county militia from 1786 until 1798. In 1792, he was a member of the board of trustees of the local public library. When a yellow fever epidemic decimated Philadelphia in 1793, Al­ bany did its best to bar all contact with the stricken community. Among those infected by the disease were Alexander Hamilton and his wife, whose children were staying with their Schuyler grandpar­ ents in Albany. The Hamiltons recovered and left Philadelphia to join their children only to find that they were not permitted to enter the city. Finally, Woodruff and three other physicians were sent to ex-

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amine the couple and pronounced them healthy. Their arrival in Al­ bany nonetheless caused panic among the nervous residents. In September 1794 Woodruff was elected to represent the second ward on the Albany Common Council. He was reelected in 1795· He continued his prosperous medical practice as well, sharing his patients with a much older physician, Wilhelmus Mancius, who had far less formal education than Woodruff. Their frequent friendly disputes, pitting the younger man's erudition against the older man's experi­ ence, usually ended when Mancius said, "Ah! de cure! Hunloke, de cure is de great ting—I cure." Mancius died in 1808. Woodruff's own reputation as a practitioner had been good enough to earn unanimous election to the presidency of the new Albany Medi­ cal Society in 1806 and membership on the board of trustees of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1807. His personal estate was extensive. He owned two slaves in 1790, the year in which he received a bounty of land for his service in the Revolution. That bounty probably included the 400 acres in Cayuga County which he sold in 1805. For the last several years of his life, Woodruff suffered from scrofula. As the disease progressed, it affected his ability to practice and it finally killed him on July 4, 1811. He was survived by four daughters and one of his two sons. SOURCES: C. N. Woodruff, W o o d r u f f C h r o n i c l e s (1967), 1, 75, 80-83; N . J . W i l l s , iv, 487; alumni file of Joseph Woodruff, PUA; Heitman, 6 0 4 ; Index, PCC; C a l . N . Y . H i s t . MSS , War of Rev. (1868), 11, 18, 38, 42, 47, 4g; Force, Am. Arch. (5 ser.), in, 361, 1041; J. D. Scott, Ft. Stanwix and Oriskamy (1927), 132; NYHS Col. [1915], 431; Clinton Papers, 111, 450; NYGBR, 71 (1940), 240; 80 (1949), 10; N.Y. Sec'y. of State, J o u r n a l s of t h e [Sullivan] E x p e d i t i o n ( 1 8 8 7 ) , 3 2 7 ; A. F. Y o u n g , D e m o c r a t i c R e p u b l i ­ cans of N . Y . ( 1 9 6 7 ) , 4 2 - 4 3 ; N . Y . W i l l s , xin, 2 2 7 ; Μ. H. Thomas, C o l u m b i a U n i v . Officers and Alumni (1936), 93; Coll. on Hist, of Albany (1867), 11, 232-33, 274-75, Mil. Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y. (1901), 1, 117, 139, 453> J- A. Weise, H i s t , of . . . A l b a n y ( 1 8 8 4 ) , 4 0 9 ; H a m i l t o n P a p e r s , xv, 3 4 4 η ; P r o c . of C o m m o n C o u n c i l of . . . A l b a n y ( 1 9 0 7 ) , Addenda to 11, 3 8 6 - 8 8 , 4 1 0 ; F i r s t C e n s u s , N.Y., 13; Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966), 1035; Annals of Albany, ix, 276, 284, 293, 302;

go ("de cure").

CLASS OF 1773

James Francis Armstrong, A.B.

Andrew King, A.B.

David Bard, A.B.

Henry Lee, Jr., A.B.

William Beekman, A.B.

Morgan Lewis, A.B.

Ebenezer Bradford, A.B.

John Linn, A.B.

Stephen Cooke, A.B.

James McConnell, A.B.

Archibald Craig, A.B.

James Hugh McCulloch, A.B.

Hugh Craig, A.B.

John McKnight, A.B.

Franklin Davenport

Aaron Ogden, A.B.

Thaddeus Dod, A.B.

Richard Piatt, A.B.

John Duffield, A.B.

Belcher Peartree Smith, A.B.

James Dunlap, A.B.

John Blair Smith, A.B.

William Graham, A.B.

William Richmond Smith, A.B.

James (Jacobus) Hasbrouck, a.B.

James Tate

Hugh Hodge, A.B. William Eugene Imlay, A.B.

Samuel Waugh, A.B. Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson, A.B. John Witherspoon, Jr., A.B.

James Francis Armstrong JAMES FRANCIS ARMSTRONG, A.B., A.M. 1781, Presbyterian clergyman,

was born April 3, 1750, at West Nottingham, Maryland, the son of Francis Armstrong, an elder in the local church. His mother's name has not been found. His preparation for college began in the school conducted by Reverend Robert Smith at Pequea, Pennsylvania and was completed at Fagg's Manor in a school then under the direction of John Blair. Admitted to the College in the fall of 1771 as a member of the junior class, he joined the American Whig Society, which he helped to revive after the Revolution. At commencement on Septem­ ber 29, 1773, he participated in a three-way disputation of the propo­ sition that "Every human Art is not only consistent with true Religion, but receives its highest improvement from it." After graduation Armstrong is said to have remained in Princeton to begin his preparation for the ministry with Witherspoon, perhaps teaching in the grammar school to meet his costs. By June 1776 he had become a candidate under the care of the New Brunswick Presbytery, and through the summer and fall he was undergoing the trials pre­ liminary to securing a license to preach. The invasion of New Jersey by the British army put a stop to these proceedings, but with an intro­ duction from Witherspoon he was transferred to the Presbytery of New Castle, which in January 1777 licensed him to preach. His was not to be the normal path from license to ordination as the pastor of a congregation, perhaps after a missionary tour. Instead, his immediate objective was a chaplaincy in the army. No confirmation has been found for the report Philip Fithian in July 1775 had heard from Princeton that Armstrong had gone to Boston to join General Wash­ ington. There is no doubt, however, that in the following year, and probably in the very midst of his efforts to establish his right to a ministerial license, he served at his own expense as a volunteer private in a militia unit led by Peter Gordon of Hunterdon County in one of the abortive efforts to dislodge the British on Staten Island. On Decem­ ber 2, 1777, he applied to the New Castle Presbytery for ordination as one chosen by General John Sullivan as chaplain for his command, with "a certificate of his moral conduct" supplied by Sullivan. He was ordained at Pequea on January 14, 1778, the ordination sermon being preached by his old master Robert Smith. On July 17, 1778, he received from the Congress an appointment as chaplain to the Second Brigade of the Maryland Line, Continental Army. In that capacity he would serve almost until the end of the war. The harder part of that service undoubtedly came after the British

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capture of Charleston in May 1780. As Cornwallis laid plans for a thrust through upper South Carolina into North Carolina, some 1,400 Maryland and Delaware Continentals, Armstrong's brigade among them, were sent down to form the nucleus of a new Southern Army, of which General Horatio Gates assumed command along the Deep River in North Carolina on July 25, 1780. From Deep River on July 8, Arm­ strong had written William Churchill Houston (A.B. 1768), his former teacher and now a member of the Congress, of a 500-mile march from Philadelphia into a country where "not the least provision was made to hasten or encourage our march." Almost a month later he wrote from the Pee Dee in South Carolina, where on August 16 at Camden, Gates suffered a disastrous defeat, that "What the troops, officers, as well as the privates have suffered is beyond description." Provisions were so scarce that the "eye of the most rigid justice must wink at plunder," but even "unjustifiable methods" were insufficient to meet the need. He was inclined, in the beginning at least, to see a parallel with New Jersey's experience in 1776 and even to express his confidence that the same Providence that had saved New Jersey would ultimately rescue the Carolinas. But when he wrote in the following December from Charlotte, just after Nathanael Greene had taken over from Gates, he could find in the army's condition little ground for optimism. His letter showed no sympathy for the militia units engaged in a par­ tisan type of struggle with the British and their Tory allies. Later he described the war in the South as one "attended with scenes of in­ human cruelty and savage barbarity which, for the sake of human nature, ought to be blotted from the pages of history." It is impossible to be certain, but there is reason for believing that Armstrong continued to serve with General Greene's regulars through the difficult marches and engagements that brought control of the interior of the Carolinas and Georgia to the Americans by the end of 1781. A payroll account indicates that he remained in the service until early in 1782. Back in New Jersey, he began in June of 1782 to supply the pulpit in Elizabeth that had been made vacant by the shooting of James Caldwell (A.B. 1759). The following August he was married by John Witherspoon to Susannah Livingston, daughter of Robert James Livingston, whose widow lived in Princeton, and sister to William Smith (A.B. 1772), Peter Robert (A.B. 1784), and Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786). The rheumatic affliction from which he had suffered since the time of his campaigning in Carolina, and which would plague him to the end of his life, probably explains his withdrawal in 1783 as supply minister for Elizabeth. For several months he sought a new

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position, and his inability at first to find one lent some desperation to the quest and to his family's financial situation. In March 1784 he asked William Bradford (A.B. 1772) for the loan of fifty to one hun­ dred dollars so that he might make "a tour of considerable extent" to find a place to settle. He did not, however, have to go too far. After the pulpit in the Presbyterian church in Trenton became vacant late in 1784, Armstrong began to supply it with a degree of success that resulted in a call that he finally accepted in the spring of 1787. He re­ mained its pastor for the rest of his life, adding from 1790 to 1806 the pastorate of the Maidenhead (Lawrenceville) Presbyterian church. In 1783 he became an original member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, and through many years was active in its affairs, often as speaker on the Fourth of July. An unabashed patriot, the main theme of his discourses on such occasions is probably well enough summarized in the caption of a sermon delivered not long after his return from the wars: "The Lord Was On Our Side." Under his pas­ torate the congregation grew and built a new and more commodious brick church, which they dedicated in 1806. In the community he actively supported the Trenton Academy, of which for a time he was superintendent, the Trenton Union Fire Company, and the Trenton Library Company, founded in 1797. He became a man of influence in his denomination, and served as moderator of its General Assembly in 1804. Having become a trustee of the College in 1790, he served it faith­ fully in that capacity for more than a quarter of a century. In 1793 he held four shares in the New Jersey Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures. Armstrong died on January 19, 1816, after several years of declining health. The inventory of his estate, which included two slaves, indi­ cates that his holdings of worldly goods were modest. His widow, who outlived him by many years, applied for and evidently secured a pen­ sion in 1836 for his military service. The couple had six children, five of whom outlived their father, including Robert Livingston Armstrong (A.B. 1802) and a daughter Eleanor Graeme, who married Charles Ewing (A.B. 1798), later Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. SOURCES: J. Hall, Hist, of the Pres. Chh. in Trenton (1859), 295-376; 2d ed. (1912), 179-228 (correspondence with Houston), 339; Sprague, Annals, HI, 389-92; Alexander,

Princeton, 160; Beam, Whig Soc., 15, 61-62; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commence­ ment); Stryker, Off. Reg., 75, 491, Appendix, p. 14; Fithian Journal, n, 60; U.S. War Dept., Coll. Rev. War Recs., vol. 178, p. 124; GMNJ, 3 (1928), 130; als JFA to W. Bradford, 26 Mar 1784, Wallace Papers, 1, f. 144, PHi ("a tour of considerable extent"); Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966); Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820, 286; M. B. McLeod, Light To My Path (1976), containing six hitherto unpublished

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sermons of Armstrong (p. 24 for "savage barbarity" of war in South); als JFA to G. Simson, 11 Jan 1793, NjP; inventory 2786J, Nj. MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi; NjP (of limited interest). WFC

David Bard DAVID BARD, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman and public official, was probably born in 1744 in Frederick County, Maryland. He was the youngest son of Archibald Beard, an Irish immigrant who settled first in New Castle County, Delaware and then in 1741 bought part of a tract called "Carroll's Delight" in Frederick County, where he built and operated a mill. That section of the Cumberland Valley was later ceded to Pennsylvania in the border settlement between that colony and Maryland. Bard attended a Latin grammar school directed by Robert Smith of Pequea, Pennsylvania before he entered the College, where he was a

David Bard, A.B. 1773

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member of the American Whig Society. He left Nassau Hall after taking his degree, without paying his bill for tuition and board, prob­ ably amounting to £3, and the trustees resolved in September 1774 to take the "proper Pains" to secure the money. After graduation Bard returned to his home district to study the­ ology. When Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) visited the Cumberland Valley in June 1775 he found Bard, still a "student," among the many fellow alumni in the Donegal Presbytery. Bard apparently resided in Blair County, Pennsylvania at the time. After being licensed by the Donegal Presbytery in the spring of 1777, Bard had a fleeting urge to join the Continental Army as a chaplain. It passed. Instead, he supplied churches in settlements west of the Alleghenies, including the one in Great Cove, Virginia, where he was ordained in June 1779. One year later, he moved to the united congre­ gations of Kittockton and Gum Springs in Louisa County, Virginia. While there, he bought some land in Jefferson County, later Nelson County, Kentucky. His whereabouts for the few years after 1782 are not certain. In 1786 he returned to western Pennsylvania in compliance with a call from the church in Bedford. With him he brought his wife, Elizabeth Diemer, whom he had married during his sojourn in Virginia, possibly at Leesburg. In 1788 he supplied the church in Frankstown, Blair County, which soon called him as its permanent pastor. He thereupon abandoned a plan to move to Kentucky and settled in Frankstown, serving the church at Sinking Valley and the unorganized congregation in Williamsburg as well as his own parishioners. Bard was the first full-time minister in Frankstown, where he earned $100 annually. The first church building, erected under his supervision, was called "Bard's Meeting House." He bought two lots in the town, declined a call from the church in Falling Waters, Virginia, and en­ tered political life. While helping to organize the Presbytery of Hunt­ ingdon in 1794 and 1795, Bard was elected to Congress. He was one of seven Republicans in Pennsylvania's delegation of thirteen members. Although he continued to preach whenever he was at home, Bard spent most of the rest of his life representing his often-redistricted con­ stituents in Congress. His attendance record at meetings of church bodies was among the worst, and in 1799 he agreed to step aside as the minister in Frankstown. He retained his post in Sinking Valley, how­ ever, and preached there during the summer congressional recesses. A technical challenge to Bard's first election was quickly dismissed by the House in March 1796, and the new representative took his place in the Republican opposition. A loyal partisan, he opposed the Alien

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and Sedition Acts, the severance of relations with France, and the grant of authority to President Adams to raise a "provisional army" during the war scare of 1798. But he supported the direct tax bill of 1798 that would raise money for national defense. In Pennsylvania, that tax provoked Fries' Rebellion, which, with a recent redistricting of the state, contributed to Bard's failure to be re­ elected in the Republican triumph of 1800. He was successful again in 1802, however, and it was in the Eighth Congress that he made his only major speech to the House. On February 14, 1804, he introduced a resolution to tax imported slaves at $10 per head. Although most states then prohibited the importation of slaves, South Carolina had recently repealed its prohibitory law, and the constitutional ban on such trade would not take effect until 1808. Bard defended his proposal as proper and fair, intended as it had to be to raise money, but also to show that the "General Government" opposed slavery as an institution anti­ thetical to the "republican character" of the United States. The House approved the resolution, but it was never enacted into law. Bard entered the Ninth Congress with high hopes for the Jefferson administration's economic and foreign policies. He sided with most Republicans in supporting Jefferson's embargo, but he voted against the Nonintercourse Act of 1809, probably because he thought it a poor substitute for earlier measures. A consistent advocate of taking a hard line toward Great Britain, he also voted for war in 1812. The final issue that attracted Bard's passionate interest was the pro­ posed reestablishment of a national bank in 1814. He opposed the bank on constitutional grounds, fearing that congressional legislation "on the doctrine of Necessity and convenience" would violate the limits imposed upon that branch. He opposed it, too, because "commercial interest men avowedly hostile to the administration and to an honor­ able prosecution of the war" would undoubtedly control such a bank. Instead, he proposed the sale of new treasury notes, redeemable after the war. And he was confident that a patriotic people would buy those notes. In 1815, as he was returning home from Congress, Bard fell ill at the home of his daughter in Alexandria, Pennsylvania. He died there on March 12 and was buried at the Sinking Valley cemetery. He was sur­ vived by his widow and seven children. SOURCES: Als G. W. Schaiffer to S. Agnew, 16 Mar 1870, PPPrHi; G. O. Seilhamer, Bard Family (1908), 273-81, Kittocktiny Mag., 1 (1905), 115-19; T.J .C. Williams and F. McKinsey, Hist, of Frederick Cnty. Md. (1967), 11, 45-46^ Trustee Minutes, 1, 201, PUA; Fithian Journal, n, 32-33 ("student"); M. Spalding, Bardstown (1961), 3-8; Rec. Pres. Chh., 477; Blair Cnty.'s First Hundred Years (1945), 12, 74-75, 87, 219-20; W. J. Gibson, Hist, of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pa. (1883), [Blair] 60, 89;

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Hist. Memoirs of . . . Presbytery of Huntingdon (1896), 23, 42, 63, 142, 160, 260-61, 290; A/C, v, viii, ix, xix, xxi, xxiv, passim; xin, 991-98 ("republican character"); xxv, 140; xxvoi, 303; H. M. Tinkcom, Republicans and Federalists in Pa. (1950), 142, 182-83, 199, 215-17, 313; als DB to J. Hamilton, 23 May 1800, Hamilton Papers, PHi; Pa. Arch., (4 ser.), iv, passim; als DB to S. Bryan, 11 Nov 1804, PHi; V. A. Sapio, Pa. and the War of 1812 (1970), 106-107; als DB to J. E. Buchanan, 25 Nov 1814, PPPrHi ("doctrine of Necessity"). MANUSCRIPTS; PHi, PPPrHi

William Beekman WILLIAM BEEKMAN, A.B., merchant, was born in 1754, the first child of James and Jane Keteltas Beekman of New York City. His father, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, was among the city's most successful importers. In 1764 the family moved into "Mount Pleasant," an estate built for them at Turtle Bay on the East River. In 1766 Beekman's parents paid John Durand £19 to paint por­ traits of their six children. Then thirteen, William must already have

William Beekman, A.B. 1773 BY JOHN DURAND

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CLASS OF 1773

exhibited a scholarly bent, for he was portrayed holding an open volume of a Latin classic. Young Beekman and his brothers Abraham and James, Jr. (non-graduates in the classes of 1774 and 1776, re­ spectively) were educated at a local school directed by Thomas Johnson in 1766, but their father hired Isaac Skillman (A.B. 1766) to tutor them at home in January 1767. After four months, Skillman left to open his own school where the Beekmans continued their studies between May and October 1767. Then the family hired Elias Jones (A.B. 1767) to instruct the children at home for £30 per year. That arrangement lasted until 1769, when the boys were sent to Princeton. Impressed by President Witherspoon's reputation, Beekman's father contributed £7 15s to the new president's campaign to revive the College's finances. All three of his sons boarded with Mrs. Parnell Davenport, the mother of John (A.B. 1764), in Princeton, at a cost of £20 per year. The boys always needed spending money, and by the end of 1775, when the last of them left school, James Beekman, Sr. had spent £741 on his sons' education. That amount probably did not even include the £6 2s that went for dancing lessons for William and Abra­ ham in 1770. William Beekman entered the freshman class of the College in March 1769. He enjoyed studying languages and the classics, and his notes on Witherspoon's lectures on moral philosophy, now in the New York Historical Society, included such dicta as, "Men are origi­ nally and by Nature equal and consequently free"; and "Liberty either cannot, or ought not to be given up." In 1770 he joined the new Cliosophic Society and at his commencement participated in a forensic debate on the proposition that "Every human Art is not only con­ sistent with true Religion, but receives its highest Improvement from it." After graduation Beekman remained in Princeton to study theology with Witherspoon. He was there through the winter of 1773-1774 and again the next autumn. In the first half of 1775 he was back in New York taking French lessons from a Mr. Cozani, whose wife tutored Beekman's three sisters. He was in Princeton again for the summer but, perhaps because of the Revolution, he never entered the ministry. As a prominent Whig sympathizer, James Beekman, Sr. was an obvious target of the British troops who occupied New York in the fall of 1776. After hiding the family treasure under the floor of the green­ house, the Beekmans abandoned "Mount Pleasant" to the enemy in September, and the estate was adopted at once as the residence of the English commanders in the city. It was there that Nathan Hale was tried and sentenced and that Major John Andr£ received his final

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instructions before going to meet Benedict Arnold. The Beekmans, meanwhile, were in Kingston, New York, where they leased a house for a year, until British troops raided the town. At about that time, James Beekman, Sr. hired three substitutes to serve for his sons in the American army. He then moved the family to Sharon, Connecticut. William Beekman and his brothers spent much of the war helping their father and uncles try to save failing businesses in New York and New Jersey. When peace was restored in 1783, the family moved back to "Mount Pleasant," and the older sons made their homes in other Beekman properties in New York City. On March 30, 1784, William Beekman was sworn as a freeman of the city. In August he petitioned the municipal government to widen the streets near his property on the East River and, after paying a personal visit to the mayor, won the appeal. By that time Beekman was a full partner in his father's struggling import business. At first, father and son tried to restore their trade in a wide variety of goods with London, but by 1787 they concentrated on establishing commercial relations with several exporters in France. Beekman's language lessons in 1775 apparently had not been worth their cost, for his father had to ask agents in Bordeaux, St. Quentin, and Nantes to write him in English, since neither he nor his sons understood French. The rest of Beekman's life was spent as his father's deputy in the family business. He made his home in the Bowery section of the city's seventh ward, on property he inherited from an uncle in 1789, where he kept seven slaves. He was elected a tax assessor for the ward in June 1795 but declined the office because of ill health. He was reelected in October 1796, when his health improved enough to permit him to accept. His father trusted him to represent the family's interests in settling the estate of an uncle in 1797, and it was he who corresponded directly with the family's counsel, Alexander Hamilton. In 1801, James Beekman, Sr. provided that after his and his wife's deaths, his entire estate should go to his eldest son. But William Beek­ man survived his father by only one year and predeceased his mother. He died a bachelor on August 15, 1808. SOURCES: P. L. White, Beekmans of N.Y. (1956), passim; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); als R. Stewart to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, Gratz Coll., PHi; Ε. T. Delaney, N.Y.'s Turtle Bay Old and New (1965), 4-9; F. G. Mather, Refugees of /776 from Long Island to Conn. (1913), 661-62; NYHS Coll., XVIII, 242; MCCCNY, 1, 168; π, 156, 285; P. L. White, Beekman Mercantile Papers, in (1956), 1115-17, 1073-75; First Census, N.Y., 129; H a m i l t o n Papers, xx, 527, 528ml; H . S. Mott, N.Y. of Yes­ terday (1908), 344. MANUSCRIPTS: NHi

Ebenezer Bradford EBENEZER BRADFORD, A.B., A.M. 1784, Dartmouth 1785, Brown 1800,

Congregational clergyman, was born in Canterbury, Connecticut on May 29, 1746, the son of William and Mary Cleveland Bradford and the brother of William Bradford (A.B. 1774). His father, a farmer and miller, was a member of the stormy Congregational church in Canterbury, which was deeply divided between the Old and New Di­ vinities. In 1760 the majority New Lights broke from the church and founded a new congregation. The Bradford family was among the secessionists, and schisms of one sort or another were part of Ebenezer Bradford's life from that time. Bradford was prepared at the academy in Plainfield, Connecticut. In the late 1760s he went to Newport, Rhode Island, near the home of his prominent cousin, Dr. William Bradford, to teach school. The pre­ eminent cleric in Newport and Bradford's likely supervisor was Ezra Stiles. But Samuel Hopkins also moved to the island in 1770, and the Congregational churches were then torn between Stiles's moderate New Divinity and Hopkinsian fervor. Bradford left Newport in No­ vember 1770 with a letter of recommendation from Stiles, who praised his skills at penmanship, English grammar, Latin, and mathematics and noted that he was a man of "sobriety and religious Deportment." Although such reserved judgments were typical of Stiles there was another explanation for his subdued language. Bradford was probably attracted to Hopkins's exuberance, which came close to the style of the large Baptist community in Rhode Island. And Stiles had special prob­ lems with the Baptists, stemming from his contest with James Manning (A.B. 1762) over the charter and location of Rhode Island College. From Newport, Bradford went to Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey, where in October 1771 he joined the church of Reverend Jacob Green (Harvard 1744), the father of Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783). A disciple of Jonathan Edwards, Green preached a stern theology with a zeal that appealed to young Bradford. He also had some unique ideas about the ministry that produced constant tension with his colleagues. Although a trustee of the College, Green disapproved of four-year higher education for clergymen, proposing instead a two-year pro­ gram that would lead directly to a license. His idea was simply to make Presbyterians competitive with more successful, and less educated, Baptists. Bradford apparently studied theology with Green before entering the College in the fall of 1771. To a man influenced by Hopkins and Green, the Nassau Hall of President Witherspoon was a dull place, and Bradford set out to

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change things. Fearful of reprisals from the College's administration, he held secret meetings to preach his own version of the New Divinity. After removing the title pages for security, he circulated books by Hopkins and Joseph Bellamy among his fellow students. And styling himself "Rev. Ebenezer Bradford," he reported to Bellamy in April 1772 that his work had helped produce the current revival at Princeton. Bradford also found time to join the Cliosophic Society, adopting the name of the Corsican patriot "Paoli." At his commencement he spoke on the "Sense of Moral Obligation." In addition, he managed to carry on a romance with Olive Steele of Bethlehem, Connecticut, whom he visited occasionally during his college years. The affair went stale in December 1773 when Bradford discovered that his love had never been baptized. Warning her that not only her soul but also her future as the wife of a prospective minister were in peril, Bradford urged her to correct the problem. He may have been too late. She died in July 1774. It is possible that Bradford actually applied for a license to preach from the Presbytery of New York in 1772, for Joseph Treat (A.B. 1757) asked Stiles for additional information about the young man in that year. Stiles could not comment on Bradford's piety since Bradford claimed truly to have found religion only recently. But he did mention the "Tinct. of Enthus. and Instability" in Bradford's character of which he disapproved. Apparently, Baptists objected to Bradford, perhaps because of his affiliation with Stiles. They called the young man a liar and a hypocrite, but Stiles dismissed such accusations. "I am satisfied," he told Treat, "if he would turn Baptist their first Minrs. would ordain him in an instant." In any case, Bradford was not licensed in 1772. In spite of his dis­ taste for Witherspoon's views he remained in Princeton to study theology. He was finally licensed by the New York Presbytery in August 1774 and then apparently served with Green at Hanover. He was ordained on July 13, 1775, probably as a military chaplain. On April 4, 1776, he married Green's daughter Elizabeth, whom he knew to have been baptized. He may have been with the army on Long Island that summer, but by January 1777 he was a supply minister at the Congregational church in Danbury, Connecticut. Part of Bradford's reason for moving north was that his health suffered in New Jersey. He was still recovering from a case of jaundice when he began his duties in a church that was as divided as his father's had been. Until 1777 Danbury had been the home of Robert Sandeman, and it was still the center of Sandemanianism, a theology too radical even for Bradford. Although he was comfortable among the

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people, the new minister was troubled that between "the Sandemanian errors" on one side and the "New England preciseness" of the Old Divinity on the other, his flock was "destitute of any constant Scheme of Religion." He was "greatly discouraged" and eager to leave, al­ though he apparently intended to keep the farm he bought near Danbury. In 1779 Bradford went back to his father-in-law's parish. There he helped found a two-year school for ministers in accordance with Green's ideas. In October 1779, having failed to convince the presby­ tery to accept his notions, Green led a group of ministers in seceding from that body to form the Morris County Presbytery, the first "Asso­ ciated Presbytery" in the nation. Among Green's followers were Benoni Bradner (A.B. 1755) and the Bradford brothers. Ebenezer Bradford found a permanent home when another divided congregation, this one at Rowley, Massachusetts, called him in October 1781 to succeed the hapless John Blydenburgh (A.B. 1770). He was offered a settlement of £200 plus £100 annually, nearly half of it in kind. He settled at Rowley on August 4, 1782 and opened another twoyear school of theology in his own home. He led his congregation from its moderate New Light habits to slightly more radical practices, such as singing without reading the line. Meanwhile, he had to smooth the ruffled feathers of his erstwhile colleagues in Green's presbytery, some of whom knew his record as a dissenter and must have been offended by his move. He assured Green that his health was the main reason for his departure. Bradford's emotional preaching of the New Divinity soon made him infamous in New England. He stoutly defended Hopkins and Bellamy against Arminian critics, proclaimed the doctrine of the total depravity of mankind, and intensified the controversy over the importance and definition of religious experience. In September 1790 he decided to chastise the women in Manchester, Connecticut, where, apparently, the number of marriages was too low to suit him, for the "hardness of their hearts." As Reverend William Bentley, a liberal theologian who was not amused by Bradford's performance, described the scene, Bradford Turned to the Women & asked them whether they did not want a husband to go home married, till a Crazy Man named Lee cried out all for a husband, the congregation was thrown into confusion. The women fell into fits. Shrieks were heard, the neighborhood disturbed, a woman in childbed thrown into histerics from hear­ ing the noise. The schoolmaster rose, and addressed the speaker, and upbraided his irregular conduct. Several persons threatened

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the master with a prosecution for disturbing public worship, while an honest Tar standing by exclaimed The Devil of a Wed­ ding, Hollo, Boys Hollo! The political atmosphere in Connecticut was also perfectly suited to Bradford's combative temper. Although most American clerics had welcomed the French Revolution in 1789, their ardor tended to cool as Jacobinism came to be identified with deism, and then with out­ right impiety and atheism. That identification was fostered largely by Federalists who were eager to gain church support against growing Republicanism. The Federalist efforts ultimately produced the Illuminati controversy in which John Cosins Ogden (A.B. 1770) was so deeply involved, but by 1795 the French Revolution was a topic of heated debate. From his mentors—Stiles, Hopkins, Green, and Bellamy—Bradford had gained a dedication to revolutionary principles. Like many min­ isters, he welcomed the upheaval in France as an echo of the American experience and as the death knell of Roman Catholicism. And he was in the minority of ministers who went on supporting France in spite of Federalist pressures. These Jeffersonian Calvinists were more troubled by the theocracy of Federalists than the deism of Jacobins. In his Thanksgiving Day and Fast Day sermons in 1795, Bradford sternly condemned the social disruption of the Whiskey Rebellion and Shay's Rebellion, but his wrath was reserved for Britain and her antiFrench sympathizers in the United States. He even defended the Terror as a necessary excision of British influence from France. Later in the year, he criticized Thomas Paine's Age of Reason for its deistic humanism, but he would not dissent from Paine's political positions. Such pronouncements made Bradford a favorite target for the jibes of Federalists. He was called a "vandal" and an "insurgent" and was ostracized by his colleagues in the pulpit. Their attacks drove him to more extreme positions, and by the turn of the century he had a wide reputation for eccentricity. His influence outside of Rowley faded even after the Republican victory of 1800. When he died suddenly on January 3, 1801, he was remembered by Bentley as a man of "good natural abilities, yet of little discretion, and judgment." His congregation mourned him, however. They provided $110 to pay for his funeral, including $50 to buy suitable clothes for his widow and nine children. In May 1801 the church decided to mark his grave with a large monument, and while its foundation was laid Bradford's body was disinterred and displayed to the public "in a high state of purification." It was, noted Bentley, "a new kind of zeal."

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SOURCES: NEHGR, 4 (1850), 39-50, 237-45; E. J. Cleveland and H. G. Cleveland, Geneal. of Cleveland and Cleaveland Families (1899), 35°> Pub. Rec. of Colony of Conn., xi, 415-17; R. L. Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee (1967), 228-29, 242, 253; Contributions to the Ecclesiastical Hist, of Conn. (1861), 254; E. D. Larned, Hist, of Windham Cnty. (1880), 11, 305; Stiles, Itineraries, 354 ("sobriety and religious deportment" and "Tinct. of Enthus."); E. S. Morgan, Gentle Puritan (1962), 172-79, 206, 270-71; Stiles, Literary Diary, 11, 403, 442, 451; 111, 424-25; W. G. McLoughlin, New England Dissent (1971), 1, 495; Sibley's Harvard Graduates, xi, 405-14; W. Ogden and E. D. Halsey, eds., Chh. Members, Marriages, and Baptism (n.d.), 6, 15; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct 1784 (A.M.); als EB to J. Bellamy, 18 Apr 1772, PPPrHi ("Rev. Ebenezer Bradford"); to O. Steele, 18 Dec 1773, NjP; to J. Green, 1 Feb 1777 ("Sandemanian errors"); 13 Jun 1778; 8 Sep 1779; 29 Jan 1783; R. Stewart to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, Gratz Coll., PHi; Webster, Ms Brief Sketches, n; J. M. Bailey, Hist, of Dunbury, Conn. (1896), 290, 298-301; S. E. Ahlstrom, Religious Hist, of the Amer. People (1972), 448η; Rec. Pres. Chh., 462; Congregational Quart., ig (1877), 541; T. Gage, Hist, of Rowley (1840), 25-27, 88; Bentley, Diaries, 1, 206 ("the Devil of a Wedding"); 11, 18, 360-61 ("little discretion"), 372 ("new kind of zeal"); TfAfQ (3 ser.), 22 (1965), 392-412; P. Goodman, Democratic-Republicans in Mass. (1964), 94-95; A. E. Morse, Federalist Party of Mass. (1909), 132-34 ("vandal" and "insur­ gent"); Essex Inst., Hist. Coll., i n (1861), 275; Salem Gazette, 6 Jan 1801; DAR Pa­ triot Index. PUBLICATIONS: see STE

Stephen Cooke STEPHEN COOKE, A.B., A.M. 1785, physician, was probably the son of Nathan Cooke, a leather merchant in Philadelphia, and his wife, whose maiden name may have been McPherson. He was born in 1751 or 1753, and, since his tuition and room rent at the College were in arrears in September 1770, probably entered Nassau Hall as a freshman before that date. In the commencement exercises for 1773 he opposed his classmate Ebenezer Bradford in a debate on the "Sense of Moral Obligation." After graduation, Cooke studied medicine, by most accounts in Philadelphia. He was a British prisoner during the Revolution, but the circumstances of his capture are unclear. He may have been a naval medical officer at the siege of Charleston in 1780. He may have been confined for a time on the prison ship Jersey near New York City. At some point before 1782, however, he was sent as a prisoner to Bermuda. There he met Catherine Esten, the daughter of John Esten (William and Mary 1755), a former judge of the court of vice admiralty who had resigned in protest against British policies toward North America. Esten later became the mayor of St. George's, attorney general, and a member of the royal council in the Bermudas. Cooke and Catherine Esten were married in St. George's church on June 7, 1782.

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Cooke remained in Bermuda after the war but made occasional visits to the United States. In 1783 his first son was born in Boston, and two years later Cooke was at Princeton to receive his A.M. In 1791 he moved his family to Virginia, settling in Alexandria. He was one of the original incorporators of a bank in that town in November 1792. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Leesburg, Loudoun County, where he continued to practice medicine until his death, in March 1816. Cooke and his wife had six sons and one daughter, including John Esten Cooke (A.B. 1801) and George Cooke, who died in 1804 after one year at the College. Another son was General Philip St. George Cooke, whose daughter married General J.E.B. Stuart. One of Stephen Cooke's grandsons was Philip Pendleton Cooke (A.B. 1834). SOURCES:

Cooke file, PUA; Library of Southern Literature (1909), HI, 1031-32; PGM, 22 (1961), 21; DAR Patriot Index, 151; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785 (A.M.); J. I. Waring, Hist, of Medicine in S.C. (1964), 341; D. Dandridge, Amer. Prisoners of the Rev. (1911), 457; W. B. Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century (1931), 404; W. B. Kerr, Bermuda and the Amer. Rev. (1936), 67; Dexter, Yale Biographies, v, 15-17; H. C. Wilkinson, Bermuda from Sail to Steam (1973), 185, 203; Cal. Va. St. Papers, v, 617-19; Hening, Statutes, XIII, 592.

Archibald Craig ARCHIBALD CRAIG, A.B., schoolmaster, was the third child and second son of John, probably a storekeeper, and his first wife Anna Barclay Craig of Monmouth County, New Jersey. He was born near the Old Tennent Church, where he was baptized on April 21, 1754· Craig entered the College as a freshman and on September 25, 1770 joined the Cliosophic Society, in which he used the pseudonym "Drake," after the English naval hero. He must have been an active member of Clio, for he was the specific target of jibes from the Whig Society during the "Paper War" of 1771. In "A Poem against the Tories," Whig's polemicist James Madison (A.B. 1771) referred to lice collected from the beds Where Spring and Craig lay down their heads. "Spring" was Samuel Spring (A.B. 1771), another Cliosophian. Ap­ parently, Craig's health was not robust. When his class underwent its final examinations, he was too ill to participate. It required a certificate from the faculty attesting to his qualifications as a "good scholar . . . of good character" for the trustees to grant his degree in spite of his absence. He was not present at the commencement exercises of 1773.

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Craig regained his health sufficiently to teach school after gradua­ tion. He was engaged in that profession in February 1774- ®ut his constitution remained fragile and he died on August i, 1777. SOURCES : F. R. Symmes, Hist, of the Old Tennent Chh. (1904), 206, 463; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, Trustee Minutes, 1, 198, PUA; Madison Papers, 1, 65 ("lice"); als R. Stewart to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, Gratz Collection, PHi.

Hugh Craig HUGH CRAIG, A.B., probably a ministerial student, was the son of William Craig of the Irish (or Craig's) Settlement in Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania and was probably born there. His father's name is one of the few certain facts of Craig's brief life and unaccomplished career. The genealogy of the Irish Settlement Craigs is incomplete and confusing; but Hugh Craig's mother may have been Elizabeth Craig, who is thought to have been the daughter of Hugh Wilson. William Craig, the father, may have been the man of that name who was sheriff of Northampton County, 1752-1756; and he was probably the farmer William Craig rated at £800 in a 1780 list of taxables. Craig first appears in College records on September 29, 1771, when he was listed by the steward as in arrears in his payment of tuition. He may have been a member of the American Whig Society, a possibil­ ity that has been deduced from the erroneous inclusion of Craig's class­ mate Archibald Craig (no relation), a Cliosophian, on the rosters of both student societies. At his commencement Craig was the opponent in a Latin disputation on the thesis "Argumenta a Priori, ut vulgo dicitur, et Posteriori ducta non debent distingui ut diversa Ratiocinationis Genera, eodem enim Fundamento nitantur." He was still listed as one pound in arrears in the steward's accounts for May 25, 1 773 to September 25, 1774; but on September 29, 1773, shortly before his graduation, he was awarded £3, a sum equal to the interest on £50 deposited with the College treasurer by Richard Walker, Esq. of Penn­ sylvania. The disposal of the interest on this fund was in the hands of Princeton trustee Reverend Richard Treat (Yale 1725), a prominent member of the Abington Presbytery that included Craig's own church in Allen township. Craig's receipt of the money upon completing the requirements for his degree suggests that the bequest may have been intended for his use as a student of divinity. This supposition accords with the statement of G. M. Giger, the nineteenth-century Princeton historian, that Craig was about to prepare for the ministry when he

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"died young." He may even have studied privately with Treat as did William Bradford (A.B. 1772), a member of the Whig Society with whom Craig was acquainted. The date of Craig's death has not been learned; but it occurred some­ time after January 31, 1777. He was in Philadelphia in 1776 and spent a few evenings in May of that year drinking and talking politics with Bradford and other College graduates. On December 4, 1776, Craig was appointed paymaster of the 11th Pennsylvania regiment, in which Bradford also served; but he resigned at the end of the following January. No further mention of him has been found. SOURCES: Northampton Cnty. Hist, and Geneal. Soc., Scotch-Irish of Northampton

Cnty., Pa. (1926), 1, 71, 165; J. C. Clyde, Hist, of the Allen Township Presbyterian Chh. (1876), passim; and Clyde, Genealogies, Necrology, and Reminiscences of the "Irish Settlement" (1879), 35-38, 138-39, 144; Amer. Ancestry, x, 52; MS Steward's accounts, alumni file, PUA; New-York Gazette, 11 Oct 1773 (commencement); MS draft of Richard Treat to HC, NjP; Bradford Journal; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), x, 247. GSD

Franklin Davenport FRANKLIN DAVENPORT, soldier, lawyer, and public official, born at Phila­

delphia in September 1755, was the son of Josiah Franklin Davenport and his second wife, Ann Annis. His father was a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, who assisted him in establishing a bakery in Philadelphia in 1749. When that venture failed, Davenport became a clerk in the province's Indian Commission and later opened a tavern in Philadel­ phia that was a favored meeting place for some of the opponents of imperial policies. Still apparently in need of assistance, Davenport moved to New Jersey in or around 1770. There his cousin, Governor William Franklin, aided him in securing appointment to a number of local offices. He became county clerk and justice of the peace in Bur­ lington, and in 1774 the clerkship of Gloucester County was added. Franklin Davenport had been enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy as early as 1763. He may have entered the College as a sophomore in November 1770, for the steward's records show that he was in arrears for payments of tuition and board in September 1771. By 1773 he had left Nassau Hall to read law at Burlington, possibly with his attentive cousin, the royal governor. Whatever may have been the extent of his indebtedness to Governor Franklin, Davenport showed no inclination to follow his cousin into the Loyalist camp. Instead he interrupted his legal studies to enlist in the First Regiment of the Burlington County Militia and rose

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Franklin Davenport, Class of 1773 EY CHARLES B. J. FEVRET DE SAINT MEMIN

quickly to the post of regimental quartermaster. As a member of Captain Sterling's company, he helped procure the boats in which Washington's troops crossed the Delaware in December 1776. With the rank of lieutenant of artillery in the Gloucester County Militia, he served at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He had been named clerk of the peace and pleas for Burlington County in December 1776, and in the following November he was licensed to practice law by the state supreme court. Periods of active military service with the militia were interspersed with his activity as clerk and lawyer. In the fall of 1777 he was among the defenders of Fort Mifflin on Mud Island in the Delaware, the collapse of which in November made secure the enemy's hold on Philadelphia. In 1778 and 1779 Davenport supervised the prosecution of state cases in Gloucester County and early in 1778 he became clerk of the city of Burlington. After the Revolution, he settled as the earliest practicing lawyer in Woodbury, Gloucester County. Governor William Livingston appointed him the first surrogate of the county in 1785. His law practice flourished, as did his political career. As a supporter of a strong national government, Davenport naturally drifted into the so-called "West Jersey" establishment, but political positions never interfered with his business sense. An opponent of the New Jersey

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Loan Office Act of 1786, by which the state proposed to print legal tender notes to lend to citizens, Davenport was also one of the first in line to apply for the money when the Gloucester County office opened. Later in the year, as a member of the state legislature, he renewed the campaign against paper money and easy credit which he continued until he left the assembly in 1789. In 1787 he joined several noteworthy men in the state and speculator John Cleves Symmes in a scheme for selling land on the Miami River of Ohio to prospective settlers. An advocate of the new Federal Constitution, Davenport backed the "Junto" congressional ticket led by Elias Boudinot in the election of 1789. It was a campaign distinguished by its scurrilousness, and thanks to superior organization the Junto won. In September 1794 Davenport's regiment of militia was called up to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He was dis­ charged as a colonel on Christmas Day, but he retained his role in the militia and before his death was promoted to major general. He was cited as one of New Jersey's foremost lawyers by being named a sergeant-at-law in April 1797. Twenty months later, Governor Richard Howell appointed him to serve out an uncompleted term in the United States Senate. Howell wanted to "be sure of [his] man," and since Davenport was planning to run for Congress in the next election, he knew that the appointment would not further the hopes of an aspirant for the Senate seat. As a senator and as a member of the House of Representatives in 1800 and 1801, Davenport voted the straight Federalist line. In Febru­ ary 1801 he cast his ballot for Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) for President to keep the office from Thomas Jefferson. Facing a much more organized and powerful Republican party, he and his fellow Federalists Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773) and James E. Imlay (A.B. 1786) were voted out of Congress in December 1800. The Republicans then formed "Demo­ cratic Associations" across the state to try to displace Federalist local officials. Davenport and his colleagues complained about "secret or­ ganizations"; but as a high-ranking Mason, Davenport was vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. In May 1804 Davenport married Sarah Barton Zantziger of Lan­ caster, Pennsylvania. His bride gained a ready-made family, for not only did her husband's sister live with him, but Davenport had become the guardian of no fewer than four orphaned children between 1797 and 1803. Hoping to regain some of their lost power, Federalists tried to use the War of 1812 as a lever to upset the Republican administration. Davenport was a leader of two "Peace Conventions" of New Jersey

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Federalists in 1812 and 1814, which authored attacks on the war and on the national government's policies in general. That futile effort ap­ parently soured him on politics for a time, and in spite of his political position he helped raise troops for the war as a brigadier in the Glouces­ ter County Militia. After serving as a presidential elector in 1812, he concentrated for several years on purely legal and civic affairs. He was a founder and/or leading member of the Gloucester County Abo­ lition Society, the Woodbury Fire Company, the Gloucester County Bible Society, the Woodbury Library Company, and the Woodbury Academy. He was also a commissioner of the state bank at Camden, and a Master and Examiner of the Chancery Court. In 1823 and 1828 he tried again to enter politics, but was defeated in both bids to regain the post of county surrogate. He also failed to win election as the clerk of pleas in the county in 1825. his last years, and although his health was failing, he sat on the bench of the orphans' court and the court of common pleas in Gloucester. As a member of the Woodbury Presbyterian Church, Davenport had bid $40 when the pews for its new building were auctioned in 1820. He helped the church find a pastor in 1822 and provided it with the facilities of the academy until its own house was completed. But when his sister died, leaving a silver set to the church to use for communions, Davenport balked. In spite of entreaties from church, family and friends, he would not part with that silver set. He died on July 27, 1832, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery just north of Woodbury. SOURCES: F. H. Stewart, ed., Notes on Old Gloucester Cnty., 1 (1917), 139-42; 11 (1934), 8, 14, 20, 157, 161-62; and Gloucester Cnty.'s Most Famous Citizen (1921); Pub. Col. Soc. Mass., xx (1907), 225-27, 359-65; Franklin Papers, m, 388, 475; iv, 200η, 302η; vii, 2o2, 203η; νιιι, 4, 38; PMHB, 2 (1878), 469; 29 (1905), 307; 35 (1911), 118; 37 (1913), 18, 19, 195; 50 (1926), 34; 54 (1930), 371-73; 71 (1947). 439n> 371-73; Franklin Cal., 1 (1908), 148; iv (1908), 201; Τ. H. Montgomery, Hist, of Univ. of Pa. (1900), 536; Ms Steward accounts, PUA; als FD to J. Rhee, 7 Dec 1812; to E. Elmer, 9 Feb 1789; to A. Ogden, 2 Jul 1813, Gratz Coll.; to D. Wall, Dreer Coll., PHi; R. E. and T. N. Dupuy, Compact Hist, of the Rev. War (1963), 242-44; N.J. Transcripts of Early Cnty. Recs.; Gloucester Cnty. Ser. Rev. War Docs. (1940), passim; Votes and Proc., Gen. Assem. of N.J., [1786-1789], passim; R. P. McCormick, Experiment in Independence (1950), 202-204, 230-31, 291-95; Abridgement of Debates of Cong. (1857), 11, 324-25; AjC, x, passim; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1964), 63; NJHSP, 54 (1936), 134; 175-76; NJA (1 ser.) xxxvm, 182; xxxix, 213, 492; Proceedings and Addresses of the Second Convention of Delegates, (1814), 2-3. MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

Thaddeus Dod THADDEUS DOD, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born on March 7,

1740, in Newark, New Jersey. His parents, Stephen and Deborah Brown Dod, moved the family to Mendham, in Morris County, soon after his birth. Their poverty prevented young Dod from attending school regularly although he developed a taste for mathematics, poetry, and languages very early. Largely self-trained, he began to teach school himself in 1761 in order to earn money and prepare himself for college. In the winter of 1762-63, an epidemic in Mendham turned Dod's mind to religion. For the next several years, he underwent intense emotional strain as his quest for salvation struggled with his suscepti­ bility to temptation. He agonized particularly over his inability to ignore his sexual appetites. Dod interrupted his teaching in 1763 to study the classics with Reverend Timothy Johnes (Yale 1737) at Morristown but returned to his school at Mendham after four months. Following his father's death in 1764, he experienced what he thought was divine grace and salvation. With help from the Fund for Pious Youth, he entered the sophomore class at the College when he was thirty-one years old. At Nassau Hall he joined the Cliosophic Society and adopted the name "Alfred." In his youth Dod was painfully shy, a characteristic that may have persisted to the extent that he was remembered as a less "impassioned" orator than many of his fellow clerics. At his commencement exercises, however, he was chosen to speak against the proposition that "Matter is not in any Sense infinitely divisible." Six months after the ceremony, President Witherspoon informed William Bradford (A.B. 1772) that Dod had just been married, and as Bradford communicated the story to James Madison (A.B. 1771), Dod had "put the Cart before the horse: he was a father before he was an husband. I believe," wrote Bradford, "it was the Girls friends that forced the Old fellow's head in the noose." Madison was surprised that his "old friend, . . . the old monk" seemed bent on populating the world "with bastards." Dod's college mates did not know of his earlier problems with lust, but Madison had obviously noted the avidity of Dod's professions of faith in college. And Madison was suspicious of revivalist fervor. He hoped that Dod's religion, "like that of some enthusiasts, was not of such a nature as to fan the amorous fire." Robert Stewart (A.B. 1770), who reported that Dod had just been chosen a professor of mathematics at Queens Col­ lege, laughed in amazement at the "improbable" thought of Dod sleeping with a woman. But he assured Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) that

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the story came "very strait." Dod's wife was Phebe Baldwin of Newark, the sister of the woman his brother had married. Dod did not join the faculty at Queens but went back to Newark to study theology with Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757) and then to Morristown to study with his old Latin teacher Johnes. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New York in 1775· During the winter of 1 77®"77> he suffered a prolonged attack of an illness he had first ex­ perienced eleven years earlier. Variously described as angina pectoris, inflammatory rheumatism, and pulmonary consumption, it affected him for the rest of his life. By March he was well enough to take an itinerant tour through Maryland and Virginia, and at the Ten Mile settlements in western Pennsylvania he encountered a community of former acquaintances from New Jersey. In constant peril from hostile Indians, the settlements at Ten Mile had been unable to grow or organize a church. The residents enthusi­ astically asked Dod to settle among them permanently and agreed to provide him and his family with the necessities although they could not afford a salary. The Presbytery of New York ordained Dod sine titulo in October 1777 so that he could accept the call. In November Dod and his wife and two children, along with his two brothers and their families, arrived in Hampshire County, (West) Virginia en route to Ten Mile. There they learned of recent Indian attacks and so decided to wait for a more propitious time to continue. The minister visited Ten Mile alone, but only briefly. For two years he supplied pulpits in Maryland and Virginia. Then in September 1779, having lost one child in the interim, he and his family went on to Pennsylvania. They made their first home at Cook's Settlement, or Upper Ten Mile, now Prosperity. But in 1780 or 1781 they moved to Lindley's Settlement, or Lower Ten Mile, now Amity. Dod conducted services in both communities, neither of which had a proper church. Along with John McMillan (A.B. 1772), Joseph Smith (A.B. 1764), and James Power (A.B. 1766), he was one of the first ministers to settle west of the Alleghenies. The four Princetonians co­ operated in their work, particularly in education. In 1781 Dod and his neighbors built a log school house that doubled as a church on the pastor's 400-acre farm. McMillan and Smith also opened schools, but while they concentrated on theology, Dod taught his thirteen pupils the classics, mathematics, and natural science—subjects in which he excelled. That September the four clerics united to form the Presby­ tery of Redstone. Dod's school closed in 1785 when he sold his farm and the Lower Ten Mile settlement opened its first church. But he, McMillan, and

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DUFFIELD

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Smith joined to form the Washington Academy, which was chartered in September 1787. With a donation of 5,000 acres of public land worth twenty cents per acre, the academy began classes in the rented upper floor of the Washington County courthouse on April 1, 1789. Re­ luctantly, Dod agreed to serve as principal for one year. He spent onethird of his time in Washington and two-thirds in his own church. He also resigned as a trustee of the academy in order to teach there. His salary of £80 was derived mostly from the tuition of the 20 or 30 stu­ dents who paid £4 annually for classical studies and 25 shillings to read English. They were boarded in local homes for $30 per year. After fifteen months at the academy, Dod returned to Lower Ten Mile. The school had never been able to gain enough community sup­ port to build its own house, so a fire that gutted the courthouse in 1791 not only destroyed Dod's personal library but also put a temporary end to the academy. McMillan responded by building a new school, which later became Jefferson College, in Canonsburg. Several years later, the Washington Academy reopened as Washington College. A full-time pastor once again, Dod oversaw the growth of his con­ gregations, especially during a revival in 1792. Always a lover of music, he introduced it to the services, including the practice of singing with­ out reading the line. Following Smith's death in 1792, Dod preached at the vacated church at Cross Creek as well until his death on May 20, 1793. His funeral was conducted by McMillan. Dod's widow married James Foster, a trustee of Canonsburg Academy and the grandfather of the composer Stephen Foster. SOURCES: DAB; Sprague, Annals, HI, 356-59; Hist, of Presbytery of Washington (1889), 393; D. R. Guthrie, John McMillan (1952), MS Autobiography and Memoir

of Thaddeus Dod, PPPrHi ("impassioned" orator); Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (com­ mencement); D. Elliott, Life of Rev. Elisha Macurdy (1848), 303; Madison Papers, i, 109-12 ("Cart before the horse," "old monk"); als R. Stewart to A. Burr, 7 Feb 1774, PHi1 Gratz Coll. ("improbable"); als J. Lindley to C. Dodd, 12 Feb 1854, Washington and JefEerson College Hist. Coll.; H.T.W. Coleman, Banners in the Wilderness (1956), 2-3, 7-12, 28-34; Pa. Arch., (3 ser.), xxvi, 551; S. J. and Ε. H. Buck, Planting of Civilization in Western Pa. (1939), 393; U.S. Bureau of Educa­ tion, Circular of Information, 33 (1902), 236-38; Biographical and Hist. Cat. of Washington and Jefferson College (1889), 263; JPHS, 10 (1919-20), 66-68. MANUSCRIPTS: Washington and Jefferson College Hist. Coll.

John Duffield JOHN DUFFIELD, A.B., teacher and physician, was born in Pequea, Lan­

caster County, Pennsylvania in 1751. His parents were Susannah and

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William Duffield; the Presbyterian minister George Duffield (A.B. 1752) was his uncle. He was probably educated in the rudiments of Greek and Latin by Robert Smith of Pequea, a trustee of the College from 1772 to 1793. Duffield joined the American Whig Society at Nassau Hall, and his closest friends came from among the membership. They included William Bradford, Jr. and Philip Fithian (both A.B. 1772) and his classmate Lewis F. Wilson. At his commencement Duffield spoke in Latin on the "Future Glory of America" and added a "particular Panegyric on Pennsylvania, the place of his birth." With Lewis Wilson, Duffield remained at the College as a tutor after graduation. Some of his students must have come from the grammar school as well, for he kept Bradford posted on the progress of Ambrose, the younger brother of James Madison (A.B. 1771) whom he found not only the "formost scholar in his class" at the school but "a good boy" to boot. Duffield remained a tutor until 1775, but he combined that work with the study of medicine. In August 1774 Fithian corre­ sponded with his friend, who was then being trained by Dr. William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754) at the College of Philadelphia's medical school. Shippen may have been Duffield's relative by marriage, for in 1775 Duffield persuaded Wilson to join him in the study of "Physic" with his "uncle" in Philadelphia. Both men then left the College for good. In September 1775 Pennsylvania created its own navy from the adaptable merchant ships in Philadelphia harbor. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) was made surgeon of the fleet, and on October 10 Duffield became his assistant. They each performed their less than onerous duties for $16 per month, and both resigned on July 1, 1776. Duffield then joined the Hospital Department of the Continental Army as a surgeon's mate. By the end of the year, he was stationed at the army hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where his colleagues included Shippen, Cornelius Baldwin (Class of 1770), paymaster Joseph Ship­ pen (A.B. 1753), and Samuel Finley, Jr. (A.B. 1765). Early in 1777 Duffield became ill and was confined to his bed in the house of William Boehler, one of the many Moravians in Bethlehem whose homes were commandeered for the hospital. Duffield finally recovered on July 7 and was the last of the hospital personnel to leave Bethlehem. In July 1781 Duffield was a surgeon's mate at the army's smallpox hospital in West Point, New York with a monthly salary of $50. After he successfully petitioned the Pennsylvania Executive Council for his depreciation pay, Duffield joined the Third Continental Artillery Regiment as regimental surgeon in the late summer of 1782. The

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Third was a Massachusetts unit, and Duffield's appointment was con­ firmed by the state's Council on September 30. Duffield left the army in 1783 and moved to Brooklyn, New York. Soon afterward, he married Margaretta Debevoise, the daughter of Brooklyn's town clerk Johannes Debevoise, who was also clerk of the local Dutch Reformed church. They lived on one of her father's estates and had five children, at least three of them daughters, before Duffield's death, which was recorded in the College Catalogue of 1789. His widow resisted the opening of Duffield Street through her property until her death in 1830. Some years later, when Fulton Street, which ran in front of the Duffield house, was widened and straightened, the family's private burial ground was obliterated. The house itself was destroyed by fire in 1857. S OURCES: Family papers in the possession of Mrs. Philip W. Yeatman of Princeton, N.J., through the courtesy of her nephew, Edward D. Duffield II (A.B. 1958): Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Madison Papers, 1, 127, 128 n. 10, 139 ("good boy"), 140 n. 8; Fithian Journal, 1, 238 Sc n.; J. M. Wilson, Blessedness of Such as Die in the Lord, A Sermon . . . (1805), 27 ("uncle" Shippen); Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), i, 230, 239; (5 ser.), HI, 728; iv, 13; J. W. Jackson, Pa. Navy (1974), 34-35, 335, 468η; L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in the Amer. Rev. (1970), 184, 344, 391; PMHB, 20 (1896), 138, 144, 153; Col. Rec. Pa., XIII, 157: Heitman, 160; H. R. Stiles, Hist, of City of Brooklyn (i86g), 11, 164-65.

James Dunlap JAMES DUNLAP, A.B., A.M. Jefferson College 1806, Presbyterian clergy­ man and college president, by all accounts was born in Chesster County, Pennsylvania, about 1744, but his parentage seems not to have been established. He probably was prepared for college by James Finley of East Nottingham in nearby Maryland, and he probably entered the College in the fall of 1771. The steward's accounts show him in arrears on payments of tuition and rent as of September 1772, and again on March 29, 1773. His graduation came in the following September, after he had participated in a Latin dispute with John Witherspoon, Jr. in the preliminary exercises of commencement day. Dunlap was a mem­ ber of the American Whig Society, and he must have been a good stu­ dent, for in 1775 he was back in the College on appointment as a tutor. The University's General Catalogue indicates that the appointment extended from 1775 to 1777, but it is unlikely that his employment in that capacity actually continued beyond the disbandment of the stu­ dent body which occurred as a result of the military situation in No­ vember 1776.

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He may have combined tutoring with the reading of theology under guidance from President Witherspoon, who according to tradition shared with James Finley the oversight of Dunlap's studies for the ministry. He was licensed to preach by the Donegal Presbytery at some time during the four years ending in 1781, when a report without specific date of the action was made to the synod, and on August 21 of that year he was ordained sine titulo by the New Castle Presbytery. Since this implies that he had plans for missionary work, it is not sur­ prising to find him on October 15, 1782, installed within the Redstone Presbytery as pastor of the Laurel Hill and Dunlap's Creek congrega­ tions in that part of western Pennsylvania which in the next year became Fayette County. He resigned the pastorate of the latter church in 1789, when having "worried along for about six years," as a later historian of the church has written, "he gave up a not very successful ministry, and devoted his whole time and attention to the church of Laurel Hill, where he seems to have enjoyed a more peaceful and more acceptable pastorate." His service there continued until 1803, when he assumed the principalship or presidency of Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania, one of the two forerunners of Washington and Jefferson College. Dunlap had been a trustee of the Canonsburg Academy, from which the college grew, as early as 1798. As did other clergymen, he had done teaching on his own, especially of young men headed for the ministry, and his choice as president of the college has been attributed to his reputation as a classical scholar. As one of the original trustees of the college, chartered in 1802, he had helped to shape the program of study through membership in a special committee appointed for the pur­ pose. In the presidency he succeeded a much younger man, John Wat­ son (A.B. 1797), and doubtless some of the unhappiness he experienced through the eight years of his tenure is attributable to his age. Whether for this or other reasons, the president seems to have been somewhat inflexible, not very sociable, absent-minded, and physically less than robust. He is said to have been subject to extreme spells of melancholy, and even on occasion of temper. The students nicknamed him Neptune, as one of them later reported, "because his presence quelled the waves of noisy merriment, which occasionally rose among them." The student recalled that once Dunlap ran a "saucy, red­ headed boy across a room, out of the one in which he was reciting, . . . kicking him or rather kicking at him, all the way." The office of prin­ cipal was combined with that of the professorship of languages and moral philosophy, and Dunlap served too as pastor of the Miller's Run church, located about six miles from the college. The college's serious

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financial problems required at first that from his relatively small salary Dunlap pay the tutors as well. That responsibility eventually was as­ sumed by the trustees, and the president's salary was increased more than once. Even so, Dunlap fell into debt to the trustees, who seem increasingly to have been looking over his shoulder and who in time assumed some of the authority he regarded as his own. By 1810 he proposed to resign. His complaints included his salary, the condition of the house provided as his residence, and intrusions by the trustees, including suggestions as to how he might conduct his own classes. It was an impasse, and in 1811 the trustees accepted his resignation. Historians of Jefferson College have credited him with significant contributions to the foundations upon which the institution subse­ quently grew, but the total experience undoubtedly increased his melancholia. He taught for a time, after 1813 at Uniontown, and then in 1816, his health failing, he moved to Abington, above Philadelphia, where his youngest son William, graduate of Jefferson College, tutor at Princeton in i8og and honorary A.M. in 1816, was pastor of the Presbyterian church. There on November 22, 1818, James Dunlap died, according to his tombstone in the 75th year of his age. He had married Sarah Luckey, also of Chester County and sister to George Luckey (A.B. 1772), but the date of the marriage has not been determined. The couple became parents of at least seven children, four daughters and three sons. SOURCES: J. A. Alexander, J. Carnahan, and A. Alexander, MS "Notices of Distin­

guished Graduates," NjP; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 162-63; Sprague, Annals, HI, 422-25 ("Neptune"); D. Elliott, Life of Rev. Elisha Macurdy (1848), 258-60; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Rec. Pres. Chh., 491, 493, 496, 501; W. F. Hamilton, Hist, of Presbytery of Redstone (1889), 26, 37-38; J. G. Johnston, Early Hist, of Dunlap's Creek Chh. (1914), 7-9 ("worried along"); J. Smith, Hist, of Jefferson College (1857), 33, 54η, 58-59, 66-88; H.T.W. Coleman, Banners in the Wilderness (1956), 61-63, 1 0 T' Cent. Celebration of . . . Jefferson College (1903), 54-55; First Census, Pa., 111. WFC

William Graham WILLIAM GRAHAM, A.B., schoolmaster and Presbyterian minister, was born in Paxton Township, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Decem­ ber 19, 1746, the fifth of twelve children born to Michael Graham and his wife Susanna Miller, both of them said to be immigrants from Ire­ land. The son had a minimal education before his first serious religious experience at about the age of 21, when he turned his thought toward becoming a minister and so to the need for a classical education. His

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preparation for college began with Reverend John Roan, pastor of the local Presbyterian church. When he entered the College cannot be said. The tradition that Graham helped pay his way at the College by teaching in the grammar school may find some support in the steward's account for a period beginning in May 1773, which lists for him a charge or payment of £1 in contrast to the £3 for other members of his class. The tradition continues that he was so far forward with his studies that he completed his degree within five years after taking up the study of Latin and was allowed during the senior year to leave the College on the condition merely that he would return for his final examination. He became a member of the Whig Society and at com­ mencement on September 29, 1773, participated in a dispute of the proposition that "Matter is not in any Sense infinitely divisible." After graduation Graham turned once more to his pastor John Roan for instruction, but the renewed association was brief. Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), tutor in the College from 1770 to 1773, had gone to Virginia, and on his recommendation, Graham was engaged in October 1774 to manage, for the time being and under the general supervision of Reverend John Brown (A.B. 1749), a "publick School" in Augusta County that had the sponsorship of the Hanover Presby­ tery. In October 1775 the presbytery licensed Graham to preach, con­ tinued him in charge of the school, and gave him an assistant in the person of John Montgomery (A.B. 1775). During the following winter Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) could still list him among the "poor itin­ erant Preachers" of the Valley, but this must have been about the time that the "Sage, deep-studied, Mr. Graham," as Fithian described him, journeyed to Philadelphia for the purchase of an impressive collection of books and scientific apparatus for the school, which at times has been designated as the Augusta Academy. In May 1776 Graham was called to the pastorate of the united congregations of Timber Ridge and Hall's Meeting House and was named rector of an academy, now known as Liberty Hall, to be located near his new pastorate. He con­ tinued as the rector of Liberty Hall until 1796, the year in which a benefaction from George Washington brought a change in its name to Washington College. Liberty Hall had granted its first A.B. degrees in 1784, so Graham served as the earliest administrative head of the collegiate institution that much later became Washington and Lee University. Hard-pressed by wartime inflation, Graham turned to farming at a place nearby the town of Lexington about 1779. He was supposed to continue his supervision of the school at Timber Ridge, but in 1780

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it was closed down and instruction continued only with the small number of students who gathered in and around Graham's new resi­ dence. As the forces of Cornwallis invaded the state in 1781, Graham made ready to serve in a military capacity but was not called upon to do so. After the war, efforts to revive the school brought a charter of incorporation from the state in 1782 and the relocation of the institu­ tion on the outskirts of Lexington upon land partly contributed by Graham. He became the pastor of the Lexington Presbyterian church and served it until his departure in 1796. Graham was an effective teacher, following a pattern of instruction modeled closely after that he had known at Princeton, and a strict disciplinarian. Archibald Alexander, probably the most eminent of the early graduates of Liberty Hall, in speaking of Graham's method with the large number of young candidates for the ministry who read theology with him, observed that "he encouraged the utmost freedom of discussion, and seemed to aim, not so much to bring his pupils to think as he did, as to teach them to think on all subjects for them­ selves." According to the same source, he was not an especially effective preacher. Nor was he a bookish type of scholar. Rather, he is reported to have depended for his ideas more upon meditation and observation than upon reading. It is said that he once observed that he often found the table of contents the most useful part of a book because it prompted him to think out the problem for himself. A less than friendly critic might say that he was opinionated. Certainly, he had strong convictions and he was capable of supporting them with a sharp tongue that brought him more than one enemy. It has been suggested that his disposition was at times soured by an unhappy marriage to Mary Kerr of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with whom, as Alexander put it, he was "unequally yoked" in 1776. Given his predilections, it is not surprising that Graham became involved in some of the political disputes of his time. The most tu­ multuous of those in which he took part involved a proposed consti­ tution for the abortive state of Franklin, launched late in 1784 mainly as a movement of secession from North Carolina by counties later in­ corporated in the state of Tennessee, but with some prospect that parts of western Virginia might be included. A constitution based essentially upon that of North Carolina was tentatively adopted and made subject to review by a second constitutional convention meeting in November 1785. Graham's aid was enlisted, probably by Colonel Arthur Campbell of Washington County, Virginia, in the drafting of a substitute constitution intended to limit power in the new state to men of virtue and good moral conduct. No man of "an immoral character,

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or guilty of such flagrant enormities as drunkenness, gaming, profane swearing, lewdness, Sabbath-breaking, or such like" could hold office. Similarly excluded were doctors, lawyers, and ministers of the gospel— restrictions that reflected Graham's opposition to hierarchies of any sort. It is worth noting that he always called the proposed state "Frankland," reportedly because he disapproved of Benjamin Franklin. The proposed constitution was vigorously attacked on the floor of the convention by the Reverend Hezekiah Balch (A.B. 1766), who, though not a member, had gained the right to speak. Graham defended his proposals in a lengthy, unsigned pamphlet, one of the few items he ever published, entitled An Essay on Government that was printed in Philadelphia in 1786. For all the visionary qualities of the political system it advocated, one reads the discussion with respect for the author's command of current political problems, and with suspicion that its advocacy of the unicameral type of legislature, of representa­ tion in proportion to population, and of rotation in office betrayed a heavy borrowing from the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776· The issue so sharply divided the people of Franklin that Graham on one occasion was burned in effigy. After Graham accused Balch of approv­ ing this riotous behavior, the latter brought charges against him before the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. In 1787 a committee of that body, which included President Witherspoon, cleared Balch of blame and advised that the newly created Presbytery of Lexington be ordered to bring Graham "before them, and make due inquiry whether he be the author" of what was judged to be a "very unchristian, and un­ warrantable treatment of a brother." In time Graham confessed the authorship of the letter, offered proof of its charges against Balch, and escaped a formal censure with the presbytery's expressed wish that he "had been more temperate in his satire, and more gentle in his ex­ postulations." A certain ambivalence on the issue of church-state relations can be read into his Essay on Government. In quest of a political order con­ trolled by virtuous men he naturally emphasized the dependence of the state upon organized religion for the morality of its citizens. As a member of a denomination that in Virginia could still be described as a dissenting church, he understandably insisted upon the equal rights of all denominations. "Let civil government be the common guardian and protector of all," he argued, "but the patron of none." Yet in the fall of 1784 Graham collaborated with his classmate John Blair Smith in preparing a memorial from the Hanover Presbytery to the legisla­ ture that was generally interpreted as an endorsement by the Pres­ byterians of a proposed general assessment of taxes in support of all

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"Teachers of the Christian Religion." Perhaps, as has been assumed, Smith was primarily responsible. Perhaps Graham went along on the assumption that the legislation was sure to pass and that the oppor­ tunity of the moment was to insist upon every other limitation of intrusions by the state into the spiritual domain. It can only be said with assurance that as sentiment within the denomination rallied in opposition to the assessment, Graham's church found in him a spokes­ man who in a further memorial of August 1785 eloquently pled the cause of a full separation of church and state. It specifically endorsed Jefferson's Bill for Religious Freedom and helped to secure its final enactment. It may be added that, according to tradition, relations between Graham and Smith remained cool until later in the decade they found a common cause in the religious revival of which the latter was a leader. Graham became a vigorous opponent of the new federal Constitution and even sought election to the ratifying convention in the hope of defeating it. Perhaps in 1794 it was the fulfillment of earlier fears of a new "tyranny and despotism" he saw in the movement of troops against the "Whiskey Revels" that caused him to warn his synod, as it debated a resolution not exactly friendly to the rebels, that "there were wrongs to be redressed," not "a rebellion to be crushed." Such sentiments undoubtedly stemmed from Graham's continuing identification with the frontier. He had grown up on the Pennsylvania frontier, and those who wrote of his life were fond of repeating the story of his family's escape, partly by the boy's assumption of the re­ sponsibilities of a man, from a threatened Indian attack. He had migrated to the Virginia frontier, where he worked effectively to build into an emerging society the values of the Christian faith and the ad­ vantages of education. It had been believed that he considered throw­ ing in his lot with the state of Franklin, and the hope there of building a Christian community democratically ruled by virtuous men. It prob­ ably should not be considered surprising that in 1796 he resigned as head of Liberty Hall and that he subsequently followed his aspirations westward in the hope that an investment in land along the Ohio River might make good his personal fortune and permit him to take the lead in bringing other good men together for the purpose of found­ ing the good society. As one more speculative venture in land at a time of many such, his project failed completely. Its architect died on June 8, 1799, at Richmond, where he had come for attendance upon litigation resulting from the miscarriage of his plans. He left five chil­ dren, two sons and three daughters. SOURCES: Sketch by A. Alexander, MS "Notices of Distinguished Graduates of the

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College of New Jersey," NjP, 27-45, (of which a condensed version is to be found in Sprague, Annals, 111, 365-70); A. Alexander, Address . . . Before the Alumni Assoc. of Washington College (1843); Foote, Sketches, Va., 332-44, 438-89; The Evangelical Literary Mag. and Missionary Chronicle, 4 (1821); Τ. E. Robinson, Ms "Reverend William Graham," PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 163-64; PGM 9 (1925), 150; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 11, 139 ("poor itinerant"), 148-49, 150, 170 ("sage"); O. Crenshaw, Gen. Lee's College, (1969), 7-16; Washington and Lee Unrv., Historical Papers, 1 (1890), 11-66; S. C. Williams, Lost State of Franklin (1924), 38-43, 90-94; Rec. Pres. Chh., 536-38, W. Graham, Essay on Government (1786). PUBLICATIONS: see STE and above MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi

WFC

James (Jacobus) Hasbrouck JAMES (JACOBUS) HASBROUCK, A.B., merchant, was born in Kingston,

Ulster County, New York in September 1753 and was baptized there on September 28. He was the son of Catharine Bruyn Hasbrouck and Abraham Hasbrouck, a prosperous merchant and landowner who was also important in Ulster County politics. Hasbrouck's older brother Joseph graduated from the College in 1766. Their cousins included Jacob I. Hasbrouck (A.B. 1766) and Jacobus Bruyn (Class of 1775)After graduation from the College, where he was a member, and possibly an officer of the American Whig Society, Hasbrouck returned to Kingston. He may have served as an officer in the Ulster County Militia during the Revolution, but so many relatives with the same name were active then that it is impossible to associate a specific "Jacobus" Hasbrouck with a single service record. His father refused to accept a colonelcy because he resented being subordinate to men he considered inferior, and because he wanted the general's commission that went to George Clinton. Hasbrouck was definitely in Kingston in December 1780, when he was visited by Jacobus Bruyn, who was about to resign his own com­ mission. Abraham Hasbrouck loaned money to his sons James and Abraham to "put them in business in Trade," and Hasbrouck probably spent the rest of his life as a merchant in Kingston. On April 10, 1783, he married Maria DeWitt, the daughter of Charles DeWitt, and thus established a family tie with the influential DeWitt and Clinton clans. After his father's death in November 1791, James Hasbrouck in­ herited a substantial amount of money, some silver, books, tools, and livestock, as well as a few slaves and a share of the family's extensive landholdings. He moved his wife and family into his father's two-story

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stone house in Kingston where he died, a widower, on July 4, 1819. He was buried in the yard of the First Reformed Dutch Church in Kings­ ton, next to the graves of his wife and two of his young children. SOURCES:

NYGBR, 17 (1886), 264; 58 (1927), 321; R. Lefevre, Hist, of New Paltz, N.Y. (1903), 383; Beam, Whig Soc., 112; Clinton Papers, 1, 11, passim; m, 497; vi, 596; M. Schoonmaker, Hist, of Kingston, N.Y. (1888), 175-76; Ulster Cnty., N.Y. Probate Recs. (1906), 11, 83-88; W. C. DeWitt 1 People's Hist, of Kingston, Rondout and Vi­ cinity (1943), 39.

Hugh Hodge HUGH HODGE, A.B., A.M. 1780, physician and merchant, was the sixth of the fifteen children of Jane McCulloch Hodge and Andrew Hodge, Sr., a prosperous merchant and influential citizen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1755. Hodge entered the freshman class of the College in 1770 and soon joined his brother Andrew Hodge, Jr. (A.B. 1772) and his cousin and classmate James H. McCulloch in the American Whig Society. As the best orator in his class, he was chosen to deliver the valedictory oration on "The Government and Policy of States" at the commencement of 1773. He then returned to Philadelphia to study medicine with Thomas Cadwalader. Like his father, who was friendly with members of the Continental Congress, Hodge was a confirmed Whig. When the Revolution began, he cut short his studies to join the army. After passing a special exam­ ination by a board of physicians acting for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, he joined the Third Pennsylvania Battalion of Continentals as a military surgeon on February 7, 1776. The unit's commander after September was Lambert Cadwalader, the son of Hodge's teacher. On November 16, 1776, Hodge and several other physicians, includ­ ing James McHenry and John Beatty (A.B. 1769), were among the 2,700 Americans captured at Fort Washington, New York. For six weeks, those surgeons were prevented from ministering to sick or wounded fellow prisoners. They were finally permitted to do so, but received only the most rudimentary supplies, and those unofficially, from the British. Hodge and the others pressed their captors for help and were consistently refused. On December 23, 1776, Robert Morris, a business associate of Andrew Hodge, Sr., asked General Washington to expedite the young doctor's release. He assured Washington that Hodge was "a young man of much merit" whose services were badly needed. The general

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promised to do what he could for Hodge, but he would not depart from his policy of seeking the release of those who had been prisoners the longest. McHenry and Beatty were free on parole in early 1777, and Hodge was probably paroled at the same time. Bound by the terms of his release not to rejoin the army, Hodge re­ turned to Philadelphia to practice and to assist his father and brother in the family business. By 1779 he and Andrew were partners in one of the Hodge firms, although he was not a full partner with his father until later, probably in 1783. In 1785 Hodge met Mary Blanchard, a twenty-year old Bostonian who had moved to Philadelphia when her parents died. He courted her for five years, unable to marry because of the constant decline in his family's fortunes. He was often away from Philadelphia, frequently in the West Indies, trying to revive his father's business but to little avail. Only after his father died in 1789 did Hodge decide to abandon commerce, resume his medical practice, and marry. His wedding to Mary Blanchard was celebrated by Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) in the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia on February 26, 1790. Hodge inherited a share of his father's property, including 400 acres in the Wyoming Valley and a store on Water Street in Philadelphia. He and his wife lived on that street, in a house that belonged to his brother James. His medical practice prospered, especially among the city's Quakers. In 1793 he was elected to the College of Physicians, and three years later to the American Philosophical Society. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Hodge and several other doctors prescribed "bark, wine, laudanum, and hot or cold baths" for the victims. That approach led them into a bitter feud with Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who insisted upon bleeding his patients and dosing them with his favorite curative, mercury. In letters to his wife, Rush expressed his utter contempt for the "wine and bark doctors," singling out Hodge with special venom. If one of the younger man's patients survived, Rush concluded that blood-letting and mercury had been used secretly. His opinions were no secret, however, and by November several physicians, including Hodge, were circulating their own attack on Rush. Responding with ingenuous self-pity, Rush declared that Hodge was the leader of his "calumniators" and angrily resigned from the College of Physicians. In a lecture to the medical class in Novem­ ber, he excoriated Hodge as a man "who is nearly as large as Goliath of Gath, and quite as vauntful and malignant." Charging that Hodge had threatened to flog him, Rush scoffed that "if a horse kicks me, I will not kick him back again. . . . I have that to do which belongs to a man." By that time, however, the disease and the argument had

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almost run their course. Hodge was able to report in November that he saw few new cases, and that the victims then under his care were well on their way to recovery. Yellow fever returned to Philadelphia in 1795, however, and once again Hodge was constantly busy. It was a shorter crisis, but it took its toll on the doctor. He contracted a chronic infection characterized by jaundice. After three years of painful illness, during which he re­ mained an active member of the College of Physicians, Hodge died on July 14, 1798. His funeral sermon was preached by Ashbel Green. Hodge was survived by his widow and two young sons, three other children having died in 1793 and 1795. He left almost no estate beyond outstanding professional fees. In 1799 Mary Hodge and her children moved into one room of their house on Arch Street, where they had lived in 1797 when Water Street was too closely associated with epi­ demics. The rest of the house was given over to Andrew Hodge, Jr. and his family. Hodge's surviving sons, who had been baptized by Ashbel Green, were also educated by Green at the College. They were Hugh Lenox Hodge (A.B. 1814), a prominent obstetrician, and Charles Hodge (A.B. 1815), who was for many years a member of the faculty at Prince­ ton Theological Seminary and one of the most influential Presbyterian theologians in his era. SOURCES: H. L. Hodge, Memoranda of Family Hist. (1903), 16-25; A. A. Hodge, Life of Charles Hodge (1881), 7-11; Beam, Whig Soc. 60, 168; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 11 Oct 1780 (A.M.); Adams Papers, 11, 137, 147; Min. of Provincial Council of Pa., x, 478; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), ix, 574; x, 107, 103-105; (5 ser.), i, 617; (6 ser.), HI, 952, 1054, 1087, 1284; v, 533; (3 ser.), xxvi, 95; L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in the Amer. Rev. (1971), 148; B. C. Steiner, Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (1907), 13-14; Force, Am. Arch. (3 ser.), 111, 1374 ("young man of much merit"); Washington Writings, vi, 437; PMHB, 27 (1903), 443; First Census, Pa., 218; W.S.W. Ruschenberger, An Account of the . . . College of Physicians of Phila. (1887), 59 ("Goliath"), 69, 1235; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 701, 706, 718, 736, 740-41 ("wine and bark," "calumniators"); Hamilton Papers, xv, 385; DAB (sons).

