Princetonians, 1784-1790: A Biographical Dictionary [Course Book ed.] 9781400861262

Table of contents :
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES FREQUENTLY USED
CLASS OF 1784
CLASS OF 1785
CLASS OF 1786
CLASS OF 1787
CLASS OF 1788
CLASS OF 1789
CLASS OF 1790
APPENDIX: Geographical and Occupational Listings
INDEX

Citation preview

PRINCETONIANS 1784-1790

EDITOR Wesley Frank Craven, to February 10, 1981 John M. Murrin, after February 10, 1981 ASSOCIATE EDITOR J. Jefferson Looney EDITORIAL COMMITTEE James M. Banner, Jr. Richard D. Challener, ex officio Richard A. Harrison James McLachlan Robert L. Tignor EDITORIAL ADVISORS Charles T. Culien Stanley N. Katz James Oakes Thomas P. Slaughter

Wanda S. Gunning Allan Kulikoff Daniel T. Rodgers R. Sean Wilentz

CONTRIBUTORS J. Jefferson Looney Christine A. Lunardini John M. Murrin Linda K. Salvucci RESEARCH ASSISTANTS J. Jefferson Looney Christine A. Lunardini Linda K. Salvucci

PRINCETONIANS =

1784-1790

=

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY BY RUTH L. WOODWARD AND WESLEY FRANK CRAVEN

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 1991

Copyright 1991 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Revised for vol. 4-5) Princetonians: a biographical dictionary Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: [1st] 1748-1768 / by James McLachlan—[etc.]—[4th] 1784-1790 / by Ruth L. Woodward and Wesley Frank Craven— [5th] 1791-17941 by J. Jefferson Looney and Ruth L. Woodward. 1. Princeton University—Alumni—Biography—Dictionaries. I. McLachlan, James, 1932- . II. Harrison, Richard Α., 1945- . III. Tide. LD4601.P75 1976 378.749'67 81-47074 ISBN 0-691-04639-5 (v. 1: alk. paper) ISBN 0-691-04771-5 (v. 4: alk. paper) Publication of this book has been aided by grants from the New Jersey Committee for the Humanities the New Jersey Historical Commission the National Endowment for the Humanities This book has been composed in Baskerville Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TO THE DONORS TO THE

WESLEY FRANK CRAVEN MEMORIAL FUND WITHOUT WHOSE GENEROSITY THIS VOLUME COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED

William W. Abbot - Jared H. Adams '58 William B. Alexander V '41 - Mr. and Mrs. Herbert S. Bailey, Jr. '42 William P. Bennett '68 - Daniel S. Blalock, Jr. '53 - Stephen M. Boyd '55 Sidney B. Brinckerhoff '56 - David Browning, Jr. '57 Nathaniel Burt '46 — Levering Cartwright '26 — Helen M. Craven Daniel P. Cunningham '71 - Richard S. Dunn *55 Robert F. Durden *52 - A. Wright Elliott '57 - Gary A. Fisher '73 Edward S. Felsenthal '63 - Hon. Peter Η. B. Frelinghuysen '38 John P. Furman '42 -James G. Gilbert '58 - Neal Forrest Grenley '69 Richard A. Harrison *74 -John M. Hemphill II *64 Reginald D. Hudson, Jr. '72 - Mr. and Mrs. Alfred F. Hurley *61 John K. Jenney '25 -Joel B. Johnson '32 - David W. Jordan *66 Henry Felix Kloman '55 - Wheaton J. Lane '25 - Maurice Lee, Jr. '46 Fraser Lewis '56, M.D. -John E. Little *66 - Richard W. Lloyd '28 David Luria, Jr. '63 —James McLachlan - Seymour G. Marvin '37 Baldwin Maull '22 -John M. Murrin - J. R. Pole *53 Peter B. Putnam '42 - Edward W. Scudder, Jr. '35 - Richard B. Scudder '35 George C. Shafer, Jr. '51 - Alexander A. Uhle '56

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE

by John M. Murrin

INTRODUCTION:

Princetonians, 1784—1794, by John M. Murrin

ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES FREQUENTLY USED

ix

xi xvii fix

CLASS OF 1784

1

CLASS OF 1785

63

CLASS OF 1786

105

CLASS OF 1787

165

CLASS OF 1788

249

CLASS OF 1789

321

CLASS OF 1790

463

APPENDIX:

Geographical and Occupational Listings

by J. Jefferson Looney, John M. Murrin, and Ruth L. Woodward

539

INDEX

551

LIST

OF

ILLUSTRATIONS

James Ashton Bayard, by M. Fevret de Saint Memin. In the collection of The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Gift of William Wilson Corcoran Ira Condict, anonymous. Princeton University Robert Goodloe Harper, by M. Fevret de Saint Memin. In the collection of The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Gift of William Wilson Corcoran Charles Smith. Courtesy of Charles S. Olden John Nelson Abeel. Princeton University Archives John Rhea Smith, Peter Force Collection, Library of Congress Nathaniel Woodhull Howell, reproduced from History of Ontario County, New York, ed. George S. Conover (1893) William Kirkpatrick. Princeton University Archives Smith Thompson. Princeton University Archives Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr., by J. D. Chalfant. Courtesy of Delaware Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs, State Archives, Dover, Delaware Willie Blount, courtesy of Blount Mansion Association, Knoxville, Tennessee Mahlon Dickerson. Princeton University Archives David Hosack, by Rembrandt Peale. Princeton University Silas Wood, from a miniature at Huntington, Long Island. Princeton University Archives Augustus William Harvey. Princeton University Archives Robert Gibbon Johnson. Courtesy of The First Presbyterian Church of Salem, Salem, New Jersey William Johnson, Jr., engraving by Albert Rosenthal from a painting by John Wesley Jarvis. Reproduced from Hampton L. Carson, The History of the Supreme Court of the United States; with Biographies of all the Chief and Associate Justices (1902) John Taylor, by M. Fevret de Saint Memin. In the collection of The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Gift of William Wilson Corcoran George Spafford Woodhull. Princeton University

5 20 68 150 168 228 268 270 297 304 331 370 403 456 483 489

495 522 530

PREFACE

volume, the fourth in the Princetonians series, contains short biographies of 191 men who attended the College of New Jersey with the classes of 1784 through 1790. The fifth volume, covering the four subsequent classes, will conclude the series with the last class to graduate during the life of President John Witherspoon, who by the time of his death in 1794 had taught about two-thirds of the seniors who had attended the institution since its founding in 1746. His passing, which almost marked the end of the College's first half-century, has provided a logical point at which to terminate this biographical dictionary. Without dramatic sacrifices by numerous people and the generous backing of several institutions, this volume would never have been published. Most conspicuous was the dedication of Wesley Frank Craven, an active supporter of the Princetonians project from its 1971 inception in the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, under Lawrence Stone, and in the Department of History. Richard A. Harrison, principal author of the second and third volumes, would have been delighted to have Frank's name appear as coauthor on both tide pages, but with his typical grace and generosity Frank refused. Frank used his retirement perquisites to keep the project running smoothly for several years when it had only a tiny independent budget. He recognized the potential of Ruth L. Woodward, an experienced writer with an undergraduate degree in American history and a lively interest in Princeton's past Between 1979 and 1981, while she brought order and routine to the project's slightly chaotic office, Frank trained her in the specialized research skills needed to write biographies of students from the late eighteenth century. Frank also continued to produce complete entries and drafts until almost the week of his death, often assisted by Ruth. He wrote just over half of the biographies through the Class of 1787. Thereafter her contributions overwhelmingly predominate. Three research assistants—Linda K. Salvucci in 1979-80, Christine A. Lunardini in 1980-81, and J. Jefferson Looney after 1981—also contributed. Looney in particular gave the dictionary a computer literacy, with counseling from Charles T. Cullen, that has proved invaluable. His keen eye for inconsistencies among the several authors and for source difficulties led gradually to his assumption of the responsibilities of associate editor of this volume. THIS

Xll

PREFACE

Shortly before Frank Craven died on February 10, 1981,1 agreed to assume editorial and fundraising control of the project. More at home in the eighteenth century than in the nineteenth, the era in which these Princetonians made their most significant contributions, I secured his assent to restructuring the editorial process. Until then the project had relied on a small committee to review all sketches— James McLachlan and Richard A. Harrison, principal authors and editors of the first three volumes; James M. Banner, Jr., a member of the History Department until 1979 who retains a sharp interest in the history of education in the early republic; Richard D. Challener (A.B. 1946), a former chairman of the History Department with an affectionate concern for the College's origins and development; and myself. Robert L. Tignor, the late Cyril £. Black, and Daniel T. Rodgers, Challener's successors as chair, provided administrative support. Under the new arrangement, McLachlan, Harrison, Banner and I remained a core editorial committee to evaluate all biographies, but we also drew upon the special competence of other members of the department, one recent Ph.D., and a local resident and active member of the Historical Society of Princeton, Wanda S. Gunning, whose encyclopedic knowledge of early American families amazed us all and saved us from numerous mistakes. Everyone in this group agreed to serve as an editorial consultant. Charles T. Cullen, then editor of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson and now director of the Newberry Library in Chicago, provided advice on numerous Virginians. Allan Kulikoff, now at Northern Illinois University, gave similar help for Marylanders, and James Oakes, now at Northwestern University, for other southerners. Stanley N. Katz, who has moved on to become president of the American Council of Learned Societies, provided critiques on many of our students who entered the legal profession. Daniel T. Rodgers, who is now department chair, offered suggestions on clergymen and others who might tantalize an intellectual historian. R. Sean Wilentz and Thomas P. Slaughter (a Princeton Ph.D. who is now at Rutgers University) assisted with our numerous Mid-Atlantic alumni. No doubt we have made errors despite all of this help, but beyond any question this volume is immeasurably stronger for the assistance we have received. Any miscues that remain are the responsibility of the individual authors. One of the major difficulties facing this project has been funding. Frank Craven's death left the dictionary without a sufficient budget to support even one full-time staff member for another complete year. The University responded in several ways. President William G. Bowen and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center each provided grants of a

PREFACE

X1U

fixed amount for a three-year period. The University also permitted us to establish the Wesley Frank Craven Memorial Fund in which we appealed to prior donors to the dictionary, students who had written senior theses under Frank's direction, his doctoral students, and a few of his close friends in the historical profession. The staff in the University's Development Office warned us not to be overly optimistic. In their experience, fond memories of an exceptional teacher do not easily translate into sizable donations. In this case, however, the advice was unduly pessimistic. Those who knew Frank Craven well could easily perceive the depth of his commitment to the completion of this project. Over a three-year period, these individuals gave an amount roughly equal to what the dictionary received from both the Davis Center and President Bowen's fund combined. This volume is dedicated to these donors because it could not have been finished without their generosity and support. They have earned the fullest gratitude of the project's staff. While we believe that the Princetonians series shall serve as a major historical reference tool for the next century and beyond, Princeton University Press also had a legitimate concern about the expense of publishing anything of this size with little prospect of commercial success. The staff has responded by computerizing the project to make typesetting much less expensive. By special arrangement with John Catanzariti, the new director and editor of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, we have used that project's Tyxset equipment and relied on J. Jefferson Looney, now an associate editor of the Jefferson Papers, to unravel the mysteries of that superb technology. Even with this savings, the Press's budget would not permit publication without further subventions. We appealed to three institutions, all of which have responded generously: the New Jersey Committee for the Humanities, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Paul A. Stellhorn, then at the Committee, and Richard L. Waldron and Howard L. Green, both at the Commission, provided helpful advice on preparing the grant applications. All have supported us in a manner that elicits our most sincere gratitude. In addition, Anthony T. Grafton, Paul Johnson, Richard L. McCormick, Billy G. Smith, John P. Kaminski, and James M. McPherson offered assistance on specific individuals or particular points. Mark A. Noll gave us sound advice on several questions. We also wish to thank the staffs of research institutions and public record repositories, too numerous to itemize, who responded to written inquiries. Members of the dictionary staff at various times visited the state historical societies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva-

xiv

PREFACE

nia, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina; the Bucks County His­ torical Society in Doylestown, Pennsylvania; the Hopewell Museum in Hopewell, New Jersey; the Library of Congress; and the state libraries or halls of records in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina. We are grateful for the help provided by these institutions. At Princeton the extensive resources of the Harvey J. Firestone Library, the Seeley G. Mudd Library, the History Depart­ ment and the Computer Center have met our many needs admirably. On occasion our research also led us to the Rutgers University Library. Mary R. Murrin's proofreading skills have been an invalu­ able contribution to this undertaking. At Princeton University Press, Herbert S. Bailey, Jr., the director until 1986, and his successor, Wal­ ter Lippincott, have provided essential support. Gail Ullman's edito­ rial advice, the copyediting talents of Julie Marvin and Bill Laznovsky, and the many skills of Lynne Haggard have all made this volume a better book. We are also grateful to the participants in the Shelby Cullom Davis Seminar who in April 1988 made numerous helpful suggestions for improving the introductory essay. James McLachlan's critique of the introduction was so comprehensive and helpful that it reminded us once more of how much this project lost when he resigned as editor after completing the first volume. A final word seems appropriate about the principle of selection used in Princetonians. Evidence internal to the College, such as a name on a class list or a mention in a fellow student's diary, is strong enough to merit inclusion in this volume. A membership roll of the Cliosophic Society was also helpful but was used with great caution since visitors to the College were sometimes granted honorary membership. More ambiguous are outside references to somebody's presence at Prince­ ton, especially when the writer could be referring to the Nassau Hall grammar school instead of the College. A fuller discussion of this question as it affects blacks and Indians occurs in the introductory essay. Our most perplexing decision of this kind involved a partic­ ular set of detailed notes taken by a very careful student who sat through John Witherspoon's lectures on moral philosophy and other subjects. The existence of this manuscript volume is unmistakable evidence that whoever took these notes in their original form spent his senior year at the College. The manuscript is dated 1787 on the tide page, which also identifies its owner as "Antonio Marvine"—an unusual name for someone living in late eighteenth-century America, although other Marvines do appear in various Pennsylvania sources. However, the inside front cover indicates in the same hand that the volume was purchased in 1786 from an "I" or a "T" Wilson (the writer's capital Τ and capital I are indistinguishable). No known I. or

PREFACE

xv

Τ. Wilson attended the College before 1787, but there were several J. Wilsons who did. At this period competent Latinists still routinely used an "I" for a "J." We have assumed that Antonio Marvine, who­ ever he was, purchased and probably copied in his own hand a set of lecture notes from a former Princetonian, perhaps James Wilson (A.B. 1770), who resigned his Presbyterian pulpit in 1778 after a disabling accident and, as pure conjecture, no longer had any need for his moral philosophy notes. Marvine's volume is in the rare book and manuscripts collection at Firestone Library, but no sketch of him appears in Princetonians. All efforts to identify him have failed. John M. Murrin October 1990 Sketches are signed as follows: WFC Wesley Frank Craven JJL J· Jefferson Looney CAL Christine A. Lunardini JMM John M. Murrin LKS Linda K. Salvucci RLW Ruth L. Woodward

INTRODUCTION BY JOHN M. MURRIN

EVEN after the American War for Independence ended victoriously in 1783, the Revolution continued its profound impact upon the lives of Princetonians. It affected everything from the physical condition of the College to the size of the faculty, the regional balance of the student body, the career choices of alumni, and—most vividly—the memories and experiences that both students and faculty brought with them. The significance of American independence saturated undergraduate oratory, especially when the French Revolution convinced many onlookers that what had started in Britain's distant colonies was about to sweep across the entire world. Liberty, declared Nathaniel Cabot Higginson (A.B. 1787) in an address which he prepared and John Henry Hobart (A.B. 1793) delivered at Nassau Hall on the Fourth of July in 1793, "will not do her work by halves. She will continue to knock at the doors of those sleeping tyrants of the East, 'till she rouses them from the delusive dream of security & breaks forever the spell of arbitrary power." On another occasion Hobart, a future Episcopal bishop, wondered at the "series of fortunate events, which ... fall little short of miraculous, [that] appeared to aid the cause of freedom" after the fighting began in 1775. For him the Federal Constitution inspired even greater awe. At a time when no public figure had yet formulated a coherent idea of an unbreakable American union, this college senior proclaimed that "The strength of [the Constitution's] pillars promises a perpetual duration." John Bradford Wallace (A.B. 1794) redefined "enthusiasm" as "that ardor of soul ... which fired the bosoms of our countrymen and blazed so high" at the outset of the Revolution. Most of his elders still reserved the word for popular delusions and madness. Wallace saw in the French Revolution "a scene perhaps the most astonishing that has been exhibited since the morning of the creation," a rather awkward position for a student to affirm at Nassau Hall, if only because he seemed willing to let events in France exceed even the Redemption in overall significance. As a high Federalist a few years later, he probably regretted some of these pronouncements. 1 1 An earlier version of this essay appeared as "Christianity, Enlightenment, and Revolution: Hard Choices at the College of New Jersey after Independence,'' Princeton University Library Chronicle (hereafter, PUL Chron.), 50 (1988-1989), 221-61 . See Nathaniel Cabot Higginson, "The Cause of Freedom" (July 4, 1793), 1 (MS in

XVU1

INTRODUCTION

Wallace's exuberance was hardly confined to the campus. By 1793 both the College and the community of Princeton were awash in euphoria over the French Revolution, which was widely seen as in some way an extension and fulfillment of its American predecessor. In mid-January, reported a local informant, "a very respectable meeting of inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood" celebrated "the prosperity of the Republic of France" with fifteen toasts, no doubt one for every state in the Union, which by then included Kentucky and Vermont. "May the memory of every little and great despot from Nimrod down to the present day, be held in everlasting abhorrence," proclaimed one offering. "The colonies of South America: May they become happy and free as we are," proposed another. "The millenium of universal liberty, peace, and virtue" raised everyone's glasses once more. After also saluting the marquis de Lafayette (then in Hapsburg confinement) and the people and government of the United States, the gathering offered a final oblation to "THE COLLEGE of NEW-JERSEY, and the general interests of science and religion."2 July brought still greater excitement, beginning with a grand ball of collegians and young ladies on Independence Day and followed by an equally magnificent celebration of Bastille Day on July 14. "The illumination of the college was really beautiful," reported a Miss S. S. Gibson to her friend Elizabeth Meredith. "It is a long range of buildings & in every window was placed a great many lights. Over the door in the middle of this building was a fine transparency of the American 8c French colours in the form of arms. Round the French flag was the American stars throwing the first gleam of light on the nation & under it was written Liberty Throughout the World." In the evening forty-eight "gendemen" (most of them undoubtedly students from the College), twenty-four young women from the area, and several musicians and other visitors from Philadelphia began dancing at a local tavern at 8 p.m. After three hours they moved upstairs for an elegant supper during which "two of the gendemen sang us the Marseilles Hymn most enchantingly." A patriotic toast, according to Miss Gibson, almost brought "the room ... down with the stamping and clapping." At midnight the guests resumed their dancing, and John Henry Hobart Papers, Archives of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., Austin, Texas); Hobart, "Oration on the Past Blessings and Future Prospects of America'' (1792), 4, 5 (MS in same); John Bradford Wallace, "Enthusiasm: An Oration Delivered at Princeton College, July 4, 1792," 1 (MS in Wallace Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania); Wallace, "Arbitrary Imprisonments: An Oration delivered at Princeton College, March 1792," 49 (MS in same). Cf., Kenneth M. Stampp, "The Concept of a Perpetual Union," in his The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War (New York, 1980), 3-36. 2 Philadelphia National Gazette, 26 Jan 1793.

INTRODUCTION

XIX

they finally went home or back to their College rooms around 2:30 a.m.J Perhaps the most remarkable feature about this celebration was when it happened. In 1793 Bastille Day fell on a Sunday when, according to College regulations, students were supposed to attend divine service and otherwise spend the day studying Scripture, a catechism, or other religious materials, perhaps broken only by a meditative stroll. With the full complicity of such staunch Presbyterians as President John Witherspoon, the French Revolution was quite actively undermining the Protestant sabbath in the very bowels of the College of New Jersey. Of course, much like undergraduates of the twentieth century, those of the 17 80s at typical moments worried less about the cosmic issues of the day than about examinations, which made them very nervous. "Our examination begins today, my heart already palpitates," confessed James Gibson (A.B. 1787) on September 18, 1786. "Euclid is wished into non existence by many." Students also complained endlessly about their meals and found frequent diversions. Some enjoyed the indoor game of batdedores, mostly in winter months. Many tried the outdoor sport of "baste ball," probably some form of rounders or cricket, which John Rhea Smith (A.B. 1787) played "in the campus" (a new word first appearing in Princeton sources in 1775) but was beaten, "for I miss both catching and striking the Ball." An unamused faculty sourly prohibited the game in November 1787 as an exercise "unbecoming gentlemen & students" and "attended with great danger to the health by sudden and alternate heats and colds as it tends by accidents almost unavoidable in that play to disfiguring and maiming those who are engaged in it." Excitement took many other forms. "There was a rumour that the Devile was seen in college wrapt up in a white sheet," reported one diarist in 1786. "1 did not see him."4 However, the Revolution overshadowed even these pressing teenage concerns. Members of the Class of 1784 were attending the summer term of 1783 when Congress, in flight from protesting soldiers in Philadelphia, moved to Princeton and established itself at s S. S. Gibson to Elizabeth Meredith, 18 July 1793, in Princeton Alumni Weekly (3 Nov 1915), 133 (punctuation modernized). 4 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, batdedores was a game played with small racquets and a shuttlecock. James Gibson mentions it frequently in the opening pages of his diary for 1786 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, microfilm at Princeton University library); for the devil, see 9 Feb. For "baste ball," see Ruth L. Woodward, ed., "Journal at Nassau Hall: The Diary of John Rhea Smith, 1786," PUL Chron., 46 (1985), 286-87. For the broad impaa of the Revolution on the College, see Mark A. Noll, Princeton and the Republic 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment (Princeton, 1989).

XX

INTRODUCTION

the College from June 26 to November 4. As Charles Thomson, secretary to Congress since 1774, entered Nassau Hall for the first time, he "passed by the chambers of the students, from whence in the sultry heat of the day issued warm steams from the beds, foul linen & dirty lodgings of the boys." (Indeed, in 1786 one student recorded on July 17 that he "went to the Brook and Bathed for the first time this session," which had begun in early May.)5 "I found the members [of Congress]," Thomson continued, "extremely out of humour and dissatisfied with their situation." But the sojourn of Congress at Princeton, which Thomson saw as an ominous threat to the Union, undoubtedly seemed much more exciting to the students. They watched respectfully as College Trustee Elias Boudinot, then the president of Congress, and half a dozen alumni, led by Virginia delegate James Madison (A.B. 1771), helped to decide the future of the young republic. The collegians celebrated July 4 with the leaders of the nation. Some of the students may even have heard Congressman David Howell (A.B. 1766) suggest that Princeton become the permanent capital of the United States. In September Gen. George Washington, already a legend, attended the most impressive commencement ceremony the College had yet held, and Nassau Hall soon received his portrait by Charles Willson Peale. The glorious news of the signing of the definitive Peace of Paris reached Congress at Princeton during fall intersession on October 31, thus confirming the independence of the United States. Recollections of these events remained alive at the College well into the 1780s, if only because some of the boys who witnessed them while attending the Nassau Hall grammar school did not complete their Princeton studies for many more years. Even later students who had no direct link to the events of 1783 could see and feel effects of the Revolution every day in the battle damage that still disfigured Nassau Hall.6 Above all, the Revolution remained a palpable experience in the lives of most members of the College community. Many associations were pleasant and heroic. Joseph Caldwell (A.B. 1791), who was only ten when the war ended, vividly remembered for the rest of his life his childhood encounters with the "marching of troops, a circumstance which I always hurried out to gaze on with sensations 5 In the 1780s few Americans washed the entire body at a single time more than once a year, if that often. This student was probably going for a swim, but while not every bath involved swimming, virtually all swimming was also a bath. See Richard L. Bushman and Claudia L. Bushman, "The Early History of Cleanliness in America,'' Journal of American History, 74 (1987-1988), 1213-38. 6 Eugene R. Sheridan and John M. Murrin, eds., Congress at Princeton, Being the Letters of Charles Thomson and Hannah Thomson, June-October 1783 (Princeton, 1985), esp. 5-6, 14, 16, 45; Gibson Diary, 17 July 1786.

INTRODUCTION

XXI

rising almost to transport; the fife's shrill and piercing notes, stirring into reckless activity emotions of which I had scarcely known myself capable; the drum rattling into madness every impetuous feeling that thrilled along the nerves or swelled in the heart."7 Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786), who saw part of the Battle of Princeton as a boy, enjoyed giving fellow students an expert tour of the site. N o doubt anecdotes and tales of heroism and suffering flew fast over meals and at other times of relaxation. Students who heard John Witherspoon preach without notes on Sunday, or seniors who listened to his lectures on moral philosophy, saw not only America's most famous educator and the nation's most prestigious Presbyterian divine, but also a Signer of the Declaration of Independence who had served in Congress for most of the war. James Morris (A.B. 1784) and Henry Clymer (A.B. 1786) were sons of Signers. So were three graduates of the Class of 1787, which celebrated its commencement nine days after the Constitutional Convention finished its work forty miles away in Philadelphia—Meredith Clymer, John Read and Lucius Horatio Stockton. The father of George Willing (A.B. 1792), by contrast, had refused to sign. Other memories could not easily be sentimentalized. Most of South Carolina's large student contingent had had to endure a period of exile and family dislocation after the British overran the state in 1780. William J. Lewis (Class of 1788) fought against Britain's toughest counterinsurgency commander, Banastre Tarleton. John Wells (A.B. 1788) endured a still greater horror when most of his family was massacred during the war. The mother of John P. Ryers (A.B. 1792) reportedly died of fright when she heard that the enemy had landed on Staten Island in 1776. Robert G. Johnson (A.B. 1790) was held captive as a small boy by a band notorious for slaughtering women and children. At age fifteen Nathaniel B. Boileau (A.B. 1789) saw the results of one of the most vicious atrocities of the war. Memory of it doubtless intensified his lifelong anglophobia. In an action that occurred partly on his father's Pennsylvania farm, British soldiers threw wounded American militiamen onto buckwheat straw in May 1778, set it ablaze, and burned them alive. Silas Wood (A.B. 1789) grew up on Long Island under British occupation, and forty years after the event he still recalled with bitterness how a famous loyalist officer had desecrated the Huntington cemetery. By contrast, the family of David and William A. Hosack (A.B. 1789 and 1792) was probably loyalist or neutralist, much like the family of the woman whom future Bishop Hobart married. 7

Joseph Caldwell, "Autobiography," North Carolina University Magazine, 9 (1859), 9.

xxii

INTRODUCTION

Only toward the end of the collegiate period covered in these biographies were students beginning to appear at Princeton who were too young to remember the war. Henry Knox Kollock (A.B. 1794) was only two years old when the British surrendered at Yorktown, and perhaps that is why his parents named him for a patriot general. James Gildersleeve Force of the Class of 1794 was probably the last revolutionary veteran to enter the College. By the late 1790s the Revolution would be a heritage, not a memory, for nearly all students. The war's physical presence remained powerful. The British occupation, an American bombardment in January 1777, and the subsequent American garrisoning of the College severely damaged Nassau Hall. When Gov. William Livingston tried to help in 1779 by lending Witherspoon a group of prisoners of war to provide labor for repairs, several residents of Princeton found these outsiders so menacing that they petitioned the state to have them removed. Livingston finally instructed Witherspoon to send all but ten of the men back into conventional captivity, despite Witherspoon's assurance that they were no danger to anyone and that some even planned to remain in America after the war. Thus when Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) entered as a junior, the two top floors of Nassau Hall were still unusable, and parts of the lower floors remained strewn with debris. The College library that Witherspoon had energetically collected had been scattered. The armies had nearly wrecked the marvelous orrery (the eighteenth-century predecessor of a modern planetarium) that David Rittenhouse had built and donated to the College, and they had destroyed fences and trees throughout the area. As late as 1784, students had to endure shortages of firewood and candles.8 Improvement came slowly. The third floor was again in use by 1784, but the trustees could not afford to repair the roof until 1791, fourteen years after the Battle of Princeton. Travelers in the mid-1790s still remarked on the building's deteriorated condition. A British visitor in July 1796 thought that Nassau Hall "better deserves the title of a grammar school than a college." He described the library as "most wretched, consisting, for the most part, of old theological books, not even arranged with any regularity." The orrery was again 8 Larry Gerlach, ed., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783: A Documentary History (Trenton, N.J., 1975), 299; William Livingston to Jacob Bergen, 19 Nov 1779; Livingston to John Witherspoon, 15 Dec 1779, in Carl £. Prince et aL, eds., The Papers of William Livingston (Trenton and New Brunswick, N.J., 1979-1988), in, 224-25, 26869; Ashbel Green, The Life of the Revdjohn Witherspoon, DD., LL.D., with a Brief Review of his Writings: and a Summary Estimate of his Character and Talents, ed. Henry Lyttleton Savage (Princeton, 1973), 194-95n; Howard C. Rice, Jr., The Rittenhouse Orrery: Princeton's Eighteenth-Century Planetarium, 1767-1954 (Princeton, 1954); "Princeton in 1784: The Diary of James W. Wilkin of the Class of 1785," PUL Chron., 12 (1950-1951), 6063.

INTRODUCTION

xxiii

"quite out of repair." The rest of the science collection consisted chiefly of "a couple of stuffed alligators, and a few singular fishes, in a miserable state of preservation, the skins of them being tattered in innumerable places from their being repeatedly tossed about." A French visitor agreed and also noted the sad condition of the campus's outer walls and objected to the animal dung in the yard. Not until the rebuilding after the fire of 1802 would Nassau Hall again return to its impressive prewar condition.9 One of the few things that the Revolution did not change was the Princeton curriculum, a rather surprising fact in light of what was happening elsewhere. From England came Richard Price's assurance that the creation of the American republic "makes a new opening in human affairs which may prove an introduction to times of more light and liberty and virtue than have yet been known." Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760)-father of John Rush (Class of 1794), Richard Rush (A.B. 1797), and James Rush (A.B. 1805)—agreed and called for "a revolution in our principles, opinions, and manners, so as to accomodate them to the forms of government we have adopted." Proposals for educational reform proliferated everywhere and generated several calls for a national university at the seat of government, whose location was still to be determined.10 Most colleges got caught up in this ferment. In those tinged with loyalism—William and Mary, Philadelphia (the University of the State of Pennsylvania), King's (Columbia), and even Dartmouth—survival required adjustments to the revolutionary demands of the surrounding community. In this spirit William and Mary, for example, created a professorship of law and introduced modern languages and political economy as new subjects. Even when a college's allegiance to the republic was never in doubt, a new president such as Ezra Stiles (A.B. Yale 1746) at Yale could produce similar results. But Witherspoon provided continuity on both sides of the revolutionary divide. His graduates supported the Revolution in overwhelming numbers, and he faced no pressures to introduce dramatic changes. The result was by no means entirely positive, however. As deteriorating health took its toll on Witherspoon's energy and ability, the 9 College of New Jersey, Minutes of the Trustees, 1778-1796 (typescript copy, Princeton University Archives), 30 Sept 1790, 28 Sept 1791, 27 Sept 1792 (hereafter, Min. Trustees); Isaac Weld, Jr., Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797 (London, 1799), quoted in PUL Chron., 4 (1942-1943), 122; Varnum L. Collins, President Witherspoon: A Biography (Princeton, 1925), II, 175-76; Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Princeton, 1746-1896 (Princeton, 1946), 69-70. 10 David Madsen, The National University, Enduring Dream of the USA (Detroit, Mich., 1966), 15-42. For the exchange between Rush and Price, see Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876 (New York, 1980), 1.

XXIV

INTRODUCTION

College slipped into routines less dynamic and exciting than the transformations that had preceded independence or that were now occurring elsewhere. Considering the heavy losses sustained by the College during the war, a return to the modest prosperity of 1773 was, perhaps, the loftiest ambition to which the Princeton faculty and trustees could reasonably aspire. Nevertheless, some College officials hoped for change. According to a Dutch traveler in 1784, the faculty was discussing modest auricular improvements during Witherspoon's absence abroad, but the course of study being prepared by the faculty for approval by the trustees differed hardly at all from the one laid out in Laws of the College ten years later and was, according to the 1784 visitor, "nearly followed already before." The main difference was that Witherspoon's lecture course on chronology—a history of the ancient world that subordinated classical Greece and Rome to events recorded in the Bible—moved from the junior to the senior year by 1794.11 Upon entrance a student was expected to be able to translate passages from Sallust, Caesar, and Virgil; convert a standard English text into grammatical Latin; and translate portions of the Greek Gospels into English, analyzing the Greek grammar. Freshmen concentrated on the same authors, along with Lucian and Cicero. Sophomores turned to Xenophon, Homer, and Horace but spent most of their time studying English texts that explored Roman antiquities, geography, English grammar and composition, and arithmetic. Continuing an innovation that Witherspoon had introduced before the war, juniors mainly emphasized mathematics and science—algebra, geometry, trigonometry, conic sections, and natural philosophy— in addition to learning more English grammar and composition. Seniors studied logic and more natural philosophy, but above all they attended Witherspoon's lectures on criticism, chronology, and moral philosophy. They were expected to take verbatim notes, and Witherspoon checked to see that they did it properly.12 Such a regimen would seem stultifying today, and most of it would be completed in high school, not college. Even granting that eighteenth-century Princetonians tended to be two or three years younger than their modern counterparts, it takes an act of historical imag11 David W. Robson, Educating Republicans: The College in the Era of the American Revolution, 1750-1800 (Westport, Conn., 1985), chaps. 4-5; Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, The College at Princetown, May 1784, ed. Howard C. Rice (Princeton, 1949), 35. 12 See Francis L. Broderick, "Pulpit, Physics, and Politics: The Curriculum of the College of New Jersey, 1746-1794," William and Mary Quarterly, Sd ser., 6 (1949), 4268; and Laws of the College of New-Jersey Reviewed, Amended and Finally Adopted, by the Board of Trustees, in April 1794 ... (Trenton, N.J., 1794), 22, 25, 37, and passim.