William Eugene Imlay WILLIAM EUGENE IMLAY, A.B., soldier, physician, merchant, and Uni­

versalis lay minister, was born in 1755 in Upper Freehold or Imlaystown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, where his parents, Peter and Susannah Imlay, owned a farm. He entered the College as a sophomore in September 1770 and joined the American Whig Society. His diploma from the society is the earliest of its kind to have survived. At com-

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mencement he presented the negative argument to the proposition that "The Corruption of a State is not hastened by the Improvement of Taste and Literature; but by the Introduction of Wealth." Imlay left College a few weeks before commencement and returned in time for the ceremony. His absence disturbed Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), who was counting on Imlay's company as he went to Virginia to accept a teaching position. Imlay assured his friends that he meant to make the journey and he arranged to meet Fithian in New Castle, Delaware, on October 20, 1773. Fithian was there; Imlay was not. For some reason, he had decided not to go. By October 1775 Imlay was a captain in the Third Regiment of Hunterdon County Militia, having held the rank for several months. When New Jersey organized troops for the Continental Army in Febru­ ary 1776, Imlay was chosen by the Provincial Congress as captain of the fourth company of the Third Battalion. Under Colonel Elias Dayton, the Third served in New York state, for the most part guarding against Indian raids. It was not particularly onerous duty, but Imlay's performance was apparently inadequate in any case. In October Day­ ton commented on a return of his unit that Imlay was "Unfit for the Post he holds." The Third Battalion returned to New Jersey to be discharged in March 1777. Imlay then resumed his rank with his former militia unit, living with or near his family in Upper Freehold for the remainder of the war. In 1786, when he was a merchant in Imlaystown, Imlay sought letters from Governor William Livingston and the state legislature attesting to his character and patriotism. He meant to use those letters as references in the new home he planned to make somewhere in the west. Once again, however, his plans to move were not realized. The reason might be found in his activities as a lay minister of Universalism, a denomination whose founder in America, John Murray, fre­ quently visited Monmouth County after 1770. Imlay was active in the Universalist movement by 1780 and in 1790 helped to organize its second general convention in Philadelphia. That meeting, in which Murray and Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) played active roles, produced the Articles of Faith and Plans of Church Government for Universalism in the United States. Imlay published an account of the gathering in 1791. Besides his retail business and preaching, Imlay was also engaged in medical studies under Samuel F. Conover in Imlaystown between 1788 and 1791, when he applied for a license to practice. His application included a certificate from Conover and affidavits that he had attended

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lectures by Rush and William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754) in Philadel­ phia. In 1789, when his father died, Imlay had inherited only £10 in an estate that amounted to more than £1,000. His younger brothers and sisters had all received substantially larger bequests. There are many possible explanations for such an unequal distribution, but a quarrel between father and son would not have been surprising since Imlay ardently believed in the Universalist creed, which condemned slavery, and his father had at least five slaves. Imlay moved to Dover Township, near Tom's River, Monmouth County, no later than 1793. There he practiced medicine and opened another store. He also became active in local politics, serving on the town committee and as its treasurer in !799Imlay died in Dover in March 1803. His entire estate, valued at $654.50 and including medical equipment worth only $5.50, went to his widow, Rhoda. After her death in 1820, their children reportedly moved west. Imlay was buried in the family graveyard in Imlaystown. SOURCES: Wickes, Hist, of Medicine in N.J., 293-95, 216; GMNJ, 17 (1942), 67; N.J. Wills, vi, 214; x, 236; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Fithian Journal, i, 41; H. D. Farish, ed., Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian (1957), 6-7, 15, 18; Minutes of Prov. Cong. . . . of N.J. (1879), 205, 356; Stryker, Off. Reg., 21, 22-23, 82, 396; NJHSP, 10 (1865-66), 183 ("unfit"); K. Stryker-Rodda, Rev. Census of N.J. (1972), 110; als A. Holmes to W. Livingston, 21 Feb 1786, Livingston Papers, MHi; E. Salter, Hist, of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (1890), 385-91, 354; S. E. Ahlstrom, Religious Hist, of the Amer. People (1972), 481-83; E. A. Robinson, Amer. Universalism (1970), 49-50; J. Murray, Life of Rev. John Murray (1869), 353-54; J. S. Norton, N.J. in I-J9} (1973), 435. PUBLICATIONS: see STE MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

Andrew King ANDREW KING, A.B., A.M. 1786, Presbyterian clergyman, was born, according to the inscription on a print of his portrait given the University in 1931 by his great granddaughter, on October 2, 1749, near Raritan, New Jersey. The inscription on his tombstone, however, records the year of birth as 1748. His father was Richard King, an immigrant clothier from Ireland who settled first at Philadelphia, and then moved his family from New Jersey, where presumably he married Maragaret Barclay (Berkeley), to North Carolina midway through the 1750s. The family settled on Withrow's Creek in what was then Rowan

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and later became Iredell County. Richard's will, proved in the Rowan County Court in 1782, indicates that Andrew was the fourth surviving son. Where and with whom King prepared for college has not been specifically determined, although a letter of 1838 from James McRee (A.B. 1775) to Samuel Miller suggests that it may have been at a school taught by Joel Benedict (A.B. 1765). It is also impossible to say just when he entered the College, but there is little room for doubt that he was the "Little King" reported by Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772) to be temporarily his roommate in the spring of 1772, which argues that he may have enrolled in the fall of 1771. The argument is strengthened by a letter of January 1772 from Moses Allen to Aaron Burr, both members of that year's graduating class, suggesting the possibility that one King might be admitted to the Cliosophic Society, in order to provide company later for Samuel E. McCorkle, another senior, who apparently dreaded the prospect of having the company of too many Whigs upon his return to "the Southward." Whether Andrew was the King who with other students in January 1773 was fined by a local magistrate for stealing turkeys is properly considered doubtful, in view of his later career as a minister of the Gospel and the fact that by then there certainly were two Kings enrolled in the Col­ lege. Perhaps the culprit was Samuel King, a non-graduate member of the Class of 1776. What can be said with certainty is that Andrew King "of North Carolina" became a member of the American Whig Society and that on September 29, 1773, in addition to graduating, he partici­ pated in a debate of the proposition that "Matter is not in any Sense infinitely divisible." After graduation King studied theology, though it is not known with whom. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York in 1775. On October 9, 1776, the Presbytery was notified of his call by the Goodwill Church of what became Montgomery, Orange County, New York, and he was installed and ordained as pastor of that con­ gregation on June 11, 1777. The fact that he held the pulpit of the Wallkill Church (an older designation by which it often continued to be known) for more than thirty-eight years, indeed until his death on November 16, 1815, carries its own testimony to the satisfaction he gave his parishioners. There is the further testimony of a gravestone erected by "his affectionate people" to the memory "of a beloved Pastor." The historian of the church has said: "We do not know that he was a great man intellectually. . . . We are not aware of any literary or theological productions from his pen . . . but for the faithful employment of his talents, and the uniform usefulness of his

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long life, he had few superiors." He also credited King with the pro­ motion of education in the community and with the organization of the Orange County Bible Society in 1810 or 1811. King was twice married, first on March 19, 1783, to Jane Trimble, mother of James King (A.B. 1807). After her death in 1797 or 1799, King married Ruth Lott Snowden, a widow who gave him two more sons. Several children born to the first union died young, and another, named Marcus, predeceased the father at the age of twenty. His will bequeathed the farm on which he had lived to his widow for her life­ time, and thereafter to the two sons of his second marriage. To James went his property in Oneida County on the upper side of the Mohawk River. The census of 1790 shows him to have possessed one slave. SOURCES :

Alumni file, PUA; R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle ( 1 9 6 4 ) , 126; F. A. Olds, Abstract N.C. Wills (1968), 2 7 5 ; als J. McRee to S. Miller, 4 May 1 8 3 8 , NjP; Fithian Journal, 1, 22 ("Little King"), 30; als M. Allen to A. Burr, 23 Jan 1772, Gratz Coll., PHi; Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); J. M. Dickson, Goodwill Memorial (1880), 39-45 ("few superiors"); E. M. Ruttenber and L. H. Clark, Hist, of Orange Cnty., N.Y. (1881), 128, 1 3 7 , 3 8 8 - 9 0 ; F. L. Weiss, Col. Clergy of Middle Colonies (1957), 2 5 2 ; Alexander, Princeton, 165; First Census, Pa., 1 WWFC

Henry Lee, Jr. HENRY LEE, JR., A.B., "Light-Horse Harry" of the Revolutionary War, member of Congress, governor of Virginia, and father of Robert E. Lee, was born January 29, 1756, at his parents' residence "Leesylvania," Prince William County, Virginia. He was the oldest son of Henry and Lucy Grymes Lee, and brother of Charles (A.B. 1775), Edmund Jen­ nings (A.B. 1792), and Richard Bland Lee (Class of 1779), all pa­ rishioners of the Anglican church. Although the father was by no means the most influential member of his distinguished family, which in­ cluded Richard Henry Lee, he held extensive properties and sat for his county in the House of Burgesses. In Alice Lee, sister of Richard Henry and wife of Dr. William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754), a trustee of the College, one finds a family connection that may have helped to draw young Henry to Princeton, but the surviving evidence suggests that the credit may have belonged as much to President Witherspoon. Witherspoon had been quick to see the opportunity for recruiting financial support and students from the southern provinces. His first visit to Virginia came in the fall of 1769, and in the following February he was back again.

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Henry Lee, Jr., A.B. 1773 BY CHARLES WILLSON PEALE

He must have met Colonel Henry Lee of Prince William County on one of these visits. A letter of December 28, 1770, from the president to Colonel Lee, reporting the good progress of Henry and Charles as students, strongly implies that the two men were personally acquainted. The letter also strongly suggests that the boys had been recently en­ rolled, for it explains the procedures established by the trustees for payment of room and board. The time of their enrollment can be fixed somewhat more closely by a letter of the preceding August 25 from Dr. Shippen to Richard Henry Lee, expressing the wish, espe­ cially of his wife, that they might see "you here with your son or sons on your way to Dr. Witherspoon," and reporting that "your cousin Henry Lee is in College," and that Charles was in the grammar school. It seems that it was in the summer of 1770 that the two boys came to Princeton, the older for enrollment as a freshman in the College. Confirmation is found in a list of members of the Cliosophic Society that inidicates that Henry was admitted to that organization on August 10, 1770. Henry seems to have been an able student. A newspaper notice of commencement exercises in September 1771 indicates that he had com-

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pleted his freshman studies with marked success, for he is described as a sophomore and listed as winner of a contest in which undergraduates submitted essays demonstrating their skill in translating English into Latin. He also took third prize in a contest for reading Latin and Greek "with proper Quantity," yielding second prize to Aaron Burr of the junior class and first place to his classmate John Witherspoon, Jr. These were the last such honors surviving records show for him. Of the two brothers, Charles obviously was the superior student. Not only did he win more prizes through his undergraduate years, but in 1775 he graduated at the head of his class, a distinction not attained by Henry. In view of the fact that Henry was destined to deliver one of the more famous orations in American history, it is of interest to note that he was not chosen in 1773 for delivery of the valedictory oration—an honor, according to James Madison (A.B. 1771), "given to the greatest Orator." Perhaps Henry excelled socially. At any rate, both of the literary societies have claimed him as a member, and it is possible that at some time he withdrew from Clio and joined Whig. In 1773 he was one of the 22 graduating seniors, out of a class of 29, who spoke during the commencement exercises. He spoke in English on the "Liberal Arts," and must have cut an impressive figure. His classmate William R. Smith reported to Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) that in order not to "appear singular" as he put it, "Lee was stiff with lace, gold lace." The audience probably included his proud father, for it is known that he planned to attend. After graduation Lee returned to Virginia. There Fithian, tutor for the family of Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, saw him twice during the following winter. One occasion resulted in an interesting descrip­ tion of upper class society in Virginia from the point of view of a Pres­ byterian minister who felt out of place at a ball held at one of the Lee homes. Apparently Henry contemplated going to England to study law. It often has been suggested that the worsening of political relations with the mother country explains his failure to go, but some indecision as to his own goal in life might also have been involved. Although war was to provide the opportunity best fitted to his talent and disposition, his decision to enter the army was hardly precipitate. On June 18, 1776, when the War for Independence was more than a year old, he received a commission as captain of a company of Virginia Dragoons, which found its way into the main theater of operations in the following spring. On March 31, 1777, it became a part of the First Continental Dragoons, and Lee saw his first action in Washington's unsuccessful effort to check General Howe's advance on Philadelphia. It can almost be said that Lee had grown up on horseback, and he

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quickly proved his daring and skill as a commander in small scale operations undertaken for the purposes of reconnaissance, foraging, or simply harassment of the enemy. Having turned down an invitation from Washington to become his aide, Lee was promoted by Congress in April 1778 to major on Washington's recommendation that he also be given "two troops of Horse" that would "act as an independent par­ tisan Corps." On August 19, 1779, an especially daring and skillfully executed assault upon a British fort at Paulus Hook, across the Hudson from New York City, brought him first a court-martial by order of Congress for his unorthodox methods, next acquittal on all charges, and finally a special medal from Congress. Already famous as "Light-Horse Harry" and promoted to lieutenant colonel on November 6, 1780, Lee was sent south late in that year to help in the reinforcement of the Southern Army, of which General Nathanael Greene took command in December at Charlotte, North Carolina. The British had captured Charleston in the preceding May, and in the following August, General Horatio Gates suffered a disas­ trous defeat at Camden, South Carolina. As the remnant of the Ameri­ can army fell back into North Carolina with Cornwallis in pursuit, the fight was continued very largely by several noted partisan leaders who proved to be masters of the tactics of guerrilla warfare, among them Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of South Carolina, and Colonel William R. Davie (A.B. 1776) of North Carolina. The defeat of Ferguson's Tories at King's Mountain in October 1780 served only to delay Cornwallis's advance, which was designed to gain full control of the Carolinas. Lee had come with his legion of less than 300 men, partly mounted, partly infantry, into a situation offering fresh oppor­ tunities for display of his special talents. Almost immediately after his arrival he was detached by Greene, who understood the advantages of irregular operations for his own desperately weakened command, for cooperation with Marion on the lower Pee Dee. Lee rejoined Greene on February 7 at Guilford Court­ house in upper North Carolina, where after a skillful retreat designed both to avoid battle with superior forces and to impose upon Cornwallis the embarrassment of extended lines of communication, Greene momentarily considered giving battle. Instead, he continued the retreat across the Dan River into Virginia, with Lee's legion a part of the rear guard protecting the main force in repeated skirmishes. Cornwallis, who had burned most of his provisions and wagons to speed the pur­ suit, was now seriously overextended and withdrew to Hillsborough in North Carolina. Reinforced by Virginia militia, Greene recrossed the Dan late in

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February and finally offered battle at Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. Meanwhile, Lee had been sent back into Carolina to make such trouble as he could for the British and the Loyalists who had been emboldened to show their colors by Cornwallis's apparent success in driving Greene from the state. The most colorful preliminary to the major event found Lee impersonating the famous Colonel Banastre Tarleton of the British cavalry, with the result that the number of Loyalists alive in North Carolina was reduced by ninety, according to Lee's later recollection. He also was heavily involved in the subse­ quent battle. Guilford Courthouse was an indecisive contest from which Greene withdrew, leaving Cornwallis in possession of the battlefield, but the victor, if so he can be described, saw no choice but his own withdrawal to the coast for resupply of his troops at Wilmington. Thence he elected a northward advance into Virginia, thereby setting the stage for Washington's victory at Yorktown in the following October. Greene withdrew to South Carolina, there to reduce one by one the fortified bases upon which British control of the interior depended. At Fort Motte, Fort Watson, and Fort Granby, at Augusta on the Savannah, Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs on September 8, Lee had an important part in operations that brought to Greene no single great tactical vic­ tory but did assure for him the strategic success of shrinking the area of British control to the immediate neighborhood of Charleston. The war in the southern states was not quite over. Only in the follow­ ing summer would Georgia be cleared by Anthony Wayne with rein­ forcements sent to Greene by Washington. Savannah was evacuated by the British on July 11, 1782, and Charleston finally on the following December 14. But Lee had resigned from the army, despite Greene's efforts to dissuade him, in January 1782. The reasons for his departure are not altogether clear. He seems to have been in a depressed state of mind, and to have been discontented with the recognition accorded his services. He was influenced also by a desire to marry his cousin Matilda Lee, daughter and heiress of Philip Ludwell Lee of Stratford. They were married in the spring of 1782, and he soon became in effect the master of one of the great houses and plantations in Virginia. Almost as a matter of course he entered politics, being elected in 1785 for the first time to the Virginia House of Delegates. In the fall of that same year he was chosen to represent the state in Congress, where he served by two reelections until the fall of 1788. The experi­ ence strengthened his conviction that the country needed a stronger central government, and as a member of Virginia's ratifying conven-

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tion in 1788, he vigorously supported the adoption of the new Consti­ tution. In November 1791 Lee was elected to the largely honorific office of Virginia's governor, a position he held for three years. It was in the last of these years that he, as commander in chief of the state militia and with the rank of major general, led Virginia's contingent of the militia army called up by President Washington for the suppres­ sion of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. Washington had chosen him for the overall command, which he assumed at Bed­ ford, Pennsylvania, in October. There was no fighting to be done, and the chief embarrassment experienced by Lee was to find when he got to Pittsburgh that his headquarters had been located in the home of Hugh Henry Brackenridge (A.B. 1771) at a time when the latter had not yet been cleared of a charge of complicity in the rebellion. Brackenridge attributed Lee's withdrawal, after apologies to Mrs. Brackenridge, to "the delicacy of his feelings," to a desire not to witness "one with whom he had been acquainted in juvenile years, sinking into a melancholy situation just under his eye." More annoying must have been the attacks by political enemies, which followed his early return to Richmond, for having presumed to command the Virginia militia after the expiration of his term as governor and therefore as com­ mander in chief. But this was a passing storm, and the annoyance it brought him was offset by the satisfaction of being known thereafter as General Lee. Hypersensitive and more than a little erratic, Lee was having trouble finding his place in public life. His standing in his own county assured for him a continuing voice in the General Assembly and the politics of the state. As for national issues, his inclination was toward the principles giving shape to the Federalist Party, but earlier attitudes toward Hamilton's financial program suggest that he might have be­ come a Jeffersonian. Because of the Princeton connection, it is possible to overemphasize his part, with Madison, in bringing Philip Freneau (A.B. 1771) to Philadelphia in 1791 as editor of the Republican National Gazette. There may be also some room for debate as to whether the later quixotic notion of offering his sword to the revolu­ tionary government of France represented anything more than a desire out of frustration to return to a career that once had brought him glory. Washington's advice to avoid embarking upon a "boundless Ocean" with no land in sight helped to save him from this venture, as probably even more did his second marriage (Matilda had died in 1790) on June 18, 1793, to Anne Hill Carter with the reluctant consent of her father, Charles Carter of Shirley. Whatever may have been the uncertainties of earlier years, he finally threw in his lot wholeheartedly

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with the Federalists and won election to the Congress that first as­ sembled on March 4, 1799. Before the year was out Lee had one more chance to win fame, and won it. Washington died on December 14. A report of his death reached Philadelphia on the 18th, and the House of Representatives adjourned on the motion of John Marshall. The House reconvened on the next day to hear confirmation of the report from Marshall, who after appropriate remarks of his own moved adoption of three reso­ lutions that had been drafted by Lee. The third of them read: "That a joint committee of both Houses be appointed to report measures suitable to the occasion, and expressive of the profound sorrow with which Congress is penetrated on the loss of a citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." In this initial use of the words by which Lee was destined to be best remembered, they were not attributed to him by name, though Marshall later insisted upon giving him the credit that at times was assigned to Marshall. Lee, whether because he was unwilling to throw away a good line or in order to establish his title to it, repeated this soon famous tribute to Washington in the funeral oration he delivered by order of Congress in the German Lutheran Church of Philadelphia on December 26, 1799. Printed and reprinted a dozen times within a year in different parts of the country, it became a classic example of American patriotic oratory. The remainder of Lee's story is so tragic as to invite brevity in its telling. He was not a man of sound judgment. When in 1801 he com­ pleted his single term in the House of Representatives, having voted for Aaron Burr instead of Jefferson, he already was deeply enmeshed in financial difficulties brought on by his uncontrollable inclination to plunge into speculative ventures a wiser man would have avoided. Fortunately, the family was not entirely vulnerable to the consequences of his mistakes, for his first wife had left Stratford to their oldest son, also named Henry, upon his attainment of maturity, and the father of his second wife had placed her inheritance in a trust for the benefit of his daughter and her children. But the family did have to live in reduced circumstances. In 1809 Lee twice found himself in a debtor's prison, where he wrote a substantial part of his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, first published in 1812 to the advantage of historians who have sought to understand an especially complex chap­ ter in military history. In the summer of that year, having gone to the assistance of an acquaintance and newspaper man who opposed the war with Britain, he was almost beaten to death by a Baltimore mob. Dis­ figured for life, his health broken, Lee received a permanent major general's commission in the United States Army in 1812 but could

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not take the field. Instead, in 1813 he went to the West Indies, assisted by President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe in securing a safe passage from the British. In 1818, with death approaching, he set out for Virginia, but once more he failed. Put ashore at Cumberland Island, Georgia, where he was received by the family of his former chieftain General Greene, he died on March 25, 1818, and was buried there with full military honors. The state of Virginia in 1913 moved the body to Lexington for rein­ terment by the side of his warrior son Robert, who was the fifth child and third of the surviving sons of Henry's second marriage. Another son had died in infancy, and there were two daughters. Of the four children born to the first marriage, only two lived to maturity, Henry and Lucy Grymes. SOURCES: D. S. Freeman, R. E. Lee, 1 (1936), 1-33; Thorp, Eighteen from Princeton,

111-36; DAB; BDAC-, B. J. Hendrick, Lees of Va. (1935), 329-47; T. Boyd, LightHorse Harry Lee (1931); N. B. Gerson, Light-Horse Harry (1966); V. L. Collins, Witherspoon, 1, 127-28; Southern Literary Messenger, 27 (1864), 443 ("in college"); Madison Papers, 1, 45-46 ("greatest Orator"), 48η; MS Steward's accounts and Clio. Soc. membership list; PUA; Beam, Whig Soc. 18, 24, 25, 46, 60, 66; G. M. Giger, Hist, of Clio. Soc. (1865) 91-92; C. R. Williams Clio. Soc., (1916), 18; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Williams, Academic Honors, 6-8; Fithian Journal, 1, 43 ("stiff with lace"), 95-97, 103; J. H. Gwathmey, Hist. Reg. of Virginians in Rev., 465; Heitman; Washington Writings, xi, 198, 205-6 ("partisan corps"), 241, 251; xvi, 72-73, 83, 86, 137, 144-46, 149, 154, 155, 157-58, 159, 190-94, 196, 217, 262-65, 433-34; xxxii, 449-50 ("boundless Ocean"); R. Γ. Weigley, The Partisan War: . . . IJ8O-1J82 (1970); American Way of War (1973), 18-39; H. Lee, Memoirs of the War . . . (1812); H. F. Rankin, Francis Marion (1973), passim. LMCC, viii, xcviii, 463, 489, 506, 524; Elliot's Debates, 111, passim; Hamilton Papers, xvii, 142-43, 331-36, 386 ("delicacy of feelings"), 391; xx, 152; D. Malone, Jefferson, II (1951), 423-28; R. Ketcham, James Madison (1971) 326-27, 386-87; Ν. E. Cunning­ ham, Jeffersonian Republicans (1957), 13, 16-17; A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Marshall, 11, 440-45; Old South Leaflets, no. 38 (for text of funeral oration and edi­ torial appendix). See also Report of the Committee Appointed Under Act of . . . March 12, 1()12, for the Purpose of Remterring the Remains of General Henry Lee. . . . PUBLICATIONS: see text; STE; A Cursory Sketch of the Motives and Proceedings of the Party Which Sways the Affairs of the Union. . . . (1809); A Correct Account of the Conduct of the Baltimore Mob. By Gen. Henry Lee, One of the Sufferers (1814). MANUSCRIPTS: ViU; Lee corresponded with a variety of persons, with the result that he is represented in many depositories and more than a little of his correspondence is coming into print in the published papers of leading contemporaries. WFC

Morgan Lewis MORGAN LEWIS, A. B., A.M. 1783, soldier, lawyer, jurist, public official, and country squire, was the second son of Elizabeth Annesley Lewis

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Morgan Lewis, A.B. 1773 BY JOHN TRUMBULL

and Francis Lewis, a soldier, merchant, public official, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was born in New York City on October 16, 1754. Lewis received his early education under his mother's care at home and at a school near the Morris family estate, "Morrisania," while his father served in the French and Indian War. He was then sent to the grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey taught by Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763) and Ebenezer Pemberton (A.B. 1765). He entered the College before August 1770, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, using the name of the Carthaginian general "Hannibal." At his com­ mencement exercises he delivered an English oration on "Ambition." Although he had planned to enter the Inns of Court after gradua­ tion, Lewis stayed in New York and studied law under John Jay. In 1774 he was in a voluntary militia company and was a member of the Social Club in New York that met regularly at Fraunces Tavern. After brief service with some Pennsylvania riflemen in Boston, he returned to

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New York as captain of his company, which on August 25, 1775, covered the withdrawal of munitions from the battery and skirmished with a party from a British man-of-war. On October 6 he was promoted to major in the Second New York Regiment. John Jay, who was given the command, was so preoccupied with other duties that the effective leadership of the Second New York devolved on Lewis. When Horatio Gates was named to command the Northern Depart­ ment in July 1776, he gave Lewis a colonelcy and took him to Albany as the departmental quartermaster general. But the army had already withdrawn from Canada, where Gates was supposed to take charge, and General Philip Schuyler insisted that he, and not Gates, had com­ mand of the troops in New York. He refused to acknowledge Lewis's appointment as well. Caught in the middle of the generals' feud, Lewis went to Philadelphia in August to present his case to Congress. Schuyler's attitude toward him was at least partially a reflection of the disdain with which the older New York families regarded Francis Lewis, who was an upstart in their eyes. Tired of being his own quartermaster, Schuyler allowed Lewis to return to Albany by November. But he still did not trust the young man, summarily blamed him for logistical problems, and regularly tried to find someone to replace him. No one, it seems, was eager to do so, for the duties of quartermaster were difficult at best and usually complicated by the avarice or truculence of local merchants. Lewis had to plead, threaten, and cajole contractors to be honest and punctual, and his frustration occasionally was too much to hide, as in December 1778 when he berated a negligent supplier. "You may suppose," he wrote to the culprit, "a Volley of Oaths and Imprecation were not wanting . . . and could I have killed you with cursing you would have been in a warmer Climate by this Time." Moreover, Schuyler and his allies never ceased to question Lewis's probity and competence, and the few men under his direct command were always subject to being called away for militia service. The quartermaster also had to pay for supplies out of his own pocket, and it took several appeals from Lewis before Congress finally awarded him more than $51,000 as partial restitution in April 1779. Lewis saw action in the Saratoga campaign and was in charge of the troops that guarded British prisoners in October 1777. He then joined General George Clinton's expedition against British irregulars and Indians in 1778, and served bravely in the battles at Stone Arabia and Crown Point. But for most of the war, he remained in Albany, where he was an original member of the local Masonic lodge. By definition, quartermaster officers were not line officers; and, in spite of his combat

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record, Lewis was not eligible for the emoluments due a regular colonel when the war was over. In May 1779 Lewis married Gertrude Livingston, the sister of Chan­ cellor Robert R. Livingston, and thereby established a family connec­ tion that was the basis for the rest of his career. Precisely nine months after the wedding, their only child, Margaret, was born at Livingston Manor. After the war, Lewis and his family lived on Maiden Lane in New York City, where he completed his law studies and joined the bar. Among the most active speculators in confiscated Loyalist lands, he also joined the group of lawyers led by Alexander Hamilton who de­ fended former Tories against excessive punishment or confiscation. In 1784 he, Hamilton, and Brockholst Livingston (A.B. 1774) represented the Loyalist defendant in the milestone case of Rutgers v. Waddington. Between 1785 and 1788 he was the partner of a leader of that legal circle, Richard Harison. In 1784 Lewis began a three-year term as a regent of the state educa­ tion system, and from 1787 to 1804 he was a trustee of Columbia Col­ lege. He was active member of the Episcopal Church, serving on the corporation for relief of widows and children of the clergy in 1784 and as a vestryman of Trinity Church in 1786. In 1786 he was also a clerk of the chancery court and was made a lieutenant colonel of the New York Militia. In that capacity he led the official escort for George Washington at the first presidential inaugural. Lewis entered politics in 1787, when he was chosen an election in­ spector for the Out Ward of New York City. Like the Livingstons, he was a Federalist at first, or in New York terms, an anti-Clintonian, and as such served in the state assembly in 1789 and 1790. The seeds of Livingstonian disaffection with the Federalists were sown in 1789, when Rufus King was chosen as one of New York's United States Senators, and Lewis vainly tried to stem the coming political storm by urging Hamilton to find someone else for that position. Lewis was one of the last of the Livingston circle to abandon the Federalists and join the Clintonians. In 1790 he moved his wife, daughter, and eight slaves to Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York, where four years later he built a mansion. But he also retained a resi­ dence in New York City and his Federalist connections there. He tried to heal the breach between the Livingstons and Hamilton, with the result that he was occasionally ignored by his wife's family and not trusted by their opponents. He was elected to the assembly from Dutchess County in 1791 without Clintonian support. But when Gov­ ernor George Clinton appointed him state attorney general in No­ vember 1791, Lewis's conversion to the Clintonians was complete.

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The climax of the political battle came in 1792, when the Living­ stons opposed Hamilton in a dispute over the banks in New York. Hamilton's friends wanted to use Lewis as a go-between to stop the competition, but it was too late. Lewis stood with the Livingstons and backed Governor Clinton for reelection in 1792, the year in which he lost his own assembly seat. His loyalty was rewarded at the end of the year, however, when Clinton appointed him to the New York Supreme Court. Lewis continued to do some business with Hamilton, but evi­ dence that he had lost his friend's patronage may be seen in his pay­ ment of $1,100 to the federal treasury in settlement of his wartime ac­ counts. By 1798 an attack on Judge Lewis was one way for a rising young polemicist to gain Hamilton's favor. In October 1801, as part of the Livingston spoils for the election of 1800, Lewis was elevated to chief justice of the state. The vacancy thus created on the bench was filled with Brockholst Livingston. Although nominally a Republican, Lewis was basically conservative. He regard­ ed the restoration of the monarchy as the best hope for order in France, for example, and he was not always comfortable with the machina­ tions of Clintonian legislators. His judicial opinions, however, were usually Jeffersonian, as in his rulings that truth was not a test for seditious libel, and he supported the more radical Glintonians in their patently political efforts to amend the charter of New York City. In 1804 the New York Republicans moved to prevent Vice-President Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) from being elected governor. Lewis was their compromise candidate, chosen by a legislative caucus. Burr presented himself as an independent candidate and the Federalists were unable to field their own champion. In a campaign whose virulence was re­ markable even for that time, both infant parties split badly. In the end, Lewis was elected by 30,829 votes to Burr's 22,139. As governor, Lewis paid special attention to cultural and military affairs. One of his pet projects was public support for the Elgin Botani­ cal Gardens in New York, built by his Dutchess County neighbor David Hosack (A.B. 1789). Lewis was also an avid reader, known for his familiarity with fashionable poetry and for his patronage of literary arts. He constantly urged reforms in the state militia as well. When he pronounced the importance of drummers to military operations, how­ ever, his opponents seized the issue to humiliate him. Lewis's most im­ portant enterprise as governor was the creation of a common school system in New York. As governor he was also chancellor of the state, and he pressed the legislature to create a fund that would support uniform education, even for the poorest children. Only a part of his program was enacted, but it was the basis for one of the most significant

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school programs in the nation. Lewis's interest was so sincere that his friend Eliphalet Nott, president of Union College, agreed to sacrifice some of that institution's independence to the state because he was confident that Lewis would always side with the advocates of enlight­ ened education. Nott was too sanguine about the permanence of Lewis's position, however, for the governor was not well suited to the shifting politics of New York. His management of the patronage aggravated a deepen­ ing tension between the Livingstons and the Clintons. Even the Fed­ eralists found him incompetent to manage "the corrupt party he is connected with." Lewis had offended the Clintons as early as 1803, when he let his name be circulated as a possible candidate for mayor of New York, a post that DeWitt Clinton finally obtained. But the crisis in their relations came in 1805, when Lewis approved a charter for the Merchant's Bank in New York against the most specific wishes of the Clintons who controlled the Manhattan Company, with which the bank would compete and in which even Lewis's own son-in-law, Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786) held a large interest. Open political war­ fare ensued, with both Republican factions alternately gaining control of the state Council of Appointments and purging the appointees of their rivals. In 1807 while he dominated the council, Lewis dismissed DeWitt Clinton from the mayoralty, thus making the split irreparable. The Clintonians charged him with almost every conceivable offense, includ­ ing assault on an elderly Republican and collusion with the Federalists. In the election of 1807, Lewis had the support of only the rump of his earlier backers, a collection of Livingstonians and some conservative Republicans that the Clintons derided as "Quids," and he lost the governorship to Daniel D. Tompkins, the Clintonian candidate. Lewis had been a compromise, a front for the Livingstons, in all of his po­ litical enterprises. His constituency was theirs and his fortune shifted with theirs. Never having established his political independence, he suffered less a personal than a symbolic defeat in 1807. By 1808 the peregrinations of Clintonian politics almost took the family into the Federalist camp, for George Clinton had ambitions to be president and so opposed the election of James Madison (A.B. 1771), who was Lewis's old friend. When Lewis visited Madison in Washington, the Clintons denounced the secretary of state as a tool of the Quids and spread rumors that he had virtually been a secret agent for revolutionary France. Throughout the spring and summer, Lewis kept Madison informed of alleged Clintonian plots to steal the Re­ publican nomination, but once his former schoolmate was safely

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elected, Lewis returned to his Dutchess County estate. There he kept a flock of rare merino sheep, one of which might cost $1,000. In 1808 New York City commissioned a portrait of the former governor by John Trumbull for a fee of $500. Lewis spent four years as a country squire and an active member of St. James's Church in Hyde Park. But he never lost his interest in poli­ tics. In 1811 he renewed his correspondence with Madison, alerting him to another Clintonian scheme to take the presidency. He also served a term in the state senate in 1811 and 1812, standing with Gov­ ernor Tompkins against the newly disaffected Clintonians. According to a Lewis family tradition, Madison asked his old friend to be secre­ tary of war in 1812, but Lewis kept the offer and his refusal a secret. The story is plausible, since Madison had more than a little trouble finding a secretary of war before he finally persuaded John Armstrong (Class of 1776), another Livingston brother-in-law whom Lewis had ac­ cused to Madison of complicity in the Clinton cabal, to take the job. In May 1812 Lewis accepted a commission as a brigadier general and quartermaster general of the United States Army. The next February he was promoted to major general and finally given a field assignment, as second in command to Henry Dearborn on the New York-Canada border. In April he participated in the attack on York, Ontario in which the houses of Canada's parliament were burned by undisciplined Americans. The next year's fire in Washington, D.C. was Britain's re­ venge for that act. Ill and unsure of himself, Dearborn abdicated much of the respon­ sibility for his command. It was Lewis who oversaw the capture of Fort George in May 1813, but it is unclear whether he or Dearborn ordered the troops under Colonel Winfield Scott to stop their pursuit of the retreating British, thus letting the enemy escape. Lewis resumed the chase the next day, but it was a slow process because the army had to wait for him and his caravan of personal effects. General Peter Porter told Armstrong that Lewis was "brave and capable, but . . . no veni, vidi, vici man," who would "never overrun the wilderness of Canada" with his wagons full of the "various furniture of a Secretary of State's office, a lady's dressing room, an alderman's dining room, and the con­ tents of a grocer's shop." Dearborn resigned in June 1813 and was replaced by James Wilkin­ son, yet another aging warrior of questionable competence and char­ acter. He and Lewis set off along the St. Lawrence, uncertain of their object and beset by dysentery that prompted Lewis to stuff himself with blueberry jelly. After their troops were mauled by an inferior British

MORGAN LEWIS

315

force at Chrysler's farm in November, Lewis was transferred to the command of the Third Military District, which included New York City. Fearing an invasion, he resumed his former efforts to build up the state militia and improve New York's defenses while his wife led a "Stocking Society" to make clothes for the troops. In October 1814 Tompkins replaced Lewis in the hope that militiamen would serve more willingly under their governor than under an army officer. Lewis went to upstate New York as both a witness and the senior member of the court-martial that tried James Wilkinson on several charges arising from his failure in Canada. Once Wilkinson was ac­ quitted of all charges, Lewis returned to civilian life with a hero's reputation that was partially recognized by the naming of Lewistown, New York in his honor in 1818. In 1814 and 1815 he advanced his own money to help supply and parole American prisoners of war and he remitted the rents of his tenants who served during the conflict. Lewis practiced law in New York in the 1820s, with an office at 72 Leonard Street. Much of his time was spent tending to his considerable landholdings in a city that was expanding. He also remained an active Republican, one of Martin Van Buren's "Bucktails," and a presidential elector for Andrew Jackson in 1828. On his visit of 1824, Lafayette called upon Lewis in Dutchess County, and the two men later corre­ sponded, addressing each other as "my dear friend." In January 1830 a group of citizens met in New York City to discuss the formation of a new university. Although he was not invited, Lewis attended the meeting and promptly took charge. As chairman of the committee and the executive committee, he helped create the Uni­ versity of the City of New York, later to be known as New York Uni­ versity. In January 1831 he was elected vice-president of the institu­ tion's council, and in November he succeeded Albert Gallatin as coun­ cil president. In 1833, with the project well established, he resigned. In 1831, Lewis was also chosen Grand Master of the Masons in New York and vice-president of the Society of the Cincinnati. In September and October of that year he was a delegate to the Free Trade Conven­ tion in Philadelphia, organized to lobby against high tariff rates. He was chosen to deliver the address in the city's celebration of Washing­ ton's one hundredth birthday on February 22, 1832, and in 1835 he was elected vice-president of the New York Historical Society. With John Quincy Adams and Winfield Scott, Lewis was an honored guest when the society celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Washington's inauguration. Although he was by then almost deaf, Lewis remained very active. He corresponded with President Van Buren, who may not

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have asked for all of the advice he thus received. In 1840 Lewis chaired a presidential election rally in Dutchess County; and he proudly guid­ ed Van Buren and Henry Clay through the battlefield at Saratoga in the summer of that year. A widower after March 9, 1833, Lewis spent much of his last years in funeral processions, including New York's official mourning for President William Henry Harrison in April 1841, when he was a cere­ monial pallbearer. His own death occurred in New York City on Easter Sunday, April 7, 1844. His funeral at St. Paul's Church was attended by Masons and members of the Cincinnati in full regalia and by repre­ sentatives of the armed forces and of local, state, and federal govern­ ment. Two of his former slaves who had remained with him after their liberation bore his coffin. Lewis was buried next to his wife in the churchyard at Hyde Park. In 1845 his estate was estimated to be worth $700,000. SOURCES: D A B · , J. Delafield, B i o g r a p h i e s of Francis L e w i s a n d M o r g a n L e w i s (1877); J. S. Jenkins, Lives of the Governors of . . . N.Y. (1852), 130-58; MS Clio. Soc. mem­ bership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); 8 Oct 1783

(A.M.);

Jay Papers, 1 (1975), 113; NYHS Coll., XLVIII, 504, 506; xn, passim; HI , 335, XXXIII, 107η; xviii, 246; LXIII, 412; Lxx, 172; Lxxiii, 17; N.Y. Arch., I, 21; Cal. N.Y. Hist, MSS, W a r of R e v . (1868), I, 162, 163; L M C C , 11, 48-49; vi, 187; H . J . H e n d e r s o n , P a r t y Politics in the Continental Congress

(1974), 175-76; Force, Am. Arch. (5 ser.), in,

548, 605-606, 879, 907; C l i n t o n P a p e r s , iv, 218-19; v, 727, 844; n , 876-77«; W a s h i n g t o n Writings, xiii, 50; xiv, 258-59; JCC, xiv, 518; xix, 57; xxiv, 230; als ML to unknown, 4 Dec 1778, NjP ("kill with curses"); Empire State Mason (Mar-Jun 1967), 23; N Y G B R , 71 (1940), 230; N . Y . D i r e c t o r y , 1786, 60, 72; H . B . Y o s h p e , D i s p o s i t i o n of Loyalist Estates in Southern District of State of N.Y. (1939), passim; A. C. Flick, Loyalism in N.Y. During the Amer. Rev. (1901), 225, 229, 231, 232, 245; A. F. Young, D e m o c r a t i c R e p u b l i c a n s of N . Y . , (1967), p a s s i m ; S. I . P o m e r a n t z , N . Y . , a n A m e r . City (1938), 84, 86, 142; J. Goebel, Jr., Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton (1964), i, in, 240-41, 788-89; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Officers and Alumni

(1936),

6 g ; W . B e r r i a n , H i s t . S k e t c h of T r i n i t y C h h . , N . Y . (1847), 361; M i l . M i n . , C o u n c i l of Appointment, St. of N.Y., 1, 108, 133, 168, 276; MCCCNY, 1, 289; V, 102; vin, 11, 46; XIII, 188, 254, 633-34, 757· N . Y . R e d B o o k (1895), 371, 372, 530; H a m i l t o n P a p e r s , v, 344 -45; vi, 511, 553; vii, 106-107; χι, 156; xx, 78 & n.; XXII, 181, 182η; XVII , 497; First

Census, N.Y., 93; G. Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston

(i960),

247-48, 399-402; als ML to R. R. Livingston, 13 Feb 1802, NjP; H. S. Parmet and M . B . H e c h t , A a r o n B u r r (1967), 196-97, 201, 248 ( " c o r r u p t p a r t y " ) ; A . Kass, P o l i t i c s i n N . Y . State, 1800-1838 (1965), 10, 18, 80; Ν. E . C u n n i n g h a m , J r . , J e f f e r s o n i a n R e ­ p u b l i c a n s i n P o w e r (1963), 210-13, 229; D . R . F o x , D e c l i n e of

Aristocracy i n Politics

of N.Y. (1965), 63-69, 105-107; J. B. Langstaft, Doctor Bard of Hyde Park (1942), 233, 255; C . C . R o b b i n s , D a v i d H o s a c k (1964), 67, 81. 179η; J . G. W i l s o n , L i f e a n d L e t t e r s of Fitz-Greene Halleck

(1869), 233; State o£ N.Y., Messages of

the Governors, 11,

545-611; C. Z. Lincoln, Constitutional Hist, of N.Y. (1904), πι, 504-507; C. Hislop, Eliphalet Nott

(1971), 90; D . B o b b e , D e W i t t C l i n t o n (1933), 116, 119, 124-26; N . Y .

Hist., 15 (1934), 271; P. G. Hubert, Jr., Merchant's Bank of . . . N.Y. (1903), 65, 6970; als B. Livingston to R. R. Livingston, 3 Oct 1805, Gratz Coll. PHi; als ML to J. Madison, 16 May, 28 Jun, 7 Sep, 14 Nov 1808; 8 Apr, 12 May, 1811, Madison

MSS; I. B r a n t , J a m e s M a d i s o n , Secretary of State

(1953), 457, 431-32; a n d J a m e s

Madison, t h e President (1956), 439; M. J . Lamb, Hist, of City of N.Y. (1877-96),

HI,

JOHN LINN

317

545> 585, 6 4 9 ; F. Hasbrouck, Hist, of Dutchess Cnty., N.Y. ( 1 9 0 9 ) , 3 6 0 ; C. E. Sheen, "John Armstrong and the Role o£ the Secretary of War in the War of 1812," unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Ohio State Univ. ( i 9 6 0 ) , 2 9 - 3 3 ; C. W. Elliott, Winfield Scott ( 1 9 3 7 ) , 9 3 , 1 1 3 ("veni, vidi, vici")·, J. R. Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior ( 1 9 3 8 ) , 2 4 , 2 9 5 - 9 6 , 3 0 7 , 309-10, 313; J. Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times (1916), in, n6ff; J. Brannan, Official Letters . . . War with Great Britain ( 1 8 2 3 ) , 1 6 5 - 6 7 ; J. K. Mahon, War of 1812 ( 1 9 7 2 ) , 1 0 3 , 1 4 5 , 1 4 9 , 1 5 0 , 2 2 8 , 3 1 6 ; J. R. Jacobs and G. Tucker, War of 1812 ( 1 9 6 9 ) , 9 4 - 9 7 ; PMHB, 1 7 ( 1 8 9 3 ) , 1 4 7 ; R. W. Irwin, Daniel D. Tomkins ( 1 9 6 8 ) , 1 7 5 , 1 8 2 ; NYHS Quart., 4 2 ( 1 9 5 8 ) , 3 9 1 n. 6 , 3 9 3 - 9 7 ; C. R. King, ed., Life and Corre­ spondence of Rufus King ( 1 9 0 0 ) , iv, 1 3 - 1 4 ; J. H. French, Gazetteer of St. of N.Y., ( i 8 6 0 ) , 4 5 3 n. 7 ; Longworth's Directory of N.Y., 182J-28, 3 0 5 ; and 1842-43, 3 8 1 ; Dutchess Cnty. Hist. Soc. Yearbook, 1928, 3 1 ; T. F. Jones, N.Y. Univ. ( 1 9 3 3 ) , 1 1 , 1 4 , 18, 27-28, 30-31, 44; B. Tuckerman, ed., Diary of Philip Hone (1889), 1, 33, 35; 11, 2 1 2 ; A. Nevins, ed., Diary of Philip Hone ( 1 9 3 6 ) , 3 9 4 ; Cal. of Papers of Martin Van Buren ( 1 9 1 0 ) , 2 1 6 , 2 9 0 , 3 1 4 , 3 3 5 , 3 3 8 , 4 0 0 ; D. T. Lynch, An Epoch and a Man ( 1 9 2 9 ) , 4 3 6 - 3 7 ; Wealth and Biographies of Wealthiest Citizens of N.Y. City ( 1 8 4 5 ) , 20.

PUBLICATIONS; Sh-Sh #s

10724, 12914;

Sabin #s

40838, 40839, 40840

MANUSCRIPTS: DLC, Vassar College Libr., Albany Inst. o£ Hist, and Art, ViU, NHi,

NjP

John Linn JOHN LINN, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was probably the son of either Adam, John, or Robert Linn, each of whom owned land in the "Manor of Maske" at Marsh Creek, York County, Pennsylvania, where Linn was born in 1749. His parents were certainly members of the Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian church. Linn's early education was directed by Robert Smith in Pequea, Pennsylvania. At the College he joined the American Whig Society, and after graduation returned to Pennsylvania with his classmate John McKnight to study theology under Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763) in Middle Spring. Although he apparently did not receive his license to preach until December 4, 1776, he was sent on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania frontier by the Presbytery of Donegal in April 1775. In 1777 he was called to settle with the so-called Upper, Centre, and Limestone Ridge congregations, all of which were served by the church in Sherman's Valley, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He accepted the call and was ordained there by the Donegal Presbytery on June 17, 1778. His marriage to Mary Gettys occurred at approxi­ mately that time, and he remained at Sherman's Valley, as a member of the Presbytery of Carlisle after 1786, for the rest of his life. Linn was a charter trustee of Dickinson College in Carlisle, as were William Linn (A.B. 1772), John Black (A.B. 1771), John McKnight (A.B. 1773), Samuel Waugh (A.B. 1773), Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760),

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and Linn's former teacher, Robert Cooper. The first board meeting was in April 1784, when George Nisbet was elected "principal," or president. In the first tumultuous decades of Dickinson College, Linn was one of its most dedicated trustees, participating even after many of his colleagues had given up hope for the institution. He respected Nisbet's scholarship immensely but concluded that the strong-minded principal had "no talent for government." Nisbet's stewardship was often disturbed by his quarrels with the board, the faculty, and the students. Changes in the curriculum and college rules alienated many of the trustees, and in 1796 only Linn and Waugh of the original clergymen on the board attended the annual meeting. They composed a code for the "Regulation of Classes" that might have made the school more governable by creating three distinct classes with prescribed courses of study for each, but the proposal was not adopted. Nisbet died in January 1804, and Linn was active in the search for a principal to replace the temporary "President of the Faculty" in 1808. He wrote to a prominent minister in Philadelphia, possibly Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) or James Patriot Wilson, urging him to take the position and make the school into one that would "rival Princeton," but to no avail. By 1810 or 1811, with President Jeremiah Atwater in control, meetings of the trustees had become so irregular that Linn decided to resign. "I do not wish," he wrote, "to be a mere nominal Trustee & liable to be censured by the public for Transactions of the Board . . . when . . . I had no notice of the time of the meeting or the business to be transacted." Linn was thus the last of the clergymen who had established the school to be squeezed out of authority by advocates of new and different ideas. Linn devoted the rest of his life to his ministry. His residence was in Tyrone Township where, because his salary was inadequate to the needs of his wife and seven children, he also maintained a farm. Al­ ways a robust man of remarkable physical strength, Linn did not re­ duce his activities as he grew older. In the summer of 1820, while re­ turning on horseback from a church service, he was caught in a violent thunderstorm. Weakened by exposure and then infected with typhus, Linn died on August 30. He left his two-story brick house to his wife and two of his sons, who divided the rest of his estate with their four brothers and sisters. On the basis of his estimate of the value of his land, he left more than $6,000 in specific bequests in addition to con­ siderable allocations of property and personal goods. His one house slave went to his widow. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, in, 375-76; Centennial Memorial of Presbytery of Carlisle (1889), i, 73, 97, 100, 108, 226, 424, 443; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties,

JAMES McCONNELL

319

Pa. (1886) [Adams], 21; Hist. Memoirs of Centennial Anniversary of Presbytery of Huntington (1896), 67; als JL to unkown, n.d., PPPrHi ("no talent for govern­ ment"); C. C. Sellers, Dickinson College (1973), 65, 115-32, 482; als JL to trustees of Dickinson College, n.d., PPrHi ("nominal Trustee"); First Census, Pa., 80; MS will, PPPrHi. MANUSCRIPTS: PPrHi, PHi

James McConnell JAMES MCCONNELL, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born in Penn­ sylvania, probably in Cumberland County where the family name was ubiquitous. The details of his years at the College, like those of his previous and subsequent history, are obscure. He neither joined a literary society nor took a role in his commencement. McConnell was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Donegal on April 12, 1775. That June he was sent on a missionary tour of the fron­ tier, and he remained an itinerant for two years. His work took him to the Tinkling Spring church in Rockbridge County, Virginia in April 1778, and two months later he was installed and ordained as pastor of the nearby combined congregations of Oxford, Falling Spring, and High Bridge. Between 1779 and 1784, McConnell acquired at least 820 acres in Rockbridge County, on which he kept eight horses and eleven head of cattle according to the return of the local militia company in which he served in 1783. In October 1782 he was appointed by the Presby­ tery of Hanover to the new board of trustees of Liberty Hall, the academy of which his classmate William Graham was in charge. When the academy was chartered by the Virginia Assembly later that month, however, McConnell's name was absent from the list of trustees. It may, therefore, have been in 1782 that his career took a precipitate turn. McConnell was not a superlative preacher. His sermons were tedious and his delivery painfully bad. Often at a loss for words, he inter­ jected such phrases as "as it were" into his texts so often that members of his congregations would count the expletives rather than listen to the message. His lack of popularity was demonstrated when, as a result of his wife's extravagance, he was sent to jail for debt. Not one of his parishioners stepped forward to help him although many of them sat in the county court on the day of his sentencing. He was released from jail only when William Graham heard of his plight and agreed to stand for the debt.

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Soon after his release, McConnell was seized with convulsive fits which rendered him unable to continue in the pulpit. He disappears from the Virginia records in 1787, one year after he joined the Presby­ tery of Lexington. He may have moved west. From 1798 to 1809 a James McConnell was the minister of the First United Presbyterian Church in Newville, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. According to the College's published catalogues, McConnell died between 1816 and 1824. SOURCES: J. A. Alexander, J. Carnahan, and A. Alexander, MS "Notices of Distin­ guished Graduates," NjP; PMHB, 24 (1900), 43-44; Centennial Memorial of Presby­ tery of Carlisle (1889), 1, 97, 424-25; Rec. Pres. Chh., 462, 515, 529, 542; Fithian Journal, 11, 33, 139; J. W. McClung, Hist. Significance of Rockbridge Cnty., Va. (1939), 99, 216; Foote, Sketches, Va., I, 458; 11, 107; Kegley, Va. Frontier, 4, 17, 434, 435, 451; Cat. of . . . Washington and Lee Univ. (1888), 35; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa. (1886) [Cumberland], 212, 362.

James Hugh McCulloch J AMES H UGH M CC ULLOCH, A.B., merchant and public official, was born on October 16, 1756 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Hugh and Christiana McCulloch. His father, a cooper who became a pros­ perous merchant, was a man of rigid opinions, insisting, for example, that the sun moved around the earth because Joshua had commanded the sun to stand still. Hugh McCulloch's sister was the mother of An­ drew Hodge, Jr. (A.B. 1772) and Hugh Hodge (A.B. 1773). A sister of James McCulloch was the mother of Ashbel Green's (A.B. 1783) second wife. Green's third wife, Mary McCulloch, was probably the daughter of one of James McCulloch's brothers. McCulloch joined the American Whig Society at the College, and in the commencement of 1773, opposed the proposition that "The Vir­ tues of uncultivated States are not greater, nor their Vices less, than those which prevail in polished Life." His parents commissioned the fashionable Philadelphia artist Matthew Pratt to paint a portrait of their son in his academic gown, posed as if he were declaiming before Nassau Hall. After graduation McCulloch returned to Philadelphia, where he probably joined his father in business. In 1780 he had property in the city worth £1000. No evidence has been found to support the tradition that he held a military rank during the Revolution. His family was engaged in commerce in the West Indies, and in May 1782 McCulloch boarded the American brig George Washington in Philadelphia, bound for Hispanola and Cuba. When the ship encountered a British

JAMES HUGH McCULLOCH

321

James McCulloch, A.B. 1773 BY MATTHEW PRATT

privateer, Captain Joshua Barney ordered his civilian passengers below decks for their own safety. McCulloch sneered at the command, chose a musket from the arms rack, tied a handkerchief around his head, and fired the first shot at the enemy. He held his position throughout the battle after which the George Washington docked at Cape Fran£ois and Havana and then returned to Chesapeake Bay. For business or other reasons, McCulloch decided to settle in Mary­ land by December 1782 when, as a resident of Anne Arundel County, he sought permission to go to New York on a commercial errand. In 1783 he moved permanently to Baltimore, where he established himself as a financier by buying substantial amounts of state bonds and debt certificates. In 1783 alone he collected nearly £1,500 in specie from the state in debt service. He was an officer of the Baltimore city volunteer militia in 1793. His social standing in 1798 was demonstrated by his membership in the prestigious South River Club in Anne Arundel County, where he kept a farm. His home in the city was a "country residence" at Madison and Lafayette Streets. In the election of 1798, McCulloch gave his enthusiastic support to the Republican cause. He was a close friend and political associate of

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Congressman Samuel Smith, the brother of Robert Smith (A.B. 1781). Both men were the targets of Federalist insults. McCulloch was elected to the state assembly in 1800 and in 1801 was a state elector for Balti­ more. With a Republican administration in Washington, Smith be­ came the arbiter of political patronage in Maryland. After serving for one year, McCulloch resigned from the state senate in 1807 and with Smith's support was named collector of the port of Baltimore, the most lucrative federal position in Maryland. Smith had tried to secure the post for him twice before, but with no success until 1808. In May 1812 Maryland's leading Democrats, including McCulloch, called for a war against Britain. In June they got their wish. Letters of marque for privateers were mailed from Washington on June 26 to the collectors and naval officers of major port cities. President James Madison (A.B. 1771) wanted the first such document to go to Commo­ dore Joshua Barney, the revolutionary hero and former captain of the George Washington, who lived in Baltimore. Accordingly, letters num­ bered one through ten were sent to McCulloch. But Barney did not apply for his papers promptly, and McCulloch awarded letter number one to George Stiles, who had made clear his desire for the honor and who took care to be the first in line. Angry reproofs from the adminis­ tration could not reverse McCulloch's decision, however, and Barney had to be satisfied with a duplicate first letter of marque. McCulloch also invested in privateers. In June 1813 he was a mem­ ber of the group that bought the Ultor, the first xebec built on Chesa­ peake Bay. With its three masts and lateen sails, the Ultor differed markedly from the standard two-masted, square-topped Baltimore clipper. It was not, therefore, as easily recognized as a privateer and promised to make a great profit for its owners. But even its odd con­ figuration did not enable the Ultor to run the British blockade often enough to achieve its financial potential. When English troops landed near Baltimore in September 1814, McCulloch could not be restrained from volunteering to fight. At the battle of North Point on September 14, he was shot through the leg and, with his thigh broken, taken prisoner, and held briefly by the enemy. The British call for an American physician to care for wounded captives brought McCulloch's own son, James H. McCulloch II, who tended to the injured and then signed the parole on which they were released. After the war, the owners of the Baltimore clippers registered their ships under the flags of new South American republics at war with Spain. Technically illegal, and certainly an embarrassment to the Monroe Administration, which was trying to negotiate the purchase

JAMES HUGH McCULLOCH

323

of Spanish Florida, this privateering activity went almost unmolested in Baltimore because most federal officers in the city were complicit in it. By 1819 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams was completely frustrated in his efforts to correct the situation. He blamed McCulloch with the other officials, although he did not think that the port col­ lector was actually making a profit from the privateers. McCulloch was very close to one group of shipowners, but he had a reputation as an honest man who was gullible. It was his enthusiasm for the cause of South American liberty that led him to wink at illegal privateering. Adams had almost no success in persuading Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford to force Baltimore to comply with the laws, and when Crawford finally did order McCulloch to investigate possible bribery of customs officials, the collector retorted that he knew his subordinates to be above reproach. McCulloch acted swiftly enough, however, to prevent the departure from Baltimore of a prize ship that had been refitted as a slaver in June 1819. Although the vessel was bound for St. Thomas, where slave trade was still legal, McCulloch held it in port because it carried manacles and chains that were illegal in the United States. In 1820 Adams again tried to stifle the privateering out of Baltimore. The dilatory Crawford refused to issue orders to McCulloch, who he said should have been removed from office long ago. Infuriated by Crawford's attitude, Adams was forced to seek a presidential directive to the port of Baltimore. He finally met McCulloch on October 7, 1824, at Baltimore's reception for General Lafayette, and he found the port collector an amusing companion. Three years later, as president, Adams toured the battlefield at North Point with McCulloch as his guide, and the port collector sat at his side at dinner that evening. On the president's other side sat Senator Samuel Smith. Even after he retired from the Senate in 1833, Smith managed to keep McCulloch in his job although many members of their own party had decided that a new port collector was needed. He often explained that the impoverished old man needed the work. In fact, McCulloch was far from poor. He held property in and around Baltimore and profited from the sale of more. In addition, he had inherited some of his father's holdings in Philadelphia. Nor was he enfeebled by age. In July 1834 he marched as a pallbearer in Baltimore's memorial service for LaFayette. And in 1835 he took advantage of the temporary absence of the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, to which he had belonged since 1783, to secure the use of the building for the Democratic convention that nominated Martin Van Buren. McCulloch's death on November xo, 1836 symbolized the end of a

CLASS OF 1773

324

political era in Baltimore. Smith's influence declined after his most trusted ally was gone, and new men rose to power in the Democratic party. McCulloch's wife, the former Margaret Bryson, died only eight­ een days after her husband. They left three children. (1961-62), 31; H. L. Hodge, M e m o r a n d a of Family H i s t . (1903), Baltimore Will Book #10, 567, MdHi; alumni file, PTJA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1 7 7 3 (commencement); Pa. A r c h . ( 3 ser.), xv, 2 3 0 ; H. Footner, Sailor of Fortune ( 1 9 4 0 ) , 1 2 2 ; M d . Arch., XLVIII, 3 2 0 , 4 4 0 , 4 6 1 , 4 7 2 ; LXXII, 3 4 4 ; J. D. Warfield, Founders of A n n e A r u n d e l and Howard Counties, M d . ( 1 9 6 7 ) , 2 0 2 ; J. E. Semmes, J o h n Η . B .

SOURCES: P G M , 22 7; Ms

LaTrobe and His Times (1917), 182; MHM, 70 (1975), 355, 358-59; 34 (1939), 245;

49 (1954). 28,

30; 65 (1970), 286; 35 (1940), 253, 259;

J. P. Cranwell and W. B. Crane,

Men of Marque (1940), 43-45, 199; W. M. Marine, British Invasion of Md. (1913), 1 7 1 ; H. Owens, B a l t i m o r e o n t h e Chesapeake ( 1 9 4 1 ) , 2 0 6 ; C. F. Adams, ed„ M e m o i r s of John Quincy Adams, iv, 318 -ig, 390-91; v, Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore (1874), 205-206,

154-55;

VI >

4 8 ^ vn,

336, 338;

J. T.

267, 292, 299, 469, 489.

John McKnight JOHN MCKNIGHT, A.B., A.M. 1786, D.D. Yale 1791, Presbyterian clergy­

man, teacher, college president, and farmer, was born on October 1, 1754, near Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His father was probably John McKnight, an officer of the colonial militia in the French and Indian War who died sometime after 1768. McKnight's mother remarried, but no record of her maiden name or second mar­ ried name has been found. At the College McKnight joined the American Whig Society, and in the commencement exercises for 1773, advocated the proposition that "Every human Art is not only consistent with true Religion, but receives its highest Improvement from it." From Nassau Hall he went home to study theology with Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763), minister of the Middle Spring church near Shippensburg. On April 12, 1775, he was licensed by the Donegal Presbytery, which promptly sent him to northern Virginia. McKnight supplied at many pulpits until April 1776 when he was called to settle at the church in Elk Branch, between Shepherdstown and Charlestown, (West) Virginia. Although more lucrative posts were available, he accepted the call with a salary of £132 subscribed and £120 pledged in Pennsylvania currency. He married Susan Brown of Franklin County, Pennsylvania on October 17, 1776 and on December 5 was ordained and installed at Elk Branch in a ceremony conducted by Hezekiah Balch (A.B. 1766). During the Revolution, McKnight was a peripatetic preacher, serv­ ing his own and many other churches in northern Virginia. Already

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John McKnight, A.B. 1773

discontent because the Elk Branch congregation had failed to pay his promised wages, he decided to resign in October 1782 after his pa­ rishioners quarreled over where their worship services should be held. He was immediately invited to take charge of several churches and decided to accept the joint call from Marsh Creek, near Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania and Tom's Creek, Maryland. He settled on "Carroll's Tract" in Adams County, on a farm whose 150 acres were cultivated by members of his church. In addition, he was paid £180 and 100 bushels of wheat annually. He found life there extremely con­ genial and became one of the better known clergymen in the region. In 1783 he was chosen as a charter trustee of Dickinson College. John Rodgers, minister to the Brick and Wall Street Presbyterian churches in New York City, visited Marsh Creek in July 1789 to present in person an invitation for McKnight to join him in a collegiate partnership in which they would share the pastorate of both churches. McKnight accepted in September and was installed in New York on December 2. He and Rodgers were immediately successful in calming the tension that had arisen between the members of the two congrega­ tions. For three years, they maintained a grueling schedule, serving

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both churches with such distinction that in 1791 McKnight was honored with a D.D. from Yale. When McKnight's health began to fail in 1792, the congregation called a third collegiate minister, Samuel Miller (Pennsylvania 1789), who was installed on January 3, 1793. His clerical duties thus reduced, McKnight found time to serve as a trustee of Columbia College from 1 793" 1 795 an d as professor of moral philosophy there between 1795 and 1799. He lived comfortably on his pastoral salary of £300 and owned two slaves in 1790. Like most Presbyterian ministers, McKnight welcomed the French Revolution. He did not, apparently, become an opponent of revolu­ tionary France when most of his colleagues did in the mid-i790s. Like Rodgers, who maintained personal ties with the anti-Federalist Clinton family, McKnight was probably sympathetic to the embryonic Re­ publican movement in New York. His optimistic praise for France as late as 1802 definitely separated him from the Federalists. In that regard, he differed markedly from Samuel Miller, and their differences grew stronger and more personal. The collegiate partner­ ship changed substantially after Miller joined it. New churches on Rutgers and Cedar Streets and the addition of yet another colleague tended to strain the complicated relationships among the ministers and congregations. Neither Miller nor McKnight had ever fully ap­ proved of the collegiate system, and in 1808 they agreed that the four churches should be separated, each to be assigned to a single minister. Since Rodgers was too old for such service, McKnight expected that his seniority, and his notable accomplishments in raising money for the new churches and in founding congregations among the Tuscarora Indians, would entitle him to the pulpit of the Wall Street Church. After initially rejecting proposals for change, the congregations agreed to divide on March 27, 1809. But it was Miller who was selected for Wall Street. McKnight was assigned to the Brick Church. The jealousies inherent in the collegiate arrangement now came to the surface. McKnight had no desire to serve the Brick Church, per­ haps because some of its members disliked him; so he resigned. He also accused Miller of plotting to displace him by using unfair influence. There was probably some basis for those charges. As early as 1804, Miller had suggested McKnight for the presidency of Union College if Eliphalet Nott decided not to take that post. As the decision for separation of the New York churches was being made, Miller had written to some of his close friends in the ministry, suggesting that they apply for a vacancy that was about to open in the city. Miller later explained that he expected the new preacher to serve as a general

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assistant to all of the pulpits, but McKnight felt that the secret corre­ spondence was part of a scheme to force him out, or at least to keep him from the church in Wall Street. The two antagonists agreed to arbitration by a council of fifteen that, in late May and early June, exonerated Miller and excused McKnight's charges as the result of a misunderstanding. McKnight could not ac­ cept that verdict. He persisted in resigning and wrote a complete ac­ count of his version of the story, which he may never have intended to use. With or without his permission, however, his friends published his observations in the American Citizen in September and October 1809. Filled with ad hominem attacks on Miller and the arbitrators, these articles claimed that McKnight had spent $10,000 of his own money in the service of the church, while the congregations had misappropriated $2,500 of church funds. They charged Miller with fawning on young socialites in the congregation and complained that McKnight had been conspired against because he would not accept the dictates of certain powerful members of the church. McKnight's friends asserted that the original vote to retain the collegiate system was overturned only after Miller found a number of people who almost never even attended church and brought them to the decisive meeting. Miller's conduct was defended in later articles by his own friends, but when it was clear that McKnight was gone for good, the debate ended quietly. McKnight retired to a farm near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. His health was already poor, so he declined the several invitations he re­ ceived to settle with new churches. He did agree to supply the nearby church at Rocky Spring frequently. He also continued to be active in the Presbyterian General Assembly until 1812, when he argued for Chambersburg as the site of the new theological seminary. Princeton was chosen instead, but McKnight agreed to serve on the board of the seminary until 1814. In September 1815 the trustees of Dickinson College persuaded McKnight to become principal of the institution. He had rejoined the board in that year after having resigned in 1794. Dickinson was almost bankrupt in 1815 and suffered the severe embarrassment of frequent duels among the students. McKnight was unable to solve either prob­ lem in one year, after which the trustees suspended operation of the college and asked for state aid. McKnight resigned the presidency but continued on the board until 1820. Most of his time thereafter was spent working his farm. In 1822 an epidemic fever weakened him great­ ly, and he died on October 21, 1823. He was survived by his wife and ten children. SOURCES:

Sprague, Annals,

HI, 371-75; Centennial Memorial of

the Presbytery of

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Carlisle (1889), I, 53-56; Pa. Arch. (5 ser.), 1, 128, 175, 265; (8 ser.), VII, 6126; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Trustee Minutes, PUA; J. R. Graham, Plant­ ing of Presbyterianism in Northern Va. (1904), passim; Fithian Journal, 11, 139; Foote, Sketches, Va., 1, 557; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa. (1886) [Adams], 285; C. C. Sellers, Dickinson College (1973), 159, 482; Stiles, Literary Diary, HI, 430, 446; S. Miller, Memoirs of the Rev. John Rodgers (1813), 263-64, 266, 273; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Officers and Alumni (1936), 72; First Census, N.Y., 121; E. W. Spaulding, His Excellency George Clinton (1938), 208-210; WMQ (3 ser.), 22 (1965), 396; J. McKnight, A View of the Present State of the Political and Re­ ligious World (1802); A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 427-28; als S. Miller to E. Nott, 14 Aug 1804, Gen. MSS; E. D. Griffin to S. Miller, 23 May 1809; C. Speece to S. Miller, 22 Jun 1809; J. McK to S. Miller, 24 May 1809; 3 Jul 1809; Miller Papers, NjP; American Citizen, 30 Sep, 2-18 Oct 1809; S. Knapp, Hist, of the Brick Presbyterian Chh. (1909), 85, 88, 107, 109-11; S. Miller, Jr., Life of Samuel Miller (1869), 267-72; Bio. Cat. of Princeton Theological Seminary (1955), ix. PUBLICATIONS; Sh-Sh #s 2571, 15474, 29023; Sabin #s 43473, 43474 MANUSCRIPTS; NjP, PPPrHi, PHi

Aaron Ogden AARON OGDEN, A.B., A.M. 1783, LL.D. 1816, teacher, soldier, lawyer, public official, and entrepreneur, was born on December 3, 1756, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was the son of Phebe Hatfield Ogden and Robert Ogden II, a prominent lawyer and official who was a trus­ tee of the College from 1763 to 1765. His brother, Robert Ogden III, graduated from Nassau Hall in 1765, and an older sister married Timothy Edwards (A.B. 1757), uncle and guardian of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). Ogden and Burr were childhood playmates and lifelong friends. Ogden was probably prepared for college at the Latin grammar school of Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763) and Ebenezer Pemberton (A.B. 1765) in Elizabethtown. He joined the Cliosophk Society on November 21, 1770, using the pseudonym "Shakespeare," and for the rest of his life he was an avid reader of the Bard. At his graduation exercises, he delivered an English oration "On true Honor." After a few months as master of Nassau Hall's grammar school, Og­ den returned to Elizabethtown as a tutor in the school run there by his brother-in-law Francis Barber (A.B. 1767). On January 22, 1776, he, Barber, and several other young men from the area joined in capturing a grounded British ship off Sandy Hook. Only a few weeks before, Og­ den had been named paymaster of the First Battalion of New jersey Militia. On November 2, 1776, Ogden was commissioned a first lieutenant in the First New Jersey Regiment of Continentals, which he also

AARON OGDEN

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Aaron Ogden, A.B. 1773 BY ASHER B. DURAND

served as paymaster until April 1778. He received several temporary promotions to captain and served occasionally as a brigade major as well. He fought at the battle of Brandywine in 1777 and remained with the army at Valley Forge that winter. While he might have stayed be­ hind the lines at the battle of Monmouth Courthouse in June 1778, he voluntarily joined in the fighting. His courage attracted the attention of General Lord Stirling, who made Ogden his assistant aide-de-camp. After the battle Ogden went to Peekskill, New York as a witness in the court-martial of General Charles Lee. Stationed at Elizabethtown in the winter of 1778-1779, Ogden volun­ teered to reconnoiter an approaching enemy force. He was discovered and suffered a bayonet wound but managed to return to his own lines with his intelligence. Ogden received his permanent promotion to cap­ tain in February 1779, to the consternation of some senior lieutenants. He and his fellow officers at Elizabethtown were so disgusted by the state's inattention to their needs that in May 1779 they threatened to resign their commissions. Only a reprimand from Washington himself kept them in the army.

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Ogden was aide-de-camp to General William Maxwell on General John Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in New York and Pennsylvania in the summer of 1779. He was back in New Jersey in time to participate in the battle of Springfield in June 1780 during which his horse was shot from under him. In September, as a brigade major, he was sent by Washington with a flag of truce to inform British General Henry Clinton of the arrest and conviction of Major John Andre. At the suggestion of General Lafayette, Ogden offered to ex­ change Andre for Benedict Arnold, but Clinton refused to consider the proposal and Andre was executed. Apparently, Ogden had Wash­ ington's confidence, for it was he whom the commander in chief trusted to make preparations for a secret attack on Staten Island in November 1780. As a captain of light infantry, Ogden served under Lafayette in the Virginia campaign of 1781. In October he led an assault against a British redoubt at Yorktown. On March 1, 1783, back in New Jersey, Washington finally made Ogden a permanent major. Before the end of the month, however, the general heard that Ogden and Lewis Morris (A.B. 1774) had gone without permission into New York City. He was ready to punish both men severely until Ogden explained the episode to his satisfaction. Morris was probably trying to make some commer­ cial arrangements ahead of potential competitors, and Washington dismissed the journey as a "step of Inadvertence." At the end of May, Ogden and his friend Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776) took leave of their regiments to attend to personal affairs in New Jersey. Among Ogden's affairs was a plan with his brothers Robert and Matthias to establish themselves as importers and retailers of French manufactures. After the war, Ogden studied law with his brother Robert in Elizabethtown. Both young men were among the founders of the Institutio legalis, a moot court society which was the first effort at organized legal education in New Jersey, in Newark in November 1783. The fol­ lowing September Aaron Ogden was admitted to the state bar. One of his first cases, however, was in Albany, New York, where he and Alex­ ander Hamilton were the losing counsels in a land suit against Chan­ cellor Robert R. Livingston. In 1785, Ogden was appointed by the New Jersey legislature as clerk of Essex County. Ogden married Elizabeth Chetwood, the daughter of Judge John Chetwood of Elizabethtown, on October 27, 1787. She had been his nurse while he recuperated from his bayonet wound during the war. He was soon among the most prominent members of the state bar, after 1792 one of its sergeants at law, and was also active in politics. He

AARON OGDEN

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held the honorific post of aide-de-camp to Governor Richard Howell in 1794 while he was a colonel in the New Jersey militia that marched against the Whiskey Rebellion. In January 1795 the leading Federalists in Elizabeth town, Ogden among them, created a "Constitutional Association," the Federalist answer to the Democratic Republican Society of Newark. The associa­ tion was the bulwark of the party in northern New Jersey and managed to keep Elizabethtown from going with most of the rest of the state into the Republican camp. Ogden was an elector for Adams in 1796, but in the elections of 1797 the Republicans won the state. The QuasiWar with France provided a temporary diversion from domestic poli­ tics, and both Washington and Hamilton encouraged Ogden to re­ join the army. As a lieutenant colonel, he was given command of the Eleventh Infantry Regiment in August 1798. At Hamilton's request, he helped to write new regulations governing troops in garrison, and in February 1800 he accepted the post of deputy quartermaster general of the United States Army. It was impossible that in serving so closely with Hamilton, Ogden would not be involved in some political activities. In July 1799 he was in Newport, Rhode Island where Hamilton revealed his plan to remove John Adams from the presidency by switching electoral votes to Charles C. Pinkney. Ogden himself was a candidate for Congress in 1800, but he stood no chance in New Jersey because its representatives were then chosen on a statewide basis. The Republicans made General William Helms their nominee, clearly because he was Ogden's match as a mili­ tary hero. Ogden's only civil offices were those of county clerk and membership on the state commission to adjudicate a boundary dispute with New York. But in February 1801 he was selected by the legislature to com­ plete the unexpired term of United States Senator James Schureman. To accept the appointment, he had to resign as county clerk. Then in the gubernatorial election of 1802, when the legislature was evenly divided among Federalists and Republicans, neither party was able to gain a majority for its candidate on the first three ballots. The Fed­ eralists tried to break the deadlock by substituting Ogden for their previous nominee, Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), but the vote re­ mained tied and New Jersey did not elect a governor that year. The victory of Republican Joseph Bloomfield at the end of 1803 did not discourage Ogden. He remained confident that the American people would one day return to the "sound principles and practices" of Fed­ eralism. It is noteworthy that his strong partisanship did not interfere

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with his friendship with Burr, and in 1807 it was Ogden who argued successfully to quash Bergen County's indictment of Burr for the mur­ der of Alexander Hamilton. After leaving the Senate in 1803, Ogden returned to his law practice and commercial interests in New Jersey. He also served as a trustee of the College from 1803 until 1812. In an interim election in 1808, he was the Federalist candidate for Congress. But without organized sup­ port, he was swamped by the disciplined Republicans. It was the War of 1812 that revived the Federalists in Jersey, and in October of that year they managed to win control of the legislature. Ogden, who had considered running for governor in 1809 and 1811, was finally elected to the office on October 29, 1812, by a vote of 30 to 22. Immediately, he sponsored a thorough revision of the electoral laws to secure his party's dominance. President Madison (A.B. 1771) offered him a major gen­ eral's commission in the army, but Ogden declined to leave the state and then signed a new state law that would prevent the governor from simultaneously holding any federal appointment, as Bloomfield had done. Although Ogden and his party excoriated the war, they promised to do their duty to state and nation. But the opposition had enough ammunition to label them disloyal, and the legislature was Democratic again in 1813. Ogden lost the governorship to William S. Pennington in 1813 by a vote of 20 to 30, and again in 1814, when Ogden was still prominent in the state antiwar movement, by a vote of 23 to 29. Ogden was almost as busy as a private citizen as he was when in office, for he was an active commercial entrepreneur. He had been a sponsor of important turnpike and bridge projects since 1800. He was an original stockholder in the Associates of New Jersey, which found­ ed Jersey City, and he also held stock in the Ohio Company. In No­ vember 1804 he paid the state $4,000 for the right to subscribe $50,000 to the new State Bank, and in March 1812 he had been one of only four Federalists in the state appointed by the legislature as a bank officer. All of these ventures prospered. Ogden's most lucrative and most significant commercial enterprise, however, was his ferry boat company. In August 1800 he and Jonathan Dayton joined to lease a pier in Manhattan for their ferry line from New Jersey to New York. As the line grew, the facility was moved, ex­ panded, and improved. In 1804 Dayton sold his interest in the business to Thomas Gibbons, a former Loyalist from Georgia. The GibbonsOgden partnership was stormy from its inception. In 1808 Robert Fulton and Chancellor Livingston obtained from the New York legislature a monopoly on all steamboat traffic along the Hudson, and thus began a decade of commercial warfare between

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New York and New Jersey in which Ogden was the principal figure. New Jersey retaliated with its own monopoly, which was awarded to Ogden while he was governor. In 1814 he failed to persuade the New York assembly that only the national government had the constitu­ tional authority to regulate interstate commerce and then, admitting defeat, he paid the Livingston monopoly for exclusive rights to the Elizabeth-New York steamboat route. He supported that operation with an overland stage service and coastal shipping along the New Jersey shore. In July 1816 Ogden and Gibbons turned on one another. Ogden had purchased a note signed by Gibbons and, through an oversight, had brought suit for the debt. Moreover, Ogden had agreed to represent Gibbons's wife in a divorce action. Gibbons challenged Ogden to a duel, but Ogden answered by suing Gibbons for trespass. The ensuing court fight did much to discredit duelling and forced Gibbons to pay $2,500 in damages. He resolved at once to destroy his former associate. After years of complicated legal maneuvers, Gibbons sued to invali­ date Ogden's subcontracted monopoly of the New Jersey to New York steamboat traffic. The case reached the United States Supreme Court in 1824 an d elicited Chief Justice John Marshall's landmark decision in Gibbons v. Ogden which declared the exclusivity of federal regula­ tion of interstate commerce, thus voiding Ogden's monopoly. The litigation ruined Ogden financially. In 1827 his mansion in Elizabethtown was repossessed and he was forced to file a claim for his back pay from the Revolution, which was granted in May 1828. He may also have had to liberate the slaves he had continued to hold in the earlier 1820s. He had not, however, lost his social standing. An original member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, he was president of the organization between 1824 and 1839, and in 1825 he became vice-president general of the national society. In 1829 he was elected president general and he held that office until his death. He had resigned from the College's board in order to serve ex officio when he was elected governor, but in 1817 he was again chosen a trustee, an­ other position he kept for the rest of his life. He also served as the vice-president of the alumni association, established in 1826, and was active in the Elizabethtown lodge of Masons, which he had helped to found. In the election of 1828, Ogden supported Andrew Jackson for presi­ dent because he believed that John Quincy Adams had betrayed Fed­ eralism by joining James Monroe's cabinet in 1817. When Jackson was elected, Ogden appealed to him for appointment as collector of Jersey City. He moved his family and law practice there in 1829 ant ^ i n March

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1830, Jackson offered him the collectorship, with its salary of $1,000 per year. Shortly thereafter, Ogden paid a visit to New York. There he was imprisoned for debt and for several months received a virtual parade of wellwishers and guests in jail. He was released when the New York legislature, at the behest of Aaron Burr, passed a law forbidding the confinement for debt of veterans of the Revolution. As late as 1834 Ogden was still taking depositions on Burr's revolutionary service to support his old friend's claim for pay for the last three months of the war. Ogden died in Jersey City on April 19, 1839 and was buried in the yard of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown. Of his seven children, four reached maturity. They included Matthias (A.B. 1810), Elias B.D. (A.B. 1819), and Mary Chetwood Ogden, who married George Clinton Barber (A.B. 1796). SOURCES: DAB; BRAC; Soc. of Cincinnati in . . . N.J. (1898), 103-104; NJHSP (2 ser.),

XI, 15-31; (n.s.), vi, 148-52; W. O. Wheeler, Ogden Family in America (1907), 135-38; T. Thayer, As We Were (1964), passim; H. S. Parmet and M. B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (1967), 13, 73; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (com­ mencement); 8 Oct 1783 (A.M.); Trenton Federalist, 7 Oct 1816 (LL.D.); E. F. Hat­ field, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 423-24; Washington Writings, xi, 48, 295, 353; xix, 221; xiv, 388-89 & n.; xx, 387-88, 392-93; xxvi, 274 & n. ("step of Inadvertence"); NYHS Coll., vi, 94-95; Lxxii, 127; Cal. of Washington Papers, 111, 2368; G. Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of N.Y. (i960), 183; N.J. Hist., 97 (1979), 123-34 (with special appreciation to the author of this article on the Institutio Legalis, Donald C. Skemer); W. R. Fee, Transition from Aristocracy to Democracy in N.J. (!933). passim; Hamilton Papers, xxn, 51, 129, 130; xxm, passim; xxiv, passim; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1964), 18-19, 63, 160 Sc n.; F. B. Lee, N.J. as a Colony and as a State (1902), hi 87-89, 156, 159, 160, 369; D. H. Fischer, Rev. Amer. Conservatism (1965), 328 ("principles and practices"); PMHB, 26 (1902), 374; Pro­ ceedings and Addresses of the Second Convention of Delegates . . . (1814), 2, 3; Hist. Soc. of Hudson Cnty. Bulletin, 22 (1927), 4; C. H. Winfield, Hist, of Cnty. of Hudson (1874), 372; MCCCNY, 11, 647; iv, 712, 729-30; v, 470, 493; vii, 614; ix, 297, 374, 756; 766; x, 2, 23, 31; M. G. Baxter, Steamboat Monopoly (1972); Alphabetical Index of Private Claims . . . to the House of Representatives (1853), 600; als F. Barber to R. Ogden II, 10 Jul 1778; AO to unknown, n.d., 1794; to J. Dayton, 20 Feb 1801; to Ε. B. Dayton, 9 Mar 1802; to W. Gulick, 1 Dec 1818; to J. Thompson, 26 Dec 1818; to G. Wall, 6 Apr 1829; Stockton to AO, 6 Nov 1800; R. Fulton to AO, n.d.; E. Livingston to AO, 18 Mar 1830, NjP; D. Brearley et al to W. Livingston, Sep 1784, Livingston Papers, MHi. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, NjR, PHi, NjHi

Richard Platt RICHARD PLATT, A. B., soldier, businessman, and public official, was born on his father's farm near Smithtown, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York in 1755. He was the son of Jonas and Temperance Smith

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Richard Piatt, A.B. 1773 BY JOHN RAMAGE

Platt and a distant cousin of David Platt (A.B. 1764). He joined the Cliosophic Society on September 24, 1771, using as his pseudonym the name of the Roman soldier "Anthony." His roommate for some of his time at the College was John Pintard (A.B. 1776). At commencement Platt responded to the proposition that "The Virtues of uncultivated States are not greater, nor their Vices less, than those which prevail in polished Life." After graduation Platt returned to Long Island and became an active supporter of the Whig cause. He signed the Smithtown Association in May 1775. Six weeks later, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First New York Regiment, with which he went to Canada in July. As a first lieutenant, he participated in the attack on Quebec in late December and distinguished himself sufficiently to be recommend­ ed, along with his brother officer Jacobus Severyn Bruyn (Class of 1775) and others, by General George Clinton for a post in a new regi­ ment of New Yorkers. On June 26, 1776, the Continental Congress nominated Platt as a captain in the Fifth New York Regiment, then being assembled under Colonel Lewis Dubois around what remained of Colonel John Nichol­ son's Regiment. Before the new arrangement took effect, Platt and

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other veterans of the Canadian campaign resigned from Nicholson's regiment in protest against being superseded for promotions by junior officers. Platt then attached himself to the New York City regiment created by Colonel Alexander McDougall, who became a general on August 9, 1776. Four days later, Washington assigned Platt to act as McDougall's brigade major. On October 31, 1777, Platt and McDougall's son Ronald, the brother of John A. McDougall, Jr. (A.B. 1769), became General McDougall's aides-de-camp. Platt spent most of the rest of the war in the Highlands of New York. In December 1778 he sent intelligence to Washington regarding a British attempt to catch the army as it crossed the Hudson on its way south, and the information helped the commander in chief avoid the trap. McDougall's primary concern, however, was the less glamorous task of keeping order in the Hudson Valley, which was full of maraud­ ers and Loyalist spies, and he entrusted the coordination of his forces to Major Piatt. Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), one of the most active local commanders, barraged McDougall with complaints and questions, and Platt was assigned to keep the young colonel, with whom he had served in Canada, away from his harrassed chief. The two men became close friends, in no small part because of Burr's effectiveness in policing the area under his jurisdiction. In early 1779 Platt also served as the deputy adjutant general of the garrison at West Point, under General William Heath. He left the post, with Washington's thanks for his service, on July 25. Although the dif­ ferences between Heath and McDougall did not erupt into a full-scale confrontation until 1782, their relations were already strained. Platt left McDougall's staff in October 1780 to become deputy quartermas­ ter general of the Continental Army, but in Heath's eyes, he was still tainted by his relationship with McDougall. The commander at West Point complained to Washington in April 1781 that his garrison had no bread or flour, and he wanted to know "what is doing" regarding supplies. By June Platt had resigned from the quartermaster's depart­ ment. When Heath arrested McDougall in March 1782, one of the charges he made concerned irregularities in the provisioning of West Point. On July 2, 1781, Platt became General Lord Stirling's aide-de-camp. His duties took him to the Chesapeake Bay that September, where he observed a flotilla of boats that the army needed for transport. Al­ though the vessels were both too small and too few, Platt was so used to the complete absence of logistical support that he reported an abundance of shipping. Platt received depreciation pay early in 1781, but by April the

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value of the depreciation certificates themselves had plummeted. When the war ended, he tried to recoup by asking Congress for more money, claiming that he had done double duty more than once during the war and requesting a promotion to a rank that would be more highly com­ pensated. He asked for Washington's support, but was refused because the general would not be partial to any officer. In October 1783 Con­ gress decided that Platt should be paid only for the most important positions he held at any one time during the war. With the other officers who were commissioned before 1777, however, he received a brevet promotion. Platt established himself as a broker to New York City and by 1786 had a home on Water Street. He was an original member of the So­ ciety of the Cincinnati and was elected its deputy treasurer. As one of the most successful, influential, and best-connected businessmen in the city, he was included in William Duer's scheme for speculating in western land. Duer and Manasseh Cutler, the minister in Ipswich, Massachusetts, arranged a sub rosa merger of Cutler's Ohio Company with Duer's newly-formed Scioto Associates in order to facilitate the purchase of lands as well as the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Duer was able to deliver votes in Congress because many im­ portant government officials, including some congressmen, had secretly joined the Scioto group, of which Platt was also a member. In August 1787, after the merger had been effected, Duer chose Platt as treasurer of the Ohio Company. His personal wealth and friendships with many former military officers who were directors of the company insured his election over Cutler's objections. On September 1, 1787, Platt signed a personal bond for £20,000. Platt immediately advanced a large sum of money to the company. In January 1789 he tried to recover some of that loan by commissioning the sale of company stock in France in exchange for certificates on the American national debt. The deal produced $150,000 that was held in escrow for Platt in Paris and was only one of the numerous, com­ plicated, and frequently questionable manipulations of corporate as­ sets in which Platt was involved. His influence was so great that by the end of 1789, he could virtually command the presence of the federal secretary of the Northwest Territory, Winthrop Sargent, when one of the company's firm's

transactions

threatened

agent in Europe, Joel Barlow

the whole enterprise. The

(Yale 1778), had sold land to

which the company had no title to a colony of French immigrants. Their arrival in the United States embarrassed the government and the corporation, whose affairs were by then deeply entwined with na­ tional finances.