INTRODUCTION

XXV

ination to discover how any intellectual excitement was smuggled into the students' daily routine. College regulations required them to study in their rooms from after morning prayer until 8 A.M., from 9 A.M. to noon, and from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. Recitations for all students and lectures for upperclassmen were also scheduled during these hours. Tutors emphasized learning by rote, and those at Princeton were probably similar to the ones who exasperated young John Quincy Adams at Harvard in 1786: They "are so averse to giving ideas different from those of the author they are supposed to explain, that they always speak in his own words and never pretend to add anything of their own." Likewise the content of lectures changed little, if at all, from one year to the next. 13 Nevertheless, the classical sources read by undergraduates strongly reinforced the republican principles of the Revolution by emphasizing how corruption had undermined liberty in ancient Greece and Rome. Witherspoon's moral philosophy lectures pulled together personal and public morality in the challenging modern idiom of the Scottish Enlightenment and were designed to serve as the capstone of a Princeton education. Each evening after prayers the faculty required at least two students to give an oration, the text of which was always approved in advance—to the undying annoyance of John Randolph (Class of 1791), who later dazzled Congress with his extemporized speeches. Finally, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society achieved vigor and energy during Witherspoon's administration. Their libraries contained far more current materials than the College collection and were much more accessible to undergraduates. Mainly through the debates promoted by these societies, students consciously applied ancient principles to public and ethical issues of immediate concern. 14 The College's biggest difficulties were, of course, financial. The war was an economic disaster for the American people, who experienced more than a 40 percent drop in per capita income—roughly compa15 Henry Adams, "Harvard College, 1786-1787," in his The Great Secession Winter and Other Essays, ed. George Hockfield (New York, 1958), 230-31. 14 H. Trevor Colbourn, The Lamp of Experience: Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1965); Laws of the College of NewJersey, 25; and James McLachlan's two essays, "Classical Names, American Identities: Some Notes on College Students and the Classical Traditions in the 17708," in John W. Edie, ed., Classical Traditions in Early America (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1976), 81-98, and "The Choice of Hercules: American Student Societies in the Early 19th Century," in Lawrence Stone, ed., The University m Society (Princeton, 1974), n, 449-94. For outstanding introductions to the Scottish Enlightenment and the public issues that it addressed, see Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Enlightenment and the American College Ideal (New York, 1971) and, more generally, Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff, eds., Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge, England, 1983).

XXVI

INTRODUCTION

rable to the loss inflicted by the Great Depression after 1929.15 Witherspoon, having accepted his salary for two years in paper money that had become almost worthless, demanded payment in specie in 1781. The trustees responded by launching a lottery to raise the cash, only to face another setback. When their effort failed to generate a sufficient amount even to pay off the winner, they had to sell enough of the College's dwindling resources to make up the difference. The salary problem still was not solved. In September 1782 the College treasurer reported a cash balance of only £14. 16 Thus, with peace almost at hand by 1783, the trustees turned to Europe for help. Fearing that "the very existence of this benevolent and useful institution is become doubtful, unless some certain and effectual relief can be obtained from the friends of virtue and literature, who have not been exposed to such dreadful calamities," they dispatched Witherspoon and Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757) to Great Britain to raise money. By 1783 the investment of College funds in depreciating continental securities had dissipated the impressive endowment that Witherspoon had raised a decade earlier, and domestic donors were in no condition to give generously. Witherspoon considered the foreign appeal unwise, but he made the trip anyway between December 1783 and September 1784—only to learn that his reservations were justified. Dartmouth, the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University), Yale, Columbia, and Dickinson were all trying to raise money abroad. Two American diplomats in Europe, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay (A.B. King's 1764), were mortified by public appeals that seemed to acknowledge the new republic's inability to educate its own youth. Old World friends of Witherspoon, whatever their continuing regard for him, could not support charity to the "nursery of sedition" that had just helped the United States humiliate the British government. On January 31, 1784, two days after landing at Dover, Witherspoon greeted loyalist exile William Smith of New York—the son of one of the College's founders—on the streets of London, but Smith did not recognize him "in his own Hair," that is, without a wig. Two weeks later another, very angry, loyalist publicly hectored Witherspoon at the New York Coffee House, "and spoke of him with a loud Voice, and the opprobrious Ephitets, of Villain, Rascal &c that had the Impudence to beg Money in this Country for the Jersey College," 15 John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, The Economy of British America, 16071789 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985), 373-74 estimates a loss of 46 percent from 1774 to 1790, as against 48 percent from 1929 to 1933. The authors also caution against relying too much on the precision of these calculations. 16 John F. Roche, The Colonial Colleges in the Warfor American Independence (Millwood, N.Y., 1986), 172.

INTRODUCTION

XXVll

reported Smith. "The Doctor made no Reply, but soon went to the Philadelphia Coffee House where this man followed him & treating him in the same Manner, the Doctor left that House very soon." Even a deeply orthodox Congregationalist minister, who had sympathized with the American cause until the issue became independence, could not understand how Witherspoon could have supported an alliance with popish France. He told Smith that the President "was come too early and that before the Americans asked Favors in this Country they should shew themselves friendly to Britain and her Friends." The whole experience must have been deeply humiliating for Witherspoon. To complete the fiasco, he lost the vision in one eye as a result of a shipboard accident, and he also found that a cataract was slowly depriving him of the use of the other. He brought back a pitiful £5.14.0. Only the sale of valuable College woodlots for £1,200 and a desperate appeal to Presbyterian churches kept the College stumbling along into the late 1780s, when the books at last began to show a small surplus. Efforts to merge with nearby Queen's College (now Rutgers University) came to naught in 1793, as did repeated appeals to Congress to pay back rent for its use of Nassau Hall and to compensate the College for battle damage.17 Despite inadequate resources, the College began to recover. While Witherspoon was in Britain, the faculty was reduced to two tutors and one professor, Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), for the academic year 1783-1784. Some undergraduates, such as Robert Goodloe Harper and James W. Wilkin (both A.B. 1785), were even teaching in the grammar school to meet their own college expenses. Although William Churchill Houston (A.B. 1768) resigned as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in 1783, the trustees did not replace him with Ashbel Green until 1785—and then only by reducing the number of tutors to one. After Green also resigned to accept a Philadelphia pulpit in 1787, Witherspoon filled the position with outstanding astronomer and mathematician Walter Minto, who had studied at Edinburgh with David Hume and at Pisa with the distinguished Guiseppe Slop, and who had received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Aberdeen in recognition of his scientific publications.18 Beginning in the academic year 178717 Green, Witherspoon, 192-231 for the European fundraising trip ("the very existence," 197). See also L. F. S. Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of ChiefJustice William Smith, 1784-1793, Publications of the Champlain Society, xu-xui (2 vols., 1963-65), I, 5, 19, 42 (Smith quotes); Min. Trustees, 30 Sept 1784, 20 Aug, 25 Sept & 19 Dec 1793; Wertenbaker, Princeton, 69; Collins, Witherspoon, II, 170; Roche, Colonial Colleges, 175-76; Gerald W. Breese, Princeton University Land, 1752-1984 (Princeton, 1986), 233-34. 18 Luther P. Eisenhart, "Walter Minto and the Earl of Buchan," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 94 (1950), 282-94.

XXV111

INTRODUCTION

1788, the College finally had an adequate faculty—Witherspoon, two other professors, and two tutors—to educate a student body that had grown from approximately forty in November 1780 to about double that number for the rest of the period. By then Witherspoon's role was becoming less central, as his declining health and the reorgani­ zation of the American Presbyterian Church drew upon his limited energy. Late in the war he had moved to his new mansion, "Tusculum," located about a mile north of the campus off what is now Witherspoon Street. His son-in-law, Samuel Stanhope Smith, occu­ pied the president's residence (now Maclean House), then the only building on campus other than Nassau Hall. Smith exercised roundthe-clock supervision of the College. As the recollections of Titus Hutchinson (A.B. 1794) indicate, Witherspoon could still awe a lad by the way he conducted the initial interview and oral examination that determined class placement. He still lectured to seniors, but day-to-day decisions fell increasingly to Smith, whom the trustees named vice president in 1786. After With­ erspoon went completely blind around 1791, Smith actually ran the institution.19 The College's 246 A.B. degrees awarded between 1784 and 1794 demonstrate significant postwar recovery, as shown in Table A. From 1784 through 1790, Princeton's 136 graduates ranked fourth in the United States, a considerable distance behind Yale's 320, Harvard's 288, and—a newcomer to the scene—Dartmouth's 163. None of the other three colleges had suffered war damage comparable to Prince­ ton's. Between 1791 and 1794, however, most of that gap closed. Nassau Hall's 110 graduates almost equaled Yale's 120 and Harvard's 131, but by then Dartmouth had captured the national lead with 160. Tables Β and C chart this progress in a somewhat broader context. The College's share of North American degrees had exceeded 18 percent by the eve of the Revolutionary War, but the conflict reduced it by nearly half, to 9.9 percent. For the postwar years of 1784 through 1794, Nassau Hall generated 12.2 percent of the republic's graduates, and from 1791 through 1794 the figure reached 13 per­ cent, better than one-eighth of the total. Over the entire period from 1748 through 1794, Princeton produced 791 A.B. degrees, roughly half the amount of Harvard or Yale and not quite double that of the fourth largest contributor, Dartmouth. The revolutionary crisis at Princeton was also part of a larger regional pattern. The Mid-Atlantic colleges had been gaining steadily on those in New England before the Battle of Lexington, but the war set them back the equivalent of nearly two decades. Not until 19 Green, Witherspoon, 232-57; Wertenbaker, Princeton, 70-75; Collins, Witherspoon, ii, 119-81; Min. Trustees, 27 Sept 1786.

INTRODUCTION

xxix

the 1790s did the Mid-Atlantic states regain and then exceed the proportion of students they had claimed before 1775. Throughout the 1780s New England, with about a quarter of the nation's population, continued to graduate nearly three-fourths of the liberal arts students in the land. Within that region, the old quarrels of the Great Awakening no longer blazed so fiercely, and Dartmouth provided the evangelical environment that had once drawn Yankees to Nassau Hall. Sensing this pattern, the trustees and faculty of Princeton began to identify their own Mid-Atlantic region, the South, and eventually the West as the richest recruiting ground for new students. Tables D and £ reveal the results of this policy. The loss of the College's New England constituency forced it to look to the South. This trend had begun before 1768, gained momentum in Witherspoon's early years, and continued to increase after the war. By the early 1790s the College had already established the pattern that would characterize the institution in antebellum years (1820-1860), when Southerners composed about 40 percent of the student body and New Englanders just over 1 percent. If unknowns are excluded, Southerners reached 39 percent between 1791 and 1794, while New Englanders remained under 2 percent. Nevertheless, eleven of the thirteen original states sent young men to Nassau Hall between the end of the war and the death of Witherspoon, a very broad distribution.20 After leaving the College, Princetonians scattered across most of the republic. Very few chose to live in New England, and an equally small number settled north of the Ohio River, all of them in Ohio. Of other states in the Union, by the mid-1820s alumni lived in every one but Alabama and Missouri. The College performed this national service without slighting its home region. Throughout the entire period from 1748 through 1794, the percentage of students from Mid-Atlantic colonies or states reached a peak around independence and then began to decline. It grew from 61.2 percent in the classes of 1748 through 1768 to 67.1 percent for the classes of 1769 through 1775, after eliminating unknowns. It was still high at 65.1 percent for the next eight classes and then dropped to 56.3 percent for the classes of 1784 through 1790. It fell still further to 50.7 percent for the last four classes. Again if unknowns are subtracted, 54 percent of the new alumni from 1784 through 1794 found homes in the MidAtlantic region. (See Tables F and G.)21 20 Ronald David Kerridge, "Answering 'the Trumpet to Discord': Southerners at the College of New Jersey, 1820-1860, and Their Careers" (Senior Thesis, Princeton University, 1984), 5 for the antebellum pattern. Kerridge's study is sophisticated and very useful. 21 These distributions are recalculated from James McLachlan, Princetonians, 17481768: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton, 1976), xx; Richard A. Harrison, Princeton-

131 419

1791-94 1784-94

120 440

320 27 34 37 22

52 70 51 58 35 30 24

Yale

110 246

136 25 37 21 27

24 10 25 23 19 21 14

CNJ

66 142

76 16 18 12 20

0 0 15 10 20 9 22

RI

81 151

70 15 36 21 9

8 5 9 8 7 17 16

Penn

73 107

34 21 12 25 15

0 0 8 5 4 10 7

160 323

163 49 27 39 45

17 20 25 27 19 24 31

Dartmouth

22 40

18 5 6 6 5

0 0 0 1 4 10 3

9 32

23 8 ? 0 1

8 2 6 3 4

— —

53 96

43 0 33 0 20

9 13 9 12

— — —

QJs Hamp-Syd Dickinson

21 30

9 1 0 2 18**

0

1+

4 0 0 1 3

Other*

846 2026

1180 194 240 201 211

149 137 185 195 158 181 175

Totals

**Liberty Hall claims five A.B. degrees from 1790 through 1800. All have been arbitrarily assigned to this year. SOURCES: Quinquennial Catalogue of Officers and Graduates of Harvard University (1925); F.B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History (1885-1912), IV and V; Historical Catalogue of Brown University, 1764-1934 (1936); University of Pennsylvania, Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College 1749-1893 (1894); M.H. Thomas, Columbia University Officers and Alumni, 1754-1857 (1936); General Catalogue of Dartmouth College and the Associated Schools, 1769-1900 (1900); Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College (Originally Queen's College) in New Brunswick, N.J., From 1770 to 1871 (1872); General Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, 1776-1906 (1908);

Columbia

In this and subsequent tables and computations, the following students at the College of New Jersey are tabulated as nongraduates: J o h n Parker (A.B. honoris causa 1784), Samuel Piatt Broome (A.B. ad eundem 1786), and Peter Schuyler Livingston (A.B. ad eundem 1788). Broome and Livingston earned their conventional A.B. degrees from Yale and Columbia, respectively, and are tabulated under those colleges. Holloway Whitefield H u n t (A.B. 1794) is included with other degree recipients despite the trustees' reservations about what kind of diploma they were giving him. Finally, students who earned a conventional A.B. degree at the College of New Jersey and also another such degree at a different institution (usually Hampden-Sydney College) are included under both.

288 27 37 38 29

44 32 44 51 28 47 42

1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790

1784-90 1791 1792 1793 1794

Harvard

Year

TABLE A

A . B . D E G R E E S A W A R D E D BY A M E R I C A N C O L L E G E S , 1784-1794

27.1

14.2

15.5

30.7

1748-94

28.5

22.7 34.5

36.1

Yah

32.1 24.4

38.4 37.1

Harvard

1748-68 1769-75 1776-83 1784-90 1791-94

Year

14.5

11.5 13.0

9.9

17.6 18.1

CNJ

4.0

7.8

3.6 6.4

6.1

5.9 9.6

5.8

4.8 6.0

— 5.3

Perm

RI

8.1

18.9 3.9

13.8

2.9 8.6

1.3

2.6

1.8 2.1 1.5

3.7

Q's

11.0

Dartmouth

5.3 0.8

3.1

Columbia

P E R C E N T A G E OF A . B . D E G R E E S G R A N T E D BY

0.6

1.9 1.1

Hamp-Syd

1.8

3.6 6.3

Dickinson

0.5

0.8 2.5

Others

G.L. Reed, Alumni Record: Dickinson Colkge (1905); An Address of the Visitors and Governors of St. John's College to the State of Maryland (1794; Evans No. 27666); personal communication of J e a n P. Bierman of the Clifton M. Miller Library, Washington College, Chestertown, MD, to J o h n M. Murrin, Nov. 24, 1986; A Catalogue of the College of William and Mary in Virginia from its Foundation to the Present Time (1859); Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Washington andLee University, 1749-1888 (1888); J . H . Easterby, A History of the College of Charleston, Founded 1770 (1935).

TABLE Β

*includes St. John's College and Washington College in Maryland, the College of William a n d Mary and Liberty Hall (later Washington College, now Washington and Lee University) in Virginia, and the College of Charleston in South Carolina. No degree data have been found for Mt. Sion College in South Carolina, which several stu­ dents attended before transferring to the College of New Jersey. + Liberty Hall claims o n e A.B. through 1789, which has arbitrarily been assigned to this year. ?Data not extant for this year.

TABLE C REGIONAL D I S T R I B U T I O N OF A.B.

D E G R E E S BY G R A N T I N G C O L L E G E

P E R C E N T A G E AWARDED IN

Years

New England

Mid-Atlantic

South

74.5 68.8 81.3 71.8 56.4

25.5 31.2 18.7 25.5 40.1

2.7 3.5

1748-68 1769-75 1776-83 1784-90 1791-94

TABLE D P R I N C I P A L R E S I D E N C E OF CNJ

State, etc. Vermont Massachusetts Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Bermuda & West Indies Canada Unknown

S T U D E N T S BEFORE E N T R Y

Number 1784-90

Percent 1784-90

Number 1791-94

Percent 1791-94

Number 1784-94

Percent 1784-94

1 2 0 26 49 29 7 13 12 10 22 4 4 0 12

0.5 1.0 0.0 13.6 25.7 15.2 3.7 6.8 6.3 5.2 11.5 2.1 2.1 0.0 6.3

0 2 1 16 52 18 1 21 21 7 14 0 3 1 7

0.0 1.2 0.6 9.8 31.7 11.0 0.6 12.8 12.8 4.3 8.5 0.0 1.8 0.6 4.3

1 4 1 42 101 47 8 34 33 17 36 4 7 1 19

0.3 1.1 0.3 11.8 28.5 13.2 2.3 9.6 9.3 4.8 10.1 1.1 2.0 0.3 5.4

NOTE: Because the war disrupted the early lives of many students, deciding on a principal place of resi­ dence is no self-evident task. In several cases, room for disagreement remains.

TABLE Ε R E G I O N A L O R I G I N S OF C N J

STUDENTS

P E R C E N T A G E FROM

Classes

of 1748-68 1769-75 1776-83 1784-90 1791-94

New England

Mid-

Upper

Atlantic

South

Lower South

24.6 10.7 4.4 1.6 1.8

54.5 60.7 61.4 58.1 53.0

7.9 9.0 17.1 13.1 25.6

2.1 10.1 5.7 18.8 12.8

Other

— — 2.1 2.4

Unknown 10.9 9.5 11.4 6.3 4.3

NOTE: Delaware is classified as Mid-Atlantic, North Carolina as Lower South.

TABLE F P R I N C I P A L R E S I D E N C E OF C N J S T U D E N T S AFTER C O L L E G E

State, etc. Vermont Massachusetts New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland District of Columbia Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Kentucky Tennessee Mississippi Louisiana Ohio Bermuda West Indies France Unknown NOTE: Excludes John C.

Number 1784-90

Percent 1784-90

Number 1791-94

Percent 1791-94

Number 1784-94

Percent 1784-94

1 1 26 34 23 6 8 2 10 10 22 6 1 2 2 0 1 1 1 1 32

0.5 0.5 13.7 17.9 12.1 3.2 4.2 1.1 5.3 5.3 11.6 3.2 0.5 1.1 1.1 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 16.8

1 1 23 26 18 1 18 1 13 5 13 2 2 2 0 3 3 0 2 0 29

0.6 0.6 14.1 16.0 11.0 0.6 11.0 0.6 8.0 3.1 8.0 1.2 1.2 1.2 0.0 1.8 1.8 0.0 1.2 0.0 17.8

2 2 49 60 41 7 26 3 23 15 35 8 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 1 61

0.6 0.6 13.9 17.0 11.6 2.0 7.4 0.8 6.5 4.2 9.9 2.3 0.8 1.1 0.6 0.8 1.1 0.3 0.8 0.3 17.3

Vergereau (Class of 1786) and James R. Corbin (Class of 1794) who died

as undergraduates.

TABLE G R E G I O N A L D I S T R I B U T I O N OF C N J M E N ' S P R I N C I P A L R E S I D E N C E AFTER C O L L E G E PERCENTAGE G O I N G TO

Classes

of 1784-90 1791-94 1784-94

New England

MidAtlantic

Upper South

Lower South

Old Southwest

Old Northwest

Other

Unknown

1.1 1.2 1.1

47.4 41.7 44.8

10.5 19.6 14.7

20.0 12.3 16.4

2.6 4.3 3.4

0.5 1.8 1.1

1.6 1.2 1.4

16.3 17.8 17.0

NOTE: George Crow (A.B. 1787), listed as unknown in Table F, is here classified as Mid-Atlantic because he almost certainly lived in either Delaware or Pennsylvania.

xxxiv

INTRODUCTION

Recovery came at a price. Witherspoon had taken charge of a Great Awakening college, an institution dedicated primarily to supplying the Mid-Atlantic and New England colonies with a committed band of evangelical clergy. More than any other individual, he also brought the Scottish Enlightenment with him to America, and for the rest of his life he labored to integrate what he undoubtedly considered the most exciting trends of his time—the outpouring of vital piety and the growth of scientific enlightenment. "It hath been generally a favourite point with me, to recommend the union of piety and litera­ ture, and to guard young persons against the opposite extremes," he told the Class of 1787 on the Sunday before their commencement. "We see sometimes the pride of unsanctified knowledge, do great injury to religion," he warned; "and on the other hand, we find some persons of real piety, despising human learning, and disgracing the most glorious truths, by a meanness and indecency hardly sufferable in their manner of handling them." Princeton men, especially Princeton-trained ministers, should be, he insisted, both pious and learned. 22 Witherspoon urged balance and moderation upon his students— humility before God, a critical but respectful approach to learning, and a temperate indulgence of the appetites. Part of the message impressed James Gibson, whose diary for August 7, 1786 records his disgust when he first read about the drunken excesses of Alexander the Great. The "old doctor," as undergraduates now called Wither­ spoon, had less success with Richard Hugg King (A.B. 1786), who eventually achieved the awesome weight of 404 pounds and could no longer sustain his ministerial functions. An agreeable marriage between piety and the new learning was easier for Witherspoon to preach than for the children of the Revolu­ tion to achieve in practice. The percentage of Princetonians choosing the ministry had fallen sharply during the war years. At Harvard and Yale, where the decline had begun earlier, the ratio rose or stabilized with the peace. At Nassau Hall it continued to drop. Of the clergy graduated by these colleges, as Table Η indicates, ions, 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton, 1980), jariii; Harrison, Princeton­ ians, 1776-1783: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton, 1981), xxix; and Appendix A of Princetonians, 1791-1794: A Biographical Dictionary. 22 Francis Allison also brought the Scottish Enlightenment to the College of Philadelphia, but that school remained a much smaller institution. See David F. Nor­ ton, "Francis Hutcheson in America,'' Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 154 (1976), 1547-68. For the quotation, see John Witherspoon, Address to the Senior Class of Students, Who Were to Receive the Degree of Bachelor of Arts and Leave the College, Sept 25, 1787... (Paisley, Scotland, 1788), 7. This address repeated almost verbatim his advice to the Class of 1775, published in his Lectures on Moral Philosophy. Carefully Revised, and Freed from the Errors ofFormer Editions. To Which is Added, ...An Address to Ae Students of the Senior Class, and Lectures on Education and Marriage (Philadelphia, Pa., 1822), 181.

INTRODUCTION

XXXV

New England produced 79.3 percent of the nation's total for the classes of 1784 through 1790 and 71.8 percent for the classes of 1791 through 1794, as opposed to 20.7 percent and 28.2 percent respectively for the Mid-Atlantic schools. (Perhaps some of the sixty-two graduates of Southern colleges also went on to hold pulpits, but no biographical dictionaries exist to permit us to enumerate them.) By contrast, Princeton alone between 1769 and 1775 had graduated 29.4 percent of all college-educated clergymen trained in North America, and Mid-Atlantic colleges had generated 33.5 percent. What began as wartime disruption at Nassau Hall was becoming permanent, and the drop appears even more dramatic if nongraduates are calculated in the total. Of the 164 students who entered the College in the classes of 1791 through 1794, only 9.8 percent studied divinity. Instead, as Table I shows, Princeton men studied and practiced law in record numbers, although at least one lawyer—Nathaniel B. Boileau—hated the legal profession and did his best to tame its pretensions. Nevertheless, lawyers outnumbered ministers by three or four to one in most classes from 1784 through 1794, the approximate reverse of the ratio before Witherspoon took charge in 1768. Medicine, by contrast, held a fairly steady percentage of career choices from 1748 through 1794, varying from 10 percent to 13.5 percent. Overall the number of students entering the professions fell to 56.3 percent from the high of 74.5 percent recorded by the first twenty-one classes. Clearly, more students were settling into business or becoming planters. But for those who earned degrees, the College remained basically a preprofessional school. Fully 69.8 percent became ministers, lawyers or physicians, as against only 23.9 percent among the nongraduates. The thirty-seven Princetonians who studied for the ministry represented a broader denominational constituency than their wartime predecessors, among whom seventeen of eighteen had been Presbyterians. Only nineteen (51.4 percent) served the Presbyterian Church exclusively. Another seven (18.9 percent) can be counted as Presbyterians for only part of their careers. Four of these seven affiliated at some point with the Dutch Reformed Church, two spent part of their lives as Methodists, and one as a CongregationalisL In addition, two Princetonians were exclusively Baptists, one a Congregationalist, four Dutch Reformed, and five were Episcopalians, the twelve comprising 32.4 percent of the whole. In effect, the classes of 1784 through 1794 returned to the multiple denominational pattern that had characterized graduates before the war when the College had produced 149 Presbyterians, 58 Congregationalists, 14 Anglicans or Episcopalians, 6 Dutch Reformed, 3 Baptists, and 1 Lutheran. The percentage of educators, which had fallen to an all-time low

288 320 136 76 70 34 163 18 43

32 29 16 14 5 9 47 5 13

131

120 110

66 81

73

160

22 53

Harvard

RI Penn

Columbia Dartmouth

Queen's Dickinson

ABs 1784-90

Yale CNJ

Clergy

16

71 7

9

22 10

24.5

29.4 22.7

21.2 6.2 12.3

24.2 14.5

24.4

82 21

67

% Clergy 1791-94

Clergy 1784-90

% Clergy

—

41.2

38.9

—

13.3

4.5 74.0

12.0

14.6

26.7

18.8 36.2 48.0 31.8

15.5

0.0 40.6

37.2

%CUrgy 1769-75

22.1 21.0

1776-83

26.5 43.6

28.9 14.3

25.6 15.4

23.3

1784-90

% Clergy

GRADUATES

159

72 18

1748-68

1769-75 1776-83 1784-90 19 20

41.1 30.1

78

11.1

49

18 18

15.7 19.6

28 31

9.8

46

14.4

49

Ν

%

12.3

10.0

13.5 10.1 11.4

%

Medicine

Latvyers

Ν

46.6 40.4 11.4

%

—

22 9

20 30

5.5

10.5 18.4

5.6 10.8

— 4.5 1.9 11.6

5.0

10 17

%

17 8 3

Business Ν

Ν

%

Education

.— — 12.1 14.1

23 23

—

—

—

Farmers & Phnters Ν %

NOTE: Percentage of clergymen varies from Table Η because nongraduates are here included. Some individuals are counted u n d e r more than one profession if they actually pursued several.

21 16

Ν

Clergymen

L A T E R C A R E E R S OF C N J S T U D E N T S

TABLE I

SOURCES: Pnncetonians, 1776-1783, p. xxxi, Table G; and same as for Table A, above, except for Harvard, for which see Catalogus Senatus Academici Collegi Harvardiam, et Eorum Qui Muneribus et Officiis Praefuerunt, Quique Honoribus Academicis Donati Sunt in Universitate Quae est Cantabngiae in Cwitate Massachusettensium (1885). Data for southern colleges are not available.

1791-94

ABs 1791-94

College

Classes

1791-94

TABLE Η

O R D A I N E D CLERGYMEN AMONG COLLEGE

INTRODUCTION

xxxvii

during the war, reached a new peak of 11.6 percent in the classes of 1784 through 1790 before returning to 5.5 percent for the next four classes, slightly above the prewar norm. These men often came from the ranks of the clergy, many of whom taught small schools that met in their own homes or churches, but many others now pursued a much wider variety of careers. Some became full-time teachers and administrators, the most outstanding being Joseph Caldwell, president of the University of North Carolina. Robert Hett Chapman (A.B. 1789), who relieved Caldwell for a few years, much preferred preaching to teaching. Ira Condict (A.B. 1784) spent a good part of his professional career rescuing Queen's from collapse. However, the College had an even greater impact on education through its many lay graduates who became trustees of schools or academies, some of which were later expanded into colleges or universities. Princeton alumni were also active in founding library, literary, and historical societies in their various communities. The careers of Princeton men continued to diverge significantly from those of their fathers, if only because they remained far more likely to enter one of the three learned professions: the ministry, law, and medicine. The sons of "Gentlemen"—an amorphous category of southern planters, wealthy northern landholders, and miscellaneous individuals of comfortable means who engaged in no visible profession—provided over a quarter of the total student population (and better than a third after unknowns are subtracted). By contrast, the percentage of fathers who were ordinary farmers plummeted from nearly a third for the classes of 1769 through 1775 to just 8.5 percent for the classes of 1791 through 1794. Fathers with miscellaneous urban occupations rose, but several of them were undoubtedly wealthy, particularly the iron manufacturers. Merchants also gained, but not dramatically. (See Table J.) One conclusion seems inescapable. As the student body lost its evangelical character, it became a much more elite society. Paradoxically, the College had to learn to serve the affluent—not because it was rich, but because it was poor. The faculty could see what was happening and did not like it. When Benjamin Rush complained, as he often did, that American colleges wasted far too much time on classical languages and that they ought to concentrate on modern subjects, Samuel Stanhope Smith responded in an extraordinary letter of February 25, 1790. Rush's concern, Smith insisted, was already very much out of date. "In speaking of the state of learning at Princeton," he wrote, "you seem to have in your mind what it was at the period when you were acquainted with the college, although it is in very many respects essentially changed." The "ignorance & confined ideas of American

INTRODUCTION

XXXV111

TABLE J STATUS O F F A T H E R S O F C N J S T U D E N T S , 1 7 8 4 - 1 7 9 4 , AS C O M P A R E D W I T H F A T H E R S ' S T A T U S , CLASSES OF 1 7 6 9 - 1 7 8 3

Fathers' Status Farmer Minister Lawyer Medicine Military/ Naval Gentlemen Miscellaneous Urban Merchants

Number 1791-94

Number 1784-90

14 8 9 8

26 12 6 8

5 38 17 29

Percent 1791-94

Percent 1784-90

Percent 1776-83

Percent 1769-75

8.5 4.9 5.5 4.9

13.6 6.3 3.2 4.2

15.2 8.2 3.8 2.5

32.0 14.1 3.4 1.7

1 55

3.0 23.2

0.5 28.9

0.0 22.2

1.1 10.1

11 28

10.4 17.7

5.8 14.7

5.7 16.5

7.3 13.0

parents," he insisted, prevent students from "obtaining even a smattering in the circle of public letters & sciences." Americans subordinate all education "to getting money. And they aim at no other scholarship than that that will soonest put them in a way of turning a penny." Foreigners were correct, he thought, in describing the United States as "a nation of little dealers, & shifty sharpers, without any dignity, without any enlargement of idea, without taste, without a sense of national honor, & intent only on profit." At Princeton, Smith pointed out, "the science of calculation" was already "an object of study from the beginning of the Freshman to the end of the Senior year." Nassau Hall, he believed, at least matched all rivals in this respect. "But it is an hundred to one that the son of a merchant will not learn this or any thing else at a college," he complained. "At home he has never seen any thing honoured but money—he has never heard one thing spoken of but freights & cargoes among men, or among women but fashion & equipage. He has not one idea of honor annexed to scholarship, nor one spark of ambition to improve." Smith's tirade extended to portions of the curriculum taught in English. Although College regulations still described the sophomore year as dedicated mainly to the classics, that emphasis had already changed in practice. Unfortunately, no sophomore's diary has survived to provide a close look at the process. "Almost the whole of the last three years in the college is employed in the most useful branches of literature & science," which were all taught in English, Smith affirmed. He doubted that any college could "make good scholars" in four years, "the utmost now that [parents] will allow us. And since they have in great measure banished the learned languages, of

INTRODUCTION

xxxix

which they might learn a little at country schools, & have substituted no other study in their place that might profitably, or even intently engage the minds of youth," he raged, students "often come forward here the most unmatriculated creatures in nature, without any previous habits of study, & without preparation, for the higher branches which they want to pursue, by reading of any kind." Many, he insisted, had not even been taught to write until age fourteen or fifteen, and yet parents expected the College to perfect this elementary skill as well. Because the typical student around 1790 was sixteen or seventeen at entry, this problem could be severe.2* The anger of a frustrated teacher blazes from the pages of this lengthy letter. Smith probably exaggerated what was happening or underrated his own skills, to judge only from the impressive record of public service amassed by his students. But clearly he was getting at something real, something that surviving faculty records disclose in greater detail. For the ten academic terms between November 1789 and May 1794, nine class lists survive, covering all but the summer semester of 1793. These lists make it possible to calculate the total size of the student body at several points in time, to track in detail the classes of 1790 to 1794 through their undergraduate years, and to speculate on what was happening to the official four-year program. (See Tables K, L, and M.) Not surprisingly, the size of the senior class corresponded closely to the number who received degrees. For the classes of 1792 and 1794, the junior and senior years were stable, but the classes of 1791 and 1793 suffered considerable attrition from the junior to the senior year. The lists reveal even more significant facts about underclassmen. We know that in 1782 nine graduates of the Nassau Hall grammar school were admitted to the freshman class, but we have no evidence that three of them ever actually matriculated in the Class of 1786. However, not even this pace could be sustained. The College dramatically expanded the number of freshmen from 178586 through 1787-88. Nearly half (47.4 percent) of the students in the Classes of 1789 through 1791 entered the College as freshmen, but only about a third of them (35.2 percent) earned the degree, a sharp decline from earlier freshman performance standards. (See Table M). Thereafter only about a quarter of the College's students matriculated as freshmen, but those who did again became more likely to survive. Overall 45 percent of the entire cohort from 1784 through 1794 23 Samuel Stanhope Smith to Benjamin Rush, 25 Feb 1790, photocopy in Samuel Stanhope Smith Papers, Princeton University Library. For the strong sophomore emphasis on English as early as 1784, see Hogendorp, The College at Princetown, May 1784, 4.

xl

INTRODUCTION TABLE

Κ

S T U D E N T S AT T H E C O L L E G E , 1 7 8 9 - 1 7 9 4

Date

Term

Seniors

Juniors

Sophomores

Freshmen

Total

Winter Summer

10 Nov.

1789 1790

20 16

38 31

19 20

7 5

84 72

Winter Summer

29 Nov. May

1790 1791

24 23

36 38

10 19

9 12

79 92

Winter Summer

11 Nov. 1791 1792

37 36

27 28

16 19

7 6

87 89

Winter Summer

10 Oct.* 1792 None

20

29

15

5

69

Winter Summer

11 Nov. 1793 10 May 1794

30 30

31 38

11 17

4 5

76 90

26

33

16

7

82

Average Size

SOURCE: Class lists, Minutes of the Faculty, 1789-1810, Princeton University Archives. *Although this month is given on the class list and has been respected in the biographies, it is prob­ ably a slip of the pen for November.

TABLE

L

STUDENTS PRESENT

A.B.s

Total Class Size

14 25 37 21 27

30 48 43 29 44

Class

of 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794

Freshmen W 5

7 9

5 12

AS

Sophomores W S

19 10 16

20 19 19

Juniors W S

Seniors W S

38 36 27 29

20 24 37 20 30

31 38 28 N/A

16 23 36 N/A 31

NOTE: Total class size = A.B. degrees plus nongraduates. W = Winter term; S = Summer term; N/A = Not available. SOURCE: Class lists, Minutes of the Faculty, 1789-1810, Princeton University Archives.

entered as juniors or seniors. The later a student joined his class, the more likely he was to remain for his degree. The typical student entered as a junior, which became the minimum standard when in 1788 the trustees reaffirmed the two-year residence requirement for the A.B. degree, which had been relaxed during the war. George Crow (A.B. 1787) may have compelled the trustees to act, for after graduating in one year himself, he founded an academy at Morristown and boasted in a newspaper that there "The different branches

INTRODUCTION

xli

TABLE Μ S T U D E N T S ENTERING A S

Class

Class Size*

of 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794

21 11 20 30 28 36 30 48 43 29 44

Total Percent

Freshmen A.B. N.G.

4 0 5 5 3 7 6 6 7 3 4 50 47

Sophomores A.B. N.G.

Juniors A.B. N.G.

Seniors A.B. N.G.

11 9 15 2 5 9

2 1 4 3 4 3 1 8 10 11 8

0 0 2 2 5 2 5 6 2 0 4

13 8 6 11 10 8 7 11 18 7 11

0 1 1 4 2 2 2 2 2 3 4

0 0 1 4 2 3 0 0 2 0 4

56 53

55 66

28 34

110 83

23 17

16 89

j**

0 0 0 1 **

0 0 0 0 0 0 2** 11

NOTE: Excludes 5 from 1784, 1 from 1785, and 9 from 1786, all of whom received the degree, but their time of entry is unknown. A.B. = received the degree. N.G. = nongraduate *In this table only, class size = A.B.s plus N.G.s minus those whose year of entry is completely unknown. **The nongraduating seniors were John Parker (A.B. honoris causa 1784) and Peter Schuyler Liv­ ingston (A.B. ad eundem 1788). Livingston's earned A.B. degree was from Columbia College. SOURCE: T h e 340 biographies remaining after 15 unknowns are excluded.

of literature and knowledge will be taught requisite to fit young gen­ tlemen for the senior class in Princeton College." David Hosack (A.B. 1789) and George Washington Campbell (A.B. 1794) also received their degrees after spending a single year in residence,, while Titus Hutchinson (A.B. 1794) entered the College nearly midway through the junior year. The trustees continued to make occasional exceptions for promising ministerial students as well.24

24

College of New Jersey, Minutes of the Faculty, 10 Nov 1789-10 May 1794, passim (Princeton University Archives; hereafter Min. Faculty); Min. Trustees, 27 Sept 1788; Elizabethtown New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer, 31 Dec 1788. The class list for the summer term of 1790 is on a separate sheet folded into the opening pages of Min. Faculty, i, and it is hereafter described as Min. Faculty, summer 1790 class list. Well into the nineteenth century, commencement occurred on the last Wednes­ day in September, and the new academic year began in November after a six-week vacation. The winter term ended in early April, and after a four-week vacation, the summer term began. Thus it can be proper to say that someone began a semester in the fall or spring, but the term itself fell predominantly in winter or summer. Contemporaries dated the change of seasons at 1 Dec, 1 Mar, 1 June, and 1 Sept, thus reinforcing for them the notion of winter and summer semesters.

xlii

INTRODUCTION

Twenty-six Princeton students spent less time at the College because they apparently transferred from other institutions. At least ten came from two colleges founded or staffed largely by Princeton alumni, Hampden-Sydney and Mt. Sion (Zion). The seven from Hampden-Sydney in Virginia included five—David Meade (A.B. 1787), Henry Tate Callaway (A.B. 1791), Robert J. Callaway (A.B. 1791), George Minos Bibb (A.B. 1792), and William Morton Watkins (A.B. 1792)—who had already received their bachelor's degree there and simply pursued another at Princeton. Two others, Joseph Clay (A.B. 1784) and Walter Coles (Class of 1793), came to Princeton while still undergraduates. Likewise Mt. Sion (Zion) College in South Carolina sent three students to the College of New Jersey: John Taylor (A.B. 1790), Jesse Taylor (A.B. 1791), and James Chesnut (A.B. 1792). Two brothers from South Carolina, Lewis Ladson Gibbes and Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes (both Class of 1790), also entered the sophomore class as transfers from some other college, probably either Mt. Sion or the College of Charleston.25 In addition, Edward Graham (A.B. 1786), David Hosack (A.B. 1789), William Arden Hosack (A.B. 1792), and John Staples (Class of 1793) came from Columbia College; Henry Smalley (A.B. 1786) transferred from Queen's; Richard Randolph (Class of 1788) arrived from William and Mary, as may have Bennett Taylor (A.B. 1793); Nathaniel B. Boileau (A.B. 1789) probably came from Pennsylvania; John Henry Hobart (A.B. 1793) had first matriculated at the CoUege of Philadelphia; and James Cresap (A.B. 1794) may have attended Cokesbury College, a short-lived Methodist institution, before coming to Princeton. Isaac Wayne (Class of 1791) transferred from Dickinson College and returned there after his junior year, where he finally received his A.B. in 1792. Three other students are identified as transfers—Ephraim McMillan (A.B. 1788), Isaac Watts Crane (A.B. 1789), and John Hollingsworth (Class of 1790)—but we do not know which college may have first enrolled them. Four Maryland graduates of the Class of 1789 are described in the faculty minutes as being admitted "from other Colleges"—John Collins, Thomas Donaldson, Thomas Pitt Irving, and Ephraim King Wilson. But they had probably attended, not a college, but Washington Academy in Somerset County on the lower Eastern Shore, which was near the homes of nearly all of them. In 1785 its Presbyterian principal was 25 For Princeton's impact on southern colleges, see Donald Robert Come, "The Influence of Princeton on Higher Education in the South before 1825," William and Mary (friarteriy, 3d ser., 2 (1945), 359-96. For the little that is known about ML Sion's brief career as a college, see J. H. Easterby, A History of the CoUege of Charleston, Founded 1770 (Charleston, S.C., 1935), 16-19; and George C. Rogers, Jr., "The College of Charleston and the Year 1785," South Carolina Historical Magazine, 86 (1985), 282-95.

- INTRODUCTION

xliii

replaced by an Episcopalian from Oxford University, a change that could have prompted the exodus to Princeton, which began in 1787. On the other hand, it remains at least possible that these boys—and Hollingsworth—had been attending Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, a more distant institution but one that did grant degrees.26 Relations between the University of the State of Pennsylvania and the College of New Jersey raise some unique questions about transfer students. The university, as the College of Philadelphia in its prewar incarnation, had offered preparatory studies through its English and Latin schools. Its undergraduate curriculum had been organized as a philosophy school, an arrangement that was supposedly continued after 1779 when the state government reorganized the institution as a public university. Yet in the 1780s several students came to Princeton from the philosophy school who were clearly not treated as transfers. Daniel Bell (A.B. 1790) entered the Nassau Hall grammar school, not even the College. George Clarkson (A.B. 1788) matriculated as an advanced freshman after spending two years in the philosophy school. The only ambiguous case is that of James Gibson (A.B. 1787), who moved directly into the sophomore class from the philosophy school where he too had studied for at least two full years. But because most graduates of any academy entered the College as either sophomores or juniors, there is no need to assume that Gibson was transferring from one undergraduate program to another.27 Aside from Isaac Wayne at Dickinson, at least ten other Princeton men may have transferred out of the College. John and Theodorick Randolph (Class of 1791) switched to Columbia, and their brother Richard (Class of 1788) just may have accompanied them. John also later enrolled at William and Mary, but none of the three brothers ever received a degree. The other transfer students scattered broadly. Samuel Piatt Broome (A.B. ad eundem 1786) earned his degree at Yale. Nathaniel Howe (Class of 1786) graduated from Harvard, Christian DeWint (Class of 1789) from Queen's, Gerard Clarkson (Class of 1790) from Pennsylvania, and James Witter Nicholson (Class of 1791) from Columbia. Henry Steele (Class of 1792) may have moved on to St. John's and Andrew Caldwell (Class of 1794) to Dickinson, but there is no record that they graduated. In addition to these eleven, if St. C. (Class of 1785) really was Daniel St. Clair, he spent at least a semester at Washington College in Maryland after leaving Nassau Hall. 26 Raymond B. Clark, "Washington Academy, Somerset County, Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine, 44 (1949), 200-10. 27 Edward P. Cheyney, History of the University of Pennsylvania 1740-1940 (Philadelphia, 1940), 71-73, 135.

xliv

INTRODUCTION

Tables Κ and L rest exclusively on the class lists and thus cap­ ture only some of the students who joined their comrades after the semester had begun. Names added out of alphabetical order at the end of a list probably indicate late registrants, as perhaps do some of those squeezed into the proper niche on a roster. But they were not the only ones to arrive well into a semester. Still others are known only from their initial appearance in other sources, such as a student diary, a faculty minute, or quite often the records of the Cliosophic Society. For example, two freshmen and one sophomore joined the Class of 1791 in July or August, very near the end of the academic year. George Washington Morton (A.B. 1792) arrived in Septem­ ber of his sophomore year during the last few weeks of the second semester. Table Μ draws upon all of these sources to indicate the level at which most students (340 of 355) are believed to have entered the College. Although room for doubt remains about many of the 340, the table does indicate the latest year in which these students could have arrived. No doubt some were present earlier. Tables K, L, and Μ reflect considerable fluctuation in the size of a class as it proceeded through the College. The most stable of the last five classes was 1792, which still had about 86 percent of its members present for both the junior and senior year. By contrast the Class of 1791 had lost over a third (35.4 percent) of its members by the second term of the junior year and graduated just over half (52.1 percent). In only one semester did it have as many as two-thirds of its young men in residence at the same time. The Class of 1793 had nearly everyone present in the junior year but lost a quarter of its men by commencement. The Class of 1794 reached the two-thirds plateau for its forty-four members only in the senior year, when four new men were admitted despite the two-year residency requirement. But then four other seniors failed to graduate. In sum, the freshman year was becoming almost remedial, and some sophomores felt free to arrive quite late in the year, probably after most Latin and Greek instruction had been completed. Appar­ ently most students did not take the classical curriculum very serious­ ly, especially if Smith was correct in asserting that the bulk of sopho­ more instruction was in English. Even Harvard, an institution much better served by a supporting network of Latin grammar schools, faced similar discouragements. "It is very popular here to dislike the study of Greek and Latin," reported John Quincy Adams in 1786. Smith's bitterness becomes more comprehensible in light of the hard choices the faculty thus had to make to keep the College functioning. They and the trustees never approved a one-year A.B. program like that at Dickinson College (authorized for three years beginning in 1799), but in 1800 Princeton trustees would sanction a Bachelor of

INTRODUCTION

xlv

Science certificate to students who met all requirements except those in the ancient languages.28 The continuing budget crisis was clearly affecting the curriculum. The College needed paying students, even if half or more could not be persuaded to stay longer than two years. From a student's perspective, a college education remained expensive even for that brief period. The father of Robert Gibbon Johnson (A.B. 1790) calculated that he spent over £680 on the Princeton education of his son, one of the few to reside four years at the College. This amount translates into about $225 per semester, which seems quite high and probably reflects not real costs, but the inflated currencies of the 1780s. Another student, possibly John Jordan (Class of 1793), spent $67.53^ from June 1 through September 29, 1792, a period nearly a month shy of a full term. Students with Presbyterian scholarship support were expected to get along on £40 per year, or about $107. The average cost was probably closer to $150 per year, enough to make a 50 percent down payment on 300 acres of prime western farmland in 1800.29 The College's revised "laws" of 1794 include a list of fees that permits us to calculate these expenses more closely. Each entering student paid a one-time only fee of $4.67. Tuition was $8 per term, room rent $5.33, and miscellaneous fees another $1.34. Board was set at $1.67 per week in an academic calendar that recognized a sixweek vacation in the fall and a four-week break in the spring. A diligent entering student who spent forty-two weeks at the College would thus have to pay $102.66, or almost exactly the amount allocated for scholarships given to potential Presbyterian ministers. No doubt most students spent more on food than the steward's minimum, and this strict budget also made no allowance for the purchase of clothing, books, firewood, or anything else. (Affluent students spent far more, of course.) But because board (at $70 for forty-two weeks) accounted for more than two-thirds of an undergraduate's total min-

28 Henry Adams, "Harvard College, 1786-1787," 228; Howard Miller, The Revolutionary College: American Presbyterian Higher Education 1707-1837 (New York, 1976), 173, 184-85. 29 See Holloway Whitefield Hunt (A.B. 1794); Walter Minto to unnamed student's mother, 29 Oct 1792, manuscript AM 12,826 (Princeton University Library); Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, 4th ed. (New York, 1974), 255. Technically the minimum one could purchase was 320 acres for a down payment of $160. The minutes of the trustees contain muchfinancialinformation for die 1780s, butfluctuatingcurrencies make this data difficult to analyze, much less quantify. Hence the following discussion concentrates on the 1790s, although even then the faculty complained of the sharply rising cost of provisions. See, for example, Min. Trustees, 28 Sept 1785,19 Apr & 27 Sept 1786,18 Apr & 27 Sept 1787, 28 Sept 1791, 27 Sept 1792, 24-25 Sept 1794.

xlvi

INTRODUCTION

imum expenses, this item also possessed the greatest flexibility for economizing. By securing permission to stay home an extra four or five weeks per semester, some students were probably able to save $14 to $17 per year. Combined with information from the class lists, this table of fees makes it possible to estimate the College's operating budget during the early 1790s, once Alexander Hamilton's fiscal reforms had sta­ bilized die American dollar. Between 1790 and 1794 average atten­ dance per academic year peaked at 88 in 1791-1792 and then bot­ tomed at 69 in the winter of 1792-93. If we assume that a typical student spent no more than forty weeks in residence each year, then the College budget must have fluctuated between $6,600 and $8,500. If we further assume that board was provided at or near cost, the College's real income ranged between about $2,000 and $2,600 per year. In comparison, this amount equalled only about an eighth to a fifth of William and Mary's assured prewar income of £5,000 to £6,000 Sterling per year, at a time when the Virginia institution was the wealthiest college in the colonies. Because all fees except board were fixed for an entire semester or year, the College benefited by increasing the number of students paying those charges. Given the flexibility of the board costs, students had an interest in reducing their stay in Princeton to the shortest period compatible with satisfactory academic progress—a choice that involved obvious risks. The combination of these two trends did little to improve the overall academic environment. In all probability the College lowered standards to attract more students, and it had to accept another surge in the percentage of nongraduates (Table N), at least until March 1790, when the faculty took sharp action to reduce absenteeism by requiring Witherspoon's permission for any departure longer than one day. Table Ο illustrates the nongraduate phenomenon by grouping classes in clusters suggested by the data.30 Between 1779 and 1786 the faculty nearly succeeded in making the A.B. degree the norm that it had been prior to 1774, and scattered evidence (best consulted in the biographies themselves) suggests a serious effort to sustain a four-year degree program. But class size also dropped to a new low. The average number of students enrolled in each class more than doubled for the period from 1787 through 1794, but so did the proportion of nongraduates, which exceeded a third of the total. To some extent this phenomenon may be a statis30

For the academic calendar and list of fees, see Laws of the College of New-Jersey, 36, 37. For William and Mary before the war, see Roche, The Colonial Colleges in the War for American Independence, 174. See also Min. Faculty, 1787-1810, for Mar 1790 (Princeton University Archives).

xlvii

INTRODUCTION TABLE Ν G R A D U A T E S AND N O N G R A D U A T E S OF C N J , 1 7 8 4 - 1 7 9 4

Class

A.B.S

1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794

24 10 25 23 19 21 14 25 37 21 27

Totals

246

Percent N.G.S

Total

N.G.S 2 2

4t 7 9 15 16 23 6 8 17t 109

26 12 29 30 28 36 30 48 43 29 44

7.7 16.7 13.8 23.3 32.1 41.7 53.3 47.9 14.0 27.6 38.6

355

30.7

t includes one who died in College

TABLE Ο G R A D U A T E S AND N O N G R A D U A T E S OF C N J , 1 7 4 8 - 1 7 9 4

Classes 1748-68 1769-73 1774-75 1776-78 1779-86 1787-94

(pre-Witherspoon) (early Witherspoon) (onset of Revolution) (war crisis) (recovery) (transition to Smith)

A.B.s

N.G.s

Percent N.G.s

Ave. students per class

313 103 47 39 102 187

28 10 18 67 18 101

8.2 8.8 27.7 63.2 15.0 35.1

16 23 33 35 15 36

tical mirage generated by the class lists compiled in the 1790s. Com­ parable evidence for earlier years would turn up more nongradu­ ates, who no doubt did attend the College in the 1780s and left no trace in surviving records. However, the Cliosophic Society's mem­ bership lists are complete for the entire period. All three student diaries and much of the surviving undergraduate correspondence cluster between 1784 and 1786, and one class list for the 1786-1787 academic year and another for April 1789 are extant at the New Jer­ sey State Library. A closer look at the pattern, class by class, indicates that the rise was substantial enough, even if it can never be measured with absolute precision.

xlviii

INTRODUCTION

Table Ν shows a rise in the percentage of nongraduates begin­ ning in 1787 and increasing steadily through the peak year of 1790. Smith's angry letter and the faculty action against absentees both came at the height of this phenomenon. The figure remained high in 1791, then dropped impressively the next year. (Class size also fell dramatically in 1793 and climbed again in 1794, mostly by doubling the number of nongraduates.) Significandy, the records are much better for 1792 through 1794, when the percentage of nongradu­ ates was somewhat lower than for the peak years from 1788 through 1791, whose students cannot be traced with the same exactitude. It is almost as if the faculty attempted to admit and retain nearly every­ body it could until the roof was repaired and the top floor of Nassau Hall was made habitable in 1791—and then tried to raise standards again. The effort probably failed. Some students told to retake a year, such as John Jordan (Class of 1793) or Samuel Voorhees (Class of 1794), simply quit. The College averaged about twenty-eight A.B. degrees per year from 1791 through 1797, but the number fell to eighteen from 1798 through 1803 before shooting up again, a pat­ tern that suggests dramatic but as yet unconfirmed growth in the percentage of nongraduates for the six classes beginning with 1798.*1 Some but not all of the rise in nondegree students resulted from the recruitment of Southerners in place of New Englanders. Among students from the five South Atlantic states from Maryland to Geor­ gia, 56.9 percent earned degrees, as compared with 81 percent from northern states. Because William and Mary seldom granted degrees and the College of Charleston issued no more in the eighteenth cen­ tury after granting six in 1794, the distinct possibility exists that planters sent their sons to Nassau Hall with a strong expectation that they would earn a degree, as nearly three of five did. On the other hand, over 40 percent did not, a ratio more than twice as large as the percentage among northern students. But those southerners who remained through graduation won a disproportionate share of aca­ demic honors. In the Class of 1790, for example, the two highestranking graduates were both from South Carolina: William Johnson, Jr., and John Taylor. Financial constraints also limited the College's ability to experiment The 1780s marked the beginning of serious demands 31 For the class lists, see Min. Faculty, 10 Nov 1789-10 May 1794, passim. See also the class lists for the 1786-1787 academic year and for 10 Apr 1789 in the Hancock House Manuscripts, New Jersey State Library, Trenton; and Cliosophic Society Records, Seeley G. Mudd library, Princeton. Ruth L. Woodward's preliminary survey of the evidence for later classes suggests that, in addition to sixty students who received the A.B. between 1798 and 1801, at least sixty others attended the College with those classes, and almost certainly more, perhaps another five or ten.

INTRODUCTION

xlix

to educate women. When Mahlon Dickerson (A.B. 1789) attended his first school, all of his original classmates were girls. The practice was more common in Connecticut, where President Ezra Stiles spent much of one Monday in December 1783 interviewing Lucinda Foot, the precocious twelve-year-old daughter of a nearby minister. Stiles was so impressed with her Latin and Greek that he gave her a Latin certificate affirming that, but for her gender, she was fully qualified to enter Yale. He also had his college students debate frequently whether women should vote, hold office, or seek higher education. One Princetonian, Isaac Van Doren (A.B. 1793), would later lead the nation in attempting to provide almost a full college education for young women. His efforts antedated the founding of Mount Holyoke College, which is usually credited with being the first in such an endeavor. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden (A.B. 1787) also founded a female academy. Although this ferment affected individual Princetonians, it had considerably less influence on the College itself, beyond providing an occasional topic for debate, as with James W. Wilkin (A.B. 1785), Turnor Wootton (A.B. 1788), and especially John Bradford Wallace, the admirer of "enthusiasm," who also championed the political liberation of women. 32 In fact Princeton students deliberately avoided some of the most controversial questions of the day, as against those—such as the French Revolution—that had nearly everyone excited. Walter Minto, after spending a year on the faculty, evidently noticed this pattern and tried to do something to change it. With the trustees' approval in September 1788, he offered to relinquish £5 of his yearly salary to establish a medal or prize to be awarded at each commencement. He proposed to use this device to reward the best "dissertation" on either of two topics then dividing the larger community. The first was "The unlawfulness & impolicy of capital punishments, & the best methods of reforming criminals, & making them useful to society." The second was "The unlawfulness & impolicy of african slavery, & the best means of abolishing it in the United States; & of promoting the happiness of free negroes." Yet over the next six years hardly any undergraduates chose to address these themes. On such questions the faculty and trustees were more "enlightened" and controversial than the students, as some of the College's other decisions also indicate.33 82

Edmund S. Morgan, The Gentle Puritan: A Ltfe of Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795 (New Haven, Conn., 1962), 344,432; Franklin B. Dexter, ed., The Literary Diary ofEzra Stiles, D.D., LL.D., President of Yak College (New York, 1901), in, 102-03; John Bradford Wallace's portion of a 1793 debate on "Have Women a Right to Govern?" in Wallace Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. M Min. Trustees, 27 Sept 1788.

1

INTRODUCTION

Before the Revolution the College had shown a serious interest in educating Indians and Africans, as part of an evangelical impulse prompted by the Great Awakening. This movement also inspired Eleazar Wheelock to found Dartmouth College originally as an Indian school, and it sent Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720, president of the College of New Jersey, 1758) to do missionary work with the Stockbridge Indians for several years. Similar efforts brought two Delaware Indians to the College of New Jersey, Jacob Woolley (Class of 1762) and Bartholomew Scott Calvin, also known as Shawuskukhkung or Wilted Grass (Class of 1776). Although these attempts at education accomplished little, by 1774 Witherspoon was ready to try again, this time with two Rhode Island Africans. The initiative came from Samuel Hopkins, a Newport minister and New Divinity theologian (i.e., a strict Calvinist disciple of Edwards), who had found two promising Christians among Newport's slave community and hoped that they could be trained as ministers and sent back to Africa. Ezra Stiles, a moderate Calvinist pastor of Newport's other Congregational church and a future president of Yale, discouraged Hopkins until early 1773, when divine providence seemed to intervene in a striking way. The two blacks won $300 in a Rhode Island lottery, enough to buy their freedom once Hopkins had contributed an extra $50. In a bid for broad ecumenical backing, both ministers tried to involve Charles Chauncy, a Boston Arminian or anti-Calvinist, who sourly told Stiles "that the Negroes had better continue in Paganism than embrace Mr. H[opkins]'s scheme," which Chauncy judged "far more blasphemous." Approaching mainly the New Light community thereafter, the two pastors built considerable support, distributed a public appeal for funds throughout the colonies and the British Isles, and negotiated with Wheelock about sending the ex-slaves to Dartmouth. When that effort failed, they turned to Witherspoon. The two blacks whose religious development so impressed Hopkins were John Quamine (Quaumino) and Bristol Yamma, both of whom had experienced impressive conversions. Quamine's personal story was particularly moving. His prominent African father had sent him at age ten to Rhode Island to receive a Christian education, but instead the ship captain had sold him into slavery. In November 1774 the two blacks departed for Princeton, and Witherspoon wrote Hopkins about their progress three months later. "Bristol Yamma has received the money you sent him. He and his companion behave very well. They are becoming very good in reading and writing & likewise have a pretty good Notion of the Principles of the Christian faith." They remained under Witherspoon's private tutelage at least into April 1776, when Hopkins and Stiles launched a second public

INTRODUCTION

li

appeal to continue their support. The two ministers announced that Quamine had established contact by letter with his aging mother and indicated that two more Africans were now ready to undertake the same training. Instead the Revolutionary War shattered the whole effort, cut off North America from both Africa and Britain (the main source of donations), and closed the College. Quamine died aboard an American privateer in August 1779, but as late as 1791 Yamma was still awaiting an opportunity to return to Africa. No account of these men appears in earlier volumes of Princetonians because, in all probability, they never entered the College. In April 1773 Stiles recorded his extensive examination of Quamine's skills. His account shows that the man was still learning to read English. Despite the progress reported by Witherspoon, the two could hardly have mastered enough Latin and Greek to enter the freshman class by 1776, though they may have been enrolled by that time in the Nassau Hall grammar school. By then Witherspoon had apparently decided against admitting the boys to the College, for a circular of April 1776 declared that they were already so well "qualified for the mission proposed, that they would enter upon it directly, were there opportunity to send them." The escalating war with Britain had probably compelled Witherspoon to try to find some way of getting them to West Africa quickly, armed with whatever spiritual and educational resources they had had time to acquire. This choice probably did not reflect his judgment of their abilities.34 In 1779 Witherspoon admitted three more Delaware Indians to preparatory studies in the grammar school, one of whom—George Morgan White Eyes—went on to matriculate in the College with the Class of 1789. The three received direct financial support from Congress, marking what was probably the first instance of federal aid to education, even though Congress expected the Delaware nation to reimburse the United States by ceding land at some later date. The congressional initiative was really blood money, given because White Eyes's father (uncle of the other two boys) had been murdered by the American force which he served as guide. Their family history is perhaps the most tragic one recorded in these volumes, but it evi-

** Stiles, Literary Diary, I, 363-66, 486, 489; II, 378. By far the best account of this incident is in Joseph A. Conforti, Samuel Hopkins and the New Divinity Movement: Calvinism, the Congregational Ministry, and Reform in New England Between the Great Awakenings (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1981), 143-47; see also Edwards A. Park, Memoir of the Life and Character of Samuel Hopkins, DJ)., 2d ed. (Boston, Mass., 1854), 12937, esp. 134. See also the strong junior paper by Aims McGuinness (A.B. 1990), "Gospel, Grammar and the Revolution: The Education of two Africans in the Age of Revolution" (fall semster 1988), in "Blacks at Princeton" file, Princeton University Archives.

lii

INTRODUCTION

dendy failed to move Witherspoon. By 1782 he had already decided that efforts to educate Indians were foolish. "On the whole it does not appear, that either by our people going among them, or by thenbeing brought among us," he reported to a French inquirer, Frangois Marbois, "that it is possible to give them a relish of civilized life. There have been some of them educated at this college, as well as in New England; but seldom or never did they prove either good or useful." ss A college president with this attitude probably did not make things comfortable or easy for young White Eyes. It may be no accident that White Eyes left the College at the end of his junior year, just before he would have come under Witherspoon's close personal supervision. Witherspoon did not indicate whether he had reached the same conclusion about blacks, nor do we know when he acquired the two slaves listed in the estate inventory taken after his death. But either he, Smith (who owned at least one slave), or the trustees took one more initiative in educating an African. On September 27, 1792 the trustees voted to use the Lesley Fund ("for the education of poor and pious youths with a view to the ministry of the Gospel in the Presbyterian Church") on behalf of John Chavis, a light-skinned free black and Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. One of the most remarkable African-Americans of the antebellum era, Chavis became a noted Latinist and a tutor to prominent white boys, particularly in the Magnum family of North Carolina. His name appears on no Princeton class list, but strong family tradition insists that he attended. If so, he was the College's only black student before the mid-twentieth century, but he did not stay long. The one semester he would most likely have been at Princeton was the summer term of 1793, for which no class list survives. In other words, the family tradition may well be accurate and has been accepted by several generations of archivists at Princeton University. But unless Chavis entered with junior class standing, which seems highly improbable, he would necessarily have been assigned to the Class of 1795 or 1796. For this reason, his biography does not appear in these volumes. ss

John Witherspoon, "A Description of the State of New Jersey," in The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon, DM., LLJ)., Late President of the College of New Jersey (Philadelphia, Pa., 1803), 312. This piece is undated, but Marbois's queries went out in late 1780 and early 1781. See Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton, 1950- ), iv, 167n for the dates. The most famous response was Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Peden (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1955). Witherspoon passed the queries on to Gov. William Livingston in December 1781 with the apparent expectation that Livingston would answer them. When the governor refused, Witherspoon evidently decided to respond himself. See Prince et al., eds., Papers of William Livingston, IV, 353-54. Thus Witherspoon's "Description'' was almost certainly written in 1782.