The incident prompted an investigation of Duer and

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his associates by opponents of the Washington administration. Platt was left short of funds and had to borrow to balance his books. He was not impoverished, however. His business affairs were healthy enough that on September 5, 1790, he was able to afford to marry Sarah Aspinwall of New York, and his speculations involved far more than the Ohio Company. Fellow members of the Society of the Cincinnati were among his best customers and closest friends. With Duer, he was one of the founders of the Society for establishing useful Manu­ facturers in New Jersey, a firm that occasionally employed Alexander Hamilton as its attorney. Duer, Hamilton, and Platt were connected in other ventures, finan­ cial and political. They backed the losing political ticket in New York in 1789. In 1790 they were fervent advocates of national assumption of state debts, and Duer and Platt were among the small number of speculators who stood to reap immense profits from assumption. Platt alone held more than $200,000 in debt certificates. His wealth also brought him political and social power. In July 1788 he had been the grand marshal of a "constitution parade" in New York City that both celebrated ratification by ten states and helped influence the New York convention to vote favorably. In June 1791 he appealed to his "good friend" Hamilton to help secure an ambassadorship for William S. Smith (A.B. 1774), who transacted some business for Platt in Europe while he unofficially encouraged the British government to improve its relations with the United States. Piatt's final and most fateful association with Duer was in 1792, when they and others tried to corner the market on six percent federal certificates and bank stock, hoping to force a merger of the Bank of the United States with the Bank of New York, of which they sought con­ trol. Platt countersigned several loans for Duer and took part in his friend's shady stock manipulations, the result of which was a financial panic in March 1792. Duer went to jail. Platt was ruined. Piatt's friends were stunned by his sudden fall, and he did his best to return to all of them the money he had borrowed. There was never any question raised about his honesty, but his judgment was no longer trusted. By late March he was able to pay no more than four shillings on the pound. The directors of the Ohio Company liquidated their accounts with him and accepted his resignation. He repaid part of the money he owed the company in Georgia loan office certificates that proved unredeemable. Of his money held in France, Platt was able to obtain less than twenty percent. Although he found time to visit Washington at Mount Vernon in October 1793, Platt spent most of the next several years trying to avoid

RICHARD PLATT

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debtor's prison. Beginning in 1796 he sought the advantages of bank­ ruptcy, but even with the help of such distinguished lawyers as Brockhoist Livingston (A.B. 1774), he was not declared bankrupt until No­ vember 1800. He called on old friends for help and was assisted by both Burr and Hamilton. In 1797 he went to France to raise money and escape his creditors, and Hamilton suggested to Secretary of War James McHenry that Platt would make a good candidate for some military post when he returned in 1798. No appointment came until March 1813, when Platt was named commissary of military stores for New York. Two years later he was the assistant commissary, a post he vacated on February 24, 1816. On November 21, 1817, he was appointed paymaster for a corps of artillery in the United States Army. When his appeal for more salary was de­ nied by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun in March 1818, Platt de­ faulted on some debts and was removed from his office. Even in virtual destitution, Platt retained some social standing. He was the marshal of the day when the body of his former commander, Richard Montgomery, was moved from Canada for burial at St. Paul's Church on Broadway on July 8, 1818. A few months later, Platt suffered another personal disaster when the younger of his two sons, a clerk in the Bank of the United States, was arrested for stealing bank notes to support his gambling. Most of the loot was recovered, and when his Aspinwall uncles restored the rest the young man was released from civil action. He was, however, still held for criminal prosecution until November, when he escaped from Bridewell Prison, probably with the connivance of authorities who respected his family. The affair was a great shock to his parents. Platt survived as a minor functionary in New York. With other members of the Society of the Cincinnati, he asked Congress for his pension as a veteran, but the issue was not resolved in his lifetime. He was one of the official hosts for Lafayette's visit to New York in 1824-25, and in 1827 he sought a court clerkship for his older son. In his last years, he served as an officer in New York's customs house and lived with his family on Great Jones Street, supplementing his income of pension and salary with loans from friends. He died on March 6, 1830, survived by his widow, one of his two daughters, and both of his sons. SOURCES: C. Piatt, Jr., Platt Genealogy (1963), 75, 93, 110; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Heitman, 794; Cal. N.Y. H i s t . MSS, War of Rev. (1868), 1, 54, 420; 11, 34, 45; Clinton Papers, 1, 240; iv, 431; vi, 439; vii, 310; Force, A m . Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 1722; (5 ser.), HI, 1041; x m , 371; Washington Writings, v, 310, 424, 470; ix, 471; xv, 476; xx, 253; xxi, 395, 506 ("what is doing"); xxii, 287, 323; xxvii, 171-72; H. S. Parmet and M. B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (ιφη), 49; NYGBR, 48 (1917), 58-60; D. S. Freeman, George Washington, ν (1952), 323η, 278,

340

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411; J C C , xxv, 644; N . Y . D i r e c t o r y , 1 7 8 6 , 43, 70; C. S. Hall, B e n j a m i n T a l l m a d g e ( I 943)> 96. 121, 122, 127-28, 138, 148-49; Records of . . . Ohio Co. (1917), 1, 17, 18; 11, 126, 128, 131, 206; Davis, Essays, 138, 193, 394; B. W . Bond, Jr., Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes (1926), 52; Jefferson Papers, xvm, 172-77; xxiv, 24 & n.; W. C. Ford, ed., Correspondence and Journals of 179-81; WMQ

(3 ser.), 32

Samuel Blachley Webb (1894), in, 86-88,

(1975), 409, 412; Hamilton Papers, xm, 105, 139; ix, 545-

4 7 & n . ; v i i i , 4 5 4 - 5 5 & n . ; x x , 1 4 0 , 1 4 1 8c n . ;

XXII,

88 & n.; M. J . Lamb, Hist, of City of

N.Y. (1877-1890), o, 322; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 136, !76-77; PMHB, 20 (1896), 364; als RP to Col Walker, 5 Jan 1797, Gratz Coll., PHi; Mil. Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y., 11, 1431, 1645, 1646; MCCCNY,

VIII

131, 255; x, 110-11; xii, 205; xvi, 164, 262, 493; Calhoun Papers, 11, 218-19; G. L. Piatt, Platt Lineage

(1891), 48; NYHS Coll.,

LXX,

154;

LXXII,

130; Longworth's N.Y.

Directory, 182J-28, 391; 1828-2(), 472.

MANUSCRIPTS:

DLC, MHi, PHi, NHi

Belcher Peartree Smith BELCHER PEARTREE SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1778, possibly a lawyer, was born in New York City on May 25, 1756. He was the son of William Peartree Smith (Yale 1742) and Mary Bryant Smith. His father, the son of a former governor of Jamaica, had inherited a considerable fortune in his infancy and although a trained lawyer was primarily a speculator, merchant, financier, and public official. He was one of the original trustees of the College, serving until 1793, and was a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1757 or 1758 William Peartree Smith bought the home of his deceased friend, Governor Jonathan Belcher, in Elizabeth town, New Jersey, and moved there with his wife, two children, and slaves. There he became a trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and thus a patron of the local grammar school where Belcher Smith was probably prepared. Young Smith joined the Cliosophic Society at the College in June 1770, during his sophomore year. At the commencement exercises in 1771 he received the third prize in the undergraduate competition in English, and in 1772 he placed first in English and second as a contest­ ant in "pronouncing pieces from the stage." At his own commence­ ment he spoke on "Eloquence," and he must have done well, for when he received his A.M. in 1778, he was asked to deliver the same address. Smith's father, meanwhile, had become one of Elizabethtown's lead­ ing citizens. Occasionally the town mayor, he was among the borough's most active opponents of British rule and a member of the Provincial Convention, the Provincial Congress, and the local council of safety. According to tradition, Belcher Smith studied law after leaving Nassau Hall, but by 1777 he had entered the service of the Continental

BELCHER PEARTREE SMITH

341

Congress. Early that year, he was the clerk for General William Max­ well, for which he was paid $50 per month. He then became clerk in the Office of the Secretary of Congress at approximately the same sal­ ary. Over the next two years, he had to petition for his pay, or for a raise, or for reimbursement for official expenses no fewer than twelve times. On July 23, 1778, William Peartree Smith asked Elias Boudinot and President Witherspoon to help his son get a better job. The long-va­ cant post of deputy secretary of Congress seemed appropriate. The elder Smith was less concerned about an increase in wages ("tho' a trifling addition, to distinguish, would seem proper") than about an improvement in his son's position. He thought that the place of a "mere Scribe in the Office" hardly suited a member of his family, especially since the "severe sedentary labour" of nearly two years had already damaged Belcher's health. "If he cannot be rewarded in Sub­ stance," asked Smith, "at least put this little Feather in his cap, and give him a more responsible name." Boudinot promised to do what he could, but young Smith never received the promotion. On April 19, 1779, Congress settled its account with him for $974, and he resigned. Smith returned to Elizabethtown, where his father's notoriety soon caused him trouble. On January 25, 1780, an expedition of Loyalists and British dragoons from Staten Island infiltrated the borough, burned the church and courthouse, and captured nearly seventy peo­ ple, including some civilians. William Peartree Smith was a target of the raid, but in his absence his son had to do. Belcher Smith was thus marched off to captivity in New York. Smith was allowed to move easily through New York and found some friends among the local gentry. Among them was his kinsman the ardent Loyalist William Smith, who managed to shake his young cousin's devotion to the American cause. Told that Parliament had made some overtures to Congress in January 1776 which had been kept secret from the people, Belcher seemed "astonished" and out­ raged at the "most wicked concealment," and he returned home for a visit with some doubts. In June British troops managed on their third try to capture William Peartree Smith and brought him to New York to join his son. His mansion was pillaged, he had "lost a Cow," and his wife was left "sick and helpless. All his servants had left him." Over the objections of fervent Tories, such as William Franklin, who wanted Belcher's father hanged, Loyalist Smith intervened with British officers to ameliorate his relatives' incarceration. In August 1780, both New Jersey Smiths were allowed to go home.

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CLASS OF 1773

After the war Belcher Smith faded into obscurity. In March 1785 he asked Congress to pay him the depreciation on his salary through 1779, but the request was denied because depreciation allowances were not statutory until 1780. Smith died, apparently unmarried, on May 10, 1787. SOURCES: NYGBR, 4 (1873), 126; 10 (1879), 34; Dexter, Yale Biographies, 1, 719-20; NJA (1 ser.), XXVII, 47, 302; alumni file, PUA; Williams, Academic Honors, 5-6; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 21 Oct 1778 (A.M.); J. J. Boudi-

not, ed., Life . . . of Elias Boudinot (1896), 1, 169-70 ("more responsible name"); als E. Boudinot to W. P. Smith, 15 Aug 1778, NjP; JCC, vm, ix, x, xn, xm, xiv, xv, passim; LMCC, iv, 405; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabethtown, NJ (1868), 480-81, 484; W. H. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith (1971), HI, 200-300, passim ("wicked concealment"); T. Thayer, As We Were (1964), 127, 133.

John Blair Smith JOHN BLAIR SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1783, D.D. 1795, schoolmaster, Presby­ terian clergyman, and college president, was born June 12, 1756, at Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Reverend Robert Smith (D.D. 1760) and his wife Elizabeth Blair. His father had become a trustee of the College in the year preceeding the son's graduation, and his mother was a sister of Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), and the daughter of Samuel Blair, one of the founding trustees. Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), later president of the College, was an older brother, as was William Richmond Smith (also A.B. 1773). John Blair Smith was pre­ pared for college by his father, who conducted a famous academy at Pequea, and he probably entered the College in the fall of 1771. At the commencement of the following year, as a member of the junior class, he placed third in a competition for prizes in "reading English," and won the same honor for "reading Latin and Greek." He was a member of the American Whig Society, and it may have been this connection that prompted him to make a copy of "Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca," a satirical composition by fellow Whigs Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge (both A.B. 1771) that has been described as the first American novel and that apparently has survived only in Smith's copy. Smith graduated at the head of his class, his salutatory oration being delivered on the subject of "The Excellence and Benefit of Laws." Just what Smith was doing immediately after graduation is uncer­ tain. He may have returned home, as had his brother Samuel earlier, to assist his father in the academy at Pequea, and possibly to begin reading theology under his father's tutelage. In 1775 Samuel became

JOHN BLAIR SMITH

343

John Blair Smith, A.B. 1773

head of an academy newly established in Prince Edward County, Virginia, under the sponsorship of the Hanover Presbytery, and one of his earliest acts was to secure the appointment of John as first assistant or tutor. Assuming this responsibility early in 1776, he continued in that post until 1779, meanwhile reading theology with his brother. He was licensed as a probationer by the Hanover Presbytery on April 29, 1778 and admitted to full membership in the body on October 26, 1779. This action coincided with his brother's resignation as head of the Academy in order to accept appointment as Professor of Moral Philosophy at Princeton, and John was promptly chosen to fill the vacancy. He held the position until 1789, becoming the first president of Hampden-Sidney College upon the Academy's elevation to that status in 1783. In 1780 he also had succeeded his brother in the pas­ torate of two Prince Edward congregations. The closing years of the War for Independence, in which Smith had earlier served briefly as captain of a militia company of his students, had a seriously disruptive effect upon the life of the academy. After 1781 it became Smith's task to rebuild the institution.

344

CLASS OF 1773

While so engaged, with evident success, Smith took a lead in the de­ bate of critically important issues of church-state relations. The Angli­ can Church (Episcopal as it was coming to be known) in effect had been disestablished by legislation of 1779 denying it the right to have taxes imposed for its support, but there remained a number of ques­ tions regarding the property it had acquired, the membership and function of vestries that had developed under the former establish­ ment, and its privileged relationship to the institution of marriage. In May 1784 Smith drafted for the Hanover Presbytery a memorial to the legislature urging "an equal share of the protection and favour of gov­ ernment to all denominations." In June he expressed to James Madi­ son (A.B. 1771) vigorous opposition to a proposed act of incorporation for the Episcopal Church, for he suspected that the true purpose of the measure was to perpetuate that church's privileged status. In the fall of 1784 he and his classmate William Graham were charged by the presbytery with preparing another memorial to the legislature. The one they drafted momentarily placed the Presbytery on record as favoring proposals, sponsored chiefly by Patrick Henry, for a "general assess­ ment" of taxes in behalf of all "Teachers of the Christian Religion." There is reason for believing that Smith was responsible for this action, one that helped persuade Madison that the Presbyterian clergy were in league with the Episcopalian, being "as ready to set up an establish­ ment which is to take them in as they were to pull down that which shut them out." No doubt, there were other Presbyterians than Smith who shared his willingness to accept the general assessment, but the memorial might not have been adopted except for an argument (originating probably with Henry, who was a trustee of Hampden-Sidney and had moved into Prince Edward County) that the proposed act was sure to pass and so the question was how best to assure its en­ actment with proper safeguards. In the next year the Presbyterians, under the leadership of Graham, reversed their position and threw their support to Madison's successful effort to enact Jefferson's famous statute in favor of an unqualified separation of church and state. Smith's readiness to yield to the obvious temptation of a general assessment probably reflected his belief, shared by many other min­ isters at the time, that the Revolution, for all its benefits, had been accompanied by a decline of religion. He began, it appears, to give closer attention than he had to his preaching, and soon he knew the satisfaction of becoming a leader in a religious revival in central Vir­ ginia of such dimensions as to prompt his aging father on a visit in 1788 to recall the stirring scenes of the great revivals of the early 1740s. Except for a studied introduction and the barest of notes thereafter,

JOHN BLAIR SMITH

345

Smith tended to deliver his sermons almost extemporaneously, and the power that his message might acquire depended much upon his own emotional commitment to it. As his interest in preaching grew, there developed some dissatisfaction with his conduct of the school, partly because of the effect of the revival among the students and partly be­ cause of a suspicion that he was neglecting his duties there. By 1788 he had become a part-time president, and in 1789 he resigned. Smith had married Elizabeth Nash, daughter of a prominent Prince Edward County family, on April 9, 1779. Retiring to a farm he had bought, he continued his pastoral duties but was soon in financial difficulties. Never apparently a thrifty man and unable to live on his ministerial salary, his thoughts seem to have turned to the possibility of securing a better pulpit. He found it in a call to the Third Presby­ terian Church (Pine Street) of Philadelphia, where he attended the third General Assembly of his denomination in 1791, and before the year was out he was installed as pastor of the Pine Street Church. Through the almost four years of his ministry there the congregation grew, and with it his reputation as a preacher. But financial difficulties continued, despite a generous salary for that time of $1,500 and a subsequent increase. When he received word in 1795 of his election as first president of Union College in Schenectady, New York, he accepted and assumed the duties of the office on December 9. He resigned the presidency on January 28, 1799, however, in order to accept a call to return to the pastorate of his former church in Philadelphia, where he was rein­ stalled on June 27. His health had never been vigorous, and on August 22, 1799, he died of the yellow fever. His family included five sons and one daughter. It is a difficult career to judge, and in any effort to do so John Blair Smith may unfairly suffer through an almost unavoidable comparison with his brother Samuel Stanhope Smith. The latter obviously was a man of far greater intellectual stature; he also was a better and more influential preacher; and finally his contributions to education far outranked those of his younger brother. John Blair came in time to dislike both teaching and the burdens of college administration, in part because of declining health, and this seems to have been a principal reason for his return to the pulpit. He had remained a consistently active leader in his denomination, serving in 1798 as moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, thereby for once getting ahead of his brother, who succeeded him in the office. He had a part in organizing the New York Missionary Society, and in preparing the way for the Plan of Union of 1801 which brought the Presbyterians and the con-

346

CLASS OF 1773

sociated Congregationalists into a partnership destined to influence the religious history of more than one frontier lying beyond that of New York State. Better health and a longer life might have made his career yet more distinguished. SOURCES: DAB·, Foote, Sketches, Va. 408-38; 332-44 (memorials on church and state); Alexander, Princeton, 170-71; J. A. Alexander, J. Carnahan, and A. Alexander, MS "Notices of Distinguished Graduates," 40-46, NjP; Α. V. Raymond, Union University (1907), I, 60-69; Sprague, Annals, in, 397-404; especially JPHS, 34 (1956), 201-25; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772; Beam, Whig Soc., 60, 112; Williams, Academic Honors, 6; M. D. Bell, ed., Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca (1975); alumni file, PUA; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Hampden-Sidney College, Gen. Cat. (1908), 27, 28; A. J. Morison, Cal. of Board Minutes, ιγ]6-ιη$6; Christian Advocate, 2 (1824), 398; VMHB, 14 (1907-1908), 80; 17 (1909), 441-42; H. C. Bradshaw, Hist, of Hampden-Sydney College, 1, (1976), 48-49, 382-83, 56-87; H. J. Eckenrode, Separation of Church and State (1910), 74-115; S. G. Kurtz and J. H. Hutson, Essays on Amer. Rev. (1973)' 217-22; Madison Papers, vm, 80-82, 261 ("as ready to set up"); als JBS to J. Moyes, 8 Apr 1797, PPPrHi. PUBLICATIONS: see STE MANUSCRIPTS: PHi, PPPrHi, NjP WFC

William Richmond Smith W ILLIAM R ICHMOND S MITH, A.B., Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed

clergyman, was born May io, 1752, at Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Reverend Robert Smith and his wife Elizabeth Blair. One of five sons born to the couple, his older brother was Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), successor to Witherspoon as president of the College, and a younger brother was John Blair Smith, who gradu­ ated at the head of the same class to which William belonged. As were his brothers, William probably was prepared for college by his father, from whose school at Pequea a number of other young men advanced to Nassau Hall. He probably entered the College in the fall of 1771. Unlike his brother John, he seems not to have belonged to either of the literary societies, but he formed a close friendship with Whig Society's Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) to whom he addressed a number of letters revealing an apparently irresistable sense of humor. Writing from Nassau Hall in February 1773, he reported to Fithian that steward Jonathan Baldwin's (A.B. 1755) butter continued to be of such a quality that some of the students had "made his image of Butter and hung it by the neck in the dining room," and that when it was carried over to the steward, apparently by Smith himself, it had not seemed to "sit very easy upon his stomach." A letter of the follow-

WILLIAM RICHMOND SMITH

347

ing July advised that there had been no improvement under the dis­ pensation of a new steward, and that after a recent shower that had broken a dry spell, Doctor Witherspoon "had been praising, returning thanks and singing about it, and not without good reason for his turnip-patch and corn-gardens seem since to have put on a fresh bloom." A letter of Fithian's from Princeton to his future wife in Au­ gust 1773 informed her that Smith was "in great Distress on Account of his approaching Examination" for the degree. He received his de­ gree on September 29 without any mark of special distinction, but this seems to have been enough for William. From Philadelphia on October 3 a letter to Fithian began: "Fe—ο—whiraw, whiraw, hi, fal, lal, fal, Ial de lal, dal a fine song—commencement is over whiraw I say again whiraw, whiraw." To this he added: "And what is more never was there such a commencement at princeton before and most likely never will be again." Evidence as to where and with whom Smith prepared for the min­ istry has not been found. It can only be said that his father would have been a likely choice for guidance and that he was licensed in 1776 by the New Castle Presbytery, which was the presbytery to which his fa­ ther belonged. He served as moderator of the presbytery at its meeting of August 1784 and has been credited with An Address from the Pres­ bytery of New-Castle to the Congregations under their care: Setting forth the Declining State of Religion in their Bounds; and exciting them to the Duties necessary for a revival of decayed Piety amongst them, published at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1785. This raises some question as to whether the generally accepted date of 1786 for the be­ ginning of his pastorate in that town may be too late. There is some question too regarding the repeated statement that he served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, for the records of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1789 list only one minister for Wilmington, and he was William R. Smith. This strongly suggests that at the time there was also no more than one Presbyterian church. He continued at Wilmington until 1795. By the next year he had moved to Somerset County, New Jersey, having accepted the pastorate of the united congregations of Neshanic and Harlingen in succession to the recently deceased Reverend J. M. Van Harlingen (class of 1760) of the Dutch Reformed Church. Smith would be affiliated with this church and denomination until his death. Although the available record is silent on the reasons for the change in denominational affilia­ tion, it can be noted that at the time, which perhaps can be described as the Age of Tom Paine, there were Presbyterian ministers so con­ cerned over what they took to be a growth of infidelity as to discount

348

CLASS OF 1773

denominational distinctions, especially among denominations sharing fundamentally similar doctrinal convictions. As for the motivation of the other party to the contract, it can be noted that the two congrega­ tions were seeking a minister who would preach in the English lan­ guage for the benefit of their younger members. Smith took up resi­ dence on a "pastoral farm" located a short distance from the Neshanic church, where he was to preach on two sabbaths for every one allotted to Harlingen. The satisfaction he gave his people is suggested by the fact that he remained their pastor for almost a quarter century, until his death on February 23, 1820. The standing he had won in the Dutch Reformed Church is indicated by the fact that he served as a trustee of Queen's College (Rutgers) from 1800 to 1820. Another consideration in the move may have been his marriage to Rachel Stidham, a woman some eighteen years younger than he. No specific date or place for the marriage has been found, but the bap­ tismal records of the Neshanic Reformed Church giving dates of birth and of baptism for their eight children, five girls and three boys, pro­ vide a clue. The oldest, Anne Dubois Smith, was born September 14, 1795, and baptized on January 18, 1796. The youngest, Samuel Stan­ hope, was born August 8, 1808, and baptized September 30, 1808. Smith's will, judging by the names mentioned in it, indicates that six of the children survived their father—all but Samuel and Elizabeth, born in 1796. The will shows that the family had lived in a house of eight rooms, reasonably well furnished, that the father had a library of eighty-four books plus pamphlets and other such lesser items, and that he owned three slaves, one of them a man eventually to be freed, and a farm to which he held title that would permit its sale after his wife's death with equal rights of inheritance by the children. In this last re­ gard, it was a typical American will. Perhaps also it can be said that William R. Smith died as a typically successful country parson, respected by his parishioners and his fellow clergymen. He evidently had not possessed the talents of a famous father and two renowned brothers, but he seems to have been a man sustained by his sense of humor and his faith, a man who could count his life well spent. SOURCES: Alumni file,

PUA; Fithian Journal, 1, 32-34 ("image of butter"), 38-40 ("turnip patch"), 42-43 ("Fe—ο—whiraw"); H. D. Farish, ed., Journal ώ· Letters of . . . Fithian (1957), 8, 13, 14-15; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Alex­ ander, Princeton, 171; Giger, Memoirs; Sabin, XIII, 48, #52562, xxi, 208, #84850; Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820, 16, 100, 123-25; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties (1881), 789; GMNJ, 15 (1940), 25-26; Rutgers College, Gen. Cat. (igog), 8; Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart. 3 (1914), 146; will #183711, Nj. WFC

James Tate JAMES TATE very probably was a physician who was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Anthony Teate, the father of Dr. Tate, was a prominent citizen in the region of Newtown, active in the founding of the Presbyterian church there. In 1756 he purchased a residential estate, which brought the total amount of land he owned to 600 acres. Two ministers of the Newtown church, Henry Martin (A.B. 1751) and James Boyd (A.B. 1763) may have influenced Teate's decision to send his only son James to the College. Tate's name apears in the lists of the College steward among those of students whose payments for tuition and board were still due on September 29, 1770 and September 29, 1771. Evidently, he had enrolled in Nassau Hall in 1769 and had attended for two academic years. He then left college to study medicine with Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) of Philadelphia, who found him "Idle—but Successful." Tate may then have gone back to Bucks County to complete his training with Rush's former pupil, Dr. Enoch Edwards of Newtown. In July 1 7 7 6 Tate enlisted as a surgeon in the Delaware Battalion of the Continental Army's Flying Camp. At the end of the year he trans­ ferred to the Second Maryland Regiment, accepting in the process a reduction in rank to surgeon's mate. On August 1, 1777, he was ap­ pointed surgeon of the Third Pennsylvania Regiment, a post he held at Valley Forge and until at least July 31, 1780, when it seems that he resigned after twice serving on a committee to represent several army surgeons and mates in appealing to the Continental Congress for im­ provements in their situation regarding pay, pensions, and perquisites. Tate then returned to Bucks County, where in February 1 7 8 2 he in­ herited the family estate from his father. He may have established his practice first in Middletown, Bucks County, where in 1 7 8 3 he paid £ 2 in taxes and was listed among the local bachelors. By 1787 his taxes had increased seven shillings, and he was no longer one of the "single men." He may have been the James Tate who, between 1 7 8 7 and 1 8 0 2 , received warrants for a total of 1,100 acres of land in Northumberland and Bedford counties. Tate's practice soon extended to Philadelphia, and after the federal government moved to that city from New York, one of his patients was President George Washington. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793> Tate fled Philadelphia, apparently going to Alexandria, Vir­ ginia, but he was back again by 1794 to treat Washington for a skin infection which the President later described as a "cancerous com­ plaint." Thoroughly convinced that Tate had the secret for curing

350

CLASS OF 1773

cancer, Washington gave him a letter of introduction to Thomas Pinckney, the American minister in London, when the doctor under­ took a voyage to England in early 1795. He had not returned by 1797, when Washington, then at Mount Vernon, received several letters from a woman who sought the whereabouts of Tate's nephew, ap­ parently another physician in Philadelphia, in the hope that he was as expert in treating cancer as Tate himself was said to be. In 1804, Tate built a large new mansion on his estate in Bucks County, using glass from England for the windows. A local legend maintaining that he had dissected the body of a Hessian soldier and then buried it in the basement of his former house, which stood on the same site, gave rise to a belief in the area that the new house was haunted by the Hessian's ghost. The house and property—and the at­ tendant German ectoplasm—were sold in 1813 as part of Tate's estate. No children had survived him, and if he was married at all, it may have been twice, for James Tate and Elizabeth Jones were wed in Ches­ ter County on April 16, 1809. SOURCES:

The identification here is based on circumstantial evidence. Other possibili­ ties, including Capt. James Tate of Augusta Cnty., Va., who died at Guilford Court­ house, N.C. on 15 Mar 1781, and the Rev. James Tate, chaplain in the N.C. Con­ tinental Line, have been eliminated on the basis of information regarding their ages and careers that would not be consistent with Tate's attendance at CNJ. But the name was fairly common, and absolute certainty regarding the identification is not now possible. Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Papers, 3 (1909). 368-70, 393; PGM, 28 (1973-74), 136; 12 (1933-35), 2 93! M S Steward's accounts, PUA; College of Physicians of Phila., Trans­ actions and Studies (4 ser.), 14 (1946), 128, 130 ("Idle—but successful"); Heitmen; Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), x, 450; (3 ser.), xxv, 46, 332, 646, 650; xm, 149, 330, 540, 629, 735; als JT et al. to committee of Congress, 8, 20 May 1780, PCC; Washington Writings, xxxiii, 173-74; XXIv, 39, 125 ("cancerous complaint"); xxxv, 513.

Samuel Waugh SAMUEL WAUGH, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born in "Carroll's Tract," York County, Pennsylvania, a community served by the Lower Marsh Creek Church. Details of his birth have not been found, but he may have been the son of William Waugh, a resident of the Tract whose barn was burned by Indians in August 1757. Waugh was prepared for college by a Mr. Dobbin in the section of the Marsh Creek area that became Gettysburg and he may have entered Nassau Hall as a junior. In 1772 he took first prizes in the undergradu­ ate competitions for reading Latin and Greek and translating from English to Latin. He was a member of the American Whig Society,

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and his role in the commencement of 1773 was to be the respondent in a Latin dispute. After graduation Waugh studied theology in Pennsylvania. In June 1775, while still a "candidate" for license, he attended a meeting of the Presbytery of Donegal at Upper West Conococheague in Cumber­ land County. That presbytery granted his license on December 4, 1776, after which Waugh probably supplied at churches along the frontier. He was ordained on May 12, 1781, although he apparently did not settle at a church until April 1782, when he accepted a call from the united congregations of East Pennsborough and Monaghan in Cumber­ land County. His salary was to be £150 in addition to a "gratuity" of £75 from each of his congregations. On April 14, 1783, Waugh married Eliza Hoge, the daughter of David Hoge, who was a member of the East Pennsborough church. In the same year, the Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, a stone edifice that measured 45 by 58 feet, was built to replace the old log meeting house in East Pennsborough. When the Silver Spring church was in­ corporated in September 1786, both Waugh and Hoge were among the original trustees. Like his classmate John Linn, Waugh was also an original member of the Presbytery of Carlisle when it was created in the division of the Donegal Presbytery in 1786. Waugh lived in the parsonage in Silver's Spring (the name of the church was a corruption of that of the settlement), but in 1785 he owned at least 200 acres of land in Cumberland County, and by 1788 he owned another 200 acres in adjoining Bedford County as well. Waugh and Linn were charter trustees of Dickinson College, which was established in Carlisle in 1783. Thirteen years later they were the only clergymen among the founders who continued to participate ac­ tively in the school's affairs, for the many crises during the administra­ tion of President George Nisbet had alienated their colleagues. At a board meeting in 1796, Linn and Waugh presented a plan for the "Regulation of Classes" that would have made the course of study at Dickinson more systematic, and thus have made the college more gov­ ernable. The plan was not adopted. Waugh was an exceptionally conscientious pastor, renowned for his punctuality and diligence. At the end of 1806 he was stricken with pleurisy. Although bedridden for four days, he insisted on fulfilling his commitment to perform a marriage ceremony, and the wedding took place in his own room. Three days later, on January 3, 1807, Waugh died. He left a widow and at least one son and two daughters. SOURCES: Giger, Memoirs, 11; Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle (1889), i, 100, 194, 219, 426-27, 453; π, 73-74; J. I. Mombert, Authentic Hist, of Lan-

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caster Cnty. (1869), 171 n. 1; Williams, Academic Honors, 6; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 (commencement); Fithian Journal, 11, 33; Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa. (1886) [Cumberland], 209; Pa. Arch. (3 ser.), xx, 710; xxv, 659; C. C. Sellers, D i c k i n s o n C o l l e g e (1973), 1 2 0 - 3 1 . MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi

Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson LEWIS FEUILLETEAU WILSON, A.B., physician and Presbyterian clergy­

man, according to tradition recorded after his death, was born on St. Christopher's Island in the British West Indies in June 1752. As for his parentage and early education, no more is given than that his fa­ ther was a wealthy planter who moved to London about 1758 and that the son was educated in England until "about the 17th year of his age," when he came to America with an uncle who settled in New Jer­ sey. The first firm evidence of his presence as a student at Princeton offers confirmation in part of the foregoing, for on June 7, 1770, he became a member of the Cliosophic Society in which he used the pseudonym "Wilkes," after the English radical, and was described as coming from New Jersey. It is quite possible that he had been enrolled as a freshman in the preceding fall. A letter of March 18, 1772, from Andrew Hunter, Jr. (A.B. 1772) to his classmate Philip Fithian, reports: "We have had a considerable stir of religion in college since you went away, Lewis Willson is thought to have got religion." Wilson himself later testified that he had ex­ perienced a religious conversion while in college, and Hunter's singling him out for special comment may lend some support to the traditional story that Wilson at first had resisted persuasions toward conversion even to the extent of ordering a tutor out of his room. Presumably it was after the conversion that he formed a friendship with James Hall (A.B., 1774) that many years later had an important influence on the course of his career. Perhaps he refused an invitation to speak at his commencement, as later was said, perhaps not. It is certain only that the surviving record of his years in the College reveals for him no special distinction. His subsequent career has to be described as checkered. He report­ edly returned to England immediately after graduation, there resisted his father's insistence that he take orders in the Anglican Church, and instead returned to Princeton to study theology with President Witherspoon. In any case, he served as tutor in the College from 1774 to 1775. Then, together with his classmate and fellow tutor John Duffield, he

LEWIS FEUILLETEAU WILSON

353

entered into the study of medicine with Dr. William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754) at Philadelphia. No evidence has been found that Wilson re­ ceived the M.D. at times assigned to him, but he did serve as surgeon's mate in the Hospital Department from January 7, 1777, and as surgeon from June 30, 1779 to October 1780. After this service, he apparently went to England for an inheritance from his recently deceased father and then returned to Princeton, where in 1784 he contributed to a fund for repair of the Presbyterian church and is said to have practiced medicine until 1786. In that year he moved to Iredell County, North Carolina, evidently at the persuasion of James Hall, who in the spring attended a meeting of the Synod at Philadelphia. Wilson was still a physician when he transferred to North Carolina, for he was not licensed to preach until 1791. In 1793 he was ordained as pastor of the Fourth Creek and Con­ cord Congregations, which until 1790 had been served by Hall. Mean­ while, he had married Margaret Hall, daughter of Hugh Hall, de­ scribed as a near relative of James. On April 14, 1798, Wilson wrote Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) that his wife had made him the father of five "healthy children," three girls and two boys. One of these presum­ ably was Hugh Wilson (A.B. 1819), later also a Presbyterian clergy­ man. In this same letter Wilson described his life as a country preacher as something less than strenuous: "The bounds of my charge are so extensive as to make family visitation altogether impracticable. I preach once a week. I examine once a year in public. I have a farm to attend to and a little family which engrosses a considerable part of my time. These are pleasing circumstances to a man of my domestic temper." Unless he had acquired additional slaves since the census of 1790, he had the help of two hands about the house or in the field. He seems to have dropped the practice of medicine. His relations with his parishioners apparently remained friendly until after the great revival that began to sweep through western North Carolina early in 1802. To a request from Green for a report on the revival, he replied at length in a letter of May 12, 1803. Having stated his own initial inclination to interpret reports of revivals in Tennessee as "enthusiastic extravagances," he gave a detailed description of what he himself had observed in North Carolina and spelled out the reasons which had led him "to view this extraordinary work as Divine." He declared too that there was "hardly a congregation where it has taken place, but there is opposition." One such congregation seems to have been his own at Fourth Creek, from which he was separated in 1803. He left, reportedly by his own choice, rather than "preside over a di­ vided Session."

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CLASS OF 1773

Wilson died on December 11, 1804. At his death he left seven chil­ dren. SOURCES: J. M. Wilson, The Blessedness of Such as Die in the Lord, A Sermon . . .

(1805); Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Beam, Whig Soc., 22; Fithian Journal, 1, 22 ("got religion"); Trustee Minutes, 1, 213, PUA; Madison Papers, 1, 127; L. C. Duncan, Med. Men in Amer. Rev. (1931), 413; Stryker, Off. Reg., appendix, 14; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 337-48, esp. 341; als LFW to A. Green, Gratz Coll., PHi, passim; Sprague, Annals, HI, 570-75 ("domestic temper"); First Census, N.J., 157; Hageman, History, 11, 88. WFC

John Witherspoon, Jr. J OHN W ITHERSPOON, J R., A.B., surgeon and physician, was the second surviving son of President John Witherspoon and his wife Elizabeth Montgomery. He was born at Beith, Scotland, on July 29, 1757, the younger brother of James (A.B. 1770) and older brother of David (A.B. 1774). Having come to Princeton with the family in 1768, he entered Nassau Hall's grammar school, and at its graduation exercises on September 26, 1769, delivered a Latin valedictory oration. Later in the year he enrolled in the freshman class of the College. While there he was a member of the American Whig Society. In exercises prelim­ inary to the commencement of 1771, he took first prize in a competi­ tion for reading "the Latin and Greek Languages, with proper Quan­ tity." The next year, at the end of his junior year, he came in second in the same type of competition. No special laurels marked his gradua­ tion in 1773, however. Witherspoon must have begun the study of medicine soon after graduation, but it is impossible to be specific on any point regarding his training. It is questionable that he possessed the M.D. at times as­ signed to him. He probably served an apprenticeship with some established physician. Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) recorded in his jour­ nal under the date of July 17, 1775, that a letter from Princeton had reported that 'Jack Witherspoon" had gone to Boston with General Washington. His presence with Washington's forces in a medical ca­ pacity a year later is indicated by a letter from President Witherspoon on July 29 to his son David reporting that "John is at New York in the General Hospital, and well pleased with his situation." According to a later letter to David on August 26, 1776, John was still in New York, "where they expect an attack every day." On August 7, 1777, the father advised his youngest son that John was at Trenton. Apparently he had

JOHN WITHERSPOON, JR.

355

experienced at relatively close hand some of the more important of the Continental Army's early defeats and triumphs. Unhappily, there is thereafter a two-year gap in the known record. John is next heard of on October 26, 1779, when he sailed from Phila­ delphia for France aboard a frigate carrying John Jay, recently ap­ pointed minister to Spain, and the retiring French ambassador Gerard. John's purpose, as stated by his father in a letter of March 20, 1780, was "to purchase a few medicines and instruments in Europe, and re­ turn to prosecute his business as a physician." But after thirteen days at sea the frigate ran into a severe storm which dismasted and otherwise so damaged it as to force an alteration of course for Martinique, which was reached on December 18. The passengers sailed in a French frigate ten days later, put in at Cadiz on January 22, and there received news of British strength in the Mediterranean that brought abandonment of plans to continue to France by water. It was for John a memorable experience. His father, in a letter of 1784 to Jay, recalled that his son frequently had mentioned Jay's courtesies and had spoken "much of the propriety and fortitude of Mrs. Jay's conduct on your disastrous voyage." In responding, Jay agreed that it had been a "disagreeable voyage," and added, "I must do your son the justice to say, that none of us preserved more equanimity and good-humour throughout the whole than he did." Still another adventure awaited the younger John Witherspoon. What happened to him after his arrival at Cadiz with Jay is uncertain, but on February 3, 1781, he seems to have been at St. Eustatius, the Dutch Caribbean island that had become noted as an entrepot for the shipment of military and other supplies to the United States, when Ad­ miral George B. Rodney surprised the port in an especially successful and profitable action of the British navy. At any rate, on the following May 9 James Lovell of the foreign affairs committee of the Congress sought the aid of Benjamin Franklin in securing the release, among others, of Dr. John Witherspoon, Jr., who was "surgeon of the De Graaf letter of marque, taken at St. Eustatius," and "sent to England in the Alcemena man-of-war, and very hardly treated, on account of his father being a member of Congress, as is supposed." Witherspoon's father added his own request on June 15 in a communication covering a letter of credit that he hoped Franklin could use "to establish a Credit for my son in London and get him made acquainted with it wherever he may be confined." Franklin wrote to Lovell on September 13 that "young Dr. Witherspoon" was "now at liberty, and has been furnished by my orders with what money he requires to enable him to

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return home." In his next letter to President Witherspoon, written on November ig, 1781, Franklin expressed his hope that "you will have the pleasure of receiving with this your long absent son, who appears to be a valuable young man." He added that he had delivered Presi­ dent Witherspoon's second letter of credit to his son in Plassy, "where­ by he has been enabled to repay me." Presumably the younger John was not too long thereafter reunited with his father. He is known to have been resident in Princeton during the summer of 1782, and he was present there as late as November 1783. Little is known of his later career. Collins' President Witherspoon accepts as fact an estrangement between father and son, although the president's will, drawn on September 15, 1793, names John as an equal heir with the other children. According to tradition, John With­ erspoon, Jr. died at sea on a voyage from Charleston to New York in the summer of 1795, but confirmation is lacking. L. Collins, Witherspoon (1925), 1, 25η; Η, 49 Se η.; and Continental Congress at Princeton (1908), 238; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772; Williams, Academic Honors, 6; Fithian Journal, 11, 6 0 ; Christian Advocate, 2 ( 1 8 2 4 ) , 39^, 399. 445^ Stryker, Off. Reg., 74; J. Witherspoon, Works (1801), iv, 337 ("purchase . . . medicines"); H. P. Johnston, ed., Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay (1890), 11, 155 ("friendship and attention"); AHR, 8 (1902-1903), 683-708; R. G. Albion and J. B. Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime (1942), 57; LMCC, vi, 85 (" De Graaf'), 121 (" Alcemena"); Wharton, Dip. Corresp. iv, 709, 847 (correspondence with Franklin); SCHGM, 33 (1932), 29; Giger, Memoirs; A. Green, Life of Dr. Witherspoon (1973), 241η; N.J. Wills, viii, 404. WFC

SOURCES: V.

CLASS OF 1774

Stephen Bloomer Balch, A.B. Abraham Keteltas Beekman William Bradford, A.B. Daniel Breck, A.B. John Ewing Colhoun, A.B. John Noble (Humming, A.B. Peter Fish, A.B. Jonathan Forman George Gale John Glover James Hall, A.B. Joseph Hazard Hugh Hodge, Jr., A.B. Samuel Leake (Leek), A.B.

Henry Brockholst Livingston, a.B. Thomas Harris McCauIe, A.B. Jonathan Mason, Jr., A.B. Lewis Morris IV, A.B. John Peck, A.B. William Peterson John Lott Phillips, A.B. William Stephens Smith, A.B. Nicholas Bayard Van Cortlandt, a.B. John Warford, A.B. Samuel Whitwell, Jr., A.B. David Witherspoon, A.B.

Stephen Bloomer Balch STEPHEN BLOOMER BALCH, A .B., A.M. 1778, D.D. 1818, schoolmaster and Presbyterian clergyman, was born on April 5, 1747, at Deer Creek, Harford County, Maryland, the son of James and Anne Goodwyn Balch, and the younger brother of Hezekiah James Balch (A.B. 1766). Moving with the family in his youth to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, he grew up on his father's farm. According to tradition, his father had literary leanings and Stephen prepared himself for college through studies that were interspersed with instruction he provided for others. He apparently enrolled in the College as a member of the jun­ ior class in the fall of 1772. He joined the American Whig Society, and graduated with his class after disputing the thesis, "Benevolentia erga proximum 8c Amor proprius nunquam inter se re vera pugnant," with fellow North Carolinian James Hall. It is said that by graduation he already had become noted as a conversationalist possessed of a large fund of anecdotes. Not long after graduation, on President Witherspoon's recommen­ dation, he took charge of Lower Marlborough Academy in Calvert

Stephen Bloomer Balch, A.B. 1774 ENGRAVED BY SARTAIN

360

CLASS OF 1774

County, Maryland, where he taught for about four years. The report that he received a commission as captain of militia late in 1775 from the Maryland Council of Safety lacks confirmation in the published records of that body, but he does seem to have qualified for a pension toward the close of his life. Perhaps, as one account implies, he or­ ganized and drilled his students against whatever need they might face for military service. It must have been during this period that he be­ gan study for a ministerial career, for he was licensed to preach by the Donegal Presbytery on June 17, 1779. Balch first undertook missionary work that carried him back to his own part of North Carolina as an itinerant, but in 1780 he became the founder of the first Presbyterian church in Georgetown, then in Mary­ land, later within the District of Columbia. Because there was as yet no regular meeting house there, Balch was ordained at the church in Hanover, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on June 17, 1781. But he remained pastor of the Georgetown church for more than half a cen­ tury, until his death on September 7, 1833. His congregation, at first very small, grew with the town. He settled among them when they raised a meeting house in 1782 and presided over its expansion in 1789, 1796, and 1819. In 1821 it was replaced by a much more impressive structure, perhaps too impressive, for by then it had lost its long-enjoyed distinction of being the only Protestant church in the town. Balch's activity in the community was by no means limited to the performance of his pastoral duties. He was in charge of the Columbian Academy until 1801, when he was replaced by David Wiley (A.B. 1788). He is credited with the founding of a public library, housed in the academy and so known as the Columbian Library. In 1812 he be­ came a trustee of the Georgetown Lancaster School Society, its name taken from Joseph Lancaster, who in 1801 had founded a free elemen­ tary school in England and subsequently came to America to promote a model system of instruction. Balch became a corresponding secretary of the Bible Society of the District of Columbia on its organization in 1813. His church more than once was made available for worship by newly formed congregations of other denominations lacking as yet a building of their own. His friends included the Catholic priests who were laying the foundations of Georgetown University, eight of whom at the time of his death joined the funeral procession. He was very active in behalf of his own denomination and helped to organize more than one new congregation within the Baltimore Pres­ bytery. He retained also an active interest in Princeton College, as he was likely to describe it, from which three of his sons graduated—Al-

STEPHEN BLOOMER BALCH

361

fred (A.B. 1805), Lewis Penn Witherspoon (A.B. 1806), and Thomas Bloomer (A.B. 1813). In two letters of 1804 to President Samuel Stan­ hope Smith, Balch advised that "in Maryland, Princeton College stands higher in the Estimation of the People than any other Literary Insti­ tution on the Continent" but that it might suffer from an inclination to favor Presbyterians in the bestowal of its honors. He named several persons who in his judgment deserved to be honored; one of them, Judge Richard Potts of Maryland, received the honorary LL.D. the very next year. His first visit back to Nassau Hall seems to have come in 1813, and one of the students, Elias Harrison (A.B. 1814), later re­ called that Balch so regaled the students with anecdotes of "bygone days" that the sober-sided President Ashbel Green reportedly took him to task for a breach of ministerial dignity. Tall and well proportioned, slow of gait and a bit careless about his dress, much given to the use of tobacco but not of drink, an effective preacher without being a great one, he was a man best known for his wit and good humor. He was first married on July 10, 1781, to Elizabeth Beall, daughter of an especially prominent Georgetown family. Perhaps it was through the marriage that he acquired the outlying farm of about ten acres that he cultivated, probably with aid from the four slaves he owned in 1790. The report that at some time or other he named the farm for Wilberforce, the great English emancipator, raises an intriguing ques­ tion to which no answer has been found. But it is significant that he was among the original organizers in 1816-17 of The American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States, and a member of its Board of Managers from 1817 to the year of his death. By his first marriage he became the father of at least ten children, six boys and four girls. Eight of the children, all but two of the boys, survived their father. In 1805 an eleventh child seems to have been ex­ pected, but of this one no specific evidence has been found. After the death of his wife in 1827, Balch married in November 1828 Mrs. Eliza­ beth King, a widow who failed to live out the first month of their marriage. Finally in 1830 he married Mrs. Jane Parrott, another widow, who survived him. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; T. W. Balch, Balch Genealogica (1907); Giger, Memoirs; J. A. Alexander, J. Carnahan, and A. Alexander, MS "Notices of Distinguished Grad­ uates," 64-65, NjP; Sprague, Annals, m, 408-17 ("bygone days"); MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 21 Oct 1778 (A.M.); DAR Patriot Index, Rev. War Pensions Applications, 48; A. C. Clark, Rec. of the Columbia Hist. Soc., xv, 73-95; vm, 47-49: R. P. Jackson, Chronicles of Georgetown (1878), 143-63; W. B. Bryan, Hist, of the National Capital (1914), 1, 83, 90, 301, 339, 408, 484η, 522, 6οι; n, 185-86; als, SBB to S. S. Smith, 21 Jul, 7 Aug 1804 ("in Maryland"), NjP; First Census, Md., 8g;

362

CLASS OF 1774

Ε. L. Fox, Amer. Colonization Society (1919), 48-51; C. A. Cassell, Liberia (1970), 17; Annual Reports, 1817-1833; T. B. Balch, Reminiscences of Georgetown (1859), 17; Presbytery of Washington, D.C., Ms "Brief Hist, of Georgetown Pres. Chh." (1949). PUBLICATIONS: TWO Sermons on the Certain and Final Perseverance of the Saints, 1791; A Series of Letters Addressed to the Rev. Adam Freeman, a Minister of the Baptist Church (1801) MANUSCRIPTS: NjP WFC

Abraham Keteltas Beekman ABRAHAM KETELTAS BEEKMAN, merchant, was the second son of James and Jane Keteltas Beekman of New York City and the brother of William (A.B. 1773) and James Beekman, Jr. (Class of 1776). He was born in 1756. Beekman's father was an original member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, a merchant wealthy enough to provide

Abraham Keteltas Beekman, Class of 1774 BY JOHN DURAND

ABRAHAM KETELTASBEEKMAN

363

his children with all of the amenities, including life on a large estate, "Mount Pleasant," on the East River. If the 1766 portraits of Abraham and his brothers and sisters give any clue to their characters, Beekman was a youngster who enjoyed sport more than study. He was posed with a friendly and playful dog by his side. With his brothers, he was educated at local schools and by tutors Isaac Skillman (A.B. 1766) and Elias Jones (A.B. 1767) at home. He went with William and young James, Jr. to Princeton in 1769, when William entered the College and the two younger boys enrolled in the grammar school. Apparently, Beekman entered the freshman class of 1770, the same year in which he and William took dancing lessons from a Mr. Viany. But he was not as diligent a scholar as his older brother and left the College in 1773. Beekman's father was a member of New York's committee of safety and a delegate to provincial congresses before the Revolution. He was instrumental in the boycott of British goods, even though that action had severe effects on his own importing enterprise, and he was in­ volved in planning the evacuation of women and children from the city in August 1776. Naturally, he found it prudent to leave New York rather than remain under British occupation after that September, and the family went first to Kingston, New York, and then to Sharon, Con­ necticut. James Beekman, Sr. hired substitutes to serve for his sons in the war, leaving the boys free to help with business matters. Abraham Beekman spent much of the Revolution working for his uncles in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These wartime travels were good training, but they must also have been tense, for Beekman's father was borrow­ ing heavily from his own brothers, and they resented the constant drain on their purses. Still, Beekman learned enough about commerce to join his father as a full partner by November 1784. With his brother James, Beekman served in the New York County Militia as a lieutenant after the war, but he did not remain an active member very long. His interest was much more in the management of his own growing estate. In 1789, he inherited several valuable pieces of property from his uncle Dr. Abraham Beekman. Included in the bequest was a slave named Hannah, whom Beekman kept in his house­ hold at least until 1790. Beekman was elected an inspector of elections and tax assessor for New York's Out Ward in 1790. He served in the latter capacity again in 1800, for a salary of $115. His home was located on Monte Alta bluff, in the Bloomingdale district, but he had frequent dealings with the city regarding taxes, assessments, and rights of way for his other

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holdings. In 1814, when New York was preparing for a possible British attack, a line of fortifications crossed Beekman's estate. He contributed five dollars, too, for the construction of additional defenses on Harlem Heights. Beekman was an original member of the congregation of the Harsenville Dutch Reformed Church, to which he subscribed $100 when it opened in Bloomingdale in August 1816. After 1808, when his brother William died, he was also the senior partner in the family's business. He married Johanna Beekman, the daughter of his uncle Gerard Beekman of New Jersey, but he died childless on November 27, 1816. SOURCES: P. L. White, Beekmans of N.Y. (1956), passim; J. G. Wilson, ed., Memorial Hist, of N.Y. (1893), πι, 15; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; F. G. Mather, Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Conn. (1913), 661-62; P. L. White, Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956), HI, 1115-17, 1286, 1380, 1381, 1383, 1384; Mil. Min., Council of Ap­ pointment, St. of N.Y., i, 109; N.Y. Wills, xiv, 166-67; First Census, N.Y., 131; MCCCNY, i, 600; 11, 683, 687; hi, 108; νιι, 8β, 103; νιπ, 214, 675; ix, 531; xm, 504; H. S. Mott, N.Y. of Yesterday (1908), 71, 74, 184-86, 344; W. B. Aitken, Distinguished Families in Amer. Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jon Thomasse Van Dyke (1912), 121. MANUSCRIPTS: NHi

William Bradford WILLIAM BRADFORD, A.B., A.M. Dartmouth 1785, Congregational clergyman, was born on March 4, 1745 in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. He was the older brother of Ebenezer Bradford (A.B. 1773) and the son of William Bradford, a farmer and miller, and his second wife, Mary Cleveland. Like his brother, Bradford was prepared for college at the academy in Plainfield, Connecticut. In his commencement at Nassau Hall he gave the negative opinion on "Whether the powers of the mind and the virtues of the heart in human nature, thrive equally in every climate under proper cultivation." He did not follow his brother into the Cliosophic Society, but sibling rivalry was not strong enough to make a Whig of him, either. In fact, Bradford just did not seem to be a joiner. His career is re­ markably obscure. Ordained in 1777, he was aligned with the Asso­ ciated Presbytery of Morris County, New Jersey, the secessionist body founded by Jacob Green in 1779. His duties apparently carried him to many pulpits, for he was reputed to have preached and taught widely although it is not clear where and to whom. He and his brother took honorary degrees from Dartmouth in 1785, on the occasion of the

DANIEL BRECK

365

graduation of their brother, Moses, from that college. But in 1792, when he noted the geographical division of the Morris County Pres­ bytery, Ezra Stiles was unable to assign a location to William Bradford. Toward the end of his life, Bradford returned to Canterbury to take the pulpit of the Separate or North Church, the shrinking congrega­ tion that had been created when his father and others seceded from the town's Old Light Presbyterian assembly in 1760. He officiated at the church in 1799 and 1800 but was himself admitted to full com­ munion only in 1802. In his later years he married Anna Spaulding. They had no children. Bradford died on March 31, 1808. The decline of the Separate Church, unchecked during his ministry, continued. SOURCES: R. G. Hall, D e s c e n d a n t s of G o v . W i l l i a m B r a d f o r d (1951), 209; E. J. Cleve­ land and H. G. Cleveland, Geneal. of Cleveland and Cleaveland Families (1899), 1, id',; NEHGR, 4 (1850), 244; E. D. Larned, Hist, of Windham Cnty.

(1880), 11, 305,

312, 427; Stiles, Literary Diary, in, 442; Dartmouth College, Gen. Cat. (1910-11), 573; Rec. of Congregational Chh. in Canterbury, Conn. (1932), 92, 118.

Daniel Breck DANIEL BRECK, A.B., A.M. 1785, Congregational clergyman, farmer, public official, and possibly a schoolmaster, was the son of Margaret Thompson Breck and John Breck, a merchant in Boston, Massachu­ setts. He was born on July 28, 1743. Breck entered the freshman class at the College in 1770. During his first year he joined the Cliosophic Society in which he used the name of the Roman lawyer or orator "Hortensius" as his pseudonym. At his commencement Breck participated in a forensic dispute on the relative merits of national self-sufficiency and foreign commerce. He then returned to New England to study'theology with Joseph Bellamy in Bethlehem, Connecticut and Stephen West (Yale 1755) in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As an army chaplain, probably with Colonel Elisha Porter's Regiment of Massachusetts Militia, Breck was one of the reinforcements that were sent to Canada in January 1776. On November 17, 1779, Breck was ordained and installed as the minister of the Congregational church in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts. On May 10, 1781, he bought a house there which must have been suited only to a bachelor, for after marrying Hannah Porter of nearby Boxford on March 23, 1786, he sold the house in less than six weeks. According to William Bentley (Harvard 1777), a liberal clergyman

366

CLASS OF 1774

Daniel Breck, A.B. 1774

from Salem, Massachusetts, Breck had much more zeal than talent for the ministry. Bentley considered him "stupid" and found contact with him "disagreeable." What Breck lacked, apparently, was sympathy for human weakness. He refused to understand any departure from his own rigid moral code, which "opposed the passions of men." Bentley believed that Breck had been "bred into the occupation of a cooper" and had made a mistake by going "late to his studies." He was not surprised, therefore, when Breck's congregation tried to get rid of their minister in 1788. The dissidents at Topsfield were led by Joseph Cummings, a clergy­ man recently forced from New Hampshire, and Bentley's classmate Sylvanus Wildes, an attorney. They managed to dismiss Breck in Janu­ ary 1788, but because their tactics were irregular, he was soon back in the pulpit. By March Breck and his opponents agreed that an impartial council should adjudicate their differences. One of Breck's representa­ tives on that panel was Samuel Spring (A.B. 1771), the stern pastor at Newburyport. After two weeks the council and principals agreed that Breck should step down after being paid the £300 owed him, plus a £50 severance allowance. Breck was allowed to request his own dis-

DANIEL BRECK

367

mission, and the congregation agreed with appropriate statements of gratitude and praise on May 26, 1788. A few weeks later Breck appeared at the new settlement of Marietta, Ohio, where he preached what reportedly was the first sermon ever heard there on July 20, 1788. His audience of 300 consisted mainly of settlers who had come to Ohio under the auspices of the Ohio Com­ pany, which was in large part the creation of Manasseh Cutler, the pastor of the church in Ipswich, Massachusetts, near Topsfield. Cutler was a particularly persuasive man, and it may have been he who urged Breck to go west. But Breck's opponent at Topsfield, Joseph Cummings, was also involved in the Ohio Company, and it may simply have been the general anticipation of opportunity in Ohio that prompted Breck to go there. His sermons on July 20 and 27 were delivered in the new schoolhouse in Marietta. The settlers expected him to stay until Cutler came west himself. But Cutler did not mean to come west, and Breck did not mean to stay. On November 11, 1789, Breck was installed as the first settled minister of Hartland, Windsor County, Vermont, where he preached at three or four separate locations, only one of which was a meeting house. His tenure in Hartland was longer than that in Topsfield but no more peaceful, and he was again dismissed by a council on J anuary 29, 1797. After a brief, futile search for another pulpit, he decided to abandon the ministry and returned to Hartland to farm his 100 acres and to serve as a justice of the peace and town clerk. A "D. Breck" was the principal of Randolph Academy in neighbor­ ing Orange County in 1813 and 1814, so Breck may have spent some time serving in that capacity. If so, he returned to the farm on which he remained until he died on August 12, 1845. He was survived by seven of his nine children, including Daniel Breck, Jr. (Dartmouth 1812), a jurist and member of Congress from Kentucky. SOURCES: Topsfield Hist. Soc., H i s t . Coll., 6 (1900), 137-39; Boston T o w n Rec., xxiv, 248; N E H G R , 5 (1851), 397; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785 (A.M.); N Y G B R , 46 (1915), 104; Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1, 364; Mass. Soldiers and Sailors of t h e R e v . W a r (1902), 587; Essex. Inst., Hist. Coll., 32 (1896), 28, 32; Essex Anti­ quarian, 5 (1901), 102; 12 (1908), 43; Bentley, Diaries, 1, 63 ("disagreeable . . . stupid"), 89 ("cooper . . . passions of men"), 90-91; iv, 164; 11, 364; C. S. Hall, Life and Letters of Samuel H o l d e n Parsons (1968), 527; I. W . Andrews, Washing­ ton C n t y . and the Early Settlers of O h i o (1877), 10; D. L. Smith, ed., W e s t e r n Journals of John May (1961), 65-66, 67; R . A. Billington, Westward Expansion (1967), 212-14; B. W. Bond, Jr., Foundations of O h i o (1941), 1, 277, 285; V t . Q u a r t . (n.s.), 16 (1948), 103; Ft. Hist., 30 (1962), 14-42; Vt. Hist. Soc., Proc. (n.s.), 9 (1941), 241-42; Vt. Hist. Gazetteer, 11, 995; Second Census, Vt., 164.

MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

John Ewing Colhoun JOHN EWING COLHOUN, A. B., soldier, lawyer, public official, was born

in Augusta County, Virginia in 1750. Six years later, his parents Jane Ewing Calhoun and Ezekiel Calhoun moved to Prince William's Parish in the Ninety-Six District of South Carolina. There they lived on a farm of 200 acres and owned at least 350 acres more. The district was largely populated by Scots-Irish Presbyterians, many of whom re­ tained the original spellings of their family names. Although his father and uncles adopted the Anglicized "Calhoun," John Ewing Colhoun used the highland version, "Colquhoun," until he left college; changed it to "Colhone" for a time; and finally settled on the compromise "Col­ houn." When his father died in 1762, the youngster inherited a gun, saddle, and horse and shared a substantial bequest of land in Virginia and South Carolina with his six brothers and sisters. Colhoun probably entered the College as a junior in 1773. In Sep­ tember of that year he joined the Cliosophic Society, in which he was known as "Honorius," more likely after the fifth-century Roman em­ peror than after the three popes or one antipope of that name. That Emperor Flavius Honorius was the weak ruler in whose time Rome was pillaged by the Goths may suggest that a member's pseudonym in the society was chosen for, rather than by him. After graduation Colhoun returned to South Carolina to study law in Charleston. Before completing his apprenticeship, he joined a volun­ teer company of militia that was formed in the city by Captain Charles Drayton. The unit was established in August 1775 and was to wear scarlet coats with white trim. Colhoun rose from private, to lieutenant, and finally to captain before he became aide-de-camp to General An­ drew Pickens of the South Carolina militia on May 1, 1781. He may have been with Pickens at the battle of Cowpens in January 1781 and he certainly was in the general's service during the unsuccessful siege of Ninety-Six in May and June. Pickens's regiment was especially diligent in pursuing Loyalists, the pillage from whose estates went to pay the troops. For his time in the militia, and for the loss of two horses during the war, Colhoun received approximately £400 from South Carolina by 1785. In November 1781, while still on active duty, Colhoun was elected to represent Ninety-Six District in the state assembly. Many of his fellow delegates were also in the militia when the legislature con­ vened at Jacksonborough in January 1782. Their attendance was fa­ cilitated by the presence of their units in the area, a precaution sug­ gested by the recent attack on the governor and council of North

JOHN EWING COLHOUN

369

Carolina by Loyalists. The Jacksonborough Assembly was a symbol of South Carolina's still incomplete liberation from the British and its primary business was the authorization of confiscation and sale of Loy­ alist property in the state. On April i, 1782, Colhoun left Pickens's staff and probably resigned from the militia. He returned to Charleston where he completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar in 1783. Elected to the state House of Representatives for the session that began in January 1785, he was soon both a leading attorney and an important political figure. On February 10, 1785, the legislature in joint session elected him to the South Carolina Privy Council, on which he sat until January 1787. He returned to the House of Representatives in 1788, from 1790 to 1794, and again in 1798 and 1799. During the election of 1796, Colhoun had strong support as a can­ didate for governor of South Carolina. He did not win that office, but on December 8, 1800, he was elected by the legislature to the United States Senate. A moderate Republican, he defeated the incumbent Federalist senator, Jacob Read, by the vote of 75 to 73. His party then had all but complete control of the state offices. Colhoun was neither blindly partisan nor altogether comfortable with the Republican program, however. He was sworn into the Senate in December 1801 and almost immediately separated himself from his fellow Republicans over their effort to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801 by which John Adams had made his "midnight appointments." Repeal would have dealt a severe political blow to the Federalists but would also have negated some major reforms of the federal judiciary. Colhoun would not agree to it. With Federalist senators such as Jona­ than Dayton (A.B. 1776), Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773), and his classmate Jonathan Mason, Colhoun voted against the bill. With the unexpected support of Vice-President Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), the measure was committed to an unfriendly committee, of which Colhoun was a mem­ ber, in January 1802. But the Republicans mustered their forces to discharge the committee and to enact repeal on the third reading of the bill in February. On October 8, 1786, Colhoun had married Floride Bonneau, the daughter of a wealthy Huguenot immigrant, Samuel Bonneau, at St. John's Parish church in Charleston. She brought a large dowry to add to Colhoun's prosperity. They lived at Keowee Heights, the largest plantation in the Pendleton District, and owned 103 slaves in 1800. At least as early as 1796, they began to spend their summers in Newport, Rhode Island. The couple had seven children, three of whom died as infants.

370

CLASS OF 1774

On April 8, 1802, Colhoun received a leave of absence from the Senate. He may already have been seriously ill, for he went straight home and made out his will on May 20. He died at Keowee Heights on October 26, 1802. Among those who most lamented his loss was a Yale undergraduate, his first cousin John C. Calhoun, who was at the time enough of a New England-style conservative to support the Ju­ diciary Act of 1801. He had been a witness to Colhoun's will in May. Colhoun's widow continued to summer at Newport, arriving with her coach and four and liveried English coachman. In 1806 she invited John C. Calhoun, then studying law with Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763) in Litchfield, Connecticut, to recover his health at her Rhode Island home. Intimate with the family thereafter, Calhoun later married Col­ houn's daughter Floride. Colhoun's son, John Ewing Calhoun, Jr. (Yale 1813) changed the spelling of the family name to be consistent with his relatives. S OURCES:

BDAC; SCHGM, 7

(1906), 83-84,

( 1900), 134-35; 13 (1912), 145; 65 1774

(commencement);

86,

153-55;

2

(!9 0 1 ),

161-63,

249;

1

(1964), 13; N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 24 Oct

MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Ms Clio. Soc. membership

list, PUA; A. S. Salley, ed., Accounts Audited

for Rev. Claims in S.C., 11, 104; 111,

105; S.C. Treasury, Stub Entries to Indents . . . of Claims against S.C., book K, 14; books R-T, 104, 173; books X-Z, 317; E. McCrady, Hist, of 1783

(1902), 501, 559, 560-61, 572-79, 580; Journals of

S.C. in the Rev., ιη8ο-

the S.C. House of Reps., 1785-

1799, passim; A. S. Edwards, ed., Journals of the [S.C.] Privy Council

(1971), xxiv,

163, 179, 185; M. R. Zahniser, C h a r l e s C o t e s w o r t h P i n c k n e y (1967), 236 n. 5; D. Malone, Jefferson the President

(1970), 113-24; Journal of the Senate of

164, 172, 177, 206; B. A. Klosky, P e n d l e t o n L e g a c y 1800 Census of

Pendleton District

the U.S., ill,

(1971), 53, 64; W. C. Stewart,

(1963), 33; Calhoun Papers, 1, xix, xxiv, xxvi,

8-gn, 417η, 421.

MANUSCRIPTS: ScU, ScCleU, NcU

John Noble Cumming J OHN N OBLE C UMMING, A.B., soldier, entrepreneur, and public official,

was the son of Robert Cumming, a farmer and public official in Free­ hold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. His mother, Mary Noble Cum­ ming, was his father's second wife and the stepsister of William and John Van Brugh Tennent (both A.B. 1758). His sister Catherine later married Philip Stockton (Class of 1769), and his half-sister Mary, Robert Cumming's daughter by his first wife, married Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757). Another of Cumming's sisters married William Schenck (A.B. 1767). When his father died in 1770, Cumming shared one-half of the family estate with his three full sisters. More than one hundred years after Cumming left the College, the

JOHN NOBLE CUMMING

371

Cliosophic Society listed him as one of its members. But his name does not appear on any earlier lists and he may simply have been given postgraduate or honorary membership. In his commencement exer­ cises he was the respondent in an English debate on "Whether the powers of the mind and the virtues of the heart in human nature, thrive equally in every climate under proper cultivation." On November 29, 1775, Cumming was commissioned a first lieu­ tenant in Captain Richard Howell's Fifth Company in the Second Battalion of New Jersey Continentals, raised in the Cohansie region to join in the invasion of Canada. After that expedition failed, Cumming's unit manned the Jersey battery of eight guns at Fort Ticonderoga in October 1776. The next month Gumming was assigned to the Second New Jersey Battalion and promoted to captain. He marched with the army across New Jersey in 1777, staying during April in Princeton, and in June 1778 was in an advance party that maintained surveillance on British forces as they evacuated Phila­ delphia. His intelligence reports contributed to the campaign of which the battle of Monmouth was a part. As a member of the Second New Jersey Regiment, Cumming was part of General William Sullivan's expedition against Indians in Pennsylvania and New York in the summer of 1779. He helped bring vital supplies to the forward elements of Sullivan's troops in July. Upon returning to New Jersey in April 1780, he was promoted to ma­ jor in the First New Jersey Regiment and in August was assigned to investigate the quantity of supplies taken from the state during the army's previous campaign. His colleague in that commission was James Caldwell (A.B. 1759). On December 29, 1781, Cumming was promoted to lieutenant col­ onel in the Second New Jersey Regiment. He served briefly in Phila­ delphia and by April 1782 was at Morristown, New Jersey, where he presided over at least two courts-martial. Washington had to overrule one of those tribunals in May because, although it found only three of five defendants guilty as charged, it had sentenced all five to death. The general retained enough faith in Gumming, however, to make him one of the inspectors of the invalid corps in December. Washington may not have been aware at the time of a letter to the Continental Congress, signed by Cumming and several other prominent officers at headquarters, complaining bitterly about inefficient or corrupt quartermastering and inadequate pay. On February 11, 1783, Cumming assumed command of the Third New Jersey Regiment as it was being demobilized. He remained in the army until it disbanded, and then moved to Newark, New Jersey,

372

CLASS OF 1774

where he became a businessman. There he married Sarah Hedden, the daughter of Joseph Hedden. Cumming literally took the road to prosperity in Newark. In 1787 he was a city highway inspector and in 1788 was overseer of highways. By then, he was part owner of a major overland stage company and he owned shares in lands on the Miami River offered by the Ohio Company. While most of Cumming's investments made a profit, his small stake in the Ohio Company suffered from the disputes over land titles that plagued most of his fellow investors as well. One of those colleagues was Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776), for whom Cumming campaigned when he ran for Congress against the "West Jersey Junto" in 1789. Cumming also applied for a public office of his own that July, when he asked President Washington to name him marshal of the district of New Jersey. The post had already been promised to another, but Cumming was so well respected that he was later named deputy marshal. His stage line carried urgent messages and official documents for the federal government in 1790, a record that probably helped him win a contract to transport the United States mail. He also served as an ap­ peal commissioner for Newark in 1790 and 1791· As a specialist in transportation, he was a founder of the Hackensack and Passaic Bridge Companies, both of which were crucial to his stage line, and he man­ aged the bridge lottery of 1791 that raised £14,000. A founder of Newark's Masonic lodge, Cumming was Grand Secre­ tary of the New Jersey Grand Lodge in 1786 and was elected Grand Senior Warden of the state in 1788. He declined reelection but ac­ cepted the post of Worshipful Master of the Newark lodge in 1792, when the organization was a primary sponsor of the new municipal academy. On June 25 Cumming laid the cornerstone of the school, in which the Masons had exclusive rights to the top floor, and in 1793 he managed its fund-raising lottery. He served on the academy's board of trustees from its beginning in 1795. Cumming owned fifty shares of stock in the Society for establishing useful Manufactures, founded at Paterson, New Jersey. In August 1792 the society hired him as a part-time accountant and agent to ob­ tain men and supplies for its several building projects, which were designed by Pierre L'Enfant, who had already made his preliminary drawings for the new federal capital on the Potomac. Cumming's sal­ ary was $600 per year, hardly enough to divert him from his many lucrative interests. He gladly gave up the position in March 1793 to become a director of the SUM and he managed its lottery, too, in 1794.

JOHN NOBLE CU MMING

373

He was also involved in the construction of the first raceway in Paterson and of the water power facility at Passaic Falls. Although a supporter of strong central government, Cumming nev­ ertheless had some reservations about the funding and assumption schemes that were at the core of Alexander Hamilton's financial policy. Cumming did not consider himself injured by the program, although he had sold his national certificates at three-quarters of their face value. But he did agree with some antifederalists and some of his jun­ ior colleagues in the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was later vice-president, that Hamilton's plan would be unfair to younger veterans of the Revolution who had had to sell their certifi­ cates at a much lower rate and who would thus lose their rightful benefits to speculators. In March 1794 anti-Federalists in Newark called a meeting to create a Republican Society. Inclement weather kept sympathizers away, but it did not deter several prominent Federalists, including Cumming, from attending the gathering, taking control of it, and declar­ ing that a Republican Society would be "improper and unnecessary." After a week of caustic newspaper debates, the Republican Society was born at a second meeting, free from Federalist usurpation. During the Quasi-War with France, Cumming's advice on military appointments and his own participation in the army were sought by Washington and Hamilton. Neither then nor during the War of 1812, however, did Cumming actually take up arms. In 1807, after the H.M.S. Leopard attacked the American ship Chesapeake, he did join in the almost universal condemnation of Britain. But while he re­ tained his brigadier general's commission in the militia and vowed to serve if needed, he preferred not to take orders from Republican su­ periors and nominated another officer whose political views might be more acceptable to the administration. After war actually began, he was active in the Federalist peace movement and represented Essex County in the Trenton Convention of 1814 that protested against the administration policies. Cumming never let politics interfere with his business affairs, though, and his most significant civic service was confined to Newark. In 1797 he was the first vice-president of the city's fire company. In 1800 he was an incorporator of the Newark Aqueduct Company, of which he was later vice-president and then president. And in 1804 he joined in establishing the Newark Banking and Insurance Company. He was its second chief executive. In October 1804 he joined the As­ sociates of the Jersey Company, which founded Jersey City in 1820, with fifty shares of stock.

374

CLASS OF 1774

Cumming's main source of income remained his Diligence Stage Line, with its mail contract and wayside taverns. In 1802 he also began to take an interest in the ferryboat routes on the New Jersey coast and between New Jersey and New York. In 1809 he and others subscribed $50,000 to establish what became in 1818 the York and Jersey Steam Boat Ferry Company, for which Robert Fulton agreed to build the vessels, and in 1811 the company won permission to land steam boats in New York. It was one of several firms involved in the litigation that surrounded Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773). Cumming did not live to know the resolution of that legal tangle, which came in the United States Supreme Court's decision on Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824. Always interested in church affairs as well, Cumming was a trustee of Alexander MacWhorter's First Presbyterian Church in Newark in 1798, the same year in which he helped organize a voluntary associa­ tion of Newark residents to observe the Sabbath. In 1809 he was an original trustee of the new Second Presbyterian Church. His son Hooper Cumming (A.B. 1805) was the new church's first minister but was regularly in trouble with the congregation. After he plagiarized a sermon and then denied having done so, Hooper Cumming was dis­ missed from his pulpit in Newark. Cumming went to his grave con­ vinced that his son had been unjustly persecuted. On July 6, 1821, Gumming rode out to inspect the fields on his estate, was overcome by the heat, and died in the house of one of his tenants. His funeral on July 9 was one of the largest Newark had ever seen. Cumming was survived by six of his twelve children and his widow, all of whom shared his large estate. In 1836 Sarah Hedden Cumming received a widow's pension for her husband's service in the Revolution. SOURCES: The name is misspelled as "Cummings" in many sources. N J A (2 ser.), 1, 3 4 6 - 4 7 ^ i v , 571; Soc. of t h e C i n c i n n a t i i n . . . N . J . (1898), 70; W . H . S h a w , H i s t , of Essex a n d H u d s o n C o u n t i e s (1884), 1, p a s s i m ; N . J . W i l l s , i v , 101; P a . J o u r n a l a n d W e e k l y A d v e r t i s e r , 12 O c t 1774

( c o m m e n c e m e n t ) ; S t r y k e r , O f f . R e g . , 66;

Fithian

J o u r n a l , 11, 131-32; F o r c e , A m . A r c h . (5 ser.), m , 1244-45; C a i . of C o r r e s p o n d e n c e of G e o r g e W a s h i n g t o n , i , 638; L . W . M u r r a y , e d . , N o t e s . . . o n S u l l i v a n E x p e d i t i o n of /779 (1929), 42, 78; Washington Writings, xxiv, 216, 264; xxv, 411; χχχι, 41η; xxxvi, 333; JCC, xxiv, 291-93; Journal of N.J. Gen. Assem. (1788), 80; B. W. Bond, Jr., ed., Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes (1926), 192 & n. 210 n. 23, 264; R. P. McCormick, E x p e r i m e n t i n I n d e p e n d e n c e (1950), 296; G . H u n t , C a l . of A p p l i c a t i o n s a n d R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s for Office d u r i n g t h e P r e s i d e n c y of G e o r g e W a s h i n g t o n (1901), 32; NYHS Coll.,

Lxx,

xvi; LXXII, 164-65; LXXI, 60, 61; Hamilton Papers, xm,

106, 137, 521-27 & n.; XXIV, 124, 127, 129, 332; W . A . W h i t e h e a d , E a r l y H i s t , of P e r t h Amboy (1856), 287; Hist, of the City of Newark, N.J. (1913), 1, 386; D. L. Pierson, N a r r a t i v e s of N e w a r k (1917), 221; Davis, Essays, 391-481 passim; W . R . Fee, T r a n s i ­ t i o n f r o m Aristocracy t o D e m o c r a c y i n N . J . (1933), 41-43 Sc n . , 148-49; P r o c e e d i n g s and Addresses of the Second Convention of Delegates . . . (1814), 2; Hist. Soc. of Hudson Cnty., Bulletin, 22

(1927), 4; als JNC to W. Gulick, 4 Feb 1820; and to

PETER FISH

375

J. Longstreth, 3 Jun 1802, 22 Dec 1804, NjP; C. H. Winfield, H i s t , of C n t y . of H u d ­ son (1874), 24Q-S0; J. Atkinson, Hist, of Newark, N.J. (1878), 172-7¾, 162; will #11316 W. 1821, Nj; GMNJ, 3 (1927), 133. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, PHi, NN

Peter Fish PETER FISH, A.B., A.M. 1781, Presbyterian clergyman, was the son of Nathaniel Fish and Jane Berrien Fish. He was born on his father's farm in Newtown, Queens County, Long Island, New York on November 23, 1751. After hearing George Whitefield preach at Newtown in 1764, Fish underwent a religious conversion and decided to become a minister. When his father died in 1769, Fish inherited £250 and title to land in Ulster and Orange counties, New York. He entered the College and on February 19, 1772, joined the Cliosophic Society, adopting as his pseudonym the name of the Protestant hero of Londonderry, "Murray." His role in the commencement of 1774 was to be the third speaker, or replicator, in a forensic debate on the issue of national self-sufficiency. Fish remained in Princeton after graduation. He may have studied theology with Witherspoon and, like several other recent graduates, may have served as a sort of unofficial tutor in the College or grammar school, helping to instruct or examine undergraduates while he con­ tinued his own studies. On March 20, 1776, Fish wrote to his nephew, Nathaniel Lawrence (A.B. 1783), who was then considering enrolling in the College, to advise the youngster of current entrance require­ ments. New students had to be proficient in reading Latin and Greek, to have read the Bible thoroughly, and to pass an entrance examina­ tion "the particulars of which" Fish felt it was "not necessary" to mention. In late 1776, when life at Princeton was chaotic as a result of the war, Fish fled to safer places. He may have gone to the environs of Philadelphia, only to be forced to flee again at the approach of the British in 1777. That August a "Mr. Fish Preceptor to W[alter] Liv­ ingstons [Class of 1759] children" stopped at Livingston Manor in New York. His account of the situation in New Jersey and in Pennsyl­ vania, from which he had just come, was firsthand and recent. Fish may have accepted the position of private tutor to the Livingston family, several of whose members undoubtedly knew him at Nassau Hall.