INTRODUCTION

liii

Ironically, as Nassau Hall's evangelical impulse, which insisted that all men are equally sinners, yielded priority to the revolutionary belief that all men are equal in rights, the College for the first time became an institution for whites only.'6 As with earlier classes, Princeton alumni continued to serve the young nation in many impressive ways. Above all, the College taught its men to speak in public. All examinations were oral. The two debating societies competed fiercely for honors and recognition at graduation, and the faculty cared far less about who wrote a speech than about how it was delivered. William Paterson (A.B. 1763), Benjamin Rush, and Witherspoon himself probably wrote or supplied orations for undergraduates to deliver by rote. Student notebooks also passed from hand to hand without ever raising questions of plagiarism. Witherspoon explained the logic of this system to the seniors. Eloquence "has been, I think, in all ages, one of the most envied and admired talents," he insisted. "Military skill and political wisdom have their Admirers; but far inferior in Number to those who admire, nay and would wish to imitate him who has the Power of Persuasion." As much as any one sentence could, that statement epitomizes Witherspoon's hopes for the College. In church or in commonwealth, Princetonians had a mission to persuade others.57 On balance, they did far more for commonwealth than for church. The classes of 1784 through 1794 produced two Supreme Court justices, one of whom, William Johnson, Jr., did more than anyone else to shape the Court's dissenting tradition. The College could also claim four cabinet members, four governors, ten senators, twentyfive congressmen (seven of whom also sat in the Senate), twenty-one 36 Min. Trustees, 27 Sept 1792. The fullest account of Chavis is in Daniel L. Boyd, "Free-Bom Negro: The Life of John Chavis" (Senior Thesis, Princeton University, 1947). See also the "Blacks at Princeton" file, Princeton University Archives; and Edgar W. Knight, "Notes on John Chavis," North Carolina Historical Review, 7 (1930), 326-45. For Smith as slaveholder, see Trenton New-Jersey Gazette, 30 Mar 1784. 37 Witherspoon wrote the Latin address for one valedictorian who, though probably the third best student in his class, had enough trouble with it that he went to Ashbel Green for help. See J. H. Jones, ed., The Life of Ashbel Green, V.DM., Begun to be Written by Himself in his Eighty-Second Year and Continued to his Eighty-Fourth (New York, 1849), 347. See also George Clarkson (A.B. 1788) for Rush, and Edward Graham (A.B. 1786) for Paterson. The notes on Witherspoon's lectures taken by John Dickinson (Class of 1791) and Samuel Sharp Dickinson (A.B. 1791) were written in the same manuscript volume now in the Princeton University Library. The variety of handwriting in this volume suggests that the two students engaged someone to copy their rough notes in a fair hand, the product of which they then inspected and usually signed. Other signatures also appear in this volume. See Lecture Notes on Moral Philosophy, Criticism, and Chronology, given by John Witherspoon, 1790-1791, taken by John Dickinson and Samuel Sharp Dickinson (Princeton University Library). For Witherspoon on eloquence, see his "Lectures on Eloquence, Moral Philosophy and Chronology," manuscript of Antonio Marvine (Princeton University Library), section entitled "Lectures on Composition and Oration," 1.

INTRODUCTION

liv

state legislators, and numerous other officeholders. Princeton men divided far more closely over the issues of the early republic than their predecessors had over the Revolution, when loyalists had been extremely rare. Of 110 Princetonians with reasonably clear political affiliations, 62 (56.4 percent) became Federalists, and 48 (43.6 per­ cent) Jeffersonians. Because most of the country south and west of New England went heavily Jeffersonian by about 1800, Princeton's Federalists found themselves swamped in a hostile tide and had less impressive careers than the Republican minority from the College, some of whom remained active and important well into the Jacksonian period. This alignment suggests another point. In the 1790s Samuel Stan­ hope Smith became as ardent a Federalist as Witherspoon had been a patriot by 1775. While Witherspoon had carried nearly the entire College with him, Smith could not. In the regions from which Prince­ ton increasingly recruited, the Jeffersonian tide was too powerful for any college president to overcome. The men that the faculty sent out into the world were quite young when they left Princeton, although a student's average age at the time his class graduated increased by almost a year over the decade—from 18.6 for the classes of 1784 through 1788, to 19.0 for the next two, and to 19.5 for the last four. Through the Class of 1789, two-thirds of the students were under the age of twenty at commencement. From 1790 through 1794 this percentage fell to 55.8. Many Princetonians also died young, as Table Ρ indicates. Hugh Ker, John Rush, and William Tennent Snowden—all nongraduatTABLE Ρ A G E AT D E A T H , C N J M E N , C L A S S E S O F 1 7 8 4 - 1 7 9 4

20s

30s

40s

50s

60s

70s

80s

0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1

3 0 2 5 3 2 6 9 4 1 3

1 3 2 1 4 5 6 3 6 5 4

7 0 6 7 5 6 3 6 6 5 5

1 0 2 0 2 1 1 2 5 2 3

2 3 6 6 3 8 4 7 5 2 4

5 2 5 1 1 2 4 11 5 0 8

2 1 1 4 3 5 2 4 2 5 5

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 1

5 3 4 6 7 7 4 6 6 7 10

4

38

40

56

19

50

44

34

5

65

Class

Teens

1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 Totals

90s

Unknc

INTRODUCTION

lv

ing members of the Class of 1794—suffered acute mental illness, William Gordon Forman (A.B. 1786) was murdered, and Samuel Piatt Broome (A.B. ad eundem 1786) and James D. Ross (A.B. 1792) committed suicide. Confronting yellow fever and other perils, many others never had much of a chance to contribute significantly to American society. If unknowns are eliminated (and the chances are that many of these men also died young, if only because long lives leave traces), only the Class of 1784 had fewer than 20 percent dead by age forty, and the Class of 1790 lost 40 percent before their fortieth birthdays. Altogether 28 percent of die men in these eleven classes had died by that age, and another 19 percent succumbed in their forties. Median age at death for the entire cohort was about fifty-four. On the other hand, 29 percent also lived past seventy. The last man in this group to die was William Belford Ewing (A.B. 1794), who expired on April 23, 1866, in his eighty-ninth year, outlasting ninety-two year old James Chesnut (A.B. 1792) by two months.38 Nonetheless, life expectancy had fallen sharply compared with the experience of earlier Princeton students and the graduates of other colleges in previous decades. For Princeton classes from 1748 through 1770, the median age at death was sixty-four or sixty-five, and the mean sixty-one. Only 16.5 percent died before the age of forty. Among the Harvard classes of 1751 through 1770, the median age at death was sixty-two, while the comparable figure for Yale graduates was sixty-one. Among classes from other schools it was sixtyfour at King's, fifty-eight at Philadelphia, and fifty-six at William and Mary.39 The Revolution thus left a profoundly ambiguous heritage to the College, one that would become more troublesome as the demands of a republican society and the needs of the American Presbyterian Church increasingly seemed to conflict. The nation, whose population still doubled with every generation, had thousands more pulpits to fill than seats in Congress, where the number rose from fiftynine representatives and twenty-two senators in 1789 to 213 representatives and forty-eight senators by the early 1820s. By sending twenty-eight legislators to the nation's capital and only thirty-seven 38 Individuals were included if their age of death could be placed within a particular decade of their lives with reasonable certainty. In a few cases when, for example, death probably occurred between age 29 and 31, the person is classed as someone who died in his 30s, except for one person for whom the probability seems quite strong in the other direction. 39 We are grateful to James McLachlan for providing these statistics. We have made no effort to explain the sharp decline among Princetonians, nor do we know how student cohorts at other colleges in the same decade fared. No doubt the replacement of New Englanders by students from the South accounts for part of the change.

lvi

INTRODUCTION

students into the ministry, the classes of 1784 through 1794 made a proportionately far greater contribution to government than to the church. This shift in emphasis may have created new difficulties in alumni relations. Although the pool of eligible teenage sons of alumni must have been larger than ever during this period, only twenty-six former Princetonians (including one stepfather) sent sons to the College during these years. Altogether, thirty alumni, trustees, and former College stewards accounted for just thirty-eight students (10.7 percent) of the total enrollment, five of whom were sons of Trustee Isaac Snowden. As numerous biographies show, the Princeton network was a broad and complex web that included mothers' kin, uncles, cousins, and local ministers or school teachers. The link to Princeton did not have to pass from father to son. Yet only thirteen ministers who were either alumni or trustees sent a total of fourteen sons to Princeton, a number that must seem small for an institution that had produced 231 clergymen through the Class of 1775. Several ministers' sons in these classes were no credit to their fathers' profession. Andrew Stockton Hunter (Class of 1794) was expelled as incorrigible, while Henry Purcell (Class of 1791) was conspicuously irreverent and also failed to earn his degree. Likewise, two graduates who became ordained were later compromised in sexual scandals. Thomas Yardley How (A.B. 1794) was unfrocked by the Protestant Episcopal Church, while David Barclay (A.B. 1791) got into nearly as much trouble with his Presbyterian congregation. Matthias Cazier (A.B. 1785) managed to alienate quite a succession of congregations. Nathaniel Howe (Class of 1786, A.B. Harvard 1786) offended on other grounds, with his light-hearted punning and irrepressible humor. Richard Hugg King's obesity, as we have seen, forced him to retire early, while the intemperance of John Brown Slemons (A.B. 1794) eventually caused even graver embarrassments. Several other ministers, such as Nathaniel Randolph Snowden (A.B. 1787), had careers that were largely ineffective. In sum, of Princeton's thirty-seven ministerial students, four had brilliant careers and thirteen others were quite successful, typically guiding the same congregation for several decades. But four others either died or quit before even accepting a pulpit, two more died a few years after ordination, and eight either moved too often to be effective for very long or could not hold a pulpit at all. The rest either left the profession early, resigned under scandalous circumstances, or entered the ministry late in life. At most only about twenty of the thirty-seven made solid to impressive public contributions to the religious life of the United States.

INTRODUCTION

lvii

While Witherspoon lived, religious and secular demands remained in at least a symbolic balance. Most students appeared faithfully for their 5:00 A.M. and late afternoon prayers, and for Sunday worship. Even so, four freshmen and two sophomores admonished on September 10, 1788 for visiting "a house of ill fame" (the phrase may have meant no more than a boisterous tavern, but it could also have carried its twentieth-century connotation), were straining the limits of propriety. The eight who drank excessively on June 26, 1790, then overturned the outhouse and placed a calf in the pulpit of the College's main hall probably were making a pointed statement. At least so the faculty believed when they expelled all offenders who refused to apologize. A pseudonymous graduate of 1789 was more explicit in a poem he published in a Philadelphia newspaper. His description of "masters whip and pupils yell" depicted a regime of corporal punishment that the College did not practice, but mostly he tried to deflate Nassau Hall's religious pretensions.40 Adieu ye reverend hypocrites, little wits! Subjected to you [sic] tyrant hands With tears in eyes I've cursed your bands; In terror mark'd your rolling eyes And meagre visage in disguise; Distorted with that rage and heat Which bade us tremble at your feet; Your cycic [sic] snarls and grins are o'er, Now flown, subsided, heard no more. Adieu thou hall! devotion's seat— Where righteous men and Satan meet, With aspect pale, on humble knees, Who weep and pray like Pharisees. . . . When Witherspoon died on November 15, 1794, the transition to Smith's presidency was smooth and expected. Everything seemed to suggest continuity, rather than a major break. Yet the death of "the old doctor" was at least a minor watershed in the College's history. In a nation which would have more than two dozen colleges by 1802, Nassau Hall could not long expect to generate an eighth or more of the republic's A.B. degrees, certainly not when the number of graduates began another cycle of decline in 1798. Witherspoon's 40

J. Bennett Nolan, ed., "Other Times, Other Manners: A Princeton Valedictory of 1789," PUL Ckron., 16 (1954-1955), 17-22, esp. 20, 21.

lviii

INTRODUCTION

final decade may have been the last period in which the College significantly increased its share of American graduates. Witherspoon's legacy as a famous patriot, innovative educator, and Presbyterian leader proved a heavy burden for Smith and his successor, Ashbel Green, if only because the two men eventually fought each other over its meaning. In 1795 Smith joined the growing alarm, stemming ultimately from the French Revolution, against religious infidelity on American campuses. After the massive Nassau Hall fire of 1802, the faculty suspected the students of arson, a judgment that no modern scholar has sustained but one that signaled a disastrous deterioration in relations between the two groups. When the widespread student rebellion of 1807 explicitly pitted revolutionary rights against Presbyterian discipline, Green concluded that Smith was the College's biggest problem, organized an alumni revolt against him, forced his resignation by 1812, and presided over the creation of Princeton Theological Seminary—founded in order to guarantee an adequate supply of ministers. Although cool toward the Second Great Awakening, Green did encourage vital piety on campus and presided over the first revival among the students since Independence. In the process the College became more denominational and parochial, less "enlightened" than it had been under Witherspoon. An anonymous traveler of 1823 casually observed the moral. He described Nassau Hall as "one of the oldest, and formerly, most reputed colleges in North America."41 The College had been founded as a citadel of the First Great Awakening and in the 1770s had become a "seminary of sedition," a school for republicanism. Under Smith it would avoid any close association with the Second Great Awakening, and it would find student affirmation of republican values increasingly threatening to faculty control. Even before Witherspoon died, these underlying trends had acquired a momentum that his successors could not easily deflect, much less reverse. Frightened by its own past and deeply troubled by an uncertain future, the College of New Jersey had entered upon less forgiving times. 41

On the fire, see Wertenbaker, Princeton, 126-31. For a list of American colleges to 1820 with the dates of their founding and of the first granting of degrees, see Jurgen Herbst, From Crisis to Crisis: American College Government, 1636-1819 (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 244-53. See also, Gary B. Nash, "The American Clergy and the French Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 22 (1965), 392-412; Mark A. Noll, "The Response of Elias Boudmot to the Student Rebellion of 1807: Visions of Honor, Order, and Morality," PUL Ckron., 43 (1981-1982), 1-22; Noll, "The Founding of Princeton Seminary," Westminster Theological Journal, 42 (1979-1980), 72-110; Miller, The Revolutionary College, part 3, passim; Anonymous, Diary of a Journey through the U.S., 1821-1824, 3 vols. (New-York Historical Society), I, 421.

A B B R E V I A T I O N S A N D SHORT T I T L E S FREQUENTLY USED AASP Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society AJC U.S. Congress, Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1st-18th Congress, 1789-1824, published 1834-56, 42 vols.). Also known as Annah of Congress AHA American Historical Association AHR American Historical Review Albany city directories See city directories Alexander, Princeton S. D. Alexander, Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century (1872) als autograph letter signed Bait city directories See city directories BDUSC Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989: Bicentennial Edition (1989) Beam, Whig Soc. J. N. Beam, American Whig Society (1933) Biog. Diet. Md. Leg. E. C. Papenfuse et al., Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (1979-85, 2 vols.) Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep. W. B. Edgar et al., eds., Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1974- , 4 vols) Boston city directories See city directories Brooklyn city directories See city directories Butterfield, Rush Letters L. H. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush (1951, 2 vols.) Cal. Va. St. Papers Calendar of Virginia State Papers (1875-93, 11 vols.) Charleston city directories See city directories

Cincinnati city directories See city directories city directories All directories cited thus are available in photofacsimile in City Directories of the United States Through 1860 (Research Publications, Inc., microfiche edition). Bibliographic information on individual items can be found in D. N. Spear, Bibliography of American Directories Though 1860 (1961) Clay Papers James F. Hopkins, Robert Seager et al., Papers of Henry Clay (1959- , 9 vols.) Clio, lists two variant MS Cliosophic Society membership lists, 19thcentury copies of lost originals, PUA Clio. Min. MS Cliosophic Society Minutes, 2 July 1792 to 1810, PUA CNJ College of New Jersey DAB A. Johnson and D. Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography (1928-37, 21 vols.) Dexter, Yale Biographies F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College ... 1701-1815 (1885-1912, 6 vols.) DLC Library of Congress DNA National Archives, Washington, D.C. Dunlap £s" Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt. Dunlap and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt. Dunlap's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia Elmer, N.J. Bench &? Bar L. Q. C. Elmer, Constitution £s? Government of the Province £s? State of N.J., with Biographical Sketches of the Governors from 1776 to 1845 and Reminiscences of the

lx

LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S

Heriot letters John Ouldfield Bench 6? Bar, During More Heriot (Class of 1789) to Than Haifa Century (1872) "Robert," probably Robert First Census U.S. Bureau of the Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785), Census, Heads of Families at the four letters dated 9 January first Census of the United States to 15 August 1786, transcripts Taken in the year 1790 (1907on pages 126-27 of Caldwell 08, 12 vols.) Woodruff, "Family of Heriot..." Foote, Sketches, N.C. W. H. Foote, (1918 typescript in DLC) Sketches of North Carolina, HisHobart, Corres. J. H. Hobart, Cortorical and Biographical (1846 respondence of John Henry repr. 1966) Hobart (1911-12, vols. 1-6 of Foote, Sketches, Va. W. H. Foote, Protestant Episcopal Church in Sketches of Virginia, Historithe U.S.A. General Convention. cal and Biographical (ser. 1-2, Archives of the General Conven1850-55) tion) GHQ Georgia Historical Quarterly Gibson Diary MS journal of James Jefferson Papers J. P. Boyd et al., eds., Papers of Thomas JefferGibson (A.B. 1787), 1786, PHi, son, 1st ser. (1950- , 24 vols.) microfilm at NjP KSHS Reg. Register of the KenGiger, Memoirs G. M. Giger, MS tucky State Historical Society Memoirs of the College of New LCHSPA Lancaster County [Pa.] Jersey, PUA Historical Society Papers and GMNJ Genealogical Magazine of Addresses New Jersey LMCC E. C. Burnett, ed., Letters Hageman, History J. F. Hageman, of Members of the Continental History of Princeton and Its Congress (1921-36, 8 vols.) Institutions (1879, 2 vols.) Maclean, History J. Maclean, HisHamilton Papers H. C. Syrett et tory of the College of New Jersey al., eds., Papers of Alexander (1877, 2 vols.) Hamilton (1961-87, 27 vols.) MB Boston Public Library Hancock House MSS two CNJ class Martin's Bench & Bar J. H. Marlists of uncertain provenance: tin, Martin's Bench and Bar of undated list from 1786-87 acaPhiladelphia (1883) demic year and another dated MCCCNY Minutes of the Common 10 April 1789, found at the Council of the City of New York, Hancock House, Salem, New 1784-1831 (1917-30, 21 vols.) Jersey, now in possession of Nj. MdHi Maryland Historical Society, The 1789 list includes only the Baltimore senior, junior, and sophomore Md. Leg. Hist Proj. Legislative Hisclasses. tory Project, Maryland State Harper Papers B. E. Marks, ed., Archives, Annapolis, Md. Robert Goodloe Harper Family MHi Massachusetts Historical SociPapers (1970 microfilm ed., 5 ety, Boston reels, MS 431 in MdHi) Maryland Historical MagHeitman F. B. Heitman, Historical MHM azine Register of Officers of the Continental Army ... 1775-83 (rev. MiD Detroit Public Library Min. Fac. Ms Minutes of the Faced. 1914) ulty, College of New Jersey, 10 Heitman, U.S. Army F. B. HeitNov. 1787 to 22 Feb. 1810, PUA man, Historical Register & DicMin. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820 Mintionary of the United States utes of the General Assembly of Army (1903, 2 vols.)

LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1789-1820 (1847) Min. Trustees MS Minutes of the Trustees, College of New Jersey, 1748 to date, PUA Ν New York State Library, Albany Nc North Carolina State Library/Archives, Raleigh NCHR North Carolina Historical Review NcD Duke University Library, Durham, North Carolina NcU University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill NEHGR New England Historical and Genealogical Register New Brunswick Presby. Min. Pres­ bytery of New Brunswick, Min­ utes, 1738-1910 (MS in PPPrHi, microfilm at Princeton Theolog­ ical Seminary Library) NHi New-York Historical Society, New York City Nj New Jersey Library/Archives, Trenton NJA Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey (also called New Jersey Archives) (first series unless otherwise indicat­ ed) N.J. Gazette New-Jersey Gazette, Trenton NjHi New Jersey Historical Society, Newark NJHSP New Jersey HUtorical Society Proceedings·, superseded in 1967 by New Jersey History Ν J. Jour. New-Jersey Journal, Elizabethtown Ν J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligen­ cer New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer, Elizabethtown NjP Princeton University Library NjP-SSP Samuel Lewis Southard Papers, Princeton University Library NjPHi Historical Society of Prince­ ton NjR Rutgers Library, State Univer­

lxi

sity, New Brunswick, New Jersey N.J. WiUs Calendar of New Jersey Wills, 1670-1817 (13 vols., in NJA, xxm-XLi (1901-1949) N N New York Public Library, New York City N.Y. City directories See city direc­ tories NYGBR New York Genealogical and Biographical Record NYHS Coll. New-York Historical Society Collections N.Y. With Abstracts of WiUs, 17 vols, in NYHS CoU., 1893-1913 O'Neall, Bench fc? Bar S.C. J. B. O'Neall, Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of South Carolina (2 vols., 1859) OSAHQ Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly (earlier vols, were called Ohio Archae­ ological and Historical Publi­ cations and Ohio Archaeolog­ ical and Historical Quarterly, but this abbreviation is used throughout). Pa. Arch. Pennsylvania Archives (1852-1935, 9 series, 123 vols.) Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt. Pennsyl­ vania Packet, and Daily Adver­ tiser, Philadelphia PGM. Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (called until 1948 Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, but this abbreviation is used throughout) PHi Historical Society of Pennsyl­ vania, Philadelphia Phila. city directories See city direc­ tories Pintard, Letters Letters From John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson 18161833 (1940-41, 4 vols., NYHS CoU., 1937-40) PMHB Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography PPL Library Company of Philadel­ phia PPPrHi Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia Princetonians, 1748-1768 J.

lxii

L I S T OF

ABBREVIATIONS

McLachlan, Princetonians, 1748-1768: A Biographical Dictionary (1976) Princetonians, 1769-1775 R. A. Harrison, Princetonians, 17691775: A Biographical Diction­ ary (1980) Princetonians, 1776-1783 R. A. Harrison, Princetonians, 17761783: A Biographical Diction­ ary (1981) PUA Princeton University Archives PUL Chron. Princeton University Library Chronicle R-B C. Rinderknecht, S. Bruntjen, et al., comps., Checklist of Amer­ ican Imprints, 1830-39 (197289, 13 vols.) Riker W. Riker, Rules of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey (1901, lists attorneys admitted to New Jersey bar) Rush, Autobiography G. W. Cor­ ner, ed., Autobiography of Ben­ jamin Rush (1948) ScCoAH South Carolina Depart­ ment of Archives and History, Columbia, SCHGM South Carolina Histor­ ical and Genealogical Maga­ zine (name changed in 1959 to South Carolina Historical Mag­ azine, but this abbreviation is used throughout) ScHi South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston ScU University of South Carolina Library, Columbia Sh-C R. Shoemaker & M. F. Coop­ er, comps., Checklist of Amer­ ican Imprints for 1820-1829 (1964-73, 12 vols.) Sh-Sh R. R. Shaw & R. H. Shoe­ maker, comps., American Bib­ liography ... Imprints, 18011819 (1958-66, 22 vols.) Sibley's Harvard Graduates J. L. Sibley & C. K. Shipton, Bio­ graphical Sketches of Those Who Attended Harvard College (1873-1975, 17 vols.) Smith Diary MS journal of John R.

Smith (A.B. 1787), 1786, DLC, photocopy at NjP Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart. Somerset County [N.J.] Historical (Quar­ terly Sprague, AnnaL· W. B. Sprague, Annah of the American Pulpit (1857-69, 9 vols.) St. Rec. N.C. W. L. Saunders & W. Clark, eds., State Records of North Carolina (1886-1907, 26 vols.; vols. 1-10 were called Colonial Records of North Car­ olina, but this abbreviation is used throughout) STE C. K. Shipton & J. E. Mooney, National Index of American Imprints Through 1800: The Short Title Evans (1969, 2 vols.) Stryker, Off. Reg. William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (1911 repr. 1967) Susquehannah Papers J. P. Boyd & R. J. Taylor, eds., Susquehan­ nah Company Papers (1930-71, 11 vols.) Τ Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville THi Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville Thomas, Columbia M. H. Thomas, Columbia University Officers £sf Alumni 1754-1857 (1936) THQ Tennessee Historical Quar­ terly TxAuCH Archives of the Episcopal Church, USA (formerly Church Historical Society), Austin, Texas Tyler's Quart. Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine UPenn-Ar University of Pennsylva­ nia Archives, Philadelphia VHi Virginia Historical Society, Richmond Vi Virginia State Library, Rich­ mond ViU University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville

LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S VMHB Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Wash, city directories See city directories Washington Writings J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington ... 1745-1799 (1931-44, 39 vob.) Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J S. Wickes, History of Medicine in New Jersey and the Medical Men from the Settlement of the Province to AJO. 1800 (1879)

lxiii

Williams, Academic Honors J. R. Williams, ed., Academic Honors in Princeton University 17481902 (1902) Wilmington city directories See city directories WMQ William and Mary Quarterly WPHM Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine

CLASS OF 1784

John Baldwin, A.B.

Peter Robert Livingston, A.B.

Mathew (Mathius) Baldwin

Alexander Cumming McWhorter, A.B.

James Ashton Bayard, A.B. Samuel Bayard, A.B. William Campfield (Canfield),

James Morris, A.B. Isaac Ogden, A.B. John Parker, Α.Β., Honoris

A.B.

Joseph Clay, A.B. Ira Condict, A.B. Thomas Cooper, A.B. Alexander Edwards, A.B. Gabriel H. Ford, A.B. Agur T. Furman (Forman), A.B.

Causa

James Penn, A.B. William Radcliff (Radclift, Radcliffe), A.B. Leonard D. Shaw, A.B. John Eaton Spencer, A.B. Zadoc Squier, A.B.

John Gibbes, A.B.

Abraham Tenbrook (Ten Brook, Ten Broeck), A.B.

James Hopkins, A.B.

Abner Woodruff, A.B.

Abel Johnston (Johnson), A.B. (Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 29, 1784)

John Baldwin A.B., A.M. 1787, probably a lawyer, was the son, it seems to be agreed, of Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755) and his wife Sarah Sergeant, the daughter of Jonathan Sergeant (treasurer of the College 1750-1757), and so a nephew ofJonathan Dickinson Sergeant (A.B. 1762), and probably a brother of Mathew Baldwin of the class of 1784. Born in 1769, John was about fifteen when he graduated. His father is best remembered as steward of the College from 1756 to 1773 and again in 1781 and 1782, and so the place of his son's birth is readily fixed as Princeton. The date he entered the College has not been found. He is not listed as a member of either campus literary society and did not deliver an oration at the time of his graduation on September 29, 1784. Family tradition asserts that he became a New York lawyer, but evidence that he practiced in New York City is lacking, unless he was the Jonathan Baldwin, attorney-at-law of 15 Thames Street, who is found in a city directory for 1794. The further tradition that he died without marrying may well be true, for College catalogues first listed him as deceased in 1797.

JOHN BALDWIN,

SOURCES: The alumni file, PUA, is a skimpy one; Alexander, Princeton, 220. The catalogues of the College present something of a problem. Baldwin was listed as dead in all of the catalogues from 1797 through that for 1824, but he was not so listed again until 1845. The compilers of the earlier catalogues should have been well informed regarding a recent graduate who possessed other identifications as well with the College and the town, and who presumably lived not far away. The dropping in 1827 of the asterisk used to denote death was most likely an oversight also repeated in later issues of the catalogue. WFC

Mathew (Mathius) Baldwin MATHEW (MATHIUS) BALDWIN almost certainly was the son, and probably the oldest son born at some time in 1767, of Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755) and his wife Sarah Sergeant. The Trenton New-Jersey Gazette for October 11, 1780 carried under a Princeton dateline of September 29 the report that students in the grammar school upon examination on the 27th had given "very satisfying evidence of their proficiency in Latin and Greek, in the reading grammar and orthography of the English language, and in pronouncing English orations." The account continued: "Premiums were distributed after the examination, and adjudged as follows: For the first class who are now admitted Freshmen in college, to Mathew Baldwin of Princeton." And to this it added that in "the competition free to all the classes in Extempore Exercises in Latin, Grammar and Syntax" Mathew Bald-

4

C L A S S OF

1784

win had been the winner. Once again, at the close of his sophomore year as a student in the College, according to the Gazette for October 9, 1782, he won a prize, this time sharing first honors with Samuel Bayard of the freshman class, in a competition testing the students' mastery of English grammar, syntax, and orthography. No other evidence of Baldwin's residence as a student in the College has been found. That a prize-winning student should not have continued to the compledon of his degree is surprising enough to raise the question of whether he may have fallen a victim to some ill fate. The fact that Jonathan Baldwin's second term as steward of the College was terminated in 1782 may or may not have been a simple coincidence. In any case, no certain information regarding Mathew after September 1782 has been found. SOURCES: At some time after 1782 Jonathan Baldwin returned to his native town of Newark (Princetonians, 1748-1768, 131-3), but there were many Baldwins in Newark and Essex County, including a Mathew and Matthias Baldwin, militiamen in 1793. See J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (1973), 139, 142. For the children of Jonathan Baldwin see his alumni file, PUA. WFC

James Ashton Bayard A.B., A.M. 1787, lawyer and public official, was born July 28, 1767 at Philadelphia, the second son of James Ashton Bayard and his wife Agnes Hodge. The father, a physician, died early in 1770, the mother in 1774, and as a result the son grew up in the family of his father's twin brother John Bayard, prosperous Philadelphia merchant and influential whig political leader at the time of the Revolution, who married Margaret Hodge, sister of James's mother. The family had many connections with the College at Princeton. Colonel Bayard, as John was commonly known after the war for his service with Pennsylvania troops, was a trustee of the College from 1778 to his death in 1807, and four of his sons graduated from Nassau Hall: James Ashton Bayard (A.B. 1777), Andrew Bayard (A.B. 1779), Samuel Bayard (A.B. 1784), and Nicholas Bayard (A.B. 1792). Their mother, as also the mother of the younger James Ashton, was a sister of Andrew Hodge (A.B. 1772) and Hugh Hodge (A.B. 1773). James's early education is said to have been provided in part by tutors, in part by the school of the Reverend Robert Smith at Pequea, Pennsylvania. Just when Bayard was first enrolled in the College cannot be said; but that it was no later than the summer of 1782, and possibly as early as the fall of 1781, is indicated by the history of the American Whig Society later written by Ashbel Green (A.B.