376

CLASS OF 1774

After being licensed by the Presbytery of New York in May 1779, Fish returned to Newtown and occasionally preached at neighboring churches. Early in 1780 he was sent to Newark, New Jersey to serve temporarily in the pulpit of a divided church. He wrote to Jacob Green in Hanover, New Jersey in March, explaining that his poor health and inexperience made it impossible for him to remain in such a difficult post for long. In May 1781 he was on a missionary tour of southern New Jersey, after which he supplied churches in Hardiston, New Jersey and New Hempstead, Long Island until 1783. He then returned to Newtown. On June 30, 1785, Fish married Hannah Hankinson of Freehold, New Jersey. Four months later he was appointed to be the stated sup­ ply of the Newtown church, succeeding James Lyon (A.B. 1759). He resigned that charge in November 1788, after having been called to the church in Connecticut Farms, near Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he was ordained and installed on March 25, 1789. He repre­ sented the Presbytery of New York in the Presbyterian General Assem­ bly in 1792 and 1796. Between May and June 1798, while on a missionary tour of the New York frontier, Fish preached at the new settlement of Trenton, on the Holland Patent in Oneida County. He decided to settle there as the first regular minister and accordingly obtained his release from Connec­ ticut Farms on April 17, 1799. Because no church had yet been or­ ganized in Trenton, Fish spent half of his time preaching in the settle­ ment and half in missionary work in other frontier towns. His duties were exhausting. A friendly visitor in 1802 concluded that Fish worked very hard and did much good for "poor reward." By 1807 the routine in Trenton had become too much for Fish's weak constitution, and he had to retreat again to Newtown. He meant to retire there, although he remained active in the presbytery "without a charge." In May 1810, however, after the death of the local pastor, Fish agreed to supply the Newtown church until a permanent replacement could be found. Overtaxed by even that limited responsibility, he died on November 12, 1810. He was survived by his wife and seven children. SOURCES: J. Riker, Jr., Annals of Newtown (1852), 231-34; Ε. Γ. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 642-44; N.Y. Wills, VII, 242; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); N.J. Ga­ zette, 3 Oct 1781 (a.m.); als PF to N. Lawrence, 20 Mar 1776, Gen. MSS, NjP ("not necessary"); W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, n, (1958), 197-98 ("Preceptor"); als PF to J. Green, 16 Mar 1780, PPPrHi; P. Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida Cnty. (1851), 468-69; E. B. O'Callaghan, Documentary Hist, of the State of N.Y. (1850), HI, 677 ("poor reward"); S. D. Alexander, Presbytery of N.Y. (1888), 36 ("without a charge"). MANUSCRIPTS: PHi, PPPrHi, NjP

Jonathan Forman JONATHAN FORMAN, soldier, farmer, storekeeper, and public official,

was born at Middletown Point, Monmouth County, New Jersey on October 16, 1755. His parents were Samuel and Helena Denise For­ man, members of the Old Tennent Presbyterian Church in Mon­ mouth County and owners of a farm nearby. His sister Eleanor was the wife of Philip Freneau (A.B. 1771). Forman was probably prepared for college by the Reverend William Tennent, Jr., a trustee of Nassau Hall. On June 9, 1771, Forman joined the Cliosophic Society. He left the College in his senior year and in 1775 became a lieutenant in Captain John Burrowe's company of light infantry in the Monmouth County Militia. On June 14, 1776, he was promoted to captain in Nathaniel Heard's Brigade of State Troops. Forman transferred to the Continental Army in November, when he took command of a company in the Fourth Battalion of the New Jersey Line. With that unit he accompanied General John Sullivan on the expedition against the Six Nations in Pennsylvania and New York in the summer of 1779. In November 1780 he joined the First Regi­ ment of New Jersey Continentals and with it served in Virginia under Lafayette and at the battle of Yorktown, after which he was promoted to major in the Third New Jersey Regiment. For most of the rest of the war he was in New York state, stationed occasionally at Newburgh and sometimes commanding a light infantry battalion at Dobbs Ferry and Stony Point. On February 11, 1783, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Second New Jersey Regiment, and when the general demobilization began in April he was retained in the New Jersey Battalion. Forman was an original member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati when it was formed in June 1783. Before his discharge in November, he allocated £60 of his pay to the society and was elected its first vice-president. A pension for his wartime service was issued on June 11, 1789. On April 12, 1781, Forman married Mary Ledyard, the daughter of Youngs Ledyard of Groton, Connecticut. Her brother Benjamin was the husband of Forman's sister. After the war Forman settled on a farm in Middletown Point, where he also kept a general store. He retained his rank in the state militia, and in September 1794 he took command of the Third Infantry Regiment of New Jersey troops that marched against the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He returned home after nearly four months in the field. New land was opened for settlement on the New York frontier in

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the 1790s, and Forman decided to move back to the area he had seen during the Revolution and to which one of his brothers had recently migrated. In 1796 he took his wife and eleven-year-old daughter to Cazenovia, in Madison County, New York. The territory was so wild that he had to carve his own path for their wagon, and for the last few miles every member of the party had to ride horseback. Once there, he opened another store. Forman was again recalled from private life in April 1800, when Governor John Jay organized a militia brigade in neighboring Che­ nango County and named him brigadier general. Later that year, Forman was elected to represent the county in the state assembly. Although 1800 was a Republican year in New York, and although his sister was married to a prominent Republican, it seems that Forman's political loyalties were with the Federalists. He failed to be reelected to the assembly; but more conclusive evidence of his politics was his confrontation with Republican Governor George Clinton. On January 28, 1802, the New York Council of Appointments re­ ceived a report from Clinton that Forman had illegally appointed five officers in the Chenango Brigade. On the governor's recommendation, the council agreed that Forman was "to be no longer a brigadier general." In his place, Clinton named a man whom Forman had recently court-martialed and whose conviction the governor had over­ turned. The immediate result was a wave of resignations by virtually every officer under Forman's command. But because it was a political and not a military problem, Clinton and the council refused to accept the resignations. Instead, they declared all of the disaffected officers unfit for their posts and dismissed them from the militia. On January 1, 1807, Forman's only surviving child, Mary, married Henry Seymour, a merchant in nearby Pompey, New York. A widower since May 31, 1806 and a devoted father, Forman noted in his family bible that he gave the marriage his "severe, lonely, but entire approba­ tion." Mary Forman Seymour's six children included Governor Hora­ tio Seymour and the wife of Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. Forman died in Cazenovia on May 26, 1809. SOURCES: J. H. Smith, Hist, of Chenango and Madison Counties, N.Y. (1880), 666,

668, 669; A. S. Dandridge, Forman Geneal. (1903), 77-78; Re-Union . . . and Hist. . . of Pompey (1875), 392-95; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 1624; Washington Writings, xxiv, 374; xxv, 47 & n., 474; Stryker, Off. Reg., 66, 391; J.W.S. Campbell, Digest . . . of . . . Soc. of the Cincinnati in . . . N.J. (1898), 82; Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966); N.Y. Hist., 39 (1958), 269; PMHB, 71 (1947), 58 n. 80; N.Y. Red Book (1895), 375; Mil. Min., Council of Appointments, St. of N.Y., 1 (1901), 512, 580 ("no longer a brigadier general"); S. Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of N.Y. (1938), 71 ("severe . . . approbation"). MANUSCRIPTS: MiD

George Gale GEORGE GALE, farmer, entrepreneur, and public official, was born in Somerset County, Maryland, on June 3, 1756. His parents, Leah Little­ ton Gale and Levin Gale, were first cousins and members of the Anglican Church. Levin Gale was a prosperous landowner with inter­ ests in shipbuilding who at the time of George's birth was serving in the provincial legislature. Gale was educated at common schools in Somerset County before he entered the College, perhaps as a junior, in the Class of 1774. After leaving Nassau Hall he may have served in the Revolution, as one source suggests. That possibility is enhanced by the obscurity of his career after 1773. A "Mr. Gales" was studying law with William Paterson (A.B. 1763) in New Jersey in the fall of 1780, but the first definite evidence of George Gale's whereabouts is the birth of his oldest child in Somerset County, Maryland in 1782. His wife was Anna Maria, the

George Gale, Class of 1774

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daughter of another Maryland legislator, Henry Hollyday. Bonds for letters of marque issued to a "George G. Gale" for a schooner, the Somerset, in 1781 indicate that the family, and perhaps Gale himself, was involved in outfitting privateers during the war. In 1783 Gale owned 799 acres in Somerset County and fifteen slaves whose value was £650. His name and social prominence—he was a member of the prestigious Old South River Club—helped him win election to the session of the House of Delegates that began in Novem­ ber 1784. There he joined Arnold Elzey (A.B. 1775) and other repre­ sentatives of the wealthy planters of the Eastern Shore in forming a faction that was united by its support for urban and industrial inter­ ests, by its advocacy of high taxes and high state salaries, and by its continental or national point of view. In his brief time in the lower house, Gale supported the public endowment of two colleges, a con­ troversial measure that was decried as class legislation by opponents who feared that the institutions would be training grounds for a landed nobility. On December 6, 1784, Gale resigned from the lower house to accept a seat in the state senate, to which he was reelected until 1789. In January 1785 the upper house appointed him to its committee to instruct and oversee the state's commissioners for treating with Vir­ ginia over jurisdiction of the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers and regulation of navigation in Chesapeake Bay. His nationalist leanings were demonstrated in his service during 1787 as a member of the com­ mittee that drafted a message to accompany the senate's bill repealing acts that violated provisions of the Treaty of Paris. While in the senate, Gale also served as justice of Somerset County and of the orphan's court there. In November 1787 Gale was among the majority in the senate that demanded a prompt convention in Maryland to consider the federal Constitution and also wanted to impose a property qualification of £500 on the delegates. When the assembly refused to be hurried into calling a convention and struck the property qualification for mem­ bership, Gale and others suspected the lower house of anti-Constitutional leanings. As a delegate to the ratifying convention in April 1788, therefore, Gale was one of the leaders of the group that favored im­ mediate approval. Eager to avoid giving other states an excuse to delay the implementation of the Constitution, he played an important part in the procedural maneuvering by which advocates of several amendments were silenced. The Maryland convention ratified the Constitution unencumbered on April 26. In December 1788 the Maryland Assembly met in joint session to

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choose the state's first United States senators. To resolve the struggle for power between the Western and Eastern Shores, the assembly agreed to select one senator from each area, an idea proposed by a committee of which Gale was a member. Gale and John Henry (A.B. 1769) were nominated from the Eastern Shore. With a simple majority of forty-two votes required for election, both men received forty-one votes on the first ballot. But one of Gale's supporters was not firmly committed, and on the next ballot Henry was chosen, 42 to 40. Having lost the senate seat, Gale decided to run in the state-wide contest for the House of Representatives. He garnered 5,456 votes, fourth highest total in the state, and was selected as one of the six congressmen for Maryland. He was to represent the fifth district, which included parts of Montgomery and Prince George's County. Gale arrived in New York City in March 1789 and took a room at 52 Smith Street. The First Congress convened in April, and Gale was soon named to committees to welcome Vice-President Adams and to draft the House's address to President Washington. He and the rest of the Maryland delegation also took an immediate interest in the ques­ tion of locating the permanent national capital, a project for which the state legislature had already approved a grant of ten square miles. Gale took a leave of absence for three weeks in June but was back in time to be named to a committee that would consider amendments to the Constitution. The second session of Congress began in February 1790, and Gale was then named to a committee to consider North Carolina's cession of its western lands. But in the first half of 1790, federal assumption of state debts and the location of the national capital were the issues that dominated congressional deliberations. While Gale steadfastly sup­ ported most aspects of the administration's fiscal policy, he voted at first against assumption, possibly because, like his colleague Daniel Carroll, he feared that the debate over that issue might jeopardize other important programs. By June 1790 James Madison (A.B. 1771) had managed to persuade two representatives of Virginia, one of whom was Richard Bland Lee (Class of 1779), to convert from op­ ponents to supporters of assumption. Yet Madison and his colleagues were not certain that they had enough votes to pass the measure. Lee and his fellow Virginian represented districts that would be prime candidates for the site of the capital, and a bargain, either implicit or explicit, certainly induced them to change their minds. Naturally, the representatives from Maryland whose districts would also profit by the creation of a capital on the Potomac were the targets of assumptionist persuasion. Gale and Carroll were the men involved.

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Like the Virginians, both of them had voted with the majority to defeat assumption, 31 to 29, on April 12. On July 24 they were also in the majority that reversed that vote. In the interim they had attended a dinner together with the Virginians on June 20, and on July 9 they had voted with the majority to locate the capital on the Potomac. Their change of sides determined the outcome of both questions. The result may have been one of the great political compromises of American history, but for Gale it was also a political albatross. Under a new law, members of Congress for Maryland were required to have lived in the districts they represented for twelve months prior to election. Gale was, therefore, no longer eligible to sit for the fifth district. Although he retained his property in Somerset County, his residence was by then in Baltimore, and he gained many enemies in that city by his votes in July. Citizens of Baltimore had hoped that the national capital would be situated there. Failing that, they were ada­ mantly opposed to the creation of a new metropolis that was bound to compete with their business and financial interests. On September 25, 1790, an unofficial partisan convention at An­ napolis produced a slate of candidates for the congressional election. Representatives of the so-called "Potomac" faction, the men at An­ napolis faced stiff opposition from the young and growing electorate of the "Chesapeake" faction. Gale was only one of the six "Potomac" candidates who were defeated in the race, but his loss was particularly dramatic. In the city of Baltimore he received only one vote, probably his own, while none of the six "Chesapeake" candidates polled fewer that 3,042. The election was rife with fraud. Officials in Baltimore claimed that 99% of the city's eligible voters had cast ballots. The "Chesapeake"-dominated assembly quickly provided for congressional elections by districts, thus breaking the inordinate concentration of power among urban voters. But that came too late to keep Gale in Congress. He was reelected from Somerset to the state senate in 1790 and attended the session that began in November. But he was never again elected to public office. Gale's loyalty to the Washington administration did not go unre­ warded, however. On March 15, 1791, the president appointed him inspector of the revenue in the first survey district of Maryland. His original salary of $700 plus 1% of his collections was not as lucrative as his congressional pay, but as supervisor of the collection of the excise tax on whiskey he was able to remain at home and attend to other business interests. One such interest was the establishment of a branch of the Bank of the United States in Baltimore. In February 1792 Gale was president of that branch.

GEORGE GALE

383

Gale then lived on the estate of his recently deceased father in Som­ erset County. In July 1792 the Department of the Treasury was forced to consider creating a third inspector of revenue in Maryland because, as a resident of the Eastern Shore, Gale was too far away from much of his large district to do his job. Yet there was no thought of removing Gale. Indeed, his advice on the new appointment was actively sought by the administration. And the creation of a third inspector certainly relieved him of the most burdensome aspects of the responsibilities he scrupulously carried. Protests against the whiskey tax that tended to alarm the federal government did not seem to bother Gale. He was confident that, in Maryland at least, the tax would be accepted once it was fully under­ stood. But that was not the case in Pennsylvania, and in August 1794 Gale was given the charge of supplying the Maryland militia that was about to march against the Whiskey Re be11i ο11., Althο u gh he received $55,000 in federal money to secure clothing, provisions, and transpor­ tation for the troops, he had to spend at least $7,000 of his own on the task. In September he was too ill to attend to his duties, but as soon as he recovered, he warned the federal officers to take care that the clothing recently sent from Baltimore did not carry the yellow fever epidemic currently infesting the city. By 1796 Gale had sold all of his land in Somerset County and had moved with his family and twenty-five slaves to Cecil County. There he served as a justice of the orphan's court and bought and sold thou­ sands of acres of land, much of it involved in the commercial specula­ tions to which he was a party. Two of those enterprises were especially significant. In 1793 Gale had participated in a plan to build a canal system on the Susquehanna River that would link the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and serve Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. When the project was finally begun in 1803, Gale was a director of the company, a position he held for at least three years. In anticipation of the canals and the correlative development of the region, he pur­ chased land on the east side of the Susquehanna in 1795, and in De­ cember of that year he obtained a state charter for the town of Chesapeake. Another aspect of the venture was a scheme to expand and develop Havre de Grace. As a stockholder in the Havre de Grace Company, Gale bought at least fifty acres in the town. But the development of the Susquehanna was never realized in Gale's lifetime, and when he sold more than 1,000 acres in Cecil County between 1800 and 1815 his profits were not what he had expected. In 1800 he gave two acres to the

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federal government. By then he had disposed of his land at "Perry Point" and settled on an estate called "Susquehanna." There he remained, still a federal officer and a political adviser to leading Federalists. Gale died on January 2, 1815, leaving his widow and ten children. One of his sons, Levin Gale, represented Maryland in Congress from 1827 t0 !$29. Gale's legacy included more than twenty slaves and 2,600 feet of pine planking suitable for nautical decking, an indication that he may have continued the family's interest in ship­ building. His estate had an estimated value of $7,127, but it was not until 1840 that his heirs managed to settle all of his debts by gradually selling his land. SOURCES: Md. Leg. Hist. Proj.; B D A C \ MS Steward's accounts, PUA; M. L. Davis, M e m o i r s of A a r o n B u r r (1858), 1, 216; I n d e x , PCC; H . D . Richardson, S i d e L i g h t s of M d . H i s t . , i , (1913), 204; J. T . M a i n , Political P a r t i e s B e f o r e t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n (!973)- 32-33. 233; MHM, 62 (1967), 13-14, 17, 26; 39 (1944), 286-89; 57 (1962), 206, 208; 4 0 (1945), 220-21; 6 6 (1971), 157-58; V o t e s a n d P r o c e e d i n g s of t h e Senate . . . of Md. [3d Senate], 9; . . . of the House of Delegates of . . . Md. [1784-85 Assem.], 103; Κ. M. Rowland, Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, π (1898), 82, 98, 117; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Md., 11 (1967), 543-46, 550; Jefferson Papers, XIII, 333-34; E. S. R i l e y , A n c i e n t C i t y (1887), 222; F . D . W h i t e , Jr., G o v e r n o r s of M d . (1970), 40; M d . Arch., Lxxi, 320; Cal. Md. St. Papers, #4, pt. 1 (1952), 229; pt. 3 (1955), 236; #3 (1948), 146; Doc. Hist. First Fed. Cong., HI, 6, 24, 27, 43, 64, 86, 117, 282, 605, 668; W M Q (3 ser.), 28 (1971), 634-39, 634η; L . Μ. R e n z u l l i , Jr., M d . , t h e F e d e r a l i s t Y e a r s (1972), 59-60, 8 5 & n., 122, 133-34, 142; J. C . B a l l a g h , ed., L e t t e r s of R i c h a r d H e n r y Lee, II (1914), 535; Hamilton Papers, XIII, 64-67, 69, 342-43, 597; x, 340-41 & nn.; xii, 25, 89-90, 95; xv, 488-89, 490-91, 495; xvii, 132η, 150-51, 301-302 & η., 322, 359, 393; χνιιι, 167; χχιπ, 293 8c η.; Η. Owens, Baltimore on the Chesapeake (1941), 142; Del. Hist., 8 (1959), 241-42; G. Johnston, Hist, of Cecil Cnty., Md. (1881), 378; Laws of Md. . . . 1795 (1796), 21; Washington Writings, xxxi, 234-35, 239 8c n. MANUSCRIPTS: ViU

John Glover J OHN G LOVER was probably the oldest son, born March 23, 1755, of Brigadier General John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, a pros­ perous merchant whose Marblehead Mariners won undying fame by ferrying Washington's Continentals across the Delaware on Christmas night of 1776. Young Glover, a captain in his father's regiment, was among those who marched on to Trenton. His mother was Hannah Gale, also of Marblehead. The question of why a Marblehead mer­ chant should send his son to Princeton may have its answer in part in the fact that there were two Congregational ministers in Marblehead who were alumni of the College and friends of Glover—William Whitwell (A.B. 1758) and Isaac Story (A.B. 1768). One of these, probably

JOHN GLOVER

385

the younger man, served as chaplain to Glover's regiment for about six months during the first year of the war. He apparently had an opportunity to serve in the same capacity later in the war, for in writ­ ing to a brother and another associate in Marblehead from above Albany, New York, on September 5, 1777, General Glover sent com­ pliments to his "old friends the Tuesday's club, including the Rev'd Messrs Whitwell and Story, one of whom I expected 8c should have been happy to have had as a Chaplain to my Brigade, for want of which [I] must do my own preaching." John Glover appears twice in surviving accounts of the College's steward, in which the initial entry suggests that he may have been enrolled as early as the fall of 1770. A letter from Andrew Hunter to Philip Fithian (both A.B. 1772) on March 18, 1772, while Fithian was temporarily away from Nassau Hall, suggests that Glover was still in residence at that time and that his conduct had not commended him highly to fellow students who were candidates for tihe ministry. Hunter reported to Fithian that there had been "a considerable stir of re­ ligion in college since you went away" and that among others "the formerly abandoned Glover is seeking the way to heaven." Glover's career as a student, and perhaps as a convert, seems to have reached its end in the following winter. Israel Evans (A.B. 1772), another candidate for the ministry, wrote to Fithian from Nassau Hall on January 25, 1773, that "stealing of Turkies has been too much prac­ ticed this winter, Glover has been expelled," and others, some of them named, "have been fined by the civil magistrate." He added that "some of the persons mentioned you know were hopelessly converted but there is no knowing who is converted" except "by their after conduct in life." Unfortunately, not much is known of Glover's conduct after leaving the College. If the identification upon which this sketch depends is correct, he was a spirited young man who received a captaincy in his father's regiment at the age of twenty. Like other men of Marblehead he probably was as much at home on the sea as on land, and during the later months of 1775, when his father was a principal agent for Wash­ ington in fitting out a "fleet" of armed vessels for the purpose of inter­ dicting and capturing supplies intended for the British at Boston, he put to sea at least twice. In the second instance he was serving as lieu­ tenant to Captain John Manley of the schooner Lee, which in Novem­ ber captured the first truly valuable prize of the war, a British vessel laden with a large stock of badly needed military stores. At the time he entertained hopes for a sea command of his own, but as has been noted, he ended 1776 campaigning ashore with his father. That he got back

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to sea, probably aboard a privateer, is recorded in a simple entry in the family Bible: "Lost at Sea August 1777." He had been married to Fanny Lee, sister of another captain in his father's original regiment, and there was one child, also named Fanny. SOURCES: There were many Glovers in different parts of colonial America, and more

than a £ew of them carried the name John, but an extensive search has failed to discover another who by the test of age and additional considerations was likely to have been enrolled at Princeton at this time. G. A. Billias, Gen. John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners (i960), esp. 11, 22, 66, 75-76, 83-84, 149; Essex Inst., Hist. Coll., ν (1863), 49-72, 97-132, 101 ("Tuesday's club"); Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; Fithian Journal, 1, 22 ("formerly abandoned"), 30 ("expelled"); W. B. Clark, Naval Documents of the Amer. Rev., π (1966), passim. WFC

James Hall J AMES H ALL, A.B., D.D. 1803, University of North Carolina 1810,

Presbyterian clergyman, was born on August 22, 1744, probably in Donegal township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of James Hall and his wife Prudence Roddy. Members of a Presbyterian congre­ gation in Pennsylvania, the family subsequently migrated to North Carolina, probably in 1751, and settled in the Fourth Creek section of Rowan and after 1788 Iredell County, an area in which the Presby­ terian influence was to grow. Hall's graduation at the age of 30 sug­ gests that he was slow to come under the conviction of a call to the ministry, but there are indications that family responsibilities may have been in part to blame for the delay. He is said to have been prepared for college at the nearby "Crowfield Academy," from which others are supposed to have advanced to Princeton. The date he entered the College is unknown, but he joined the Cliosophic Society on December 22, 1772, with the assumed name of "Owen," the Welsh hero. At his commencement he engaged in a Latin dispute with Stephen B. Balch, also of North Carolina, on the follow­ ing proposition: "Benevolentia erga proximum Sc Amor proprius nunquam inter se re vera pugnant." There seems to be no way of con­ firming the tradition that he had acquired a proficiency in mathematics that persuaded President Witherspoon to seek his services after gradua­ tion for instruction in that subject. Nor is it certain that he continued in Princeton to study theology with Witherspoon, as has been sug­ gested. It is not even possible to be certain as to the dates of his license to preach and his ordination, for the records of the Orange Presbytery in its earlier years were later lost to fire, but he probably was licensed at Sugar Creek on April 6, 1776, and ordained as pastor

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387

of the congregations of Fourth Creek, Concord, and Bethany on April 8, 1778, with responsibility for three scattered flocks belonging then to Rowan and Mecklenburg Counties. According to legend, Hall became in 1779 quite literally a militant supporter of the American cause. The usually dependable W. H. Foote and W. B. Sprague are responsible for recording the legend. Foote quotes Reverend John Robinson's recollection that "when a boy at school at Charlotte, I saw James Hall pass through the town, with his three-cornered hat and long sword, the captain at the head of a com­ pany, and chaplain of the regiment." Other sources support the view that he did serve as a chaplain, and the particular incident upon which they focus indicates that he served with Brigadier General William L. Davidson, who after the fall of Charleston in May 1780 led militia units recruited chiefly from Mecklenburg and Rowan counties against the British and their Tory allies. The story is that there was a sharp dispute over succession to the command after Davidson was killed at Cowan's Ford of the Catawba River on February 1, 1781, and that as his dispersed forces reassembled, they selected Hall as chaplain and charged him with a mission to General Nathanael Greene for the pur­ pose of informing him of tihe choice that had been made for the vacant command. Perhaps this provides the key to the further story that Greene offered the brigadier's post to Hall. One can be certain only that Hall's conduct during the difficult last years of the war, whether through exhortations from the pulpit or exploits in the field, was of a kind that stimulates the growth of legend. Hall continued to serve his three congregations until 1790, when he gave up Fourth Creek and Concord. He remained as pastor of Bethany until 1816. The decision may have turned upon the state of his health, or it may have been intended to conserve time and energy for the ex­ traordinary missionary tours to which he devoted much of his ministry through later years. It was a well-established practice in the church for ministers, especially in their younger years, to undertake itinerant missions, but surely few if any among his contemporaries were more persistent than was Hall in his dedication to this calling. His mission­ ary tours seem to have been motivated as much by a desire to provide a shepherding care for persons in a peripatetic population historically belonging to the Presbyterian faith as by the hope of bringing new adherents to that faith. In reporting to the Synod of the Carolinas in 1808 on a mission in which he had traveled "1132 miles, and preached forty times, and received $64.68," he declared that "it would be more advisable to cherish our own vacancies, than to attempt to establish new societies."

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Hall has been credited with fourteen "long and toilsome missions," in addition to numerous shorter excursions. Most of these were under­ taken by commission from the Synod of the Carolinas, established in 1788, but the longest and probably most toilsome came on commission by the Presbyterian General Assembly. In 1800 he and two companions chosen by the Synod, William Montgomery and James H. Bowman, traveled overland to Natchez in the recently established Mississippi Territory, which they reached early in December. After a stay of a little over four months they returned, and at Salisbury later in the year, Hall published A Brief History of the Mississippi Territory in an edition of 1,000 copies. It tells little about the man himself, except that he had an obvious interest in natural history and an eye for detail in his largely descriptive discussion of the country. He found the territory in great need of "literary instructors" and lamented that it was served by only four ministers, none of them Presbyterian. He was tempted to settle permanently in Mississippi but allowed his obligation to his congregation to prevail. Hall's missionary tours continued as late as 1818, after 1816 under supervision of the denomination's Board of Missions. In 1812, at the age of 68, he typically reported that he had "travelled 1485 miles, and preached 58 sermons" during a mission that embraced "four months and sixteen days." It apparently was on this mission, his second to Georgia in two years, that he had occasion to deliver An Address Submitted to the Con­ sideration of the Religious Denominations in that Section of the State of Georgia, Called the New Purchase, which was printed, perhaps with revision, at Raleigh in 1812. Speaking in an area he professed to have no expectation of visiting again, and where the adherents of his own church were "very few in number," he warned against the dangers of the "prosyliting spirit," and of contention among different denomina­ tions, especially the contention for which he blamed ignorant clergy­ men. "Respecting illiterate preachers," he affirmed, "it is granted, that they have been, are, and may be useful in the church; but reason, as well as experience must grant, that a multiplicity of them, so as to have a preponderancy must be detrimental to the interest of religion." The qualities of his mind are revealed in an earlier report of the great revival that swept through western North Carolina in 1802 and spilled over into upper South Carolina. A Narrative of a most extraor­ dinary work of religion in North Carolina, by the Rev. James Hall was published at Philadelphia in 1802, together with supporting reports by other participating ministers, including Samuel E. McCorkle (A.B. 1772). An active leader in the development, Hall sought also to be an exact reporter. He was specific in describing several "general meet-

JAMES HALL

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ings," as he designated obvious prototypes of what would become commonly known as camp meetings, with attention to the number of persons attending, the distances they had traveled, and the mode of their travel—the ministers on horseback, a few persons by carriage, and the larger number in wagons. Thus, at a meeting extending over the second weekend of March he counted 262 wagons, estimated at­ tendance on the Sabbath at 800-1,000, and recalled with obvious satis­ faction that of the ministers present "there were fourteen Presby­ terians, three Methodists, two Baptists, one Episcopalian, one Dutch Calvinist, and two German Lutherans." He found a special satisfaction "in the coalescence of our Methodist and Baptist brethren with us in this great and good work." "Party doctrines are laid aside," he con­ tinued, "and nothing heard from the pulpit but the practical and ex­ perimental doctrines of the gospel." The product of a college that had sought, especially under Witherspoon's guidance, to encourage a rational type of faith, Hall seems to have been startled by the physical contortions and emotional outcries of many who were seized by a conviction of sin and the need for sal­ vation. Certainly, he felt a need to explain scenes that "baffle descrip­ tion" (he described them very well), if only for the purpose of refuting those who denied that the revival was the work of God. He rejected the assumption that the result could be attributed to "the power of oratory," there being no close correlation between its quality and the effect, suggested that "different constitutions or habits of body" ex­ plained a marked difference in responses that were "merely bodily," and observed that "exercises which are mental, appear generally to run in the same channel." He found assurance in the belief that "this happy revival" had not been "confined to those who are under visible bodily exercises" and "that many more are affected in what may be called God's usual way." Perhaps a trend in his attitude is suggested by the preference he expressed in 1810 for suppressing "physical" expressions of the con­ version experience, "especially during public worship," but he re­ mained committed to evangelicalism. On hearing of a religious revival at Princeton in 1815, he declared "I have, long since, observed, that general revivals of religion produce the most energetic preachers." His evangelicalism depended upon a millenarian view of national and world events, which persuaded him, again in 1815, "that the 'Last Times' are approaching." There came, however, no relaxation of his insistance upon the need for an educated clergy. "Surely," he declared in Georgia, "none will say that education and grace cannot exist in the same mind." It is significant that he served as a director of the recently

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established Princeton Theological Seminary from 1815 to 1820 and that he helped to provide the funds upon which it depended. Hall had become an active promoter of education in North Carolina as early as 1777, when he became a trustee of Liberty Hall, as the pre­ viously existing academy in Charlotte was redesignated by the state assembly. He became a trustee also of the Salisbury Academy intend­ ed in 1784 for the succession to Liberty Hall. He conducted a school of his own at Bethany and, as he found time, trained more than one young candidate for the ministry. The Philanthropic Society of the newly established University of North Carolina, to which he con­ tributed both money and books, admitted him to membership and awarded him its diploma early in 1797. That he continued to pursue in­ tellectual interests other than those peculiar to his profession is indi­ cated by a footnote in his History of Mississippi reporting the hy­ pothesis he had written regarding the formation of hailstones in storm clouds and forwarded in 1795 to a member of the American Philo­ sophical Society. Under a covering letter of December 5, 1801, Hall forwarded a copy of the History to Thomas Jefferson, inviting his comment "as a natu­ ralist" on "my theory of hail." The same letter advised that he had "constructed in a very rude manner an instrument on astronomic principles, which promises to serve as a solar 8c lunar dial, and also as a solar compass, without the magnetic needle." He explained that the instrument and a description of it, together with a letter addressed to Jefferson as president of the Philosophical Society, had been in Salis­ bury since September 1800 because "I have been thoroughly unfor­ tunate in conveying it to Philadelphia." The model, ithe letter dated September 22, 1800, and the accompanying description eventually found its way to Philadelphia, where in 1802 the communication, un­ happily, was judged to be not worthy of inclusion in the transactions of the society. Hall reported in a letter to Jedediah Morse of May 1816 that he was attending a session of the General Assembly of his church for the eleventh time, a body he served as moderator in 1803, the year in which his alma mater conferred upon him its honorary doctorate. Late in life he became a member of the American Bible Society and the first president of its North Carolina branch. He died at Bethany on July 25, 1826, after several years of declining health. He had never married, presumably because of a fear that it might interfere with the work to which he had committed himself. SOURCES: R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 99; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 315 ("when a boy at school"), 316-36, 291, 304, 338, 458, 461 ("113a miles"), 463-65,

JOSEPH HAZARD

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468, 471 ("physical"), 472, 473 ("1485 miles"); Sprague, A n n a l s , HI, 381-86; C. L. Hunter, Sketches of Western N.C. (1877), 196-202; DAB; alumni file, PUA; J. Rum­ ple, R o w a n C n t y . (1881), 87; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Journal and W e e k l y Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); D. I. Craig, Pres. Chh. in N . C . (1907), 12; E. W . Caruthers, David Caldwell (1842), 196; J. T . Headley, Chaplains and Clergy of the R e v . (1864), 245-49; W . H . Hoyt, Papers of Archibald D . Murphey (1914), 11, 268, 295; W. A. Graham, Gen. Joseph Graham (1904), 311, 351; Ε. T. Thompson, Presbyterians in the South (1963), 1, 94-95, 168-70; JPHS, 39 (1961), 6263; St. Rec. N.C., xvi, 450; xxiv, 30, 690; als JH to J. Morse, 4 Feb 1818, 8 Apr 1815 ("energetic preachers"), 27 May 1815 (" 'Last Times' "), 21 May 1816, 4 Feb 1818; to A. Green, 4 Dec 1801, Gratz Coll., PHi; G. Howe, Hist. Pres. Chh. in S.C. (1883), 11, 173-87; Publications of Miss. Hist. Soc., 9 (1906), 539-76 (Hist, of Miss.); R.D.W. Connor, Doc. Hist, of U n i v . of N.C. (1953), 11, 250-54; K. P. Battle, Hist, of U n i v . of N.C. (1907), I, 123, 149, 186, 405; NCHR, 30 (1953), 273-74 ("my theory of hail"); als to T . Jefferson, 22 Sep 1800, P P A m P ; Princeton Theological Seminary, Cat.

(!955)PUBLICATIONS: see text above and STE MANUSCRIPTS: PHi, PPPrHi

WFC

Joseph Hazard JOSEPH HAZARD, merchant, poet, and Presbyterian clergyman, was

born on December 29, 1754, probably in New York City. He was bap­ tized in the First Presbyterian Church there on January 19, 1755, the youngest son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Drummey Hazard and a brother of another Nathaniel (A.B. 1764). Hazard's father was a very wealthy merchant who left substantial bequests to each of his chil­ dren when he died in 1765. Joseph's share of the cash alone was £200. Hazard joined the Cliosophic Society at the College in June 1770 and one year later was involved in the "Paper War" between that or­ ganization and the Whig Society. A Whig publication, "the Cliosophian Club in Distress," claimed that Hazard had recently dis­ cussed the merits of his society in a dialogue with the devil. According to the Whigs, the Cliosophians were in a desperate way, thanks largely to Hazard's efforts in their behalf. Hazard left the College before graduating and by 1774 was back in New York City. In 1775 he served occasionally as clerk pro tempore of the probate court in which his brother-in-law Thomas Tredwell (A.B. 1764) was a justice. The British occupation of New York in September 1776 forced the Hazard family to flee. Most of them went to Newtown, Connecticut, but Joseph Hazard did not stay there. It is likely that he, like his brother Nathaniel, was a merchant at that time, and either or both

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of them traveled occasionally. In May 1780, when Hazard was in Esopus, Ulster County, New York, Tredwell appealed to his friend Governor George Clinton of New York to allow Hazard to sell some goods that he had "saved from the Enemy." Joseph Hazard's travels took him throughout southern New York and Connecticut. They may be traced through the poems that he wrote during the war, which also provide an insight into his personal situation. Published in 1789 as Juvenile Poems on a Diversity of Sub­ jects, they include several elegies that reveal Hazard's despondency at being away from home. He resented his enforced "retirement" while so many of his acquaintances were making their reputations and for­ tunes. Full of youthful self-pity, they tell of Hazard's declining emo­ tional and physical health "in a stranger land . . . Remote from Hon­ our, and its madding blaze . . . Heedless alike of censure and of praise." He felt that the war had "blasted" his "Prospect of Life," and while he espoused the proper affection for "Liberty" and outrage at British "Tyranny," he showed no interest in joining the struggle for inde­ pendence. Years after peace was restored, Hazard still smoldered with resentment at the thought of "the artful and insincere being raised to the height of Prosperity" while he languished in relative poverty and obscurity. Like other fashionable American poets of the 1780s, he tended to personify emotions, dissecting them in terms of physical anatomy. His verses were part of what one historian of American cul­ ture calls the fad of "wretchedness" that characterized the literature of the time. The last of Hazard's poems was written in Smithtown in 1788. In 1790 a Joseph Hazard resided in Pawling, Dutchess County, New York, very near Litchfield, Connecticut, where the Juvenile Poems were pub­ lished the year before. In the preface of that volume, "A Friend of Parnassus" reported that Hazard was under a "serious and heavenly turn of mind." How serious and heavenly was revealed on June 7, 1 797» when Hazard was ordained as the minister of the First Presby­ terian Church in Southold, Long Island. On October 5 of that year he married Jane Moore, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Moore of Stirling, Long Island. The ceremony was performed in Hazard's own church. Hazard's life was not much more eventful after he entered the min­ istry than it was before. He fathered one daughter, officiated at the dedication of a new church in Southold in June 1803, and resigned from the pulpit because of ill health in April 1806. His condition must have improved soon afterward, for he survived until 1817, when he died in Brooklyn, New York.

HUGH HODGE, JR.

393

SOURCES: NYGBR, 4 (1873), 141; 6g (1934), 153; N.Y. Wills, vi, 366-67; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Fithian Journal, 1, 13-15; F- G. Mather, Refugees of ιηηβ from Long Island to Conn. (1913), m , 219-20; K. Silverman, Cultural Hist, of Amer. Rev. (1976), 589 ("wretchedness"); First Census, N.Y., 88 (information must have been garbled, for no male head o£ the household is enumerated for the family of "Joseph Hazard"); N. S. Prime, Hist, of Long Island (1845), 134; E. Whitaker, Whitaker's Southold (1931), 164. PUBLICATIONS: see text, Sh-Sh #31681

Hugh Hodge, Jr. A.B., medical student, soldier, and possibly a merchant, was the son of Hannah Harkum Hodge and Hugh Hodge, Sr., a dry goods merchant and tobacconist in Philadelphia, Pennsyl­ vania. Hodge's father was neither as wealthy nor as influential as his brother Andrew, the father of Andrew Hodge, Jr. (A.B. 1772) and Hugh Hodge (A.B. 1773), but he did own a few pieces of property in Philadelphia and probably held several hundred acres in the Wyoming Valley as well. He also served as a deacon of the city's Second Presby­ terian Church, of which he and Andrew were both trustees. On the basis of the date of his graduation from the College and that of his enrollment in Philadelphia Academy in 1762, Hugh Hodge, Jr.'s birthdate may be estimated as 1755 or 1756. He entered the fresh­ man class at Nassau Hall in 1771. Unlike his cousins, he did not join the American Whig Society. But like his cousin Hugh, he was the best orator in his class. As a freshman he won third prize in the under­ graduate competition for public speaking. As a junior he placed first in the same contest. Predictably, he was chosen valedictorian of the class of 1773, and at commencement he delivered an address on "the horrors of war." Also like his cousin Hugh, Hodge both returned to Philadelphia to study medicine and cut short his training to join the army. In Decem­ ber 1776 the Pennsylvania Council of Safety appointed him a surgeon's mate in a battalion of Philadelphia militia that participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. When the militia was reorganized in 1777, Hodge became a private in the Fourth Pennsylvania Bat­ talion. He was promoted to quartermaster sergeant in the Philadelphia militia on September 20. He never resumed his study of medicine. Hodge may have been inspired to imitate another of his cousins, William Hodge, an adventurer and secret agent during the war who died in 1780. In August 1781 Hugh Hodge, Jr. joined a French fleet that was said in Philadelphia to be sailing south to attack British H UGH HODGE, J R.,

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colonies in the Caribbean. He survived that expedition, which may in fact have been part of the naval element of the Yorktown campaign, but in 1783 or 1784 he was lost at sea. Family traditions present three possible versions of his death. One holds that he went to Europe after the war to continue his education; another, that he was engaged in some commercial enterprise; and the third, that he was an adventurer. Hodge's mother opened a shop in Philadelphia in 1793 and pro­ vided lodging for other widows, including the widow of the College's former president, Samuel Finley. When Hannah Hodge died in 1805, the property she had inherited from her husband went to the trustees of the College to be used as a fund for the education of pious young men. SOURCES: H. L. Hodge, Memoranda of Family Hist. (1903), 126 & η.; 129η; Pa. Arch.

(3 ser.), xiv, 188, 264, 513; xvi, 313, 421; xxv, 168; Τ. H. Montgomery, Hist, of Univ. of Pa. (1900), 540; Williams, Academic Honors, 7; Pa. Journal and Weekly Adver­ tiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); L. B. Walker, Burd Papers (1899), 125; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 717, 718 n. 4.

Samuel Leake (Leek) SAMUEL LEAKE (LEEK), A.B., lawyer, was born November 2, 1747, in the Cohansie region of Cumberland County, New Jersey, the son of the Samuel Leake who at his death in 1782 was described as being of Deerfield in that county. His mother's name has not been discovered. The widow provided for in his father's will seems certainly to have been a wife he married as late as 1769. Samuel received a bequest of £80, and the inheritances of two other sons and a daughter were in keeping with the father's standing as one of the more substantial resi­ dents of the township. Leake came to the College in 1772 with unusual qualifications. He had studied at two famous schools—that of John Blair at Fagg's Manor, Pennsylvania, and that of Robert Smith at Pequea in the same province—and he has been numbered also among the students of Enoch Green (A.B. 1760), who had been the Presbyterian minister at Deerfield since 1767. More than that, he had taught school himself for three years in New Castle, Delaware and came to Princeton possessed of testimonials of May 1772 to his proficiency and character from five gentlemen of that province, including Reverend Joseph Montgomery (A.B. 1755), George Read, and Thomas McKean, the last two des­ tined to become signers of the Declaration of Independence four years later. Samuel joined the Whig Society and obviously was quick to

SAMUEL LEAKE (LEEK)

395

gain high standing among the students of the College, for at the com­ mencement exercises of 1773 he shared with Thomas McCaule the top prizes in competitions among undergraduates for excellence in the reading of Greek, Latin, and English. The high point of his collegiate career was reached in the following spring when the faculty, com­ prised of President Witherspoon, Professor William Houston (A.B. 1768), and three tutors, nominated Leake for what was then the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a graduating senior, that of being the Latin Salutatory Orator at the coming commencement. In short, he had won first honors in his class. But he was not to enjoy the distinction. Toward the end of the pre­ ceding January the students had staged a "Tea Party" of their own at the front of the campus in order "to show our patriotism," as one participant explained. Having gotten hold of the steward's full supply of tea, and increased the total to about twelve pounds with contribu­ tions from personal stocks, they burned the tea together with an effigy of Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts, a tea canister tied about its neck. The proceedings included also a tolling of the college bell and the adoption of "many spirited resolves." No record of where Presi­ dent Witherspoon may have been at the time seems to have survived, but unfortunately for Leake one of the trustees of the College, almost certainly Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748), whose residence of Morven was only a short distance from the campus, undertook to stop what he viewed as riotous behavior. When Leake's nomination as salutatorian came before the board of trustees at a meeting of April 19, 1774» the board, in one of the few instances in which it overrode the wishes of Witherspoon, instructed the president "to appoint another Orator in his room." The clerk of the board on this occasion provided an unusually revealing explanation for its action. His minute reads: "And whereas it hath been represented, and upon Enquiry it hath appeared to this Board, that Samuel Leake . . . was not long since singularly active in encouraging and promoting some unwarrantable and riotous Proceedings among the Students, particularly in publickly burning the Effigies [nc] of his Excellency Governor Hutchinson; and also insulting an honorable Member of this Board for endeavouring in a very becoming Manner to prevent the sd rioutous [sic] Proceed­ ings; . . . this Board doth highly disapprove of" Leake's appointment to the honor. Whatever may have been the particular character of the last mentioned offense, it should not be viewed as the act of an over­ wrought youth, for Leake at the time was a twenty-six-year-old former schoolmaster. At the September commencement of 1774 Leake had no part, aside

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from receiving his degree, in exercises in which a number of his class­ mates spoke, including Thomas McCaule as salutatorian. Witherspoon, however, had no reservations about giving Leake a certificate in March 1775 testifying to his qualifications for instruction in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, to which the president added: "he gave particular attention to the English language while here, 8c is probably better ac­ quainted with its structure, propriety, 8c force than most of his years 8c standing in this country." The specific occasion for this tribute is un­ known, but Leake may have been thinking of turning again to teach­ ing. The position in question was probably one in Virginia for which Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), a neighbor and acquaintance in the Cohansie region, had recommended him the preceeding year. Fithian's journal records that Leake was willing to consider acceptance, but for no earlier date than the spring of 1775. In fact, Leake decided against teaching and in favor of law. He is said to have begun reading law with Richard Howell, later governor of New Jersey, and then to have read with Charles Pettit of Burling­ ton before being licensed to practice on July 2, 1776. His law office was situated first in Salem, but in 1785 he moved to Trenton, where he would reside until his death. All accounts agree that his was a very successful practice, so much so, as one has put it, that he was "able to retire before he was enfeebled by age." Recorded recollections of Leake as lawyer and man relate chiefly to his later years and so tend to emphasize his eccentricities. He seems to have been, and probably was throughout his life, very precise and extraordinarily systematic. The historian of the Presbyterian church in Trenton, which he faith­ fully attended, has reported that he kept a very specific register of the communion services in which he participated over the course of many years. He trained a goodly number of young men for the practice of law and has been credited with setting aside an hour each day to quiz the apprentices then in his care. One of them was Charles Ewing (A.B. 1798), who in 1824 succeeded Andrew Kirkpatrick (A.B. 1775) as Chief Justice of New Jersey, and it was authoritatively reported that any attempt to disparage the memory of Leake in his presence in­ variably met a stern rebuke. The reporter, himself a judge whose reminiscenses have great value for historians of the state bar, concluded that this in itself left not doubt that Leake was a lawyer "of uncommon excellence." Leake appears not to have been politically active. No evidence has been found that he even held office in the church of which he was long a dedicated member. His brother Levi in Cumberland was known to be so warm a Federalist that he is said to have ordered work

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON

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stopped on a house he had begun to build on hearing of Jefferson's election in 1801. According to the story, he vowed not to complete it until the Federalists returned to power, and the house stood un­ finished for nearly twenty years. That Samuel shared some of his brother's conservative leanings is suggested by another story. When Governor Joseph Bloomfield first came to preside in the Court of Chancery in 1801, he announced that because of his republican senti­ ments he did not wish to be addressed as "Your excellency." Where­ upon Samuel Leake addressed the court with a "May it please your excellency" in a brief appeal that the presiding officer might continue to be addressed "by the ancient title of your excellency," managing in between these two to insert the salutation six other times. Leake was married to a Sarah Bell, though when or where has not been established. She outlived her husband by many years, dying on March 13, 1843, in the 8gth year of her life. Leake's will, proved No­ vember 8, 1820, after his death on the preceding March 8, indicates that three children survived him, all girls: Sarah, Clara, and Sophia, the last named listed as Sophia Slack, who was the wife of Elijah Slack (A.B. 1808, LL.D. 1863), vice-president of the College, 1812-1817. The will provided that assistance be provided for four female slaves. There seems to have been no connection with the Virginian Samuel Leake (A.B. 1764). SOURCES: N.J. Wills, iv, 269; v, 331; vi, 243; VHM, 42 (1959), 370-82; NJA (1 ser.), xxii, 237; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 177; J . Whitehead, Judicial and Civil Hist, of N.J. (1897), 11, 429-30; J. Hall, Hist, of Pres. Chh. in Trenton (1859), 399-401; 2d ed. (1912), 380; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773; Pa. Journal and Weekly Ad­ vertiser, 12 Oct 1774; Ms Steward's account, 25 May 1773—25 Sep 1774, Nov 1774—10 Apr 1775 (which suggests that Leake may have remained in Princeton for a time after graduation); als C. C. Beatty to E. Green, 31 Jan 1774, Gen. MSS, NjP ("spirited resolves"); Trustee Minutes, 19 Apr 1774 ("Board doth highly disapprove"); Maclean, History, 1. 318, 319 ("particular attention to the English language"); H. D. Farish, ed., Journal and Letters of . . . Fithian (1957), 95, 102, 148, 200-1; Fithian Journal, ι, 165η; L.Q.S. Elmer, Reminiscenses of Bench and Bar (1872), 133 ("your Excel­ lency"), 327 ("uncommon excellence"), 403-4; a n d Hist, of . . . Cumberland Cnty. (1869), 43; will #3075 J, Nj. MANUSCRIPTS; NjP WFC

Henry Brockholst Livingston HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON, A.B., LL.D. Harvard 1818, soldier,

lawyer, jurist, and public official, was born in New York City on No­ vember 26, 1757. He was the son of William Livingston (Yale 1741),

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Henry Brockholst Livingston, A.B. 1774

a leading Whig lawyer who was later a member of Congress, brigadier general in the Revolution, governor of New Jersey, signer of the Con­ stitution, and trustee of the College. Livingston's mother was Susannah French Livingston, whose mother's maiden name was Brockholst. He was related to the many Livingstons who attended the College in its first fifty years. In 1771, as a freshman at Nassau Hall, Livingston took first prize in the undergraduate Latin competition and joined the American Whig Society. During his sophomore year, he and some fellow students were fined by the local magistrate for stealing turkeys, an episode for which at least one of his classmates, John Glover, was expelled. At the com­ mencement of 1774 Livingston delivered an English oration on "Lib­ erty." From Princeton Livingston went to "Liberty Hall," the estate near Elizabethtown, New Jersey to which his family had moved in 1772. In January 1776 he joined his uncle, Lord Stirling, and a company of volunteers in capturing a grounded British frigate off Sandy Hook. He then entered the Continental Army as a captain, went to Albany, New

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON

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York on the staff of General Philip Schuyler, and was promoted to major. By September 1776 the beleaguered Schuyler had had enough of his enemies in the army and Congress. He submitted his resignation along with the recommendation that his staff officers, and particularly Liv­ ingston, be given assignments commensurate with their talents. When no assignment was forthcoming, and after a few months of visiting his relatives and Schuyler, Livingston returned to the army at Fort Ticonderoga as a volunteer on the staff of General Arthur St. Clair. To his great satisfaction, Schuyler was recalled to command in March 1777, but after the evacuation of Ticonderoga in July, the general was once again under political attack. Livingston was fiercely loyal to his chief and equally certain that the evacuation had been both necessary and well managed. Nevertheless, Congress charged Schuyler with incom­ petence and replaced him in August 1777 with his most bitter foe, Horatio Gates. Livingston and another of Schuyler's aides, Richard Varick, re­ mained with the army at Stillwater, New York and attached themselves to the staff of Benedict Arnold, whose own dislike for Gates they en­ couraged while they sent daily reports of affairs at camp to their former commander in Albany. Their insubordination soon became an issue between Gates and Arnold. Antagonisms reached the boiling point in September, when Livingston fought a duel with one of Gates's aides, After the skirmish at Freeman's Farm on September 19, Gates ordered Arnold to send Livingston away. Arnold refused, but Livingston felt that he could no longer take orders from "a man whom I abhor from my very soul" and he agreed to go on September 26. His departure did not end the generals' quarrel, however. Livingston rejoined Schuyler, who sent him to Philadelphia with news of the American victory at Bennington in the hope that such a mission would earn Livingston the promotion for which he was wait­ ing. The young officer, already embittered by previous slights, would certainly have resigned if faced with another. But on October 4, 1777, Congress agreed to elevate him to the rank of lieutenant colonel. The promotion was possible only because Robert Troup of Gates's staff was also promoted that day. Still in Schuyler's service and based at Albany, Livingston went to Boston in December 1777 to escort a British officer and his wife to New York on their parole. He stopped for a visit at Livingston Manor in January 1778, where he received a letter from his father urging him to leave the army and study law. He decided to follow that advice as soon as he could settle his affairs.

400

CLASS OF 1774

As aide to a general who had no command, Livingston remained in the army when he moved to Philadelphia that spring to study law with his sister's husband, John Jay. In October Schuyler was exonerated by a congressional investigation, and Livingston would have joined the next northern campaign had his commander's renewed resignation not been accepted. Still a lieutenant colonel, he stayed with Jay who, in September 1779, was named minister to Spain. Livingston was con­ sidered for appointment as secretary to the mission, but that post went to William Carmichael of Maryland instead. Jay then requested that his brother-in-law be given a year's furlough from the army in order to serve as the minister's private secretary, and Congress agreed on Oc­ tober 15, by which time Jay, Livingston, and the rest of their party were already at sea aboard the Confederacy. Livingston enjoyed the journey, although he hoped that he would get seasick so that he would not have to study French and Spanish with the rest of the mission staff. His relatives, especially sensitive to the dangers of the family temper after the death of William A. Livingston (Class of 1775) in a duel, begged him not to quarrel with any Spanish dons. After a difficult acclimatization, Livingston settled into a dull routine in Madrid. His only diversions were bullfighting, which ap­ palled him, and comedies that he could not understand. Bored, he became friendly with Carmichael and with a new member of the staff, Lewis Littlepage. Both men did their best to undermine Jay, and by October 1780 the minister tried to exclude them from important business by using Livingston as his exclusive courier and secretary. That strategy failed because Livingston divulged all confidential in­ formation to his friends. Jay obtained an extension of his brother-inlaw's furlough in November, but he soon regretted having done so, for Livingston's conduct, especially his diatribes against Congress, con­ stantly embarrassed the minister. In early 1782 both men decided that Livingston should go home, much to the consternation of William Carmichael. Bearing messages for Congress, Livingston took ship from Cadiz on March 11. Two weeks later he was captured by a British privateer and thrown into the provost jail in New York after managing to destroy his papers. When Sir Guy Carleton arrived as the new British com­ mander shortly thereafter, he decided to release Livingston at once. As Livingston reported their conversations, Carleton asked him to take a message to Congress, but the American refused to perform any service for the enemy. Livingston did not report that he also regaled Carleton with his low opinions of Congress and John Jay. In April he signed a parole and left New York for Elizabethtown.

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON

401

The terms of his parole prevented Livingston from serving further in the Revolution, but he was concerned about the legality of his release when he learned that Congress had retired all officers not in the field as of January i, 1782. He had signed his parole as an officer, and he sought Washington's support for the legitimacy of that claim. Delighted by the account of his exchanges with Carleton, the com­ mander in chief assured Livingston that both his parole and the terms of any future exchange of prisoners or paroles could properly be con­ sidered on the basis of Livingston's military rank, an opinion eventu­ ally sustained by Congress. Although he had never been an enthusiastic law student, Livingston accepted the invitation of Justice Peter Yates of the New York Supreme Court to enter his office in Albany as a clerk in August 1782. He vowed not to be diverted from his training, but he was appalled at how few opportunities for diversion there were in Albany, a city whose provincialism, weather, and citizens he deplored. He worked hard but expected little to come of it; and he lived on an allowance from his father that he found meager. Indeed, he might have aban­ doned the law had he not been excused from the requirement of three years' study in New York. "I am too old," he told his father, "to think of studying three years here or anywhere else." In the fall of 1783 he was admitted to the bar in New York City. He stayed in Elizabethtown until the British left New York in November and then took a room in the house of Peter Keteltas on Wall Street. "For the sake of distinc­ tion," he discarded his first name and styled himself simply "Brockholst Livingston." Livingston began at once to speculate in land. He was far from rich but assured his father that he had no "fear of Gaol" so long as he did not marry a poor wife. His law practice grew and, although he failed to secure an appointment as city clerk in February 1784, he was soon a prominent member of the bar, undoubtedly because several of his numerous and powerful relatives hired him, sometimes in suits against one another. In June he was one of the counsels for the defendant in the landmark case of Rutgers v. Waddington, in which his colleagues were Alexander Hamilton and Morgan Lewis (A.B. 1773). His op­ ponents included William Willcocks (A.B. 1769). Throughout his career, he would frequently be associated with Hamilton, either as a partner or an opponent in legal cases, and in spite of their eventual political differences, he always regarded Hamilton as one of the best attorneys in the city. Another prominent lawyer with whom he was frequently connected in court and politics was Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). Livingston's reputation was enhanced by his election in May 1784

402

CLASS OF 1774

as clerk of the "Presbyterian Corporation," which lobbied to keep the state's college system from being dominated by Episcopalians. That effort benefited from his selection in the same month as the first treas­ urer of the New York Board of Regents. He was also named a clerk of the chancery court. He complained that those offices stole his time, but he expected the latter, at least, to be of "some little profit." On December 2, 1784, he married his landlord's daughter, Catherine Keteltas. She, it seems, had courted him, and his father was furious at the match. Livingston had, after all, married a poor wife, if not in fact, then at least by his family's standards. In April 1785 Livingston asked Congress for his pay as Jay's secretary in Spain. Simultaneously, he abetted Lewis Littlepage in publishing vicious attacks against his brother-in-law. Jay won the pamphlet war, and Littlepage left the country, but it was probably Livingston's role in the episode that led to an assassination attempt against him on October 5, 1785. He was not seriously injured. When Columbia College was incorporated in April 1787, Livingston was one of the original trustees and the institution's treasurer. Twenty years later he would serve as chairman of the board. He had resigned as clerk of the chancery in March when a new law forbade clerks from practice in that court. It was a sacrifice of £150 per year, but he gambled that his growing practice would compensate. Livingston was never shy about collecting his fees, sometimes using techniques that bordered on blackmail to get his money. When the New York Library Society was revived in December 1788, Livingston was one of its trustees. In later years, he was a vice-president of the New York Historical Society, an incorporator of the Free School Society in New York City, and secretary of a society to help the Indians on the frontier. Also in December 1788 he entered the state assembly. But he resented that responsibility and refused to seek a second term. In April 1789 he was an election inspector for the East Ward in New York City. He held the same position in 1792 and 1793. In July 1790 Livingston was chosen to deliver the Independence Day address before the members of the federal government in St. Paul's Chapel. He was by then one of the city's leading citizens, the owner of $47,180 worth of the debt of the southern states in anticipation of na­ tional assumption, and a partner of his cousin's husband, William Duer, in such schemes as the Society for establishing useful Manu­ factures in New Jersey. He was also an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati and a manager of the Society of St. Andrew. Along with most of his relatives, Livingston had been an ardent supporter of the Constitution and a firm Federalist. That changed by

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON

403

1791. The Livingstons resented Hamilton's power in New York poli­ tics, especially when Rufus King was named as Philip Schuyler's col­ league from the state in the United States Senate. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston and his allies set out to break that power, first by com­ peting with Hamilton in the complicated affairs of the banks of New York. The battle continued in 1792, when Brockholst Livingston at­ tacked Hamilton's circle in the press. Duer's financial collapse in March 1792 was a major blow to Hamilton's interests, and while Duer's friends thought that Livingston too would be ruined, by March 24 Hamilton learned that Livingston was "gloating" over the turn of events. From then on, there was no doubt where Livingston's loyalties lay. The political side of the Livingston offensive was embodied in op­ position to Philip Schuyler's reelection to the Senate in 1791. Although it had been King to whom they objected, the Livingstons turned against Brockholst Livingston's former mentor because his term ex­ pired first. Through their efforts, Burr replaced Schuyler. In the election of 1792, the Livingstons were squarely in league with the antiFederalist Clintonians and were the most active opponents of John Jay's bid for governor. Brockholst Livingston was in the van of that opposition, which ended in Jay's loss to George Clinton. Livingston was soon one of New York's leading anti-Federalists. He was the chairman of a meeting that welcomed French Minister Edmond Genet to the city in the summer of 1793, when Genet was already persona non grata to the federal government. He later repre­ sented Genet in a libel suit against Jay and King. He was a member of the Democratic Society of New York in 1794. And in 1795 he led the campaign against Jay's Treaty, conducting a newspaper debate with Hamilton. Livingston also served as a second to James Nicholson, who challenged Hamilton to a duel in 1795, and he helped to achieve a nonviolent solution to their quarrel. He was frequently the defense counsel for Republicans in political cases that stemmed from attacks on the Federalists. On May 8, 1798, the New York Argus published Livingston's mild satire of a Federalist meeting that had protested French influence in the United States, which provoked one outraged merchant, James Jones, to accost Livingston on the Battery, pull his nose, and cane him. The attack led to a duel at Hoboken on May 9, when Jones was mortally wounded in the groin. While a coroner's jury concluded that no charges should be brought, the affair provoked a wave of emotion against dueling that culminated after a more famous encounter at Weehauken in 1804.

404

CLASS OF 1774

By the turn of the century, Livingston's personal finances

were more

than secure. His wife had inherited half of her father's respectable estate in 1792, including a slave who joined the four already in the household. Between 1794 and 1798 Livingston transacted the sale of one of his estates in the city to the Common Council for use as a hospital. The property, called Belle Vue, cost the city £2,000. He bought and sold other property as well and usually made a profit. In June 1794 he was among the very elite group of citizens who subscribed to the Tontine Coffee House. In March 1800 Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) implored Livingston to stop Rush's son from murdering a Federalist publisher, William Cobbett, who regularly attacked the doctor's family in print. Rush prom­ ised a large fee and urged Livingston to seek Burr's aid in suing Cobbett. The publisher left the country before suit was instituted, but Burr and Livingston were partners in another venture that year. As leader of the Tammany Society, Burr organized New York's Republi­ cans for the election. To unite all factions of the party behind Jefferson and to oust John Jay from the governor's mansion, he assembled the most distinguished ticket of candidates he could find.

Essential to his

plan was Livingston's running for state assemblyman on a slate headed by George Clinton and including Livingston's ancient enemy, Horatio Gates. Burr not only managed to create that slate, he made it victorious. The Republicans were not yet in complete control of the state or city, but they were dominant, and the Livingstons took their share of the spoils. In 1802 Clinton named Brockholst Livingston to the state supreme court, and Livingston's law students, including Washington Irving, were forced to find new teachers. Widowed sometime after 1800, Livingston married Ann N. Ludlow of Westchester, New York on September 2, 1802. The coalition created by Burr crumbled quickly, and Burr himself was the chief

victim, prevented from renomination for

the vice-

presidency and cut off from Republican support for the governorship of New York in 1804. Clinton replaced Burr as vice-president; Morgan Lewis replaced Clinton as governor. Livingston took part in these maneuvers, although he had almost alienated the Clintons one year earlier by challenging DeWitt Clinton briefly for the mayoralty of New York. He was instrumental in the virtual Republican takeover of Union College by means of a state lottery in 1805, the terms of which made him an ex officio trustee of the school. But the Republicans were splitting, and the Livingstons resisted the tendencies of

the more

radical partisans. Livingston was a vigorous and respected jurist, writing 149 opinions

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON

405

in four years on the New York bench. He was most expert in matters of commercial law, but he took strong stands on constitutional issues as well. He tended to accept the proposition—both common law and Jeffersonian—that truth was not a test for seditious libel. He was, at first, opposed to the principle of judicial review. Respected by his colleagues, he was frequently considered for federal appointments as well. In the summer of 1806, Jefferson named him to replace William Paterson (A.B. 1763) on the United States Supreme Court. The Jefferson administration, working through federal district judge Pierpont Edwards (A.B. 1768), was then orchestrating several libel cases in Connecticut in order to delay their ultimate resolution until there was a Jeffersonian majority on the Supreme Court. As part of the dilatory strategy, Livingston was not assigned to a judicial circuit until March 1808. Yet it was on circuit that his role was most signifi­ cant, for in decisions by the court as a whole, the associate justices were usually overshadowed by Chief Justice John Marshall. In his years on the supreme federal bench, Livingston authored only thirty-nine major decisions, five concurring decisions, and three dissents—still more than any of his colleagues except Marshall and William Johnson (A.B. 1790). His views, occasionally expressed in the correspondence he conducted with his closest friend on the court, Joseph Story, reflected a gradual adoption of Marshall's stand on judicial review and a shift back toward the standards of his earlier Federalism. In 1 8 1 2 , for example, Livingston opposed the war with England and earned a public rebuke from Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Nevertheless, he subscribed $20,000 in loans to the country. His pessimism about the nation's future if it did not stop relying on "superannuated Generals . . . and raw and undisciplined men" seemed confirmed by the burning of the Capitol in 1814. He urged the court to hold its session in 1815 someplace other than Washington, but was overruled. Among the less weighty matters he and his colleagues con­ sidered was Justice Bushrod Washington's recipe for "bouilli" and a newspaper endorsement, made by five justices in 1809 with remarkable unanimity, of a product called "Impenetrable stucco." After the death of his second wife, Livingston married Catherine Seaman Kortright, whose first husband had died in May 1810. This match, like the previous one, produced three children, for a total of eleven children in three marriages. His eldest son died in 1818 at the age of twenty-four. Livingston continued to have substantial holdings in bank stocks and was a director of three major banks. In 18x5 and 1820, he was taxed on $30,000 worth of personal property in New York. Livingston died in Washington on March 1 8 , 1 8 2 3 , a n c I w a s s u < >

CLASS OF 1774

406

ceeded on the bench by Smith Thompson (A.B. 1788). His widow, who survived him by several years, was committed to an asylum for the insane in 1830. SOURCES: DAB ; L. Friedman and F. L. Israel, eds., Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969), I, 387-408; W. M. MacBean, Bio. Reg. of St. Andrew's Soc. of N.Y. (1922), 174-75; Ε. B. Livingston, Livingstons of Livingston Manor (1910), passim; T. Sedgwick, Jr., Memoirs of the Life of William Livingston (1833), 233-39; Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct 1771; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commence­ ment); Williams, Academic Honors, 5 ; Fithian Journal, 1, 3 0 ; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 423-24; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 416; (5 ser.), n, 333-34, 1378; Jay Papers, 1, 320, 423 & η., 451η, 678-80, 769-70; als HBL to W. Liv­ ingston, 10 Jun, 20 Jun, 12 Jul, 6 Aug, 11 Aug 1777; 20 Aug 1782 (first signature as "Brockholst"); 8 Feb ("too old"), n Nov 1783; 15 Jan ("fear of Gaol"), 6 Feb, 8 Feb, 29 May ("Presbyterian Corporation"), 19 Jun ("some little profit") 1784; 26 Mar 1787; 27 Jan 1789; to S. Livingston, 31 Dec 1777; 12 Jan 1778; 13 Feb 1779; 23 Jul 1783; to C. W. Livingston, 23 Jun 1783 ("for distinction"); W. Livingston to P. Yates, 19 Aug 1782; to HBL, 20 August 1782; HBL's MS "Verses . . . on the Study of the Law," 1779-1789, all in William Livingston Papers, MHi; als HBL to R. Harrison, 1 3 Oct 1780; to J. Read, 2 7 May 1786; to J. Story, 1 3 Aug 1 8 1 5 , NjP; NYHS Quart., 55 ('97 1 )· 2 4 2 - 5 0 , 2 4 6 ("abhor from . . . soul"); S. W. Patterson, Horatio Gates (1941), 147-48, 155; JCC, viii, 665, 769; xv, 1173; xxvi, 176, 362-63; xxvii, 399, 528; xxviii, 3 2 3 η ; LMCC, π, 508, 5 0 9 & η.; ιν, 444, 462, 4 9 1 ; W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist.

Memoirs of William Smith,

xv,

xxiv,

11

(1958), 285; 111

(1970), 5 0 4 ;

Washington Writings,

Wharton, Dip. Corresp., 111, 833; iv, 106, 170, 174; v, 205, 406, 430; Mag. of Amer. Hist., 111, 512; Madison Papers, HI , 103, 106η; iv, 292; R. B. Mor­ ris, The Peacemakers (1968), 2 3 7 ; and Select Cases of the Mayor's Court of N.Y. City (1935), 58; Adams Papers, iv, 77; F. Monaghan, John Jay (1935), 154-59, 233, 236-43; J. Sparks, ed., Correspondence of Amer. Rev., Letters to Washington (1853), hi, 517-22; Hamilton Papers, xxn, 215-16; XI, 185 ("gloating"), 218-19 & n.; xv, 173; xvm, 476-77 Sc n., 5 0 2 - 5 0 3 & n.; xix, passim; J. Goebel, Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton, 2 vols. (1964-69), passim; W. C. Ford, ed., Correspondence and Journals of Samuel Blachley Webb ( 1 8 9 4 ) , 111, 1 9 4 - 9 6 ; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Offi­ 180;

394-95;

cers and Alumni 396;

(1936), 9, 10, 17;

N.Y. Directory, ιη86,

M. J. Lamb, Hist, of City of N.Y.

(1877),

11,

6o;

Clinton Papers, VIII, NYHS

414, 418, 452-53, 505, 517;

Coll., Lxx, 146-47, 365; LXXII, 134; MCCCNY, 1, 442, 706, 763; 11, 100-101, 235, 430, Washington Diaries, iv, 136; WMQ (3 ser.), 19 (1962), 36; 10 (1953), 3626 3 & n., 377; Davis, Essays, 283, 303, 305, 370, 392, 393; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), passim; S. H. Wandell and M. Minnegerode, Aaron Burr (1925), 148; G. Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston (i960), 259, 262, 272, 305, 399, 418; W. B. Hatcher, Edward Livingston (1940), 19-25; R. Ernst, Rufus King (1968), 188, 207-208; B. Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton (1962), 457-58; PMHB, 7 (1883), 486-87; S. I. Pomerantz, N.Y., an American City (1938), 126-27, 136-38, 300; N.Y. Wills, xiv, 225; First Census, N.Y., 133; H. B. Yoshpe, Disposition of Loyalist Estates in . . . N.Y. (1939), 72; H. Adams, ed., Writings of Albert Galla­ tin (1879), i, 178, 2 0 9 , 2 1 9 , 2 3 0 ; P. M. Irving, Life and Letters of Washington Irving (1862), I, 44; J. A. Scoville, Old Merchants of N.Y. (1845), T > 33 1 ! m, 225; iv, 22; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 8 1 6 - 1 7 , 1 2 1 3 - 1 8 ; J. Paxton, Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1858), 248-49; Ν. E. Cunningham, Jeffersonian Republicans (1957), 178-80; and Jeffersonian Republicans in Power (1963), 103-104, 149; N.Y. Red Book, 375, 376; NYGBR, 49 (1918), 346; D. Bobbe, De Witt Clinton (1933), 98; C. Hislop, Eliphalet Nott (1971), 89-90; Journal of Exec. Proc. of [t/.S.] Senate, 11, 44, 45; W. W. Crosskey, Politics and the Constitution (1953), 1, 693; 11, 770-76; G. T. Dunne, Justice Joseph Story (1970), passim; C. M. Wiltse, ed., Papers of Daniel Webster ( ! 9 7 4 ) , i, 241; J. F. Dillon, John Marshall (1903), 1, 520; D. G. Morgan, Justice William Johnson (1971), passim, esp. 1 9 4 ("stucco"); Amer. Journal of Legal Hist., 431, 435;

THOMAS HARRIS McCAULE

407

ίο (1966), 226 ("bouilli"), 228 ("superannuated generals"), 225-33; Cfl)' Papers, 1, 641, 643η; Η. W. Lanier, Century of Banking in N.Y. (1922), 119. PUBLICATIONS: For Supreme Court decisions, see 4 Cranch (U.S.) to 8 Wheaton (U.S.);

for circuit decisions, see Paine's Circuit Court Reports (1810-1823). MANUSCRIPTS: NjP, MHi, NN, CtHi, PHi, NNC

Thomas Harris McCaule THOMAS HARRIS MCCAULE, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman and school­

master, was born in 1751 or 1752 and was described while resident at the College as "of North Carolina," but search for evidenec of his birthplace and parentage has been unavailing. Variant spellings of the name—M'Calle, M'Cawle, McCall, McCauley—make the search diffi­ cult. The double baptismal name, as yet not a commonplace, may provide a clue to his maternal parentage, but it can only be said that members of the Harris family were among those migrating at midcentury to the western section of the state in which McCaule spent a significant part of his mature years. His record at the College shows that he had been well prepared, but where and by whom he was first taught have not been discovered. He probably entered the College in the fall of 1772, and as a member of the junior class at the commencement of 1773, he shared two prizes with his classmate Samuel Leake. The first was for reading English "with propriety and grace; and answering a variety of questions . . . on Orthography, and on the Grammar and Construction of the language." The other was for reading "Latin and Greek properly and justly; with a particular Attention to true Quantity." At his own commencement in 1774 he enjoyed the highest honor for a graduate by delivering the Latin salutatory oration on the topic "Bellum servituti anteponendum." It has to be noted, however, that he apparently had slipped a bit behind Mr. Leake in the competition for honors. The faculty had chosen Leake as salutatorian, but the trustees denied him the distinction because of his leadership in "promoting some unwar­ rantable and riotous proceedings among the students," and particu­ larly for burning in effigy Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachu­ setts. Perhaps McCaule was less inclined to participate in student activities. His name is not found on the roll of either of the literary societies. After graduation McCaule probably returned to North Carolina, for in 1776 the Presbytery of Orange reported to the Synod of New York and Philadelphia that it had licensed him to preach. He may

408

CLASS OF 1774

have assumed the pastorate of Centre Congregation in Rowan County that same year, but loss of the Presbytery's records leaves doubt as to the actual date of his ordination. It is evident enough, however, that he held this pastorate until about 1784, and tradition credits him with stout support for the American cause. He is said to have been at General William L. Davidson's side when the general was killed in 1781 at Cowan's Ford, on the very edge of McCaule's parish. In July of that year it was announced in the South Carolina Gazette and Public Advertiser in Charleston that McCaule had accepted the post of principal of Mount Zion College. The institution had been established at Winnsborough in the Camden district under the auspices of the Mount Zion Society, organized at Charleston in 1777 for "disseminating knowledge and advancing Literature in the Back Country," but it had been unable to survive the misfortunes of war. The proposal in 1784 was for its revival. Among the promoters was David Ramsay (A.B. 1765), who in August reported to Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) that 5,000 guineas had been subscribed in Charleston for the support of "two seminaries of learning in our back country," at Ninety-Six and at Winnsborough, both of them to be led by "alumni of New-Jersey college," John Springer (A.B. 1775) and McCaule. The latter may not have taken up his new responsibilities until 1785, when the state legislature adopted an act of incorporation for three colleges —Mount Zion, Cambridge at Ninety-Six, and the College of Charles­ ton, of which Ramsay and his classmate Richard Hutson were found­ ing trustees. McCaule meanwhile assumed the pulpits of the Jackson Creek and Mt. Olivet churches in 1784. He resigned from the latter in 1786 but continued at Jackson Creek until 1792, almost the full length of his tenure as principal at Mount Zion. It is difficult to measure the achievement of McCaule at Mount Zion. He brought to the task an active interest in education dating at least from his service as a trustee in 1777 of Liberty Hall in Charlotte, and it has been suggested that the promise attending the reestablishment of Mount Zion may help to explain a failure to revive Liberty Hall after the war. If so, that promise went unfulfilled, for Mount Zion never became more than an academy and its fortunes soon were in decline. Of the three "colleges" proposed in 1785 only the one at Charleston prospered, and it is significant that the act of 1785 was in 1791 repealed to be replaced by a separate act of incorporation for the College of Charleston. In 1801, on appeal from a governor who de­ scribed the institution at Winnsborough as no more than an elemen­ tary school, the legislature chartered the College of South Carolina, which would be the first located in the state's "back country."

JONATHAN MASON, JR.

409

In 1794 McCaule left the state to become pastor of the Independent Church in Savannah, Georgia. There, according to a newspaper an­ nouncement, he died on September 13, 1796, "in the 45th year of his age" and, as Grand Chaplain of the Free Masons of Georgia, was buried with full Masonic honors. He had been married in the pre­ ceding March to Mrs. Elizabeth Montfort, widow of Robert Montfort, Esq. This obviously was a second marriage, for in January 1809 a Charleston newspaper announced the death at Winnsborough of Dr. Edwin Leroy M'Caule "in the 27th year of his age, a native of this state, second son of the late Rev. Thomas H. M'Caule, formerly president of the College of that Borough." There may have been six or more chil­ dren of the first marriage since the household in 1790 had included eight free white persons as well as four slaves. SOURCES: R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 55, 61-62, 101; Γ. A. Olds, Abstract

of N.C. Wills, 186; Pa. Gazette, 13 Oct 1773 ("Orthography," etc.); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); Maclean, History, 1, 318; Trustee Minutes, 19 Apr 1774 ("riotous proceedings"); Foote, Sketches, N.C., 257, 293, 323, 434, 438, 515, 517; E. W. Caruthers, David Caldwell (1842), 196, 250; J. H. Easterby, College of Charleston (1935), 16-19, 213-20; APS Trans, (n.s.), v. 55, pt. 4 (1965), 81 ("two seminaries"); D. W. Hollis, S.C. College (1951) 17; alumni file, PUA; Colum­ bian Museum & Advertiser, 8 Mar, 16 Sep 1796; SCHGM, 23 (1931), 287 (son's death); F. D. Jones and W. H. Mills, Hist, of Pres. Chh. in S.C. (1926), 13, 344-46; First Census, S.C., 21. WFC

Jonathan Mason, Jr. JONATHAN MASON, JR., A.B., lawyer, entrepreneur, and public official, was born in Boston on September 12, 1756. He was the son of Miriam Clark Mason and Jonathan Mason, Sr., an affluent merchant, a Son of Liberty, a selectman, and a deacon of the Old South Church. Mason attended the Boston Latin School from 1763 until he entered the College, probably as a sophomore in 1771. His sympathies for the patriot cause in Boston must have been obvious, for he took or was given the name "Hancock" as a member of the Cliosophic Society. At the end of his sophomore year, Mason won first prize in the under­ graduate competition for "Pronouncing Pieces from the Stage." Ap­ propriately, his part in the commencement of 1774 was an English oration on the powers of oratory. Even before he graduated, Mason was admitted to study law as a clerk in the Boston office of Josiah Quincy (Harvard 1763). After Quincy died in 1775, his partner John Adams (Harvard 1755) took over Mason's legal education. Their relationship, although marred oc-

410

CLASS OF 1774

Jonathan Mason, Jr., A.B. 1774 BY GILBERT STUART

casionally by political differences, was amicable and lifelong. Adams was a demanding instructor whose purpose was to inculcate in his students an intellectual appreciation for the law grounded in an ex­ haustive reading of sources. In July 1776, while pre-occupied with af­ fairs in Philadelphia, Adams took the time to counsel Mason sternly against abandoning his studies to go on to more lucrative employ­ ment. His advice seems to have been effective, for Mason's new patron in Adams's absence was Perez Morton (Harvard 1771), a rising talent in Boston's legal community. On December 3, 1779, on Morton's recommendation, Mason was admitted to the Suffolk County Bar. Mason was one of the youngest men ever chosen by the town gov­ ernment to deliver the annual speech commemorating the Boston massacre. His address, on March 5, 1780, was a paean to the New England tradition of "religious attachment to the common weal" at the expense of "party-rage, private animosities, or self interest." It was not advice to which even he paid much attention after the war, but he did receive the customary five yards of cloth in payment for giving it.

JONATHAN MASON, JR.

411

With the advantage of his father's name, Mason won easy entry to public life. He joined his father on the board of directors of the Massa­ chusetts Bank in January 1786 and later in the year was elected by a town meeting to represent Boston in the Massachusetts General Court. He was regularly reelected for ten years and also served on the mu­ nicipal school board and other local agencies. Married in 1779 to Susannah Powell, the daughter of another prosperous Boston mer­ chant, Mason must have been especially interested in the schools be­ cause by 1790 he had seven children who would attend them. Federalists and speculators, the Masons were natural allies of Alex­ ander Hamilton in the formation of a national bank. In October 1791, after having withdrawn from the board of the Bank of Massa­ chusetts, Mason was chosen as a director of the Bank of the United States by his fellow stockholders, the most influential of whom in­ cluded his neighbors in Boston. Their desire to play a part in the formulation of bank policy contributed to the creation, over the ob­ jections of Hamilton himself, of regional offices of "discount and de­ posit," one of which was in Boston. Mason was among the more popular young Federalists in Massachu­ setts and an ardent partisan. His excoriation of "party-rage" forgotten, he preached party discipline and felt genuine repugnance for antifederalists. Although he shared many of their regional and nativist prejudices, Mason was not a member of the inner sanctum of Massa­ chusetts Federalism, the group of ardent old-style party leaders whom John Adams called the Essex Junto. Rarely office holders themselves, these men were Hamilton's most loyal servants. They distrusted even Federalists like Mason and his friend Harrison Gray Otis (Harvard !783) who could inspire the kind of popular support that sent Mason to the Massachusetts Governor's Council in 1797, and to the state senate in 1790. With Mason's backing, Otis was elected to Congress in 1797. In March 1798 Federalists of all stripes urged President Adams to publish the correspondence of the American commissioners who had been sent to Paris in order to ease tensions with France. Adams an­ nounced that the negotiations had accomplished nothing, but he did not publicize the French officials' demands for bribes before they would even discuss the problem. Pro-French Republicans, believing that Adams was simply trying to sever ties with Paris, demanded that the whole truth be told. "Let them be gratified," an exasperated Ma­ son urged Otis, "it is not the first time they have wished the means of their destruction." At last the president did release the "XYZ" papers, much to the embarrassment of the Republicans. But he resisted the pressures of Hamilton and the so-called Essex Junto to go to war. Al-

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CLASS OF 1774

though Mason hated Republican France, he approved of what he called the "Fabian prudence" of the president's policy. But on Febru­ ary 18, 1799, Adams stunned friend and foe alike by appointing a new peace mission to Paris led by Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth (A.B. 1766) and including William R. Davie (A.B. 1776). That decision, which Mason called "a gross departure from prin­ ciples . . . and . . . a desertion of party," damaged his relations with his former teacher. In the spring, Mason was an impatient advocate of war with France, and it was in his house in November that the elders of Massachusetts Federalism met with some of the state's con­ gressmen to discuss their options. Although unhappy with Adams's policy, Otis would not stand against the president. His position seems to have swayed Mason as well. The split between the Massachusetts stalwarts on one side and Adams on the other was virtually complete, and the intractable Hamiltonians could neither understand nor for­ give those Federalists who sided with the president. Since 1795 Mason and Otis had been the senior partners of Mount Vernon Proprietors, a real estate development firm whose major en­ terprise was the conversion of Beacon Hill into a fashionable resi­ dential area. For $14,000 they bought 18-14 acres in that section from an agent for the owner, John Singleton Copley, who was in England at the time. Copley had not wanted to sell his property, but Otis's careful legal work rendered the artist's protests nugatory. Mason lived in Brookline until 1802, when his four-story "mansion house" on Mount Vernon Street was finished, complete with a two-story ball­ room for the benefit of his five debutante daughters. He bought and sold property often, and usually at a tidy profit. When United States Senator Benjamin Goodhue resigned in 1800, the General Court elected Mason to serve the remaining three years of the term. As a senator, Mason voted the straight Federalist line, opposing treaties with France and Prussia and redemption of the pub­ lic debt. He fought to retain the Judiciary Act of 1801, arguing that repeal would violate the system of checks and balances. In 1802 and 1803 he supported the petition of William Marbury and Adams's other "midnight appointments" to see the record of the Senate's secret de­ bates on their confirmation. His arguments would be used 170 years later to support laws against secret decision-making by government bodies. At the end of his term in February 1803, Mason pressed for a resolution to require the president to use military force to secure American access to the Mississippi and New Orleans in spite of French and Spanish harassment. In all of these causes, Mason and the Federalists were defeated. Having decided not to run for election in

JONATHAN MASON, JR.