JAMES ASHTON BAYARD,

JAMES A S H T O N BAYARD

5

James Ashton Bayard, A.B. 1784 BY CHARLES B. J. FEVRET DE SAINT MEMIN

1783), which states that Bayard joined the society about a month after its revival in June 1782. Bayard placed second in his class, for he opened the afternoon exercises of his commencement on September 29 with an "English salutatory oration," an innovation at this time. This was not quite as high an honor as belonged to his classmate Joseph Clay who delivered the Latin salutatory address, but he would share with Clay the distinction of speaking a second time in the "competitive orations" in behalf of the Whig and Cliosophic societies, which brought the day's program to an end. Bayard spoke on "independence of spirit." After graduation Bayard began the study of law at Philadelphia with Joseph Reed (A.B. 1757), and following Reed's death in March 1785, an agreement for continuance was reached with Jared IngersoU, Jr. (LL.D. 1821, A.B. Yale 1766), a leading light of the Philadelphia bar and father of Charles Jared Ingersoll (Class of 1799) and Joseph Reed Ingersoll (A.B. 1804). Bayard qualified for practice in Delaware in August 1787, and in the Philadelphia courts on the following September 8, but he found his residence in Wilmington and both his practice and political career were to identify him chiefly with

6

CLASS OF 1784

the state of Delaware. On February 11, 1795 he married Ann, daughter of Richard Bassett, who in succession served as United States senator from Delaware, chief justice of the court of common pleas, and governor of the state. Bayard won his first public office in 1796, when he was elected as Delaware's sole delegate to the national House of Representatives. Twice reelected, he served until his defeat in the election of 1802 by his close personal friend and political opponent Caesar A. Rodney. He regained his seat in the House in the election of 1804, but before he could occupy it Bayard was also elected to the upper house of the national legislature. His service in the Senate extended from 1805 to 1813. Politically, Bayard found a natural alliance with the Federalists and, among Federalists, with the party's faction which followed the leadership of President John Adams. Essentially moderate and more independent than partisan in spirit, Bayard found no difficulty in the consistent support he gave the administration during its QuasiWar with France. In his support of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 he was partly responsible for certain procedural safeguards for individual rights that were written into the statutes, among them, in the case of the Sedition Act and in contrast with the English common law, a right to use the truth of an alleged libel in defence of the accused. In the House he was quickly credited with an ability to argue logically and eloquently. His colleagues were impressed by the ease and skill with which he might speak for one to three hours without resort to notes. Later, John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806) would credit Bayard with more "unpremeditated eloquence" than "any man I ever heard in Congress." With a noticeable tendency toward stoutness, fastidiousness of dress, and aristocratic bearing, Bayard was quick to win the confidence of colleagues. In July 1797 he was one of five members of the House designated a committee to investigate the conduct of Senator William Blount of Tennessee (brother of Willie Blount, Class of 1789) with a view to bringing articles of impeachment against him, and in January 1799 he served as chairman of the eleven managers chosen for the delayed and unsuccessful attempt to impeach the senator. Firmly loyal to his friends, Bayard fought a duel on May 7, 1800 with Congressman Christopher Champlin of Rhode Island in consequence of remarks on the floor of the House regarding Alan McLane, Wilmington collector of customs and friend of Bayard. As early as 1789 he had been a signer of a petition sponsored by the Delaware Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and much later on the floor of the Senate he would warn his southern colleagues that "all

JAMES A S H T O N BAYARD

7

the plagues of Egypt united were not equal to the plague that slavery will eventually prove to the southern states." His religious convictions were said to have been deistic. His local activities included service in 1803 as trustee of a projected college at Wilmington, an undertaking in which Gunning Bedford (A.B. 1771) was especially prominent. Bayard is best remembered for the part he took in the final settlement of the election of 1800. As the sole representative of Delaware he was in a position to determine by his own vote how his state would behave in the long effort to settle in the House of Representatives the tie between Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) and Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), and so could hardly escape the special importance that circumstances gave to his vote. Historians have found ground for debate as to the influences which shaped his action at the time. He disliked and distrusted Jefferson intensely, but the assurance given the latter ahead of time by Caesar Rodney that Bayard's vote could be counted upon indicates that he at first probably favored Jefferson. However, when the voting began on February 10, 1801, and through all of thirty-five ballots, Bayard stood solidly with his Federalist colleagues in denying the office to Jefferson by the margin of a single state. The vote was eight states for Jefferson (with nine required for election), six for Burr, and two divided. It was on the thirty-sixth ballot, and on February 17, that Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina voted blanks, thereby giving the election to Jefferson. Bayard expressed satisfaction that Jefferson's election came without a single Federalist vote. Whether he undertook in advance to make a deal with Jefferson, or whether as Jefferson charged he had attempted to win Republican votes for Burr by the promise of offices, or how far he may have been influenced by the unflattering view Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791) had of Burr, have been debated. But the final result can be traced direcdy to Bayard's announcement on February 16 to a Federalist caucus that he would change his vote on the next ballot. The basic explanation for this change, as he explained that same day to his father-in-law, was an unwillingness "to risk the constitution or a civil war." In short, a sense of responsibility for the public interest finally prevailed. In a very real sense Jefferson's election was a defeat for Bayard. That he understood this is indicated by his rejection of appointment by President Adams as minister to France on the ground that he could hardly represent effectively the incoming Republican administration. After the election he returned to the House with new stature to become an unelected minority leader who in a matter of weeks suffered defeat in his attempt to prevent the Republican repeal on March 3, 1802 of the Judiciary Act of 1801. His father-in-law was

8

CLASS OF 1784

one of sixteen circuit judges appointed under that act by Adams, but this probably counted for much less than did the constitutional objections Bayard persistently raised to the proposed repeal. Through the years of Republican dominance that followed, his sense of the futility of Federalist attempts to shape the course of national policy undoubtedly finds reflection in the very poor record of attendance he had as a member of the Senate. He consistently arrived in Washington a month or two late for its sessions and often returned home before its final adjournment. This is not to suggest that Bayard failed to make known his views on questions of public policy, views fundamentally consistent with his commitment to the commercial interests of the country. He was a director of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, and among his relatives none was closer than his cousin Andrew Bayard (A.B. 1779) of Philadelphia—merchant, banker, and insurance broker—who enjoyed the advantage of repeated advisories from James on developments at the seat of government. The senator distrusted policies depending upon an assumption that economic weapons were adequate for defense of the national interest, and with the approach of the War of 1812 he sought first to postpone the critical vote in Congress, and having failed in that effort, he voted against war. He entered the war years, however, with a reputation for moderation and responsible opposition that won for him membership in the bipartisan peace commission President James Madison (A.B. 1771) decided upon in 1813. Although by no means in full agreement with the instructions given the commission, Bayard accepted the appointment and explained to his cousin and classmate Samuel Bayard: "The situation of public affairs is at present so critical and alarming, not from the pressure of the foreign enemy, but from the danger of intestine division, that I have felt it as a Solemn duty not to refuse to the government any means in my power which would aid in extricating the Country from its embarrassments." Bayard sailed from the Delaware early in May 1813, and having played no more than a secondary role in the negotiations resulting in the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814, he returned home after more than two years' absence in time to die at Wilmington on August 6, 1815. Bayard died shortly after his forty-eighth birthday. Some of his associates thought that his life may have been shortened by dissipation. This seems doubtful, but he was a congenial and sociable person who probably found encouragement to drink in the time he spent in the bachelor society of the lawyers' court circuit and the rooming-house accommodations of early Washington. His taste favored the wines Andrew Bayard helped to supply in exchange of

SAMUEL

BAYARD

9

courtesies between the two cousins. Another item in the exchange was advice from Andrew on investments, which may help to explain why James died a wealthy man. To each of his four sons he left $10,000 in addition to a share in the substantial landholdings he had in Delaware and Maryland. His two daughters received $8,000 each and land, and his widow an annuity of $3,000 annually. Two of Bayard's sons later would serve as United States senators from Delaware, one of them being Richard H. Bayard (A.B. 1814), and still later a grandson and a great grandson would enjoy the same distinction. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; DAB; Green's history in Beam, Whig. Soc., 62; Amer. Whig Soc-, Cat. (1840), 5; Williams, Academic Honors, 9-10; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Martin's Bench & Bar, 247; M. Borden, Federalism ofJames A. Bayard, passim, esp. 160 (Adams quote), 201 (will); £. Donnan, ed., Papers of James A. Bayard, AHA Rept. for 1913 (1915), ii, passim, esp. 110η (duel), 126-27 (quote 16 Feb. 1801), 211 (quote from letter of 23 Apr. 1813 to S. Bayard); AIC, 5th Cong., 465, 953, 2247; J. A. Munroe, Federalist Del. (1954), passim; H. C. Conrad, Hist, of State of Del. (1908), m, 871-76; H. C. Reed, Del: A Hist. (1947), 1,135-37 ("plagues of Egypt"); Hamilton Papers, xxv, 27577, 299-303, 344-46; for corres. with C. A. Rodney, "James Ashton Bayard Letters, 1802-14," N.Y. Pub. Lib. Bull., 4 (July 1900), 228-48, repr. in Del. Hist. Soc., Papers, 21 (1901). PUBLICATIONS: STE # S 33383-4; Sh-Sh #s 1848-52, 16956-61,19483, 24772-3, 50912 MANUSCRIPTS: DLC; MdHi; Hist. Soc. Del.; NN; MB WFC

Samuel Bayard SAMUEL BAYARD, A.B., A.M. 1787, lawyer and public official, was

born at Philadelphia on January 11, 1767, the fourth son of John and his wife Margaret Hodge Bayard. He was a first cousin of James Ashton Bayard (A.B. 1784), the younger brother of James Ashton Bayard (A.B. 1777) and Andrew Bayard (A.B. 1779), and the older brother of Nicholas Bayard (A.B. 1792). Through his mother he was a nephew of Andrew Hodge (A.B. 1772) and of Hugh Hodge (A.B. 1773). The father, a trustee of the College from 1778 to 1807, was a prosperous merchant and whig political leader at the time of the Revolution who subsequently moved from Philadelphia to New Brunswick, New Jersey, Samuel completed his preparation for college in the grammar school at Princeton, where in September 1781 after examination he was admitted to the freshman class of the College and awarded a prize for his performance in public graduation exercises. In Septem­ ber 1782 he competed as a freshman with other underclassmen in English grammar, syntax, and orthography, and in an exchange with Mathew Baldwin of the sophomore class did so well that it was agreed

10

CLASS OF 1784

"to bestow upon them equal premiums." Evidently he had jumped a class by September 1783, when he won still another prize as a junior, and sometime during that year he joined the Cliosophic Society using Sidney as his pseudonym, probably for Algernon Sidney, republican writer and Whig martyr of the seventeenth century. At his commencement in 1784 he enjoyed the distinction of delivering the valedictory oration. After graduation Samuel studied law in Philadelphia with William Bradford, Jr. (A.B. 1772), attorney general of Pennsylvania and later of the United States. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on November 8, 1787 and subsequently became Bradford's partner. On August 14, 1790 Bayard found other useful connections through his marriage to Martha (Patty) Pintard, daughter of Lewis Pintard of New Rochelle, New York, and his wife Susanna Stockton, sister of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748) and Hannah Stockton Boudinot, who married Elias Boudinot, trustee of the College. The bride was a cousin of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), Lucius Horatio Stockton (A.B. 1787), and Lewis Searle Pintard (A.B. 1792). Her father was the uncle of John Pintard (A.B. 1776). In 1791 Bayard received his first appointment to public office as clerk of the United States Supreme Court, of which John Jay was chief justice. When in 1794 Jay undertook a diplomatic mission to England that resulted in the famous treaty bearing his name, Bayard sought appointment as Jay's secretary. The choice fell rather to John Trumbull, the artist; but after reaching London in the summer of 1794 Jay recommended that an agent be sent to represent American citizens in the prosecution of claims for damages to their shipping before British admiralty courts, and for this assignment Bayard was chosen. He and his wife sailed early in November and reached London on December 11, 1794. Contrary to their initial expectation, they remained in England for the better part of four years, returning to the United States early in 1798. This experience gave Bayard a view of England, its society and its government, that was much less sympathetic than were the attitudes held by many of his fellow Federalists. He believed that America could have obtained better terms than those in Jay's Treaty and so advised his friends and relatives at home, but in the end he found justification for its ratification. Bayard's activities remain uncertain for the five years which followed his return to this country. He and his wife took up residence at New Rochelle, and it must have been not long after their arrival that Governor John Jay appointed Bayard presiding justice of the Westchester court of common pleas. Through his cousin and classmate James Ashton Bayard he sought appointment by President John

SAMUEL BAYARD

11

Adams in February 1801 to one of the new federal circuit judgeships, but this effort was unsuccessful. James reported to Andrew Bayard in September 1803 that Samuel "has again entered into the practice of law in N. York," and added this significant comment: "I fear he is too much disposed to change his pursuits." Sometime in 1803 Samuel acquired a proprietary interest in the New York Daily Advertiser. On November 20, 1804 he became one of the founding members of the New-York Historical Society. Doubt regarding his objectives in life may indeed have characterized Bayard, for in 1806 he abandoned the city and moved to Princeton. Although he spent the remaining thirty-four years of his life there, his friend John Pintard on occasion found him wavering in purpose. In a letter to his daughter in New Orleans in February 1827, Pintard wrote that few men were so well situated as Bayard, who in Princeton stood "at the head of society, surrounded by sociable family friends, and a literary intercourse with the professors of College and Theological Seminary. An excellent house & garden & snug compact well cultivated farm." The house and about forty acres of land lying north of the village along the way that is still known as Bayard Lane had been purchased apparendy at the time of the move to Princeton. Subsequently, the house had been enlarged to meet the demands, as a local historian has expressed it, "of a generous hospitality." But by June 1829 Bayard was inclined to sell the place and had asked for advice on the price from Pintard, who "knowing that he was tired of farming" favored the sale. The place was at first leased, and Pintard wrote his daughter that "Aunt Patty will be relieved from large housekeeping & the Judge from attending to his beautiful farm, both which employments would exacdy suit Mother & me." The deal fell through, and by February 1830 Bayard and his wife were returning to their home. Bayard had become a judge in the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas as early as 1807. After the incorporation of the Borough of Princeton in 1813, he became its first mayor and served until 1818. He was an elder in the local Presbyterian church from 1807 to 1840, and one of its trustees from 1807 to 1838. He apparendy was a rather rigid Presbyterian. John Pintard, after describing in 1831 what he found to be a moving scene of forty young candidates for the ministry kneeling for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at the Episcopal seminary in New York, observed that "our friend Mr. Bayard of Princeton, calls this act, as he does every thing else that does not accord with his Presbyterian notions, Roman Catholic superstition." In 1812 Bayard had become one of the original directors of the Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1822 one of its first trustees.

12

CLASS OF 1 7 8 4

He served as vice president of the board from 1824 to 1831 and president from 1831 to 1840. Among the benevolent societies of his time he had a special interest in the American Bible Society; Pintard claimed for him the distinction of being virtually its founder. According to John F. Hageman's History of Princeton, Bayard's final will and testament included bequests of such generosity that his estate failed fully to match them. Nothing has been discovered regarding the exact nature of his law practice after the move to Princeton. Presumably it followed the familiar pattern of other country or small town attornies. As the list of his publications suggests, there was a scholarly turn to his interest in the law. From the very beginning of his residence in Princeton the Col­ lege claimed much of his time and attention. The General Catalogue of the University lists him as librarian in 1806-1807. His specific responsibilities in this capacity have not been determined, but in all likelihood he was primarily concerned with rebuilding the library resources destroyed when Nassau Hall burned in 1802. In April 1807 he enjoyed the distinct honor of being elected a trustee of the College in succession to his father, who had died after almost thirty years of faithful service. Samuel's term on the board was terminated in 1810, when he became treasurer of the College as successor to Enos Kelsey (A.B. 1760). Bayard's service as treasurer continued until 1818. Writ­ ing to him in January 1824 Pintard observed: "Drawing your Interest I could not but regard with pleasure the wonderful increase of the Funds of Alma Mater which does credit to the Trustees." Samuel Bayard died at Princeton on May 12, 1840. Two young sons had died and been buried in England during the term of his agency there. He was survived by three daughters and three sons: Lewis Pintard Bayard (A.B. 1809), Samuel J. Bayard (A.B. 1820), and William Marsden Bayard (A.B. 1821). His daughter Caroline married Professor Albert B. Dod (A.B. 1822) of the College's faculty. SOURCES: DAB; alumni file, PUA; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 1 Aug. 1792, 25 Sept. 1793; J. G. Wilson, "Col. John Bayard ... & the Bayard Family," NYGBR, 16 (1885), 49-72; Westchester Historian, 54 (1978), 73-77; G. T. Snowden, MS Journal, 1783-85, PPPrHi, microfilm in NjP, 10 (1783 commencement); N.J. Gazette, 3 Oct 1781, 9 Oct. 1782, 4 O c t 1784; Martin's Bench & Bar, 247; Hamilton Papers, xvi, 313-15, xvm, 466n4, xxi, 329-30; Washington Writings, xxxiv, 15, 20; D. L. Sterling, "A Federalist Opposes the Jay Treaty: The Letters of Samuel Bayard," WMQ_, 3d ser., 18 (1961), 408-24; J. G. Wilson, "Judge Bayard's London Diary of 1795-96," NYGBR, 23 (1892), 1-14; J. G. Wilson, "The Bayard Family of Amer., & Judge Bayard's London Diary of 1795-96," Proc. Huguenot Soc. of Amer., 2 (1888-91), 135-54; S. B. Dod, Jour, of Martha Pintard Bayard, London, 1794-97 (1894); E. Donnan, ed., Papers of James A. Bayard, AHA Rept. for 1913 (1915), π, 123-24, 131, 159 (quote); AASP, n.s., 27 (1917), 397; Pintard, Letters, l, x, 50-51; II, 129-30, 143-44 (1824 quote); ill, 82 (June 1829 quote), 83, 99 (Oct 1829 quote), 126, 215, 291-92 (1831 quote); Hageman, History, I, 213, 226-

WILLIAM

CAMPFIELD

13

28 (quote), 230, 231, 240; il, 4, 10, 383, 429, 440; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon & Somerset Cnties. (1881), 644-45; C. S. Brigham, Hist. 6? Bibl. ofAmer. Newspapers: 16901820 (1947), I, 20. Snell's list on p. 643 of members of the state assembly from Somerset County does not include Bayard's name, thereby calling into question the statement in more than one source that he sat several times for the county. There are two gaps in Snell's list of members of the Legislative Council (upper house), 1805-08 and 1816-21, but the journals for these years show that Bayard did not serve. PUBLICATIONS: Funeral oration, occasioned by the death of Gen. George Washington ... (1800); Abstract of those laws of the U.S. which relate chiefly to the duties & authority of the judges of the inferior state courts, & the justices of the peace ... (1804); Digest ofAmer. cases on the law of evidence... (1810, repr. 1818); .Address, delivered before the Washington benevolent societies of Princeton & Cranbury ...in commemoration of the birth-day of Washington (1813); Letters on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1822, 2d ed. 1840, 3d ed. 1858); Address ... on the due observation of the Lord's Day (1828). Bayard also translated, with alterations and additions, A catechism for youth by Jean Frederic Osterwald (1812). MANUSCRIPTS: NHi;

NjP

WFC

William Campfield (Canfield) A.B., physician, was born February 12, 1766, at Morristown, New Jersey, the only son of Dr. Jabez Campfield (A.B. 1759) and his wife Sarah Ward. During the Revolutionary War the father served as a surgeon from December 1776 to June 1783, when he was mustered out of the Continental Army. Just when William entered the College has not been established, but membership records of the Cliosophic Society date his membership, under the name of William Canfield, sometime in 1782. At his graduation on September 29, 1784 he was not among the members of the senior class who were featured as speakers. Nor is there any indication that as a student he had excelled in any special way. After graduation he probably returned to Morristown to begin an apprenticeship with his father, who following the war had taken up his practice once more and who is known over the years to have had student apprentices. In early America the practice of medicine was often an hereditary occupation, and so it seems to have been with William Campfield. On May 6, 1788 he (William Canfield) was admitted to membership in the Medical Society of New Jersey on the testimony of a committee that he had been examined and had given proof of sufficient "learning and skill in physic and surgery" as to justify his license "in those branches." Both he and his father, as William and Jabez Canfield, were among the members of the society listed in its act of incorporation by the state legislature on June 2, 1790. Dur-

WILLIAM CAMPFIELD (CANFIELD),

14

C L A S S OF

1784

ing the later years of his career he carried important responsibilities for the local county branch of the society. Apparently the father had virtually turned over his practice to the son as early as 1792. Like his father, William Campfield did not limit his activity to the practice of medicine. He was an original subscriber to the stock of the Morris Academy, of which his father in 1791 was president When the Morris County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures was organized in 1792, he was elected its secretary. Whatever else this society may have undertaken, it conducted the first public library in the county, and when in 1812 it was merged with the new Morris Library Company or Association, William became its president and his father its librarian. Whether William shared the deistic sentiments of his father has not been determined. In 1796 William had acted as sheriff of the county, and in 1799 he sat for the county in the lower house of the legislature. He may have been the Lieutenant William Canfield who served from September to December 1794 with a troop of light dragoons for the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He has been credited with service in the state cavalry from 1798 to 1807 with the rank of a captain. From 1797 forward he was active in the organization of a local fire company. In the right of his father he became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey. William Campfield died on July 16, 1812. On November 10, 1789 he had married Hannah Tuthill (Tuttle), the daughter of Dr. Samuel Tuthill. The couple had nine children, five boys and four girls, of whom at least three predeceased their father. SOURCES: The family name has variant spellings as Canfield or Camfield; indeed, Jabez is said to have added the "p" in Campfield. See F. A. Canfield, Hist, of Thomas Canfield and of Matthew Camfield (1897), 118; alumni file, PUA; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 26264; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Hist, of the First Pres. Church, Morristown, N.J. (1882P-85, 2 vols, in 1), n, 32, 289; R. S. Green & W. Durant, eds., Record, First Pres. Church of Morristown, N.J. (1880-85, 5 vols, in 1), i-n, 67, 82, 101, 110; m, 58-59; Rise, Minutes, and Proc. of N.J. Med. Soc. (1875), 61-62 (quotes), 8789, 150; Hist, of Morris Cnty. (1914), I, 34, 102, 103, 104, 233; N.J. Adjutant General's Office, Records of Officers & Men ofN.J. in Wars 1791-1815 (1909), separately numbered section on 1794 Pa. insurrection, 22; Princeton Univ. Gen. Cat. (1908), 102; Soc. of the Cincinnati in Ae State of N.J. (1960), 73, 179. WFC

Joseph Clay A.B., A.M. Brown 1806, lawyer, jurist, and Baptist clergyman, was born on August 16, 1764 at Savannah, Georgia, the son of Joseph and his wife Ann Legardere Clay. The senior Joseph

JOSEPH CLAY,

JOSEPH CLAY

15

Clay (1741-1804) was a native of Beverley, Yorkshire, England, and had migrated to Georgia in 1760. His mother was a sister of James Habersham, a connection which gave him many advantages in Georgia, including a partnership with James Habersham, Jr., that put Clay on the way to becoming an especially prosperous Savannah merchant. As the Revolution approached, he became an ardent whig and served during the war as deputy paymaster for Georgia and later for the Southern Department of the Continental Army. In 1778 he was elected to the Continental Congress, but did not attend. From an early date his mercantile activity was supplemented by rice cultivation, and some evidence suggests that for the most part he turned his attention to planting after the war. Having obtained a great deal of confiscated loyalist property, he acquired a labor force of more than 100 slaves and died leaving an estate valued at well above a quarter of a million dollars. Ralph Clay (Class of 1797) was his youngest son and William Clay Cumming (A.B. 1805) was his grandson, son of his daughter Ann. Robert Habersham (A.B. 1802) and Richard Wylly Habersham (A.B. 1805) were first cousins once removed, and William Clay Cumming (A.B. 1805) was a great-nephew. Young Joseph entered the College in April 1783 bearing a remarkable letter from his father that was addressed to "Dr. David Witherspoon." The content of the letter leaves no doubt that it was intended for President John Witherspoon, and it opens as follows: "Though unknown to you yet from a knowledge of your character I have taken the liberty to send my son (who I expect will be the bearer of this) to your college, in hopes of your admitting him there & of his participating in those advantages which your instructions must afford to any youth who is desirous of & willing to avail himself of them." The letter was dated March 29, 1783, and it was written from Savannah. By way of explaining why the son had not come to Princeton three or four years earlier, as it was claimed had been intended, the father reported that he and his family had been in exile from their own country for nearly four years prior to the enemy's withdrawal in 1782. No statement was made as to where the exile had been spent, but the ensuing acknowledgment of a heavy obligation to "Mr. Smith of Virginia, brother I believe to your son-in-law," for care of Clay's son for "part of the year 1780 & 1781" clearly indicates that the son at least had spent some of the time in Virginia. Witherspoon's sonin-law, of course, was Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), who in 1779 had been succeeded as the head of the Prince Edward Academy by his brother Blair Smith (A.B. 1773), the first president of Hampden-Sidney College upon the academy's elevation to that standing in

16

CLASS OF 1784

1783. Hampden-Sidney apparently has made no claim to Joseph Clay as a former student, but there seems to be no room for doubt that he attended that institution before coming to Princeton. Perhaps this experience actually determined the choice of Princeton for continuance of his education, and perhaps the role of David Witherspoon (A.B. 1774) as one of the early tutors at Hampden-Sidney explains the father's confusion as to President Witherspoon's name. The presence of the younger Clay at Hampden-Sidney, probably during the winter of 1780-81, lends additional interest to the fact that Joseph Clay, "formerly a Citizen of the State of South Carolina," had the names, age, and sex of thirty-one slaves who had been removed "from that state into this" state "Admitted to Record" in a court of Amherst County, Virginia, held on February 5, 1781. Apparendy in that month also, the clerk listed other slaves from South Carolina belonging to Joseph and John Habersham. It is known that after the British capture of Savannah at the close of 1778 Joseph Clay had setded his family, with some of his slaves, on the Ashley River about fifteen miles above Charleston, where in the following November he acquired as well a house in the town. Presumably the family's residence in and about Charleston continued until the British occupation of the city in May 1780, and presumably the later student of Nassau Hall received a part of his preparatory education there. He came to Nassau Hall with a choice of law for a career already determined. The father explained to Witherspoon that a "preposterous" requirement of five years as a clerk for admission to the bar in Georgia had caused him, in view of the advanced age of his son, to prevail upon a friend "to article him as a clerk" before he left for the College. Clay further explained that the separation of late from his son had left him imperfectly acquainted with the progress of his education, but he beheved that Witherspoon would find that he had a "tolerable knowledge of the Latin, some idea of Greek," and that he had "paid some little attention to the mathematics & natural philosophy." This quite obviously was an excessively modest statement of the young man's qualifications, for in less than eighteen months after coming to Princeton Joseph Clay had graduated at the head of a class of twenty-four men who in more than one instance had enjoyed unmistakable advantages of social position and prior education. Clay opened the commencement exercises of September 29, 1784 with a Latin salutatory oration "on the encouragement of science," and late in the day it was announced that he was the first recipient of the Dickinson medal, which had been established by a gift from John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Delaware as a prize for the best dissertation written by a student in the College. Clay's essay

JOSEPH CLAY

17

addressed the question of "What are the best means to be adopted by civil government for the promotion of piety and virtue among the people?" Earlier he had shared with James A. Bayard the honor of representing his literary society, which was Clio, in the delivery of the so-called "competitive orations." Each of the orators spoke at the choice of fellow members of his society, and Clay spoke, no doubt with some indebtedness to his prize essay, "on the necessity of virtue as the principle of free states." The essay was published at Philadelphia in 1785, with a dedication dated at Princeton on November 29, 1784, to John Dickinson which credited him with encouragement of the publication. Although the main outline of Clay's subsequent career is clear enough, more of the detail would be decidedly welcome. A letter of 1796 by Congressman Abraham Baldwin recommending Clay for appointment as federal district judge indicates that he had studied law with the celebrated George Wythe at Williamsburg, Virginia, but just when or for how long is not stated. He was in Princeton in September 1795 when, as "Brother Pythagoras," he was chosen to preside over the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society held at commencement each year. He returned to Savannah for a practice that soon brought him a special eminence. According to Baldwin's letter of 1796, the Georgia congressional delegation unanimously had recommended Clay as successor to William Bradford (A.B. 1772) in the office of attorney general of the United States upon the latter's death in 1795. That appointment went rather to Charles Lee (A.B. 1775), but Clay was appointed federal judge for the District of Georgia in 1796. In the preceding year he had been an influential member of the state convention which revised Georgia's original state constitution, and the constitution drafted by another convention in 1798 is said to have had its beginning with a draft in Clay's own hand, though not a draft faithfully followed in all of its details. A Federalist in politics, as was his father, he was promoted to judge of the fifth district circuit court by President John Adams in 1801, but shared the fate of other "midnight" appointees when in the following year the Jeffersonians repealed the judiciary act establishing the office. According to John M. Berrien (A.B. 1796), who studied law with Clay and later became United States attorney general and senator, Clay was a man of "fine personal appearance," above medium height, and possessed of a "countenance strikingly intellectual." A sportsman who was "fond of his gun," and a gardener who frequendy worked at it with his own hands, he was sociable and witty. Berrien remembered him as one of the most eloquent men he had known during the course of half a century.

18

CLASS OF 1784

Clay had been brought up under the influence of an Anglican/Episcopalian faith, but by 1803 he converted to the Baptist persuasion. He joined the Baptist church at Savannah, and was soon called to be its assistant pastor, a capacity in which he was ordained in 1804. No indication of whether this conversion affected his political persuasion has been discovered. Whatever the fact on that score, the brief remainder of his life was devoted to religious work. Having made a preaching tour of New England in the fall of 1806, he was called by the First Baptist Church of Boston to be its associate pastor, with the understanding that he would succeed in time its elderly minister as pastor. In December of that year Clay agreed to give the proposal a year's trial. Within a few months the church's pastor had died, and the invitation to Clay had been renewed. He was installed as pastor on August 19, 1807, and preached his own installation sermon, which subsequendy was published. In litde more than a year failing health imposed limitations upon his services as pastor, and he died at Boston on January 11, 1811. He had been a trustee of Brown University since 1807. Joseph Clay had been married on November 25, 1789 to Mary, a daughter of Thomas and Mary Savage of Charleston, South Carolina. They had children, but the number of them and other specific details have not been discovered. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; DAB (father and son); LMCC, m, lii; iv, li; "Letters of Joseph Clay ... 1776-93," Ga. Hist. Soc. Collections, 8 (1913), 7-11, 126-28, 130, 141, 156, 158, 160, 173, 182-84 (to Witherspoon); SCHM, 5 (1904), 158, 160; 27 (1926), 73; Col. Va. St. Papers, l, 491; Writers' Program, Ga., Savannah River Plantations (1947 repr. 1972), 201, 458-62; PUL Chron., 14 (1952/3), 72-89 (for journal of GUbert T. Snowden, with whom Clay roomed during part of his college stay); Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Williams, Academic Honors, xiu, 9-10; Clio. Min., 29 Sept. 1795; GHQ, 7 (1923), 208-12 (includes Baldwin's letter); Sprague, Annab, vi, 487-90; Hist. Cat. of Brown Univ. (1936), 8, 1131; NEHGR, I, (1847), 241. It has been assumed that the Princetonian was the Joseph Clay elected in 1799 to membership in the American Philosophical Society, but this seems to have been Congressman Joseph Clay (24 July 1769-27 Aug. 1811) of Philadelphia. The Princetonian served briefly (1798-99) as a trustee of the University of Georgia (Cat. of the Trustees, Officers, Alumni ... of the Univ. ofGa. ... 1785 to 1906 [1906], 3). PUBLICATIONS: Essay, Delivered in a Competition of the Students of the College of N.J. for the Annual Medal Given by His Excellency John Dickinson (1785); Discourse, Delivered in the First Baptist Meeting-House in Boston, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 1807, on the Occasion of his Installation (1807). WFC

19

Ira Condict IRA CONDICT, A.B., A.M. 1787, D.D. 1810, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed clergyman and college president, was born February 21, 1764 in Orange Township, Essex County, New Jersey, the son of Daniel and Ruth Harrison Condict. In the will drawn on October 25, 1783 and proved on November 24 of the same year, the father described himself as a yeoman of Newark, Essex County. To his son Ira he bequeathed £100 "for his education," and in addition fifteen acres of land. The remainder of his "lands and salt meadow" went to three other sons, who were to serve also as executors. Bequests of £100 each to two daughters and a grandson suggest that yeoman Condict was a man of some substance. The will also indicates that at the time of its drafting Ira Condict was already committed to the ministerial career he would follow, and that he had enrolled in the College as a step toward such a career at some time before the fall of 1783. A likely guess would be the autumn of 1782, since Condict joined the American Whig Society and was apparently not a member in the summer of 1782. No other evidence regarding Condict's stay at the College has been discovered except that at his commencement on September 29, 1784, he delivered as one of the orators of the occasion a "humorous description of a machine for making panegyricks." His preparation for college has been credited to the Reverends Jedediah Chapman (A.M. 1765) of Orange and Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757) of Newark. Following his graduation Condict studied theology with the Reverend John Woodhull (A.B. 1766) of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Woodhull conducted a Latin school at Freehold in which Joseph Clark (A.B. 1781) had taught while studying with Woodhull, and apparently Condict did the same. Presumably it was while studying and teaching in Monmouth County that Condict married Sarah, daughter of Henry Perrine, a communicant of the Presbyterian church at Freehold whose farm of approximately 800 acres closely adjoined the site of the Battle of Monmouth. No specific date for the marriage has been discovered, but it can be noted that a Sarah "Perrine" joined the church at Freehold sometime between 1780 and September 28, 1786. Sarah's sister Mary married William B. Sloan (A.B. 1792) in 1796, and her sister Lydia became the wife of the Reverend John J. Carle (A.M. 1792). Condict was licensed to preach by the New Brunswick Presbytery in April 1786. In November 1787 he was ordained pastor of the Newton, Hardwick, and Shappenock Presbyterian congregations, all then of Sussex County, New Jersey, with President John Witherspoon reportedly preaching

20

CLASS OF 1784

Ira Condict, A.B. 1784

the ordination sermon. Condict continued to serve these congregations until late 1793 when he accepted a call from the Dutch Reformed Church of New Brunswick. While still living in Newton, Condict welcomed his wife's younger brother Matthew LaRue Perrine (A.B. 1797) into his home and supervised his preparatory studies. Perrine accompanied the Condicts on their move to New Brunswick and continued to study under his brother-in-law, whose influence is said to have motivated him toward a ministerial career. Condict was installed in his new pastorate early in 1794 and remained pastor of the Reformed Church in New Brunswick until his death in 1811. His contract stipulated that services be conducted in English, that he preach two sermons each Sunday during the summer and one during winter months, as well as conduct services on the feast days of the church. Reasonably tall, dark haired, and athletically built, he gave to contemporaries an impression of a vigorous personality and mind. His sermons were delivered with few gestures, and they carried few appeals to the emotions. To some he seemed stiff and more than ordinarily grave, even for a minister. His his-