413

1803, Mason participated in the party caucuses, some of them at his own home, that chose John Quincy Adams to succeed him. Although determined to "refuse every office of every kind," Mason could not stand aloof from politics. His letters to his close friend and former colleague in the Senate Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (A.B. 1776) reflect his continued party orthodoxy and despair for the fate of the Federalists. "I am inclined," he told Dayton while lamenting the Louisiana Purchase, "to think, the Devil is a democrat, for he's re­ markably good to these fellows." He missed his friends in Washing­ ton but expressed only satisfaction at being out of the melee, able to encourage Dayton's partisanship from the sidelines. With Otis and others, Mason was one of the sponsors of Boston's South Bridge in 1804. But money was tight and he was land-poor, and the project was slow to mature. He escaped from his troubles late in the year by taking his wife and two of his daughters on an extended trip south during which he visited some of the nation's political lead­ ers in seven states and Washington. On his return to Boston he was elected to the state legislature. He held the seat from 1805 until 1808 and was a leader of the Bay State's efforts to put an end to Jefferson's trade embargo against warring European nations. In May 1812 Mason's old college acquaintance Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) arrived in Boston from his self-imposed exile in Europe, impov­ erished and in search of the means to reestablish his law practice in New York. Taking the greatest care not to embarrass Mason by con­ tacting him openly, Burr asked for several meetings and, eventually, for the loan of $300. The two men had last seen each other in 1807, when Mason attended Burr's trial for treason in Richmond and as­ sured the former vice-President of his "indignation and disgust" for the proceedings and declared himself Burr's true friend. By 1812, how­ ever, that friendship had cooled. Declaring that he was much too busy, Mason declined even to respond personally to Burr's notes. During the Era of Good Feelings, Federalists in Massachusetts tend­ ed to cooperate with the Monroe Administration. In 1817 a coalition of Democrats and some Federalists, anxious above all to have the state reimbursed for militia expenses in the War of 1812, decided that Mason was the man to "get our money" and engineered his election to Congress on November 17. A young contender in that election was Daniel Webster, who was renting one of Mason's houses in Boston at the time and with whom Mason worked occasionally. Mason had Webster's help in drafting a uniform bankruptcy bill, and they agreed on the necessity for submerging old party quarrels in New England. To gain support for the Massachusetts militia claims, Mason stood

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with the south in favor of the Fugitive Slave Law. He took the nar­ rowest possible constitutional line as his argument, for his personal distaste for the institution of slavery was strong. He was by no means a proponent of racial equality, however, and he proclaimed to the House that he supported the law, in part, because he did not want Boston "infested . . . with a great portion of the runaways." He was in the majority on that issue, but was defeated in his support of a bankruptcy law and, with the opposition of Speaker Henry Clay, in his attempts to put through the Massachusetts claims. Still trying to swing the south and west to his state's side, Mason voted with the very narrow majority in 1819 and 1820 against prohib­ iting slavery in Missouri. One of the few northern "compromisers," he was applauded in the south and generally condemned in his own dis­ trict. He was still unable to win approval for the militia claims, and there was a clamor at home for his resignation. Before finally bowing to the pressure and quitting office in May 1820, Mason stubbornly tried once more to get southern and western support by voting for a higher tariff, again against the wishes of his constituents. The tariff passed; the militia claims did not. Mason was never elected to another public office. He continued to practice law in Boston, but by 1828 his health had begun to fail. He died at his home on November 1, 1831 and was buried at Mount Au­ burn Cemetery. His seven children shared his substantial estate. SOURCES: DAB; MHSP

(3 ser.), LXVI, 114-21; (1 ser.), xix, 150-64; (2 ser.), 11, 5-34; Jefferson Papers, i, 336; MS Steward's accounts; MS Clio. Soc. membership list. PUA; Pa. Gazette, 14 Oct 1772; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (com­ mencement); Williams, Academic Honors, 5; L. K. Wroth and H. B. Zobel, eds., Legal Papers of John Adams, 11 (1965), 93η; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 967; J. S. Loring, Hundred Boston Orators (1853), 1 3 9 - 4 1 ; D. H. Fischer, Rev. of Amer. Con­ servatism ( 1 9 6 5 ) , 2 5 2 - 5 3 ("party rage"); N.S.B. Gras, Mass. First National Bank of Boston (1937), 228, 539; Boston Town Rec., xxv, 115; XXII, xxxi, xxxv, passim; xxxvii, 9 2 , 1 1 0 ; XXXVIII, 6 0 ; First Census, Mass., 1 9 2 ; H. R. Pinkney, Christopher Gore (1969), 45, 47; W.E.A. Bernhard, Fisher Ames (1965), 179; PMHB, 61 (1937), 275-78; als JMJr 1 and C. Gore to "Board" of office, 28 Jail 179«; JM,Jr. to G. Simp­ son, 6 Oct 1796; to J. Dayton, 23 Oct 1801; 1 Sep, 22 Nov 1803; 8 May 1804, Gratz Coll., PHi; WMQ (3 ser.), 24 (1964), 221η; S. Ε. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis (1913), l > 43> 77> 86-87, 89-90, 91-92 ("Fabian prudence"), 92-96, 145, 222, 243-44^ 295, 33031; 11, 253; 2d ed. (1969), 76, 87, 89, 112 ("let them be gratified"), 159-60 ("desertion of party") 162-63; J. M. Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention (1969), 90; Amer. Hist. Assoc., Annual Report, 1 (1896), 833; J. C. Miller, Federalist Era (i960), 2616 4 ; A. Chamberlain, Beacon Hill (1925), 88-95; MHS Coll. ( 5 ser.), v, 6 5 ; Publica­ tions Col. Soc. Mass., XXXVII, 1163, 1183, 1187, 1194; Rec. Commission of Boston, Statistics of U.S. District Tax of 1798 (1890), 78, 113, 114, 313, 369, 379; H. C. Lodge, Life and Letters of George Cabot (1877), 299; A/C, x, 778, 780; xi, 31-35. 183, 291; xii, 34-35, 50, 78, 142-46, 255-56; xxxi, 838-40 ("runaways"), 982-88, 1027-28; xxxm, 4 1 9 - 2 1 , 1 2 1 2 - 1 4 ; xxxiv, 1 4 3 4 ; xxxvi, 1 5 8 6 , 2 1 5 5 , 4 5 8 7 ; M. B. Hecht, John Quincy Adams (1972), 144; C. F. Adams, ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (1874), 1, 257; C. M. Wiltse and H. D. Moser, eds., Papers of Daniel Webster (1974), 1, 213-14 & n.,

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423, 463; 11, 286; C. Μ. Fuess, Daniel Webster (1930), 1, 205; Clay Papers, 11, 433η, 471-72, 617-18; S. Livermore, Twilight of Federalism (1962), 91; G. Moore, Mo. Compromise (1953), 106, 203, 216-17; M. L. Davis, ed., Private Journals of Aaron Burr (1858), 11, 397, 399, 412 ("indignation and contempt"), 413-15.

M ANUSCRIPTS; PHi, MHi, DLC

Lewis Morris IV LEWIS MORRIS IV, A.B., A.M. 1802, soldier of the Revolution and country gentleman, was born in 1752, the oldest son of Lewis Morris, third and last lord of the manor of "Morrisania" in Westchester Coun­ ty, New York, and his wife Mary Walton, daughter of a prosperous New York merchant. The enrollment of Morris at the College is in itself a subject of some interest, for the family was Anglican in its re­ ligious affiliation, and his great grandfather Governor Lewis Morris of New Jersey in 1746 had flatly rejected the original petition for the College's charter. Only the governor's death in that same year had cleared the way for its granting. Morris's father had attended Yale with

Lewis Morris IV, A.B. 1774 BY REMBRANDT PEALE

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CLASS OF 1774

the Class of 1746 but had been withdrawn before receiving the degree that he finally was awarded in 1790 through the good offices of a class­ mate, president Ezra Stiles. His father's younger half-brother, Gouverneur Morris, had graduated from Anglican King's College (Columbia) in 1768. A number of considerations, including political ones, could have been involved in the choice of Nassau Hall, but perhaps the emphasis belongs to the prestige of President Witherspoon. Where or by whom Morris was prepared for college has not been found, although he probably had private tutoring. The likeliest date for his admission to the College is the fall of 1772. It is known that he became a member of the Cliosophic Society on November 14, 1772, which was at the beginning of his senior year. At his commencement in the following September he spoke in English on the subject of "Ag­ riculture." After graduation Morris presumably returned to Westchester Coun­ ty, where his father was a leading Whig. Having been instrumental in securing attendance by a delegation from the county at the provincial convention meeting at New York City in April 1775, the father was elected by the convention to the Continental Congress. In Congress he became especially active in its efforts to secure war supplies and was ultimately a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Meanwhile, he had been appointed brigadier general in command of the West­ chester County Militia on June 7, 1776, and on the same day, his son and namesake was commissioned a brigade major of the militia. Al­ ready a younger son Jacob, through the father's influence, had secured appointment as an aide to General Charles Lee, and doubtless the same influence helps explain Lewis's designation with the rank of major as aide-de-camp to General John Sullivan on August 14, 1776. Morris was appointed in time to experience the succession of Ameri­ can defeats that began on Long Island, where he narrowly escaped capture. Sullivan's imprisonment until he was exchanged late in Sep­ tember probably afforded Lewis time for the assistance he gave his mother in her flight from Morrisania. He remained aide to Sullivan until June 1779, was with him at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, where Morris was wounded, and in all probability experienced the successive actions in which Sullivan's forces were engaged at Brandywine and Germantown. In 1778 he went with Sullivan to Rhode Is­ land. On September 9 of that year he was promoted to lieutenant colonel "for bringing forward to Congress the account of the repulse of the British forces on Rhode Island on the 29th of August last" and was complimented for having "behaved with great spirit and good conduct" on that "as well as on several other occasions." He had been

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acquainted with General Nathanael Greene as early as September 1776, when he shared quarters with the general; and on June 12, 1779, he became Greene's aide, a position he would hold to the end of the war. Late in 1780, when Greene went to assume command of the Southern Army as replacement for Horatio Gates, he was accom­ panied on the march by two aides—Morris and Major Ichabod Burnet (A.B. 1775). Fortunately, a number of letters written by Morris to his father have survived, the better part of them concerning his experiences during this last assignment. They reveal a close relationship between the two, one on the son's part of deep affection and respect. They show too a young officer who was thoroughly loyal to his commander and dedi­ cated to the cause of American independence, who was a good reporter of the stirring events through which he moved, and whose reports display an unusual capacity for seeing the war as a whole while com­ menting upon the part of it that was his own. From Richmond on No­ vember 19, he wrote of his polite reception by "your old acquaintances in Congress, the Mr. Lees and Governor Jefferson." But he had found the parts of Maryland and Virginia through which he had passed "hardly worth possessing," the cattle small, "very few fine horses," and "the great people proud and indolent, the lower class poor and wretch­ ed." In contrast, he could write in the following July from High Hills of Santee in South Carolina: "I shall reserve the description of this fine country till we meet, when by the side of a good fire, in a winter's evening, with a mug of Sowarland Cyder, and a pipe of Kite's foot tobacco, we will talk over the subject." On reaching Mecklenburg County of North Carolina in December 1780, he had been favorably impressed by the country, but even more by the way in which it had been denuded of the supplies sorely needed by the army and by the brutality of the internecine warfare among the bitterly divided people of the area. "The Tories, who after the defeat of Genl Gates had a full range," he wrote his father on December 29, "are chased from their homes, hunted thro' the woods, and shot with as much indif­ ference as you would a buck." He probably saw his father again on a trip north that began in August 1781, when he and Burnet left the Carolinas. From Phila­ delphia on September 4, Washington acknowledged the receipt by Colonel Morris of despatches from Greene, and Morris, having thus completed a major part of his mission, left Burnet in the city to com­ plete consultations with the Congress and Robert Morris regarding supplies for the Southern Army. On September 7, from Society Hall, near or at Princeton, where his family had been in residence since

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1777, Colonel Morris addressed an application for his depreciation pay to Governor George Clinton of New York, asking that the certifi­ cates be forwarded to his father and explaining that he must imme­ diately return to South Carolina. From his headquarters at Williams­ burg, Virginia, on September 28, Washington advised Greene that Morris was there and ill. Morris probably left Virginia on October 6 when Washington gave him a memorandum, for the attention of Gen­ eral Greene only, which he was required to burn after committing it to memory. It brought Greene disappointment in his hope for a joint operation against Charleston after the defeat of Cornwallis, but a pros­ pect of reinforcements. While Morris was absent, major combat in the Carolinas had reached its end at Eutaw Springs on September 8. Thereafter, as the British withdrew toward the coast, the Americans took control of the interior of the Carolinas and in time of Georgia. Lewis wrote on De­ cember 10 to his brother Jacob: "We are enjoying our ease and fatten­ ing upon the luxury of the rice plantations. The riches and natural resources of this country surpass my expectations. . . . I envy everything I see, except the poor unhappy blacks who, to the disgrace of human nature, are subject to every species of oppression while we are con­ tending for the rights and liberties of mankind." It seems to have been not long thereafter that Colonel Morris discovered another of the at­ tractions of lower Carolina—Miss Ann Elliott, usually called Nancy, with whom he conducted a correspondence through the latter half of 1782 and to whom he would be married in February 1783. His father apparently heard first of the prospective match from General Greene in a letter of August 26, 1782, reporting that the colonel, who had "a touch of the fever peculiar to this climate," was escort to Mrs. Greene on a visit to Kiawas Island, located a few miles below Charleston. Given the island's many advantages for recreation and the courteous permission and promise of protection from General Alexander Leslie, British commander in Charleston, Greene expected that both his wife and Morris would soon recover their health. To this he added the news that Lewis was "paying court" to Miss Nancy Elliott, a "rather tall but very elegant" lady who was "mistress of a fortune, not in ex­ pectancy but in possession, of at least 25 000 pounds sterling." Not until December 19, in a letter carrying news of the British evacu­ ation of Charleston, did Morris advise his father of plans for the mar­ riage. He explained that he had waited for Nancy's consent and asked his father to assist Jacob in fulfilling a request that he "purchase me a chariot and four bay horses" to be sent down to Carolina. He hoped to introduce her "to you all" in the spring and asked that a particular

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filly be saved "as a riding beast for my Lady," who was "fond of that excercise, and I think will be much pleased to have a horse of your raising." Little more can be added here to the story of Morris's life. When writing on September 30, 1782, at a time he thought the evacuation of Charleston, and perhaps New York, was near, he had asked his father to use his "influence for some office of credit for me. I think I am en­ titled to it. I have served my country six long years faithfully and hon­ orably." But no evidence has been found that at any time after the Revolution he held office in New York, either by appointment or elec­ tion, even though his father was for a time a member of the Council of Appointment, which controlled state patronage. Something of Morris's political leaning seems to be foretold in a letter of November 22, 1781, when, after commenting upon the weakness of the Congress and the need after the war to vest "the sovereignty into some supreme power," he concluded: "As a citizen of America I have my apprehen­ sions, and therefore I am the more anxious to see the rights and sover­ eignty of these United States properly defined and established upon the broad basis of national policy." He probably became a Federalist, as were other members of the family, but he does not seem to have been politically active, in New York at any rate. Perhaps the explanation is that through marriage he had acquired important interests in the south, where certainly for much of the time he was in residence and possibly on an alternating basis between New York and South Carolina. The Minutes of the trustees for September 29, 1802, in recording the award of his A.M. degree describe him as "Colo Lewis Morris of S. Carolina." On July 18, 1801, he had written from Charleston to his brother James (A.B. 1784) to thank him for having placed his two sons at Trenton in preparation for college with "my old acquaintance and friend" James Armstrong (A.B. 1773). He reported that he would move with his family to Sullivan's Island "the next month for the re­ mainder of the season" and that his house was finished. His sons Lewis (Class of 1805) and William Elliot Morris (A.B. 1805) were admitted to the College in the following November. Lewis managed to stay in school only through the Christmas holiday, after which he was suspended for intoxication and other infractions of the College laws. He was prob­ ably the Lewis Morris, described as being of Charleston, who was married in 1807 in New York to Elizabeth Manigault, also described as of Charleston. Both Colonel Lewis and his wife Ann Elliott died at Morrisania, on November 22, 1824, an d April 29, 1848, respectively, she being then 86 years old. The place and dates of death were record-

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ed by their daughters on a memorial plaque placed upon the outside wall of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, which also records the death of Captain W. Morris at Sullivan's Island on September 7, 1828, at the age of 40 years. How many daughters or other children there were has not been determined. According to the census of 1790 Lewis Morris held in the Charleston District of South Carolina 18 slaves, one more than his father held at Morrisania in New York. The census of 1800 shows Lewis Morris of the Town of Morrisania possessed of 11 slaves. SOURCES: Except for a copy of als LM, IV to J. Morris, 18 Jul 1801, Gen. MSS, NjP ("my old acquaintance and friend"), all quotations are from NYHS Coll., vm, 430512, in which "Letters to Gen. Lewis Morris" are arranged by the dates cited in the text above. J. R. Strassburger, "Origins and Establishment of the Morris Family, . . ." unpub. Ph.D. dissert., Princeton Univ. (1976); R. Bolton, Hist, of the Cnty. of West­ chester, π (1905), 451 FE; Dexter, Yale Biographies, n, 82-85; DAB·, Ms Clio Soc. membership list; Ms Steward's account, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 ("commencement"); Heitman; NYHS Coll., IV, 244; J. R. Alden, Gen. Charles Lee (1951), passim; W. S. Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton (1887), 292η; C. P. Whittemore, J o h n Sullivan (1961), 39, 58-59, 72; T . Thayer, Nathanael Greene (i960), passim; F. Moore, Diary of Amer. Rev. (1967), 522; E. J. Ferguson, Papers of Robert Morris, 11, 267; Clinton Papers, vn, 309-10; Washington Writings, xxiii, 151, 193-95; SCHGM, 40 (1939), 122-36, 41 (1940), 1-14; 2 (1901), 127η.; i8 (!9 1 ?)' 37; 23 (1924). 99; 25 (1926), 39; 31 (1930), 163-64; 42 (1941), 178; c · Jervey, Inscriptions . . . in St. Michael's Chh. and Churchyard (1906), 189; N.Y. Red Book (1895); Mil. Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y., passim; Faculty Minutes, 11 Nov, 31 Dec 1801; 1 Jan, 27 Jan 1802; 12 Apr 1803; 5 Sep 1805, PUA; NYGBR, 49 (1918), 36. Writing to his father on 24 Sep 1777, Morris said "I suppose by this Time you are settled at Princeton"; but on 6 Jul 1780, he addressed a letter to his father at "Rocky Hill near Princeton." Tohn Rutherford (A.B. 1776) married the sister of LM, IV in 1782. WFC

John Peck JOHN PECK, A.B., A.M. 1780, tutor and planter, was born about 1754, in Deerfield, Cumberland County, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Peck and his wife Elizabeth Moore Peck. In 1748 Joseph had sat as a mem­ ber of the first court held for the newly created county and was possi­ bly related to Joseph Peck (A.B. 1756), for a historian of the area has described Deerfield as originally settled in large part by migrants from Connecticut and Long Island. John was prepared for college by Enoch Green (A.B. 1760), Presbyterian minister at Deerfield who con­ ducted a school from which other young men moved on to Nassau Hall. Among its graduates was Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772), who lived with the Peck family while attending the school. Peck probably entered the College in the fall of 1772 as a member of the junior class, as had Fithian two years earlier. He became a member of the Whig Society,

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as had Fithian and as did the younger brother of Mrs. Enoch Green, Charles Clinton Beatty (A.B. 1775), with whom Peck roomed in his senior year. There is no record of prizes won or honors taken by Peck, but he did win the endorsement of President Witherspoon for the succession to Fithian as tutor in the family of Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, West­ moreland County, Virginia. It was an endorsement not lightly given, for Carter was one of the wealthier and more influential of Virginia planters, and Witherspoon had been cultivating the patronage, for the College, of leading Virginians through several years past. Fithian had become tutor for the Carter children in the fall of 1773. It was a rewarding experience for him, as the invaluable journal he kept re­ peatedly testifies, but he was a candidate for the Presbyterian ministry and very much in love with Elizabeth Beatty, sister of Mrs. Green and of Peck's roommate Charles. On a visit to New Jersey in the spring of 1774, Fithian won Peck's agreement to succeed him, and Witherspoon's promise of endorsement, but such were the delays in the mails at that time that Fithian knew many anxious days before all was fi­ nally settled. Colonel Carter had indicated that he might seek a tutor from England unless a suitable one was to be had from Princeton. Fithian's journal shows that he had a respect and affection for Colonel and Mrs. Carter that would have made it difficult for him not to ex­ tend his own stay in Virginia had the plan failed to materialize. It was with great satisfaction, therefore, that he greeted Peck upon his arrival at Nomini Hall on October 15. He tarried for less than five days, on one of which he ran through the schoolroom exercises for Peck's bene­ fit, and then took the road for New Jersey. Peck no doubt soon found himself comfortably settled at Nomini Hall, with a room of his own and a servant to attend to his personal needs, including the lighting of a fire before he arose in the morning. He ate with the family at the great table. In "the family where you act as tutor you place yourself," Fithian had instructed him in a long letter of advice, "at a perfect equidistance between the father 8c the eldest Son." His authority in the classroom was so full that he might even determine the holidays his students could enjoy from their stud­ ies. If paid at the rate Fithian was, he could expect £40 sterling for a year of tutoring, which was almost totally clear gain, for there was no deduction for room and board. His students included Ben, the oldest son, who reached the age of 18 that fall; Bob, an indifferent student of 15; Priscilla at 14; Anne Tasker, Peck's future wife, who then was 12; Frances, a io-year-old; and one or two others of lesser ages. There is good reason for believing that Peck continued at Nomini Hall as

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tutor for at least a second year. A letter from Fithian to Colonel Carter in October 1775 reports on a recent visit of Ben to "these northern Provinces" that included the Princeton commencement and "some time in Philadelphia." But for a report of the political news, "here at so high a pass, and so complex," the Colonel was referred to Ben and Mr. Peck. Little dependable evidence has been discovered regarding Peck's later career. It has been assumed that he was the John Peck who was appointed paymaster of the Second Battalion or Regiment of the New Jersey Continental Line late in 1776, and who later resigned as pay­ master, became a lieutenant, and was a brevet captain in 1783. This, of course, is possible, but there is some reason for believing that he may have continued in Virginia after the fall of 1776, and authoritative compilations of military records offer no evidence that he saw service as a resident of that state. It can only be said with assurance that at some time after the war, possibly as early as 1782 but probably about 1784, he was married to Anne Tasker Carter. The couple subsequently settled in Richmond County, Virginia, no doubt on land and with slaves provided as dowry for his wife. Not even the date of his death has been established, but his widow remarried in 1796, two years before her own death. SOURCES: Fithian Journal, 1 and 11, passim; H. D. Farish, ed., Journal and Letters of . . . Fithian (1957), 159-68 ("father Sc eldest son"), 217 ("these northern Provinces"), and passim; alumni file, PUA: T . Cushing and C. E. Sheppard, Hist, of Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland (1883), 526, 530; Γ. D. Andrews, Sketch of Enoch Green (1933), 17; VHM, 12 (1927), 178; 15 (1930), 263; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; NJHSP, 80 (1962), 226; 81 (1963), 24; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1 774 (commencement); L. Morton, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall (1941), 220, 228, 75η, 97, 102η, 11 in, 285; U. B. Phillips, Doc. Hist, of Amer. Industrial Soc., 11 (1911), 44; Heitman; Stryker, Off. Reg., 31, 51, 52, 92, 404; VMHB, 6 (1898), 89. WFC

William Peterson WILLIAM PETERSON is listed in a surviving account of the College's steward as having an "outstanding" bill of £2 11s 8d under the date of September 29, 1771· That date fell at the end of the academic year 1770-1771, so he may have been enrolled as early as November of 1770. No other evidence of his attendance at the College has been found. Nor has it been possible to provide for him a positive identification. The family name was rather common in New Jersey, and it was found elsewhere as well. Possibly he was the son of Aaron Peterson, "gent." of the Maurice River Precinct of Cumberland County, whose will

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was drawn on July 14, 1759, and proved on the following August 25. The will gives his wife's name as Christianna Moslander, and identifies four sons, all under age and one of them named William. The later student may have been the William Peterson who in 1777 and after­ wards was witness or executor for a number of wills made by residents of Maurice River Township, who was a lieutenant in the Cumberland County Militia in 1780 and captain by election in 1793, who served as freeholder 1791-1793, as justice of the peace in 1809, 1814, and 1819, and as judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1818. He also could have been the William Peterson of Cumberland County who on May 18, 1782, was licensed to marry Elizabeth McGlaughlin. William Petersons have been found in the counties of Salem and Bergen of New Jersey; of Bedford, Cumberland, and Westmoreland in Pennsylvania; and of Brunswick in Virginia. But the available evi­ dence, all of it circumstantial, points toward no one more likely to have been the student at Princeton than the William Peterson of Maurice River, Cumberland County, New Jersey. SOURCES: T. Cushing and C. E. Sheppard, Hist, of Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland (1883), 50, 553, 534, 718; J.S. Norton, N.J. in 1793), 77, 94; N.J. Wills, in, 251; v, 330, 479; vi, 226; viii, 89; xi, 92, 185, 369; Stryker, Off. Reg., 430. Among the William Petersons inviting attention is the Tory surgeon of the New Jersey Volunteers, but as early as 1773 he seems to have been occupying a nine room house near Elizabethtown. See NJA (1 ser.), xxvin, 425; W. S. Stryker, New Jersey Volunteers (1887), 41; E. A. Jones, Loyalists of N.J. (1927), 299. WFC

John Lott Phillips JOHN LOTT PHILLIPS, A.B., clergyman of the Church of England, was

born in 1747 and entered the freshman class of the College in the autumn of 1770. His birthplace and parentage are obscure, but he was almost certainly a relative, if not the son, of William and Mary Lot Phillips of Maidenhead, New Jersey. On September 25, 1770, Phillips joined the Cliosophic Society, in which he was called "Socrates," after the Greek philosopher. He par­ ticipated in the "Paper War" with the Whig Society in 1771, and thus was the butt of satires written by Whigs Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Philip Freneau (both A.B. 1771). Those doggerel attacks empha­ sized Phillips's annoying habit of constant gesticulation whenever he spoke in public—"danc[ing] with wanton capers on the . . . stage," Brackenridge called it. Indeed, Phillips must have had a fairly regular nervous twitch, for Freneau said that "when he walks you'd swear he

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danced." Like his classmate John Warford, Phillips was also taunted for his dexterity with the tools of a tailor. Warford actually made clothes for his fellow students, and Phillips may have been his assistant. At his commencement exercises Phillips took the negative side in a debate on "Whether a state which derives all the necessaries and con­ veniences of life from its own territories, is preferable to a state which, by means of foreign commerce, is supplied with all the elegances of different climates." After graduation Phillips went to Wake County, North Carolina to live on the 573 acres he had received as a gift from his relative in Princeton, Mrs. Phebe Warner. His intention was to go to England for ordination in the Anglican Church and then to return to Wake County as vicar of St. Margaret's Parish there. He must have begun his study of theology in North Carolina, but when his Loyalist sympathies were discovered, he had to abandon his property and flee to the coast late in 1 775- There he obtained permission to go to Charleston, South Caro­ lina to take ship for England. The Provincial Council of North Carolina asked the defenders of Charleston to be sure he left the country, but on January 2, 1776, Henry Laurens advised the council that no one in Charleston had ever heard of Phillips. Had he come, Laurens assured the North Carolinians, "we should have cheerfully rendered the services which you desired." Instead, Phillips went to Savannah, Georgia, where he expected to have an easier time finding a ship. There he was arrested as a Loyalist and put in jail for three months. He was finally released and deported, arriving in England in May 1776. As a penniless aspirant to the priest­ hood, he received a grant of £50 from the fund for destitute American clergy. On June 2, 1776, he was ordained a deacon in the Church of England at Fulham Palace, and his affiliation with St. Margaret's Parish in North Carolina was made official. Sometime afterward, he was ordained as a priest. In December 1782 the British War Office ordered that the so-called British Legion, a "provincial" or Loyalist corps that had fought in America under the command of Banastre Tarleton, be included in the official military establishment. Phillips was named its chaplain. One year later, he was appointed curate of the parish of East Ham, part of the jurisdiction of the bishop of London, who was also in charge of the church in America. Between 1776 and 1827 the vicar of East Ham did not reside in the parish and rarely even visited its church of St. Mary Magdalene. As curate, therefore, Phillips bore most of the clerical responsibility.

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Phillips was married in England. Between 1789 and 1801 he received an annual pension of £60. He asked for £440 in compensation for his losses in America, but the claim was disallowed for want of adequate substantiation. Phillips died at East Ham on January 20, 1802. The College's triennial Catalogues did not even acknowledge him as an alumnus until 1818, and even then he was not identified as a clergyman. SOURCES: NJHS Coll., x, 172-73; Α. V. Phillips, Lott Family in Amer. (1942), 24-25, 61; Ms "Satires against the Tories," PHi ("wanton capers"); N.Y. Gazette if Weekly Mercury, 24 Oct 1774 (commencement); St. Rec. N.C., xi, 268 ("services which you desired"); AASP, 83 (1973), 145; R. D. Bass, Green Dragoon (1957), 206; W. R. Powell, Hist, of Cnty. of Essex (1973), 26; Gentleman's Magazine 72 (1802), 584.

William Stephens Smith WILLIAM STEPHENS SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1784, soldier, public official, entrepreneur, and farmer, was born in New York City on November 8, 1755. His father, John Smith, was a merchant who owned homes in the city and at Throg's Neck in Westchester County. His mother, Margaret Stephens Smith, was a member of an equally affluent family, many members of which remained loyal to Britain during the Revolu­ tion. Both sides of Smith's family were of Presbyterian stock. Smith enrolled in the College sometime before December 30, 1772, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, in which he was known as "Marlborough," after the heroic English general. At his commence­ ment he delivered an "English oration on courage." He then went back to New York to study law with Samuel Jones, but the outbreak of the Revolution ended his aspirations to the bar forever. He joined the Continental Army, fought in the battle of Long Island, and on August 15, 1776, as a major, was appointed aide-de-camp to General John Sullivan. Two weeks later, he was one of the last officers to retreat across the East River. Wounded at the battle of Harlem Heights, Smith went to Throg's Neck to recuperate. There he organized a party to impede the enemy's advance toward White Plains and then escaped to Connecticut. Hero­ ism at the battle of Trenton earned him a lieutenant colonelcy in Colonel William R. Lee's Additional Continental Regiment, organized on January 1, 1777. After serving in New York during most of that year, he was given command of a detachment made up primarily of British deserters, and on January 24, 1778, he assumed command of Lee's regiment, under orders to report to Valley Forge. Although most of his own detachment had fled to rejoin the British army, Smith led

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William Stephens Smith, A.B. 1774 BY GILBERT STUART

the rest of the regiment at the battle of Monmouth in June and in the abortive attempt to relieve Newport, Rhode Island later in the year. In April 1779 Smith joined Colonel Oliver Spencer's Additional Regiment, which he met at Wyoming, Pennsylvania in May, when it was part of Sullivan's expedition against the Six Nations. Spencer's regiment was reduced by Congress when the expedition ended, but through Sullivan's diligent efforts, Smith was retained in service. He was attached to army headquarters in New Jersey throughout 1780 and participated in the fighting at Springfield. When the regiment was fi­ nally dissolved in November, Smith hoped to be assigned to the com­ mand of his friend Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb. But that proved impossible because of seniority, and Washington appointed Smith to the Inspector General's Department under Baron von Steuben, on the staff of the Marquis de Lafayette. Smith worked closely with Lafayette, who proposed him as a

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possible candidate for Adjutant General. But his assignment was temporary, and when no permanent position had emerged by Christ­ mas, Washington expressed some concern about the fate of one of the "best Battalion officers in the whole line." Smith had the command of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment for a few weeks in January 1781, until his appointment was challenged by senior officers. In February he was again inspecting supplies at Peekskill. After taking leave in Philadelphia in April and May he returned to Lafayette's staff. Finally, on July 6, 1781, at Dobb's Ferry, New York, Washington honored Smith by making him one of his own aides-de-camp. Having escorted Baron Rochambeau from Princeton to Trenton in August, Smith accompanied the army south in the Yorktown cam­ paign. Back in New York in June 1782, he and a fellow officer obtained Washington's permission to join the French and Spanish forces that were about to attack Jamaica in the West Indies. But they did not pursue their plan, and to Washington's surprise, Smith applied for another line assignment in September. Because none was available, the general named him commissary general of prisoners. As the war ended, that position carried especially important re­ sponsibilities, but Washington had even more in mind. On November 19 he appointed Smith commander of the post at Dobb's Ferry, the only site of regular and official communication between the Americans and the British. The young commissary was not only thus in charge of maintaining those communications but he was also secretly Wash­ ington's source of intelligence on the movements of enemy troops. He made plans to capture British encampments on the north end of Man­ hattan should the peace negotiations then in progress not succeed. In February 1783 Smith began to arrange for the exchange of prisoners of war. Gradually, his responsibilities were extended to in­ clude arrangements for the evacuation of New York City. His surrepti­ tious efforts to raise money for provisioning Continental troops almost cost him his safe conduct within enemy lines, but official news of peace ended that threat. On May 8, 1783, Washington appointed Smith one of the three American commissioners to supervise the British with­ drawal from New York, charged especially with preventing the re­ moval of American property, particularly slaves. Convinced that the forced emigration of Loyalists would both cripple the city's economy and create hostile camps on America's frontiers, Smith distributed so many passports to Tories that Washing­ ton had to admonish him against giving any more. Otherwise, however, his performance won the general's high praise, inspired partly by Smith's ability to obtain from New York such items for Washington

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as books, wig powder, and a well-known (French dentist. When the commander in chief resigned his commission at Annapolis on Decem­ ber 6, he made special mention to Congress of a few favorite officers who he thought should be retained in the peace-time army. Smith's name was prominent on that list. A founder of the state's Society of the Cincinnati in New York in 1783, Smith was an active member for many years, serving as secretary, vice-president, and president. He did not, however, secure the military post he had hoped for, and in January 1785 he was forced to petition Congress for an appointment of some sort. In March Congress offered him two positions—the first, as a commissioner to help govern settle­ ments in Illinois; the second, and the one he accepted, as secretary to the American legation in London. Smith arrived in England on May 15, a few weeks before the Ameri­ can minister, John Adams. The Adams family liked him at once, especially the minister's daughter Abigail, whom he squired about the city. Because he had few official responsibilities, Smith found time to enjoy metropolitan life, which he found a "Gay theatre." He adopted Dr. Richard Price, the leading liberal clergyman of his day, as his "Father Confessor." On July 4, 1785, Smith visited Francisco de Miranda, the South American revolutionary whom he had met in New York and who then lived in London. The two became close friends and in August went together on a tour of the continent. In Prussia they observed military maneuvers, and Smith so impressed Frederick the Great that the king had his court painter include the American in a group portrait. From Germany, Smith and Miranda went to Vienna, where they parted company on October 26. The Adams family, apprehensive at Smith's long absence, were glad to hear from Thomas Jefferson that their friend had passed through Paris in November. The American minister in France had also been charmed by the young gallant and they, too, became close friends. Smith corresponded with both Jefferson and John Jay, secretary of foreign affairs, whom he urged to press Spain for commercial concessions in Latin America and for free navigation of the Mississippi by settlers in the western United States, and to whom he commended Miranda's plans. In February 1786 Adams sent Smith to fetch Jefferson to London to participate in Anglo-American com­ mercial negotiations. In England, Jefferson spent much of his time with Smith, taking at least one excursion on the town to drink and compose a doggerel ode to Dolly's Chop House. Throughout the spring of 1786 Smith maintained his contacts with Jefferson and Jay, never losing an opportunity to support Miranda's

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dreams or to report his friend's dramatic adventures. He did empha­ size, however, that he hoped that the United States would not have to go to war to liberate South America. The letters revealed his un­ flagging enthusiasm for the expansion of the United States and for the creation of a stronger central government there. On June 12, 1786, Smith married young Abigail Adams in a cere­ mony performed by Jonathan Shipley, bishop of St. Asaph. Smith's sister Sarah later married Adams's son Charles. The alliance with Adams taxed Smith's political allegiances greatly, for while his family connections bound him to what became the philosophy of Federalism, his personal inclinations were often quite different. Combined with a mercurial disposition and a tendency to adopt principles on the basis of personal attachments, it exposed him to choices between conflicting loyalties and thus led him to a public record of remarkable inconsis­ tency. As a result he was regularly attacked for his connection with a faction or program with which he may, in fact, have had so little to do that he could rely on no allies to defend him. The first manifestation of that problem came in London, when Adams's Defense of the Ameri­ can Constitutions first appeared as a series of letters addressed to Smith. When Adams was later criticized by political enemies for having authored what they called a monarchist tract, Smith could not escape a share of the calumny. Angry that British booksellers would not sell the unexpurgated version of David Ramsay's (A.B. 1765) history of the Revolution, Smith and Jefferson arranged for its sale in Paris. Indeed, Smith was developing a very low opinion of Britain's attitude toward America in all respects. By August 1786 he had concluded that London would actually go to war again to change the Treaty of Paris. That assump­ tion persuaded him all the more fully of the necessity for a strong central government at home. Yet at the end of January 1787, when Adams decided to abandon his mission and suggested that his new son-in-law be named charge d'affaires in his absence, Smith solicited Jefferson's support for the appointment. Jefferson wrote to James Madison (A.B. 1771) in February that while Smith was not brilliant, he had an able mind, had learned to control a hot temper (Jefferson himself had taught him the trick of counting ten before getting angry), and was as honest as their associate James Monroe. "Turn his soul wrongside outwards," wrote Jefferson, "and there is not a speck on it." Smith's many contacts among influential Britons certainly made him a prime candidate for the post. Congress expressed its confidence in Smith by sending him to Lisbon in May officially to thank the Queen of Portugal for her navy's pro-

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tection of American vessels off Tripoli but also to advance negotiations toward a trade agreement. Traveling through France, Smith sensed the rumbles of revolution and hastily warned Miranda to stay clear of that country. In Madrid he was disgusted by the poverty he saw and troubled by the many "reverend rogues in robes." He managed his mission to Lisbon well, even obtaining an extraordinary audience with the queen. His advice to Congress was to send a resident minister to Portugal at once to cement relations. A sudden deterioration in the friendship between Smith and Jeffer­ son in August due to a misunderstanding was put right by September, and Jefferson was once more able to close his letters with a fond "Adieu mon ami!" The two men shared serious doubts about the Constitution then under consideration at home. Smith was alarmed at what seemed to be the strength of the proposed executive branch, and Jefferson concluded that the document was merely a case of overreaction to Shays's Rebellion, in which he saw much good. In a letter of November 13, !787 to Smith, Jefferson penned some of his most often quoted sentiments: What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? . . .The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's [sic\ natural manure. In spite of the efforts of Adams and Jefferson, Congress did not authorize Smith to remain in London. The result greatly upset Adams, but Jefferson was calm. "You are going to be happy," he assured Smith, "whether you have something to do or nothing. . . . Your sun of joy is climbing toward it's [«'c] zenith, whilst mine is descending from it." Smith's time in Europe had gained him at least one possible avenue for future employment. Speculators in New York, led by William Duer and eager to exploit European interest in American land and fur trade, meant to persuade Smith to use his influence in their behalf. Their approach began as soon as Smith, his wife and son, and the Adamses landed in America in March 1788. Once he was settled on a fifty-acre

farm in Jamaica, New York,

Smith's mother-in-law solicitously urged him to complete his legal training and avoid the tribulations of public life. But he was too smitten with politics to leave it. John Armstrong, Jr. (Class of 1776), a member of the last Confederation Congress, found Smith a "cox­ comb" who fancied himself a "very profound politician, and indeed so much so that he is often quite unintelligible." But Armstrong's respect for Smith's "honor and principles" was unimpaired. For several months Smith expostulated on the contempt in which the British held

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the United States. Among his listeners was Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who thought that Smith would make a fine secretary to the new Senate. Another was Washington, who had welcomed Smith home from England with unusually friendly notes and to whom Smith applied for a federal appointment on May 12, 1789, having recently helped to arrange the president's inaugural ball. The Smiths also dined with the Washingtons in New York more often than the presi­ dent's "official" dinner guests. On September 26, 1789, Smith became United States marshal for the New York district. But on December 1, 1790, without any warning to his family, he asked Washington for a leave of absence to attend to urgent private affairs in England. His shocked mother-in-law con­ cluded that if Smith had been given a position commensurate with his abilities, such emergency voyages would be unnecessary. As far as the Adamses knew, Smith's business involved the collection of some family debts and the sale of land and bankstocks for wealthy New York merchants such as Alexander Macomb and Richard Platt (A.B. 1773), members of Duer's circle. Indeed, Platt understood that Smith had resigned as marshal to make the trip. And Smith did con­ duct important commercial business in London, selling millions of acres of land in New York and many thousands of dollars in stock to such influential Englishmen as William Johnstone Pulteney. Because of New York's law prohibiting aliens from actually holding title to land, Smith would serve as Pulteney's agent, taking the land in his own name for the foreign buyer. It was a complicated arrangement that later caused serious problems for Smith, whom the Englishmen never quite trusted to have used their money as they intended. Smith also represented Duer's circle in talks with Thomas Marshall, one of the chief engineers of Richard Arkwright's spinning machine, whom he persuaded to evade English emigration laws to go to America. Smith's business in London went beyond land and stocks, however. On sailing he told Henry Knox that he had noticed a "wavering in the front line" and was off to "secure a conquest." And he expected Washington to applaud his achievement when he returned, for he had gone to England as the agent of Alexander Hamilton's political coterie with the purpose of preventing the collapse of Anglo-American relations. After months of being ignored by His Majesty's Government, Smith finally had an interview on April 9, 1791 with George Grenville, who was about to become Foreign Secretary. He then departed for home with a fifteen-page report to Washington in which he claimed that the British had sought him out in spite of his purely private capacity, to

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express their goodwill and to promise a prompt improvement in re­ lations with the American government. His report, submitted on June 6, thus misrepresented the situation, for it had been Smith who was the supplicant, and all of Grenville's alleged promises were, in fact, Smith's own words. He had done little more than present the case of the pro-British and anti-French faction in the United States. The Hamiltonians celebrated Smith's mission as a major breakthrough and touted him as the best candidate for America's minister to London. But Smith's old friend Jefferson saw through the charade; and Jefferson had the president's ear. Washington's response to Smith, written by the secretary of state, was cold and unenthusiastic; and Smith, who believed that he had done his country a great service, was furious. Only Hamilton's advice kept him from insulting the president openly. From then on, he bore a deep personal animus toward Thomas Jefferson. While he was in London, Smith found some comfort in his appoint­ ment to the post of Supervisor of the Revenue for the New York district. With a salary of $8oo plus a commission, it was a job that even the Adamses thought adequate. But Smith was not satisfied that his achievement in England had been properly rewarded. Early in 1792 he made what Abigail Adams called a "very advantageous contract" and, with his family, went back to England. The one possible induce­ ment for him to remain at home, the president's suggestion that he be commissioned a general officer in the army, never came to fruition. Smith set sail with a reputation for "unimpeachable integrity" and as a known friend of Britain and an avowed enemy of Jefferson. Bitterly, he undertook a "money making pursuit" that was "never suited" to his "genius" or his "ambition," and for that he blamed "the machinations of a minister of foreign affairs, bit by a french Demo­ crat." It was not long, however, until he felt the same bite. He sold some more land in England before June 1792, when he learned of Duer's financial collapse and moved hastily to disassociate himself from the New York speculators. He went to France to find that country on the threshold of civil war, but his fighting spirit was roused by the revolution there, and he soon became one of France's most enthusiastic American supporters as well as its chief financial agent. Significantly, it was Smith to whom Henry Lee (A.B. 1773) wrote of his desire to join the army of the revolution. In November 1792 Smith received the French government's im­ primatur to buy supplies in the United States as a means of liquidating the American debt to France. He carried the idea home at once and amazed Jefferson by being one of New York's "warmest Jacobin (s)." The administration preferred to deal with the debt in a more con-

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ventional way but that did not prevent Smith from buying provisions for France. Nor did it keep him from supporting Edmund Genet, the controversial French minister, in 1793. Smith and his family lived an opulent life on Cortlandt Street in New York City, supported by his continued land speculation. A Fed­ eralist by family and reputation, Smith nevertheless had a hand in the creation of the New York City Democratic Society in February 1794. On a visit to Philadelphia that summer, he asked Washington to take him back into the government now that Jefferson had resigned. He was, he told the president, "untainted with party zeal," but "rather attached to measures than under the influence of individuals." In that he was being no less than honest, for he remained well-connected with Federalists and Republicans alike. On July 7, 1794, he entertained at his home both his brother-in-law John Quincy Adams and Talley­ rand, then in exile from Jacobin France. Prosperous Federalists hoped that he would succeed his friend Knox as secretary of war late in the year. And he could count prominent Britons among his "particular" friends. No appointment from Washington was forthcoming, however. By the end of 1794 Smith was deeply worried about his financial prospects, although he continued to buy land well into 1795. In March he pur­ chased twenty-three acres on the East River for a city estate; that August he obtained the site of Washington Square and gave it to the city. But the complications arising from his agency for Pulteney in­ tensified, and by the end of 1795 Smith's prosperity was in serious jeopardy. He had to abandon his East River plantation, which he called Mount Vernon, and in 1796 he moved back to Throg's Neck in Eastchester, New York. He still found time, however, to work vigorously against Jay's Treaty, for which his interview with Grenville had helped set the stage. In July 1795 he served as chairman of New York City's rally protesting the pact. Smith's high living had long bothered his parents-in-law, and when the bubble burst, the new president and his wife were unsparing in their criticism of his "speculation and extravagance." In April 1797, leaving his wife and children to her family's care, Smith fled to his lands in Chenango County, New York. There he stayed, almost in­ communicado, for eight months before returning to try to settle with his creditors early in 1798. During the Quasi-War with France, secretary of war James McHenry included Smith's name on a list of possible army officers, suggesting that he might be adjutant general. Washington, as prospective com­ mander, agreed that Smith should be appointed but thought him

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better suited to the line. Some high position seemed certain until secretary of state Timothy Pickering intervened. As a close associate of Hamilton, Pickering opposed Smith both because of his former advocacy of France and because of his relationship to Adams. The secretary of state characteristically spread rumors against Smith's con­ duct and character and personally lobbied senators to vote against Smith's commission. On July 20, 1798, all of the nominees approved by Washington except Smith were confirmed by the Senate. It was a crushing personal blow to Smith, and a crushing political blow to Adams. To his great embarrassment, the president could offer his son-in-law no more than a lieutenant colonelcy and command of a regiment; and even that required months of explanation of Smith's behavior before it was approved in December. Although "much insulted," Smith took what he could get. Through two years of faithful and efficient service, Smith won back the affection of his wife's parents. Eventually, he took command of the Union Brigade, combining two other regiments with his own, but he was constantly resentful of his low rank and station. Financial scandal also continued to plague him. By March 1800 he faced a suit for $194,000 brought by the man whose complaint had been the basis for Pickering's charges. Hamilton himself had to intervene to quash the litigation, advising the plaintiff that it would be better for Smith to remain "fat and jolly to present a good front to his country's enemies, than to be sent to pine and grow meagre in a nasty jail." Upon demobilization in June 1800, Smith again had to look for some employment. Almost helplessly, Adams asked Hamilton whether a good man should be denied a position "merely because he married my daughter." On June 24, 1800, the president named Smith Surveyor of the Customs at the Port of New York, a lucrative and prestigious office. Smith continued a political maverick, however. By 1802 he was closely identified with the partisans of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) and in July was the second for Burr's friend John Swartout in a duel with DeWitt Clinton. Smith's published account of the fight, while literally correct, left the impression that Clinton had fled from the encounter in terror. Actually, Clinton had left only after the twice-wounded Swartout was declared unable to continue. Smith also offered Burr some financial help for an expedition against Spanish colonies in the west, and in November 1805, while the Jefferson administration pursued a bellicose policy toward Spain to force the sale of West Florida to the United States, Smith found him-

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self involved in another, similar scheme. The principal this time was his old friend Miranda, who with Smith's help had organized a small army and sailed for South America in January 1806. As surveyor of the port, Smith personally cleared the Leander, with Miranda aboard, for departure. One member of the expedition was Smith's son William Steuben, who had abandoned his studies at Columbia to become Miranda's aide-de-camp. According to Miranda, the filibuster had the tacit blessing of the Jefferson administration. But as soon as the Leander sailed, Smith was dismissed from his post and indicted for violating the laws against such conspiracies. In his trial, which lasted from April until July 1806, Smith insisted that the testimony of several high government officers would corroborate his claim of government approval. Subpoenas were issued to the vice-president, two senators, the president's son-in-law, and five cabinet members. Smith declared that the testimony of Secre­ tary of State Madison would hold the key to his defense. Jefferson ordered his subordinates to ignore the subpoenas and their offer to swear affidavits was rejected by the defense. That may, indeed, have been Smith's plan, for Jefferson's answer seemed to confirm Smith's charges. A jury comprised almost entirely of Federalists, thanks to the careful selections of United States Marshal John Swartout, ac­ quitted the defendants on all counts. But the truth of the case may never be known. John Adams could not blame Jefferson for firing Smith, but he did wonder why, "if our government knew or suspected the design, . . . she did not prevent it." The former president blamed Miranda and Burr. So did Jefferson, who was not troubled that Smith, "a man of honors and integrity led astray by distress," had been acquitted. The few hundred adventurers themselves were quickly caught and jailed by the Spanish, to whom the plot was well known. Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776), one of Burr's partners in their own scheme against Spain's dominions, had reported the competing enterprise to Madrid's minister in Washington. Although free, Smith was a ruined man without position or fortune. He took his family into exile on his farm in Lebanon Township, Chenango County, in 1807. But within three years his wife had de­ veloped breast cancer and was sent for treatment to her parents' home in Massachusetts. Adams chided Jefferson for Smith's ill fortune, and when war with England threatened again Benjamin Rush urged Jeffer­ son to help his former companion get a field commission. It was all in vain. Rush thought that Smith's recently more open "contempt" for

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Washington's military ability might be the cause, but Adams was less theoretical. "He is," Adams told Rush, "my Son-in-Law and that is a sentence of eternal damnation against him." His neighbors in Chenango urged their senator to secure a position for Smith, and when that failed they elected Smith to Congress at the end of 1812. In the House of Representatives, he served on the com­ mittee on the defense of the frontier and brought his military expert­ ise to bear in favor of a plan to construct "floating batteries" and against the formation of an additional rifle corps. Smith was reelected in 1814 but faced a challenge to his narrow vic­ tory in the House, where the committee on elections, led by his old nemesis Timothy Pickering, ousted him. He returned to Lebanon with­ out his wife, who had died in Quincy, Massachusetts on August 14, 1813, leaving him with two sons and a daughter. On May 17, 1815, he asked President Madison to appoint his son William secretary to the American legation in London, but like so many others, that appeal was unsuccessful. Smith died on his farm on June 10, 1816 and was buried in a small cemetery in nearby Shelburne. It is a measure of the precipitous collapse of his reputation that his grave remained un­ marked until 1888. SOURCES: D A B ; B D A C ; Κ. M. Roof, C o l . W i l l i a m S m i t h a n d L a d y (1929), 95 ("Father Confessor"), 101 ("Gay theatre"), 173 ("reverend rogues"), passim; NYGBR, 25 (1894), 153-61; NYHS Quart., 10 (1926), 125-30; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct 1784 (A.M.); Heitman; Washington Writings, v, 437; x, 165, 356-57; xi, 267 Sc n., 321, 417; xiii, 92η; xvi, 65; xvii, 508-509; XVIII, 255, 269, 342; xix, 112, 323; xx, passim; xxi, 16 ("best Battalion officers"), 70, 456, 494; XXII, 83, 139, 333, 386η; XXIII, 59, 83η, 113η, 338η; χχιν, go, 186, 375-76, 418-19; xxv, passim; XXVI, passim; XXVII, passim; xxix, 486-87; xxx, 74, 413 Sc n.; xxxi, 164, 284, 311 Sc n., 478, 515; x x x i i , 355-56, 360η; x x x i v , 254η, 272; χ χ χ ν ι , 356η, 375, 403, 4 g i ; x x x v n , 31; H a m i l t o n Papers, n, 498 & n., 517 Sc n.; vm, 187-88; XIII, 245-46 & n., 453-54 & n., 556-57 & n.; xiv, 182-86 Sc nn., 514-15, 518-ig; xv, 336-37 Sc n., 488-95; xx, 141-44^ 343-44, 348; xxi, 401; xxii, 25, 26η, 353-54 Sc n., 397; XXIII, passim; xxiv, 314 ("fat and jolly"), 5 g 3 ( " m a r r i e d m y d a u g h t e r " ) , p a s s i m ; L . Gottschalk, ed., L e t t e r s of L a f a y e t t e t o W a s h i n g t o n (1944), 126, 129-31, 175, 177, 319; L . W . M u r r a y , ed., N o t e s . . . o n S u l l i v a n E x p e d i t i o n of /779 ( i 9 2 g ) , passim; W . C. F o r d , ed., C o r r e s p o n d e n c e a n d Journals of Samuel Blachley Webb (1892-94), 1, 323-24; 11, 141; 111, 169-70; F. Knapp, Life of Frederick William von Steuben (1859), 635-36; JCC, XXII, 367; XXIII, 5η, io6n, 112η, in; W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, 111 (1971), 571, 585, 595-96; D i p l o m a t i c C o r r e s p o n d e n c e of t h e U.S.A., v , 371-481 passim; L M C C , v m , x , 62, 627, 717, 736, 7 4 3 ( " p r o f o u n d politicians"), 738; B.C. Steiner, L i f e a n d Correspondence of James McHenry (1907), 89 n. 1, 313-14, 316, 328, 354-55 8c n.; W . S. R o b e r t s o n , L i f e of M i r a n d a (1929), 1, 63-67, 296-301; J . H . S t a b l e r , ed., F r a g ­ ments from an Eighteenth Century Diary (1931), 73-85, i86-g4; Jefferson Papers, ix, passim; x, 115-17, 122, 162, 545; xi, 97 ("turn his soul wrongside outward"), passim; xii, ig2-g3 ("Adieu mon ami!"), 355-57 ("tree of liberty" etc.), 485 ("You will be happy"), passim; xvm, xxxiv-xxxv, 243-62, 273-74 Sc n.; vm, 273η ("unimpeachable integrity"), 274η; Madison Papers, x, 186, 344 & n.; APS Trans, (n.s.), v. 55, pt. 1 (ig65), 104; Davis, Essays, 148, 168, 193, 400-401, 274 n . 3 ; Butterfield, R u s h L e t t e r s ,

NICHOLAS BAYARD VAN

CORTLANDT

437

I, 502, 503η, II, ιιι8, iiign, 1126η, 1133, 1162, 1163η ("contempt" for Washington

. . . "he is my Son-in-Law"); G. Hunt, Cal. of Applications . . . during the Presidency of George Washington (1901), 119; N. Callahan, Henry Knox (1958), 275; Washing­ ton Diaries, iv, passim; S. Mitchell, New Letters of Abigail Adams (1947), 66-67, ^9» 77 ("advantageous contract"), 89 ("speculation and extravagance"), 110-11, 119-20, 252, 450-51; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 241, 354 ("warmest Jacobin"), 359, 373-74, 450-51; Rochester Hist. Soc., Pubs., xix, 8, 12-20, 40; als WSS to H. Knox, 3 Dec 1790 ("wavering in the front line"); 27 Mar 1792 ("money making pursuit . . . trench Democrat"); 13 Nov 1793; 3 Feb 1795 ("particular" friends); 21 Dec 1794; 17 Mar 1799 ("much insulted"); H. Knox to WSS, 28 Mar 1796, Knox MSS; T. Pickering to J. Jay, 20 Jul 1798, Pickering MSS, MHi; WSS to G. Washington, 11 Jul 1794, Washington MSS ("untainted with party zeal"); WSS to J. Madison, 17 May 1815, Madison MSS, DLC; Publications Col. Soc. Mass., xxxvi, 299; S. F. Bemis, Jay's Treaty (1962), 201 & n.; C. F. Adams, John Quincy Adams (1874), 1, 32; VMHB, 64 (1956), 424; Southern Hist. Assoc., Pubs., 11 (1907), 38-43; C. F. Adams, ed., Letters of Mrs. Adams, π (1841), 245; D. Bobbe, DeWitt Clinton (1933), 88-92; T. P. Abernathy, Burr Conspiracy (1954), 73, 101-102; J. Biggs, Hist, of . . . Miranda's Attempt to Effect a Rev. (1811), 17; S. H. Wandell and M. Minnigerode, Aaron Burr (1925), 11, 65-67; T. Lloyd, Trials of William S. Smith and Samuel G. Ogden (1807); I. Brant, James Madison, Secretary of State (1953), 325-39, 338 ("a man of honors and integrity"); A. Biddle, ed., Old Family Letters, 1 (1892), 102-103 ("if our govern­ ment knew"); AjC, XXVII, 1187-90, 1802-803. PUBLICATIONS: see Sh-Sh #5075. MANUSCRIPTS; NHi, MHi, DLC, NjP, Academia National de la Historia

(Caracas).

Nicholas Bayard Van Cortlandt NICHOLAS BAYARD VAN CORTLANDT, A. B., soldier, was the second son of John and Hester Bayard Van Cortlandt to be named for his ma­ ternal grandfather. The first of that name, born in 1753, died in in­ fancy. Van Cortlandt was born on March 19, 1756, in New York City, where his father was a lawyer. He was baptized in the city's Reformed Church on March 31. As a member of Nassau Hall's Cliosophic Society, which he joined on September 24, 1771, Van Cortlandt used the pseudonym "Plato." In his commencement exercises he spoke "on the preference due to ancient above modern poetry." Van Cortlandt's brief career after graduation is generally obscure. He joined the army but appears in no records until November g, 1777, when he held the rank of major and was stationed at White Marsh, Pennsylvania, near Valley Forge. On that date he was appointed aidede-camp to General John Sullivan. He remained at camp there until Sullivan left to raise troops in New England on March 12, 1778. Disguised as a Hessian and a doctor, Sullivan and Van Cortlandt traveled through Bucks County, Pennsylvania. By the end of the month, Sullivan had gone ahead and Van Cortlandt rode with his or-

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CLASS OF 1774

derly, Livens, into New Jersey. He found sustenance scarce and some­ times had to ride twenty miles to get fodder for the horses. On April 23 Van Cortlandt arrived at Walter Livingston's (A.B. 1759) estate, Livingston Manor, New York. There he met the Loyalist William Smith who eagerly interrogated him about the American army. Van Cortlandt conceded that Washington's forces were not in the best of fighting trim, but he was optimistic about the outcome of the Revolution. Smith, however, dismissed the young officer as fatuous. "This raw Mind," he wrote scornfully, "had a Run thro' the Jersey College and a Batchelor's Degree." When Van Cortlandt boasted that 2,500 of the 7,000 men in American hospitals would soon be fit to serve again, Smith found the figures "absurd" but took some satisfaction that at least 4,500 others had been lost by the Whigs. If he needed any­ thing more to confirm his low opinion of Van Cortlandt, Smith had it when his maid, who had had similar conversations with Livens, re­ ported to him. According to Livens, Van Cortlandt was prepared to throw America "into the Arms of France" if the Revolution failed. To his servant's objections to "tyranny and popery," Van Cortlandt re­ plied that "as we grow strong again we'll play France the same trick as England." Van Cortlandt left Livingston Manor by April 27, after which he disappears from all records. He did not accompany Sullivan on the expedition against the Indians in the summer of 1779. One source sug­ gests that he died unmarried in Parsippany, New Jersey on May 1,1782. Certainly, he was dead before his father's will was written in June 1786. SOURCES: E. W. Roebling, Journals of the Rev. Silas Constant (1903), 430; NYGBR,

27 (i8g6), 75; 28 (1897), 27; P. M. Hamlin, Legal Education in Colonial N.Y. (1939), 162; Ms Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); PMHB, 35 (1911), 172; W.H.W. Sabine, Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, π (1958), 356-59 ("raw Mind . . . tyranny and popery"); alumni file, PUA; N.Y. Wills, xiv, 123-24.

John Warford JOHN WARFORD, A.B., A.M. 1785, Presbyterian clergyman and educa­

tor, bore a family name that in the eighteenth century was common in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Westchester County, New York; and Virginia. He was born, probably in one of those places, in 1745. His parents, Elizabeth and John Warford, then moved to Kingwood, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, where they owned a small farm. In December 1769 the elder John Warford died, leaving his movable

JOHN WARFORD

439

estate to his wife and five married daughters, his land to his oldest son James, and £20 each to his sons Joseph and John. On September 25, 1770, Warford joined the Cliosophic Society at Nassau Hall. His pseudonym was "Campden," after the British his­ torian and antiquarian. During the "Paper War" with the Whig So­ ciety in 1771, Warford apparently was one of Clio's most prominent defenders, fcr he was a frequent target of the lampoons written by Whigs Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Philip Freneau (both A.B. 1771). Brackenridge's poetic attacks were the more subtle and amus­ ing, and he particularly enjoyed lambasting Warford as a "taylor." Apparently, Warford helped earn his tuition and fees by making and altering clothes for fellow students. And if Brackenridge's satires were at least based on a modicum of fact, Warford was also known to enjoy his wine. Freneau's attacks were more direct and devastating. "What swarm of vermin from the sultry South," he wrote, "Hang in the beard of Warford's dirty mouth." According to the future Poet of the Revolu­ tion, Warford was a "sneering villain . . . the base defender of a wretched Crew;" a "Taylor" who should be driven like a "dog to hell;" and a "senseless blockhead" who "read greek all day and mend­ ed coats by night . . . to pay his board." Freneau predicted that this "holy man of vermin/In some few years will boldly preach a sermon." Warford did, indeed, study theology after graduation. On October 11, 1775, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Bruns­ wick and after six months spent as an itinerant in Warren County and Freehold, New Jersey was called by the two churches in Amwell, Hunterdon County. He was ordained and installed there in the "up­ per house," or second church, on July 31, 1776. His salary was to be £100 annually, half of it from each church. On August 12 he married Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick, the widow of his predecessor William Kirkpatrick (A.B. 1757), who brought her three children and one slave into the household. The Revolution played havoc with Warford's finances. Inflation and depreciation would have rendered his salary almost worthless had he actually received it. In January 1779 the congregations agreed to pay at least part of his wages in kind. They had intended to build a new parsonage, but skyrocketing land prices necessitated the rental of a farm for the minister at £150. Besides his preaching, Warford helped to establish a school at Amwell and in 1779 he took personal charge of hiring a teacher. In 1786 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia sent Warford on a missionary tour of northern New York. He so impressed the con-

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CLASS OF 1774

gregation at Salem, Washington County, on the Vermont border, that in September 1787, ninety-one of its members signed a call for him to settle there. Their offer of £120 New York currency per year, plus a parsonage with 176 acres from the church lands and £116 for the widow's fund, was too attractive for Warford to decline. On October 16 the call was presented to the Presbytery of New Brunswick. The Amwell churches protested that they did not want to lose Warford, but they recognized that they could not match the offer from Salem and so agreed to his dismissal. His tie with Amwell was severed offi­ cially on October 23, but he continued to preach there for a few months while the Salem church secured the land and made other preparations for his settlement. Warford arrived in Salem in 1788 and moved his family onto a farm to the southeast of town. He was not formally installed in his new post until July 1789 because it was impossible to collect a suffi­ cient number of fellow clergymen to perform the service before then. Warford was an energetic and evangelical minister under whose care the congregation grew and prospered. But his new church, like his old ones, fell behind in its obligation to him. As at Amwell, he de­ voted much of his time to education. He was a founder and an original trustee of the Washington Academy in Salem. In the early spring of 1802, when the Presbyterian General Assem­ bly divided the Albany Presbytery, Warford was one of the four cler­ gymen assigned to the new Presbytery of Columbia. He presided at its first meeting in Tryon, New York shortly before his death on May 19, 1802. When he died, he left his widow and at least four of his own six children. He was buried in the churchyard in Salem. In 1803 the con­ gregation made the first of four annual payments to his widow by which she finally received the arrears in his salary of almost £810. SOURCES :

E. P. Sprague, Hist. Sketch of the Pres. Chh. i n Salem . . . (1876), 20-24; J. Kirkpatrick, Hist. Discourse delivered . . . in the U n i t e d First Pres. C h h . of Amwell . . . (I860), 7; NJA (2 ser.), m, 418, 418-1911; NYGBR, 54 (1923), 279, 38 (1907), 204; N.J. Wills, IV, 465; MS "Satires against the Tories," PHi; alumni file, PUA; G. S. Mott, Hist, of the Pres. Chh. in Flemington, N.J. (1894), 31; S. D. Alex­ ander, Presbytery of^N.Y. (1887), 33, 40; The Salem Book (1896), 95; Webster, MS Brief Sketches, 11.

Samuel Whitwell, Jr. S AMUEL W HITWELL, J R., A.B., physician, was born in Boston, Massa­

chusetts on January 12, 1754, the son of Elizabeth Kelsey Whitwell and Samuel Whitwell, and the cousin of William Whitwell (A.B.

SAMUEL WHITWELL, JR.

441

1758). His father was the overseer of the poor and keeper of the Bos­ ton almshouse for more than twenty years. Whitwell was prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, which he entered in 1762. On April 3, 1771, Whitwell joined the Cliosophic Society at Nassau Hall with the pseudonym "Dickinson." During the summer of his sen­ ior year, he helped President Witherspoon and John Pigeon (A.B. 1775)» also from the Boston area, welcome John Adams to Princeton. Adams, who had brought a letter from Whitwell's father, was given the grand tour of the College. He was impressed by the buildings, satisfied with the library, fascinated by the planetarium, but noted that the scholars at chapel sang "as badly as the Presbyterians at New York." Both Whitwell and Pigeon reported that college rules were "very strict" and that they studied "very hard;" and Witherspoon assured Adams that all of the students were "Sons of Liberty." After his commencement, in which he delivered an English ora­ tion on "the study of the human mind," Whitwell returned to Boston to be trained in medicine by Dr. James Lloyd (Harvard 1746). On January 7, 1775, he was examined by a committee of the Council of Safety and pronounced fit to serve as a surgeon's mate in the militia. He joined the staff of Dr. Lemuel Howard at the Roxbury Hospital. Nearly two years later he joined Colonel John Greaton's Second Massa­ chusetts Regiment of Continentals as a surgeon's mate, and after three months in that capacity, he was recommended by Greaton for promo­ tion to surgeon. The appointment was approved. On January 1, 1780, the regiment was renamed the Third Massa­ chusetts. For two years it had been stationed in the Hudson Valley of New York, and it would continue there for two years more. On May 3, 1782, General William Heath asked Whitwell to carry a letter to Governor John Hancock of Massachusetts. Apparently, that was the day on which Whitwell left the Highlands of New York and the army to return to civilian life. By August 1783 he was practicing medicine in Boston, and during that summer he helped confine an outbreak of smallpox in the city. Whitwell joined the Society of the Cincinnati in Boston and was a member of the St. Andrew Lodge of Masons. In 1789 he was selected by the Cincinnati to deliver the annual Independence Day Address. One listener, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap (Harvard 1762), reported to his close friend Ebenezer Hazard (A.B. 1762) that it was a "puerile performance, not well committed to memory, ungrammatical, wretch­ edly delivered," but the speech did reveal Whitwell's pronationalist sentiments in its excoriation of the period of confederacy and its cele­ bration of the Constitution.

442

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Whitwell had married Lucy Tyler of Dunstable, Massachusetts in a ceremony performed at Chelmsford on November 11, 1783. By 1790 they lived in Newton and had four children, one of whom died before Whitwell's own death on November 21, 1791. His widow later mar­ ried Amasa Park. Whitwell's son Samuel married Sophia, the daughter of Congregational minister Isaac Story (A.B. 1768). SOURCES: B. A. Whittemore 1 Memorials of the Mass. Soc. of the Cincinnati (1964), 698-99; MHSP (1 ser.), HI, 264; MS Clio. Soc. membership list; PUA; Adams Papers,

11, 112-13 ("Sons of Liberty"); Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); Mass. Soldiers and Sailors of the Rev. War (1902), XVII, · 287; MHS Col. (7 ser.), v, 369; (5 ser.), 11, 148 ("puerile performance"); Boston Town Rec., xxv, 221; Essex Inst., Hist. Coll., xm, 223; LI, 45; J. S. Loring, Hundred Boston Orators (1853), 228; First Census, Mass., 149; F. Jackson, Hist, of Early Settlement of Newton (1854), 462-63. PUBLICATIONS: Sabin #103836

David Witherspoon D AVID W ITHERSPOON, A.B., A.M. 1778, lawyer, was born at Paisley, Scotland, September 22, 1760, the eighth and youngest surviving child of President John Witherspoon and his wife Elizabeth Montgomery, and brother to James Witherspoon (A.B. 1770) and John Wither­ spoon (A.B. 1773). He came to America with the family in the sum­ mer of 1768, and was enrolled that year in the College's grammar school. On September 26 of the following year, the school's graduating exercises were introduced by David with a Latin salutatory address, which was followed later in the ceremonies by a valedictory oration in Latin by his brother John. David entered the freshman class at the College in 1770. While there he belonged to the American Whig So­ ciety. At commencement in September 1771 he shared first prize in "extempore exercises in the Latin Language" with Brockholst Living­ ston, also a freshman. On the occasion of his graduation in 1774, al­ though David won no special honors, he presumably entertained "a very numerous assembly of Gentlemen and Ladies, some of them from the most distant provinces on the continent," in an English oration "shewing that self-denial is the noblest and most powerful cause of composure and self command in a public speaker." How he occupied his time immediately after graduation seems not to be known. The ledger of a local merchant indicates that he was in Princeton in October 1775, but Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) was married to David's oldest sister Ann in June 1775, and by 1776 David had become the "third assistant" to his brother-in-law as head

DAVID WITHERSPOON

443

of the newly established Hampden-Sidney Academy in Virginia. Sev­ eral letters from President Witherspoon to his son in 1776 and 1777 raise the intriguing question of whether David was in Virginia pri­ marily to assist his brother-in-law or for the assistance Smith might give David in achieving full maturity. The tone is that of a father writing to a boy much younger than a college graduate. There were admonitions that David should improve his handwriting, his spelling, even his physical carriage. However, in the late summer of 1777 he served as lieutenant of a militia company of Hampden-Sidney stu­ dents who, on the occasion of an alarm raised by Sir William Howe's movement up the Chesapeake, marched to Williamsburg for its de­ fense under the command of tutor John Blair Smith (A.B. 1773). Law rather than military service was to be David's ultimate choice. A letter from his father in August 1777 suggests that the decision may have been reached that early. But when, where, and with whom he began his study of law cannot be said. When he received his A.M. de­ gree in 1778 he was described as being "of New Jersey," and in March 1780 his father wrote that David "was studying law; but for the mean­ while, is private secretary" to Samuel Huntington, then president of the Continental Congress. In 1783 he qualified for the practice of law in Prince Edward County, Virginia. It was apparently at some time thereafter that he began his practice at New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. In October 1788 he made a fortunate marriage to Mary Jones, the widow of Abner Nash, governor of the state in 17801781. There are reasons, including that provided by his own will, for believing that it was this marriage, rather than success at the bar, that made of Witherspoon by far the largest slave-holder in Craven County according to the census of 1790, which credited him with a total of 113 slaves. Another influence of the marriage may be found in a special act of the state legislature in 1789 that included Witherspoon among the churchwardens charged with responsibility for funds col­ lected for the erection of an Episcopal church in New Bern. In 1790 David represented Jones County in the state legislature. Contrary to what often has been said, he did not sit in the legislatures of 1795 and 1796. The David Witherspoon who represented Wilkes County in each of these sessions was another person. Little more can be said of Witherspoon's career until very nearly the end of his life, and there are questions regarding his death that remain unresolved. After his marriage he presumably resided at Pembroke, the residence of former Governor Nash that was situated some three miles outside New Bern. His wife died late in 1799 or early in 1800, apparently without a duly executed will, for David Witherspoon and

444

CLASS OF 1774

John C. Osborn testified on February 5, 1800, as to her desires for the disposition of extensive properties in Craven and Jones counties among her children, including John Witherspoon, born in 1790 and presumably the only child of David. On October 24, 1801, David's own will was drawn in Princeton and witnessed by Dr. John Maclean, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the College and father of the later president of the College John Maclean; Anne Smith, and Ann M. Smith, no doubt wife and daughter of then president Samuel Stanhope Smith and sister and niece of Witherspoon; and William Cooper, Jr. Witherspoon's death occurred some time between October 24 and December 7, when the clerk of the Craven County Court addressed a request to John N. Simpson, a justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Somerset County in New Jersey, for authentica­ tion of the will. This was provided by a deposition of John Maclean before Justice Simpson on February 10, 1802, and the will accordingly was probated by the Craven County Court in the following March. The circumstances strongly suggest that Witherspoon died in Princeton not long after making his will, but a modern census of the local graveyard has revealed no grave of his. It is possible that he died on the way back to New Bern, or after his return there, but no grave in New Bern has been found and the destruction wrought during the Civil War at Pem­ broke has made it impossible to determine whether he may have been buried there. His step-son Frederick Nash (A.B. 1799), later Chief Jus­ tice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, has been quoted to the ef­ fect that Witherspoon died in Princeton. His heirs included his son John; his nephew John Witherspoon Ramsay (A.B. 1803), the son of David Ramsey (A.B. 1765) and With­ erspoon's sister Frances; and his wife's children by her first marriage. He left the "London Editions of my Law Books" to Francis Nash until such time as young John Witherspoon might decide to study law. Three slaves were to be hired out for wages "appropriated to the use of my son," for whom an unspecified number of other slaves were to be settled upon his share of the land "so as to produce him a sufficient income for his maintenance at Princeton." Benjamin Woods and Dr. John Osborn were made executors of the will and "Joint Guardians of my son" together with "my Worthy brother the Reverend Doctor Samuel Stanhope Smith." It can be added that the son did not attend Princeton. Instead he graduated from the University of North Caro­ lina in 1810, but subsequently, as a Presbyterian divine, he received the College's honorary A.M. in 1815 and D.D. in 1836. SOURCES: V. L. Collins, President Witherspoon (1925), 1, 25η, 193η; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1769; 12 Oct 1774 (commencement); Pa. Chronicle, 7 Oct

DAVID WITHERSPOON

445

1771; Patterson Acct. Bk.; Harapden-Sidney College, Gen. Cat. (1908), 28; Foote, Sketches, Va., 398, 400; Christian Advocate, 2 (1824), 396"400> 443"45"> aIs J- Witherspoon to DW, 15 Nov 1776, Gratz Coll., PHi; N.J. Gazette, 21 Oct 1778 (A.M.); H. C. Bradshaw, Hist, of Hampden-Sydney College (1976), 1, 48-49; and Hist, of Prince Edward Cnty. (1955), 138; J. Witherspoon, Works (1801), iv, 337; alumni file, PUA; E. Moore, Recs. of Craven Cnty., N.C. (i960), 137-38; Ζ. H. Gwynn, Abstracts of Recs. of Jones Cnty., N.C. (1963), 199, 216, 253; D. H. Witherspoon, "Witherspoons of N.C." (n.d.), 95-96; First Census, N.C., 131; J. G. Wardlaw, Geneal. of Witherspoon Family (1910), 47; St. Rec. N.C., xxi, 908; xxv, 35; N.C. House Journals, 1795-96; Record of Wills, Craven Cnty., N.C., 1796-1809, 144-47, Ne.

WFC

CLASS OF 1775

Charles Clinton Beatty, A.B.

George Lewis

John Durbarrow Blair, A.B.

William Alexander Livingston

William Bostwick

James McRee, A.B.

Jacobus Severyn Bruyn

Spruce Macay, A.B.

Ichabod Burnet, A.B.

James Malen

William Claypoole, A.B.

Daniel Martin

Thomas Craighead, A.B.

John Montgomery, A.B.

Edward Crawford, A.B.

Thomas Neal

Samuel Doak, A.B.

John Pigeon, Jr., A.B.

James Duncan, A.B.

James R. Reid, A.B.

Joseph Ely Arnold Elzey, A.B.

John Richardson Bayard Rodgers, A.B.

John Evans, A.B.

Archibald Scott, A.B.

Joseph Lewis Finley, A.B.

John Anderson Scudder, A.B.

William Blair Henry Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer John Joline, A.B.

John Springer, A.B. Thomas Sprott, A.B. Isaac Tichenor, A.B.

Isaac Stockton Keith, A.B.

John Timothy Trezevant, A.B.

Andrew Kirkpatrick, A.B.

John Van Dyke

Charles Lee, A.B.

John Wilkinson

Charles Clinton Beatty CHARLES CLINTON BEATTY, A.B., soldier, was the sixth child o£ Rev­ erend Charles Clinton Beatty, a trustee of the College and a cousin of Governor Charles Clinton of New York, and Anne Reading, the daughter of a president of the royal council of New Jersey. Beatty was born on February 10, 1756, in Warwick, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, very near Neshaminy. His father was a graduate of the Log College and had replaced William Tennent as the pastor at Neshaminy in 1743 when Tennent led the New Side members of the parish in esta­ blishing a separate church in Warwick. The two congregations later reunited under Beatty. Young Clinton Beatty, as he was called, was prepared for college under the tutelage of Enoch Green (A.B. 1760) in Deerfield, Cumber­ land County, New Jersey. Among Green's other pupils were Philip Fithian (A.B. 1772) and Samuel Leake (A.B. 1774). In 1770 Green married Beatty's eldest sister Mary. Fithian married a younger sister, Elizabeth, or Betsy, in 1775. In the fall of 1773, slightly more than a year after Reverend Charles Beatty died of yellow fever while soliciting funds for Nassau Hall in the West Indies, Clinton was enrolled in the junior class of the Col­ lege by his brother John (A.B. 1769) in accordance with the provi­ sions of their father's will. There were so many students at the time that they were forced to live three to a room, and Beatty's roommates were John Durbarrow Blair (A.B. 1775) and John Peck (A.B. 1774). After suffering one of his recurring toothaches in December, Beatty was sufficiently recovered in January to participate in the "Prince­ ton Tea Party." Students burned twelve pounds of the College's win­ ter store of tea along with an effigy of Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts in a fire, as Beatty reported to Green, "on the cam­ pus"—the first written use of that word in America to describe the grounds of a school or college. The incident came just days after quar­ terly examinations in which President Witherspoon, according to Beatty, 'not only used me ill, but near 15 more Clever fellows." He had been "much terrified" by the "unusual" ordeal of being questioned by Witherspoon and "three Tutors." For his part in the Tea Party, Leake was deprived of his appointment as the Latin salutatorian of the Class of 1774· Beatty escaped punishment. His winter was enlivened by a visit from John, by a "slaying frolic to Freehold," and by the College lottery, in which he bought several unlucky tickets. He also began to take an active interest in politics. For a time Beatty considered leaving the College to learn a trade and

450

CLASS OF 1775

take a wife, but in the next "dreadful" round of examinations his per­ formance was much improved. He advised Green, who was preparing yet another Beatty for the College at the time, to train the boy well. Witherspoon, he said, "thinks much more of them if they can write a good version." Some practice in public speaking would be desirable as well. Apparently, Beatty regretted not having had that, for he re­ ported that he made "no great figure" when he had to speak from the stage. A member of the American Whig Society, Beatty also had an eye for pretty girls. In October 1774 he told his sister Betsy that he loved a girl in Philadelphia and that he had met another near Princeton. He had an endearing mischievous streak that revealed itself in his teasing affections for his sister and in his rambunctious behavior at college and with his brothers. On vacation at home in November 1774, he participated in the theft of some chestnuts and the harrassment of the local drunkard. The threats of arrest made by his victims were never fulfilled. Like many of his fellow students, Beatty's interest in public affairs became a passion. The news of the skirmish at Lexington in April 1775 electrified him. "You need not speak here," he wrote to Betsy from Princeton, "without it is about Liberty." At Nassau Hall, prepa­ rations were being made for war. "Every man handles his Musket," said Beatty. A company of "about fifty Officers," all students, was created separately from the local militia. The young men had uniforms which were "Green turn'd up with yellow, and all the rest White," but they had "not more than half enough" weapons. In June the aspiring soldiers donned their white suits to march on the home of a local resident who continued to drink tea. They seized and burned his supply. Another potential target, a Tory, managed to escape before they could find him. Beatty, who had once subscribed to the archroyalist New York Gazetteer, assured his brother Erkuries that he was "as strong a Whig as the best of them." "To shew their patriotism," the members of the Class of 1775 agreed to graduate in homespun, and Beatty hinted rather heavily that his sister should help him to secure the proper clothes. In spite of frequent "frolics" with other students, college life was a trial for Beatty. He complained of "not having much to do," and be­ moaned the fact that when he graduated he would be no more capable of earning a living than before he entered school. He found solace in his rich correspondence with other members of his very close family and in the college militia. In June 1775 he asked his brother for a feather to match his new regimental coat. "I want," he explained, "to

CHARLES CLINTON BEATTY

451

look as much like a soldier as possible." He looked forward eargerly to his graduation and release from a "servitude that appears very irk­ some." When President Witherspoon's daughter Ann married Samuel Stan­ hope Smith (A.B. 1769) in June 1775, the College had an unscheduled holiday. Beatty feigned chagrin at not having been asked to the cele­ bration ("they never invite me to Weddings"). But he was glad for the respite, for he had been hard at work on his assigned part in his com­ mencement exercises, the reply to the proposition that "Truth is never to be violated from any prospect of advantage, or any supposed necessity." The subject was defended and opposed, but there is no record of Beatty's reply in accounts of the ceremony. After graduation Beatty visited his brothers and sisters in Pennsyl­ vania and New Jersey, returning to Princeton in November 1775. There he was greatly encouraged by the number of students in the College, reporting that there were forty-five in the junior class alone. He was confident that the student body would continue to grow. Al­ though he could not know how disastrously the war would effect Nassau Hall, his own experience was an indication. He had once thought of entering the ministry, but on January 8, 1776, he obtained a second lieutenant's commission in Colonel Anthony Wayne's Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion instead. Beatty's unit joined the main American force in Canada but never saw Quebec. After a short skirmish at Fair Rivieres, the Pennsylvanians retreated to Fort Ticonderoga and dug in, anticipating a massive British assault that did not come. Ravaged by disease and sectional animosities, the soldiers wanted to go home, where they could fight with more enthusiasm. Beatty came home in early 1777. On February 16, he and some fellow officers were at Moore's Tavern near Charles Town Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. While admiring a new fowling piece that everyone thought was unloaded, Captain Caleb North pointed the weapon at Beatty and said, "Beatty, I will shoot you." The rifle dis­ charged and Beatty was struck in the heart. He died immediately. An inquest convened by the Chester County Committee of Safety ruled that his death was purely accidental. He was buried at Chester. SOURCES: DAB

(father); Sprague, Annals, M, 119-25; G. S. Klett, ed., Journals of Charles Beatty, 1762-1769 (1962), 130; A. Alexander, Log College (1851), 247-49; A. Green, Life of . . . Witherspoon (1973), 42-43; M. A. Tennent, Light in Darkness (1971), 43, 49, 60; Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Papers, 2 (1909), 146; NYGBR, 66 (1935), 335; NJHSP (n.s.) 80 (1962), 223-35, esp. 229 ("much terrified . . . unusual"), 230 ("slaying frolic"), 232-33 ("dreadful" examinations), 234-35 ("handles his Mus­ ket . . . about fifty Officers . . . strong a Whig"); 81 (1963), 21-46, esp. 23 ("not

452

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having much to do"), 35 ("look like a soldier"), 33 ("never invite me"), 37 ("servi­ tude"); als CCB to E. Green, 31 Jan 1774 ("campus . . . used me ill"); 21 Apr 1774 ("write a good version . . . no great figure"); to E. Beatty, 28 May 1775 ("about Liberty . . . shew their patriotism"); 6 Apr 1775 (commencement exercise), NjP; Fithian Journal, 1, 165η; PMHB, 44 (1920), 199-200, 202-204; 22 (1898), 501 ("I shall shoot you"); Pa. Arch. (2 ser.), x, 130. For the etymology of "campus" in America, see W. A. Craigie, Dictionary of Amer. English on Historical Principles (1946); Pub. Col. Soc. Mass., in, 431 -37.