IRA C O N D I C T

21

torical importance depends primarily upon the service he rendered the cause of education, but there can be no doubt that his primary commitment was to the Christian ministry. Active in affairs of the church's governing body, he was elected president of the general synod when it met in Albany, New York in 1800. In secular matters he was a conspicuous Federalist. Almost immediately after the move to New Brunswick, and perhaps it can be said, almost as a matter of course, he was elected a trustee of the local Queen's College, later Rutgers. The election came at an especially critical point in the college's history. Its identification with the Reformed Church had failed to bring adequate financial resources to its support, in part because New Brunswick lay outside the main centers of the Dutch Reformed population in New York and northern New Jersey. Since the death of President Jacob R. Hardenbergh toward the end of 1790 the college had lacked a president, and in 1793 the trustees had even considered a union with the College at Princeton as a possible solution to their problems. A joint committee drawn from each board of trustees had proposed in September of that year a petition to the state legislature for a charter combining the two boards under a plan to have the College at Princeton drop its grammar school. By the narrow margin of one vote the plan had been rejected by the Queen's College trustees in the following October, and in August 1794 Condict was appointed president pro tern and professor of moral philosophy. It was agreed that Queen's College would be suspended after the commencement of 1795, with Condict meanwhile providing instruction for the small number of students remaining in the college. Thereafter, the grammar school was continued under the general superintendence of Condict, but the college in effect was dead from 1795 to 1807. In 1807 with Condict as president, the trustees, a board that had become representative of little more than New Brunswick and its environs, undertook to revive the college. A campaign to collect a fund of $12,000 for the construction of a new building was launched, and Condict agreed to instruct the junior class, the only class to be admitted immediately to the college. During the next year he taught both the juniors and seniors. At the commencement of 1809, at which Condict presided, there were five graduates, and by 1810 all told there were twenty-one students enrolled, with Condict sharing with a recently appointed professor of natural philosophy the instruction of upperclassmen. Condict's son Daniel Harrison Condict (A.B. 1807) had been appointed tutor in charge of underclassmen. Ira Condict also was among the more active trustees in the solicitation of funds that made possible a beginning of construction on the new building,

22

CLASS OF 1784

even soliciting from house to house "to plead the cause." Destined to be known as "Old Queen's," the new building first came into use in the fall of 1811, a few months after Condict's death, although he had the honor of helping to lay the cornerstone. No one had contributed more to the revival of the college than had Condict, who before his death had declined both the presidency and the vice presidency, but had agreed to a regular appointment as professor of moral philosophy along with general superintendence of the college, and who continued to be the real leader of the institution, even after the election of another as president in 1810. His refusal to accept the formal office he actually filled on a pro tern basis through many years undoubtedly reflected the priority he assigned to his pastoral duties. Having been elected a trustee of the College at Princeton in 1804, Condict resigned the office in 1809, for reasons that are probably best explained by the heavy responsibilities he had assumed in behalf of the college at New Brunswick. He died on June 1, 1811 at the age of forty-seven. He and Sarah had become the parents of eight children, of whom his will suggests that only Daniel H. had reached maturity at the time of Condict's death. Tragically, Daniel died on August 28, only a few months after his father. The father had bequeathed $500 to Daniel "for completing his education," a "small guilt Bible" to each of three daughters, and to his wife Sarah a house and lot in New Brunswick, together with furniture to the value of $350, his "hotpress" Bible, and the "negro-maid, Hannah." The remainder of his "moveable property and the farm on which I live" was to be sold, and the proceeds invested in "bank stock" with the "interest thereof to be for the use of "wife and family." When the youngest child became of age, the "whole [was] to be divided between them equally." Should his wife remarry, she was to keep the furniture, the Bible and the Negro servant, and the house was to be sold for the benefit of the family. His wife is said to have lived until 1846. Aaron Condict (A.B. 1788) was a first cousin. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Sprague, Annals, rv, 237-41 (where Matthew Perrine is incorrectly identified as Condict's nephew); ix, 79; C. E. Corwin, Manual cf the Reformed Church in Amer.... 1628-1922 (5th ed., 1922), 286; P. N. Vandenberge, Hist. Dir. ofRrformed Church m Amer. (1978), 34; Cat. of Officers 6f Alumni of Rutgers College (1909), 8, 15-16, 24; N.J. Witts, vi, 89-90; xu, 77; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; Beam, Whig Soc., 62 (IC not listed among members in summer 1782); N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Pres. Church in the U.S.A., Records... 1706 to... 1788 (1841), 516, 543; F. R. Symmes, Hist, of Old Tennent Church, 106, 183, 184, 396-97; Hobart, Carres., I, 33842; W. H. Benedict, New Brunswick m Hist. (1925), 140-41; W. H. S. Demarest, Hist, of Rutgers College (1924), 169-215 ("plead the cause"), 220-21, 224; R. P. McCormick, Rutgers: A Bicentennial Hist. (1966), 23-30; D. W. Robson, Educating Republicans (1985),

T H O M A S COOPER

23

156 (Federalist politics); R H. Steele, 150th Ann. of 1st Reformed Dutch Church of NewBrunswick, N.J. (1867), 86-102. For "hot-press" Bible see D. C. Murtrie, The Book (1967), 374-80. WFC

Thomas Cooper A.B., has not been fully identified. He joined the Cliosophic Society in 1782, which could also have been the year in which he entered the College. Except for the degree he was awarded, Cooper had no part in the commencement exercises of September 29, 1784. If circumstantial evidence be admitted, there is reason for believing that the Princeton graduate was the Thomas Cooper who was qualified for the practice of law before the Supreme Court of the State of New York on October 22, 1787, almost exactly three years after Cooper's graduation from the College, a term comparable to the apprenticeship served by other members of the Class of 1784 who studied law. This lawyer lived and practiced in New York City, and at the time of the first census probably was the Thomas Cooper who headed a family composed of one free white male over sixteen years of age, one under sixteen, and one free white female, figures which suggest a recently married couple with one male child. It would appear that Cooper was a reasonably successful lawyer. He became in time a master in chancery, a functionary of the chancery court whose duties included specific assignments of investigative projects upon which the court's decrees might depend. City directories list him as a master in chancery with a Wall Street address as late as 1814. Thereafter, he is missing, unless he is the Thomas Cooper who in a directory for 1815 is listed among the persons in New York City and County who had died between the first of May 1814 and the first of June 1815. His age at the time of death is given as forty-two, which is not quite right for a man who had graduated from college in 1784. Perhaps there was a clerical error. According to the catalogues of the College, its graduate was dead by 1818. THOMAS COOPER,

SOURCES: Clio, lists; Clio. Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; N.Y. City directories 1789 & 1791 (admission to bar), 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815 (death p. 456); Hamilton Papers, xxi, 327; xxii, 92, 96, 402-03; xxvi, 52, 56, 299n; J. Goebel, Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton, 347-48, 547; P. D. Evans, Holland Land Company (1924), 183-85; First Census, N.Y., 122. At first glance, an inviting possibility is that the graduate was Thomas Cooper, son of Thomas and Mary Cooper of Southampton, Long Island, and brother of Caleb Cooper of the Class of 1769, but there is evidence that this Thomas was born as early as 1738. See G. R. Howell, Early Hist, ofSouthampton, LJ., N.Y. (1887), 221; NYGBR, 46 (1915), 19; and N.Y. With, x, 285-86 for father's

CLASS OF

24

1784

will, proved 1782, which contained special provisions for his son Thomas. Thomas Cooper, master in chancery, seems definitely to have been a different person from the Thomas Cooper who in 1815 was elected assistant alderman and thereafter held a number of local New York City offices. There has been no difficulty in finding other Thomas Coopers living in different parts of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but efforts to establish some connection with Princeton have been unsuccessful, as also is true in the case of Thomas Cooper, Jr., born in Henry County, Va., in 1767, who married Judith Harvey and is said to have died in Georgia in 1842 (VMHB, 9 [1902], 220). WFC

Alexander Edwards A.B., lawyer and public official, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, in the latter part of 1767 or the earlier months of 1768, the son of John Edwards and his second wife Margaret Peronneau Edwards. No more specific date of birth can be given, for on this point the only positive evidence found is the statement in a newspaper notice of his death on August 8, 1811 that he had died "in the 44th year of his age." His father, possibly a native of Wales, had migrated from Bristol in England about 1750, and at Charleston he had become one of the city's more prosperous merchants. On the eve of the Revolution he was a prominent importer of African slaves. He also became a leading whig who, as the political crisis developed, served on the committee of safety, as a member of the first and second of the provincial congresses of 1775, and subsequently as state assemblyman, member of the privy council, and naval commissioner, and he became an especially heavy investor in state bonds. A vigorous opponent of all proposals for reconciliation with Britain, he was among the residents of Charleston who, after its capitulation to the British in May 1780, were sent as prisoners to St. Augustine in Florida. There he shared imprisonment with James H. Thomson (A.B. 1761), Richard Hutson (A.B. 1765), and Dr. David Ramsay (A.B. 1765), all active members, as was Edwards, of the Independent Congregational (Circular) Church of Charleston. Given this background, there is nothing remarkable in the enrollment of Alexander Edwards at Princeton. Indeed, it is possible that Alexander's previous education was received chiefly in the school Thomson conducted in Charleston after 1773. But the circumstances attending his first enrollment may well have been unusual. No evidence regarding the time of that enrollment has been discovered beyond the indication that he joined the Cliosophic Society in 1782 and circumstantial evidence suggesting that he may have come to the College directly from Philadelphia at an earlier date. His father had ALEXANDER EDWARDS,

ALEXANDER EDWARDS

25

died at Philadelphia on August 18, 1781 after a release from imprisonment that did not include the right to return to Charleston. In fact, the British in releasing the St. Augustine deportees had ordered their families out of Charleston, and it is known that John Edwards had died before his third wife, Alexander's stepmother, reached Philadelphia with nine children and twelve servants. There she joined other refugee families from South Carolina and Georgia who before the year was out had become special objects of charity. The Congress authorized the appointment of a committee of five to superintend the securing of subscriptions in the amount of $30,000 for loans to needy members of the group on the security of a prospect that their legislatures eventually would provide for repayment. The results were disappointing, except that in Pennsylvania approximately half of the desired total was subscribed for loans and in addition some $3,300 was received in the form of outright contributions. For this success Col. John Bayard, trustee of the College since 1778 and the father of four sons who had or would attend Nassau Hall, received much of the credit. It seems unlikely that the Edwards family was in critical need of charity but possible that Colonel Bayard took a special interest in the orphaned son of another stout-hearted patriot and may have assisted him in going to the College. Whatever may be the fact, it seems unlikely that the Edwards family returned to Charleston much, if at all, before the British evacuation of the city in December 1782. Alexander Edwards's Cliosophic Society pseudonym was Salmon, probably for Thomas Salmon, an English historical and geographical writer. Edwards retained enough interest in the society to attend a Clio meeting when he happened to be in Princeton on July 16, 1800. Aside from his Cliosophic membership, nothing has been discovered regarding Alexander's years at the College. On commencement day, September 29, 1784, he spoke in the afternoon "on the follies of love." After graduation Edwards apparently returned to Charleston to study law. In 1787 he was admitted to the bar. In 1796 he became the recorder for the city, which seems to have been the only public office he held and one he kept to the end of his life. It was in that capacity, no doubt, that he compiled for publication the Ordinances of the City Council of Charleston (1802). No specific evidence regarding his political affiliation has been discovered, but it probably is safe to conclude that he favored the Federalists. Such, at any rate, is suggested by his marriage on May 22, 1793 to Mary McPherson DeSaussure, the daughter of Daniel DeSaussure, another of the prisoners at St. Augustine, and the sister of Henry William DeSaussure who had

26

CLASS OF 1 7 8 4

married Elizabeth Ford, sister to Timothy Ford (A.B. 1783), another Charleston lawyer. Henry and Elizabeth DeSaussure were the parents of Henry A. DeSaussure (A.B. 1806). Alexander and Mary Edwards became the parents of nine children, of whom eight and possibly the ninth were baptized in the Independent Church. Of the six boys, four died in their youth. The cause of their father's untimely death has not been discovered. His will was dated August 4, 1811, and proved less than two weeks later on August 16. All household furniture and the carriage and horses were left to the widow, with provision that the remainder of the property should be divided among the wife and the surviving children. She, her brother, and one other male relative were executors, with provision that Edwards's son John, baptized on July 3, 1796, and the oldest of the surviving boys, should become an executor upon attaining his majority. The widow died in 1816. SOURCES: The principal source has been Μ. P. Fenhagen, "John Edwards & Some of His Descendants," SCHGM, 55 (1954), 15-27; see also SCHGM, 21 (1920), 157; 29 (1928), 179; 33 (1932), 31, 167, 169, 171, 174, 307, 311; 34 (1933), 47, 70, 78-79, 84, 97, 138-47; 37 (1936), 33; 65 (1964), 207-08; 72 (1971), 22-23; J. Johnson, Traditions & Reminiscences ... of the Amer. Revolution (1851), 316-20, 332, 368; E. McCrady, Hist. ofS.C. in the Revolution, 1775S0 (1901), 241, 282, 362, 375, 729; W. E. Hemphill, ed., ExtractsfromJourneUs of the Provincial Cong, of S.C., 1775-76 (1961), passim; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., u, 214-16; A. K. Gregorie, Records of Court of Chancery of S.C., 16711779 (1950), 627; Clio, lists; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Clio. Min., 16 July 1800; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; O'Neall, Bench 6? Bar S.C., π, 600. WFC

Gabriel H. Ford H. FORD, A.B., attorney and judge, was born in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey, on January 3, 1765, one of four sons and two daughters of Jacob Ford, Jr., and Theodosia Johnes Ford. His elder brother, Timothy (A.B. 1783), and a younger brother, Jacob (A.B. 1792), also attended the College and went on to the study of law. The Ford family came to New Jersey from Duxbury, Massachusetts around 1701. Gabriel's grandfather, Jacob Ford, Sr., was a tavern owner, an iron manufacturer, and a county judge. He was a representative to the New Jersey Assembly in 1772 and was later active on the local committee of correspondence. Gabriel's mother was the daughter of the Reverend Timothy Johnes, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Morristown for half a century, and a trustee of the College from 1748 until 1788. Stevens Johnes Lewis (A.B. 1791) was the son of another daughter, Anne Stevens Johnes Lewis, and William Johnes (Class of 1776) was a son of Timothy Johnes and uncle of Gabriel Ford. GABRIEL

GABRIEL Η. FORD

27

Jacob Ford, Jr., joined his father in the manufacture of iron and by 1764 was the owner of the Middle Forge near Morristown. In 1776 the Fords built a powder mill near the Morristown-Whippany Road, on the bank of the Whippanong River, where they cast shot and shell for George Washington's army. In 1775 Jacob Ford, Jr., became a colonel of militia in Morris County, commanding a battalion of over 800 officers and men. Known as a distinguished officer and a firm and decided patriot, Ford was involved in a number of skir­ mishes with British forces. On December 17, 1776, while repelling the brigade of General Alexander Leslie, commander of the British rearguard at Elizabethtown and Rahway, he caught a "mortal cold," and two weeks later, on December 31 at Morristown, he collapsed and fell from his horse, the victim of a fever which had probably turned to pneumonia. He died on January 11, 1777. His will stated his desire that his sons have a "liberal education." Jacob Ford had built a home for his family that was considered one of the largest and finest in the county. This house was later inherited by Gabriel Ford and was the home in which his family was raised. Jacob Ford left the house and its furnishings to his widow Theodosia. This was the building that became George Washington's headquarters during the winter of 1779-1780. Mrs. Ford retained two rooms for the use of herself and her family, with the rest of the house at the disposal of Washington and his aides. Known as the Ford Mansion, it is now part of the Morristown National Historical Eark. There is no record of Gabriel Ford's early education, but he prob­ ably prepared for college at a school in Morristown. He joined the Cliosophic Society in 1782. Gilbert Tennent Snowden (A.B. 1783), who appears to have been a close friend of Ford's older brother Tim­ othy, described Ford as being of "good parts." Snowden considered him a good scholar and speaker, but felt that he spoke too slowly and made his gestures too slowly. He listed Ford's personality traits as, "A good companion, pretty witty, rather passionate, but it is soon over. He is sensible of his faults & makes all proper concessions. A person of much sensibility & a good sincere friend." At his commencement exercises on September 29, 1784, Ford delivered "A panegyrick ora­ tion on Col. Francis Barber [A.B. 1767], of the New Jersey Line." After graduation Ford studied law under Abraham Ogden, at first of Morristown and later of Newark. Ford was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in 1789, and as a counsellor in 1793. He began his practice in Newark, where he became a member of the Institutio legatis, a moot court in which law students and attorneys gained experience by trying hypothetical cases. Fellow members included

28

CLASS OF 1784

Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779) and Alexander C. McWhorter (A.B. 1784). Ford returned to Morristown to practice law and also took an active part in community affairs. When Morris Academy was organized on November 28, 1791, he was one of twenty-four proprietors who each subscribed £25 toward the new school. He was appointed second director of this group, and in 1815 he served as its president. Caleb Russell (A.B. 1770) was selected as principal of the academy, which opened a year later with thirty-five students. In 1799 Ford became one of the incorporators of the Morris Aqueduct, and in March 1801, one of the three incorporators of the Morris Turnpike Company, the first of several turnpike companies in the county. It was chartered for the purpose of erecting and maintaining a turnpike from Elizabethtown, in Essex County, through Morristown, and continuing into Sussex County. This objective was accomplished, with the road passing directly in front of Ford's home. Considered one of the foremost men in the community, he was part of the committee chosen to prepare for the July 14, 1825 visit of the Marquis de Lafayette (LL.D. 1790) to Morristown. Whatever spare time he had was spent in improving his house and lands, where he installed windmills, had new cisterns built, and planted new gardens, as well as both fruit and ornamental trees. Ford moved from the bar to the bench in 1818, when the state legislature passed a statute dividing the state into three judicial districts and appointed "someone skilled in the law" as presiding judge for each district This measure was an attempt to provide a remedy for the alleged incompetence of the county judges. Ford became presiding judge of a very large district comprising Bergen, Essex, Morris, and Sussex counties. A repeal of the statute two years later legislated Ford out of office. At this time Samuel L. Southard (A.B. 1804), upon his election to the United States Senate, had retired from his position as associate justice of the state supreme court, and Ford became a candidate for that position. He was elected by the legislature by the margin of only one vote over his opponent, Joseph Mcllvaine. One authority concluded that the election was determined by geography rather than by considerations of ability, observing that "Mr. Mcllvaine was the stronger man, the better lawyer; but, Mr. Ford was from East Jersey." Ford, however, was twice reelected to this position and was dissuaded from seeking a fourth term in 1841 only because of infirm health and a growing deafness which was making it increasingly difficult for him to discharge his duties. Ford seems to have been more eloquent than gifted with the other skills or insights of a lawyer. Few other advocates, wrote one admirer,

GABRIEL Η. FORD

29

were able "more effectually to secure the attention, enlist the sympa­ thy, & control the judgment of an intelligent jury." Because of this talent, "he seldom lost a good cause, & was frequently able to gain one of doubtful merit." He apparently was conscientious and indus­ trious, methodical, and precise. He is also described as courteous and affable, a man with pleasing manners. But one justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court observed that "we did not think his decisions on points of law very reliable." Another member of the New Jersey bar declared that Judge Ford "did not receive the full confidence of the bar." When Ford retired from the bench he did not resume his law practice, but spent his remaining years at home. He died August 27, 1849, just short of his eighty-fifth birthday. Upon his retirement from the bench in 1841 the members of the New Jersey bar adopted a commendatory resolution: The memories of those associated with him upon the bench and at the bar will bear lasting witness of his untiring patience in investigation, his purity, and his independence, which led him at all times to adopt as a maxim, "Be just and fear not"; so too we remember and gratefully acknowledge the constant, unvarying, and distinguished courtesy, which throughout the many years of his judicial labors marked his intercourse with the bench and bar. On January 26, 1790 Ford had married Frances Gualdo, a ward of Benjamin Randolph of Philadelphia and daughter of Giovanni Gual­ do, who was reputed to be a nobleman from Vincenza, Italy. There were seven children of this marriage, five sons and two daughters. Henry A. Ford, attorney and county prosecutor for Morris Coun­ ty, inherited the Ford home. Another son, Lewis DeSaussure Ford, practiced medicine in South Carolina for several years, then settled in Augusta, Georgia, where he twice served as mayor of the city and became president of the Medical Association of Georgia. During the Civil War he was the surgeon in charge of the general hospital in Augusta, while his son Henry W. DeSaussure Ford was a surgeon in the Confederate army. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; DAB (sketch of father); T. Thayer, Colonial and Revolu­ tionary Morris Cnty (1975), 80, 109, 136; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; W. O. Wheeler, Ogden Family in America (1907), 103-04; Biog. Encyc. of N.J. of the 19th Cent. (1877), 69; Elmer, N.J. Bench 6f Bar, 313-16 ("very reliable" & resolution of bar); Giger, Memoirs ("seldom lost a good cause"); J. Whitehead, Judicial 6f Civil Hist, of N.J. (1897), I, 418-19 ("from East Jersey," "confidence of the bar"); NJA, xxii (1900), 68 (marriage); N.J. Hist., 97 (1979), 125-34; Hist, of Morris Cnty. (1882), 59-60, 66-67, 149-50; J. E. Lindsley, A Certain Splendid House (1974), 23-24; G. T. Snowden,

30

CLASS OF

1784

MS Journal, 1783-85, PPPrHi, microfilm in NjP, 16 Oct. 1783; R. M. Myers, Children of Pride (1972), 1523. Gabriel Ford's middle initial "H" is said to stand for "Hogarth,'' a name given to him by a roommate when a law student. Apparently each assigned the other a middle name. RLW

Agur T. Furman (Forman) T. FURMAN (FORMAN), A.B., probably a law student, is listed in College catalogues by the name of Forman, but the account of the commencement ceremonies at the time of his graduation, given in the Trenton New-Jersey Gazette, lists him as Agur T. Furman. Both Forman and Furman were common names in New Jersey at that time, and spellings were inconsistent. Since no other record of an Agur Forman has been found, it is probable that Agur (or Agar) Furman of Maidenhead, Hunterdon County (present-day Lawrenceville in Mercer County) was the Class of 1784 graduate. Agur's grandfather Richard was one of the early emigrants from Long Island to Maidenhead. He is listed among the group of residents of Maidenhead who in 1710 became grantees for the tract of land still occupied by the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. Richard's second son, Josiah, and his wife Mary were the parents of Agur, daughters Mary and Sarah, and possibly a second son Josiah. Nothing is known of the time Agur spent at the College, except that he joined the Cliosophic Society in 1782, and that at the commencement ceremonies for his class he delivered "an oration on the principles of Legislation." Josiah Furman died February 16, 1788, leaving one-third of his estate to his son Agur. The executors of his will were his sons-inlaw John Johnson, husband of daughter Sarah, and Jonathan Smith, husband of daughter Mary. The omission of Agur's name among the executors may be an indication that he was already in poor health and unable to discharge this duty for his father. Agur Furman died intestate April 25, 1789, leaving an estate valued at £249.12.9 for which his brother-in-law Jonathan Smith acted as administrator. Smith was granted expenses for a trip to Virginia on business of the estate. A lawsuit against the deceased by Isaac Snowden was discharged for £14.7.1, but it is impossible to say whether this was the Snowden father, trustee of the College from 1782 to 1808, or his son (Class of 1785). Notes held by Elias Boudinot and Jonathan Deere, Esq. were also satisfied, the latter in the amount of £34.0.1 for "a student fee, calculated with interest" Jonathan Deare was a lawyer in New Brunswick, New Jersey, under whom Agur may have been studying. AGUR

JOHN

GIBBES

31

SOURCES: E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers m Trenton & Ewing, N.J. (1883), 74-76, 183; H. J. Podmore, Pres. Church of Lawrenceville, N.J. (1948), 30; Clio. Sot, Cat. (1840), 5; ΝJ. Gazette, 4 Oct., 1784; N.J. WiUs, vn, 85; administrator's report of estate of ATF, 12 Apr. 1792, Nj. In a letter to hisfianceeJulia Stockton, written December 9,1775, Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) described an incident where he met a local farmer on the road between Princeton and Maidenhead. The latter talked of his ten-year-old son "Agar," who had "a great turn for learning," and who had recently sketched "an exact copy of a map of France." This could have been the youthful Agur Furman. See W. J. Bell, Jr., & L. H. Butterfield, eds., My Dearest Julia (1979), 26-27. RLW

John Gibbes A.B., planter, was born September 28, 1765 at Charleston, or St. John's Parish, Colleton County, South Carolina, the oldest son of Robert Gibbes and his second wife Sarah Reeve, and the older brother of Lewis Ladson and Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes, both of the Class of 1790. He belonged to one of the more numerous and prosperous of families descended from an early settler in South Carolina. Robert Gibbes, the family's founder, had been a native of Kent County, England, who migrated to Barbados in the West Indies, and thence to Carolina, where he died in 1715, after having held the offices of proprietary deputy, member of council, chief justice, and acting governor of the province in 1710-1711. With the passage of time helpful connections of marriage and blood had been established with other prominent South Carolina families. According to the cen­ sus of 1790, John's father owned 110 slaves, and John himself may have been the owner of another fifty-one. There is some question as to where and when John Gibbes was prepared for College. Family tradition holds, on the one hand, that he studied first in England, returning home at some time during the Revolution, and on the other hand, that he traveled in England and Europe after graduation from the College. A number of surviving letters written by his mother between August 11 and October 10, 1783 were sent in care of a Mr. Ross of Philadelphia, probably the merchant John Ross, financial agent of South Carolina in that city and the father of Charles Ross (Class of 1791). The earliest of these epistles, deploring the tutor currendy teaching the younger boys in the family, continues, "What would I not do for him were he a Mr. West," implying that West had been John Gibbes's much more satisfactory tutor. In a later letter she reluctantly dissuaded her son from returning home during the fall break because of the hazards of a voyage to Charleston during the hurricane season. Instead she suggested that he "journey eastward and seek our Friend Mr. West."

JOHN GIBBES,

32

CLASS OF 1784

The mother's letter of August 11 answered one from Princeton dated July 7, and she expressed her pleasure at hearing of Jack's being agreeably situated. It seems plain that he arrived at the College sometime earlier that summer, with admission as a member of the junior class. He must have written of the two literary societies on the campus and his fear that membership in one would cut him off from friendships with members of the rival society. His mother urged him to join one, because "a young person should let no kind of useful knowledge escape him when he has an opportunity of attaining it." She questioned whether he could not enter on a "liberal plan," joining one society while still being friendly with the other. On the basis of their names she preferred the Cliosophic Society, but her son chose the Whigs. Gibbes was able to avail himself of the services of a dancing and fencing master but had not been able to find a music instructor; "cannot Prince Town afford one Master," his disappointed mother asked. She considered accomplishments in these areas "very requisite for the finishing of a Young Gentleman's education," and advised that he "sacrifice sometimes to the graces, altho not entirely on Lord Chesterfield's plan." Having thus invited attention to Lord Chesterfield's standard, she quite irrationally added: "But why have I mentioned that book it may perhaps raise a curiosity in you to read it if you never have. Pray forbear until you are three or four years older, your Principles will then be fixed, at present it is dangerous reading for a youthful mind." A good guess is that if the young man previously had not read Chesterfield, he promptly attempted to find a copy. The parents heartily approved when Gibbes sent instructions to have his horse sold so that he might use the proceeds to build up a personal library, and Mrs. Gibbes said of the horse, "in my opinion he will certainly appear to most advantage in your library, neatly bound and gilt." Sarah Gibbes was remarkably well read; she not only suggested a list of authors for her son but detailed the ways in which each could enrich or instruct him. And she advised ordering his books in England, for she had never seen any from Philadelphia "printed on worthwhile paper or bound properly." Mrs. Gibbes on several occasions sent greetings from "Young Deas," who could have been any one of the three Deas brothers who later attended the College. In a letter to his family Gibbes mentioned Samuel Beach (A.B. 1783), a fellow-Whig, as a particular friend. Although Sarah Gibbes did not hesitate to warn her eighteen-year-old son that "youthful minds are very susceptible" where young ladies are concerned, he was in general treated as an adult.

J O H N GIBBES

33

The advice of a family friend was forwarded—to stay at Nassau Hall until he had obtained his degree—but the final decision was left to his own discretion. His advice was solicited as to whether the next younger brother, Robert, whom the family had selected to study law, would benefit from coming to the College. Apparently the answer was negative. When it became necessary to fire the unsatisfactory tutor of the younger boys, Jack was delegated to find a replacement. At his commencement Gibbes delivered one of the intermediate orations. He closed the morning portion of the exercises by delivering "A panegyrick on Gen. Montgomery," hero of the ill-fated attack on Quebec in December 1775. Unhappily nothing has been discovered of Gibbes's subsequent career. The fact that he was given the option of whether or not to remain at the College long enough to obtain his degree suggests that he was sent north for a year or two to broaden his general education before settling into the life of a planter, rather than as a necessary prerequisite for postgraduate study in one of the professions. On November 27, 1787 he married Mary Smith, member of another of South Carolina's influential families, and daughter of Benjamin Smith, several times speaker of the Commons House of Assembly before his death at Newport, Rhode Island, in the summer of 1770. The couple became parents of seven children, of whom five boys and one girl lived to maturity. The sons included Joseph Smith Gibbes (A.B. 1813). Robert M. Gibbes (A.B. 1813) was a nephew, the son of Thomas Gibbes, whose widow Anne Morgan became the second wife of John Gibbes in the later part of 1806. There were no children of this union. There is some question as to the time and place of John Gibbes's death. According to family tradition he lived out his life at Charleston and died there about 1815. He was listed as dead for the first time in the 1818 College catalogue. SOURCES: Family tradition (alumni file, PUA) indicates that Charleston was the birth­ place, but it can be noted that Gibbes's father had inherited a plantation on St John's Island below Charleston and that in his will he described himself as of St. John's Parish, Colleton County (C. T. Moore, Abstracts of Witts of... S.C., 1760-84, [1969], 53; C. T. Moore, Abstracts of Witts of Charleston District, S.C., 1783-1800 [1974], 3 ΙΟ­ Ι 1). First Census, S.C., 32, lists both Robert and John Gibbes as of St. John's Parish. Family: SCHGM, 12 (1911), 78-105, esp. 81-90; also 2 (1901), 50n; 4 (1903), 251; 8 (1907), 35; 10 (1909), 146; 72 (1971), 81-93; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., ll, 27274; SCHGM, 50 (1949), 68-70, for evidence that John was not buried in the family cemetery on St. John's; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784 (commencement). Sarah Gibbes's letters to her son are on file at ScHL See sketch of Zadoc Squier (A.B. 1784) for additional evidence of dancing and fencing masters in Princeton at the time. WFC

34

James Hopkins A.B., lawyer, was born in 1762 and probably in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Hopkins, whose wife Sarah Clemson was the mother of an older brother John and probably also of James. It is impossible to say where or by whom he was prepared for college, or just when it was that he was first enrolled in the College at Princeton. A likely guess is that he entered in the fall of 1782, a date that fits with his joining the Cliosophic Society in 1783. He received his degree on September 29, 1784, but had no other part in the graduation exercises. After graduating Hopkins began the study of law, probably in Philadelphia, where on March 9, 1787 he was admitted to the bar. In that same year he was qualified for the practice of law in Lancaster County. There he would reside in the county seat, and over the course of more than forty years of practice he came to be recognized as the leading light of the local bar. A nineteenth century history of the county not only described him as "the most eminent lawyer of the Lancaster bar," but also as one who "ranked among the most noted in the whole state." His "immense" practice, reaching out into neighboring counties, had brought him "a vast fortune." A later history, in 1883, spoke of his practice as "the largest and most lucrative that has been known in the entire history of the bar of this county," and as if to explain this extraordinary success, declared that he devoted his time "exclusively to professional pursuits, and never sought public office." Further testimony to his achievement is found in the legend that prior to his marriage on June 18,1791 to Ann Ross, granddaughter of George Ross, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hopkins had assured her father that he would become rich enough for his wife to ride "in a glass chariot," and that he literally made good on the promise. Among the students who read law with him the best known is James Buchanan, later president of the United States. However much Hopkins may have been inclined to give first place to the performance of his professional duties, it is incorrect to say that he was exclusively concerned with them. He joined the town's oldest fire company; in 1794 at least he was "district attorney"; in July 1807 he was on a committee to draft resolutions of protest against the British attack on the frigate Chesapeake; in 1815 he was on the board of the local Bible society; in 1819, although earlier he had owned a slave, he was one of a committee of three who on the eve of the Missouri Compromise drafted a protest of an extension of slavery into the territories; and in 1821 he accepted election for the single

JAMES HOPKINS,

JAMES H O P K I N S

35

term he served in the state legislature. It is not easy to determine just where he stood with relation to the complex political alignments of his time, but it is evident enough that he was not indifferent to political issues or lacking in political influence. His brother John repeatedly represented the county in the legislature between 1787 and 1814, when he served a term in the state senate. One can only speculate as to the philosophical implications of the fact that James named one of his sons Horatio Nelson and another James Montesquieu; there is nothing remarkable, of course, in the naming of two older sons for George Ross and George Washington. Whether or not he was a Mason cannot be said, but it is evident that in 1832 he was a bitter and effective opponent of the short-lived Anti-Masonic Party. If he was not the James Hopkins who served as churchwarden of St. James Episcopal Church from 1827 to 1834, it must have been his son who was. Both he and his wife were buried in front of the church's altar. As were so many other prominent men of his day, Hopkins was a speculator and not all of his speculations paid off. His land ventures included one unsuccessful promotion of a town site. More important, and apparently more cosdy, were his efforts to combine a development of canals with an emerging system of turnpikes. His chief effort was to provide water transportation by way of the Conestoga Creek or River from the Susquehannah to the Lancaster-Philadelphia turnpike. At one stage in this effort a fellow lawyer is reported to have said that Hopkins's "fortune—like that of most of us lawyers— 'came by wind and went by water.'" His wife Ann Ross Hopkins, though some twelve years younger than he, died in 1816, and apparendy he did not remarry. The couple had a family of nine children, five boys and four girls. Of the girls one died in infancy, another at the age of four, and at least one son predeceased the father. Hopkins lived until September 14, 1834, when he died in his seventy-second year, three days after losing consciousness in the midst of a courtroom trial. SOURCES: The alumni file, PUA, is sparse; much fuller information can be gleaned from LCHSPA: 8 (1903), 40; 10 (1906), 171; 11 (1907), SO, 76, 255-56 (speculative ventures quote), 393-94 (parents), 408-09 (wife and children); 12 (1908), 316; 13 (1909), 153, 281n (district attorney); 15 (1911), 20, 144 (slavery); 19 (1915), 39 (Bible Soc); 20 (1916), 121 (burial); 29 (1925), 109, HI (Eichholtz portrait, see also 16 (1912), 295-98 and separate catalogue of Eichholtz paintings, 34); 30 (1926), 106; 33 (1929), 82; 37 (1933), 156, 159 (his and wife's tombstones), 209n (for John Hopkins, tavernkeeper, who may have been father); 40 (1936), 23; 41 (1937), 143; 58 (1954), 135. See also Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Martin's Bench & Bar, 279; J. I. Mombert, Authentic Hist, of Lancaster Cnty. (1869), 430; A. Harris, Biog. Hist, of Lancaster Cnty. (1827), 319 (quote); F. Ellis & S. Evans, Hist, of Lancaster Cnty. (1883), 213, 214, 228 (quote), 466 (churchwarden). The family name, together with the given names of John and James can be found during the Revolutionary War in Philadelphia and in Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, and Washington counties. See especially Pa. Arch.,

36

C L A S S OF

1784

Sd ser., xv, 585; xvi, 401, 831; xvil, 99, 304, 442, 599, 723; First Census, Pa., 61, 101, 136, 138, 145, 217, 230, 256. Hopkins's graduation at the age of 22 suggests a delay occasioned by military service; see Pa. Arch., 5th ser., in, 839-44; vu, 3, 55, 57, 59, 61, 64, 66, 69, 71; 6th ser., ill, 1019, 1032. WFC

Abel Johnston (Johnson) A.B., has not been positively identified. A newspaper account of the College's commencement of 1780 is prefaced by a report of the public examination on September 26 of students enrolled in the grammar school which shows Abel to have been of Somerset County, New Jersey, and a member then of the "second class"—that is, the class one year away from graduation. He received a prize for proficiency in reading, grammar, and orthography of the English language, and another for his delivery of an English oration. A year later, on September 24, 1781, he presumably was one of the "senior class" admitted to the freshman class of the College, and on the next day he won first prize in a competition among the school's upperclassmen. No proof that he actually returned in November to begin his collegiate studies has been found, but he probably did, since no resident of Somerset County lived a great distance from the College. On the other hand it can be noted that Johnston joined the American Whig Society, and that Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) in recalling many years later its revival during the summer of 1782 did not include Johnston among its members at that time. Perhaps he did not enter the College before the fall of 1782. The one item of record for the college years is found in the diary of James W. Wilkin (A.B. 1785), which states without explanation that on February 23, 1784 the Whig Society "gave Mr Jonston a dismission." The only other surviving record that can be added here, aside from the fact that at the commencement of 1784 Johnston delivered an "Oration on Solitude," is that carried by the catalogues of the College, which consistently named him Abel Johnston and in 1812 for the first time listed him as dead.