M ANUSCRIPTS: NjP

John Durbarrow Blair JOHN DURBARROW BLAIR, A.B., A.M. 1781, Presbyterian clergyman and teacher, was born on October 15, 1759, in Fagg's Manor, Pennsylvania. His father, John Blair, who was then the minister and master of the school at Fagg's Manor, later served the College as a trustee—from 1766 to 1767 and from 1769 to 1771—and as Professor of Divinity and

John Durbarrow Blair, A.B. BY EDWARD F. PETICOLAS

1775

JOHN DURBARROW BLAIR

453

vice-president from 1767 to 1769. His brother was William Lawrence Blair (A.B. 1769). John Durbarrow Blair was also a nephew of found­ ing trustee Samuel Blair and a cousin of Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), John Blair Smith (A.B. 1773), and William Richmond Smith (A.B. 1773). His mother, Elizabeth Durbarrow Blair, was the daughter of an English merchant from Philadelphia named John Durbarrow. Blair was probably educated at his father's school in Fagg's Manor until the family moved to Princeton in 1767. He entered the College as a freshman in 1771 and in his first year took second prize in the undergraduate Latin competition. As a junior, he placed third. He was a member of the American Whig Society. In a forensic dispute at the commencement of 1775, Blair argued against the proposition that "Truth is never to be violated from any prospect of advantage, or any supposed necessity." For five years after graduation Blair probably taught school, al­ though the tradition that he was a tutor at the College is incorrect. He may have joined his widowed mother in Orange County, New York, or he may have retained some informal connection with the College or the grammar school during the disruptive early years of the Revo­ lution. In 1780 President Witherspoon recommended him as a teacher at the Henry-Washington Academy in Hanover, Virginia, and Blair accepted the post. Blair was the assistant to Daniel McCalla (A.B. 1766) at HenryWashington until McCalla went to South Carolina in 1788. Blair's father had been among the first Presbyterian ministers in Hanover County during the 1740s and had helped to found the Pole Green church there. After studying theology on his own and being licensed to preach by the Hanover Presbytery on October 28, 1784, Blair was installed and ordained at Pole Green before September 1, 1785, when he received his license to perform marriages in Virginia. He also served the nearby Henrico congregation. By 1790, Henry-Washington Academy was in financial trouble and Blair was eager to leave. His friends in Richmond urged him to move into that town to take charge of its unorganized Presbyterian con­ gregation. They promised not only to pay his ministerial salary, but also to permit him to educate their children. One of the most influen­ tial of those friends was Geddes Winston, who gave Blair 300 acres of land in January 1790. In that year or the next, Blair married Win­ ston's daughter Mary. He then moved to Richmond but continued as pastor of the Pole Green church, ten miles away, where he preached once or twice every month.

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Blair's situation in Richmond was unusual, but it suited him par­ ticularly well. He arranged with the local Episcopal rector, John Buchanan, to hold sabbath services in the General Assembly room of the state capitol on alternate Sundays. Both men believed in and preached religious toleration, agreeing "with Christian charity . . . to disagree upon non-essentials," and within a few years their congrega­ tions had almost merged. The two pastors were also inseparable friends. They were famous for their good humor, sociability, and kind­ ness. The bachelor Buchanan was virtually a member of the Blair family, regularly sending his marriage fees to his friend's wife and children. Both were irrepressible punsters and composers of comic doggerel, and their friendship was one of the constants of Richmond society. They were prominent citizens in Richmond, and the only clergymen in the exclusive Barbecue or Quoit Club whose thirty mem­ bers were the social elite of the town, including Judge John Marshall. The club met on Buchanan's farm to eat and drink, and to hold matches in quoits, whist, or backgammon. Blair was the local cham­ pion at quoits. Politics was a natural topic of conversation in such company, but while both men became Federalists, they refused to let politics influence their preaching or their friendships with members of either party. Blair's attitude toward religion was serious but never somber. He saw no need to organize his congregation formally, since communicants could receive the Lord's Supper at Pole Green on alternate Sundays if they wished. Like Buchanan, he favored the use of music in church, and he was for a time the president of the Society for Promoting Church Music. Because he believed that all children should be baptized regardless of whether or not their parents were communicants, he instituted private christening ceremonies that were celebrated with high spirits. It was said that he would not perform a marriage unless both parties had been baptized and that he once interrupted a wedding long enough to baptize the bride. Blair's sermons were based upon turgid notes but were embellished by much lighter extemporary thoughts. He composed many of them while fishing. In addition to his 300 acres, Blair owned several acres in downtown Richmond that had been given to him in trust for his four surviving children by one of his brothers-in-law. Blair's first school in Richmond, a classical academy for boys, was housed in a building behind his own house. He was so well known as a teacher that in 1796 the trustees of Hampden-Sidney College offered him the presidency of that institu­ tion. He declined, however, preferring to teach in Richmond. In 1801 he opened a grammar school for twenty boys, and in 1807 he agreed

JOHN DURBARROW BLAIR

455

to teach moral philosophy at Mrs. Byrd's seminary for girls. He was also instrumental in the creation of Richmond Hill Academy. Al­ though his formal relations with Henry-Washington Academy were ended, he served as a manager for the school's fund-raising lottery in 1802. On December 26, 1811, the Richmond Theater was destroyed by fire with the loss of 76 lives including that of Abraham Venable (A.B. 1780). Buchanan and Blair officiated at ceremonies of public mourning, but the tragedy had a more direct effect on their professional associa­ tion. Both men and their congregations agreed that a church should be built at the site of the fire as a monument to the dead and that they would share the new building as they shared the state capitol. But the majority of subscribers to the monument church were Episcopalians, who decided to restrict the building to their own use when it opened. Blair's friendship with Buchanan was undamaged, but the "perfect harmony and concord" of their flocks was ended. The Presbyterians erected the Shockoe Hill church, which opened in 1821, and Blair finally organized a formal congregation. After 1807 Blair was a member of the "Silver Grays," a company of volunteers created to defend Richmond whenever the regular militia was serving elsewhere. During the War of 1812, he served on the town committee to aid refugees from Norfolk, and he preached the thanks­ giving sermon at the state capitol after Perry's victory on Lake Erie. He and Buchanan contributed some of their doggerel and satire to magazines such as the American Gleaner and The Visitor, for which Blair adopted the pseudonyms "Senex" and "Will Honeycomb." In 1818 he was a founder of the Virginia Literary and Evangelical Maga­ zine, and his influence was obvious in the journal's mix of secular and religious articles. Blair and Buchanan were founders and managers of the Virginia Bible Society in 1813, and in 1814 Blair was president of the Richmond Library Society. The variety of library books also reflected Blair's catholic tastes. Soon after the Shockoe Hill church opened, Blair's health began to fail. After 1821 he left most of his duties to his assistant John Blair Hoge. Blair died on January 10, 1823, on Iy a few weeks after the death of John Buchanan. SOURCES:

J. A. Alexander, J. Carnahan, and A. Alexander

MS

guished Graduates," 66-70, NjP; G. W. Munford, Two Parsons Sketches, Va., 0, 112-13; Sprague, Annals, mond zette if

(A.M.);

HI,

"Notices of Distin­ (1884) 22-469; Foote,

117-19, 459-62; W. A. Christian, Rich­

(1912), 52, 54, 79, 80, 86, 87, 92; Williams, Academic Honors, 6-7; N.Y. Ga­ Weekly

Mercury, 9 Oct 1775

VMHB, 45 (1937), 148-49; 42

164; WMQ

(1 ser.), 23

(commencement); N.J. Gazette, 3 Oct 1781

(1934), 38-39; Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820, 19,

(1914-15), 121; 19

(1910-11), 266; M. N. Stanard, Richmond

456

CLASS OF 1775

(1923), 74-76, 81, 111; Η. Flanders, Life of John Marshall (1904), 240; A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Marshall (1919), n, 181-85; The Valentine Museum, Richmond Por­ traits (1949), 18-19 ("christian charity," "harmony and concord"); Cal. Va. St. Papers, ix, 68, 547-48 ("Silver Grays"); R. B. Davis, Intellectual Life in Jefferson's Va. (1964), passim; Hampden-Sidney College, Cal. of Board Minutes (1912), 46; Evan­ gelical and Literary Mag., 6 (1823), 52~54· PUBLICATIONS: Sh-Sh #17054; Sh-C #19763; Sabin #5748 MANUSCRIPTS: PHI

William Bostwick W ILLIAM B OSTWICK, soldier, the son of Reverend David and Mary

Hinman Bostwick, was probably born at Jamaica, Long Island. His father, who attended Yale College as a member of the class of 1736 but did not graduate, had been an instructor in the school supervised by President Aaron Burr in Newark, New Jersey before settling as min­ ister of the Presbyterian church in Jamaica in October 1745· After eleven years there he removed with his family to New York City, where he was installed in the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church. From 1761 until his death on November 12, 1763, he was a trustee of the College. He left a family of four sons and six daughters, including the second wife of General Alexander McDougall and the first wife of General Daniel Roberdeau. William Bostwick's presence as a student in the College is estab­ lished by a list of the steward's accounts for the period from May 25, 1 773 to September 25, 1774. His absence from the subsequent list, which covers the time between November 1774 and April 1775, sug­ gests that he was not present for what presumably was his senior year. In April and August 1775 his account with the merchant Thomas Patterson in Princeton was settled by friends to whom he sent the money. Bostwick may have enlisted as a private in Captain Henry Wassell's company of Monmouth County, New Jersey militia in 1776, but by early 1777 he was a first lieutenant in the seventh company of Colonel Elias Dayton's Third Battalion of the Second Establishment, New Jersey Line. Fellow battalion officers included paymaster Jonathan Dayton (A.B. 1776), Lieutenant Colonel Francis Barber (A.B. 1767), and chaplain Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772). As part of General William Maxwell's Brigade, the unit saw action at Ticonderoga, Brandywine, and Germantown before wintering at Valley Forge. In June 1778 it participated in the battle of Monmouth and one year later was at­ tached to the Sullivan Expedition against Indians in northern Penn-

JACOBUS SEVERYN BRUYN

457

sylvania and New York. Its last major engagement was at Springfield, New Jersey in June 1780, after which the New Jersey Line was reor­ ganized and many officers, Bostwick among them, resigned as super­ numeraries. Bostwick apparently settled in Middletown, Monmouth County, where he died late in 1784 or early the next year. His will, probated on February 17, 1785, itemized a modest estate that included a portrait of his father, a medical book, two bibles and several other religious volumes, a slave named Hannah, some household furnishings, and a few animals. His two sons, Charles and John, were described in the court record of December 20, 1799 as "being out of the Wardship of their Guardian in Soccage." They then chose Andrew Morrell of New York state as their guardian. A fellow bondsman was Sarah Bostwick, also of Monmouth County. SOURCES: Sprague, Annals, 111, 131-34; F. L. Weiss, Colonial Clergy of the Middle Colonies (1957), 185; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Patterson Acct. Bk., 34, 47;

Stryker, Off. Reg., 35-36, 41-48, 94; J. M. Macdonald, T w o Centuries in the Hist, of the Pres. Chh., Jamaica, L.I. (1862), 165-72; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (1918), 11, 603-604; N.J. Wills, vi, 52; 5409-5414M, B.27, p. 183, Nj. The William Bost­ wick who married Abigael Grummond on 25 Feb 1773 [NJA (1 ser.), xxii, 606] is probably another person, for the steward's account shows Bostwick in College after that date.

Jacobus Severyn Bruyn JACOBUS SEVERYN BRUYN, soldier and public official, was the son of Severyn T. and Catharine Ten Broeck Bruyn of Ulster County, New York. He was born on his father's farm at Kingston on October 27, 1751. When Severyn Bruyn died in 1759, his sons each inherited sub­ stantial tracts of land, and enough money was set aside to raise and educate them as well. Jacobus Bruyn probably entered the College in 1771 and left during his senior year. In June 1775 he signed the Kingston Association to support congressional measures against Britain and was a second lieutenant in the First Regiment of Ulster County Militia. When four regiments of New Yorkers joined the Continental Army that summer, Bruyn raised and equipped one company at his own expense and led it, as captain, when it became part of the Third New York Regiment under Colonel James Clinton. The unit participated in the subsequent Canadian campaign. In March 1776 Benedict Arnold sent Bruyn and another officer, with eighty men, against a force of almost 300 Canadians at Point

458

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Jacobus Severyn Bruyn, Class of 1775 BY JOHN VANDERLYN

La Caile. After surprising the enemy's advance guard, the Americans killed seven, wounded two, and took thirty-eight prisoners, without suffering any casualties of their own. Very soon after that engagement the Third New York virtually dissolved as enlistments expired. The veterans of the Canadian campaign were first combined into Nichol­ son's New York Regiment, and then in June 1776 Bruyn and a few others formed the cadre of the new Fifth New York. Governor George Clinton recalled his brother's favorable assessment of Bruyn and urged the creators of the Fifth to consider that "young man of education and fortune" for an important post. Congress responded by making Bruyn a lieutenant colonel, second in command of the new regiment. Part of the Northern Department, the Fifth New York was assigned to the Hudson Valley from the summer of 1776 until the autumn of 1777. Bruyn apparently traveled between the several forts in the area. In October 1777 he was at Fort Montgomery when the British attacked the American positions in the Hudson Highlands. Despatched by Gen­ eral James Clinton to relieve a beleaguered reconnaissance party near Doodletown, Bruyn and his men managed to infliot heavy casualties

JACOBUS SEVERYN BRUYN

459

on the larger enemy force before withdrawing to Fort Clinton. Their tough stand against a bayonet assault bought the posts a little time, but no more. Forts Clinton and Montgomery were taken by vastly superior numbers and nearly 300 Americans, including Bruyn, became prisoners. Bruyn was briefly on a prison ship but he spent most of his three years in captivity on Long Island. In May 1780 he and his fellow in­ mates complained to Governor Clinton that they had received no money or supplies from Congress for a full year and were living in desperate circumstances. Naturally, what they wanted most was to be exchanged, and that was effected later that year. Bruyn was then as­ signed to the Third New York Regiment. There was some question, however, as to whether Bruyn would con­ tinue in service. Clearly, James and George Clinton wanted him to do so, and his colleague Major Nicholas Fish (Class of 1777) thought that he could be persuaded. He knew that Bruyn was inclined to stay, but feared that the entreaties of friends "and particularly that of his favorite Fair" might make him resign. "I well know the force of female entreaty," Fish told Governor Clinton, "and am exceedingly sollicitous that he be not entirely left to himself to withstand so powerful an influence." Clinton tried, but to no avail. Not only was Bruyn very ill when he was released but he also found that his personal fortune was greatly reduced. His home and barn in Kingston had been burned while he was in the Hudson Valley and no one had cared for what was left of his estate. On January 26, 1781, he reluctantly told Governor Clinton that he had to leave the army. Major Fish's concern about a woman's influence may not have been entirely speculative, either. On March 18, 1782, having had time to repair his finances, Bruyn married Blandina Elmendorf, the daughter of the Ulster County surrogate, Petrus E. Elmendorf and the sister of Peter Elmendorf (A.B. 1782). In 1783 Bruyn moved to a large brick house in Kingston, and one year later bought a Loyalist's confiscated house in New York City. In 1790 he claimed the rights to five parcels of bounty land as his pension. Although Bruyn retained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the county militia, his public life was in the political rather than the military arena. In 1788 he represented Ulster County in the New York Assembly. His voting record reflected his longstanding affiliation with the Clintons, who were leaders of what became anti-Federalism in the state. He supported the call for a convention to ratify the Constitution and paid special attention to the problem of repaying the state's debt to private bondholders. After one term in the assembly, Bruyn returned to Kingston. He was

460

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one of the incorporators and original trustees of the Kingston Academy when it was chartered on January 5, 1795. From 1800 until 1805 he represented Ulster in the state senate. Once again he voted the straight Clintonian line, beginning with his support of the Jeffersonian electors for president and vice-president in 1800. When Kingston was incor­ porated as a village on April 6, 1805, Bruyn was among its original directors. Bruyn died on July 12, 1825, leaving a large estate that no longer included the six slaves he had owned in 1790. Three of his sons gradu­ ated from the College before their father's death. They were Edmund (A.B. 1801), Severyn (A.B. 1803), and Andrew DeWitt (A.B. 1810). Bruyn was also survived by his wife. He was buried in the cemetery of the Old First Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; A m e r . A n c e s t r y , iv, 213; M. Schoonmaker, H i s t , of K i n g ­ ston, N.Y. (1888), 24¾, SKI, 430-40, 474, 517, 536, «38; NYGBR, Κ8 (1927), 320; 71 (1940) 155; N.Y. Wills, vi, 8-9; Cal. N.Y. Hist, MSS., War of Rev. (1868) 1, 30; 11, 36-37; N Y H S C o l l . , XLVIII, 4 9 5 ; x i x , 130; F . A . B e r g , E n c y c l o p e d i a of C o n t i n e n t a l Army Units (1972), 83-86; Heitman, 105; Force, Am. Arch. (4 ser.), vi, 1065-65, 1082, 1722; Clinton Papers, 1, 150-51, 239-41, 452-53; n, 12, 277, 381, 391-92, 403, 404, 623; v , 751-52; v i , 584, 5 8 8 ( " f a v o r i t e F a i r " ) , 596-97; v n , 105-106; E . W . S p a u l d i n g , H i s E x c e l l e n c y G e o r g e C l i n t o n (1938), 78-79; W a s h i n g t o n W r i t i n g s , x x i , 1 7 & n . ; M i l . Min., Council of Appointment, St. of N.Y., 1, 93, 443; (N.Y.) Assembly Journal, 11th Sess., p a s s i m ; E . W . S p a u l d i n g , N . Y . i n t h e C r i t i c a l P e r i o d (1932), 203, 2 2 9 ; N . Y . S e n a t e J o u r n a l s , 2 4 t h - 2 8 t h Sess., p a s s i m ; A . T . C l e a r w a t e r , H i s t , o f U l s t e r C n t y . , N.Y. (1907), 216; First Census, N.Y., 172; sons, respective alumni folders, PUA. MANUSCRIPTS; Senate House and Museum Coll., Kingston, N.Y., NHi

Ichabod Burnet ICHABOD BURNET, A.B., A.M. 1781, soldier in the Revolution, was born

May 17, 1756, the son of William Burnet (A.B. 1749) and his wife Mary Camp Burnet, and a brother to Jacob (A.B. 1791) and George Whitefield Burnet (A.B. 1792). He bore the name of his grandfather and an uncle, both of whom, like his father, were physicians. His father was a leading resident of Newark, New Jersey, chairman of the Essex County Committee of Safety in 1776, later a surgeon with the Con­ tinental Army, and twice a representative of the state in the Conti­ nental Congress. Ichabod Burnet probably entered the College, after preparation in Newark, in the fall of 1772, though it could have been in the following year. There he became a member of the Cliosophic Society. At his commencement he participated in an English debate of the proposition that "moral duties are the same ... between societies and private persons."

ICHABOD BURNET

461

After graduating Burnet began studying law with Elisha Boudinot, also of Newark, but no evidence has been found that he ever practiced law. Instead, his career was that of a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and at its end he planned to enter a mercantile business in South Caro­ lina. It probably was soon after his graduation in September 1775 that he became a member of a Newark company of Minute Men, which in the spring of 1776, after an existence "for upwards of four months" and after the Provincial Congress had decreed the incorporation of the personnel of such units in the regular body of the militia, petitioned that it might be incorporated as a distinct company of grenadiers. Burnet and his brother William, who was also destined for service in the army as a surgeon, were signers of this petition. For a time Burnet served as secretary of the county committee, and he has been credited with military service as a private, presumably before he was commissioned. The date of his commission as a major in the Conti­ nental service was January 9, 1778. How quickly thereafter he became attached to General Nathanael Greene as aide-de-camp cannot be said. There is evidence that he was with Greene from the summer of 1778 and that he was in New York in June 1780; and according to tradition, he was the Major Burnet who in the following September carried word to Major John Andre of his conviction as a British spy by a board of officers headed by General Greene. Later he was one of the two aides who accompanied Greene as he moved south to replace Horatio Gates as commander of the Southern Army in December 1780. The other was Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Morris IV (A.B. 1774). Much of the information available for the latter part of Burnet's service is attributable to the fact that Greene twice employed him as a courier for communications with the Congress in Philadelphia. On the first of these missions, one concerned primarily with supplies for Greene's army, Burnet left ithe Carolinas in August 1781, apparently in the company of Morris, and reached Philadelphia by the beginning of September. On the twelfth of that month a special committee re­ ported to Congress on its consultations with Burnet, Lewis Morris having left town, and on the fourteenth, Robert Morris wrote Greene that Burnet would receive money and supplies for his department. Burnet's return seems to have been postponed. Presumably, he was at Princeton on September 26 to receive his A.M. degree, the same day that General Greene was awarded an honorary A.M. A further post­ ponement may have come as the result of plans for Mrs. Greene to join her husband. It was expected that she would leave Philadelphia in December, but there was delay, and after a leisurely journey by

462

CLASS OF 1775

carriage, with Major Burnet as her escort, she reached headquarters in South Carolina in April. Burnet came north again early in 1783 as the bearer of news that the British had evacuated Charleston on December 14, 1782. A reso­ lution of thanks to General Greene was adopted by Congress on Janu­ ary 17, after some of its members expressed regret that the resolution failed to include an acknowledgement to Major Burnet. On February 6, from Newburgh, Washington sent his congratulations to Greene on "the glorious end you have put to hostilities in the Southern States" and explained that he would have written at greater length except that Burnet, who had "popped in unexpectedly," would be able to inform Greene of developments. From Newark on February 14 Burnet wrote Elisha Boudinot that he was leaving on the following day for South Carolina, where he intended immediately to establish a mercan­ tile house. This announcement has a special interest, for it relates to Burnet's apparent involvement in the serious embarrassment that overtook General Greene in the very moment of his triumph. In order to supply his army, camped outside Charleston, he had entered into a contract with one John Banks, of a firm, originally based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that had developed a trade with merchants inside the British lines in Charleston. It was not a remarkable development at a time when hostilities for practical purposes had ended, when Greene had little choice in the face of declining faith in the credit of the govern­ ment in Philadelphia, and when the need of his army was urgent. There seems to be no evidence that the general was guilty of indiscre­ tions such as that of providing flags of truce to cover the trade, but in Banks he was dealing with an unscrupulous, and indiscreet speculator, and the rumor spread that Greene was a partner in the contract for supply of his troops. The charge was rejected by many of his highly placed contemporaries, as it has been by historians, but unhappily the rumor was reinforced by evidence that two of Greene's aides, Major Robert Forsyth and Burnet, each had a fourth interest in the contract. The issue is complex, and space forbids an attempt here to resolve it. It can only be observed that historians have been inclined to accept the charge, and that Greene was obviously reluctant to believe Burnet was in any way involved beyond consultations with Banks, of which the general was aware, regarding a possible partnership after Burnet's release from the army. Burnet was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati in Georgia early in 1783, but he died on September 12 of that year, some

WILLIAM CLAYPOOLE

463

say in Charleston, others in Savannah, Georgia, but actually it appears in Havana. There is no reason for assuming that he had been married. SOURCES:

Because the public records so consistently refer only to Major Burnet, without a baptismal name, and perhaps because Heitman's standard Register omits Ichabod Burnet, editors and indexers have variously adopted for him the names of Robert, William, and John. The correct identification is provided by the following: W. Johnson, Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene, % vols. (1822), esp. 358-84, 404-37; Stryker, Off. Reg., 67, 159; Hamilton Papers, x, 406-68, esp. 416, 427, 446, 462, 464; PMHB, 3 (1879), 308-14; GMNJ, 1 (1925-26), 33-35, 37; T. Alden, Coll. Amer. Epitaphs, iv, #846; Soc. of Cincinnati in N.J. (1898), 63-64; M s Steward 's accounts, Trustee Minutes, 26 Sep 1781, PUA; N.Y. Gazette Madison Papers, 1, 68-69 (and cf. Robert Martin [Class of 1776]); N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (commencement); St. Rec. N.C., XIX, 898-903; XVII, 812, 896, 900; XIX, 582, 760; XXI, 1027, 1036, 1044; XXIV, 690; J. S. Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson (1911), R.D.W. Connor, Doc. Hist, of Univ. of N.C. (1953), i, 21-22; J. S. Brawley, The Rowan Story (1953); J. P. Arthur, Western N.C. (1914); W. H. Hoyt, Papers of Archibald Murphey (1914), 1, 34, 85. MANUSCRIPTS: Nc

WFC

James Malen JAMES MALEN has not been identified, in part because the one record of his attendance at the College—the steward's account that lists him among the students whose tuition payments were late as of September 29, 1772—is barely legible. The potential number of readings of the name on the list and its alternative spellings is too great to permit precise identification. SOURCES: MS Steward's accounts, PUA. If the steward did write "Malen," then the most likely place of origin for this student would be Chester, later Delaware Cnty., Pa., where the Malin family, of Quaker ancestry, was fairly numerous. A James Malin was among the citizens of Chester Cnty. who in 1779 surrendered themselves for trial for high treason under a proclamation against them by the state's Supreme Executive Council. Malin was discharged by proclamation, perhaps because he had already enlisted as a private soldier in the Pa. Line. From 1780 to 1786, he was enrolled in the fourth class of men eligible to serve in the county militia, and as a resident of Upper Providence Township, he was assigned to the Providence company. In 1781 he owned no cattle, sheep, servants, or land. In 1790, by which time Upper Providence was in Del. Cnty., he was the head of a family that apparently included a wife and three daughters. He may have been the same James Malin who served as executor for the will of John Phillips of East Whiteland Township, Chester Cnty., when Phillips died in 1834 at the age of 75. G. Smith, Hist, of Del. Cnty., Pa. (1862), 481; Pa. Arch. (6 ser.), xm, 476; 111, 136, 192, 251; (3 ser.), xi, 538; XII, 463, 607, 783; (5 ser.), iv, 219; v, 670, 672, 722, 730, 736, 752; First Census, Pa., 104; PGM, 29 (1975), 238η.

Daniel Martin DANIEL MARTIN (MARTON, MARTEN), probable A.B., may have been

the son of Henry Martin (A.B. 1751), who served as pastor of the Pres­ byterian church of Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from 1754 to his death in 1764, and who was married to Elizabeth Slack, probably a member of the Bucks County family of that name. He could have been closely related, possibly even as a son, to the Thomas Martin of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who died intestate at some time close to February 21, 1761. If so, Daniel's mother was probably named Mary Maple, described as the widow of Thomas, and his family connections may have included Alexander Martin (A.B. 1756), later governor of North Carolina, and Thomas Martin (A.B. 1762), who is best known as the tutor of James Madison (A.B. 1771). Daniel Martin apparently entered the College in November 1771, for on September 29, 1772, in competitions among the undergraduates preliminary to that year's commencement, he was awarded third prize for "translating from English into Latin" and described in a newspaper

DANIEL MARTIN

509

report as a member of the freshman class from Pennsylvania. A year later, this time as a member of the sophomore class, he won, together with Isaac Keith, a prize "for writing the best Latin Versions." His name appears on no less than three of the surviving accounts kept by the steward, including that for the period extending from May 25, 1773 to September 25, 1774, and that for November 1774 to April 10, 1 775' where he is listed as a member of the senior class. The ledger of Thomas Patterson, Princeton merchant, indicates that Martin settled an account for 6s on May 10, 1775 and that he was still in town on July 9 when he purchased three-quarters of a yard of chintz, for which payment seems to have been made on November 6. The evidence, in short, strongly suggests that he was in residence as a student for four full years, or at least nearly so, and that he won some distinction in the first two of these years. Even so, Daniel Martin has not found a place in the records of the University as a graduate of the College, and probably through no fault of his own. The fault, if that it be, lies first in the Minutes of the trustees for their meeting of September 27, 1775· It is recorded there that "The committee, appointed to attend the examination [of the sen­ ior class], report that they examined the class being 27 in number, &. agreed to recommend them all for degrees." The Board then adopted the report and directed the president "to confer degrees upon the whole class, except Mr. Craighead who was absent; but ordered that that gentleman receive his degree as soon as he should discharge to the Steward all his college dues." The minutes continue: "The following gentlemen are admitted to the degree of Batchelor of Arts viz-", but there follows only a blank space obviously intended for a listing of the graduates by name, which the clerk never got around to filling. A similar blank space follows the notation of action for the award of the A.M. degrees. Thus, the only surviving contemporary record of the degrees awarded at the commencement of September 27, 1775, is found in two New York newspaper accounts of the exercises—one in the N.Y. Gazette ir Weekly Mercury of October 9, the other in Rivington's New York Gazetteer of October 12. Each of these accounts lists by name twenty-six young men who were awarded the bachelor's degree. Comparison with the steward's earlier list of twenty-nine members of the class reveals that the missing names were those of Thomas Craighead, Daniel Martin, and Samuel Vickers. For reasons unknown, Vickers must have dropped out before the final examination, normally given in August, for later he received his degree as a member of the Class of 1777. The omission of Craighead is ex­ plained by the minute of the trustees quoted above, and so the question

510

CLASS OF 1775

of whether Martin's name belonged in the list of graduates would seem, at first glance, to have a very simple mathematical solution. The fact that his name was omitted in two separately published accounts argues little, for the two accounts are virtually word for word the same, which lends support to an assumption that all such reports were pre­ pared for distribution to the newspapers by someone in the College. However, a difficult question remains. If the statement in the trustees' Minutes that Craighead "was absent" be read to mean that he was not present for the examination, as might be expected in the case of a student who had not met his financial obligations, the preceding order that the president confer degrees upon the "whole class" of twentyseven members argues that, through some error in transcription, one name was omitted from the published list of graduates, and that the name could only have been Martin's. On the other hand, if the minute be read to mean that Craighead had been allowed to take the examina­ tion but was absent on commencement day for the reason given, it has to be assumed that Martin somehow had been disqualified in advance of the examination taken by other members of the class. It is difficult to think of an explanation other than a serious infraction of the disciplinary rules of the College—so serious in fact as to lead one to expect that the trustees would have been informed of it—but it is obvious that the clerk's record of that day's proceedings is an imperfect one. The probable A.B. here credited to Martin depends upon the simple rule that a student is entitled to the benefit of any doubt arising from imperfection in the record kept of his performance. Unhappily, little can be added regarding Daniel Martin. The name was common in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as it was also in other states. He could have been the second lieutenant of the Bucks County Militia, found in the records under the date of May 6, 1777, who appar­ ently resigned his commission as a first lieutenant prior to October 29, 1779; and/or the trooper listed in the Light Horse of Bucks County in 1781. Tax lists show a Daniel Martin resident in Newtown in 1779, 1781, and 1782, but not in the two following years. Or perhaps he was the Daniel Martin of nearby Middletown Township who in 1784 owned a house and was head of a family of four whites and two blacks. Or possibly he and the Daniel Martin who at the time of the census of 1790 had a family that included three white males under 16, five white females, one other free person, and one slave were one and the same. Whether living then at Newtown or not, a Daniel Martin was active in the fall of 1788 as a member of the Newtown Library Company, as was Henry Wynkoop (Class of 1760). Perhaps Martin lived out a quiet

JOHN MONTGOMERY

511

life as a substantial resident of Bucks County. Perhaps, in the contem­ porary phrase, he "moved away," as did so many of his generation. OURCES: Princetonians, ι·]^8-ιη68, 40, 157-60, 394-95; N.J. Wills, iv, 275; NJA (1 ser.), xxviii, 272; xxix, 56; Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; Patterson Acct. Bk.; Trustee Minutes, PUA; Pa. Arch. (5 ser), v, 339, 391, 415; (3 ser.), XIII, 14, 122, 238, 501; First Census, Pa., 51; Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Papers, 111, 322-23. WFC

S

John Montgomery JOHN MONTGOMERY, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, was born December 5, 1752, in Augusta County, Virginia, the son of John Montgomery, an immigrant from Ireland, and his wife Esther Houston. The couple had been married in 1738 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and had migrated to Virginia about 1747. The son was prepared for college in a neighboring Latin school, which at the time was probably conducted under the general supervision of Reverend John Brown (A.B. 1749). Montgomery entered the College in the fall of 1773 as a member of the junior class and was admitted to membership in the Cliosophic Society on March 7, 1774. At his commencement on September 28 he opposed Andrew Kirkpatrick in a Latin dispute of the following question: "An immortalitas mentis humanae ratione sola demonstrari potest?" After graduation Montgomery returned to Virginia, where in Octo­ ber 1775 the Hanover Presbytery agreed that William Graham (A.B. 1773) should have charge of the school known as Augusta Academy and that Mr. John Montgomery, "late from Princeton College," should be his assistant. There, presumably, Montgomery began his theological studies with Graham, possibly with some assistance from John Brown. The two appointments were renewed in May 1776, when the academy was formally described as Liberty Hall. How long Montgomery may have continued to instruct at Timber Ridge, where the academy was situated in 1776, seems not to be known. It is clear that wartime con­ ditions and a move by Graham to a site near the modern town of Lexington had brought an end to the school at Timber Ridge by 1780. But when the academy was revived after the war, Montgomery was among the trustees named under an act of incorporation secured from the Virginia legislature in 1782, so he has been remembered as one of the original trustees of an institution that became in time Wash­ ington and Lee University. An official catalogue of the university in­ dicates that he vacated the office by 1784.

512

CLASS OF 1775

Meanwhile, Montgomery had been licensed to preach on October 28, 1778 and ordained on April 27, 1780. However, as late as October 26, 1781, he seems not to have held a pastorate of his own, for he then informed the Hanover Presbytery that he was giving further considera­ tion to a call from Winchester and Opequon. He must have made up his mind soon thereafter, for he is recorded as pastor there from 1781 until 1789, when he moved to the Rocky Springs and Lebanon con­ gregations, a pastorate he held until his death. His ministry seems generally to have been uneventful. The most controversial issue in which he became involved was doubtless that centering on proposals for a general tax assessment by the state legislature for the support of religion, as distinct from sup­ port of a particular denomination, a proposal that by its defeat in the fall of 1785 cleared the way for enactment of Jefferson's Statute of Re­ ligious Liberty. It is difficult to be certain as to the position he took on this divisive issue. He was at the meeting of the presbytery in the fall of 1784 that adopted a memorial representing a compromise of views that apparently took shape in part from the assumption that some kind of assessment was likely to be enacted, so that the issue was one of assuring adoption of the right kind of assessment. It should be noted that Montgomery was one of four ministers charged with presentation of the presbytery's views. His association with William Graham, lead­ ing opponent among Presbyterian clergymen, suggests that he too may have opposed the assessment, but at the meeting of May 1785, at which the Hanover Presbytery unanimously rejected "any kind of an assess­ ment," Montgomery was absent. In January 1782 Montgomery married Agnes Hughart, the daughter of Colonel Thomas Hughart, also of Augusta County. The couple had eleven children (six girls and five boys), three of whom died in their youth. Montgomery died on February 10, 1818, and was buried in the cemetery of Rocky Springs Church. His widow died early in 1824. SOURCES: Alumni file; MS Clio. Soc. membership list; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; L. Chalkley, Records of Augusta Cnty., Va. (1912), 11, 432, 433; HI, 235-36; VMHB, 68

(i960), 78; O. Crenshaw, Gen. Lee's College (1969), 5-6, 11-12; als E. Crawford to J. Crawford, 25 Nov 1773, PPPrHi; N.Y. Gazette if Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (com­ mencement); Foote, Sketches, Va., 332-38, 340-41, 442, 447, 448, 457, 458; Washington and Lee Univ., Historical Papers, 1 (1890), 19-21, 30; and Cat. of Officers and Alumni (1888), 37; Alexander, Princeton, 189; Rec. Pres. Chh., 495; H. J. Eckenrode, Separa­ tion of Chh. and St. in Va. (1910), passim; JPHS, 34 (1956), 210-14. WFC

Thomas Neal THOMAS NEAL has not been identified. His enrollment as a student in

the College is established by a single entry in the surviving, and very incomplete, records of the steward, which shows that on September 29, 1772, he had an outstanding bill of £3 2s 6d. This suggests that he was enrolled at least as early as the fall of 1771, and if then he was admitted as a freshman, he would have belonged to the Class of 1775, where he is placed now for want of fuller information. SOURCES: MS Steward's accounts, PUA. The name of Neal (Neale, Nealle, Neil, Neel, etc.) was common throughout the colonies, and the name of Thomas no less popular with the Neals than it was with other families. Thomas Neals living at this time have been identified in eight separate provinces from Mass. to S.C., and in some, more than one was found. Since one of the possibilities is the Neal (NeaIe) family of Va. and Md., it is o£ interest to note that a Thomas Neale was enrolled in Donald Robertson's school in King and Queen Cnty., Va. from 1763 to 1765, as was also a William Neale in 1763 and 1764 (VMHB, 34 [1926], 142-43). If this Thomas Neale, who apparently began the study of Latin in 1764, later came to Princeton, he was probably more than a freshman in 1772. See also S. P. Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States (1911, 1968), 396; G. M. Brumbaugh, Md. Recs., 1, 141, 168; 11, 288. WFC

John Pigeon, Jr. JOHN PIGEON, JR., A.B., merchant, was born in Boston, Massachusetts

on April 9, 1756. His mother was Jane Dumaresq Pigeon and his father, John Pigeon, was an active member of Christ Church, of which he was later a senior warden and vestryman. John Pigeon, Sr., was a prosperous merchant and one of the relatively few Anglican Whigs in Boston. In 1770 the family moved to Newton, Massachusetts and then took in John Marrett (Harvard 1763) as a boarder. Marrett, a Congrega­ tional minister of liberal theological views who had taught school for several years in Westborough, Massachusetts, may have had charge of the education of the Pigeon children. Young John Pigeon's enrollment in the College by May 1773 may have been influenced by Marrett and by his father's political beliefs. In the summer of 1774 Pigeon received a letter from his father that had been carried to Princeton by John Adams. He took Adams on a tour of the town, pointing out Morven, seat of the Stockton family, and introducing him to William Churchill Houston (A.B. 1768), the Pro­ fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. With his fellow student

514

CLASS OF 1775

from Massachusetts Samuel Whitwell (A.B. 1774), Pigeon assured Adams that the scholars worked very hard in the strict college environ­ ment. Pigeon returned to Newton after graduation, at a time when Massa­ chusetts was in turmoil. His father had been a delegate to the Provin­ cial Congress in Concord and was the commissary general of the em­ bryonic army until Washington replaced him with Joseph Trumbull in July 1775. He remained an active patriot, serving on several local com­ mittees to further the war effort. But his son seems to have taken no role whatsoever in the Revolution. After his father died, Pigeon continued to reside with his mother in Newton, keeping a general store in West Newton after the war. In 1790 he married Mindwell Parker, and together they had six children. By 1798 he owned a house and two and one-half acres of land in Newton, with a modest combined value of $890. Sometime before his death on July 18, 1800, Pigeon opened another store in nearby Lower Falls. SOURCES :

F. Jackson, Hist, of Early Settlement of Newton (1854), 228, 396; Boston Town Rec., xxiv, 289; xxx, 4; D. H. Hurd, Hist, of Middlesex Cnty., Mass. (1890), HI, 23, 25; R. Frothingham, Jr., Hist, of Siege of Boston (1851), 51; H. W. Foote, Annals of King's Chapel (1896), 11, 61 n. 1, 298; J. Cary, Joseph Warren (1961), 209; Washington Writings, HI, 336 n. 80; Sibley's Harvard Graduates, xv, 437; Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; Adams Papers, 11 1 1 2 - 1 3 ; First Census, Mass., 1 5 0 ; Vital Records of Newton, Mass. (1905), 489.

James R. Reid J AMES R . R EID, A.B., A.M. 1780, soldier and public official, was prob­ ably the son of James Reid, an Irish Presbyterian immigrant who in 1738 settled in the Manor of Maske on Marsh Creek in York County, Pennsylvania. The senior James Reid farmed a tract of land near Hamiltonban Township, where his son was born on August 11, 1750. The derivation of young Reid's middle initial is unclear. Depending upon the source, his second name may have been Randolph or Ru­ dolph, and his mother's maiden name may have been Ramsey. It is pos­ sible that he simply adopted a middle initial to distinguish himself from the dozens of other men with the same name. Reid joined the American Whig Society at the College. In his com­ mencement exercises he participated in a forensic dispute, opposing the proposition that "Civil liberty promotes virtue and happiness." Immediately after graduation, Reid joined Anthony Wayne's Fourth Regiment of Pennsylvania Continentals as a first lieutenant in Captain Thomas Church's company. Early in 1776 the unit marched to Albany,

JAMES R. REID

515

New York and in July it was camped at Fort Ticonderoga. From there, Wayne occasionally sent patrols in strength into Canada. Church's company undertook such a mission but returned within a few weeks because it was drastically short of supplies. One of Reid's fellow officers in the company was his classmate Second Lieutenant Charles Clinton Beatty. On November 3, 1776, Reid was promoted to captain. He then trans­ ferred to Colonel Moses Hazen's Second Canadian Regiment, called "Congress's Own" because the responsibility for provisioning it lay with Congress rather than with any state. The Second Canadian was made up primarily of foreign troops, most of them from Canada, but it was never a full-strength regiment. It was under Washington's direct command in late 1777. On September 1 Reid was promoted to major as the regiment settled into winter quarters at Valley Forge. From the outset, Reid and Hazen were at each other's throats. By March 1779, Hazen was ready to do almost anything to rid himself of the younger officer. At first, Washington dismissed Hazen's complaints, but the colonel was more than persistent and carried his grievances to President Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757) of Pennsylvania. The Second Canadian gradually split between supporters of Hazen and supporters of Reid. In August 1780 a court-martial acquitted Hazen of disobeying orders and of unsoldierly conduct, although Wash­ ington gently reprimanded the colonel for his behavior during a march from Tappan to Liberty Pole, New Jersey. Reid may have had a hand in bringing the charges, for after the court-martial Hazen's wrath was unbounded. On November 6 Reid complained to Washington that Hazen had listed him with a false date of rank. While the commander in chief investigated the charge, Reid was sent to West Point to sit on two boards of inquiry regarding ithe recent treason of Benedict Arnold. When he returned to army headquarters in December, he was placed under arrest. Hazen charged Reid with everything from ungentlemanly behavior to fraud, but he was especially enraged at Reid's public vituperations against his dignity. Washington tried to calm Hazen and urged a speedy trial, which began on December 21 at New Windsor, New York. On February 8, 1781, the court found Reid innocent of all charges. Washington, who had anticipated that verdict, agreed to reprimand Reid for his "undecent Levity" and disrespectful comments about Hazen. But if he hoped that the case would end there, he was to be disappointed. In June 1781, General George Clinton ordered the Second Canadian to the Mohawk River Valley. He soon regretted having done so, for in

516

CLASS OF 1775

spite of its excellent combat record, the regiment was virtually without discipline and on the verge of mutiny. Certainly, the Reid-Hazen feud did nothing to appease the men, who wanted their back pay at once. Tensions eased somewhat when the unit went south in September to join LaFayette's corps in the Yorktown campaign. When he returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in December, Reid asked Washington for a furlough. His request was granted on the condition that he return to duty in time to relieve Hazen and his second in command for their own leaves of absence. But Reid did not return in time, possibly because he knew that Hazen could not leave Lancaster without a relief. When he finally arrived in early June, Reid was arrested again. He was not tried until December 1782. Hazen revived all of his old charges and added a few more, but the only charge upheld by the court was that Reid had signed himself a major in the "First Battalion of Light Infantry" when no such unit existed. That, the members concluded, was "so trifling that it strongly marks the prosecution against him." Hazen would not accept the verdict. He immediately charged the trial judge advocate with misconduct and demanded a court of inquiry. For six months Hazen pressed his case, to the consternation and even­ tual infuriation of Washington. The inquiry was held; Reid and the judge advocate were acquitted; and the commander in chief told Hazen that there was to be no more "persecution" of Major Reid. Reid then left the army. He later received depreciation pay. Reid's career for the next four years is obscure, but on November 13, 1787, he was elected by the Pennsylvania legislature to represent the state in the Continental Congress. His fellow delegates included his friend General William Irvine and John Armstrong, Jr. (Class of 1776). Reid arrived in New York on December 19, 1787. While there he sent frequent appeals to Pennsylvania for advances on his salary. The Continental Congress was a virtual anachronism in 1788 as the Constitution was ratified and preparations made for a new government. Quorums were rare and few important questions were decided. Reid took a particular interest in four issues. He vigorously supported the creation of Kentucky as an independent state, but Alexander Hamilton and his allies managed to table that question for settlement by the federal government. On behalf of Pennsylvania, Reid and his col­ leagues stayed alert to the status of western lands that were ceded to the nation, and in July 1788 they offered $3/4 per acre for a new tract between Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania border. Pennsylvania was also anxious to appoint the commander of a corps of troops raised from several states to serve on the western frontier

JAMES R. REID

517

in the aftermath of Shay's Rebellion. Reid jumped at the chance to apply, saying that since he sought "fame" more than money, he would "serve . . . without pay." He did not obtain the appointment. Finally, Reid and his colleagues tried to delay the institution of the new gov­ ernment until they could be sure that the national capital would be located in Pennsylvania. To do that, the Pennsylvanians disingenu­ ously seconded arguments for postponement with which they otherwise would not have agreed. "Honesty is certainly the best policy," wrote Reid to his friend Tench Coxe, "but it cannot always be brought fairly into view." On this issue, however, the laxness of attendance at Con­ gress was especially troublesome. In September 1788, with most of their allies absent, the Pennsylvania delegates had to admit defeat and vote for the resolution that both terminated the Continental Congress and began the federal era. Reid was paid £733 for his service in that session and in November 1788 was reelected to the last few months of the Confederation Con­ gress. He was in New York on January 1, 1789, but it is not clear how long he stayed. In February Nicholas Gilman, an influential political figure, received a letter in which Reid claimed to have "given ten years of [his] life to [his] Country." Reid asserted that his "circumstances [were] independent" and that he had the "leisure to attend to public business." Hoping to be named collector of the federal revenue in Pennsylvania, he looked forward to seeing Gilman at "about the time of our death." Reid meant the "death" of Congress. Had he been speak­ ing of himself, he might have said "resurrection," for the letter had been mailed from New York several weeks after Reid himself had gone home, seriously ill. He died on January 25, 1789, in Middlesex, near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His will mentioned a wife, Frances, brothers and sisters, but no children. Neither the size of the fortune he described to Gilman nor its source is clear. SOURCES: BDAC; alumni file, PUA; P M H B , 15 (1891), 352-53 (which confuses at least two different careers); Hist, of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pa. (1886) [Adams] 22, 23, 277; N.Y. Gazette if W e e k l y Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (commencement); N.J. Gazette, 11 Oct 1780 (A.M.); Pa. Arch. (5 ser.), n, 50, 136-40, 152; iv, 487; (2 ser.), xi, 100; (1 ser.), xi, 280; Γ. A. Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units (1972), 17, 60; Valley Forge Orderly Book of Gen. George W e e d o n (1902), 118, 149; W a s h ­ ington Writings, xiv, 236-37; xvni, passim; xix, 2, 76, 154, 220, 447; xx, passim; xxi, 234-35, 240-4 1 ; xxiii, 148, 244, 315, 408; xxiv, 256-57, 363-64; xxv, 493; xxvi, 149-52 ("trifling charge"), passim; xxvn, 29-30, 30η, 31 ("persecution"); J. Sparks, ed., Correspondence of t h e A m e r . Rev., Letters t o W a s h i n g t o n , m (1853), 337; L M C C , viii, lx, xcv, 693, 730, 742-59, 802, 803η; 822-23 & η · ("time of o u r death"); Col. Rec. Pa., v , 499; E. S. Maclay, Journal of W i l l i a m Maclay (1890), 125-26; Susquehanna Papers, ix, 413-14 ("fame"); Doc. Hist. Fed. Elect., 1, 94 ("Honesty"); M i n u t e s of t h e . . . Gen. Assembly of Pa. (1788), 238; Carlisle Gazette, 3 Feb 1789.

John Richardson Bayard Rodgers JOHN RICHARDSON BAYARD RODGERS, A.B., A.M. 1782, M.B. Pennsyl­

vania 1784, M.D. Edinburgh 1785, physician, was born December 28, 1757, at St. Georges, Delaware, the son of Reverend John Rodgers (hon. A.M. 1760) and his wife Elizabeth Bayard. The father, a promi­ nent Presbyterian minister, was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City from 1765 and a trustee of the College from 1765 to 1807, received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1768, and later enjoyed the distinction of serving as the first moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1789. The son prepared for college at the Latin grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, of which Tapping Reeve (A.B. 1763) was master until 1769, when he was succeeded by Joseph Periam (A.B. 1762).

John Richardson Bayard Rodgers, A.B. 1775 BY JOHN WESLEY JARVIS

JOHN RICHARDSON BAYARD RODGERS

519

Rodgers entered the College in 1771, when he also joined the Cliosophic Society. Among his fellow members he was known as "Pindar," after the Greek poet. In the public competitions among the under­ graduates that preceded the commencement exercises of September 1772, he won second prize for reading English. At the end of his sopho­ more year in 1773, he won a prize for "pronouncing English Orations," and in his junior year, he took second place to his classmate Charles Lee in a competition for reading English and "answering questions on the construction, orthography, and punctuation" of the language. At his own commencement on September 27, 1775, he had the honor of delivering the valedictory oration on the subject of "magnanimity." His oratorical achievements suggest that he might have been headed for the ministry, but he seems immediately after graduation to have been apprenticed for the study of medicine to Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who became his close friend. The termination of the apprentice­ ship has been placed in 1778, but it could have been in the next year, when on October 1, Rodgers became surgeon for the First Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line. He continued in that position, presumably until the end of 1782, for as of January 1, 1783, he was surgeon for the Third Regiment, in which capacity he evidently served until the following June. His activity thereafter is suggested by the fact that in 1784 he received a bachelor's degree in medicine from the Uni­ versity of the State of Pennsylvania. He was in London by the summer of that year, and after study at Edinburgh he qualified for his doctorate in 1785. Returned to America, he began a practice in Philadelphia, but late in 1788 or at the beginning of 1789 he moved to New York City with the enthusiastic endorsement of Benjamin Rush in a letter of January 5, 1789 to Alexander Hamilton. Said Rush, "he is a gentleman of solid abilities—great industry—and extensive information in his profession." No doubt the eminence of his father as a clergyman in the city was helpful in the establishment of his practice. He became an active mem­ ber of the Medical Society of the State of New York, of which he later served as president, and he headed the committee of that organization that, early in 1799, collaborated with committees representing the Common Council and the Chamber of Commerce in preparing and publishing, together with the Commissioners of Health, special reports regarding a recent epidemic of yellow fever. He seems to have shared a belief with his former mentor Rush that the disease was "of domestic origin" and not contagious. Subsequently, he himself became one of the commissioners of health for the city and the port. Of greater impor­ tance was his work in the field of medical education. From 1792 to 1808

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he was Professor of Midwifery in the medical faculty of Columbia College, and from 1808 to 1833 Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children in the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of which he was an original member in 1807. He also served as surgeon of the regiments of state militia commanded by Jacob Mor­ ton (A.B. 1778). Rodgers died in New York on January 29, 1833, having been an elder in the First Presbyterian Church for thirty years and one of the original Directors of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 18x2 to 1821. He was first married on July 5, 1790, to Susanna R. Kearny, daughter of Reverend Ravaud Kearny of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Before her death in October 1799, the couple became parents of six children, two girls, one of whom died at an early age, and four boys, including John K. Rodgers (A.B. 1811) and Ravaud K. Rodgers (A.B. 1815). His second marriage, on October 12, 1801, was to Helen McDougal, widow of Peter McDougal and daughter of Alexander Robert­ son. Their child was Alexander R. Rodgers (A.B. 1825). Following the death of his second wife in 1818, he was married a third time, on No­ vember 29, 1819, to Hannah Smith, widow of James R. Smith and daughter of Reverend James Caldwell (A.B. 1759). SOURCES: Giger, Memoirs; F. L. Weis, Colonial Clergy of Middle Colonies (1957), 299; alumni file; MS Clio. Soc. membership list; Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; PaGazette, 14 Oct 1772, 13 Oct 1773; Pa. Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12 Oct 1774; N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, g Oct 1775 (commencement); College of Physicians of Phila., Transactions and Studies (4 ser.), 14 (1946), 127-32; PMHB, 67 (1943), 9, 14, 16, 20; 78 (1954), 29-30 ("great industry"); Pa. Arch., (2 ser.), x, 325, 327, 329, 453; Heitman; Index, Rev. War Pension Applications, g6g; DAR Patriot Index, 579; MCCCNY, 11, 494-99, 500-508; HI, 460-61; v, 611; vi, 747; xiv, 605, 619, 620; Μ. H. Thomas, Columbia Univ. Officers and Alumni (1936), 19, 22, 31, 34, 81; B. Stookey, Hist, of Colonial Medical Education in . . . N.Y. (1919), 1, 59, 66, 67, 73; Stiles, Literary Diary, in, 444-45; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 11, 694-99, 701> Ίλ9· 794> 795' L. A. Keyes, Lineages of the Ninth Regt. of • . . N.Y. (1953), vii. PUBLICATIONS; Dissertatio medica, inauguralis, de dysenteria . . . (1785); Sh-Sh, 29677 WFC

Archibald Scott ARCHIBALD SCOTT, A.B., Presbyterian clergyman, by all accounts was born in Scotland and migrated to Pennsylvania as a youth or young man. He reportedly made his way first as a farm laborer and then as a teacher of "a common English school." About 1765, or perhaps later, he came to the attention of Reverend Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763),

ARCHIBALD SCOTT

521

pastor of the Middle Spring church of Cumberland County, Pennsyl­ vania. Cooper found Scott teaching school near Shippensburg and undertaking on his own, with the aid of a few books, to lay the founda­ tion for a classical education. The account providing this information declares that Cooper, impressed by Scott's enterprise and aptitude, offered to instruct him. Other accounts indicate that Scott studied with James Finley of East Nottingham, Maryland, brother to president of the College Samuel Finley. It is possible, of course, that he studied with both men. The steward's records show him as a student in the College at the end of May 1773, which argues that he may have been enrolled since the fall of 1772. He apparently did not belong to either of the literary societies, and on commencement day of 1775 he had no part in the exercises aside from receiving his degree. Scott must have decided on a ministerial career before graduation, for he was licensed to preach by the Hanover Presbytery on October 31, 1777, a little over two years after he had graduated. He had been reading theology with William Graham (A.B. 1773) and perhaps teaching on the side to meet ex­ penses. In December 1778 Scott was installed and ordained as pastor of two churches in Augusta County, Virginia, later known as Hebron and Bethel. He continued in this pastorate until his death on March 4, !799-

An unpublished manuscript account of Scott's career explains that he found his way to Virginia in the first instance because of a friendship he formed in college with a fellow student named Ramsay, surely James Ramsay (A.B. 1776), that he visited Ramsay's home, and that he sub­ sequently married Ramsay's sister. He did marry a Frances Ramsay or Ramsey, of Augusta County, according to one source, on August 16, 1781, but perhaps at a date closer to March 18, 1783, when he pur­ chased a farm of 245 acres. He probably cultivated the land with the aid of his two slaves. At his death he left a widow, who died not long thereafter, and eight children, four girls and four boys, of whom in January 1801 William Ramsey and William Wilson were guardians. The estate, of which James Ramsey was executor, was not finally settled for a number of years thereafter. Scott's career thus was short, and it probably should be described as undistinguished. The manuscript previously cited, written by one who in his youth had heard Scott preach, speaks of his sermons as being solemn, unadorned, over-organized, tedious, and delivered with a marked nasal tone, but not without a degree of effectiveness that won the attention and loyalty of his congregations. He is credited also with conscientious performance of his pastoral duties, with a visit at least

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once each year to every family of his scattered flocks. He evidently became noted, even outside his own parish, for the attention he gave to catechising his people. Local tradition holds that in June 1781 he sent out the younger persons of a group gathered for this purpose to warn the surrounding communities of a threatening report of the famous British Colonel Tarleton's approach, a threat which, happily, did not materialize. He himself is described as diffident and disinclined to assume leadership in the affairs of his denomination. This trait may be attributable to the fact that smallpox had left its mark upon his face and one eye. He apparently was tall and large framed, but not stout. As did other Presbyterian ministers of his time and place, he showed an active interest in education. He was chosen by Hanover Presbytery in 1782 as a trustee of Liberty Hall, later Washington College, but his name was omitted in the act of incorporation secured that year from the legislature. He joined the board, however, in 1784 and served until his death. He also in 1792 became one of the original trustees of the Staunton Academy. SOURCES: A. Alexander and J. Carnahan, MS "Notices of Distinguished Graduates," NjP; L. Chalkley, Records of Augusta Cnty., Va. (191a), n, 388, 391; HI, 173, 229, 231, 239, 567; Sprague, Annals, hi, 387-89; Foote, Sketches, Va., 11, 203-210; Webster, Ms Brief Sketches; Alexander, Princeton, 190; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; N.Y. Gazette if Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775; DAR Patriot Index, 598; Hening, Statutes, x , 361-63; Va. Tax Payers, 1782-87 (1966), 111; J. A. Waddell, Annals of Augusta Cnty., Va. (1902), 274; Washington and Lee Univ., Cat. of Alumni (1888), 35-37. WFC

John Anderson Scudder JOHN ANDERSON SCUDDER, A.B., A.M. 1778, physician and public official, was the son of Isabella Anderson Scudder and Dr. Nathaniel Scudder (A.B. 1751) of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He was born there on March 22, 1759 and was probably educated by William Tennent, Jr., a trustee of the College and minister of the local Presbyterian church, in which Scudder had been baptized. On June 10, 1772, Scudder joined the Cliosophic Society as a fresh­ man. His name in the society was that of the Roman statesman and philosopher, "Seneca." A few months earlier, his father had been admitted as an alumnus to the society with the pseudonym "Syden­ ham," after the seventeenth century English physician. Immediately after graduating, Scudder began to study medicine, probably as his father's apprentice, but the Revolution interrupted his training. In December 1776 he enlisted as a surgeon's mate in the Bucks County,

JOHN ANDERSON SCUDDER

523

Pennsylvania Militia, and on May i, 1777, he joined the First Regi­ ment of Monmouth County Militia with the same rank. His father was regimental commander. Scudder returned to Princeton for the commencement of 1778, both to take his second degree and to watch his brother Joseph graduate. Perhaps because there were only five members in the graduating class that year, John A. Scudder was chosen to deliver the salutatory address. His topic was "civil disorder." Before resuming his studies he served as surgeon's mate on the privateer Congress and he may have been aboard the vessel when it was captured by the British in September 1781. At the end of the war he established a medical practice in Mon­ mouth County. On November 1, 1785, he and Robert R. Henry (A.B. 1776) were examined and admitted to the state medical society. Three years later Scudder was elected to serve one year as its secretary. It was probably soon afterward that Scudder married Elizabeth Forman, the daughter of Ezekiel and Catharine Wyckoff Forman of Monmouth County. The wedding almost certainly occurred in the Old Tennent Church in Freehold, of which Scudder was a trustee when it was incorporated in 1786. He owned one of its most expensive pews and between 1792 and 1804 all ten of his children were baptized there. Scudder first entered politics in 1801 and he did so as a Jeffersonian Republican, becoming part of that party's first majority in the state assembly. He served in the assembly until 1807, and in 1809 was elected to the Legislative Council. Opposed to the banking system that then prevailed in New Jersey, and determined to make the holders of bank stocks share the public debt, the Republicans in 1808 tried to impose a tax on those stocks. Their own majority in the assembly defeated the bill that year; and while it passed the assembly in 1809 it was vetoed by the Legislative Council. Although he was a Republican and had supported the meas­ ure earlier, Scudder cast the deciding negative vote. James J. Wilson, leader of the party in New Jersey, accused Scudder of having taken a Federalist bribe. Wilson's charges were so violent that even the Newark Centinel, a safely Republican journal, declared that he had gone too far. Wilson not only persisted in his attack against Scudder, whom he said was distinguished only for "tergiversation and inconsistency;" he also berated the Centinel. Scudder fought back as best he could, but in the election of 1810 he was not returned to the council. He was, however, appointed to fill the unexpired term of Congress­ man James Cox when Cox died later that year. Scudder arrived in Con­ gress on December 3, 1810 and voted regularly with the Democratic members. He was in the minority that tried to block an investigation

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of James Wilkinson's role in the alleged conspiracy of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). And before he left Congress in March 1811, he served on a committee to study the building of a road from the Indiana Territory to Detroit. Scudder did not stand for election to the next Congress. His investi­ gation of the Indiana road may have whetted his interest in the west, for some time after leaving Washington he moved with his family to Mayslick, Mason County, Kentucky. He practiced medicine there until 1819, when he moved again to Washington, Daviess County, Indiana. He was one of the first physicians in the county, and he died there on November 6, 1836. At least three of his children predeceased him. BDAC; E. F. Cooley, Geneal. of Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing (1883), S. Wickes, Hist, of Med. in N.J., 395; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; Stryker, Off. Reg., 3 7 8 ; N.J. Gazette, 2 1 Oct 1 7 7 8 ( A . M .); Medical Soc. of N.J., Rise, Min. and Proceedings ( 1 8 7 5 ) , 4 6 , 7 5 ; F. R. Symmes, Hist, of Old Tennent Chh. ( 1 9 0 4 ) , 1 1 7 , 1 1 8 , 2 2 0 , 2 3 3 - 4 2 ; W. R. Fee, Transition from Aristocracy to Democracy in N.J. (1933), 165; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1967), 166; Newark Centinel, 1 0 Apr 1 8 1 0 (tergiversation"); A/C, X X I I , 3 8 2 , 4 5 0 , 8 3 0 , 8 9 4 - 9 5 1 0 94! Hist, of Knox and Daviess Counties, Ind. (1886), 796-97. SOURCES:

239, 242;

John Springer J OHN S PRINGER, A.B., schoolmaster and Presbyterian clergyman, was

born September 18, 1744, the son of John Springer and his wife Mary Demsy Springer, in New Castle County, Delaware. When 22 years of age, according to an account of his own written in 1772, he felt a "strong desire to become a minister," and sought his parents' assistance in meeting "the expence which my learning would require." His father having limited the assistance to £100, a total that may not have been immediately available, the son began his schooling with Reverend Robert Smith of Pequea, Pennsylvania, a trustee of the College from 1772 to 1793, and the father of Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), later president of the College. No doubt it was on Robert Smith's recommendation that Springer became a beneficiary of a special fund for the support of pious and indigent students, who generally were prospective candidates for the ministry. After more than a year's study with Smith, Springer arrived in Princeton on January 12, 1770. He was at first enrolled in the grammar school. He explained that he applied himself "closely to study, in order to enter the College"—so closely indeed that he experienced "some abatement of the life of re­ ligion" and "enjoyed little comfort for a year and a half" before a revival in Nassau Hall during the spring of 1772, by which time he had

JOHN SPRINGER

525

enrolled in the College. At his commencement he delivered an oration on "The Nature and Pernicious Effects of Luxury." He had become a member of the Whig Society. After graduating Springer was engaged by Samuel Stanhope Smith, newly designated head of the Prince Edward Academy in Virginia, later to become Hampden-Sidney College, as an assistant for instruc­ tion. He was to begin in January 1776. Instead, he remained as a tutor at Princeton during the academic year of 1775-1776, but late in 1776 he joined Smith's staff at Hampden-Sidney. His duties at the academy seem to have been terminated on May 11, 1777, when he confessed to the trustees "that he had been drunk and did gamble at New London [Va.], on one occasion." The trustees in "consideration of his candour" agreed upon the lesser penalty of a suspension, but there is no evidence that he continued with the academy. This fall from grace probably explains his extraordinary delay in qualifying for the ministry upon which he had determined before coming .to the College, a delay his friends later attributed to "a sense of his own unworthiness." Under date of April 2, 1784, his name ap­ pears in a list of "members, Probationers, &c." of the Orange Presby­ tery, somewhat cryptically as "Mr. John Springer, began June 1782." In 1787 he was transferred from the Orange Presbytery to the Presby­ tery of South Carolina, and it was to the latter that he applied in October of that year for a license to preach, apparently for the first time. He actually was licensed on October 18, 1788. Almost two years passed before he was ordained. His activity through the years immediately following 1777 has left a very faint trace. According to tradition he saw some kind of military service during the Revolutionary War. At some time he moved from Virginia to North Carolina, through the influence, it is said, of James Hall (A.B. 1774), with whom he reportedly read theology. In the spring of 1782 Springer was a joint petitioner with Reverend Henry Pattillo, an especially respected pioneer of Presbyterianism in North Carolina, to the legislature of that state for a purpose the record unfortunately does not specify. It was probably for an educational venture, perhaps sponsored by the Presbytery of Orange, for Springer was a school teacher before he became a preacher, and thereafter continued to combine teaching with preaching. On December 9, 1783, he was married to Ann Green, daughter of William Green, one of the more prosperous planters of Warren County, North Carolina. The couple had eight children, one son and seven daughters, one of them born after the father's death. In the year after his marriage, Springer agreed on a move to Ninety-Six, South

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Carolina, where he was to take charge of the "College of Cambridge," as it was described in the act of the state legislature in 1785 that also chartered Mount Zion College at Winnsborough, of which Thomas H. McCaule (A.B. 1774) became head, and the College of Charleston. Of the three, only the last named actually developed into a college, and little seems to be known of the obvious failure of the Cambridge venture. The census of 1790 suggests that Springer may still have been resi­ dent in Ninety-Six, although there is evidence of his presence in Georgia as early as 1788. Whether this evidence indicates anything more than the presence of a new licentiate engaged in missionary work may be debatable, but in 1790 Springer accepted a call to the pastorate of the Providence, Smyrna, and Washington congregations of Wilkes County, Georgia. He was ordained on July 22, 1790, the first Presby­ terian minister to be ordained within the state. During the eight re­ maining years of his life, he lived at his estate "Walnut Hill" outside Washington, county seat of Wilkes. For five years he conducted a school there at which a number of men who were later prominent in the history of the state were trained. One of them was John Forsyth (A.B. 1799), member of Congress, United States senator, governor of Georgia, minister to Spain, and secretary of state. Afterwards Springer became head of the board of the Wilkes County Academy. He was a leader in the community and in his church in the state of Georgia. When the Hopewell Presbytery was set off from the Presbytery of South Carolina, he served as moderator at its first meeting in March 1797. A large and powerfully built man who is said to have weighed almost 400 pounds, Springer spoke with great force and often without seeming to consult his notes. At some time he acquired an A.M. degree, but from what institution is not known. He died on September 3, 1798, a wealthy man. To his widow and children he left several thousand acres of land, forty slaves, and personal property valued at almost $8,000. As a further mark of his prosperity, each of his children was to receive a good saddle and bridle, and in addition a feather bed with its furniture. In tribute to him his friends published at Augusta in 1805 two of his sermons, with a biographical introduction, under the title Solemn Truths, Stated and Urged in a Lecture and Sermon: by the Late Rev. John Springer. SOURCES: A. W. Simpson, Life and Service of Rev. John Springer (1941); Records of

Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Chh., Wilmington, 364, 386; als JS to J. Thornton, 18 Jun 1772, Wheelock MSS, NhD; alumni file; Ms Steward's accounts, PUA; N.Y. Gazette ir Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (commencement); Hampden-Sidney College, Gen. Cat. (1908), 28; Foote, Sketches, Va., 398, 401 ("drunk and did gamble"); DAR Patriot Index, 639; St. Rec. N.C., xvi, 60, 64; xix, 34-35; E. W. Caruthers, David Caldwell,

THOMAS SPROTT

527

(1842) 250; Ε. A. Bowen, Story of Wilkes Cnty., Ga. (1950), 64, 121, 150, 152-57, 165; M. W, Wellman, Cnty. of Warren, N.C. (1959), 67; APS Trans., (n.s.), v. 55, pt. 4 (1965), 81; J. H. Easterby, College of Charleston (1935) 15-19, 213-20; M. LaBorde, Hist, of S.C. College (1874), 5-6; First Census, S.C., gi; Alexander, Princeton, 191; W.P.A., Story of Washington-Wilkes (1941), 30, 33, 93, 113; L. L. Knight, Ga.'s Land­ marks, Memorials, and Legends (1914), n, 174, 1039. JS should not be confused with John Springer, Jr., apparently from Bergen Cnty., N.J., who on July 7, 1779 was convicted of "seducing soldiers to enlist in the british Army." PUBLICATIONS: see text WFC

Thomas Sprott THOMAS SPROTT, A.B., has not been positively identified. Given the variations in the spelling o£ the surname (Sprot, Spraat, Sprout, Sproat), one is inclined at first to assume that he may have been a son of Reverend James Sproat (A.B. Yale 1741), who entered the ministry as a result of the preaching of Gilbert Tennent, original trustee of the College, who later became a successor to Tennent in the pastorate of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and who in 1780 was awarded an honorary D.D. by the College. But no indication that he had a son named Thomas has been found. The consistent spelling of the student's name as Sprott in three separate accounts of the steward, as later in the published catalogues of the College, lends special interest to a petition by Thomas Sprot in September 1750 for 400 acres of land in Anson County, North Carolina, and to the will of Thomas Sprot proved in the Anson County Court on January 15, 1757. His heirs included a son also named Thomas, and a daughter described as Susannah Polk; executors of the estate were Andrew Sprot and Thomas Polk. This seems to have been the later Colonel Thomas Polk of Mecklenburg County, carved out of Anson in 1762, who was married to Susannah Spratt, and whose daughter became the wife of Ephraim Brevard (A.B. 1768). Although it cannot here be proved, it seems likely that Thomas Sprott of Princeton was one of the several residents of Mecklenburg County to graduate from the College. The steward's accounts suggest that he may have enrolled in the College as early as the fall of 1772. He certainly was a student during the academic years 1773-1775· He became a member of the Whig Society, which seems to have been favored by students from the south­ ern provinces. At his commencement he debated with James Reid the proposition that "Civil liberty promotes virtue and happiness." He may have been the Lieutenant Thomas Spratt who has been listed as a member of the Ninth Regiment of North Carolina Continentals with

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CLASS OF 1775

an enlistment date of November 28, 1776, but he may also have been the Mr. Sprott who was teaching school somewhere in North Carolina according to a letter of June 1777 seeking the aid of Governor Richard Caswell in securing the enrollment of a particular student under his instruction. It can be added only that Sprott was listed as dead in the College's Catalogue of 1786, earliest known to have been issued after the Revolution. SOURCES:

Dexter, Y a l e B i o g r a p h i e s ,

1,

690-92;

A.

Green, S e r m o n Occasioned b y t h e

Death of Rev. James Sproat (1794); Col. Rec. N.C., iv, 1047; x, 945; xi, 498; J. B. Grimes, A b s t r a c t of N . C . W i l l s (1910), 356; D . A. T o m p k i n s , H i s t , of M e c k l e n b u r g Cnty., II (1914), 80; W. H. Hoyt, Papers of Archibald D. Murphey, 11 (1914), 400; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 433; NCHGR, 11 (1900), 424; MS Steward's accounts, PUA; N.Y. Gazette if Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1775 (commencement). WFC

Isaac Tichenor ISAAC TICHENOR, A.B., A.M. Dartmouth 1789, LL.D. Dartmouth 1799, teacher, lawyer, and public official, was the son of Daniel and Susannah Tichenor of Newark, New Jersey. He was born there on February 8, 1754 Z

Tichenor joined the Cliosophic Society at the College in September with the pseudonym "Handel," a possible indication that his later musical interests were already developed. In the commencement exercises of 1775 he took part in a three-sided debate over the proposi­ tion that "A retired, solitary life has no tendency to promote knowl­ edge, happiness or virtue." From Princeton, Tichenor went to Schenectady, New York to study law. The choice of so distant a location may be explained by the avail­ ability there of a source of income, for while he was a law student, Tichenor also assisted Alexander Miller (A.B. 1764) in teaching school. In Schenectady, Tichenor enlisted as an assistant to Jacob Cuyler, deputy commissary general for purchases in the Northern Department of the Continental Army. In June 1777 Cuyler sent him to Bennington, Vermont to collect supplies, and Bennington was the base of opera­ tions for the rest of his service as deputy commissary, although official business frequently took him to the continental stores at Coos, New Hampshire. By October 1779, when he was one of the original proprie­ tors of a settlement on Grand Isle in Lake Champlain, he had ap­ parently decided to make Vermont his permanent home. 1773,

ISAAC TICHENOR

529

Isaac Tichenor, A.B. 1775

At the end of 1779, reports of malfeasance in the commissary depart­ ment at Coos had reached George Washington, and on December 9 the general ordered Tichenor and other officials to present themselves for trial on charges filed by Colonel Moses Hazen, commander of the Second Canadian Regiment. In turn, Tichenor accused his own as­ sistant of dereliction of duty. After more than six weeks of acrimony and recriminations, which proved, Tichenor was certain, the "undefatigable baseness" of Colonel Hazen, the court dismissed all charges in May 1780 but suggested that Tichenor be reprimanded for selling rum even though he had done so to raise revenue for the army. Washington disagreed and instead commended Tichenor for his resourcefulness. The commander in chief had by then come to rely upon Tichenor's good judgment, for Tichenor had refused in February 1780 to release

530

CLASS OF 1775

continental arms to Governor Thomas Chittenden of Vermont on the grounds that Chittenden and the brothers Ethan and Ira Allen were allegedly too friendly with the British administration in Canada. In­ dependent by its own declaration, Vermont refused to acknowledge congressional authority in settling claims to its land by other states, and the dispute led British General Frederick Haldimand in Canada to open negotiations with the Aliens in the hope of securing Vermont's neutrality or even alliance with England. The Vermonters pursued the talks either, as they claimed, to forestall enemy raids in the state or to press Congress into recognizing Vermont's independence so that it might join the union. Their enemies, Tichenor among them, asserted that the Aliens and Chittendon were, in fact, traitors to the American cause and were seeking to increase their own political standing by uniting Vermont with Canada. The battle between Tichenor and the Aliens, based partly on principle but mostly on their competition for power, was a constant feature of Vermont politics for decades. In August 1781, after rejecting congressional demands that Vermont waive its claims to land in New York and New Hampshire, the Aliens encouraged the formation of the East and West Unions, associations of Vermonters with neighboring citizens in the other two states. The unions posed a clear threat: if Vermont joined the British, it would try to take with it parts of at least two of the original thirteen United States. On January 1, 1782, Washington advised Chittenden to dissolve the unions at once. By then, Tichenor was one of Vermont's rising political stars. He was already a trustee of Clio Hall, Bennington's first academy, by June 1781, when the state assembly enacted a law to suspend prosecutions against him for debt, recognizing that he had committed more than £65,000 (continental currency) of his personal wealth to secure mili­ tary supplies. The law both saved him from debtor's prison and estab­ lished his reputation as a loyal patriot. Tichenor then joined the state militia as a captain in Colonel Ebenezer Walbridge's Regiment. By November 1781 he was also a justice of the peace in Bennington. A successful lawyer, he was elected in October 1781 to represent Benning­ ton in the Vermont assembly. He would sit in that body until 1785, serving one year as its speaker. When Washington's letter on the East and West Unions reached the assembly, Tichenor seized the chance to discredit the Aliens, abort the Haldimand negotiations, and further his own ambition. He con­ vinced the assembly to dissolve the unions at once, in anticipation of immediate congressional acceptance of Vermont's independence. In February 1782 he was chosen as one of Vermont's agents to present the

ISAAC TICHENOR

531

state's case before Congress. Meanwhile, he sponsored an investigation by the assembly of Ira Allen's conduct as state treasurer and chief sur­ veyor. Tichenor had not counted on congressional politics, however. The Congress had been willing to accept Vermont in 1781 because the mili­ tary situation seemed desperate, but since the victory at Yorktown that pressure had been eased. By February 1782 several members opposed statehood for Vermont because they did not want to set a precedent for separatist movements elsewhere in the nation, or because their own states still coveted Vermont land. Tichenor and his colleagues were unable to prod Congress into the action they expected, Washington's implicit promise notwithstanding. The agents' failure reinvigorated the Aliens and their negotiations with Haldimand. In April 1782 Loyalist William Smith in New York heard that everyone in Vermont except Tichenor favored union with the crown. That was an exaggeration, of course, but Tichenor's for­ tunes had slipped. In June and July he went to Windham County, Vermont, where pro-New York citizens were ready to secede from the state. His purpose was to assure the rebels, who knew him to be almost as favorable to New York as they, that Vermont would soon join the nation as an equal member. He did not wholly succeed in calming Windham County, but he was more successful than many New Yorkers cared to admit. Tichenor was back in Philadelphia in December 1782, this time on a personal errand. The suits against him for debt had been renewed in New Hampshire, where he was considered a dangerous political enemy, and he wanted relief before he was ruined and jailed. On De­ cember 20 Congress agreed to ask New Hampshire to stay those suits on the grounds that Tichenor's debt was a result of his service to the nation. The Haldimand negotiations ended with the war, and for the rest of the decade Vermonters concentrated on obtaining admission to the union. In 1783, and from 1786 until 1789, Tichenor was one of the state's agents to negotiate with Congress and also a delegate to serve in Congress if the state were admitted. He emerged as the leader of what became the Federalist party in Vermont. The Betterment Act of 1785 crystallized incipient political factions, and Tichenor was in the thick of the storm over its enactment. The law was designed to compensate holders of the estates of former Loyalists for any improvements they had made in the land before title might revert to previous owners in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. Tichenor and others opposed the measure as it emerged from the assembly, claiming that it violated

532

CLASS OF 1775

common law. They were able to achieve a compromise that would lessen the burden on the Loyalist original owners by providing jury decisions on betterment claims. Tichenor had managed to secure his political position by introducing the original measure and then oppos­ ing the more radical amendments. It was a maneuver typical of him, a demonstration of the political adroitness that earned him the sobri­ quet "Jersey Slick." From 1787 to 1792 Tichenor served in the state council. He used that position to continue the attacks on the Aliens that he had mount­ ed as auditor of Ira Allen's official accounts since 1781. Largely as a re­ sult of his efforts, Allen had to resign as surveyor in 1782 and failed to be reelected state treasurer in 1786. Tichenor also served occasionally on tribunals to decide conflicting claims to land in western Vermont. In 1786 he and his fellow commissioners were briefly kidnapped by a band of local landholders dressed as Indians. They were released after a few days, when the statute authorizing adjudication had expired. In 1789 Tichenor and Ira Allen were members of the state commis­ sion that finally settled the border dispute with New York and thus paved the way for Vermont's entrance into the union in 1791. Tichenor was also instrumental in assuring such holders of New York land titles as Governor William Livingston of New Jersey and John Jay that their claims would be secure or replaced by new ones of equal value. For less influential holders of New York claims, such as John Cosins Ogden (A.B. 1770), there was no such protection. Ogden later complained to Tichenor, whom he may have known during their younger days in New Jersey, that the settlement of Vermont's border problems had contributed to his personal financial collapse. In the election of 1789 Tichenor received a few votes for governor. In October 1792 he ran a close third in the contest to choose a con­ gressman from the Western District, and by removing himself from the final run-off insured the election of Israel Smith over radical Matthew Lyon. Lyon never forgave him. From 1791 until 1794 Tichenor was an associate justice of the state supreme court and in 1795 and 1796 he served as chief justice. During his tenure on the bench he ran for Congress, with diminishing enthusiasm and no success, in 1792, 1794, and 1796; and for governor in 1793 and 1794. He also served on the Council of Censors and as a major general in the state militia. On October 15, 1796, United States Senator Moses Robinson of Ver­ mont resigned his seat. Tichenor was elected to replace him for the remainder of that term and for the ensuing six years. In December he spoke with Alexander Hamilton in New York about the presidential election. Tichenor apparently did not know of Hamilton's plan to

ISAAC TICHENOR

533

create a deadlock in the electoral college that would force the election into the House of Representatives and deprive John Adams of the presidency. The new senator innocently informed Hamilton that Ver­ mont's electors might be challenged on a technicality. Few things could have pleased Hamilton more, for without Vermont's votes, Adams could not obtain a majority in the electoral college. In the event, however, Vermont's electors legally cast their votes for the vicepresident. There was no choice in the election for governor of Vermont in 1797, and the state assembly called Tichenor home to accept what he considered the "more arduous & difficult task" of being chief executive of the state. He was inaugurated on October 16 and delivered a speech designed to calm partisan divisions and instill confidence in the govern­ ment. Among his few specific proposals was the furtherance of educa­ tion. As governor, he was a trustee of the state university, the founda­ tion of which had been partly his accomplishment as a member of the assembly years before. Both as a senator and as governor, Tichenor firmly supported the Adams administration in its policy toward France during the QuasiWar and, by implication at least, he endorsed the Alien and Sedition Laws. The crisis in Europe provided another opportunity for Tichenor to deal with his old foe Ira Allen, who, on his own initiative, had gone to Europe to secure arms for the state militia—a project of which Tichenor heartily approved. The munitions were to be purchased in England, but Allen chose instead to buy them in France. His ship, the Olive Branch, was seized by the Royal Navy as it sailed back to Ver­ mont, and Allen and his supply of armaments were confined in Eng­ land. The British had good reason to hold Allen, for they learned that he had been negotiating with French dissidents in lower Canada, allegedly to assist them in seceding from the English domain and uniting with Vermont. The most extreme version of Allen's intentions included a scheme to separate Vermont from the United States and create a new nation. But Allen's arrest in London inflamed anti-British sentiment in Vermont at a time when war with France seemed imminent. Tichenor wrote to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, urging the ad­ ministration to obtain Allen's release before passions were too high. Allen was freed and went to France again, only to be imprisoned by the Directory as a possible British spy. This time, the governor was in no hurry to obtain his release, for popular feelings against France were in perfect accord with his own opinions. When Allen finally returned home in 1801, minus his armaments, his reputation was all but ruined.

534

CLASS OF 1775

Tichenor was regularly reelected governor until 1807, although after 1801 the legislature was firmly Republican. His personal success can only be ascribed to his genius for politics. While he never wavered from the straight Federalist line, he managed to ingratiate himself with his opponents and to avoid presenting issues in too blatantly partisan a way. His condemnation of the Kentucky and Virginia Reso­ lutions in 1799, for example, was calm, polite, and reasonable. He sup­ ported Adams for reelection in 1800 but consistently advocated obe­ dience to the legitimate government under any president. And his speeches to the legislature were well larded with praise for the opposi­ tion and calls for amicable resistance to the dangers of factionalism. On one issue only, slavery, he was unwilling to compromise. Tichenor was a committed abolitionist in an abolitionist state. In the election of 1807 Tichenor was finally displaced by a Republi­ can, but in the course of the next year the Federalists gained strength in Vermont as opposition to Jefferson's embargo grew. Tichenor stood against the embargo but always counseled submission to the law. He was known, however, to favor leniency toward those who maintained an illegal trade with Canada. In 1808, with the support of some Re­ publicans, he was elected governor once again. In his inaugural address, Tichenor deplored both the embargo and those who violated it. In January 1809, on Jefferson's own advice to all New England governors, he went to northern Vermont to persuade citizens to refrain from violent resistance to the federal law. He want­ ed, too, to contact Canadian officials regarding a mutual problem with counterfeiting. Secretly, he was also discussing with the Canadians ways in which trade between his state and the province could be main­ tained. Tichenor's opinions on the embargo were well known in Canada, but to verify his information Governor James Craig of the Canadian lower provinces sent a spy to New England in 1809. In June the agent, John Henry, reported that in case of war between England and the United States, Tichenor would work to keep Vermont neutral, or even to ally it with Britain, rather than sacrifice his state's commerce. Henry then sold his letters to President Madison (A.B. 1771), who released them to Congress. Once more, a Vermonter's conversations with Canadians had come back to haunt him. Certainly, Tichenor opposed the drift toward war with Britain. He was a supporter of the Washingtonian, a rabidly Federalist newspaper and the organ of the semisecret Washington So­ ciety that was founded in opposition to the embargo and the Re­ publicans. His quiet encouragement of illegal trade with Canada can-

ISAAC TICHENOR

535

not be disputed. But Henry's report of his readiness to commit treason was unfounded, the exaggerated account of a man who hoped that sensational news might bring sensational rewards. Nonetheless, the Henry letters were used to their full advantage by Vermont's Republi­ cans in 1809, and Tichenor failed to win reelection. Defeated again in 1810 by more than 3,500 votes, he declined the Federalist nomination in 1811. In 1813 Tichenor was again chosen to sit on the Council of Censors. The Democratic legislature that year revised Vermont's election laws to provide for statewide canvasses for congressmen, eliminating con­ gressional districts in the expectation of destroying pockets of Feder­ alist strength. But widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war produced a backlash that in 1814 saw all six Democratic candi­ dates for congress defeated, and Isaac Tichenor elected to the United States Senate. Although nominated for governor again in 1817, he did not contest the election. As a member of the Senate's military affairs committee, Tichenor fought to reduce the nation's standing army and to cut military budg­ ets, which he called a "sink of the national treasury." The other issue on which he took a forward stand was slavery. He opposed its introduc­ tion into the District of Columbia, voted against the creation of new slave states and the Fugitive Slave Law, and stood firm against the Missouri Compromise. Tichenor retired from public life in 1821. He continued to practice law in Bennington and invested in such projects as the Fairhaven Turnpike Company. Undoubtedly, he occupied himself as well by playing the piano in his parlor, the first such instrument to have been brought to Bennington. Never a man of serious religious convictions, he was, nonetheless, a member of the Congregational Church and owned one-third of the most expensive pew in the new meeting house. In 1820 he obtained a bell for the steeple that cracked and was repaired in 1823. When it came back from the foundry it bore the inscription "I. Tichenor, Donor, 1823." Tichenor's wife Elizabeth died in 1815, leaving him without chil­ dren. His affections were lavished on the nieces and nephews who were his heirs. He relished the attention paid him as an elder statesman and cultivated it by wearing the queue, cocked hat, and great cloak of the Revolution until he died in Bennington on December 11, 1838. DAB; DAR Mag., 49 (1916), 312-14 & n.; Ft. Hist. Gazetteer (1868), 1, 165, π > 518η, 349; Vt. Hist. Soc., Proc. (1920-21), 150-51; (n.s.), 11 (1943), 1 8 5 - 2 0 9 , 2 0 8 ("undefatigable baseness"); 4 ( 1 9 3 6 ) , 1 3 8 , 1 4 1 ; P. C. Dodge, Encyclo­ pedia of Vt. Biography (1912), 29-30; W. H. Crockett, Vt. (1921), 11 and III, passim;

SOURCES:

"74-75^

21 5!