ABEL JOHNSTON (JOHNSON),

SOURCES: N.J. Gazette, 11 Oct. 1780,3 Oct. 1781,9 Oct 1782,4 Oct. 1784; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 56. At first one is inclined to assume that Abel belonged to the prominent family descended from Dr. John Johnston of Berth Amboy, N.J., which held properties in several of New Jersey's counties and included Andres Johnston (1694-1762), a trustee of the College and its first treasurer, and John Johnston (A.B. 1758). But there is no evidence that this well-known Anglican family ever had a son named Abel, a name much more popular among religious dissenters. See W. N. Jones, Hist, of St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy (1924), 310-15; W. A. Whitehead, Contributions to Early Hist, of Perth Amboy (1856), 68-73. Many Johnstons

PETER ROBERT L I V I N G S T O N

37

or Johnsons lived in Somerset County, among them the John Johnson of the Western Precinct, which included the part of Princeton belonging to that county, whose will in 1794 left £150 for his son Abel when he had attained the age of 21. This John Johnson seems to have been the ruling elder of that name belonging to the Princeton Presbyterian Church. See N.J. Wills, DC, 201-02; Hageman, History, II, 89, 92, 99. In this instance a family connection seems to be a probability, but no proof has been found. WFC

Peter Robert Livingston A.B., A.M. 1789, lawyer, gentleman farmer and public official, was born in New York City on October 3, 1766, the son of Robert James Livingston, a New York merchant, and his wife Susannah Smith Livingston. He was a younger brother of William Smith Livingston (A.B. 1772) and an older brother of Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786). The father was of the so-called "Nephew" line of his numerous family, which is to say that he was descended from Robert Livingston, nephew of Robert Livingston, first lord of Livingston Manor and founder of the family. Peter R. Livingston of the Class of 1758 was a direct descendant of the original lord of the manor and so only distantly related to the subject of this sketch, but his wife Margaret Livingston was a granddaughter of Robert "the Nephew" and an aunt of William, Peter, and Maturin Livingston. Their mother was a sister of Thomas Smith (A.B. 1754), James Smith (A.B. 1757), and Chief Justice William Smith of New York and Quebec, noted historian and loyalist at the time of the Revolution. The two sons of Thomas Smith, Abraham Smith of the Class of 1777 and William Smith of the Class of 1778, thus were first cousins of William, Peter, and Maturin Livingston. Peter's father died in 1771 and his widow subsequendy moved to Princeton, where in 1781 she was keeping a boarding house in order to provide for the education of Peter and Maturin. Their older brother William, in a letter of March 12, 1781 to Governor George Clinton of New York, reported that he recendy had visited his mother and that her two sons had "just entered College." Whether this can be read to mean that Peter had been enrolled as a freshman in November 1780 cannot be said with certainty, although it would seem to be a likely assumption. The burial at Princeton of an older and invalid brother as far back as 1777 argues that the family had been in town long enough for Peter to have been prepared for college in Nassau Hall's grammar school, where Maturin actually was enrolled in 1781 rather than in the College. Of more than passing interest is William's indignant complaint that his mother's landlord, PETER ROBERT LIVINGSTON,

38

CLASS OF 1784

none other than President John Witherspoon, had rented her house from "over her Head without previous notice, because he could get a little more from some other Person." The letter was written to Governor George Clinton requesting a pass for William to visit New York City to arrange the sale of real estate there that would permit his mother to purchase a house in Princeton large enough for her "to take in a Dozen young gentlemen to Board." The request was denied, and whether or not she bought the house cannot be said. Whatever the fact, amicable relations with the president seem to have been restored, for apparently he officiated at the marriage of Mrs. Livingston's daughter Susannah in 1782 to the Reverend James F. Armstrong (A.B. 1773), who became the parents of Robert Livingston Armstrong (A.B. 1802). Peter Livingston, it appears, proceeded without break to the winning of his degree on schedule. He joined the American Whig Society, and Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) later credited him with participation in its revival in June 1782. At his commencement on September 29, 1784, he delivered a "discourse on the evils of commerce in a young country." After graduation Peter studied law, probably in New York City. He qualified to practice law before the Supreme Court of the State of New York in January 1788. For a number of years he practiced and lived in New York City, with an address on Little Dock Street and later on Broadway. By 1794 he had become register for the court of chancery. On June 4, 1795, along with his brother Maturin, he attended the New York City Assembly, where he engaged in a game of cards with Henry Cruger. Twelve years later this resulted in a libel suit brought by Maturin against James Cheetham, editor of the Republican Watch Tower, who had accused the younger brother of using "signs, motions, and gesticulations" to inform Peter of the cards in his opponent's hand. The jury upheld Maturin's complaint with an award of $1,000 for damages. Perhaps as early as 1808 Livingston transferred his residence up the Hudson River to Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, where in that or the preceding year he contributed $100 toward the construction of a new sanctuary for the local Dutch Reformed Church. By 1812 he was residing on an estate of some 600 acres known as "Grasmere," and there he would die on January 19, 1847. He had been married to Joanna Livingston, the daughter of Judge Robert R. and Margaret Beekman Livingston, who predeceased her husband in 1829. The couple had no children and Peter bequeathed "Grasmere" and his other property to his brother Maturin, who had followed him to Dutchess County and was residing in the nearby community of Staatsburgh. In 1832 Peter had acquired two local mills which apparendy were still in his possession at the time of his death.

ALEXANDER GUMMING McWHORTER

39

Politically Peter joined other members of his family in aggressive opposition to the Federalists, first by way of support for Clinton and subsequently for Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791). He was among the speakers at the first public meeting of the Democratic Society of New York and took a prominent part in the public debate concerning the Jay Treaty. In January 1810 he became a member of the power­ ful council of appointment, through which the state's patronage was dispensed. He sat for Dutchess County in the state senate from 1816 to 1822, and again from 1826 to 1829. In between these terms he served in the lower house of assembly by election in 1823. In 1828 he was chosen lieutenant governor, and in that capacity he presided over the senate during his last year in office. Sitting for Dutchess County in the constitutional convention of 1821, he favored democ­ ratization of the franchise in elections for the upper house of the legislature, opposed the franchise for Negroes, attacked the judicia­ ry, and insisted that the governor communicate with the legislature by written message as a substitute for the long-standing custom of having him speak to a joint meeting of both houses at the opening of each session. "This speech," he declared, "is a relic of monarchy, founded in the love of pomp and splendor and show." SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; M. L. Delafield, "Descendants ofJudge William and Mary Smith," Mag. of Amer. Hist., 6 (1881), 276-78; £. B. Livingston, The Livingstons of Livingston Manor (1910), 231-32, 264, 275-76; Public Papers of Geo. Clinton, 1st Gov. ofN.Y. (10 vols., 1899-1914), vi, 680-83 (letters ω Clinton and his reply); W. H. W. Sabine, Historical Memoirs... of William Smith, 1778-83 (1971), 54n, 612n; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Beam, Whig. Soc., 62; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct 1784 (commencement); N.Y. City directories, 1789-1810; MCCCNY, II, 523; v, 457; IX, 158, 181; xi, 629, 767; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans m N.Y. (1967), 373, 449-50; £. M. Smith, Doc. Hist. ofRhmebeck (1974), 63, 72-73, 115, 231-32; H. H. Morse, Historic Old Rhmebeck (1908), 59; F. Hasbrouck, Hist, of Dutchess Cnty. (1909), 67-70, 74; W. Sampson, Trial of the Hon. Maturin Livingston, Against James Cheetham, for a Libel (1807); C. Z. Lincoln, Constitutional Hist, of N.Y. (1906), 630, 649, 663, 670, 686. N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782, shows that Maturin graduated from the grammar school in that year. WFC

Alexander Cumming McWhorter ALEXANDER CUMMING MCWHORTER, A.B.,

A.M. 1787, lawyer, was born in 1771 at Newark, New Jersey, the son of Mary and the Rev­ erend Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757), and according to tradi­ tion the member of the family who altered the spelling of its name. The father, one of the more eminent of the Presbyterian clergymen of his time, served as trustee of the College from 1772 to his death in 1807. Well before the Revolution he had become the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark, and after service during the war years as a chaplain with Continental forces, he returned to that

40

CLASS OF 1784

pulpit for the remainder of his life. The mother was the daughter of Robert Cumming, sheriff of Monmouth County, New Jersey, a niece of Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), and a sister of the Reverend Alexander Cumming (A.M. 1760), trustee of the College from 1756 to 1761. Their younger son John G. McWhorter was a nongraduate member of the Class of 1790. Alexander Cumming McWhorter probably was prepared for college by his father, who was conducting a grammar school at Newark before October 1782, when plans were announced for a revival of the Newark Academy of which MacWhorter was a longtime leader. No indication of when young Alexander was first enrolled at the College has been discovered, but he joined the American Whig Society, and Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), in recalling its revival in the summer of 1782, did not include McWhorter among its members at that time. Perhaps he entered the College in the fall of 1782. At his commencement two years later he delivered an "oration on the love of Society." McWhorter immediately began to study law in the Newark office of Elisha Boudinot, who was to become a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1798 and a trustee of the College in 1802. Two months after graduation McWhorter wrote Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785), "I live as secluded from the world as if there were scarcely another person except my self in it—Writing a great deal of law & reading but little is all my employment—tho I expect very shordy to have it directly vice versa." He added that his classmate Zadoc Squier was also studying in Newark but that they seldom saw each other more than once a week. Among the many letters exchanged among College friends, McWhorter's stand out as livelier than most. Although he expressed the same nostalgia for the Whig Society and Nassau Hall as his contemporaries, he was less cloyingly sentimental about it. He inquired whether the College diet of mutton and broth had been changed to one of milk and honey and asked whether "Old Bedlam broke loose" probably tutor Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), still poked his head into the students' rooms in order to break up their chatter during study hours. On July 8, 1785, after he had learned of Green's engagement to Elizabeth Stockton, he expressed rather gleeful surprise that "Green has become a lover and fondles & dances after his Cupid like a boy of seventeen," when only a short time ago he "considered every tender affection & even passing dvillity to the sex as degrading to the man of science & understanding." In the fall of 1785 McWhorter visited John Vernor Henry (A.B. 1785) in New York City. While still apprenticed to Boudinot, McWhorter became a member of the Institutio legaUs, a moot court society of lawyers and law

ALEXANDER CUMMING McWHORTER

41

clerks formed in 1783 for the purpose of mutual assistance in the development of professional skills. As early as the summer of 1786 McWhorter, acting as chief justice of the moot court, contributed a written opinion suggesting that he was on the way at least to becom­ ing an opponent of slavery. He was admitted to the bar in September 1788, and before the end of the following year he was listed as surro­ gate for Essex County, an office he reportedly held for several years. As a lawyer he seems to have prospered, but in time he suffered an unexpected failure of his health, and after a painful illness he died on October 8, 1808 at the age of thirty-seven. Two days later the local bar held a special meeting presided over by Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773) at which the following resolution was adopted: This meeting being deeply afflicted with the death of their much beloved, worthy and esteemed brother and friend, Alexander C. McWhorter, Esq., do resolve that, as a testimony of the high respect and sincere affection that they bear for the memory of the deceased, for his professional talents, learning and integrity, and his social and domestic virtues, that they will each of them wear a crape on the left arm for the space of thirty days, and recommend to their brethren of the profession through the state to do the same. McWhorter died intestate, leaving an estate subsequendy inventoried at a value of $15,219.59. In 1790 he had married Phebe Bruen, the daughter of Caleb Bruen of Newark. There were six children, four girls and two sons, Alexander C. McWhorter, Jr. (A.B. 1812), and George H. McWhorter (A.B. 1812). SOURCES: W. H. Shaw, Hist, of Essex 6f Hudson Cnties. (1884), I, 257 ("This meeting"), 259; J. F. Folsom et al., Municipalities ofEssex Cnty. (1925), I, 179-81; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Beam, Whig Soc, 61-62; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784 (commencement); als, ACM to R. G. Harper, 25 Nov. 1784 ("I live," "Old Bedlam"), 7 July 1785 ("Green has become"), & from J. V. Henry to Harper, 9 Oct. 1785, Harper Papers; Alexander, Princeton, 223; N.J. WiUs, vi, 90, 286; vii, 16; xi, 227 (father's will & his own estate inv.); D. C. Skemer, "The Institutio Ugatis & Legal Education in N.J.: 1783-1817," ΛΓ./. Hist., 97 (1979), 123-34. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi WFC&RLW

42

James Morris A.B., lawyer and public official, although specific proof is lacking, undoubtedly was the fourth son, born in 1764 or 1765, of Lewis Morris, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and third lord of the manor of Morrisania in Westchester County, New York, and his wife Mary Walton Morris, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant. James was a younger brother of Lewis Morris, IV (A.B. 1774), and so an uncle of William Elliot Morris (A.B. 1805) and Lewis Morris of the Class of 1805. The family had been driven from Morrisania by the British conquest of New York in 1776; and after a brief stay at Philadelphia and Gen. Sir William Howe's advance upon that city in September 1777, it had taken up residence in or near Princeton, perhaps at Rocky Hill. The fact that the family maintained its residence in the Princeton neighborhood at least through 1782, a period of five years and the very years in which James would be of school age, suggests that he completed his preparation for college in Nassau Hall's grammar school. When he entered the College has not been established, nor can it be said just when he joined the American Whig Society. At his commencement in September 1784, Morris entertained the audience with a "humorous discourse on et ceteras." Morris began to study law in New York City immediately after graduating. He kept in touch with a number of fellow Whigs, including his classmate Alexander McWhorter, and John Vernor Henry (who seems to have been an especially close friend), Robert Goodloe Harper, and James Thompson (all A.B. 1785), the last of whom joined Morris in New York after his own commencement. In the fall of 1785 a fever kept Morris confined for a few weeks, followed by more weeks of recuperation. His admission to the New York bar probably occurred in the fall of 1787. For a time thereafter he may have resided with his family at Morrisania, where upon his father's death in 1798 he inherited property. As late as the census of 1800 he was listed among the inhabitants of that area, but well before then he actually had cast his lot with New York City. In its directory for 1791 he was entered as an attorney-at-law of 31 Maiden-lane. By 1798 the address had become 19 Broadway, a property he still owned in 1819, when he was cited for maintaining a "nuisance" there. In 1797 he had become one of three justices appointed for trial of cases under a statute described as the "f 10 act" of February 16, 1797. In December 1798 he won the lucrative post of sheriff for New York County and City, a position to which he was reappointed in each of the two succeeding years. JAMES MORRIS,

JAMES MORRIS

43

His marriage on February 1, 1796 to Helen Van Cortlandt, daughter of Augustus Van Cortlandt of Yonkers, was to bring him substantial properties in New York City. Frederick Van Cortlandt, brother of Augustus, by a will dated in 1800 and proved in 1804 assigned residuary rights in a substantial inheritance to the latter's two daughters: Ann, wife of Henry White, New York merchant, and Helen, wife of James Morris, counsellor-at-law. In April 1805 Morris was joined with John Jay and other proprietors holding from Augustus and Frederick Van Cortlandt in a petition to the city for the laying out of streets in the sixth ward that would facilitate the development of their properties. Over the years that followed, Morris and White repeatedly appeared in the minutes of the common council as owners separately and joindy of properties that included wharves on the North River. Augustus, the second son of James and Helen Morris, may have assumed the name of Augustus Van Cortlandt in order to qualify for inheritance of the Yonkers estate, which perhaps adds interest to the last appearance of James Morris in the minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York. On September 12, 1825 he joined Augustus Van Cortlandt and Henry White in a petition for "Water Grants in front of their property on the North River in the First Ward to extend Two hundred and fifty feet in the River beyond West Street." Apparendy Morris died in 1827 and possibly early in the year, for the College's catalogue for that year was the first to carry a notation of his death. It is impossible to say how closely he had kept in touch with the College after his graduation. Among the manuscripts in the University Library are several intriguing fragments pertaining to a lawsuit brought in the Mayor's Court of New York City by President John Witherspoon in 1793 against Lewis Morris for unpaid rent on property located in Princeton, in which James appeared as attorney for his father. Unfortunately, the president's biographers and historians of the College have provided no guidance for the interpretation of these fragments. The time lag argues against any assumption that the family had been tenants of the president during their lengthy stay in the neighborhood at the time of the war. Witherspoon must have won the case, for one of the fragments is a statement of costs by his attorney. A more revealing item is the library's copy of a letter of July 18, 1801 to James from his brother Lewis in Charleston, South Carolina. Lewis had married a wealthy South Carolina heiress, and the letter was written to thank James for assistance in getting their two sons prepared for admission to Princeton by placing them with the Reverend James Armstrong (A.B. 1773), pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Trenton and formerly chaplain for Gen. Nathanael

44

CLASS OF 1 7 8 4

Greene (A.M. 1781) while Lewis Morris the father was serving as his aide. Perhaps it should be added that both boys—William and Lewis—were admitted to the College in the fall of 1801. All told, it is said, James and Helen Morris had twelve children. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; £. F. Griffin, Westchester Cnty. & Its People (1946), I, 223; M. J. Lamb & B. Harrison, Hist, of the City of N.Y. (3 vols., 1877-96), π, 281n; NYHS Collections, 8 (1876), 430-512, passim (this source contains letters written to Lewis Morris the Signer, mainly by Lewis Morris IV, who on 24 Sept. 1777 wrote, "I suppose by this time you are settled at Princeton'' [p. 450], and on 6 July 1780 addressed a letter to his father at "Rocky Hill near Princeton" [p. 460]); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784 (commencement); als, JM to R. G. Harper, June 1785, J. V. Henry to Harper, 26 Sept. 1784, 8 & 17 Oct. 1785 (illness), 5 Apr. 1786, Harper Papers; N.Y. Dir. & Reg. (1791) for roll of attorneys, where his position on the list argues for admission in 1787; Longworth's Amer. Almanack, N.Y. Reg. 6f City Direc. (1798); S. C. Hutchins, Civil List &f Const. Hist, of N.Y. (1880), 376; NYGBR, 55 (1924), 206; 57 (1926), 250; 59 (1928), 36; MCCCNY, u, 375, 531, 613; in, 87, 73839; iv, 746; v, 9, 734; vi, 83; vm, 641; ix, 655-56; x, 248; xi, 238, 259, 560; xiv, 751; five documents pertaining to Lewis Morris-John Witherspoon lawsuit, 1793-94, PyneHenry Collection, NjP; copy of als, L. Morris to James Morris, 18 July 1801, NjP; N.Y. Wills, xv, 223-24; Min. Fac, 11 Nov. 1801. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi WFC

Isaac Ogden ISAAC OGDEN, A.B., physician, was born early in 1764 at Basking

Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, youngest of the six children of Elizabeth Whitaker and Stephen Ogden, "agriculturist" and a Somer­ set County freeholder elected in 1753. Stephen Ogden died on Jan­ uary 8, 1764, probably before bis son's birth. Jonathan Ogden (A.B. 1765) was an older brother. Isaac entered the College in or before 1782, when he joined the Cliosophic Society. He did not speak at his graduation on September 29, 1784. Ogden next studied medicine, but where and with whom he trained has not been discovered. The Medical Society of New Jersey admit­ ted him on May 6, 1788, which suggests that his studies were then complete, and he began a medical practice at Six-Mile Run, some six miles southwest of New Brunswick. There, at an undiscovered date, he married Hannah Stoothoff, the daughter of a local farmer named Peter Stoothoff. According to family tradition she was enough younger than her husband for him to have rocked her in the cradle as an infant when he boarded with her family as a student. Just when this may have been must be left to conjecture. The couple had one daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1797. Ogden was later remembered at

ISAAC OGDEN

45

Six-Mile Run as "a successful physician and a most estimable and useful citizen." In 1800 Ogden moved to White House, Hunterdon County, near the town of Branchburg, where he was the first physician to practice in the community. His stay there was short, for sometime around 1800 he moved a few miles further north to New Germantown, where he took over the practice of his brother-in-law Dr. Oliver Barnet, who had been the first physician to practice in New Germantown, and who had married Ogden's sister Elizabeth. Bamet had acquired a large practice, and with it wealth and local prominence. He is said to have relinquished his medical practice in order to have more time to look after his property and to entertain lavishly. Ogden reportedly practiced "extensively and successfully" and gained a reputation as a competent obstetrician. He eventually relinquished the practice to his nephew Oliver Wayne Ogden (son of his older brother Jonathan), who married a niece of Doctor Barnet. Isaac Ogden was among the nineteen doctors who on June 12, 1821 organized the District Medical Society for the County of Hun­ terdon at Flemington, under the authority of the state medical society. Ogden served as president of the district society in 1823, and on May 11, 1826, the year in which he moved out of the county to New Brunswick, he was elected an honorary member. During the later years of his life he almost abandoned the practice of medicine and served as postmaster of New Germantown. He was an avid stu­ dent of astronomy and for several years published an almanac fea­ turing weather forecasts in rhyme. Ogden died of apoplexy in 1829 at New Brunswick. His tombstone in the graveyard of the First Reformed Church there bears the fol­ lowing inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Dr. Isaac Ogden, who departed this life on the 6th of May 1829, in the 66th year of his age. A kind husband, an affectionate father, an humble Christian." A family history has described him as "a man of purest life, a prac­ tical Christian, promoting the interests of religion by every means in his power. He had the respect and esteem of all who knew him." SOURCES: W. O. Wheeler, Ogden Family m Amer. (1907), 73 (family background), 11516 (epitaph and "man of purest life"); J. P. Snell, Hist, of HunterdonfifSomerset Cnties., N.J. (1881), 216-18 (district medical society), 220, 477, 495, 604, 816; Rise, Minutes 6f Proc. of the N.J. Med. Soc. (1875), 61; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; ΛΓ./. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784. PUBLICATIONS: See Snell, 220, for Ogden's almanacs, which have not been located. RLW

46

John Parker A.B. honoris causa, appeared before the trustees of the College on September 29, 1784 requesting an honorary degree. He is identified as a student of law, who "... not having had it in his power, during the confusions of the late war, regularly to pursue his studies at any college, produced to the board good testimonials of his moral character, and his literary improvement at a private academy in Virginia and requested to be admitted to the honorary degree of Bachelor of Arts." The board, after due consideration of the circumstances of the case, "and the young gentleman's character and recommendations," agreed to comply with his request. Accordingly, at the commencement held later that day the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on John Parker, honoris causa. No John Parker of the right generation has been located in Virginia sources. A John Parker appears on two manuscript lists of the Cliosophic Society as a member from South Carolina who joined on July 6, 1790, using the name Philander. There is no other record of his presence on campus. He was probably a guest at the College who was honored with society membership. There is no way of determining whether he was actually John Parker (A.B. 1784), by then residing in South Carolina.

JOHN PARKER,

SOURCES: Min. Trustees, 29 Sept. 1784; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Clio lists. John Parker's name is not found on the available student lists for William and Mary or for Hampden-Sidney, a Virginia institution which sent a number of students to Nassau Hall. If the degree recipient was indeed the John Parker of 1790, he could have been a native of South Carolina who was sent to school in Virginia. Two unidentified John Parkers who became members of the Charleston bar in 1796 would have been too young. John Parker, Jr., of Charleston and "Hayes" plantation at Goose Creek, was admitted to the bar in 1785, putting him within the proper time frame. However, he must be eliminated, since all sources agree that he was educated in Charleston and England. See O'Neall, BenchfifBar S.C., II, 602-03; BDUSC, 1611; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Lougkton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 88. RLW

James Penn A.B., has not been identified. There were numerous Penns living in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, and a lesser number in New Jersey, but the only James Penn found was a son born in 1785 to Col. Abram Penn of Virginia. Penn's name is included in a manuscript list of the Cliosophic Society membership, but the date that he joined and his state of origin are not included. This dearth of information, plus the fact that his name

JAMES PENN,

WILLIAM RADCLIFF

47

does not appear in later published catalogues of the society, suggest that he may not actually have been a member of the society, or that he retained his membership only for a short period. He did not speak at his commencement exercises. He emerges as a personality only in the diary of Gilbert Tennent Snowden (A.B. 1783). After Snowden's graduation he returned to his home in Philadelphia, where on October 18, 1783 he received a letter from James Penn, which was delivered by Samuel Bayard (A.B. 1784), "who had come down to stay from Princeton." Snowden not only noted receipt of the letter, but described the character of his correspondent. "Mr. Penn is a person of common abilities, pretty good scholar, middling speaker, speaks too fast, too few gestures. Good natured, silent in company were [sic] he is a stranger. Has generosity and courage as well as friendship." Snowden spent the winter in Princeton, but when he returned to Philadelphia in the spring he received a letter from Penn on May 21, which he promptly answered the following day. Penn seems to have maintained his silence even after graduation. College catalogues do not list him as deceased until 1854, which probably indicates merely that the College lost track of him. He was listed as deceased only after all other members of his class had died. SOURCES: Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; G. T. Snowden, MS Journal, 1783-85, PPPrHi, microfilm in NjP, 22, 68; J. H. Gwathmey, Virginians in the Revolution (1938), 616. RLW

William Radcliff (Radclift, Radcliffe) A.B., merchant, public official, and United States consul, was born in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York, January 9, 1768. He was the third of the five children of Sarah Kip and William Radcliff. The elder William Radcliff was among the "freemen, freeholders and inhabitants of Dutchess County" who in 1775 signed the Articles of Association, pledging that they would uphold whatever measures might be recommended by the Continental Congress. He was one of the captains in the Sixth Regiment of the Dutchess County militia, which fought in the battles of White Plains and Harlem. He later served as justice of the peace, town supervisor, and member of the state assembly representing Rhinebeck. He eventually gained the rank of brigadier general in the New York militia. An older son was Jacob Radcliff (A.B. 1783); two other sons graduated from Yale, and a sister was the mother of William Radcliffe DeWitt (Class of 1816). WILLIAM RADCLIFF (RADCLIFT, RADCLIFFE),

48

CLASS OF 1784

While attending college William Radcliff joined the Cliosophic Society sometime in 1782. At his graduation ceremonies he delivered a dissertation on the qualifications of a perfect patriot. Radcliff became a merchant, as did his brother John (A.B. Yale 1792). Nothing is known of the type of mercantile business in which he was involved, but it is known that he returned to Rhinebeck and lived there for some years. He married Catherine Van Ness, daughter of David Van Ness, some time after 1790, when he was probably still living in his father's home. He succeeded his father as town supervisor in 1791, and in 1797 he was appointed by the governor and council as sheriff of Dutchess County, serving until 1801. A William Radcliff is listed among the members of the building committee for the Reformed Dutch Church during the years 18071808, and as a contributor of $100 toward the building fund. Though the elder Radcliff was still alive, it can be assumed that this was William Radcliff, Jr., for the father had long been active in the Rhinebeck German Reformed Church. William Radcliff, merchant, is first listed in the New York City directory for 1825-26, and the listing continues through 1833-34, even though he could not have personally managed the business during part of that period. The business moved every year or two, so that it was located at six different addresses during the eightyear period. In January 1826 Radcliff solicited Secretary of State Henry Clay for an appointment as United States consul at Panama. On March 25, 1826 he was named to the post he requested, but in a letter to Clay dated May 30, 1826 Radcliff asked to be permitted to defer his departure for Panama until autumn. For some reason his passage aboard a vessel carrying the American mission to the Congress at Panama had been canceled. Radcliff apparently never took over the post at Panama, for on August 16, 1827 he wrote to Clay from New York, acknowledging receipt of his commission as consul of the United States at Lima, and indicating that he would leave for that city as soon as arrangements could be made and passage secured. Not until May 21, 1828 did Radcliff write to inform Clay that he had arrived in Lima on the 10th, after a journey of 128 days from New York, including a forty-nine day delay at Panama because of the presence of a Spanish privateer on the coast. He had arrived in Lima without knowing that James Cooley, charge d'affaires, had died the previous February, and that he would be obliged to care for many of the duties of the latter's office. Radcliff's stay in Lima could not have been a pleasant one. He arrived as the country was on the verge of war with Colombia, and