536

CLASS OF 1775

J. B. Wilbur, I r a A l l e n , F o u n d e r o f V t . , 2 vols. (1928), passim; Dartmouth College, Gen. Cat. (1910-11), 574; N.J. Wills, v, 526-27; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; N . Y . G a z e t t e if W e e k l y M e r c u r y , 9 O c t 1 7 7 5 ( c o m m e n c e m e n t ) ; J . P e a r s o n , H i s t , o f Schenectady Patent (1883), 401; Washington Writings, xm, 19; XVII, 229-30; xvin, gi, g8-ioo; xx, igg-20i; Vt. Hist. Soc., Col., 1 (1870), 210-11; 2 (1871), 249, 261-62, 286 & n., 32g-3o, 400-403, 441, 47g-8o, 484; C. M. Thompson, Independent Vt. (ig42), 41415, 479-80, 481-84, 496, 518-20; C. Williamson, Vt. in Quandary (ig49), 110-16, 2373g, 263-65; Stiles, Literary Diary, 11, 531; Vt. St. Papers (1823), 43^-39; St. of Vt., Rolls of Soldiers in the Rev. War (igo4), 486, 541; Madison Papers, iv, 132-33, 134 & n., 164 & nn.; v, 415, 417η; W.H.W. Sabine, ed., Hist. Memoirs of William Smith, h i ( i g 7 i ) , 4 9 8 ; B . H . H a l l , H i s t , o f E a s t e r n V t . (1865), 11, 432-35, 4 3 7 ; R e c s . of G o v ­ ernor and Council of Vt., 111, 346-47, 350-51, 513; iv, 483, 504 ("arduous and diffi­ cult"), 507, 510, 512, 516-18, 520; v, 397-99, 388, 391, 477, 483-84 & n.; vii, 209; Vt. Hist., 42 (ig74), 140-54; 40 (1972) !"9. 21; 33 (1965), 306; als J. C. Ogden to IT, 18 Sep 1798, PHi; I T to W. Livingston, 26 Sep 1784, Livingston Papers, MHi; St. Papers of Vt., iv, 38-39, 200-201; Vt. Univ., Catalogus (1843), 4; A/C, vi, 1569; xxix, 310-11; xxx, 32, 88, 164; xxxi, 26, 262; xxxm, 20; xxxv, 26; xxxvn, 20-21, 365, 390; als IT to T. Pickering, 24 Jan 1818, Pickering Papers, MHi ("sink of the treasury"); I. Jen­ nings, One Hundred Year Old Meeting House . . . in Bennington, Vt. (igo7), 28, 41, 61-62; and Memorials of a Century (i86g), 300.

MANUSCRIPTS: PHi; N; MHi

John Timothy Trezevant JOHN TIMOTHY TREZEVANT, A.B., physician, was born on February 16, 1758, in Charleston, South Carolina. His father was Theodore Treze­ vant, a tailor who had been orphaned and impoverished in his childhood but who rose to the leadership of Charleston's artisans. He founded the Master Tailor's Society in 1766; was a member of the city's committee to enforce the Non-Importation Agreement in 1769, sat on the South Carolina Committee of Correspondence in 1774, and was a delegate to the first Provincial Congress in 1775. An active member of St. Philip's Anglican Parish in Charleston, Theodore Trezevant was married three times and fathered thirteen children. His second wife, Catherine Timothy Trezevant, was the mother of seven of those children, including John T. Trezevant. In February 1772, William Smith, provost of the College of Phila­ delphia, ended a. fund-raising visit to Charleston. He was accompanied on his voyage north by two young men from the city who intended to complete their educations under his tutelage. Trezevant was one of those youngsters, and he may have entered the Philadelphia Academy in the spring of 1772. In November 1774, however, he enrolled in the senior class at Nassau Hall. On March 17, 1775, Trezevant joined the Cliosophic Society, in which his pseudonym was "Atticus," after the Roman Epicurean his-

JOHN VAN DYKE

537

torian and librarian of Athens. In the commencement of 1775, Treze­ vant participated in an English debate on the proposition that "The moral duties are the same in their nature, object, and obligation be­ tween societies and private persons." After graduation Trezevant studied medicine, possibly in Virginia, for in 1779 he joined the Second Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line as a surgeon. On May 12, 1780, he was captured while defending Charleston. Released that summer, he rejoined his regiment and served at least until after the battle of Yorktown. Apparently while still in the army, Trezevant married a Miss Wells and was widowed soon afterward. On May 5, 1782, he married Mrs. Catherine Cocke Wyatt of Sussex County, Virginia, where he settled to practice medicine. He seems to have prospered, for he was able to charge £51 for tending a patient for one week and to claim that that sum was far from excessive. In December 1799 he received a land boun­ ty of 6,000 acres in neighboring Isle of Wight County as his pension from the Revolution. Trezevant was again a widower and remarried once more. His third wife was Ann Bell, the daughter of Sylvanus and Mary Bell of Sussex County. His last two marriages produced nine children, at least one of whom died in childhood. One of his sons, James Trezevant, later rep­ resented Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. Treze­ vant died in Sussex County on September 10, 1816. SOURCES: J. T. Trezevant, Trezevant Family in the U.S. (1914), 15-19, 24; SCHGM, 3 (1902) 37 & n., 179, 242; R. Walsh, Charleston's Sons of Liberty (1959), 50, 64 & n., 65, 131; D.E.H. Smith and A. S. Salley, Jr., eds., Reg. of St. Philip's Parish (1971), 295, 309, 325, 367; MS Steward's accounts; MS Clio. Soc. membership list, PUA; N.Y. Gazette it Weekly Mercury, g Oct 1775 (commencement); Heitman; J. H. Gwathmey, Hist. Reg. of Virginians in the Rev. (1938), 780; Index, Rev. War Pension Applica­ tions (1966).

John Van Dyke JOHN VAN DYKE was one of many men with the same name who might

have attended the College. His matriculation at Nassau Hall between 1773 and 1774 is established by the few surviving records, but if his life was one of moment or consequence after leaving school, it went vir­ tually unrecorded. SOURCES: The most likely candidate is the John Van Dyke who was born in Somerset Cnty., N.J. in January 1755. His parents were Cataryna Emans and her husband Roelof Van Dyke, a farmer and later a member of the N.J. Provincial Congress and Committee o£ Safety. This John was baptized at the Six Mile Run Dutch Reformed Church.

538

CLASS OF 1775

The son of Roelof Van Dyke may have been the man who enlisted in the "Eastern Company" of artillery, N.J. State Troops, in December 1776. Attached to General Hugh Knox's Artillery Brigade, Van Dyke began his service as a second lieutenant. One of his superiors was Captain Frederick Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1770). After Frelinghuysen resigned from the company, his successor was killed, and his successor re­ signed, Van Dyke was promoted to captain-lieutenant. In 1778 John Van Dyke was paid £16.8 for his expenses in attending the governor and council of the state as a light horseman. And in July 1789 a federal pension was issued to Captain-Lieutenant John Van Dyke of N.J. who had served in the Continental Navy. John, son o£ Roelof Van Dyke, married Sarah MacCoraher and lived in Mont­ gomery Township, Somerset Cnty., after the war. They had nine children, most of them baptized at the Harlingen Dutch Reformed Church. Eight of those children survived their father, who died between May and August 1811. Other possibilities include the son of Nicholas and Marietye van Norden Van Dyke. This John was born in New York City on January 31, 1753 and was a captain in Lamb's Regiment of Artillery in the N.Y. Line. His first wife was Sarah Clark and his second was Ann Gentner. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church of N.Y., and when he died on February 28, 1840, he left one son. Another John Van Dyke, the son of Henderick and Catryna Van Dyke, was bap­ tized at the Harlingen Dutch Reformed Church in Somerset Cnty., N.J. on April 11, 1757. The one John Van Dyke of this generation who may be eliminated as a pos­ sible student at the College was the Loyalist son of John and Margaretta Barcalo Van Dyke of Somerset Cnty. and the husband of Rebecca Van Dyke, a sister of John, son of Roelof. The Loyalist John was a member of the British army when the college student was in school. Ms Steward's accounts, PUA. For John, son of Roelof: W. B. Aitken, Distinguished Families in America Descended from Wilhelmus Beckman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke (1912), 220-21; Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart., 8 (1919), 64, 129, 160; GMNJ, 20 (1945), 90, 93; Stryker, Off. Reg., 320; Index, Rev. War Pension Applications (1966); Minutes of the Council of Safety of . . . N.J. (1872), v, 267. John of N.Y.: R. W. Cook, Van Dycks [n.d.], 36; DAR Patriot Index; NYGBR, 61 (1930), 373. Son of Henderick: GMNJ, 18 (1943), 43. Loyalist: Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart., 4 (1915), 122-23, 265.

John Wilkinson J OHN W ILKINSON (W ILKSON, W ILLASON) is named, with the indicated

variants in spelling, on three different accounts kept by the steward of the College during the 1770s. The variants are somewhat more marked than in most cases, but no reason has been found for doubting that they refer to one and the same student. Indeed, the Willason could have been intended by a hurried steward to read Wilkason. The earliest list­ ing of John Wilkinson's name is found in an account of bills "out­ standing" that shows that he was in arrears in payments for tuition and rent on September 29, 1772, and again on March 29, 1773· Since the first of these dates came at the end of the academic year 1771-1772, it seems likely that Wilkinson was originally enrolled in November 1771, so the second date can be read to indicate that he continued into a second year of residence. The steward's account for the period of

JOHN WILKINSON

539

May 25, 1773, to September 25, 1774, which credits him (Wilkson) with payment of a relatively small sum, argues that he remained in residence through two full academic years, and perhaps for some part of a third year, an assumption supported by the third account, which may cover the term beginning in the fall of 1772. A fourth surviving list of stu­ dents in attendance from November 1774 to April 10, 1775, makes it certain that he was not in 'the College after the academic year 17731774. Wilkinson was a rather common family name in the colonies at this time, and in many families John was a preferred baptismal name. Ef­ forts to establish a positive identification for this student have failed, but the likeliest choice appears to be the John Wilkinson, son of Ben­ jamin and Mary Rhoodes Wilkinson, who was born on February 16, 1758, in the town of Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island. He may have been prepared for college by Benjamin Stelle (A.B. 1766), who conducted a grammar school at Providence from 1766 to 1770 at least, when James Manning (A.B. 1762) moved Rhode Island College (later Brown University), of which he was president, from Warren to Provi­ dence, together with the grammar school the College conducted. The competition soon caused Stelle to close his own school and turn to business, but perhaps not before several of the students completed their preparatory studies. Whether a religious consideration might explain the choice of a much more distantly situated college is a question that cannot be answered. Some members of the family at an earlier date have been identified as Quakers. Information regarding Wilkinson's later career is scanty. Perhaps he withdrew from the College to begin the study of medicine. In any case, late in the Revolutionary War he served with the local militia first as surgeon's mate and then as surgeon. In 1812 he became one of the original incorporators of the Rhode Island Medical Society. He had been married on April 23, 1780, to a Mary Howry. If the evidence pro­ vided by two censuses, those for 1790 and 1800, has been correctly in­ terpreted, he is more likely to have been the John Wilkinson living at the time of the first census in Smithfield than the man of the same name who resided in Scituate. His family seems to have been a small one; perhaps there were only two children, a son and a daughter, and his wife may have died at an early age. His death occurred on December 26, 1836. SOURCES: MS Steward's accounts, PUA; Μ. M. Wilkinson, Geneal. of Wilkinson and Kindred Families (1949), 88; I. Wilkinson, Wilkinson Family (1869), 158; DA Ti Pa­ triot Index, 745; Rec. of State of R.I., ix, 37, 39; R. V. Jackson, R.I. 1800 Census (197a), 489, 546. It should be noted that J. J. Smith, Civil and Military List of R.I.

540

CLASS OF 1775

(1900), 1,388, 402, in both instances (1780, 1781) identifies his service as surgeon with a Scituate militia company. If this be taken as conclusive proof that his residence was in Scituate, and that the other John Wilkinson lived in Smithfield, it is important to note that John Wilkinson served as justice of the peace in Scituate from 1795 through 1806, his name appearing for much of the time at the head of the list (ibid., ι and 11). Acknowledgement is due Martha L. Mitchell, archivist, Brown Univ., for the information that its records indicate that John Wilkinson was never en­ rolled in that institution. WFC

APPENDIX BY JANE E. WEBER

PLACE OF BIRTH* British Isles

John Bowden '70 Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71 Joseph Eckley '72 Archibald Scott '75

David Witherspoon '74 James Witherspoon '70 John Witherspoon, Jr. '73

Connecticut

Ebenezer Bradford '73 William Bradford '74 Nathan Perkins '70 Josiah Pomeroy '70

Isaac Smith '70 John Smith '70 Stephen Tracy '70

Delaware

Andrew Bryan '7a Oliver Reese '73

John Richardson Bayard Rodgers '75 John Springer '75

Maryland

James Francis Armstrong '73 Stephen Bloomer Balch '74 David Bard '73 Arnold Elzey '75 Ebenezer Finley '72

George Gale '74 John Henry III, '69 William Blair Henry '75 Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer '75

Massachusetts

Moses Allen '72 Daniel Breck '74 John Glover '74 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 Thomas Melvill '69 Samuel Niles III '69 New Jersey Cornelius Baldwin '70 Samuel Baldwin '70 Ichabod Burnet '75 Matthias Burnet, Jr. '69 Aaron Burr '72 Archibald Craig '73 John Noble Cumming '74 John Davenport '69 Thaddeus Dod '73

John Pigeon, Jr. '75 Jesse Reed '69 William Scott '71 Samuel Spring '71 Elihu Thayer '69 Samuel Whitwell, Jr. '74

Joseph Ely '75 Philip Vickers Fithian '72 Jonathan Forman '74 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 Azariah Horton, Jr. '70 William Eugene Imlay '73 John Joline '75 Andrew King '73 Andrew Kirkpatrick '75

* Since parents of subjects were often mobile and birth records of the period were incomplete, the above listing may be a best guess or an indication of where a subject spent most of his formative years. For example, William Willcocks '69 was born at sea but was raised in New Jersey.

542

APPENDIX

Samuel Leake '74 James Linn '69 Charles McKnight, Jr. '71 Aaron Ogden '73 John Cosens Ogden '70 John Peck '74 John Lott Phillips '74 John Anderson Scudder '75

Philip Stockton '69 John Taylor '70 Isaac Tichenor '75 John Warford '74 William Willcocks, Jr. '69 Jacob Williamson '71 Matthias Williamson, Jr. '70 Hunloke WoodrufE '72

New York

Abraham Keteltas Beckman '74 William Beekman '73 John BIydenburg '70 William Bostwick '75 Jacobus Severyn Bruyn '75 Caleb Cooper '69 Peter DeWitt '69 Peter Fish '74 Philip Morin Freneau '71 Joshua Hartt '70 James Hasbrouck '73 Joseph Hazard '74 Morgan Lewis '73

Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 William Alexander Livingston '75 William Smith Livingston '72 John Alexander McDougall '69 Lewis Morris IV '74 Richard Platt '73 Caleb Russell '70 Belcher Peartree Smith '73 George Smith '70 William Stephens Smith '74 Robert Stewart '70 Nicholas Bayard Van Cortlandt '74

North Carolina

Robert Archibald '72 Joel Brevard '69 Thomas Harris McCaule '74

James McRee '75 Spruce Macay '75

Pennsylvania

Charles Clinton Beatty '75 John Beatty '69 Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 John Black '71 John Durbarrow Blair '75 William Lawrence Blair '69 William Bradford, Jr. '72 John Campbell '70 Edmund Cheesman '71 William Claypoole '75 Stephen Cooke '73 Hugh Craig '73 Franklin Davenport '73 John DeBow '72 John Duffield '73 James Duncan '75 James Dunlap '73 Israel Evans '72 John Evans '75 Joseph Lewis Finley '75 William Graham '73 James Grier '72 James Hall '74

Andrew Hodge, Jr. '72 Hugh Hodge '73 Hugh Hodge, Jr. '74 Andrew Hunter, Jr. '72 Nathaniel Irwin '70 Isaac Stockton Keith '75 Robert Keith '72 John Linn '73 William Linn '72 George Luckey '72 Archibald MeClean '72 James McConnell '73 Samuel Eusebius McCorkle '72 James Hugh McCulloch '73 John McKnight '73 John McMillan '72 Daniel Martin '75 James R. Reid '75 John Blair Smith '73 Samuel Stanhope Smith '69 William Richmond Smith '73 Samuel Waugh '73 Bedford Williams '70

APPENDIX

543

Rhode Island

William Channing '69

John Wilkinson '75

South Carolina

John Timothy Trezevant '75

David Zubly '69

Virginia

Donald Campbell '71 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Edward Crawford '75 John Rodgers Davies '6g Samuel Doak '75 Charles Lee '75

Henry Lee, Jr. '73 George Lewis '75 James Madison, Jr. '71 John Montgomery '75 Caleb Baker Wallace '70

West Indies

Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson '73 Unknown

Isaac Alexander '72 Thomas Craighead '75 Thomas McPherrin '70 James Malen '75 Thomas Neal '75 William Peterson '74 Joseph Ross '71

Thomas Sprott '75 James Tate '73 James Taylor '71 James Templeton '72 John Van Dyke '75 James Wilson '70

PLACE OF PRIMARY RESIDENCE*

Connecticut

Daniel Breck '74 Matthias Burnet, Jr. '69 John Cosens Ogden '70

Nathan Perkins '70 Josiah Pomeroy '70 George Smith '70

Delaware

Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71

Andrew Bryan '72

District of Columbia

Stephen Bloomer Balch '74 England

John Lott Phillips '74 Georgia

Moses Allen '72

John Springer '75

* Since many subjects moved several times during their lives, no listing of this nature can be definitive. For instance, John Bowden '70 made significant contribu­ tions while residing in Connecticut but his later years, spent in New York, were equally important.

544

APPENDIX

Kentucky

Caleb Baker Wallace '70 Massachusetts

Ebenezer Bradford '73 Joseph Eckley '72 John Glover '74 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 Thomas Melvill '69 Samuel Niles III, '69 John Pigeon, Jr. '75

Jesse Reed '69 William Scott '71 John Smith '70 Samuel Spring '71 Stephen Tracy '70 Samuel Whitwell, Jr., '74

Maryland

Arnold Elzey '75 Ebenezer Finley '72 George Gale '74 John Henry III '69

William Blair Henry '75 Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer '75 George Luckey '72 James Hugh McCulloch '73

New Hampshire

John Blydenburg '70 Israel Evans '72

Isaac Smith '70 Elihu Thayer '69

New Jersey

James Francis Armstrong '73 Samuel Baldwin '70 John Beatty '69 William Bostwick '75 William Bradford '74 Ichabod Burnet '75 Archibald Craig '73 John Noble Cumming '74 Franklin Davenport '73 Joseph Ely '75 Peter Fish '74 Philip Vickers Fithian '72 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 Philip Morin Freneau '71 Andrew Hunter, Jr. '72 William Eugene Imlay '73

John Joline '75 Andrew Kirkpatrick '75 Samuel Leake '74 James Linn '69 Aaron Ogden '73 Caleb Russell '70 John Anderson Scudder '75 Belcher Peartree Smith '73 Samuel Stanhope Smith '69 William Richmond Smith '73 Philip Stockton '69 John Taylor '70 Jacob Williamson '71 Matthias Williamson, Jr. '70 James Witherspoon '70

New York

Abraham Keteltas Beekman '74 William Beekman '73 John Bowden '70 Jacobus Severyn Bruyn '75 Aaron Burr '72 Caleb Cooper '69 John Davenport '69 Peter DeWitt '69 John Duffield '73 Jonathan Forman '74 Joshua Hartt '70 James Hasbrouck '73

Joseph Hazard '74 Andrew King '73 Morgan Lewis '73 William Linn '72 Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 William Alexander Livingston '75 William Smith Livingston '72 John Alexander McDougall '69 Charles McKnight, Jr. '71 John McKnight '73 Richard Platt '73 John Richardson Bayard Rodgers '75

APPENDIX William Stephens Smith '74 Robert Stewart '70 Nicholas Bayard Van Cortlandt '74

John Warford '74 William Willcocks, Jr. '69 Hunloke Woodruff '72

North Carolina

Robert Archibald '72 Joel Brevard '69 William Claypoole '75 John DeBow '72 James Hall '74

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle '72 James McRee '75 Spruce Macay '75 Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson '73 David Witherspoon '74

Pennsylvania

David Bard '73 Charles Clinton Beatty '75 John Black '71 William Lawrence Blair '69 Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71 William Bradford, Jr. '72 John Campbell '70 Edmund Cheesman '71 Hugh Craig '73 Thaddeus Dod '73 James Duncan '75 James Dunlap '73 John Evans '75 Joseph Lewis Finley '75 James Grier '72

Andrew Hodge, Jr. '72 Hugh Hodge '73 Hugh Hodge, Jr. '74 Azariah Horton, Jr. '70 Nathaniel Irwin '70 Robert Keith '72 John Linn '73 Archibald McClean '72 John McMillan '72 Thomas McPherrin '70 James R. Reid '75 Samuel Waugh '73 Bedford Williams '70 James Wilson '70

Rhode Island

William Channing '69

John Wilkinson '75

South Carolina

Isaac Alexander '72 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Isaac Stockton Keith '75 Thomas Harris McCaule '74

Lewis Morris IV '74 Oliver Reese '72 James Templeton '72 John Witherspoon, Jr. '73

T ennessee

Thomas Craighead '75

Samuel Doak '75

Vermont

Isaac Tichenor '75 Virginia

Cornelius Baldwin '70 John Durbarrow BIair '75 Donald Campbell '71 Stephen Cooke '73 Edward Crawford '75 John Rodgers Davies '69 William Graham '73 Charles Lee '75 Henry Lee, Jr. '73

George Lewis '75 James McConnelI '73 James Madison, Jr. '71 John Montgomery '75 John Peck '74 Archibald Scott '75 John Blair Smith '73 John Timothy Trezevant '75

546

APPENDIX

West Indies

David Zubly '69 Unknown

James Malen '75 Daniel Martin '75 Thomas Neal '75 William Peterson '74 Joseph Ross '71

Thomas Sprott '75 James Tate '73 James Taylor '71 John Van Dyke '75

PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS

Ministry ANGLICAN /EPISCOPALIAN

John Bowden '70 John Campbell '70

John Cosens Ogden '70

CONGREGATIONAL

Ebenezer Bradford '73 William Bradford '74 Daniel Breck '74 Matthias Burnet, Jr. '69 Joseph Eckley '72 Isaac Stockton Keith '75 Samuel Niles III '69

Nathan Perkins '70 Jesse Reed '69 Isaac Smith '70 John Smith '70 Samuel Spring '71 Elihu Thayer '69 Stephen Tracy '70

DUTCH REFORMED

Peter DeWitt '69 William Linn '72

William Richmond Smith '73

PRESBYTERIAN

Moses Allen '72 Robert Archibald '72 James Francis Armstrong '73 Stephen Bloomer Balch '74 David Bard '73 John Black '71 John Durbarrow Blair '75 John Blydenburg '70 Thomas Craighead '75 Edward Crawford '75 John Davenport '69 John DeBow '72 Samuel Doak '75 Thaddeus Dod '73 James Dunlap '73 Israel Evans '72 Peter Fish '74 Philip Vickers Fithian '72 William Graham '73 James Grier '72 James Hall '74 Joshua Hartt '70

Joseph Hazard '74 Andrew Hunter, Jr. '72 Nathaniel Irwin '70 John Joline '75 Robert Keith '72 Andrew King '73 John Linn '73 George Luckey '72 Thomas Harris McCaule '74 James McConnell '73 Samuel Eusebius McCorkle '72 John McKnight '73 John McMillan '72 Thomas McPherrin '70 James McRee '75 John Montgomery '75 John Lott Phillips '74 Oliver Reese '72 Archibald Scott '75 John Blair Smith '73 Samuel Stanhope Smith '69 John Springer '75

APPENDIX Robert Stewart '70 Philip Stockton '69 James Templeton '72 Caleb Baker Wallace '70

547

John Warford '74 Samuel Waugh '73 James Wilson '70 Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson '73

Law

Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 William Lawrence Blair '69 Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71 William Bradford, Jr. '72 Andrew Bryan '72 Aaron Burr '72 William Channing '69 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Franklin Davenport '73 John Rodgers Davies '69 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 John Henry III '69 Andrew Kirkpatrick '75 Samuel Leake '74

Charles Lee '75 Morgan Lewis '73 James Linn '69 Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 William Smith Livingston '72 Spruce Macay '75 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 Aaron Ogden '73 Caleb Russell '70 George Smith '70 Isaac Tichenor '75 William Willcocks, Jr. '69 Matthias Williamson, Jr. '70 David Witherspoon '74

Medicine*

Isaac Alexander '72 Cornelius Baldwin '70 John Beatty '69 William Claypoole '75 Stephen Cooke '73 John Duffield '73 Arnold Elzey '75 William Eugene Imlay '73 Archibald McClean '72

Charles McKnight, Jr. '71 John Richardson Bayard Rodgers '75 John Anderson Scudder '75 John Timothy Trezevant '75 Samuel Whitwell, Jr. '74 John Wilkinson '75 Bedford Williams '70 John Witherspoon, Jr. '73 Hunloke Woodruff '72

Business

Abraham Keteltas Beekman '74 William Beekman '73 Donald Campbell '71 James Duncan '75 James Hasbrouck '73

Andrew Hodge, Jr. '72 Azariah Horton, Jr. '70 James Hugh McCulloch '73 Thomas Melvill '69 John Pigeon, Jr. '75

Education

Samuel Baldwin '70 John Bowden '70 Archibald Craig '73 Samuel Doak '75

William Graham '73 Andrew Hunter, Jr. '72 Samuel Stanhope Smith '69 John Taylor '70

HOLDERS OF MAJOR PUBLIC OFFICES Members of Provincial Congresses, 1774-1776

Frederick Frelinghuysen '70

James Linn '69

* Lines between the traditional divisions of the medical profession were indistinct in eighteenth-century America. This listing includes men who functioned as apothecaries, surgeons, and physicians.

548

APPENDIX

Members of State Constitutional Conventions

James Madison, Jr. '71 Thomas MeIvill '69

Caleb Baker Wallace '70

Members of State Legislatures

Isaac Alexander '72 John Beatty '69 Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71 Jacobus Severyn Bruyn '75 Aaron Burr '72 William Channing '69 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Franklin Davenport '73 Arnold Elzey '75 Jonathan Forman '74 George Gale '74 John Henry III '69 Andrew Kirkpatrick '75 Charles Lee '75 Henry Lee, Jr. '73 Morgan Lewis '73

James Linn '69 Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 William Smith Livingston '72 James McCulloch '73 Spruce Macay '75 James Madison, Jr. '71 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 Thomas Melvill '69 Samuel Niles III '69 Aaron Ogden '73 John Anderson Scudder '75 Isaac Tichenor '75 Caleb Baker Wallace '70 William Willcocks, Jr. '69 David Witherspoon '74

State Governors

John Henry III '69 Henry Lee, Jr. '73 Morgan Lewis '73

Aaron Ogden '73 Isaac Tichenor '75

State Judges

Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71 William Bradford, Jr. '72 Andrew Kirkpatrick '75 Morgan Lewis '73

Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 Spruce Macay '75 Isaac Tichenor '75 Caleb Baker Wallace '70

State Attorneys-General

Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 William Bradford, Jr. '72 Aaron Burr '72

William Channing '69 Morgan Lewis '73

Other High State Offices

John Beatty '69 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 Morgan Lewis '73

James Linn '69 James McCulloch '73 Hunloke Woodruff '72

Members of the Continental Congress

John Beatty '69 Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 John Henry III '69

Henry Lee, Jr. '73 James Madison, Jr. '71 James R. Reid '75

Members of the Constitutional Convention of ιη8·]

Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71

James Madison, Jr. '71

APPENDIX Members of State Ratifying Conventions

John Beatty '69 Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 John Black '71 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 George Gale '74

Henry Lee, Jr. '73 James Madison, Jr. '71 Samuel Niles III '69 Jesse Reed '69

Members of U.S. Senate

Aaron Burr '72 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Franklin Davenport '73 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70

John Henry III '69 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 Aaron Ogden '73 Isaac Tichenor '75

Members of U.S. House of Representatives

David Bard '73 John Beatty '6g Franklin Davenport '73 George Gale '74 Henry Lee, Jr. '73

James Linn '69 James Madison, Jr. '71 Jonathan Mason, Jr. '74 John Anderson Scudder '75 William Stephens Smith '74

U.S. Presidents

James Madison, Jr. '71 U.S. Vice-Presidents

Aaron Burr '72 U.S. Attorneys-General

William Bradford, Jr. '72

Charles Lee '75

U.S. Secretaries of State

James Madison, Jr. '71 Justices of U.S. Supreme Court

Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 U.S. District Judges

Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 Presidential Electors

Morgan Lewis '73 Aaron Ogden '73

Caleb Baker Wallace '70

THOSE PERFORMING SOME FORM OF MILITARY SERVICE DURING THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

Isaac Alexander '7a Moses Allen '72* * Indicates service as chaplain.

James Francis Armstrong '73* Cornelius Baldwin '70

550

APPENDIX

Samuel Baldwin '70 Charles Clinton Beatty '75 John Beatty '69 Gunning Bedford, Jr. '71 Abraham Keteltas Beekman '74 William Lawrence Blair '69 Hugh Henry Brackenridge '71* William Bradford, Jr. '72 Daniel Breck '74* Joel Brevard '69 Jacobus Severyn Bruyn '75 Ichabod Burnet '75 Aaron Burr '72 John Ewing Colhoun '74 Stephen Cooke '73 Hugh Craig '73 John Noble Cumming '74 Franklin Davenport '73 John DeBow '72* John Duffield '73 James Duncan '75 Israel Evans '72* John Evans '75 Ebenezer Finley '72 Joseph Lewis Finley '75 Philip Vickers Fithian '72* Jonathan Forman '74 Frederick Frelinghuysen '70 Philip Morin Freneau '71 John Glover '74 James Hall '74* James Hasbrouck '73 Andrew Hodge, Jr. '72 Hugh Hodge '73 Hugh Hodge, Jr. '74 Azariah Horton, Jr. '70 Andrew Hunter, Jr. '72* William Eugene Imlay '73 Robert Keith '72* Charles Lee '75

Henry Lee, Jr. '73 Morgan Lewis '73 George Lewis '75 James Linn '69 William Linn '72* Henry Brockholst Livingston '74 William Smith Livingston '72 Archibald McClean '72 John Alexander McDougall '69 Charles McKnight, Jr. '71 John McMillan '72* Thomas Melvill '69 Lewis Morris IV '74 Aaron Ogden '73 Richard Platt '73 Josiah Pomeroy '70 James R. Reid '73 John Richardson Bayard Rodgers '75 Caleb Russell '70 John Anderson Scudder '75 George Smith '70 John Blair Smith '73 William Stephens Smith '74 Samuel Spring '71* John Taylor '70 Isaac Tichenor '75 John Timothy Trezevant '75 Nicholas Bayard Van Cortlandt '74 Samuel Whitwell, Jr. '74 John Wilkinson '75 William Willcocks, Jr. '69 Bedford Williams '70 Matthias Williamson, Jr. '70 James Wilson '70* Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson '73 David Witherspoon '74 James Witherspoon '70 John Witherspoon, Jr. '73 Hunloke Woodruff '72 David Zubly '69

Professed Loyalists

John Lott Phillips '74

David Zubly '69

INDEX B Y

R U T H

L.

W O O D W A R D

A single date within parentheses indicates the Class to which a person belonged. The names of all matriculates for whom a sketch is included in this volume are listed in italic type, as is the location of the sketch, which follows immediately after the name. In the case of identical family names, the relationship is indicated thus: (father) or (son), etc. Place names often can be made specific, especially in areas outside New England, only by including within parentheses the name of the county.

Abbottstown (York), PA, 477 Abernethy, John, 33 Abingdon, Presbytery of, 470, 471, 474 Abington (Plymouth), MA, 37, 39, 40, 41 Abington (Montgomery), PA, 185, 186, 243, 289 Abington, Presbytery of, 278 academies Alexandria Academy (VA), 488, 496 Allison Academy (Bordentown, NJ), 228 Augusta Academy (VA), 290, 468, 472, 473, 511. See also Liberty Hall, Washington College, Washington and Lee University. Back Creek Academy (Somerset Co., MD), 151 Boston Latin School, 33, 409, 441 Caldwell, David, school (Guilford Co., NC), 465, 505 Canandaigua Academy (NY), 110 Canonsburg Academy (Washington Co., PA), 252, 254, 283, 288. See also Jefferson College, Washington and Jeiferson College. Cheshire Academy (CT), 74 Clio Hall (Bennington, VT), 530 Columbian Academy (Georgetown, DC), 360 Crowfield Academy (NC), 386 Davidson Academy (TN), 466 Eden School (MD), 140 Elizabethtown Academy (NJ), 17, 1x4, 117, 124, 172, 309, 328, 340, 487, 512, 518 Eustatie Academy (SC), 257

Fagg's Manor (Chester Co., PA), 8, 88, 139, 241, 249, 263, 394, 452, 480, 483 Gilmanton Academy (NH), 108 Green, Enoch, school (Deerfield, NJ), 420 Green, Jacob, school (Hanover, Morris Co., NJ), 11 Henry-Washington Academy (Han­ over Co., VA), 453, 455 Hopkins Grammar School (CT), 100 Kennedy, Samuel, school (Somerset Co., NJ), 490 Kentucky Academy (Pisgah, KY), 119 Kingston Academy (Ulster Co., NY), 460

Liberty Hall (NC), 177, 247, 390, 408. See also Queen's College or Museum, Salisbury Academy. Liberty Hall (VA), 43, 118, 252, 290, 291, 293, 319, 470, 473, 511, 522. See also Augusta Academy, Washing­ ton College, Washington and Lee University. Lollar Academy (Hatboro, Mont­ gomery Co., PA) 244 Lower Marlborough Academy (Cal­ vert Co., MD), 359 Martin Academy (TN), 474. See also Washington College. Mattisonia Latin Grammar School (Monmouth Co., NJ), 149, 157, 179 Mrs. Byrd's, seminary for girls (Richmond, VA), 455 Morgan Academy (Burke Co., NC), 257 Morris Academy (Morris Co., NJ), 104

552

INDEX

academies (cont.) Newark Academy (NJ), 372 Norfolk Academy (VA), 147 Pequea School of Robert Smith (PA), 42, 231, 250, 263, 266, 286, 3!7> 342, 343. 346, 394. 524 Philadelphia Academy, 131, 148, 185, 243. 279, 393, 481, 536 Phillips Academy (MA), 169 Pittsburgh Academy, 142 Plainfield Academy (CT), 272, 364 Prince Edward Academy (VA), 43, 44, 45, 118, 343, 443, 473, 525. See also Hampden-Sidney College. Queen's College, grammar school (NJ), 112 Randolph Academy (OH), 367 Richmond Hill Academy (VA), 455 Robertson, Donald, school (King and Queen Co., VA), 160, 171, 513 Rock Spring Academy (SC), 257 Salisbury Academy (NC), 183, 247, 248, 390, 506. See also Liberty Hall, Queen's College or Museum. Staunton Academy (VA), 522 Stelle, Benjamin, grammar school (Providence, RI), 539 Trenton Academy (NJ), 265 Tusculum Academy (TN), 474. See also Tusculum College. Union Academy (Schenectady, NY), 114. See also Union College. Washington Academy (Somerset Co., MD), 233 Washington Academy (Albany, NY), 259 Washington Academy (Salem, NY), 440 Washington Academy (Washington Co., PA), 253, 285. See also Washing­ ton and Jefferson College. West Nottingham Academy (Cecil Co., MD), 23 Wheelock, Eleazar, school for Indian youth (Lebanon, CT), 102, 115, 120 Wilkes County Academy (Wilkes Co., GA), 526 Wilmington Academy (DE), 134 Winchester Academy (VA), 66 Woodbury Academy (Gloucester Co., NJ), 282 York Academy (York Co., PA), 77 Zion-Parnassus Academy (NC), 247

Accomack Co., VA, 483 Acton, GA, 59, 60 Adams, Abigail, 430, 432 Adams, Abigail (daughter). See Smith, Abigail Adams. Adams, Charles, 429 Adams, John, xxx, 25, 96, 154, 200, 268, 331, 369, 381, 409, 410, 411, 412, 428, 429, 430, 434, 435, 436, 441, 497. 513. 5»4> 533. 534 Adams, John Quincy, 35, 224, 315, 323, 333. 4J3> 433 Adams, Mary. See Keith, Mary Adams. Adams, Samuel, 34, 35 Adams, Sarah Smith, 429 Adams Co., PA, 477 Adams family, 428, 432-34 Addison, Alexander, 144 Albany, NY, 85, 114, 196, 199, 206, 210, 235, 259, 260, 310, 330, 385, 39 8 . 399. 401. 485. 5 l 4 Albany, Presbytery of, 440 Albany Medical Society, 260 Albemarle Co., VA, 192, 469 Alexander, Abraham, 177 Alexander, Archibald, 20, 466, 291 Alexander, Isaac (1772), 177-78, 256, 257 Alexander, Joseph (1760), 177, 504 Alexander, Margaret Brisbane, 178 Alexander, Mary. See Livingston, Mary Alexander. Alexander, Nathaniel (1776), 177 Alexander, Penelope. See Linn, Penel­ ope Alexander. Alexander, Robert, 472 Alexander, Sarah Thornton, 178 Alexander, William, 56 Alexandria, PA, 268 Alexandria, VA, 277, 349, 487, 488, 495, 496 Alien and Sedition Acts, 120, 163, 26768, 497, 533 Allegheny Co., PA, 142, 253 Allen, David, 126 Allen, Elisabeth Odinsell, 180, 181 Allen, Elizabeth Parsons, 179 Allen, Ethan, 85, 99, 530 Allen, Ira, 530-33 Allen, Joseph, 179 Allen, Moses (1772), 171)-82, 194, 230, 245, 300 Allen, Moses (son), 181 Allen brothers, Ethan and Ira, 530-32 Allentown, NJ, 156

INDEX Allen Township, PA, 278 Allison, Phoebe. See Ely, Phoebe Allison. All Saint's Parish, Hertfordshire, England, 77 Alston, Joseph, 202 Alston, Theodosia Burr, 198, 201, 202 Alumni Association of Nassau Hall, 164, 493 Amelia Co., VA, 20, 116 American Bible Society, 282, 301, 360, 390, 455, 489 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 68 American Board of Foreign Missions, 169 American Education Society, 68 American Home Missionary Society, 68

American Philosophical Society, 47, 187, 296, 340, 390 American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States, 361 American Whig Society, xii, xiii, xxx, 3, 20, 23, 31, 42, 54, 76, 88, 91, 92, 117, 125, 131, 139, 149, 157, 161, 165, 171, 179, 182, 185, 191, 194, 217, 223, 246, 263, 286, 294, 300, 342, 391, 423. 439

Amity, PA, 284 Amwell (Hunterdon), NJ, 174, 255, 439, 440 Anderson, Isabella. See Scudder, Isabella Anderson. Andover, MA, 169 Andover Theological Seminary, 169, 170 Andri, John, 270, 330, 461 Andrews, Alice. See Smith, Alice Andrews. Anglican /Episcopalian ministers, 546 Annapolis, MD, 24, 140, 215, 219, 382, 428, 479 Annapolis Convention, 133, 162, 495 Anne Arundel Co., MD, 321 Annesley, Elizabeth. See Lewis, Elizabeth Annesley. Anson Co., NC, 10, 527 Aquidneck RI, 238 Archibald, Catherine Shelby, 183 Archibald, Robert (1772), 182-84 Archibald, William, 182 Arkwright, Richard, 431

553

Armstrong, Eleanor Graeme. See Ewing, Eleanor Graeme Armstrong. Armstrong, Francis, 263 Armstrong, James Francis (1773), 26366, 419 Armstrong, John, Jr. (1776), 202, 314, 430, 516 Armstrong, Robert Livingston (1802), 265 Armstrong, Susannah Livingston, 264, 265 Arnold, Benedict, 158, 168, 271, 330, 399. 457. 515

Arnold, Oliver, 13 Ashfield, Elizabeth. See Willcocks, Elizabeth Ashfield. Ashfield, Lewis Morris, 56 Aspinwall, Sarah. See Piatt, Sarah Aspinwall. Aspinwall family, 339 Athenian Society, 111, 112 Atwater, Jeremiah, 318 Auchmuty, Samuel, 70, 71, 72 Augusta, GA, 305, 526 Augusta Co., VA1 43, 118, ago, 350, 368, 465, 472, 473, 511, 512, 521 Avery, Waightstill (1766), 257, 506 Back Creek (Somerset), MD, 139, 140 Badger, Joseph, 107 Badger, Mary. See Smith, Mary Badger. Bailey, Francis, 140, 152, 153 Baker, Esther. See Wallace, Esther Baker. Balch, Alfred (1805), 360, 361 Balch, Anne Goodwyn, 359 Balch, Elizabeth Beall, 361 Balch, Elizabeth King, 361 Balch, Hezekiah (1766), 182, 2g2, 324, 359- 47474

Balch, James, 359 Balch, Jane Parrott, 361 Balch, Lewis Penn Witherspoon (1806), 361 Balch, Stephen Bloomer (1774), 359-62, 386 Balch, Thomas Bloomer (1813), 361 Baldwin, Cornelius (1770), 65-67, 286 Baldwin, Elijah, 65 Baldwin, Elizabeth, 65 Baldwin, Jonathan (1755), xii, 23, 193. 346 Baldwin, Mary, 67

554

INDEX

Baldwin, Mary Briscoe, 66 Baldwin, Mildred Throckmorton, 66 Baldwin, Moses (1757), 166 Baldwin, Nehemiah, 67 Baldwin, Nelly Hite, 66 Baldwin, Phebe. See Foster, Phebe Baldwin Dod. Baldwin, Samuel (1770), 6y-68 Baldwin, Susan Pritchard, 66 Baldwinsville (Onondaga), NY, 19 Ballston, NY, 75 Baltimore, MD, 191, 192, 199, 215, 307, 321, 322, 323, 324, 382, 383, 479, 480

Baltimore, Presbytery of, 360,

92, 125, 242,

488

Bank of Alexandria, 496 Bank of Massachusetts, 411 Bank of New Brunswick, 491 Bank of New York, 338 Bank o£ North America, 142, 187 Bank of Pennsylvania, 91, 187 Bank of the United States, 197, 338, 339, 382, 411

Banks, John, 462 Barbados, West Indies, 126 Barber, Francis (1767), 328, 456 Barber, George Clinton (1796), 334 Barber, Mary Chetwood Ogden, 334 Barcalo, Margaretta. See Van Dyke, Margaretta Barcalo. Barclay, Anna. See Craig, Anna Barclay. Barclay (Berkeley), Margaret. See King, Margaret Barclay. Bard, David (1773), 266-6() Bard, Elizabeth Diemer, 267, 268 Barker, Elizabeth Chandler. See Daven­ port, Elizabeth Chandler Barker. Barker, Nehemiah, 18 Barlow, Joel, 337 Barney, Joshua, 321, 322 Bartlett, Josiah, 5 3 Basking Ridge, NJ, 491 Bayard, Andrew (1779), 223 Bayard, Elizabeth. See Rodgers, Elizabeth Bayard. Bayard, Hester. See Van Cortlandt, Hester Bayard. Bayard, James A. (1777), 223 Bayard, James A., Jr. (1784), 30, 223 Bayard, James Ashton, 223 Bayard, Jane. See Kirkpatrick, Jane Bayard. Bayard, John, 223, 491 Bayard, Nicholas (1792), 223

Bayard, Samuel (1784), 223 Bayley, Richard, 159 Baylor, George, 501 Beall, Elizabeth. See Balch, Elizabeth Beall. Beard, Archibald, 266 Beasley, Frederick (1797), 46 Beatty, Anne Reading, 3, 449 Beatty, Charles Clinton (1775), 44952, xxii, xxvii, xxxi, 3, 89, 216, 421, 485- 515 Beatty, Charles Clinton (father), xxii, 3, 126, 449

Beatty, Elizabeth. See Fithian, Elizabeth Beatty. Beatty, Erkuries, 89, 450 Beatty, John (1769), 3-8, xxii, 29, 30, 89, 216, 295, 296, 449

Beatty, Katherine De Klyn Lalor, 7 Beatty, Mary. See Green, Mary Beatty. Beatty, Mary Longstreet, 3 Beatty, Richard Longstreet (1797), 7 Beaverswyck, NJ, 238 Beckley, John, 153 Bedford, Gunning, Jr. (1771), 131-35 Bedford, Gunning (father), 131, 135 Bedford, Gunning (cousin), 131, 132 Bedford, Jane Ballareau Parker, 131, 135 Bedford, Juliana, 135 Bedford (Westchester), NY, 18 Bedford, PA, 306 Bedford, Susannah Jacquett, 131 Bedford Co., PA, 351 Beekman, Abraham, 363 Beekman, Abraham Keteltas (1774)· 362-64, 270 Beekman, Gerard, 364 Beekman, James, Jr. (1776), 270, 362, 363 Beekman, James, Sr., 269, 270, 271, 362, 363 Beekman, Jane Keteltas, 269, 271, 362 Beekman, Johanna, 364 Beekman, William (1773), 269-ji, xxx, 362, 363, 364

Beers, Lucy. See Smith, Lucy Beers. Beith, Scotland, 125, 354 Belcher, Jonathan, 340 Belknap, Jeremy, 441 Bell, Ann. See Trezevant, Ann Bell. Bell, Mary, 537 Bell, Sarah. See Leake, Sarah Bell. Bell, Sylvanus, 537

INDEX Bellamy, Joseph, 18, 37, 107, 167, 194, 206, 273, 274, 275, 365 Benedict, Joel (1765), 300, 504 Bennington, VT1 399, 528, 530, 535 Bentley, William, 38, 169, 170, 274, 275, 365, 366 Bergen Co., NJ, 8o, 81, 332, 527 Berkeley Co., VA, 187, 225 Berks Co., PA, 122 Bermuda, 146, 147, 276, 277 Bernards Township, NJ, 29 Berrien, Jane. See Fish, Jane Berrien. Bethany, NC, 387, 390 Bethel (Hartford), MD, 241, 242 Bethel (Augusta), VA1 521 Bethlehem, CT1 18, 37, 107, 167, 194, 206, 273, 365 Bethlehem (Hunterdon), NJ, 52 Bethlehem, PA, 65, 286 Big Spring (Cumberland), PA, 8, 124, 231, 232 Bishop, Hannah. See Perkins, Hannah Bishop. Bishop, Susannah. See Tracy, Susannah Bishop. Black, Ann, 136 Black, Elizabeth Newall, 136, 137 Black, John (1771), 136-38, 317 Black, Robert, 136 Bladensburg, MD, 480 Blair, Elizabeth. See Smith, Elizabeth Blair. Blair, Elizabeth Durbarrow, 8, 453 Blair, Francis Preston, 9 Blair, James, 9 Blair, Jane, 482 Blair, John, xix, 8, 88, 139, 232, 241, 249, 250, 263, 394, 452, 453 Blair, John Durbarrow (1775), 452-56, xx, 8, 449, 482, 504 Blair, Mary Winston, 453 Blair, Rebecca. See Linn, Rebecca Blair. Blair, Samuel (1760), 8, 42, 342, 453, 482 Blair, Samuel, Sr. (father), 8, 9, 42, 342, 453> 480, 482, 483 Blair, William Lawrence (1769), 8-10, 453 Blair Co., PA, 267 Blanchard, Mary. See Hodge, Mary Blanchard. Block Island, NY, 14 Bloomer, Joshua, 72

555

Bloomfield, Joseph, 202, 227, 331, 332, 397 Bloomingdale, NY, 364 Bloomsbury, NJ, 7 Blydenburg, Hannah Moody, 69 Blydenburgh, John (1770), 68-70, 125, 274 Blydenburgh, Margaret, 70 Blydenburgh, Margaret Smith, 69 Boehler, William, 286 Bogart, John, 112, 114 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 201, 202 Bonneau, Floride. See Colhoun, Floride Bonneau. Bonneau, Samuel, 369 Bordeaux, France, 271 Bordentown, NJ, 228 Boston, MA, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 94, 166, 168, 170, 202, 206, 207, 208, 212, 263, 277, 296, 309, 354, 365, 385, 399- 409. 410, 411, 413. 4i4> 44°. 441. 5J3 Boston and Charlestown, District of, MA, 35 Boston Association, 207 Boston School Committee, 208 Bostwick, Charles, 457 Bostwick, David, 456, 457, 502 Bostwick, John, 457 Bostwick, Mary Hinman, 456 Bostwick, Sarah, 457 Bostwick, William (1775), 456-57 Botetourt Co., VA, 118 Bottle Hill (Morris), NJ, 11, 86 Boudinot, Elias, 3, 187, 188, 190, 258, 281, 341, 491 Boudinot Elisha, 461, 462 Boudinot, Susan Vergereau. See Brad­ ford, Susan Vergerau Boudinot. Bourbon Co., KY, ig2 Bovell, Stephen, 468 Bowden, John (1770), 70-76, xxii Bowden, Mary (Polly) Jarvis, 72, 75 Bowden, Thomas, 70-72 Bowman, James H., 388 Boxford, MA, 365 Boyd, James (1763), 349 Brackenridge, Henry Marie, 141, 143, 145 Brackenridge, Hugh Henry (1771), 138-46, xiii, 84, 98, 149, 150, 151, 167, 179, 185, 189-90, 194, 214, 245, 253. 254. 306. 342> 423- 439 Brackenridge, Mrs. Hugh Henry, 306

556

INDEX

Brackenridge, Hugh Montgomery, 140 Brackenridge, Sabina Wolf, 143, 145 Bradford, Anna Spaulding, 365 Bradford, Ebenezer (1773), 272-76, 69, 364 Bradford, Elizabeth Green, 273, 275 Bradford, Mary Cleveland, 272, 364 Bradford, Moses, 365 Bradford, Rachel Budd, 185 Bradford, Susan Vergereau Boudinot, 187, 190 Bradford, William, Jr. (1772), 185-91, 86, 87, 88, 89, 139, 140, 148, 162, 165, 180, 191, 194, 195, 214, 230, 236, 241, 246, 256, 265, 279, 283, 286, 485, 496 Bradford, William (father of William Bradford '72), 185 Bradford, William (1774), 364-65, 272 Bradford, William (father of William Bradford '74), 272, 364, 365 Bradford, William (cousin of William Bradford '74), 14, 272 Bradner, Benoni (1775), 274 Braintree, MA, 37, 53 Brandywine, PA, 56, 329, 416, 456, 482 Brandywine Hundred, DE, 132 Breck, Daniel (1774), 365-67 Breck, Daniel, Jr., 367 Breck, Hannah Porter, 365 Breck, John, 365 Breck, Margaret Thompson, 365 Breckenridge, Hugh Montgomery. See Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, 138. Breckenridge, William, 139 Breed's Hill, MA, 34 Brevard, Ephraim (1768), 10, 178, 527 Brevard, Jane MacWhorter, 10 Brevard, Joel (1769), 10-11, g Brevard, John, 10 Brevard, Mary. See Davidson, Mary Brevard. Brevard, Robert, 10 Brevard, Zebulon, 10 Bridgehampton (Suffolk), Long Island, NY, 103 Bridgeport, CT, 106 Bridgeton (Cumberland), NJ, 227 Brisbane, Margaret. See Alexander, Margaret Brisbane. Brisbane, William, 178 Briscoe, Girard, 66 Briscoe, Mary. See Baldwin, Mary Briscoe.

Bristol, NY, 110 Brodhead, Daniel, 482 Brookhaven, Long Island, NY, 105 Brookline, MA, 412 Brooklyn, NY, 287, 392 Brown, Catherine. See McMillan, Catherine Brown. Brown, Charles Brockden, 235 Brown, Deborah. See Dod, Deborah Brown. Brown, Elizabeth. See Craighead, Elizabeth Brown. Brown, John (1749), 290, 466, 468, 473, δ" Brown, John (1778), 119, 201, 466 Brown, Mary. See Wallace, Mary Brown Brown, Susan. See McKnight, Susan Brown. Brown University, 17, 540. See also Rhode Island College. Bruyn, Andrew DeWitt (1810), 460 Bruyn, Blandina Elmendorf, 459, 460 Bruyn, Catharine. See Hasbrouck, Catharine Bruyn. Bruyn, Catherine Ten Broeck, 457 Bruyn, Edmund (1801), 460 Bruyn, Jacobus Severyn (1775), 457-60, 295. 335 Bruyn, Severyn (1803), 460 Bruyn, Severyn T., 457 Bryan, Amelia Horner, 191 Bryan, Andrew (1772), 191-92 Bryan, Andrew (father), 192 Bryant, Mary. See Smith, Mary Bryant. Bryson, Margaret. See McCulloch, Margaret Bryson. Buchanan, Elizabeth. See Luckey, Elizabeth Buchanan. Buchanan, John, 454, 455 Bucks Co., PA, 89, 90, 91, 204, 229, «49, SKO, 437, 486, 508, 510, κιι, K22 Budd, Rachel. See Bradford, Rachel Budd. Buell, Samuel, 18 Buffalo Creek (Botetourt), VA, 118 Bull, John, 481, 482 Bullock's Creek, SC, 504 Buncombe Co., NC, 504 Burgoyne, John, 211 Burke, Edmund, 234 Burke Co., NC, 258 Burlington, NJ, 279, 280, 396 Burlington Co., NJ, 280 Burnet, Ann Combs, 11

INDEX Burnet, Fanny Roe, ia Burnet, George Whitefield (179a), 460 Burnet, Ichabod (1775), 460-63, 417 Burnet, Jacob (1791), 460 Burnet, Mary, 11 Burnet, Mary Camp, 460 Burnet, Matthias, Jr. (1769), 11-13 Burnet, Matthias (father), 11 Burnet, William (1749), 460 Burnet, William (son), 461 Burr, Aaron (1772), 11)2-204, χ ' ν . 1 ^, 30, 58, 85, no, 145, ^7. !68, 170, 179, 180, 187, 239, 245, 281, 283, 300, 303, 307, 312, 328, 332, 334, 336. 339' 369. 4°i. 403, 404. 4!3- 434. 497- 524 Burr, President Aaron, xi, 67, 71, 83, 192, 194, 203, 236, 456 Burr, Elizabeth Jumel, 202 Burr, Esther Edwards, xi, 192, 193, 203 Burr, Sarah. See Reeve, Sarah Burr. Burr, Theodosia (daughter). See Alston, Theodosia Burr. Burr, Theodosia Bartow Prevost, iq6, 198 Burrowe, John, 377 Burt, Violet. See Scott, Violet Burt. businessmen, 547 Byfield, MA, 69 Cadogan, William, 89 Cadwalader, John, 223 Cadwalader, Lambert, 295 Cadwalader, Thomas, 295 Caldwell, Agnes. See Grier, Agnes Caldwell. Caldwell, David (1761), 183, 184, 245, 465 Caldwell, James (1759), xxii, 81, 116, 117, 264, 371, 520 Calef, Hannah. See Thayer, Hannah Calef. Calhoun, Ezekiel, 368 Calhoun, Floride Colhoun, 370 Calhoun, Jane Ewing, 368 Calhoun, John C., 339, 370, 480 Calhoun, John Ewing, Jr., 370 Calvert Co., MD, 359, 360 Cambridge College (SC), 408, 526 Cambridge, MD, 27 Cambridge, MA, 157 Camden, SC, 177, 178, 264, 304 Camden Co., NJ, 227

557

Camp, Mary. See Burnet, Mary Camp. Campbell, Archibald, 146, 147 Campbell, Arthur, 291 Campbell, Catherine Cutler, 77 Campbell, Donald (1771), 146-48 Campbell, Elizabeth Tucker, 146 Campbell, Francis, 76 Campbell, John (1770), 76-77 Campbell, John P., 467 Campbell, Margaret. See Henry, Margaret Campbell. Campbell Co., VA, 192 Campbellstown, Scotland, 139 Campfield, Jabez (1759), 104 Canada, 61, 96, 168, 310, 515, 530, 534 Canandaigua, NY, 109 Canonsburg (Washington), PA, 285, 288 Canonsburg, VA, 251 Canterbury (Windham), CT, 272, 364, 365 Cape Francois, West Indies, 321 Cargill, Jean. See Melvill, Jean Cargill. Carleton, Sir Guy, 400, 401 Carlisle (Cumberland), PA, 77, 145, 231, 232, 233, 291, 317, 324, 351, 477, 577 Carlisle, Presbytery of, 92, 136, 230, 351 Carmichael, William, 400 Carnahan, President James (1800), 203, 854 Caroline, VA1 171 Carpenter's Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, 131 Carroll, Charles, 25 Carroll, Daniel, 381 Carroll's Tract (York), PA, 350 Carrollton, MD, 25 Carter, Anne Hill. See Lee, Anne Hill Carter. Carter, Anne Tasker. See Peck, Anne Tasker Carter. Carter, Benjamin, 421, 422 Carter, Frances, 421 Carter, Frances Tasker, 218, 421 Carter, Priscilla, 421 Carter, Robert, 421 Carter, Robert III, 218, 421, 422 Caruthers, Eli W. (1817), 183, 184, 246 Caswell, Richard, 10, 205, g28 Cayuga Co., NY, 116, 260 Cazenovia (Madison), NY, 378, 379 Cecil Co., MD, 23

558

INDEX

Centre, MD, 241 Centre (York), PA, 242 Chalmsford, MA, 442 Chambersburg, PA, 250, 327 Channing, Edward Tyrell, 15 Channing, George, 15 Channing, John, 13 Channing, Lucy Ellery, 13 Channing, Mary Chaloner Robinson, 13 Channing, Walter, 15 Channing, William (1769), 13-16 Channing, William Ellery, 15 Charlemont (Hampshire), MA, 40, 41 Charleston, MA, 212 Charleston, SC, xxii, 65, 67, 68, 153, 178, 180, 189, 255, 256, 264, 276, 304, 305, 356, 368, 369, 387, 408, 409, 418, 419, 420, 424, 462, 463, 464, 488, 489, 536, 537 Charleston, College of, 408, 526 Charlestown, [West] VA, 324 Charles Town Township (Chester), PA, 451 Charlesworth, Anne. See McClean, Anne Charlesworth. Charlotte, NC1 177, 178, 247, 264, 304, 387, 390, 408, 504, 506 Charlotte Co., VA, 116 Chartiers Creek (Yohogania), VA [later Washington Co., PA], 250, 251 Chase, Samuel, 134, 140, 201, 497 Cheesman, Edmund (1771 ),148-49 Cheesman, Mary, 148 Cheesman, Samuel, 148 Cheesman, Sarah Tennent, 148 Chenango Co., NY, 378, 433, 436 Chesapeake, MD, 383 Cheshire, CT, 74 Chester Co., PA, 9, 88, 182, 192, 242, 250, 256, 287, 289, 350, 451, 472, 482, 508 Chestertown, MD1 26, 97 Chetwood, Elizabeth. See Ogden, Elizabeth Chetwood. Chetwood, John, 330 Childs, Francis, 153 Chittenden, Thomas, 530 Christian, Rosanna. See Wallace, Rosanna Christian. Christiana Bridge, DE, 475 Christ's Church Parish, GA1 5g Church, Thomas, 514, 515 Cincinnati, Society of the, 5, 66, 159, 227, 234, 265, 315, 316, 333, 337,

338. 339- 373- 377. 402, 428, 441. 462 Clap, Thomas, 93 Clark, John (1759), 251 Clark, Miriam. See Mason, Miriam Clark. Clark, Sarah. See Van Dyke, Sarah Clark. Clay, Henry, 316, 405, 414 Claypoole, Ann Wright, 464 Claypoole, George, 463 Claypoole, James, 463 Claypoole, Joshua B., 464 Claypoole, Mary Parkhouse, 463 Claypoole, Thomas, 464 Claypoole, William (1775), 463-65 Claypoole, Wright, 464 Cleveland, Mary. See Bradford, Mary Cleveland. Clinton, Charles, 449 Clinton, DeWitt, 154, 313, 404, 434 Clinton, George, 16, 57, 196, 197, 198, 237, 238, 294, 310, 311, 312, 313, 335. 378> 392. 403. 404. 41^, 458. 459. 5»5 Clinton, Henry, 330 Clinton, James, 457, 458, 459 Cliosophic Society, xii, xxx, 13, 28, 33, 65, 78, 98, 107, 109, 110, 111, 115, 166, 172, 177, 179, 180, 182, 194, 203, 206, 245, 277, 391, 423. 439 Cobbett, William, 404 Cobham, Thomas, 464 Coit, Martha. See Smith, Martha Coit. Colhone, John Ewing. See Colhoun, John Ewing, 368. Colhoun, Floride. See Calhoun, Floride Colhoun. Colhoun, Floride Bonneau, 369, 370 Colhoun, John Ewing (1774), 368-70 College of New Jersey, age of students, xix, xx Alumni Association, 164, 493 curriculum, xxi, xxvi, xxvii, 45, 47, 48, 228, 396, 450, 468, 469 enrollment, xxi, xxii, xiv, xix, xxii, 48, 49, 50 grammar school, xiii, xiv, xxi, 54, 88, 139, 226, 263, 286, 290, 302, 328, 354. 363. 442. 453. 469. 486, 494. 499. 524 professors, xxvi, 8, 44, 45, 48, 50, 228, 232, 250, 343, 395, 444, 452, 513

INDEX religious revivals, 99, 209, 221, 246. 273. 352. 385. 389> 468, 469, 524 stewards, xii, 23, 193, 346, 349, 395. 422, 456. 463. 465. 483. 484. 485, 490, 499, 503, 508, 509, 513, 521-527.538 student riots, 19, 49, 50 tutors, xxvi, 17, 42, 45, 46, 48, 107, 228, 226, 257, 286, 287, 289, 29«> 352, 375. 395» 449. 453. 456- 468, 525 vice-presidents, 8, 45, 48, 397, 453. See also Introduction and Appendix for data on students attending. Colquhoun, John Ewing. See Colhoun, John Ewing, 368. Columbia, District of, xxv, 26, 535 Columbia, Presbytery of, 440 Columbia College, 70, 74, 75, 159, 231, 233. 311· 326. 402, 435 Columbia College, College of Physicians and Surgeons, 260, 520 Columbian Library (Georgetown, MD), 360 Combs, Ann. See Burnet, Ann Combs. Conanicut Island, CT, 15 Concord, MA, 514 Concord, NH, 94, 212, 213 Concord (Iredell), NC, 353, 387 Congregational ministers, 546 Congregationalist New London Associa­ tion, 99 Conkling, Roscoe, 378 Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 74, 100 Connecticut Farms, NJ, 376 Connecticut Missionary Society, 100 Conococheague (Cumberland), PA, 92 Conover, Samuel F., 298 Conway, Eleanor Rose. See Madison, Eleanor Rose Conway. Cook, Mary. See Pomeroy, Mary Cook. Cooke, Catherine Esten, 276, 277 Cooke, George (1807), 277 Cooke, John Esten (1801), 277 Cooke, Nathan, 276 Cooke, Philip Pendleton (1834), 277 Cooke, Philip St. George, 277 Cooke, Stephen (1773), 276-77 Cook's Settlement, or Upper Ten Mile [now Prosperity], PA, 284 Cooper, Abigail Huntting, 16 Cooper, Caleb (1769), 16-17, xxii

559

Cooper, Elijah, 104 Cooper, Mary, 16 Cooper, Robert (1760), 76, 232, 317, 318, 324, 520, 521 Cooper, Samuel, 34 Cooper, Thomas, 16 Cooper, William, Jr., 444 Coos, NH, 528, 529 Copley, John Singleton, 203, 412 Cornwallis, Lord Charles, 247, 264, 304, 305, 418, 501 Cosens, Mary. See Ogden, Mary Cosens. Cowan's Ford, NC, 387, 408 Cowpens, SC, 368 Cox, James, 523 Coxe, Tench, 517 Cozani, Mr., 270 Craft, Thomas, 34 Craig, Anna Barclay, 277 Craig, Archibald (1773), 277-78 Craig, Elizabeth Wilson, 278 Craig, Hugh (1773), 278-79 Craig, James, 534 Craig, John, 277 Craig, William, 278 Craighead, Alexander, 465 Craighead, Elizabeth Brown, 466, 477 Craighead, Thomas (1775), 465-67, 509, 510 Craighead, Thomas Brown, 467 Cranbury, NJ, 56, 156 Craven Co., NC, 444 Crawford, Alexander, 468 Crawford, Edward (1775), 467-72, xxxi Crawford, James (1777), xxxi, 468, 469, 47°

Crawford, Jane McDonald, 471 Crawford, Lucy Morris, 471 Crawford, Mary McPheeters, 468 Crawford, William H., 323 Cromwell, Oliver, 26 Cross Creek [Fayetteville], NC, 205 Cross Creek, PA, 285 Crown Point, NY, 32, 310 Cruser, Abraham, 504 Cruser, Rachel. See McRee, Rachel Cruser. Cub Creek, VA, 117, 118 Cumberland, PA, 502 Cumberland, VA, 43 Cumberland College (TN), 466 Cumberland Co., NJ, 394, 396 Cumberland Co., PA, 8, 76, 319, 351, 477

560

INDEX

Cumberland Island, GA, 308 Cumming, Catherine. See Stockton, Catherine Cumming. Cumming, Hooper (1805), 374 Cumming, John Noble (1774), 370-J4, 51 Cumming, Mary. See MacWhorter, Mary Cumming. Cumming, Mary Noble, 370 Cumming, Robert, 51, 370 Cumming, Sarah Hedden, 372, 374 Cummings, Joseph, 366, 367 Custis, John Parke, 499, 500 Cutler, Catherine. See Campbell, Catherine Cutler. Culter, Manasseh, 337, 367 Cutting, Leonard, 72 Cuyler, Jacob, 528 Daingerfield, Catherine. See Lewis, Catherine Daingerfield. Dana, Francis, 13 Danbury, CT, 273, 274 dancing instruction, 270, 363 Danville, KY, 119 Darlington, Polly. See Joline, Polly Darlington. Dartmouth College, xx, xxiv, xxvii, xxviii, 17, 39, 48, 53, 54, 102, 106, 115, 166, 209, 213, 272, 364, 528 Davenport, Ann Annis, 279 Davenport, Elizabeth. See Kelsey, Elizabeth Davenport. Davenport, Elizabeth Chandler Barker, 18 Davenport, Franklin (1773), 279-S2, 29 Davenport, James, 17 Davenport, John (1769), IJ-19, 194, 270 Davenport, Josiah Franklin, 279 Davenport, Parnell, 17 Davenport, Sarah Barton Zantiiger, 281 Davenport, Sarah Robinson, 19 Davidson, Mary Brevard, 10 Davidson, William L., 387, 408 Davidson College (TN), 466 Davie, William R. (1776), 178, 247, 249- 3°4> 412. 5°6 Davies, Jane Holt, 19 Davies, John Rodgers (1769), 11)-20 Davies, President Samuel, xvii, 19, 20, 116 Davies, William (1765), 20 Davis, Matthew, 155 Davis, Rebecca. See McPherrin, Rebecca Davis.

Davis, Thomas, 244 Dayton, Elias, 298, 456 Dayton, Jonathan (1776), 124, 173, 201, 277. 33°. 332. 369· 372. 4!3> 435. 456 Deane, Silas, 23 Dearborn, Henry, 314 Debevoise, Johannes, 287 Debevoise, Margaretta. See Duffield, Margaretta Debevoise. DeBow, John (1772), 204-205, 230 DeBow, Solomon, 204 Deep River, NC, 264 Deep Run (Bucks), PA, 221 Deer Creek (Harford), MD, 359 Deerfield (Cumberland), NJ, 18, 19, 216, 218, 219, 225, 394. 420, 449 Deistical Society of New York, 154 De Kalb, Baron, 177 Delancey, Oliver, 11 Delaware, District of, 131 Delaware Bridge Company, 7 Delaware Co., PA, 508 Demsy, Mary. See Springer, Mary Demsy. Detroit, MI, 524 DeWitt, Catharine Luyster, 21 DeWitt, Charles, 294 DeWitt, Elizabeth Duryee, 22 DeWitt, Johannes (grandfather), 21 DeWitt, Johannes (grandson), 22 DeWitt, Maria. See Hasbrouck, Maria DeWitt. DeWitt, Peter (Petrus) (1769), 2/-22, 9, 10 Dickinson, Philemon, 80 Dickinson College, 137, 145, 228, 232, 233. 245. 317' 318, 325. 327, 351 Diemer, Elizabeth. See Bard, Elizabeth Diemer. Dighton, MA, 14, 109, 110 Diligence Stage Line, 374 Doak, Esther Montgomery, 475 Doak, Jane Mitchell, 472 Doak, John, 474 Doak, Margaretta Houston McEwen, 475 Doak, Samuel (1775), -#72-75, 43, 469, 471 Doak, Samuel (father), 472 Doak, Samuel Witherspoon, 474 Dobbin, Mr., 350 Dobbs Ferry, NY, 377, 427 Dod, Deborah Brown, 283 Dod, Phebe Baldwin. See Foster, Phebe Baldwin Dod.

INDEX Dod, Stephen, 383 Dod, Thaddeus (1773), 283-85, xx, 251 Dodge, Ezekiel, 37, 39 Dodge, Mary. See Niles, Mary Dodge. Donegal, Presbytery of, 92, 136, 140, 280, 226, 232, 233, 250, 267, 288, 317, 319. 324. 351* 360 Donegal Township (Lancaster), PA, 386 Doodletown, NY, 458 Dorchester Co., MD, 22 Dorsey, Richard, 214, 215 Dover, DE, 132 Dover, NJ, 299 Doylestown, PA, 8g, 91, 221 Drayton, Charles, 368 Drummey, Elizabeth. See Hazard, Elizabeth Drummey. Dubois, Lewis, 335 Duer, William, 57, 240, 337, 338, 402, 403, 430, 431, 432 Duflxeld1George (1752),231,232, 286

Duffield, John (1773), 285-87, 352 Duffield, Margaretta Debevoise, 287 Duffield, Susannah, 285 Duffield, William, 286 Dumaresq, Jane. See Pigeon, Jane Dumaresq. Duncan, James (1775), 475-78 Duncan, Susanna Lear, 477 Dunlap, James (1773), 287-89, 241 Dunlap, Sarah Luckey, 241, 289 Dunlap, William, 289 Dunlap's Creek, PA, 288 Dunn, John, 506 Dunstable, MA, 442 Durand, John, 269 Durbarrow, Elizabeth. See Blair, Elizabeth Durbarrow. Durbarrow, John, 8, 453 Durham (Strafford), NH, 69 Duryee, Elizabeth. See OeWitt, Elizabeth Duryee. Dutchess Co., NY, 159, 311, 312, 314, 315» 3l6 Dutch Reformed ministers, 546 Dwight, Timothy, 95, 96 East Hampton, Long Island, NY, 18 East Nantmill Township (Chester), PA, 9 East Nottingham, MD, 287, 521 East Pennsborough (Cumberland), PA, 351

561

East Whiteland Township (Chester), PA, 508 East Windsor (Middlesex), NJ, 478 Eaton, Sarah. See Smith, Sarah Eaton. Eckley, Joseph (1772), 206-209, 170, 212 Eckley, !Catherine, 206 Eckley, Sally Jeffries, 2og Eckley, Thomas, 206 Edinburgh, University of, 48, 518 educators, 547 Edwards, Enoch, 349 Edwards, Esther. See Burr, Esther Edwards. Edwards, Jonathan, Jr. (1765), 93, 114 Edwards, President Jonathan, xi, 37, 53- 95. l79> 203. 272, 466 Edwards, Pierpont (1768), 93, 95, 106, 195. 405 Edwards, Rhoda Ogden, 192 Edwards, Timothy (1757), 192, 193, !94. !95. 328 Elgin Botanical Gardens (New York City), 312 Elizabethtown, NJ, 28, 67, 80, 81, 93, 113, 123, 124, 172, 173, 192, 226, 233, 258, 264, 328, 329, 330, 331, 333, 334, 340, 376, 398, 400, 401, 423, 485 Elk Branch, [West] VA, 324, 325 Ellery, Lucy. See Channing, Lucy Ellery. Ellery, William, 13 Elliott, Ann (Nancy). See Morris, Ann Elliott. Ellsworth, Oliver (1766), 412 Ellzey, William, 495 Elmendorf, Blandina. See Bruyn, Blandina Elmendorf. Elmendorf, Peter (1782), 459 Elmendorf, Petrus E., 459 Ely, Deborah Hammel, 478 Ely, John, 478 Ely, Joseph (1775), 478 Ely, Phoebe Allison, 478 Ely, Sara Warford, 478 Elzey, Arnold (1775), 478-80, 380, 464 Elzey, Arnold (father), 478, 480 Elzey, Henrietta Wilson, 479, 480 Elzey, Margrett Lindow, 478 Emans, Cataryna. See Van Dyke, Cataryna Emans. Embargo Act, 155 Enfant, Pierre 1", 372 English Neighborhood, NJ, 503 Eno (Orange), NC, 204 Esopus (Ulster), NY, 392

562

INDEX

Essex Co., MA, 69 Essex Co., NJ, 173, 330, 373 Esten, John, 276 Esten, Catherine. See Cooke, Catherine Esten. Eutaw Springs, SC, 305, 418 Evans, Huldah Kent, 212, 213 Evans, Israel (1772), 209-214, 94, m, 385 Evans, John (1775), 480-81 Evans, John (father), 480, 481 Evans, Mary Jones, 480 Evans, Samuel, 209 Ewing, Charles (1798), 265, 396 Ewing, Eleanor Graeme Armstrong, 265 Ewing, Jane. See Calhoun, Jane Ewing. Fagg's Manor (Chester), PA, 8, 88, 139, 241, 249, 263, 394, 452, 480, 483 Fairfax, Thomas, sixth lord of, 65 Fairfax Co., VA, 496 Fairfield, CT, 194 Fairhaven Turnpike Company, 535 Fair Rivieres, Canada, 451 Falling Spring, VA, 319 Falling Waters, VA, 267 Farmington, CT, 99 "Father Bombo's Pilgrimmage to Mecca," xxi, 84, 98, 139, 150, 167, 288, 342 Fauquier Co., VA, 497 Fell, John, 81 Fenno, John, 153, 154 Fenton, Mr., 89 Ferguson, Elizabeth Graeme, 244 Ferguson, Hugh, 244 Ferguson, Mary. See Grier, Mary Ferguson. Filson, John, 119 Findlay, Jane. See Luckey, Jane Findlay. Findley, William, 142 Finley, Ebenezer (1772), 214-16, 481 Finley, James, 216, 287, 288, 521 Finley, James Edwards Burr, 216 Finley, Jane Blair, 482 Finley, Jane Kinkaid, 216 Finley, John Evans (1776), 214, 216, 481 Finley, Joseph (1765), 214, 481, 482 Finley, Joseph Lewis (1775)» 214 Finley, Michael, 481 Finley, Samuel, Jr. (1765), 214, 215, 286, 481 Finley, Mrs. Samuel, 394

Finley, President Samuel, 8, 214, 216, 481, 521 Finley, Sarah Hall, 214 Fish, Hannah Hankinson, 376 Fish, Jane Berrien, 375 Fish, Nicholas (1777), 459 Fish, Peter (1774), 375-76 Fisher, Nathaniel, 109, 375 Fishkill, NY, 22, 158 Fitch, John, go Fithian, Elizabeth Beatty, 216, 219, 220, 221, 347, 421, 449, 450 Fithian, Hannah Vickers, 216, 217 Fithian, Joel, 221 Fithian, Joseph, 217 Fithian, Philip Vickers (1772), 216-21, xxiii, 111, 113, 136, 148, 177, 182, 191, 192, 204, 209, 210, 225, 226, 230, 232, 246, 250, 255, 256, 263, 267, 286, 290, 298, 303, 346, 347, 352, 354, 385, 396, 420, 421, 422, 449, 473, 484 Flatbush, NY, 2, 151 Florida, British East, 60 Florida (Orange), NY, 486 Foote, William H., 183, 184 Forman, Catharine Wyckoff, 523 Forman, Eleanor. See Freneau, Eleanor Forman. Forman, Elizabeth. See Scudder, Elizabeth Forman. Forman, Ezekiel, 523 Forman, Helena Denise, 153, 377 Forman, Jonathan (1774), 377-78, 153 Forman, Mary. See Seymour, Mary Forman. Forman, Mary Ledyard, 377, 378 Forman, Samuel, 153, 377 Forsyth, John (1799), 526 Forsyth, Robert, 462 Fort Clinton, NY, 237, 459 Fort Edward, NY, 115 Fort George, 314 Fort Granby, SC, 305 Fort McNair, MD, 480 Fort Mifflin, PA, 280 Fort Montgomery, NY, 237, 238, 458, 459 Fort Motte, SC, 305 Fort Pitt, VA, 65, 250 Fort Schuyler, NY, 259 Fort Ticonderoga, NY, 371, 399, 451, 515 Fort Tonin, GA, 181 Fort Union, NY, 58

563

INDEX Fort Washington, NY, 3, 230, 232, 295 Fort Watson, SC, 305 Foster, Eunice. See Horton, Eunice Foster. Foster, James, 285 Foster, Phebe Baldwin Dod, 284, 285 Foster, Stephen, 285 Fourth Creek (Iredell), NC, 353, 387 Foxon, Mary. See Thayer, Mary Foxon.

Gale, Anna Maria Hollyday, 379, 384 Gale, George (1774), 379'84< 25- 479 Gale, Hannah. See Glover, Hannah Gale. Gale, Leah Littleton, 379 Gale, Levin (grandfather), 379 Gale, Levin (grandson), 384 Gale, Mary. See Joline, Mary Gale.

Frankfort, KY, 121

Gallatin, Albert, 143, 144, 254, 315 Garrison, William Lloyd, 70

Franklin, Benjamin, 23, 135, 279, 292,

Gates, Horatio, 127, 177, 215, 264, 304,

355» 356 Franklin, State of, 291, 292, 293, 474 Franklin, William, 135, 279, 341, 503 Franklin Co., PA, 324 Frankstown (Blair), PA, 267

310, 399, 404, 417, 461 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 207,

Fraunces, Andrew, 57 Frederick Co., MD, 266 Frederick Co., VA, 66 Fredericksburg, VA1 499, 500, 501, 502 Freehold, NJ, 17, 115, 204, 370, 376, 439, 449. 522- 523 Freehold (Lower), NJ, 157, 179 Freehold (Upper), NJ, 298 Freeman, James, 207 Freeman's Farm, NY, 399 Free School Society in New York City, 402 Free Trade Convention of 1831, Philadelphia, 315 Frelinghuysen, Anne (Nancy) Yard, 83 Frelinghuysen, Dinah VanBurgh, 78 Frelinghuysen, Gitty Schenck, 78 Frelinghuysen, Frederick (1770), 78-84, 29, 111, 112, 538 Frelinghuysen, John, 78, 83 Frelinghuysen, Theodore (1804), 83 French, Susannah. See Livingston, Susannah French. Freneau, Eleanor Forman, 153, 155, 377. 523 Freneau, Peter, 153 F r e n e a u , P h i l i p M o r i n (1771), 1 4 9 - 5 6 , xiii, 84, 98, 139, 140, 141, 143, 167, 173, 182, 185, 194, 197, 245, 306, 342, 377, 423, 439 Fresh Pond (Suffolk), NY, 85 Fresneau, Agnes Watson, 159 Fresneau, Pierre, 149 Fret, Flounce, xii

227, 265, 327, 345, 376, 388, 390, 440, 466, 471, 489, 518 General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen (NY), 240 Genesee (area), NY, 109 Genet, Edmond Charles, 6, 57, 403, 433 Gentner, Ann. See Van Dyke, Ann Gentner. George Peabody College for Teachers. See also Davidson Academy, Davidson College, Cumberland College, Nashville University, 466. Georgetown, MD [later DC], 360, 361 Georgetown Lancaster School Society, 360 Georgetown University, 360 Gerard, Conrad Alexandre, 140, 141, 355 Germantown, PA, 56, 127, 416, 456, 482 Gerry, Elbridge, 35 Getty, James, 477 Gettys, Mary. See Linn, Mary Gettys. Gettysburg (Adams), PA, 325, 350, 477 Gibbons, Thomas, 323, 333 Gibbons, Mrs. Thomas, 333 Giger, George M. (1841), xii Gillespie, Margaret. See McCorkle, Margaret Gillespie. Gilman, Nicholas, 517 Gilmanton, NH, 107, 108 Glade Spring, VA, 470, 471 Glasgow, University of, 110, 111, 125 Gloucester (Camden), NJ, 227 Gloucester Co., NJ, 227, 279, 280, 281, 282 Gloucester County Abolition Society

Fugitive Slave Law, 414, 535

(NJ), Glover, Glover, Glover,

Fulton, Robert, 332, 374

Glover, John (1774), 384-86, 398

Fries' Rebellion, 268

282 Fanny, 386 Fanny Lee, 386 Hannah Gale, 384

564

INDEX

Glover, John (father), 384, 385 Goforth, William, 32 Goodhue, Benjamin, 412 Goodwyn, Anne. See Balch, Anne Goodwyn. Gordon, Anne Hunter, 227, 229 Gordon, Charles, 229 Gordon, Peter, 263 Gordon, William, 208 Goshen, NY, 486 Graeme, Elizabeth. See Ferguson, Elizabeth Graeme. Graham, Edward (1786), 289 Graham, Mary Kerr, 291 Graham, Michael, 289 Graham, Susanna Miller, 289 Graham, William (1773), 289-94, 44, 118, 252, 319, 344, 470, 473, 511, 512, 521 Great Bridge, VA, 147 Great Cove, VA, 267 Greaton, John, 441 Green, Ann. See Springer, Ann Green. Green, President Ashbel (1783), xxix, 18, 19, 20, 45, 114, 207, 208, 272, 296, 297, 318, 320, 353, 361, 504 Green, Elizabeth. See Bradford, Elizabeth Green. Green, Enoch (1760), 216, 218, 2ig, 225, 394. 420, 449. 450 Green, Jacob, 11, 86, 206, 272, 273, 274. 275, 364, 376 Green, Mary Beatty, 216, 421, 449 Green, Mary McCulloch, 320 Green, William, 525 Greenaway, Anne. See Williams, Anne Greenaway. Greenaway, William, 123 Greencastle, PA, 92 Greene, Nathanael, 215, 216, 236, 237, 238, 264, 304, 305, 387, 417, 418, 461, 462 Greene, Mrs. Nathanael, 418, 461 Greeneville, NC, 474 Greeneville College, 472 Greenland, NH, 94, g5, 107 Greenleaf, Thomas, 154, 239, 240 Greenleafs Point, MD, 480 Greensbury (Westmoreland), PA, 137 Greenwich (Cumberland), NJ, 216, 217, 218, 219, 225, 226 Grenville, George, 43, 432, 433 Grier, Agnes Caldwell, 221

Grier, James (1772), 22/-23 Grier, Jane, 222 Grier, Jane Ten Broeck, 222 Grier, John, 221 Grier, John Ferguson, 222 Grier, Mary Ferguson, 222 Grier, Nathan, 222, 223 Groton, CT, 377 Grymes, Lucy. See Lee, Lucy Grymes. Guilford Co., NC, 245, 465 Guilford Courthouse, NC, 304, 305 Gunpowder Falls, MD, 139 Habersham, James (father), xiii Habersham, James (son), xiii Habersham, John, xii, xiv Habersham, Joseph, xiii Hack, Peter, 484 Hackensack, NJ, 211 Hackensack and Passaic Bridge Com­ panies, 372 Hagerstown, MD, 92, 93 Haiti, 147 Haldimand, Frederick, 530, 531 Hale, Nathan, 270 Half-Way Covenant, 168, 207 Halifax, NC, 184, 507 Hall, Hugh, 353 Hall, James (1774), 386-91, 249, 352, 353' 359. 525 Hall, James (father), 386 Hall, Margaret. See Wilson, Margaret Hall. Hall, Prudence Roddy, 386 Hall, Sarah. See Finley, Sarah Hall. Hall, Willard, 40 Hall's Meeting House, VA, 290 Halstead, Susanna. See Williamson, Susanna Halstead. Hamilton, Alexander, 6, 15, 56, 57, 58, 106, 154, 163, 188, 197, 199, 200, 253, 259, 271, 306, 311, 312, 33°. 331- 332. 338> 339. 373401, 403, 411, 431, 432, 434, 476, 516, 519, 532, 533 Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, 259 Hamilton, Paul, 228 Hamiltonban Township, PA, 514 Hammel, Deborah. See Ely, Deborah Hammel. Hampden-Sidney College, 43, 343, 344, 454, 473, 525. See also Prince Edward Academy. Hancock, John, 34, 38, 195, 441 Handy, Isaac (1761), 483

INDEX Handy, Isaac (father), 483 Handy, Sarah. See Henry, Sarah Handy. Hankinson, Hannah. See Fish, Hannah Hankinson. Hanover (Morris), NJ, 206, 273, 273, 376 Hanover (Lancaster), PA, 360 Hanover, Presbytery of, 43, 44, 117, 118, 205, 246, 252, 257, 290, 292, 319, 343. 344. 453. 469. 470, 473. 5». 512, 521, 522 Hanover, VA, 453 Hanson, Elizabeth. See Jenifer, Eliza­ beth Hanson. Hanson, Helen. See Linn, Helen Hanson. Hardenbergh, Jacob R., 78 Hardiston, NJ, 376, 485 Harford Co., MD, 242 Harison, Richard, 311 Harkum, Hannah. See Hodge, Hannah Harkum. Harlem Heights, NY, 221, 232, 364, 425 Harlingen (Somerset), NJ, 347, 348, 538 Harrisburg, PA, 289 Harrison, Benjamin, 119 Harrison, Elias (1814), 361 Harrison, William Henry, 316 Hart, Levi, 107 Hartford, CT, 74, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 Hartford North Association, 99 Hartford Theological Seminary, 101 Hartland (Windsor), VT, 95, 367 Hartsville, PA, 3 Hartt, Abigail Howells, 85 Hartt, Cornelius, 84 Hartt, Elizabeth Wicks, 84 Hartt, Joshua (1770), 84-86, 68 Harvard College, xxi, xxii, xxv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xix, 15, 32, 34, 37, 39, 42, 48, 54, 165, 166, 169, 170, 207, 208 Hasbrouck, Abraham (father), 294 Hasbrouck, Abraham (son), 294 Hasbrouck, Catharine Bruyn, 294 Hasbrouck, Jacob I. (1766), 294 Hasbrouck, James (Jacobus) (1773), 2 94~95 Hasbrouck, Joseph (1766), 294 Hasbrouck, Maria DeWitt, 294 Haslet, John, 135 Hatboro, PA, 91, 244 Hatfield, Phebe. See Ogden, Phebe Hatfield.

565

Havana, Cuba, 321, 463 Haverhill, MA, 108 Haverstraw, NY, 196 Havre de Grace, MD, 383 Havre de Grace Company, 383 Hawfields (Orange), NC, 204, 205 Haynes, Elizabeth. See Macay, Elizabeth Haynes. Haysborough, NC [later TN], 466 Hazard, Ebenezer (1762), 214, 215, 441 Hazard, Elizabeth Drummey, 391 Hazard, Jane Moore, 392 Hazard, Joseph (1774), 391-92 Hazard, Nathaniel (1764), 391 Hazard, Nathaniel (father), 391 Hazen, Moses, 475, 476, 515, 516, 529 Head of Elk, MD, 475 Heard, Nathaniel, 220, 226, 377 Heath, MA, 41 Heath, William, 158, 336, 441 Hebron, CT, 102, 103 Hebron (Augusta), VA, 521 Hedden, Joseph, 372 Hedden, Sarah. See Cumming, Sarah Hedden. Helms, William, 228, 331 Hempstead, Long Island, NY, 72, 85 Henderson, Archibald, 506 Henderson, Frances. See Macay, Frances Henderson. Henderson, Leonard, 506 Henderson, Richard, 506 Henrico, VA, 453 Henry, Dorothy Rider, 23 Henry, Elizabeth, 483, 484 Henry, Elizabeth Hack, 484 Henry, Francis Jenkins, 27 Henry, Hugh (1748), 483, 484 Henry, John, 534, 535 Henry, John III (1769), 22-28, 381 Henry, John, Jr. (father of John Henry III), 22 Henry, John Campbell, 27 Henry, Margaret Campbell, 25 Henry, Patrick, 344 Henry, Robert (1751), 116, 117 Henry, Robert R. (1776), 523 Henry, Sarah Handy, 483 Henry, William, 484 Henry, William Blair (1775), 483-84 Henry, William M.B., 484 Hertfordshire, England, 77 High Bridge, VA, 319 Highlands, NY, 336 Hillsborough, NJ, 113

566

INDEX

Hillsborough, NC, 215, 304 Hindman, William, 25 Hinman, Mary. See Bostwick, Mary Hinman. Hispanola, West Indies, 320 Hite, Isaac, 66 Hite, Nelly. See Baldwin, Nelly Hite. Hoboken, NJ, 403 Hodge, Andrew, Jr. (1772), 2 2 3 - 2 4 , xvii, 295, 296, 297, 320, 393 Hodge, Andrew, Sr. (father), xvii, 223, 295. 296, 393 Hodge, Anne Ledyard, 224 Hodge, Charles (1815), 229, 297 Hodge, Hannah Harkum, 393, 394 Hodge, Hugh (1773), 295-97, xvii, 223, 224, 229, 320, 393 Hodge, Hugh, Jr. (1774), 393'94· 223 Hodge, Hugh, Sr. (father of Hugh Hodge, Jr.), 393 Hodge, Hugh Lenox (1814), 297 Hodge, James, 296 Hodge, Jane McCulloch, 223, 295 Hodge, John Ledyard (1853), 224 Hodge, Mary Blanchard, 296, 297 Hodge, Mary Hunter Stockton, 229 Hodge, William, 393 Hoge, David, 351 Hoge, Eliza. See Waugh, Eliza Hoge. Hoge, John Blair, 455 Holland Land Company, 198 Hollinshead, William, 488 Hollyday, Anna Maria. See Gale, Anna Maria Hollyday. Hollyday, Henry, 380 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 36 Holstein, TN, 466 Holt, Jane. See Davies, Jane Holt. Hooper, George, 464 Hopewell, Presbytery of, 526 Hopkins, Hannah. See Spring, Hannah Hopkins. Hopkins, Samuel, 167, 168, 272, 273, 274. 275, 466, 474 Horner, Amelia. See Bryan, Amelia Horner. Horsham Township (Philadelphia) [later Montgomery], PA, 243, 244 Horton, Azariah, Jr. (1770), 86-88 Horton, Azariah, Sr., 86 Horton, Eunice Foster, 86 Horton, Ezra (1754), 86 Hosack, David (1789), 312 Houston, Esther. See Montgomery, Esther Houston.

Houston, William Churchill (1768), xxvi, 45, 264, 395, 513 Howard, Lemuel, 441 Howe, Major General Robert, 180 Howell, Richard, 281, 330, 371, 396 Howells, Abigail. See Hartt, Abigail Howells. Howry, Mary. See Wilkinson, Mary Howry. Hudson Valley, NY, 237, 336, 441, 458, 459. 476 Hughart, Agnes. See Montgomery, Agnes Hughart. Hughart, Thomas, 512 Humane Society in New York, 234 Hunloke, Anne. See Woodruff, Anne Hunloke. Hunt, James (1759), 137 Hunter, Amy Stockton, 225 Hunter, Andrew, Jr. (1772), 225-29, 177, 191, 204, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 241, 256, 259, 300, 352, 385, 456 Hunter, Andrew, Sr. (uncle), 216, 218, 225, 226 Hunter, Andrew III (son), 227, 229 Hunter, Anne. See Gordon, Anne Hunter. Hunter, Ann Riddell, 226, 227 Hunter, David, 225, 229 Hunter, Lewis Boudinot (1824), 229 Hunter, Martha Mcllhenny, 225 Hunter, Mary. See Hodge, Mary Hunter Stockton. Hunter, Mary Stockton, 227 Hunter, Moses, 229 Hunter, Richard, 228, 229 Hunterdon Co., NJ, 80, 174, 263, 478 Huntington, Joshua, 208 Huntington, Long Island, NY, 85 Huntington (Hampshire), MA, 116 Huntington, Presbytery of, 267 Huntington, Samuel, 443 Huntting, Abigail. See Cooper, Abigail Huntting. Huntting, Samuel, 16 Huntting, Zerviah, 16 Hutchinson, Thomas, xxx, 395, 407, 449 Hutson, Richard (1765), 408 Huxham, Jane. See Keith, Jane Huxham. Hyde Park, NY, 314, 316 Imlay, James E., 281 Imlay, Peter, 297, 299 Imlay, Rhoda, 299

INDEX Imlay, Susannah, 297 Imlay, William Eugene (1773), 297-99 Imlaystown, or Upper Freehold (Mon­ mouth), NJ, 297, 298, 299 Independent Presbytery, 471 Indian Commission o£ Pennsylvania, 279 Indians, 141, 151, 180, 208, 211, 220, 226, 231, 250, 256, 259, 284, 293, 298, 310, 326, 330, 350, 371, 377, 426, 456, 468, 474, 482 Ingersoll, Jared, 495 Innes, Harry, 119, 120 Inns of Court, London, 23 Institutio legalis of Newark, NJ, 330 Ipswich, MA1 107, 337, 367 Iredell Co., NC, 353, 386, 504 Ireland, immigrants from, 3, 8, 28, 70, 90, 156, 221, 241, 249, 266, 289, 299, 468, 472, 504, 511, 514 Irish (or Craig's) Settlement, Allen Township (Northampton), PA, 278 Irvine, William, 506 Irving, Washington, 404 Irwin, Martha Jamison, 89 Irwin, Mary, 88 Irwin (Erwin), Nathaniel (1770), 88-92, 222, 241 Irwin, Priscilla McKinstry, 91 Irwin, Thomas, 88 Isle of Wight Co., VA, 537 Israel, John, 144 Jackson, Andrew, 315, 333, 334, 467, 506 Jacksonborough, SC, 368 Jackson Creek, SC, 408 Jacquett, Susannah. See Bedford, Susannah Jacquett. Jamaica, Long Island, NY, 11, 12, 72, 43°. 456 Jamaica, West Indies, 340, 427 Jamison, Martha. See Irwin, Martha Jamison. Jarvis, Benjamin, 73 Jarvis, Mary (Polly). See Bowden, Mary Jarvis. Jay, John, 24, 56, 85, 122, 163, 164, !97. 239. 240, 3°9> 3l0> 355. 378- 4°°> 402, 403, 428, 432 Jay, Mrs. John, 355 Jay's Treaty, 83, 143, 190, 254, 433 Jefferson, Thomas, 15, 25, 27, 30, 44, 96, 117, 118, 145, 153, 154, 155, 161, 163, 164, 189, 199, 200, 234, 281, 293, 307. 344. 390, 405. 413. 4i7> 428,

567

429, 430, 432, 433, 435- 492. 495. 534

Jefferson College (PA), 137, 249, 252, 253, 254, 285, 287, 288, 289. See also Canonsburg Academy, Washington and Jefferson College. Jefferson Co. [later Nelson], KY, 267 Jeffries, Sally. See Eckley, Sally Jeffries. Jennings, Obadiah, 125 Jersey City, NJ, 332, 333, 334, 373 Jerusalem [later Hagerstown] (Frederick), MD, 92 Jenifer, Daniel (1777), 484 Jenifer, Daniel (father), 484 Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas (1775), 484-85 Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas (uncle), 484 Jenifer, Elizabeth Hanson, 484 Jenifer, Thomas. See Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas. Johnes, Timothy, 283, 284 Johnson, Thomas, 215, 270 Johnson, William (1790), 405 Joline, John (1775), 485-86 Joline, John (father), 485 Joline, John (cousin), 485 Joline, Martha Lyon, 485 Joline, Mary. See Woodruff, Mary Joline. Joline, Mary Gale, 486 Joline, Phoebe Price, 485 Joline, Polly Darlington, 485 Jones, Elias (1767), 40, 270, 363 Jones, Elizabeth. See Tate, Elizabeth Jones. Jones, James, 403 Jones, Mary. See Evans, Mary Jones. Jones, Mary. See Witherspoon, Mary Jones Nash. Jones, Samuel, 425 Jonesboro, NC [later TN], 474, 506 Jones Co., NC, 443, 444 Judiciary Act of 1801, 369, 370, 412, 497 Jumel, Elizabeth. See Burr, Elizabeth Jumel. Kearny, Ravaud, 520 Kearny, Susanna R. See Rodgers, Susanna R. Kearny. Keith, Hannah Sproat, 488 Keith, Isaac Stockton (1775), 486-89, 229, 230, 509

568

INDEX

Keith, Jane Huxham, 489 Keith, Katharine Legare, 488, 489 Keith, Margaret Stockton, 229, 486 Keith, Mary Adams, 230 Keith, Robert (1772), 229-3/, 4^6 Keith, William, 229, 486 Kelsey, Elizabeth. See Whitwell, Elizabeth Kelsey. Kelsey, Elizabeth Davenport, 17 Kelsey, Enos (1760), 17 Kennedy, Samuel, 491 Kent, Huldah. See Evans, Huldah Kent. Kent Co., MD, 484 Kentucky, District of, 118, 119 Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, 121 Ker, Jacob (1758), 479 Ker, Nathan (1761), 85, 486 Kerr, Mary. See Graham, Mary Kerr. Keteltas, Catherine. See Livingston, Catherine Keteltas. Keteltas, Jane. See Beekman, Jane Keteltas. Keteltas, Peter, 401, 404 Kiawas Island, SC, 418 King, Andrew (1773), 299-307, 483 King, Elizabeth. See Balch, Elizabeth King. King, Jane Trimble, 301 King, James (1807), 301 King, John, 93 King, Marcus, 301 King, Margaret Barclay (Berkeley), 299 King, Richard, 299, 300 King, Rufus, 197, 311, 403 King, Ruth Lott Snowden, 301 King, Samuel (1776), 300 King and Queen Co., VA, 160, 513 King's College, xx, xxi, xxii, xxiv, xxviii, 16, 70, 71, 72, 74, 259, 416, 499 King's Co., Long Island, NY, 21 King's Mountain, SC, 304 Kingston, Classis of, 21 Kingston, NH, 53 Kingston (Middlesex), NJ, 54 Kingston (Ulster), NY, 21, 271, 294, 295. 363. 457. 459. 46° Kingwood (Hunterdon), NJ, 438 Kinkaid, Jane. See Finley, Jane Kinkaid. Kintyre, Scotland, 139 Kirkpatrick, Andrew (1775), 490-93, 114. 396, 511 Kirkpatrick, David, 490, 4gi Kirkpatrick, Jane Bayard, 491, 493

Kirkpatrick, John Bayard, 492 Kirkpatrick, Littleton (1815), 492 Kirkpatrick, Margaret Piper. See Warford, Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick, Mary McEwen, 490 Kirkpatrick, William (1757), 439 Kittockton (Louisa), VA, 267 Knowlton, NJ, 52 Knox, Henry, 215, 431, 433, 538 Kortright, Catherine Seaman. See Livingston, Catherine Seaman Kortright. Lafayette, Marquis de, 211, 315, 323, 339» 377. 426. 427. 475> 516 Lalor, Katherine De Klyn. See Beatty, Katherine De KIyn Lalor. Lancaster, Joseph, 360 Lancaster, PA, 281, 516 Lancaster Co., PA., 136, 245, 465, 511 Langewell, Anne (Nancy). See McDougall, Anne Langewell. Lansing, Jacob, 259 Lansing, Maria (Polly). See Woodruff, Maria Lansing. Lasher, John, 55, 236 Lathrop, Joseph, g8 Laurel Hill, PA, 288 Laurens, Henry, 424 Lawrence, Nathaniel (1783), 375 lawyers, 547 Leake, Clara, 397 Leake, Levi, 396 Leake, Samuel (1764), 118, 257, 469 Leake (Leek), Samuel (1774), 394-97, xxx, 229, 407, 449 Leake, Samuel (father of Samuel Leake '74), 394 Leake, Mrs. Samuel (1764), 469 Leake, Sarah, 397 Leake, Sarah Bell, 397 Leake, Sophia. See Slack, Sophia Leake Lear, Susanna. See Duncan, Susanna Lear. Leavitt, Jonathan, 40, 41 Lebanon, CT, 102, 115 Lebanon Township (Chenango), NY - 435- 43 6 Lebanon, VA, 512 Ledyard, Anne. See Hodge, Anne Ledyard. Ledyard, Benjamin, 377 Ledyard, Mary. See Forman, Mary Ledyard. Ledyard, Youngs, 377

INDEX Lee, Alice. See Shippen, Alice Lee. Lee, Anne, 496, 497 Lee, Anne Hill Carter, 306, 307 Lee, Arthur, 23 Lee, Charles (1775), 493-98, 301, 302, 3°3> 519 Lee, General Charles, 329, 416 Lee, Edmund Jennings (1792), 301, 493. 494 Lee, Fanny. See Glover, Fanny Lee. Lee, Henry, Jr. (1773), 301-308, xxiii, 113, 153, 215, 218, 432, 493, 494, 495, 496 Lee, Henry (father of Henry Lee, Jr.), 218, 301, 302, 303, 493, 496 Lee, Henry (son of Henry Lee, Jr.), 3°7> 3°8 Lee, Lucy Grymes (mother of Henry Lee, Jr.), 301, 493 Lee, Lucy Grymes (daughter of Henry Lee, Jr.), 308 Lee, Margaret Scott Peyton, 497 Lee, Matilda, 305, 306, 307 Lee, Philip Ludwell, 305 Lee, Richard Bland (1779), 301, 381, 493. 496 Lee, Richard Henry, 301, 302, 494, 495, 496 Lee, Robert E., 301, 308 Lee, William R., 425 Leek, Samuel. See Leake, Samuel. Leesburg (Loudoun), VA, 267, 277 Legare, Katharine. See Keith, Katharine Legare. Legare, Thomas, 488 L'Enfant, Pierre. See Enfant, Pierre 1'. Leslie, Alexander, 418 Levy, Henrietta. See Williamson, Henrietta Levy. Levy, Moses, 124 Lewes, Presbytery of, 233 Lewis, Catherine Daingerfield, 501, 502 Lewis, Catherine Washington, 499 Lewis, Charles (1776), 498, 499 Lewis, Elizabeth Annesley, 308 Lewis, Elizabeth Washington (Betty), 498. 499 Lewis, Fielding, 4g8, 499, 500 Lewis, Francis, 309 Lewis, George (1775), 498-502 Lewis, Gertrude Livingston, 311, 315, 316 Lewis, Margaret, 311

569

Lewis, Morgan (1773), 308-ij, 200, 401, 404 Lewistown, NY, 315 Lexington, KY, 119, 466, 470, 511 Lexington, MA, 450 Lexington, Presbytery of, 252, 470 Lexington, VA, 252, 290, 291, 308 Liberty Hall (NC), 177, 247, 390, 408. See also Queen's College or Museum, Salisbury Academy. Liberty Hall (VA), 43, 118, 252, 290, 291· 293. 3'9> 470. 473. 511. 522· See also Augusta Academy, Washing­ ton College, and Washington and Lee University. Liberty Pole, NJ, 515 Limestone Ridge, PA, 317 Lincoln, Benjamin, 34 Lincoln Co., VA, 118 Lindow, Margrett. See Elzey, Margrett Lindow. Linn, Adam, 3x7 Linn, Alexander, 28 Linn, Catherine Kip Moore, 235 Linn, Helen Hanson, 235 Linn, James (1769), 28-31 Linn, John (1773), 351 Linn, John (father), 317 Linn, John Blair, 235 Linn, Mary Gettys, 317, 318 Linn, Mary Livingston, 28 Linn, Penelope Alexander, 30 Linn, Rebecca Blair, 9, 232 Linn, Robert, 317 Linn, Sarah, 28 Linn, Susannah Trumble, 231 Linn, William (1772), 231-35, 9, 246, S1I Linn, William (father), 231 Lisbon, CT, 97 Lisbon, Portugal, 429, 430 Litchfield, CT, 96, 195, 370, 392 Litchfield, Mary Morin Scott. See McKnight, Mary Morin Scott Litch­ field. Littlepage, Lewis, 400, 402 Littleton, Leah. See Gale, Leah Littleton. Livens (orderly to Nicholas Van Cortlandt), 437 Livermore, Samuel (1752), 212 Liverpool, England, 77 Livingston, Ann N. Ludlow, 404 Livingston, Brockholst. See Livingston, Henry Brockholst. Livingston, Catherine Keteltas, 402, 404

570

INDEX

Livingston, Catherine Lott, 236 Livingston, Catherine Seaman Kortright, 405, 406 Livingston, Edward (1783), 201 Livingston, Gertrude. See Lewis, Gertrude Livingston. Livingston, Henry Beekman, 105, 259 Livingston, Henry Brockholst (1774), 397-4°7^ 311· 312- 339. 442 Livingston, John Henry, 21, 233 Livingston, Mary. See Linn, Mary Livingston. Livingston, Mary Alexander, 502 Livingston, Maturin (1786), 236, 264, 313 Livingston, Peter R. (1784), 236, 264 Livingston, Peter Van Brugh, 502 Livingston, Philip Peter (1758), 502, 503 Livingston, Robert James, 236, 264 Livingston, Robert R., 330, 332, 403 Livingston, Susannah. See Armstrong, Susannah Livingston. Livingston, Susannah French, 398 Livingston, Susannah Smith, 236, 238 Livingston, Walter (1759), 375, 438 Livingston, William (Governor of NJ), 28, 80, 81, 113, 123, 140, 172, 226, 280, 298, 397, 401, 503, 532 Livingston, William Alexander (1775), 502-503, 400 Livingston, William Smith (1772), 236-40, 264 Lloyd, James, 441 Log College, 3, 8, 91, 449 Lollar, Robert, 244 Londonderry Township, PA, 481 Long, Andrew, 481 Long Island, NY, 14, 16, 18, 84, 135, 195, 220, 226, 232, 236, 237, 335, 416, 425, 459, 481 Long Room Club (Boston), 33, 34 Longstreet, Mary. See Beatty, Mary Longstreet. Longstreet, Richard, 3 Lord, Benjamin, 99 Lot, Mary. See Phillips, Mary Lot. Lott, Abraham, 236 Lott, Catherine. See Livingston, Catherine Lott. Lovell, James, 355 Lower Falls, MA, 514 Loyalists (professed), 550 Luckey, Elizabeth Buchanan, 242 Luckey, George (1772), 240-43, 88, 289

Luckey, Hugh, 240 Luckey, Jane Findlay, 241 Luckey, Sarah. See Dunlap, Sarah Luckey. Ludlow, Ann N. See Livingston, Ann N. Ludlow. Luyster, Catharine. See DeWitt, Catharine Luyster. Luzerne Co., PA, 87 Lyon, James (1759), 376 Lyon, Martha. See Joline, Martha Lyon. Lyon, Matthew, 96, 532 Lysander, NY, 19 McAden, Hugh (1753), 204 Macay, Alfred, 507 Macay, Betsy, 507 Macay, Elizabeth Haynes, 507 Macay, Fanny, 507 Macay, Frances Henderson, 506 Macay, James, 505 Macay, Spence. See Macay, Spruce. Macay, Spruce (1775), 505-507 Macay, William Spruce, 507 McCalla, Daniel (1766), 453 McCalla1 Jane Harrison. See Witherspoon, Jane Harrison McCalla. McCalla, Thomas H. (1777), 356 McCaule, Edwin Leroy, 409 McCaule, Elizabeth Montfort, 409 McCaule, Thomas Harris (1774), 407-409, 395. 396- 526 McClean, Anne Charlesworth, 245 McClean, Archibald (1772), 243-45 McClean, Archibald (father), 243 MacClintock, Samuel (1751), 94, 95, 107 McConnell, James (1773), 319-20 McConnell, Mrs. James, 319 MacCoraher, Sarah. See Van Dyke, Sarah MacCoraher. McCorkle, Agnes Margaret Montgomery, 245 McCorkle, Alexander, 245 McCorkle, Margaret Gillespie, 247, 249 McCorkle, Samuel Eusebius~ (1772), 245-4(), 180, 206, 300, 388 McCulloch, Christiana, 320 McCulloch, James Η. II, 322 McCulloch, James Hugh (1773), 320-24, xxiii, 223, 295 McCulloch, Jane. See Hodge, Jane McCulloch. McCulloch, Margaret Bryson, 324 McCulloch, Mary. See Green, Mary McCulloch.

INDEX McDonald, Jane. See Crawford, McDonald. McDonough, Thomas, 135 McDougal, Helen. See Rodgers, Helen McDougal. McDougal, Peter, 530 McDougall, Alexander, 31, 238, 336, 456 McDougall, Anne (Nancy) Langewell, 31 McDougall, John Alexander (1769), 5/-32, 238, 336, 456 McDougall, Ronald, 336 McDowell, Samuel, 119 McDowell, Sarah. See Wallace, Sarah McDowell. McEwen, Margaretta Houston. See Doak, Margaretta Houston McEwen. McEwen, Mary. See Kirkpatrick, Mary McEwen. McGlaughlin, Elizabeth. See Peterson, Elizabeth McGlaughlin. McGuire, Mr., 464 McHenry, James, 27, 295, 296, 339, 433 Mcllhenny, Martha. See Hunter, Martha Mcllhenny. McKean1 Thomas, 144, 145, 394, 477 McKinstry, Priscilla. See Irwin, Priscilla McKinstry. McKnight, Charles, Jr. (1771), 156-60 McKnight, Charles (father), 156, 158, 179 McKnight, Elizabeth Stevens, 156 McKnight, John (1773), 324-28, 317 McKnight, John (father), 324 McKnight, Mary Morin Scott Litch­ field, 158 McKnight, Susan Brown, 324, 327 Maclaine, Archibald, 464 Maclay, William, 25, 26 Maclean, President John, 48, 50, 203, 2 57>444 McLelland [school mistress], 463 McMillan, Catherine Brown, 250, 254 McMillan, John (1772), 249-55, 142, 143, 284, 285 McMillan, Margaret Rea, 249 McMillan, William, 249 Macomb, Alexander, 431 McPheeters, Mary. See Crawford, Mary McPheeters. McPherrin1 Rebecca Davis, 93 McPherrin, Thomas (1770), 92-1)3 McRee, James (1775), 504-505, 300 McRee, Rachel Cruser, 504

571

MacWhorter, Alexander (1757), 10, 233, 284, 370, 374 MacWhorter, Jane. See Brevard, Jane MacWhorter. MacWhorter, Mary Cumming, 370 Madison, Ambrose, 286 Madison, Dolly Payne Todd, 66, 163 Madison, Eleanor Rose Conway, 160 Madison, James, Jr. (1771), 160-65, xii, xiv, xxvii, 44, 46, 66, 86, 88, 89, 90, 92, 117, 120, 139, 140, 148, 149, 15°- !53- !54- !55, 165, t66, 170, 171, 173, 177, 179, 180, 185, 186, 188, 191, 194, 202, 206, 214, 221, 228, 23Ο, 236, 241, 245, 246, 277, 283, 286, 303, 306, 308, 313, 314, 322, 344, 381, 429, 435. 436- 477> 493- 58, 534 Madison, James, Sr., 160 Magaw, Robert, 232 Maidenhead [later Lawrenceville], NJ, 265, 423 Malcolm, William, 195 Malen, James (1775), 508 Malin, James, 508 Manchester, CT, 274 Mancius, Wilheminus, 260 Manhattan, NY, 158, 210, 332 Manhattan Company, 58, 199, 313 Manigault, Elizabeth. See Morris, Elizabeth Manigault. Manley, John, 385 Mann, Jacob, 104 Manning, James (1762), 272, 539 Manor of Maske (York), PA, 514 Mansfield, NJ, 52 Maple, Mary. See Martin, Mary Maple. Maple Town (Middlesex), NJ, 504 Marblehead, MA, 384, 385 Marbury, William, 412 Marchant, Henry, 15 Marietta, OH, 367 Marion, Francis, 304 Marmion (King George), VA, 502 Marrett, John, 513 Marshall, John, 201, 307, 333, 405, 454, 496, 497 Marshall, Thomas, 431 Marsh Creek (York), PA, 317, 325 Martha's Vineyard, MA, 438 Martin, Alexander (1756), 474, 508 Martin (Marton, Marten), Daniel (1775), 508-11, xi, xxiv, xxvi Martin, Elizabeth Slack, 508 Martin, Henry (1751), 349, 508 Martin, Joseph, 474

572

INDEX

Martin, Luther (1766), 24, 201, 215 Martin, Mary Maple, 508 Martin, Thomas (1762), 160, 508 Martin, Thomas (father of Daniel Martin), 508 Mary Baldwin College, 67 Mary Baldwin Seminary, 66, 67 Maryland, Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of, 480 Maryland, University of, 480 Maryland Convention, 380 Mason, Jonathan, Jr. (1774), 409-/5, 202, 369 Mason, Jonathan, Sr. (father), 409, 411 Mason, Miriam Clark, 409 Mason, Susannah Powell, 411, 413 Masonic orders, members of, 5, 29, 34, 106, 114, 134, 145, 281, 310, 315, 316, 333> 372> 409. 441 Massachusetts General Association (Congregational), i6g, 207 Massachusetts (Congregational) Con­ vention, 207 Massachusetts Missionary Society, 38, 168 Master Tailor's Society, Charleston, SC, 536 Matthews, David (1754), 11 Mattituck, Long Island, NY, 18 Maurice River (Cumberland), NJ, 422, 423 Maxwell, William, 127, 226, 330, 341, 456 Mayslick (Mason), KY, 524 Mecklenburg Co., NC, 177, 359, 387, 465, 466, 504, 527 medical men, 547 Medical Society of the State of New York, 519 Melvill, Allan (father of Thomas Melvill), 32 Melvill, Jean Cargill, 32 Melvill, Priscilla Scollay, 34 Mevill, Robert, 36 Melvill (Melville), Thomas (1769), 3236 Melville, Allan (son of Thomas Melvill), 36 Melville, Herman, 36 Mendham (Morris), NJ, 283, 486, 487 Menut, Alexander, 154 Mercer, Hugh, 500, 501 Mercersburg, PA, 92 Merchant's Bank (NY), 313 Middleborough, MA, 37, 39

Middlebrook Heights, NJ, 80 Middlesex, PA, 517 Middlesex, SC, 60 Middlesex Co., NJ, 478 Middle Spring (Cumberland), PA, 8, 232, 317, 324, 521 Middletown, CT, 72 Middletown (Monmouth), NJ, 156, 377- 457 Middletown Township, PA, 510 Midway, St. John's Parish, GA, 180 Midway, KY, 121 Mifflin, Thomas, 188, 189, 232 Miles, Samuel, 481 Military service in War of Independence, 549-50 Miller, Alexander (1764), 528 Miller, Samuel, 300, 326, 327, 505 Miller, Susanna. See Graham, Susanna Miller. Miller's Run, PA, 288 Millstone, NJ, 78, 113 Mine Brook (Somerset), NJ, 29, 30, 490 Miranda, Francisco de, 428, 430, 435 Mitchell, Alexander (1765), 149 Mitchell, Jane. See Doak, Jane Mitchell. Mitchell, Martha L., 540 Moby Dick, Herman Melville's, 36 Monaghan (Cumberland), PA, 351 Monmouth, NJ, 226, 371, 426, 456 Monmouth Co., NJ, 149, 153, 154, 155, 156, 277, 298, 457, 478, 523 Monmouth Courthouse, NJ, 80, 195, 329, 482 Monroe, James, 56, 199, 308, 333, 429 Montfort, Elizabeth. See McCaule, Elizabeth Montfort. Montfort, H., 11 Montfort, Robert, 409 Montgomery, Agnes Hughart, 512 Montgomery, Agnes Margaret, See McCorkle, Agnes Margaret Mont­ gomery. Montgomery, Elizabeth. See Witherspoon, Elizabeth Montgomery. Montgomery, Esther. See Bard, Esther Montgomery Montgomery, Esther Houston, 511 Montgomery, John (1775), 511-12, 290, 469, 470, 473, 490 Montgomery, John (father), 511 Montgomery, Joseph (1755), 245, 246, 394 Montgomery (Orange), NY, 300 Montgomery, Richard, 168, 339

INDEX Montgomery, William, 388 Montgomery Co., MD, 137, 381 Montgomery Co., PA, 243 Montgomery Township (Somerset), NJ, 538 Moody, Hannah. See Blydenburgh, Hannah Moody. Moore, Benjamin, 71, 72, 74 Moore, Catherine Kip. See Linn, Catherine Kip Moore. Moore, Elizabeth. See Peck, Elizabeth Moore. Moore, Jane. See Hazard, Jane Moore. Moore, Mary, 392 Moore, Thomas, 392 Moore's Creek Bridge, NC, 205 Morgan, John, 65, 158 Moriches, Long Island, NY, 85 Morrell, Andrew, 457 Morris, Ann (Nancy) Elliott, 418, 419 Morris, Elizabeth Manigault, 419 Morris, Gouverneur, 416 Morris, Jacob, 416, 418 Morris, James (1784), 419 Morris, Lewis IV (1774), 415-20, 330, 461 Morris, Lewis (father), 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420 Morris, Governor Lewis, 415 Morris, Lewis (1805), 419 Morris, Lucy. See Crawford, Lucy Morris. Morris, Mary Walton, 415, 416 Morris Co., NJ, 103, 105, 236 Morris, Robert, 103, 142, 187, 295, 417, 461 Morris, William Elliot (1805), 419, 420 Morrisania, NY, 232 Morris Aqueduct, 104 Morrison, George (father), 242 Morrison, George (son), 242 Morristown (Morris), NJ, 56, 80, 103, 104, 105, 283, 284, 371, 491, 500, 503 Morse, Jedidiah, 54, 169, 207, 390, 487 Morton, Jacob (1778), 520 Morton, Perez, 410 Moslander, Christianna. See Peterson, Christianna Moslander. Mount Bethel, NC, 184 Mt. Olivet, SC, 408 Mt. Washington, NY, 221 Mount Zion College (SC), 408, 526 Mount Zion Society, 408 Moylan, Stephan, 501 Mud Island, PA, 280

573

Muhlenberg, Peter, 90 Muhlenberg, Presbytery of, 467 Murphey, Archibald, 205 Murray, John, 298 Nantasket, MA, 34 Nantes, France, 271 Napoleon. See Bonaparte, Napoleon. Nash, Abner, 443 Nash, Elizabeth. See Smith, Elizabeth Nash. Nash, Francis, 444 Nash, Frederick (1799), 444 Nash, Mary Jones. See Witherspoon, Mary Jones Nash. Nashville, TN, 466 Nashville University, 466 Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas, 61 Nassau Hall, destroyed by fire, xii, 202, 228 Natchez, Mississippi Territory, 388 Nazareth (Spartanburg), SC, 257 Neal, Thomas (1775), 5/5 Neale, William, 513 Nelson Co., KY, 110 Neshaminy (Bucks), PA, 3, 89, 91, 449 Neshanic, NJ, 347, 348 Neville, Presley, 144 Newall, Elizabeth. See Black, Elizabeth Newall. New Amsterdam, 204 Newark, NJ, 16, 28, 29, 65, 67, 68, 72, 192, 283, 284, 330, 371, 372, 373, 374. 376. 456· 46°- 46'. 462. 523. 5¾8 Newark Aqueduct Company (NJ), 373 Newark Banking and Insurance Company (NJ), 373 New Bern (Craven), NC, 443, 444 New Brunswick, NJ, 16, 103, 111, 112, 113, 114, 493, 499 New Brunswick, Presbytery of, 51, 52, 117, 180, 205, 227, 255, 263, 439, 440, 485 Newburgh, NY, an, 377, 462 Newbury, VT, 126 Newburyport, MA, 53, 102, 168, 169, 170, 366 New Castle, DE, 298, 394 New Castle, Presbytery of, 42, 88, 124, 125, 241, 242, 250, 263, 288, 347 New Castle Co., DE, 132, 133, 191, 192, 266, 524

574

INDEX

Newcomb, Silas, 220 Newcomb, Suse. See Scott, Suse Newcomb. New England Historical and Genea­ logical Society, 209 New England Society for the Propaga­ tion of the Gospel Among the Indians, 208 New Hampshire Ecclesiastical Conven­ tion, 213 New Hampshire General Association (Congregational), 53 New Hampshire Missionary Society, 53 New Hanover Co., SC, 464 New Haven, CT, 93, 94, 95, 96, 195, 212 New Hempstead, Long Island, NY, 376 New Jersey Land Society, 82 New Jersey Literary and Philosophical Society, 493 New Jersey Loan Office of 1786, 280-81 New Jersey Society for establishing useful Manufactures, 188, 265, 338, 372, 402 New London, MD, 125 New London (Chester), PA, 124, 125 New London, VA, 525 Newport, RI, 13, 14, 15, 16, 59, 167, 238, 272, 331, 369, 370, 426 Newton, MA, 513, 514, 442 Newtown (Queens), Long Island, NY, 375' 376 Newtown (Genesee area), NY, 109, 110 Newtown (Bucks), PA, 349, 486, 508, 510 Newtown Library Company (PA), 510 New Utrecht, NY, 21 New Windsor, NY, 515 New York, NY, xxiv, 31, 55, 56, 57, 70, 71, 74, 75, 106, 110, 124, 149, 158, 159, 170, 178, 195, 196, 199, 202, 211, 224, 230, 233, 235, 236, 237, 239, 240, 259, 269, 270, 271, 309, 310, 311, 312, 314, 315, 316, 325. 33°. 333. 334. 337- 338- 339340, 341, 362, 363, 374, 381, 391, 397, 399, 400, 401, 404, 415, 416, 419, 425, 427, 430, 431, 433, 437, 456, 459. 491· 5°2. 5°3> 5l8, 5'9' 52°. 538 New York, Presbytery of, 207, 233, 246, 273, 284, 300, 376, 485 New York, University of the City of [later New York University], 315

New York and Philadelphia, Synod of, "7 New York Chamber of Commerce, 362 New York Historical Society, 235, 315, 402 New York Library Society, 402 New York Medical Society, 159 New York Missionary Society, 345 New York State University, 259 Nicholson, James, 403 Nicholson, John, 335 Niles, Mary Dodge, 37, 38 Niles, Nathaniel (1766), 37 Niles, Samuel III (1769), 57-59, 40, 41 Niles, Samuel (grandfather), 37 Niles, Samuel, Jr. (father), 37 Niles, Sarah, 37 Ninety-Six, SC, 305, 408, 525, 526 Nisbet, George, 318, 351 Noble, Mary. See Cumming, Mary Noble. Norfolk, VA, 146, 147, 148, 455 North, Caleb, 451 Northampton, MA, 179 North Branch, NJ, 112, 113 North Biidgewater, MA, 37 North Carolina, University of, 171, 183, 247, 386, 390, 444, 504 North Point, MD, 322 Northport, Long Island, NY, 85 Northumberland Co., PA, 87 Northwest Territory, 337 Norwalk, CT, 12, 72, 73, 105 Norwich, CT, g8, 99 Nott, Eliphalet, 313, 326 Nova Scotia, Canada, 126, 223 Odinsell, Elizabeth. See Allen, Elisabeth Odinsell. Ogden, Aaron (1773), 228-34, '93· 203, 281, 369, 374 Ogden, Elias B.D. (1819), 334 Ogden, Elizabeth Chetwood, 330 Ogden, John Cosens (1770), 93-^7, 86, 212, 275, 532 Ogden, Mary Chetwood. See Barber, Mary Chetwood Ogden. Ogden, Mary Clap Wooster, 93 Ogden, Mary Cosens, 93 Ogden, Matthias (1810), 334 Ogden, Matthias, 193, 195, 330 Ogden, Moses, 93, 94 Ogden, Phebe Hatfield, 328

INDEX Ogden, Rhoda. See Edwards, Rhoda Ogden. Ogden, Robert, 192 Ogden, Robert II, 328 Ogden, Robert III, 330 Ogeechee Ferry, GA, 180 Ogilvie, John, 70, 71 Ohio, Presbytery of, 251 Ohio Company, 332, 337, 338, 367, 372 Oneida Co., NY, 85, 301 Onondaga, Presbytery of, 19 Onondaga Co., NY, 19 Opequon, VA, 512 Orange, Presbytery of, 182, 183, 184, 205, 246, 257, 386, 407, 466, 504, 525 Orange, VA, 171 Orange Co., NY, 199, 375, 453 Orange Co. [later Caswell], NC, 204 Orange Co., VA, 89, 160, 162, 180, 367 Orrery, xxvi Osborn, John, 444 Osborn, John C., 444 Otis, Harrison Gray, 411, 412, 413 Otis, John, 34 Oxford (Sussex), NJ, 52 Oxford, VA, 319 Oxford Township (Chester), PA, 240 Paca, William, 25 Pacolet Springs, SC1 153 Paine, Thomas, 141, 275 Paisley, Scotland, xvii, 442 Palmer (Hampshire, later Hampden), MA, 165, 166 Paper War of 1771-72. See American Whig and Cliosophic societies, xii, xxx, 84, 98, 136, 139, 149, 150, 156, 161, 166, 172, 177, 179, 180, 182, 194, 206, 217, 245, 246, 256, 277, 391, 423, 439 Paris, France, 411, 412, 428, 429 Paris, Treaty of, 380, 429, 531 Park, Amasa, 442 Parker, James, 131 Parker, Jane Ballareau. See Bedford, Jane Ballareau Parker. Parker, Mindwell. See Pigeon, Mindwell Parker. Parkhouse, Mary. See Claypoole, Mary Parkhouse. Parrott, Jane. See Balch, Jane Parrott. Parsippany, NJ, 438 Parsons, Elizabeth. See Allen, Elizabeth Parsons.

575

Partridge (Berkshire), MA, 115, 116 Passaic Falls, NJ, 373 Paterson, NJ, 372, 373 Paterson, William (1763), 17, 29, 78, 79, 81, 82, 90, 194, 379, 405, 491 Patterson, Thomas, xiii, 214, 456, 509 Pattillo, Henry, 204, 525 Paulus Hook, NJ, 304 Pawling (Dutchess), NY, 392 Paxton Township, PA, 289 Peck, Anne Tasker Carter, 421, 422 Peck, Elizabeth Moore, 420 Peck, John (1774), 402-22, 219, 449, 484 Peck, Joseph (1756), 420 Peck, Joseph (father of John Peck), 420 Pee Dee, SC, 264 Peekskill, NY, 56, 237, 329, 427 Pemberton, Ebenezer (1765), 309, 328 Pendleton District, SC, 369 Penn, William, 463 Pennington, NJ, 17 Pennington, William S., 332 Pennsylvania, University of, 46, 486, 518, 519. See also Philadelphia, College of. Pequea (Lancaster), PA, 42, 231, 250, 263, 266, 285, 286, 317, 342, 346, 394, 487, 524 Periam, Joseph (1762), 17, 518 Perkins, Catherine Pitkin, 99 Perkins, Hannah Bishop, 97 Perkins, Matthew (1777), 97, 98 Perkins, Nathan (1770), gy-ioi Perry, Commodore, 455 Perth Amboy, NJ, 520 Peterson, Aaron, 422 Peterson, Christianna Moslander, 423 Peterson, Elizabeth McGlaughlin, 423 Peterson, William (1774), 422-23 Pettit, Charles, 396 Peyton, Margaret Scott. See Lee, Margaret Scott Peyton. Peyton, Yelverton, 497 Philadelphia, College of, xx, xxi, xxiv, xxv, xxviii, 76, 185, 222, 286, 536. See also Pennsylvania, University of. Philadelphia, First Presbytery of, 89, 140, 221, 230, 232 Philadelphia, PA, 3, 9, 17, 20, 46, 47, 65, 67, 68, 80, 82, 83, 86, 87, 88, 124, 131, 133, 135, 140, 143, 144, 148, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 162,

576

INDEX

Philadelphia (cont.) 180, 185, 186, 192, 223, 224, 232, 241, 259, 276, 279, 280, 290, 292, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 307, 320, 349, 35°. 353. 375- 393> 453. 461. 463. 464. 475. 489. 494. 495. 497. 519 Philadelphia, Presbytery of, 210, 212, 219, 226, 487 Philippi, NY, 17 Phillips, Abigail, 51 Phillips, John, 508 Phillips, John Lott (1774), 423-25 Phillips, Mary Lot, 423 Phillips, William, 423 Physicians, College of (Philadelphia), 296, 297 Pickens, Andrew, 368, 369 Pickering, Timothy, 434, 436, 533 Pierce, William, 134 Pierson, Matthew, 103 Pierson, Lucretia. See Russell, Lucretia Pierson. Pigeon, Jane Dumaresq, 513, 514 Pigeon, John, Jr. (1775), 513-14, 441 Pigeon, John, Sr., 513, 514 Pigeon, Mindwell Parker, 514 Pigeon Creek (Yohogania), VA [later Washington Co., PA], 250, 251 Pinckney, Thomas, 350 Pinkney, Charles C., 331 Pintard, John (1776), 153, 335, 493 Pisgah, KY, 119 Pitkin, Catherine. See Perkins, Catherine Pitkin. Pitkin, Timothy, 99 Pittsburgh, PA, 141, 142, 144, 145, 306, 482 Pittsburgh, Synod of, 251 Pittsfield, MA, 35 Plain-Dealing Club, 98, 179 Plainfield, CN, 272, 364 Plainfield, NH, 106, 107, 109 Plainfield, NY, 107 Plassy, France, 356 Piatt, David (1764), 335 Piatt, Jonas, 334 Piatt, Richard (1773), 334-40, 431 Piatt, Sarah Aspinwall, 338, 339 Piatt, Temperance Smith, 334-35 Pole Green, VA, 453, 454 Polk, Susannah, 527 Polk, Susannah Spratt, 527 Polk, Thomas, 527 Pomeroy, Abigail Wheelock, 102 Pomeroy, Benjamin, 102

Pomeroy, Eleazar, 102 Pomeroy, Josiah (1770), 102-103, xxii Pomeroy, Mary Cook, 102 Pomeroy, Ralph (1758), 102 Pompey, NY, 19, 378 Ponds (Bergen), NJ, 22 Pon Pon, SC, 255 Poor, Enoch, 211 Poplar Tent (Mecklenburg), NC, 182, 183, 184 Porter, Elisha, 365 Porter, Hannah. See Breck, Hannah Porter. Porter, Peter, 314 Port Richmond, Staten Island, NY, 202 Portsmouth, CT, 95 Portsmouth, NH, 94, 228 Port Tobacco (Charles), MD, 484 Potter, Rachel. See Taylor, Rachel Potter. Potts, Richard, 361 Poughkeepsie, NY, 239 Powell, Susannah. See Mason, Susannah Powell. Power, James (1766), 284 Pratt, Matthew, 320 Preakness, NJ, 22 Presbyterian ministers, 546-47 Preston, CT, 107 Prevost, Theodosia Bartow. See Burr, Theodosia Bartow Prevost. Price, Phoebe. See Joline, Phoebe Price. Price, Richard, 428 Prince Edward Co., VA, 43, 44, 116, u 8, 137, 343, 344, 345, 443 Prince George's Co., MD, 381 Princess Anne Hundred, MD, 479, 480 Princeton, NJ, 3, 5, 8, 17, 45, 48, 51, 82, 91, 111, 135, 158, 191, 203, 223, 228, 238, 253, 264, 416, 417, 442, 444, 485, 493, 499 Princeton College, 360-61, 511. See also College of New Jersey. Princeton Theological Seminary, 7, 50, 203, 297, 327, 390, 489, 493, 520 Prince William Co., VA, 301, 302, 493 Pritchard, Susan. See Baldwin, Susan. Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, 73 Providence (Wilkes), GA, 526 Providence, RI, 13, 74, 539 public officers, 547-49 Pulteney, William Johnstone, 431, 433 Purrysburg (Jasper), SC, 59, 60

INDEX Putnam, Israel, 195, 237, 238 Pye, Anne. See Zubly, Anne Pye. Pye, Elizabeth. See Zubly, Elizabeth Pye. Quaker Meadows (Burke), NC, 257 Quankey Creek (Halifax), NC, 10 Quasi-War with France, 331, 373, 433, 502, 533 Quebec, Canada, 32, 168, 195, 210, 236. 335. 451· 457 Queen's College, NJ, xx, xxiv, xxviii, 16, 8i, 78, 82, 111, 112, 113, 114, 233, 234, 283, 284 490 proposed union with College of New Jersey 234, 491. See also Rutgers College. Queen's College or Museum (Charlotte, NC), 177, 504. See also Liberty Hall, Salisbury Academy. Quincv, Josiah, 34, 409 Quincy, MA, 436 Raleigh, NC, 388 Ramsay, David (1765), 50, 178, 189, 408, 429, 444, 489 Ramsay (Ramsey), Frances. See Scott, Frances Ramsay. Ramsay, Frances Witherspoon, 444 Ramsay, James (1776), 521 Ramsay, John Witherspoon (1803), 444 Ramsey, James, 521 Ramsey, J.G.M., 474 Ramsey, Martha Laurens, 489 Ramsey, William, 521 Randolph, Edmund, 189, 190 Raritan (Somerset), NJ, 78, 112, 299 Rea, Margaret. See McMillan, Margaret Rea. Read, George, 135, 394 Read, Jacob, 369 Read, Sarah. See Spring, Sarah Read. Reading, Anne. See Beatty, Anne Reading. Reading, John, 3 Red Hook, NY, 22 Red Lion Hundred (New Castle), DE, 255 Redstone, Presbytery of, 92, 137, 251, 284, 288 Reed, Daniel, 39 Reed, Jesse (1769), 39-42 Reed, Joseph (1757), 131, 187, 223, 5!5 Reed, Ruth White, 39

577

Reed, Ruth Whitman, 40, 41 Reed, Solomon, 39 Rees, Rees, 255 Reese, Oliver (1772), 255-56 Reeve, Sarah Burr, 192, 193, 194 Reeve, Tapping (1763), 172, 193, 194, >95. 309. 328. 37°. 518 Rehobeth, DE, 483 Reid, Frances, 517 Reid, James, 514 Reid, James R. (1775), 514-17, 476, 527 Religious Liberty, Statue of, 512 Revere, Paul, 34 Reynolds, John, 199 Reynolds, Mrs. John, 199 Rhinebeck (Dutchess), NY, 21, 22, 311 Rhode Island College, xx, xxi, 48, 272, 539. See also Brown University. Rhode Island Medical Society, 539 Rhodes, Mary. See Wilkinson, Mary Rhodes. Rice, David (1761), 117, 118, 119, 121

Rice, Patrick, 153 Richmond, VA, 20, 90, 201, 293, 306, 413. 417. 453 - 454. 455. 497 Richmond Liberty Society, 455 Riddell, Ann. See Hunter, Ann Riddell. Rider, Dorothy. See Henry, Dorothy Rider. Rittenhouse, David, xxvi Ritzema, Rudolphus, 32 Roan, John, 290 Roberdeau, Daniel, 456 Roberdeau, Isaac, 17 Robertson, Alexander, 520 Robertson, Donald, 160, 171, 513 Robin Hood Club, 23 Robinson, John, 387 Robinson, Mary Chaloner. See Channing, Mary Chaloner Robinson. Robinson, Moses, 532 Robinson, Sarah. See Davenport, Sarah Robinson. Rochambeau, Baron, 14, 427 Rockaway, NY, 485 Rockbridge Co., VA1 252, 319 Rockingham Co., NC, 171 Rocky Hill, NJ, 420 Rocky River (Mecklenburg), NC, 182, 465 Rocky Spring (Cumberland), PA, 8, 322 Rocky Spring, VA, 470, 471, 512

INDEX

578

Roddy, Prudence. See Hall, Prudence Roddy. Rodgers, Alexander R. (1825), 52° Rodgers, Elizabeth Bayard, 518 Rodgers, Hannah Smith, 520 Rodgers, Helen McDougal, 520 Rodgers, John, xxii, 19, 110, 233, 325, 326, 491, 518

Rodgers, John K. (1811), 520 Rodgers, John Richardson Bayard (1775). 5l8-20 Rodgers, Ravaud K. (1815), 520 Rodgers, Susanne R. Kearny, 520 Rodney, Caesar, 131 Rodney, George B., 355 Roe, Azel (1756), 12 Roe, Fanny. See Burnet, Fanny Roe. Roosevelt, Theodore, 473 Ross, James, 144, 254 Ross, Joseph (1771), / 6 5 Rowan Committee, NC, 506 Rowan [later Iredell] Co., NC, 10, 182, 245, 256, 299, 300, 386, 387, 408, 504, 505, 507

Rowley (Essex), MA, 68, 69, 274 Roxbury, MA, 157 Roxbury Hospital (MA), 441 Rumsey, James, 9 0 Rush, Benjamin (1760), xvii, 3,

6, 77,

137, 158, 188, 189, 190, 198, 215, 216, 224, 227, 228, 232, 286, 296,

298. 299. 317. 349> 404. 408, 431. 435> 436. 464. 5!9 Rush, Julia Stockton, 227, 296 Rush, Richard, 227 Russell, Caleb (1770), / 0 5 - / 0 5 Russell, Easter, 103, 105 Russell, Henry, 104 Russell, John, 103, 105 Russell, Lucretia Pierson, 103, 104 Rutgers, Henry, Jr., 87 Rutgers College, 56, 348. See also Queen's College, NJ. Rutherford, John (1776), 4 2 0 Ryegate, VT, 126 Sadsbury Township

(Chester), PA,

481

Sag Harbor, NY, 16 St'. Andrew's Society, 145, 239, 402 St. Christopher's Island, British West Indies, 352 St. Clair, Arthur, 399 St. Croix, The Virgin Islands, 73, 152 St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean, 355

St. George's, Bermuda, 276 St. Georges, DE, 518 St. John's, Quebec, Canada, 126 St. John's College (MD), 479 St. Margaret's Parish, NC, 424 St. Quentin, France, 271 St. Thomas, West Indies, 323 St. Thomas Parish, VA, 160 Salem, MA, 366 Salem, NJ, 396 Salem (Washington), NY, 440 Salem, NC 1 474 Salisbury (Rowan), NC, 10, 247,

248,

388, 390, 506, 507

Salisbury Library Company (NC) 1 506 Sandeman, Robert, 273 Sandy Hook, NJ, 328, 398 Santee, SC, 417 Saratoga, NY, 211, 237, 310, 316 Sargent, Winthrop, 337 Savannah, GA, xxii, 59, 60, 61, 126, 180, 228, 409, 424

Sayre, James, 73, 74 Sayre, Stephen (1757), 83 Schenck, Gitty. See Frelinghuysen, Gitty Schenck. Schenck, William (1767), 370 Schenectady, NY, 107, 114, 235, 345, 528 Schureman, James, 331 Schuyler, Philip, 126, 197, 310, 399, 400, 403, 467

Scioto Associates, 337 Scituate (Providence), RI, 539, 540 Scollay, Priscilla. See Melvill, Priscilla Scollay. Scotch-American Company of Farmers, 126

Scotch Charitable Society of Massa­ chusetts, 35 Scotland, immigrants from, 31, 32,

33,

126, 139, 146, 223, 468, 505, 520

Scott, Abigail, 165 Scott, Archibald (1775), 520-22 Scott, Frances Ramsay (Ramsey), 521 Scott, John Morin, 55, 158 Scott, Lewis A. (1777), 158 Scott, Suse Newcomb, 166 Scott, Violet Burt, 166 Scott, William (1771), 16)-66, xxii Scott, William (father), 165 Scott, Winfield, 314, 315 Scudder, Elizabeth Forman, 523 Scudder, Isabella Anderson, 522

INDEX Scudder, John Anderson (1775), 52224 Scudder, Joseph (1778), 523 Scudder, Nathaniel (1751), 87, 179, 180, 522 Seabury, Samuel, 72, 73, 74, 94, 95 Searle, John, 53 Senter, Isaac, 15 Sergeant, Jonathan, 193 Sergeant, Jonathan Dickinson (1762), '33. 193 Setauket, Long Island, N Y , 105 Seymour, Henry, 378 Seymour, Horatio, 378 Seymour, Mary Forman, 378 Shark River, NJ, 156 Sharon, C T , 271, 363 Shelby, Catherine. See Archibald, Catherine Shelby. Shelby, Moses, 183 Shenandoah Valley, V A , 182, 232, 245 Shenango Valley (Mercer), PA, 477 Shepherdstown, [West] V A , 324 Sherburne, N Y , 436 Sherman's Valley (Cumberland), PA, 317 Shipley, Jonathan, 429 Shippen, Alice Lee, 301, 302, 494 Shippen, Edward, 186, 188 Shippen, Joseph (1753), 286 Shippen, William, Jr. (1754), 65, 157, 158, 286, 299, 301, 302, 353, 494 Shippen, William, 192 Shippensburg (Cumberland), PA, 76, 23 l . 324. 58 1 Shrewsbury, NJ, 156 Simpson, John N., 444 Sinking Spring, V A , 469 Sinking Valley, P A , 267, 268 Six Mile R u n (Somerset), NJ, 537 Skenesborough, N Y . 70 Skillman, Isaac (1766), 270, 363 Slack, Elijah (1808), 397 Slack, Elizabeth. See Martin, Elizabeth Slack. Slack, Sophia Leake, 397 slaves, 12, 15, 26, 29, 30, 52, 59, 82, 85, 86, 89, 106, 118, 121, 123, 125, 159, 162, 165, 166, 183, 208, 219, 221, 234, 235, 239, 245, 246, 247, 256, 259, 260, 265, 268, 271, 294, 299. 3 01 > 3 1 1 ' 3 l6 > 3 i 8 > 323. 326, 333- 340. 348, 353. 3 6 l > 3 6 3. 3 6 9. 380, 383, 384, 397, 404, 409, 420, 422,

579

427» 439. 443. 444. 457. 460, 464. 470, 479, 486, 501, 507, 510, 521, 526 Smith, Abigail Adams, 428, 429, 435. 436 Smith, Alice Andrews, 110 Smith, Anne, 444 Smith, A n n e Dubois, 348 Smith, A n n M., 444 Smith, Ann Witherspoon, 42, 442, 451 Smith, Belcher Peartree (1773), 340-42, 123 Smith, Elizabeth, 348 Smith, Elizabeth Blair, 9, 42, 342, 346 Smith, Elizabeth Nash, 345 Smith, George (1770), toy 106 Smith, Hannah. See Rodgers, Hannah Smith. Smith, Isaac (1770), 106-108, 109 Smith, Isaac (1755), 7 Smith, Isaac (cousin of George Smith), 105 Smith, Israel, 532 Smith, James R., 520 Smith, Job II, 105 Smith, John (1770), 108-110, 107, 425 Smith, John Blair (1773), 342-46, 42, 43, 47, 114, 292, 293, 346, 443, 453, 47°. 473 Smith, John Witherspoon (1795), 50 Smith, Joseph (1764), 251, 252, 284, 285 Smith, Lemuel, 106, 108 Smith, Lucy Beers, 106 Smith, Margaret. See Blydenburgh, Margaret Smith. Smith, Margaret Stephens, 425 Smith, Martha Coit, 106, 108 Smith, Mary Badger, 107 Smith, Mary Bryant, 340 Smith, Nathaniel, 214 Smith, Rachel Stidham, 348 Smith, Robert (1781), 322 Smith, Robert (father of Samuel Stanhope, John Blair, and William Richmond Smith), 42, 231, 250, 263, 286, 342, 343, 346, 347, 394, 487. 524 Smith, R u t h Smith, 105 Smith, Samuel (Senator), 322, 323, 324 Smith, Samuel (son of W i l l i a m Richmond Smith), 348 Smith, President Samuel Stanhope (1769), 42-51, 6, 9, 95, 118, 160, 162,

580

INDEX

Smith, President Samuel Stanhope (cont.) 202, 227, 228, 290, 342, 345, 346, 361, 442, 443, 444, 451, 453, 473, 524, 525 Smith, Samuel Stanhope (nephew), 348 Smith, Sarah. See Adams, Sarah Smith. Smith, Sarah Eaton, 107, 108 Smith, Susannah. See Livingston, Susannah Smith. Smith, Temperance. See Piatt, Tem­ perance Smith. Smith, Thomas (1754), 196 Smith, William (Provost, Coll. of Phila.), xxiv, 76, 77, 536 Smith, William (Harvard 1725), 40 Smith, William, 236 Smith, William, Jr., 12, 236, 238, 239. 341. 438. 531 Smith, William Peartree, 258, 340, 341 Smith, William Richmond (1773), 346-48, 42, 303, 342, 453 Smith, William Stephens (1774), 42537· δ» Smith, William Steuben, 435, 436 Smithfield, RI, 539, 540 Smithtown (Suffolk), Long Island, NY, 68, 85, 105, 106, 334, 392 Smock, Barnes, 152 Smyrna (Wilkes), GA, 526 Snowden, Ruth Lott. See King, Ruth Lott Snowden. Society for the Manumission of Slaves, !53 Society for Promoting Church Music, 454 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 70, 76 Somers (Tolland), CT, 103, 166 Somerset Co., MD, 151, 214, 233, 379, 380, 382, 383, 479, 483 Somerset Co., NJ, 28, 29, 31, 78, 80, 81, 83, 347, 444, 537, 538 Southampton, Long Island, NY, 16, 17, 85 South Carolina, College of, 178, 408 South Carolina, Presbytery of, 257, 525, 526 South Carolina, Second Presbytery of, 257 South Hanover, NJ, 86 South Huntington Township (Westmoreland), PA, 482 Southold, Long Island, NY, 392 Spartanburg Philanthropic Society (SC), 257

Spaulding, Anna. See Bradford, Anna Spaulding. Spencer, Oliver, 426 Spotsylvania Co., VA, 498, 502 Spratt, Susannah. See Polk, Susannah Spratt. Spring, Gardiner, 170 Spring, Hannah Hopkins, 168 Spring, John, 166 Spring, Samuel (1771), 166-ji, 38, 277, 366 Spring, Sarah Read, 166 Springer, Ann Green, 525, 526 Springer, John (1775), 524-26, 408, 473 Springer, John (father), 524 Springer, Mary Demsy, 524 Springfield, CT, 98 Springfield, MA, 166 Springfield, NJ, 330, 426, 457, 475 Sproat, Hannah. See Keith, Hannah Sproa t. Sproat, James, 488, 527 Sprot, Andrew, 527 Sprot, Thomas (father), 527 Sprot, Thomas (son), 527 Sprott, Thomas (1775), 527-28 Stakre (Starke), Lieutenant, 503 Stammers, Rebecca, 147 Staten Island, NY, 80, 263 Steele, John, 247, 249 Steele, Olive, 273 Steele Creek, NC, 504 Stelle, Benjamin (1766), 539 Stephens, Margaret. See Smith, Margaret Stephens. Stephensburg, VA, 220 Sterling, Captain, 280 Sterling, CT1 106, 108 Stevens, Elizabeth. See McKnight, Elizabeth Stevens. Stewart, Robert (1770), 110-11, 283 Stewart, Walter, 482 Stidham, Rachel. See Smith, Rachel Stidham. Stiles, Ezra, 13, 14, 59, 60, 73, 95, 99, 168, 212, 272, 273, 275, 365, 416 Stiles, George, 322 Stillwater, NY, 399 Stirling, Long Island, NY, 392 Stirling, Lord, 28, 56, 113, 236, 329, 336. 398 Stockbridge, MA, 167, 192, 194, 365 Stockton, Abigail Phillips, 51 Stockton, Amy. See Hunter, Amy Stockton.

INDEX Stockton, Catherine Cumming, 51, 52, 37° Stockton, John, 51 Stockton, Julia. See Rush, Julia Stockton. Stockton, Margaret. See Keith, Margaret Stockton. Stockton, Mary. See Hunter, Mary Stockton. Stockton, Mary Hunter. See Hodge, Mary Hunter Stockton. Stockton, Philip (1769), 370 Stockton, Richard (1748), 51, 78, 227, 395 Stockton, Richard (1779), 50, 228, 331 Stone Arabia, NY, 310 Stoneham, MA, 53 Stony Point, NY, 377 Story, Isaac (1768), 384, 385, 442 Story, Joseph, 405 Story, Sophia. See Whitwell, Sophia Story. Stratfield (Fairfield), CT, 73, 74, 105, 106

Stratton Major Parish (King and Queen), VA, 77 Stuart, J.E.B., 277 Suffolk, Presbytery of, 18, 68, 85 Suffolk Co., Long Island, NY, 72, 103, 105 Suffolk Co., MA, 410 Sugar Creek, NC, 257, 386, 465 Sullivan, John, 80, 211, 212, 263, 330, 377, 416, 425, 426, 437, 438 Sullivan, William, 226, 259, 371 Sullivan's Island, SC1 419, 420 Sunbury, GA, 180 Susquehanna Co., PA, 17 Sussex Co., VA, 20, 537 Swaine, John, 153 Swartout, John, 434, 435 Sydenham, Elizabeth. See Willcocks, Elizabeth Sydenham. Symmes, John Cleves, 52, 188, 281 Synod of the Carolinas, 183, 184, 248, 257. 387. 388, 471 Synod of Kentucky, 467 Synod of New Jersey and Philadelphia, xxi Synod of New York and Philadelphia, 86, 91, 93, 292, 407, 439 Synod of North Holland, 21 Synod at Philadelphia, 353 Synod of Pittsburgh, 251

581

Synod, Reformed Dutch, of New York and New Jersey, 233 Synod of Virginia, 251, 252 Tait, Samuel, 181 Talbot Co., MD, 125 Tammany Society, 234, 404 Tappan, Amos, 53 Tappan, David, 169 Tappan, NY, 515 Tarleton, Banastre, 305, 424, 522 Tate, Elizabeth Jones, 350 Tate, James (1773), 349-50 Taylor, Francis, 171 Taylor, Jacob, 111 Taylor, James (1771), 171 Taylor, Jeanette Fitz-Randolph, 113 Taylor, John (1770), 111-15, 78, 81 Taylor, John, 483 Taylor, Rachel Potter, 111 Taylor, Sophia, 483 Teate, Anthony, 349 Templeton, David, 256 Templeton, James (1772), 256-58 Templeton, James (father), 256 Ten Broeck, Catherine. See Bruyn, Catherine Ten Broeck. Ten Broeck, Jane. See Grier, Jane Ten Broeck. Ten Broeck, John, 222 Ten Mile Settlements, PA, 284, 285 Tennent, Gilbert, 148, 527 Tennent, John Van Brugh (1758), 370 Tennent, Sarah. See Cheesman, Sarah Tennent. Tennent, William, 3, 8, 449 Tennent, William, Jr. (1758), 255, 370, 488 Tennent, William, Jr. (trustee), 149, 179. 377. 522 Terrick, Richard, Bishop of London, 77 Thayer, Elihu (1769), 53-54 Thayer, Hannah Calef, 53 Thayer, Mary Foxon, 53 Thayer, Nathaniel, Jr., 53 Thompson, Margaret. See Breck, Margaret Thompson. Thompson, Robert, 228 ThompsonjSmith (1788),406 Thornton, Sarah. See Alexander, Sarah Thornton. Throckmorton, Mildred. See Baldwin, Mildred Throckmorton. Throg's Neck, Eastchester (Westches­ ter), NY, 425, 433

582

INDEX

Throop, Mary. See Tracy, Mary Throop. Thyatira (Rowan), NC1 246, 247, 248 Tichenor, Daniel, 528 Tichenor, Elizabeth, 535 Tichenor, Isaac (1775), 528-36, 95 Tichenor, Susannah, 528 Ticonderoga, NY, 32, 127, 456 Timber Ridge, VA, 257, 290, 511 Timothy, Catherine. See Trezevant, Catherine Timothy. Tinicum, PA, 222 Tinkling Spring (Rockbridge), VA, 319 Tobler, Ann. See Zubly, Ann Tobler. Todd, Dolly Payne. See Madison, Dolly Payne Todd. Todd, John (1749), 116, 119 Tompkins, Daniel D., 313, 314, 315 Tom's Creek, MD, 325 Tom's River (Monmouth), NJ, 299 Tontine CofEee House, 404 Topsfield (Essex), MA, 365, 366, 367 Toulmin, Harry, 119 Tracy, James, 115 Tracy, Mary Throop, 115 Tracy, Stephen (1770), 115-16 Tracy, Susannah Bishop, 115 Transylvania Seminary, 119 Transylvania University, 119 Treat, Joseph (1757), 259, 273 Treat, Malachi, 259 Treat, Richard, 185, 186, 243, 244, 278, 279 Tredwell, Thomas (1764), 391, 392 Tredyffin (Chester), PA, 209 Trenton, NJ, 6, 30, 80, 81, 82, 104, 155, 223, 227, 229, 255, 265, 280, 354. 384. 393. 396, 4!6, 419> 427. 475. 499- 500 Trenton (Oneida), NY, 376 Trenton Banking Company (NJ), 7 Trenton Convention of 1814 (NJ), 373 Trenton Library Company (NJ), 265 Trenton Union Fire Company, 265 Trezevant, Ann Bell, 537 Trezevant, Catherine Cocke Wyatt, 537 Trezevant, Catherine Timothy, 536 Trezevant, James, 537 Trezevant, John Timothy (1775), 536-31 Trezevant, Theodore, 536 Trimble, Jane. See King, Jane Trimble. Troup, Robert, 197, 399 Troy, NY, 95

Trumble, Susannah. See Linn, Susannah Trumble. Trumbull, John, 314 Trumbull, Jonathan, 503 Trumbull, Joseph, 514 Tryon, NY, 440 Tryon, William, 237 Tucker, Elizabeth. See Campbell, Elizabeth Tucker. Tucker, Henry, 146 Tucker, St. George, 147 Tufts, Cotton, 40 Turtle Bay, NY, 269 Tusculum College (TN), 474. See also Tusculum Academy. Tybec Island, GA, 181 Tyler, Lucy. See Whitwell, Lucy Tyler. Tyler, Royall, 34 Tyrone Township, PA, 318 Ulster Co., NY, 105, 106, 294, 375, 457. 459. 460, 491 Union College (Schenectady, NY), 1x4, 235. 3*3> 326. 345. 404· See also Union Academy. Uniontown, PA, 289 Unity (West Moreland), PA, 137 Upper, Centre and Limestone Ridge (Cumberland), PA, 317 Upper Marsh Creek [later Gettysburg] (York), PA, 136 Upper Providence Township (Delaware), PA, 508 Upper West Conococheague (Cumber­ land), PA, 351 Uxbridge, MA, 166 Valley Forge, PA, 158, 195, 211, 215, 329. 425. 437- 456. 475. 515 Van Buren, Martin, 315, 316, 323 VanBurgh, Dinah. See Frelinghuysen, Dinah VanBurgh. Van Cortlandt, Hester Bayard, 437 Van Cortlandt, John, 437 Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard (1774). 437-38 Van Dyke, Ann Gentner, 528 Van Dyke, Cataryna, 538 Van Dyke, Cataryna Emans, 537 Van Dyke, John (1775), 537-38 Van Dyke, John, 538 Van Dyke, Henderick, 538 Van Dyke, Margaretta Barcalo, 538 Van Dyke, Marietye van Norden, 538 Van Dyke, Nicholas, 538

INDEX Van Dyke, Rebecca, 538 Van Dyke, Roelof, 537, 538 Van Dyke, Sarah Clark, 538 Van Dyke, Sarah MacCoraher, 538 Van Harlingen, Johannes Martinus (1760), 347 van Norden, Marietye. See Van Dyke, Marietye van Norden. Vardill, John, xxi, xxiv, 71 Varick, Richard, 399 Varnum, James, 238 Venable, Abraham (1780), 455 Vermont, University of, 533 Versailles, KY, 121 Vickers, Hannah. See Fithian, Han­ nah Vickers. Vickers, Samuel (1777), 509 Virginia, University of, 164 von Steuben, Baron, 23, 25, 26, 239, 426 Wake Co., NC, 424 Walbridge, Ebenezer, 530 Walker, Richard, 278 Wallace, Caleb Baker (1770), 116-22 Wallace, Esther Baker, 116 Wallace, Mary Brown, 121 Wallace, Rosanna Christian, 118, 121 Wallace, Samuel, 116 Wallace, Sarah McDowell, 117, 118 Wallingford, CT, 74 Wallkill, NY, 300 Walton, Mary. See Morris, Mary Walton. Wappetaw, Christ's Church Parish, SC, 180 Ward, Henry, 14 Warford, Elizabeth, 438, 439 Warford, James, 439 Warford, John (1774), 438-40, 424, 478 Warford, John (father), 438 Warford, Joseph, 439 Warford, Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick, 439. 440 Warford, Sara. See Ely, Sara Warford. Warm Springs, VA, 141 Warner, Mrs. Phebe, 424 Warren, John, 65 Warren, Joseph, 34 Warren, RI, 539 Warren Co., NJ, 439 Warren Co., NC, 525 Warwick (Orange), NY, 486 Warwick (Bucks), PA, 3, 449 Washington, Bushrod, 405

583

Washington, Catherine. See Lewis, Catherine Washington. Washington, DC, 199, 228, 229, 313, 314, 405, 413, 480, 492, 524 Washington, DC Medical Society, 480 Washington, Elizabeth. See Lewis, Elizabeth Washington. Washington, George, 4, 5, 14, 24, 26, 65, 81, 113, 141, 154, 155, 158, 159, 189, 190, 195, 208, 2U, 213, 215, 233- 234> 236' 237, 238, 263, 295, 296, 3°3> 3°4> 3°5> 3o6> 307, 311· 3*5· 329. 331. 336' 337. 338. 349. 35°> 354371' 372. 373. 3®1' 385. 401, 4'8- 427. 428, 431, 432, 433, 434, 462, 476, 487, 488, 495, 496, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 506, 515, 516, 529, 530, 531 Washington, George Augustine, 14 Washington (Wilkes), GA, 526 Washington (Davies), IN, 524 Washington, Martha, 500 Washington and Jefferson College, 253, 288. See also Canonsburg Academy, Washington Academy, Jefferson College. Washington and Lee University, 43, 252, 290, 470, 473, 511. See also Augusta Academy, Liberty Hall, Washington College. Washington Botanical Society, 229 Washington College, 27, 43, 74, 118, 253. 285, 290, 471, 472, 473, 474, 479, 480, 522 Washington Co., NC, 474 Washington Co., PA, 251, 252, 285 Washington Co., TN, 471 Washington Co., VA, 470, 471, 473, 474 Washington Society, 534 Washington Township, PA, 89 Wassell, Henry, 456 Watson, Agnes. See Fresneau, Agnes Watson. Watson, John (1797), 288 Watts, Isaac, 182 Waugh, Eliza Hoge, 351 Waugh, Samuel (1773), 350-52, 317, 318 Waugh, William, 350 Wayne, Anthony, 305, 451, 514, 515 Webb, Nathan, 166 Webb, Samuel Blachley, 237, 238, 426 Webster, Daniel, 413 Webster, Noah, 100 Weehawken, NJ, 200, 403 Weld, Ezra, 53

584

INDEX

Well-Meaning Club, 13, 28, 33, 54, 65, 84, 98, 107, 109, 110, 111, 115, 179 Wells, Miss, 537 West, Stephen, 167, 365 Westborough, MA, 513 Westchester Co., NY, 404, 415, 416, 438 Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, 252-53 Westford, MA, 40 West Hartford, CT, 99, 100, 101 West Indies, xxii, xxiii, xxv, xxvi, 73, 102, 126, 152, 153, 296, 308, 320, 449 Westmoreland Co., PA, 125, 137, 141, 482 Westmoreland Co., VA, 218, 421 West Newbury, MA, 169 West Newton, MA, 514 West Nottingham, MD, 214, 263 West Point, NY, 81, 158, 286, 336, 476. 515 West Union Township (Adams), OH, 482 Weymouth, MA, 40, 212 Wheeler, John H., 505 Wheelock, Abigail. See Pomeroy, Abigail Wheelock. Wheelock, Eleazer, 17, 102 Wheelock, John, 213 Whiskey Rebellion, 189, 253, 275, 281, 306, 331, 377, 383, 502 White, Ruth. See Reed, Ruth White. Whitefield, George, 221, 375 White Marsh, PA, 437 White Plains, NY, 135, 425, 481 Whitlaw, James, 126 Whitman, Ruth. See Reed, Ruth Whitman. Whitwell, Elizabeth Kelsey, 440 Whitwell, Lucy Tyler, 442 Whitwell, Samuel, Jr. (1774), 440-42, 514 Whitwell, Samuel (father), 440, 441 Whitwell, Samuel (son), 442 Whitwell, Sophia Story, 442 Whitwell, William (1758), 384, 440 Wicks, Elizabeth. See Hartt, Elizabeth Wicks. Wildes, Sylvanus, 366 Wiley, David (1788), 360 Wilkes Co., GA, 184 Wilkinson, Benjamin, 539 Wilkinson, James, 119, 120, 121, 145, 201, 314, 315, 524

Wilkinson (Wilkson, Willason), John ( 1 Tlb)' 538-40 Wilkinson, Mary Howry, 539 Wilkinson, Mary Rhodes, 539 Willcocks, Elizabeth Ashfield, 56 Willcocks, Elizabeth Sydenham, 54 Willcocks, William, Jr. (1769), 54-58, 105, 236, 401 Willcocks, William (father), 54 Willett, Marinus, 57 William, Howard, 52 William and Mary, College of, xix, xxi, 44, 160 Williams, Anne Greenaway, 122 Williams, Bedford (1770), 122-23 Williams, John, 10 Williams, Simeon (1765), 40 Williamsburg, PA, 267 Williamsburg, VA, 19, 160, 418, 443, 476 Williams College, 166 Williamson, Benjamin, 173 Williamson, Henrietta Levy, 124 Williamson, Isaac, 124, 173 Williamson, Jacob (1771), 172-74 Williamson, Jacobus. See Williamson, Jacob. Williamson, James. See Williamson, Jacob. Williamson, Matthias, Jr. (1770), 123-24, 172, 173 Williamson, Matthias (father), 123, 124, 172, 173 Williamson, Susanna Halstead, 123, 172 Williamson, William, 173 Wilmington, DE, 132, 134, 230, 347, 464 Wilmington, NC, 464 Wilson, Elizabeth. See Craig, Elizabeth Wilson. Wilson, Ephraim, 479 Wilson, Henrietta. See Elzey, Henrietta Wilson. Wilson, Hugh (1819), 353 Wilson, Hugh, 278 Wilson (Willson), James (1770), 124-25 Wilson, James J., 30, 523 Wilson, James Patriot, 318 Wilson, Lewis Feuilleteau (1773), 352-54, 286 Wilson, Margaret Hall, 353 Wilson, Mary, 479 Wilson, Matthew, 124 Wilson, William, 521 Wilton, SC, 255, 256

INDEX Winchester (Cheshire), NH, 116 Winchester (Frederick), VA, 65, 66, 512 Windham, CT, 115 Windham Co., VT, 531 Winder, Rider H. (1806), 27 Winnsborough, SC, 408, 526 Winston, Geddes, 453 Winston, Mary. See Blair, Mary Winston. Witherspoon, Ann. See Smith, Ann Witherspoon. Witherspoon, David (1774), 442-45, xviii, xx, 43, 125, 126, 127, 354, 373 Witherspoon, Elizabeth Montgomery, 125. 13». 354. 442 Witherspoon, Frances. See Ramsay, Frances Witherspoon. Witherspoon, James (1770), /25-27, xviii, xxii, 68, 354, 442 Witherspoon, Jane Harrison McCalla1 356 Witherspoon, President John, xviixxxii, 23, 42, 45, 52, 53, 81, 110, 126, 161, 186, 223, 238, 264, 270, 272, 273, 292, 301, 352, 354, 355, 386, 389, 395, 416, 441, 442, 443, 449, 453. 491 Witherspoon, John, Jr. (1773), 354-56, xviii, 125, 287, 303, 442 Witherspoon, John (son of David Witherspoon), 444 Witherspoon, Mary Jones Nash, 443, 444 Withrow's Creek, NC, 299 Wolcott, Oliver, 96 Wolf Sabina. See Brackenridge, Sabina Wolf. Woodbridge, NJ, 12 Woodbury (Gloucester), NJ, 227, 280, 282 Woodbury Fire Company (NJ), 282 Woodbury Library Company (NJ), 282 Woodford Co., KY, 121, 122 Woodruff, Aaron D. (1779), 485 Woodruff, Anne Hunloke, 258 Woodruff, Elias, xii Woodruff, Hunloke (1772), 258-60

585

Woodruff, Joseph (1753), 258 Woodruff, Maria (Polly) Lansing, 259 Woodruff, Mary Joline, 485 Woodruff, Rebecca, 258 Woods, Benjamin, 444 Woods, John, 144 Woodward, William W., 489 Wooster, David, 93, 94 Wooster, Mrs. David, 95 Wooster, Mary Clap. See Ogden, Mary Clap Wooster. Wrentham, MA, gg Wright, Ann. See Claypoole, Ann Wright. Wright, Thomas, 464 Wyatt, Catherine Cocke. See Trezevant, Catherine Cocke Wyatt. Wyckoff, Catherine. See Forman, Catherine Wyckoff. Wyckoff, NJ, 22 Wynkeep, Henry (1760), 510 Wyoming, PA, 426 Wyoming Valley, PA, 224, 296, 393 Yale College, xix, xxi, xxii, xxvi, xxviii, 12, 17, 39, 42, 48, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 101, 102, 170, 324, 326, 415, 456 Yale Corporation, 9g Yard, Anne (Nancy). See Frelinghuysen, Anne Yard. Yates, Peter, 401 Yates, Robert, 196 York, PA, 77, 187, 225 York and Jersey Steam Boat Ferry Company, 374 York Co., PA, 137, 139 York, Ontario, Canada, 314 Yorktown, VA, 211, 227, 305, 330, 394, 427, 475. 476. 516, 531. 537 Zantziger, Sarah Barton. See Davenport, Sarah Barton Zantziger. Zubly, Anne Pye, 60 Zubly, Ann Tobler, 59 Zubly, David (1769), 59-61 Zubly, Elizabeth Pye, 60 Zubly, John Joachim, 59, 60

Library

of Congress

Cataloging

in Publication

Harrison, Richard A 1945Princetonians, 1769-1775. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Princeton University—Alumni. I. Title. LD4601.H37 378-749'67 80-7526 ISBN 0-691-04675-1

Data