WILLIAM RADCLIFF

49

conditions deteriorated rapidly during his time there. He found it difficult to exercise any control over the United States merchant ships in the harbor because the local law required that the registers of foreign ships be delivered to the chief officer of the port, to be retained by him until a ship's departure. This regulation was contrary to the laws of the United States and other countries that required delivery of vessels' registers to their consuls. This controversial matter was finally settled by a compromise late in November 1828. Ships' papers were still to be delivered to the marine department or the captain of the seaport, but he would then deliver them to the appropriate consuls, thereby enabling the consuls to exercise more control over the masters of the vessels. Radcliff was very distressed about the fate of the many American seamen who were left in foreign ports destitute and often ill. His letters to Clay repeatedly suggested a change in the forfeiture law, whereby the captain or owner of a ship obtained by forfeiture all of the back wages, tools, clothing and any other personal effects of any seamen who had deserted. Radcliff cited examples of men being illegally punished and abused, overworked and underfed, in deliberate attempts to force them to desert when large sums of wages were due. This was, in fact, looked upon as a good economy measure by some captains. Men with scurvy were discharged in foreign ports as unfit for duty, with no means of returning home. The need to help the stranded and destitute seamen was a constant drain on Radcliff's time and pocketbook, and he complained that it took more than he made in consul's fees. Without the ships' papers he had little bargaining power with the captains, and his sympathy was clearly with the seamen. "I am well satisfied there is a domineering and tyrannical spirit prevalent among the officers of merchant Vessels, which leads to great abuse of authority, and that generally the sailors are more sinned against than sinning." In his opinion, the officers "disregard all laws, indulge their angry passions, and are guilty of frequent cruelty and injustice." Another problem with which Radcliff tried to cope was the prohibition by the government of the importation of American flour and cotton goods, some of which had already been ordered and were waiting in the harbor to be unloaded. By the time the prohibition was lifted, money was so scarce that only the flour was in demand. On August 30, 1828 Radcliff informed Clay that he had appointed his son Alexander H. Radcliff his deputy or vice consul, for "the office and duties of a Consul are very troublesome." In almost every letter Radcliff pleaded for instructions, especially in handling the affairs that would normally have been under the jurisdiction of the

50

CLASS OF 1 7 8 4

charge d'affaires, always adding that he was doing his best to repre­ sent his country to the best possible advantage. Finally, on July 3, 1829, he wrote acknowledging the receipt of instructions and infor­ mation from the Department of State, dated January 20, 1829. "With these I have reason to be satisfied;—especially with the approbation of my conduct in the performance of the duties accidentally devolved on me by the death of J. Cooley our late Charge. I shall continue of course to attend to them until the arrival of S. Larned, recently appointed to that office." As the war progressed the situation in Lima deteriorated, with less and less confidence in the government and more and more unrest, until the government was overthrown by revolution on June 18,1829. At the beginning of his stay in Lima, Radcliff had attributed the war to the ambitions of Simon Bolivar to annex Peru. He gradually came complete circle, blaming the government of Peru for an argument over the port of Guayaquil and for hoping to cancel an outstanding debt to Colombia by means of the war. He felt that the existence of Peru as an independent nation was in peril. "The truth is, and much to be lamented, that these people are unfit to govern themselves; and they are yet unqualified to be free;—either by knowledge or by virtue; and can scarcely exist without anarchy or despotism." Radcliff's last letter to the Department of State was written on July 18, 1829. His correspondence ends with no hint of when or why he would be leaving his post. A letter of April 2, 1830 to Secretary of State Martin Van Buren from Asa Worthington, already in Lima, acknowledged the latter's appointment as consul to Peru. Radcliff probably returned to New York and his mercantile interests. Beginning in 1834 the Brooklyn city directory lists him as a resident. His brother Peter (A.B. Yale 1793), whose law office was located in New York City, was already living in Brooklyn. William Radcliff died in Brooklyn on July 3, 1842. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 223; £ . M. Smith, Hist, of Rhinebeck (1881), 51-52, 114-15, 207, 228, 232; F. Hasbrouck, Hist, of Dutchess Cnty. (1909), 78, 110, 136; Dexter, Yale Biographies, v, 35-36, 81-82; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; First Census, N.Y., 92; Η. H. Morse, Historic Old Rhinebeck (1908), 139; N.Y. City directories, 1825/26-1833/34; Clay Papers, v, 58, 136, 212, 408; "Despatches received by the Department of State from U.S. Consuls in Lima, 182354," DNA, microfilm, roll 2 (quotes from Radcliff's letters); Brooklyn city directories, 1834-37. RLW

51

Leonard D. Shaw D. SHAW, A.B., Indian agent, was probably the son of Henry and Elizabeth Barret Shaw of Downe Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey. Although the Shaw family name was common in Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and southern New Jersey, this was the only Leonard Shaw found. Henry Shaw who was a tailor, died in 1781, leaving ten acres of swamp to his son Leonard, as well as bequests to four other sons and two daughters, and to his wife. On September 3, 1793 William Barret, yeoman, of Downe Township, willed the sum of 7 shillings to his grandson Leonard Shaw. While attending the College Shaw joined the American Whig Society. He and Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) were members of the committee of Whigs appointed to write the challenge to the Clios in the Paper War of 1783 between the two societies. In his history of the society, Green took the credit for writing the greater part, "if not every line in the challenge." Shaw did not speak at his commencement ceremonies. The first definite record of Leonard Shaw's activities after graduation appears on January 31, 1792 when he was appointed a deputy agent of the United States to the Cherokee Indians. The appointment was to carry him into "The Territory of the United States of America, South of the Ohio River," commonly referred to as the Southwest Territory, which had been established by Act of Congress on May 26, 1790, and of which William Blount of North Carolina, half-brother of Willie Blount (Class of 1789), was governor by a presidential commission of June 8, 1790. By the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 the Cherokee Nation had conceded rights of jurisdiction to the United States and received assurances as to the lands that were to be reserved for their own use. Later the Treaty of Holston of July 2, 1791 had further defined the boundaries of the Indian territory. But during the following winter the government at Philadelphia had been surprised by the arrival of a delegation of Cherokees bringing fresh complaints. They asked for higher compensation for the lands they had relinquished, that white settlers be removed from the lands guaranteed to the Indians, and among other items, that "a person of reputation... be commissioned to reside in the Cherokee nation, who should at once be their Counsellor and protector." For this assignment Shaw was the choice. LEONARD

Governor Blount learned of Shaw's appointment in a letter from Secretary of War Henry Knox, dated January 31, 1792, which informed him that the Cherokee chiefs "will be accompanied on thenreturn by a worthy young gentleman, Mr. Leonard Shaw, who has

52

CLASS OF 1784

been educated at Princeton college, and who from the purest motives is desirous of being employed in the Indian department. He is to reside with the Cherokees and correspond with you regularly." In a letter of February 16, 1792 Knox wrote to Governor Blount, "This young gentleman is amiable and well informed and has been educated at Princeton College. He possesses a strong desire of being useful in the Indian department, and this opportunity has been given him for the exercise of his talents." Shaw and the Indian chiefs reached Knoxville on April 21 and on the 23rd proceeded further south to the Cherokee settlement of Coyatee for a general meeting of the Nation. Shaw and Blount seem to have developed a mutual antagonism from their first meeting, and on April 27 the governor wrote to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791), "You recollect the Character we heard of Shaw inquire further on that Head of Judge Campbell." Relations between Indians and setders were troubled, with continuing attacks on white setders by young Cherokees who had fallen under the influence of hostile Creeks, which led the governor by mid-September to call out the militia. Shaw's reports from the upper Cherokee towns confirmed that the Indians were getting ready for war. But some time before the year was over Shaw committed the indiscretion of criticizing Blount in the presence of the Cherokee chiefs and advising them against conferring with the governor. In the short time Shaw had been living with the Cherokee Nation he had married an Indian girl and so was presumably more sympathetic to the Indians' point of view. He was charged with "inebriety, and great want of prudence," presumably by Blount, and Blount received authorization from Knox to discharge Shaw, "if he was guilty, as he had been charged." In a letter to Knox on March 20, 1793 Blount noted that Shaw had been at Knoxville when Knox's instructions to discharge him arrived, and that he had given Shaw permission to return to Seneca (Seneka) in the Cherokee Nation, because Shaw was without money, clothes, or a horse. Shaw apparently did not honor his promise to return to Knoxville immediately, but instead joined his father-in-law, who was described by Blount as "a fellow called the Half-breed, of some consequence." Shaw, sensitive to the mood of Indian unrest and probably smarting at his discharge, denounced the governor before the Cherokees, claimed equal authority, and promised to lead the Indians to the president and to recover the lands they had lost by treaty or encroachment. On April 20, 1793 a letter from President George Washington's secretary Tobias Lear to the secretary of war advised that "The President requests that Mr. Shaw's conduct may be critically scrutinized."

J O H N E A T O N SPENCER

53

It is difficult to determine how much at fault Shaw may have been. The territorial papers do not record any trial, censure, or exoner­ ation of him, and he does not appear to have led the Indians to Philadelphia. His accuser was Blount, who himself seems to have been a debatable choice for the governor's post. A heavy speculator in western lands, he had criticized the Treaty of Hopewell as violat­ ing the rights of North Carolina, and apparently used his author­ ity as a federal appointee for interests generally hostile to those of the Indians. Later, as is well known, he would be expelled from the United States Senate for indiscretions as serious as any of which Shaw may have been guilty. One point, however, is certain. The affair throws a welcome light upon a career that otherwise seems to be exceedingly obscure. N o evidence has been found as to what Shaw was doing after 1793. It is possible that he lived out his life with the Cherokees. The experi­ ence probably brought for him a bitter disillusionment, though not necessarily at the cost of surrendering his original sympathy for the Indians. College catalogues list him as deceased after 1808. SOURCES: N.J. Witts, vi, 347; vu, 29; alumni file, PUA; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; Beam, Whig Soc., 63-64; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; C. E. Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the U.S. (26 vols., 1934-62), rv (Terr. South of the River Ohio, 1790-96), 11518, 120, 131-32,139, 143-44, 150, 167-68, 170-71, 235, 244-47, 253; R. A. Henry, The First West (1972), 229-30. For background information on Cherokee affairs and Gov. Blount: W. H. Masterson, William Blount (1954), 224; R. Horsman, ExpansionfcfAmer. Indian Policy, 1783-1812 (1967), 29-30, 71, 74; Η. M. Wagstaff, Papers of John Steele (1924), 21, 27, 29, 42-43, 57, 67-68; DAB; M. D. Haywood, Biog. Hist. ofN.C. (1903), in, 25-27. Pa. Arch., 6th ser., m, 572-73, 575-76, 631-32, lists a "Lenard" Shaw as a member of a Lancaster County, Pa. militia battalion during 1785 and 1786. Leonard Shaw may have served with the battalion, but it is unlikely that a college graduate would have joined as an enlisted man rather than as an officer. RLW

John Eaton Spencer JOHN EATON SPENCER, A.B., lawyer, was preceded at the College

by two brothers-in-law, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (A.B. 1762), husband of his sister Margaret, and George Merchant (A.B. 1779), husband of his sister Elizabeth. He was the son of Joanna Eaton (or Eatton) and the Reverend Elihu Spencer, whose family consisted of seven daughters and their one surviving son John, two sons having died in infancy. Elihu Spencer, a native of Connecticut, graduated from Yale in 1746, was ordained at Boston in 1748, and served as a trustee of the College from 1752 until his death in December 1784. He was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown,

54

C L A S S OF

1784

New Jersey, where he succeeded Jonathan Dickinson in the spring of 1748 and served until 1756. In 1769 he took over the pastoral duties of two Presbyterian churches in Trenton, as well as one in the adjoining township of Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville). Surprisingly little information about John Spencer is available. He was probably born either in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, where his father served from 1759 until 1765, or New Castle County, Delaware, where his father was pastor of St. George's Church from the fall of 1765 until the fall of 1769. No record exists of his having joined any organization during his college years. At his graduation exercises he delivered a "humorous and satirical essay on the abuses that take place in a variety of characters." One authority on the history of Elizabeth, New Jersey, notes that Elihu and Joanna Spencer had a son John who, after graduating from the College of New Jersey, practiced law, married, and died, leaving several children. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in April 1789 and appointed a counsellor in April 1798. Apparendy he lived and practiced in Elizabethtown, and married a Charlotte Wright. Because local histories do not mention his career, his law practice was probably undistinguished. He died prior to 1812, when he is listed as deceased in a catalogue of the College. SOURCES: Princetonians, 1748-1768, 289, 408; NJA, xxu (1900), 356; N. Murray, Notes on Elizabeth-Town (1941), 55-56; T. Thayer, As We Were, The Story of Old Elizabethtoum (1964), 82; Dexter, Yale Biographies, n, 89-92; J. Hall, Hist, of Pres. Church m Trenton, N.J. (1912), 125, 129, 131, 136, 160-62, 169-71, 174-76; H.J. Pbdmore, Pres. Church of Lawrenceville, N.J. (1948), 52, 71; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; N.J. WiUs, vi, 367; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth (1868), 398; Riker, 73; corres. with Christine W. Biddle (great granddaughter), May 1908, alumni file, PUA. RLW

Zadoc Squier ZADOC SQUIER, A.B., schoolmaster, has not been positively identified in terms either of the time or place of his birth; nor has his parentage been established. However, he was almost certainly a native of New Jersey and probably of Essex County, where persons named Squier, with several variant spellings, were especially numerous. He was probably prepared for college at the Newark Academy, which had been revived after the war under the leadership of the Reverend Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757), whose son Alexander C. McWhorter was a classmate of Squier. The two of them and Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) corresponded from Nassau Hall with John Croes (A.M. 1797), later Episcopal bishop of New Jersey, who at the time

ZADOC SQUIER

55

was addressed as a "Student, Newark," although he was also working as one of the instructors at MacWhorter's school. Several of Squier's letters to Croes have survived, and their tone suggests a close friendship of the kind found especially among schoolmates. The earliest of these, in late February 1783, advised Croes of forthcoming "exhibitions" at the College in which Squier was to participate. Besides the usual orations, a play was to be performed based on the life of Alexander the Great. A letter of March 6 reported that the exercises had been conducted before an especially large audience, bigger than the one Croes had seen at commencement, presumably the preceding one of September 1782. Squier reported that Ashbel Green, for his portrayal of Alexander, "has had so many wreaths of laurel crowded upon his head, that he has scarcely been able to put his hat on since. Indeed I think Alexander himself whom he impersonated could not have spoken as well as he did." Just when Squier had enrolled in the College cannot be said, but by February 1783 he was a junior. Perhaps he was considering a ministerial career, for he expressed a wish in his letter of March 6 that he might spend another year after receiving the degree in study with Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), professor of moral philosophy and theology. He had no tolerance for the dancing and fencing masters located in Princeton. It would be better, he fumed, a few months later, "if these frenchmen were all where they came from; for a republick cannot subsist by such useless accomplishments: it must subsist only by simplicity and frugality." He added that he thought he might do as well in mathematics, which was taught in the junior year, as in any other branch of the curriculum. When he graduated a litde over a year later, Squier delivered an oration on "the difference between temerity and true courage." Evidendy, he joined neither campus literary society. By the time he graduated Squier had apparendy decided not to pursue theology with Professor Smith and was considering a career in medicine, for he returned to Newark to study "phisic," where he was also able to enjoy the company of Alex McWhorter, a law student in the same town. When Squier left Newark and his medical studies is not known, but he was teaching school in Trenton by the fall of 1786, probably in the Trenton Academy supervised by the Reverend James Armstrong (A.B. 1773). Toward the end of that year President John Witherspoon received a letter from William Hooper of Hillsborough, North Carolina, like Witherspoon a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hooper sought assistance in securing a tutor for the Hillsborough Academy at a salary of £100 per year. A letter of the following February 23 from Witherspoon to the academy's trustees indicates that Squier had been his immediate choice for

56

CLASS OF 1784

the position, but declined it at first when the Trenton school countered by increasing his salary. A reconsideration followed, and Squier left Princeton sometime in February, bearing Witherspoon's letter to the trustees, which assured them of his special qualifications for instruction in mathematics and natural philosophy. The trustees had requested that the appointee be mature enough to meet the responsibilities of the position. In response to this injunction, Witherspoon reported that Squier's "vows have been ultimately pointed to the ministry and I suppose still are." As a further voucher, the president added that when Squier had declined the "first proposal," the College had agreed to add him as a tutor at Princeton, whether in the grammar school or in the College was not said. The Hillsborough Academy had been chartered in 1779 as Science Hall, but only after a reorganization and a revised charter in 1784 was the school actually in operation with two tutors, Solomon Pinto (A.B. Yale 1770) and Benjamin Perkins (A.B. Yale 1785). The resignation of Perkins, who according to Hooper had taught "mathematics in the various branches, English gramatically, natural and experimental Philosophy and Geography," created the vacancy for which Squier was appointed. The trustees also hoped that their new tutor might have a knowledge of French. The academy was housed in what had been a dilapidated Anglican church which was restored at the expense of the trustees on the understanding that the building would also serve as a free place of worship for the use of any Christian minister, with a preference for Episcopalians in the case of conflicting claims. Among the heavier contributors to the school's support were Alexander Martin (A.B. 1756), also a trustee, and Joseph Hawkins (Class of 1777), but Witherspoon's association with Hooper in Congress best explains the latter's obvious inclination to persuade Squier to take the job. As early as February 19, 1787 he sought the aid of William Blount, half-brother of Willie Blount (Class of 1789), and Benjamin Hawkins (Class of 1777), then serving as members of Congress from North Carolina, in securing the "pecuniary assistance" needed by Squier to meet the cost of passage from New York to Carolina. The passage by coastal shipping was to Edenton, North Carolina, where James Iredell, a trustee of the academy, lived. Iredell sent Squier on the way overland to Hillsborough with a letter of March 17 to Hooper congratulating him upon the acquisition of a "young gentleman" he had found very deserving, "studious to a degree and though a little pedantic, as most young collegians are, lively and agreeable in his disposition, with (if I mistake not) a very excellent heart." Squier presumably reached Hillsborough in time for the opening of a new term on April 1, 1787. He evidendy continued to teach

ABRAHAM T E N B R O O K

57

at the academy until he died in late 1789, a death recorded in that year's College catalogue. Apparendy he never married. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA (includes copies of corres. between Witherspoon & Hooper, Blount, Hawkins, 8c Iredell); corres. with John Croes in NjP; als, A. C. McWhorter to R. G. Harper, 25 Nov. 1784, Harper Papers ("phisic"); Francis Nash in N.C. Booklet, 10 (1910), 106-13 (Hillsborough Academy, including full text of Hooper's letter to Witherspoon); R. Blackwelder, Age of Orange (1961), 119-21; St. Rec. N.C, xxiv, 250-51, 605-07; J. N. Norton, Life of Bishop Croes (1859), 3, 37-39, 43-45; Dexter, Yale Biographies, m, 700; rv, 435. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP

WFC

Abraham Tenbrook (Ten Brook, Ten Broeck) A.B., lawyer, was born at Harlingen, Somerset County, New Jersey, on September 6, 1765. His parents, Margaret Louw and Cornelius Ten Broeck, had moved to Harlingen from Kingston, New York immediately after their marriage in 1746. Four sons and four daughters were born in Harlingen. Cornelius was a farmer, and was also active in local politics. He served as a freeholder of the county in 1779 and again in 1782, and was a member of the state assembly for Somerset County in 1783. The Ten Broecks sent Abraham back to New York to prepare for college at the Kingston Academy. Abraham Ten Broeck joined the Cliosophic Society, probably in 1782. He may also have entered the College that year. The diary of James Wilkin (A.B. 1785) mentions a weekend visit to the Ten Broeck home in Harlingen. Wilkin and Ten Broeck set off from Princeton about three o'clock on the Saturday afternoon of February 28, 1784. "It was very cold" and it took them about three hours to walk the eight miles to Harlingen. They spent a pleasant evening chatting with Ten Broeck's parents, and in the morning Cornelius Ten Broeck sent them back to town in a sleigh driven by "His negroe." They arrived at the College before the first bell. At the graduation exercises in 1784 Ten Broeck delivered an oration on the causes of the late war, and a proper remedy for the evils immediately arising from it. Abraham Ten Broeck's preparation at the Kingston Academy may have taken place while his cousin Abraham Van Vechten (three years his senior) was still assisting the principal as usher. Van Vechten was admitted to the New York bar in 1783. He was active in politics and served, among other positions, as recorder of the City of Albany, district attorney, attorney general, and state senator. Family tradition ABRAHAM TENBROOK (TEN BROOK, TEN BROECK),

58

CLASS OF 1784

says that Ten Broeck studied law under Van Vechten in Albany. The name of Abraham Ten Brook appears on the "Roll of Attornies" of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, July 1788, the earliest recorded use of the changed spelling of his name. In January 1791 Ten Brook was licensed to appear in the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Ulster. In February 1791 the County of Otsego, New York, was formed and Cooperstown was designated as the "county town." Abraham Ten Brook is said to have been the first lawyer who came to practice in the village, and to have been the original of Van der School, "the parenthetical lawyer" in James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers. At some time before 1806 Ten Brook left Cooperstown. On April 19, 1807 in Trenton, New Jersey, Abraham "Tenbrook" married Eliza Howell of that city, who was twenty years his junior. Family records say that the Tenbrooks moved to Philadelphia "soon after 1807." They had three children, Elizabeth Catherine, William Ellett, and Philip Howell. Both sons married and became merchants in Philadelphia. Philadelphia city directories have no listing of the family until 1814, when an address is given for Abraham Tenbrook, distiller. Tenbrook was admitted to practice as attorney at law in the county courts of the City and County of Philadelphia on October 26, 1816. The first listing for Abraham Tenbrook, attorney at law, in a city directory appears in 1819. This listing continues through 1825. For 1828 and 1829 there is an entry for "Mrs. E. Tenbrook, boarding house." In 1830 Abraham Tenbrook's name appears again, not as attorney, but as gendeman, and is so listed until 1843. Family records note that he died on January 2, 1841. For 1844 a city directory shows Eliza Tenbrook, gendewoman, and William E. Tenbrook, merchant, at the family address, with a separate business address for William. George Crawford Beekman (A.B. 1859) was Tenbrook's grandson. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; N.J. Wilb, VII, 223; J. P. Snell, Hist, ofHunterdon & Somerset Cnties. (1881), 642-43,841-42; M. Schoonmaker, Hist of Kingston, N.Y. (1888), 343-46; Clio, lists; PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 57 (Wilkin diary); N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; G. R. Howell & J. Tenney, Hist, of the Cnty. of Albany (1886), 132-33, 156; N.Y. Dir., & Reg. (1789), 124; Hist, of Cooperstown (1929), 14, 30; R. Birdsall, Story of Cooperstown (1925), 101; £. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers in Trenton & Exvmg (1883), 137; Martin's Bench fif Bar, 316; Phila. city directories, 1814-44. RLW

Abner Woodruff A.B., A.M. 1787, merchant and naval officer, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey on December 28, 1767, the youngest son of Elias Woodruff, steward of the College from 1773 to 1776 and 1786 to 1788, and Mary Joline, sister of John Joline (A.B. ABNER WOODRUFF,

ABNER WOODRUFF

59

1775). Abner's brothers were Aaron Dickinson Woodruff (A.B. 1779) and George Whitefield Woodruff (A.B. 1783). The family moved to Princeton in 1772. Abner entered the freshman class in 1780, after having prepared at Nassau Hall's grammar school for less than a year. He joined the Gliosophic Society, adopting the name of Milton. At the commencement of 1784 he delivered an oration on "the influence that delicacy of sentiment has upon manners." For the next few years Abner apparently engaged in some kind of mercantile activity in Sussex County, New Jersey. He may have been in partnership with Robert Thompson, who married Abner's sister Maria in 1801. In 1793 Abner Woodruff was listed as a member of the Second Company of Light Horse in the Sussex Detached Militia. As of September 15, 1794 he was serving as a private in Captain Longstreet's Troop; some five weeks later, on October 20, he was commissioned paymaster of the same unit, which soon volunteered to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Woodruff's activities between December 1794 and the middle of 1798 are unknown, except for his attendance at the College commencement and the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society in 1795. In August 1798 he was recommended by the Federalist governor of New Jersey, Richard Howell, for an appointment in the Provisional Army planned for George Washington's command in the event of open warfare with France. Described as young, college educated and capable of raising men, Woodruff was judged deserving of a lieutenancy. That commission never materialized, and by September 1, 1798 Abner Woodruff had become a midshipman in the United States Navy. During the Quasi-War with France, Woodruff served on a number of ships, including the Ganges and the President. When the Ganges captured the Young George of Boston in 1799, Woodruff took command of the prize for several months until the Navy Department concluded that the brigantdne was really American and not French. Following a nine-month cruise on the George Washington, Woodruff was discharged in Philadelphia on April 29, 1801. Soon thereafter he had an opportunity to join the fleet about to sail to the Mediterranean for protection of American shipping against Tunisian, Tripolitan and Algerian marauders, an opportunity he at first was disinclined to accept. But he became convinced that the prospect of advancement beyond the rank of midshipman was good under the patronage of Capt. William Bainbridge, son of Absalom Bainbridge (A.B. 1762). He sailed for Tripoli on the Essex, and by December 1801 he was in Leghorn. From Gibraltar he had advised Aaron that he had been appointed to a lieutenant's berth on board the Philadelphia, a promotion official records confirm only under the date of March 4, 1803. Abner had been furloughed in August 1802, and almost a year

60

CLASS OF 1784

later he wrote to his brother George, who was practicing law in Savannah, Georgia, that he had decided to resign his commission in the navy. The resignation was accepted on December 3, 1803. During the previous summer Abner and sister Susan had visited George, then returned to Trenton, where Abner investigated the possibilities of going into business. At the time Aaron Woodruff was overseeing the construction of "Oaklands," a handsome house in Ewing Township, New Jersey, to which George and his large family would move in the summer of 1808, and Abner gave occasional assistance. Abner married Harriet Austin, the daughter of Stephen and Harriet Austin of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1804. The newlyweds spent at least part of the following year in New Jersey, where Abner continued to explore business prospects and to incur financial obligations for which Aaron was ultimately held responsible. On March 16, 1805 his exasperated brother wrote: "I sincerely hope that his [Abner's] Business may prove advantageous to him." Apparendy it did not, for some time during the next few months the younger Woodruff, his wife, and perhaps an infant son who later died, moved to Savannah. From there the other brother, George, wrote to Aaron on January 2, 1806: "We had all the family connections to dine with us yesterday except Abner and his wife. A coolness has subsisted between our wives since our return owing to what occurred in Trenton." In George's next several letters to Aaron, Abner was referred to in perfunctory fashion, or simply not mentioned at all. After the following complaint on March 14, 1806, Aaron never wrote of him again: I find my advances to Brother Abner and the debts I have paid for him exceed $1200 besides the Loss of Interest. The Want of so much Money puts me to very considerable Inconvenience. I have not pressed him to make any remittances, hoping that he will be enabled ... to discharge a part of it, as soon as he is able. The sum of $1200 presumably included the $500 of Abner's debts that Aaron had been asked to assume in December 1801. The surviving family correspondence provides no further clue to the relations between Aaron and Abner. However, Abner and George, who also had lent money to his younger brother, eventually were reconciled, since they shared quarters briefly in Savannah in December 1809. George wrote at the end of March 1810 that Abner was doing well despite a persistent cold. Yet not long after this date Abner left Georgia permanently and moved to Elizabethtown and then Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

ABNER

WOODRUFF

61

Two infant sons, one of whom was named Elias George, are buried in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth; they apparently died in Savannah in 1808 and 1809. Harriet Woodruff died sometime before October 1, 1815, for on that date Abner married her sister, Ann Maria Austin, in New York. The second Mrs. Woodruff died at age forty-four on August 2, 1825 in Perth Amboy. Abner spent the rest of his life there, perhaps finally involved in successful commercial ventures. He served as a vestryman at St. Peter's Episcopal Church from 1822 to 1825 and 1828 to 1837, and as a warden in 1841. Woodruff's third wife Hannah Lemmon Lewis was the sister of Commodore Jacob Lewis; she died at age eighty-nine on February 7, 1867. The couple resided in her brother's old colonial mansion in Perth Amboy for many years. Abner Woodruff died on January 11, 1842. Although there were many with that family name in the area, Woodruff Place in Perth Amboy is supposedly named in his honor. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Woodruff Family Papers, NjP (all quotations); Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 29 Sept. 1795; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct 1784; Alexander, Princeton, 224; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (1973), 132, 273; N.J. Adjutant General's Office, Records of Officers 6f Men of N.J. in Wars 1791-1815 (1909), separately numbered section on 1794 Pa. insurrection, 15, 20; Hamilton Papers, XIII, 126; Naval Documents Related to the QuasiWar between the U.S. 6f France (1936-38), m, 461-62; iv, 218, 270, 400; VII, 138, 358; Naval Documents Related to the U.S. Wars with the Barbary Powers (1939), I, 446; NJHSP, 68 (1950), 84; U.S. Office of Naval Records & lib., Reg. of Officer Personnel, U.S. Navy fif Marine Corps, 6f Ships'Data, 1801-07 (1945), 61; C. N. Woodruff, Woodruff Chronicles: A Genealogy (1971), u, 49; W. A. Whitehead, Early Hist, of Perth Amboy (1956), 169, 23940; W. O. Wheeler & £. D. Halsey, Inscriptions on Tombstones at Elizabeth, N.J., 16641892 (1892); E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers in Trenton 6f Ewmg (1883), 312; W. N. Jones, Hist, of St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy, N.J. (1924), 509; W. C. McGinnis, Hist, of Perth Amboy, N.J. (1958), 116. MANUSCRIPTS: Woodruff Family Papers, NjP LKS

CLASS OF 1785

Matthias Cazier, A.B.

Richard Smith, A.B.

Robert Goodloe Harper, A.B.

Isaac Snowden, Jr.

John Vernor Henry, A.B.

John Tappan (Tappen), A.B.

Oliver Livermore Ker, A.B.

James Thompson, A.B.

James McCoy (McKay), A.B.

Hercules Whaley, A.B.

St. C.

James Whitney Wilkin, A.B.

(Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 28, 1785)

Matthias Cazier A.B., A.M. Dartmouth 1793, teacher, Congregational and Presbyterian minister, was born on October 4, 1760 in New Castle, Delaware. His father John Cazier was the son of French Huguenot refugees who had settled on Staten Island. His mother Rebecca Van Bibber was the daughter of a chief justice of Cecil County, Maryland, from whom she acquired the portion of St. Augustine's Manor that is situated in Delaware. At her death, this property descended to Matthias and his two brothers, one of whom married the widow of James McCoy (A.B. 1785). It is not known where Cazier prepared for college, nor exactly when he entered, although he joined the Cliosophic Society on May 19, 1784, adopting the name of Simonides for society use. Tradition has it that he was drafted into service with the Delaware militia but was released when his father complained that he was not yet of age. Later, he was supposed to have served three years in the American army, although no official record has been found. Cazier was also said to have studied theology with President John Witherspoon, which may have occurred after he graduated on September 28, 1785. Upon leaving Princeton, he reportedly spent a year in the South for the benefit of his health. After teaching in 1786-87 at the Orange-Dale Academy in Essex County, New Jersey, Cazier served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Crane's Corners (Newark), New Jersey, until mid-1789, when he and his bride, Lydia Crane, moved to Castleton in Rutland County, Vermont. T h e town was organized in 1777 and the Congregational church in 1784, but Cazier was its first setded pastor. As such, he received a state grant of somewhere between 160 and 300 acres of land. During his four-year tenure there, a church edifice was finished, his wife joined the church, and their only child John was baptized. Cazier was dismissed on December 13, 1792 because the people were unhappy with his preaching. At the end of 1793 Cazier was called to the ministry of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pelham, Hampshire County, Massachusetts; his setdement was £100, with £65 and twenty cords of wood as his yearly salary. In addition, he owned several hogs and sheep, which he marked with "a hole in each ear and a half-penny cut out the lower side of the ear." Several of the parishioners immediately protested the "hasty and premature" invitation, complaining that they were strangers to Cazier's character and that the few sermons they had heard him preach were "subversive of all morality." Perhaps more was involved than a split between church members or a dispute over MATTHIAS CAZIER,

66

CLASS OF 1785

theology. Cazier's conduct was categorized as "so opinionative and dictatorial as to give us grounds to apprehend that he is not possessed of that spiritual prudence which is requisite in a gospel minister, and of a Sovereign disposition to Lord it over God's heritage." Church records indicate the issue was not raised again until March 28, 1796 when it was voted "to call a council to decide the difficulties between the parish and Mr. Cazier." To the latter were attributed several statements which he later denied ever making, such as a promise to give u p his settlement if dismissed. Cazier also claimed that his "great opposer," Reuben Marston of Castleton, had retracted certain comments about him, while the parishioners denied that Marston had in fact done so. On one occasion, Cazier tried to leave to visit Castleton a week earlier than he had said he would go; on another he reneged on a promise to supply lumber for a townsman's house. There was continuing disagreement over religious matters as well; finally, four area ministers were invited to advise the parish. At a church meeting on February 2 1 , 1798, all of the twenty-nine present voted against Cazier; on March 14 another council unanimously agreed to dismiss him. A late-nineteenth-century historian of Pelham declared: "However injudicious and imprudent Mr. Cazier may have been ..., he was evidently a man of much ability " Perhaps it also should be noted that Cazier's successor lasted but two years. Cazier next served for nearly five years as pastor in South Britain, a part of Southbury, Connecticut. Following his dismissal from that pulpit in January 1804, he preached for the congregation at Naugatuck, formerly Salem Society, which he had formed from the First Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. H e was setded as minister in May 1804. Unfortunately for Cazier, this was a church that experienced "a varied and often trying history; ... the Presbyterian and Congregational elements in it refused to coalesce." It is not known whether he was involved in this turbulence, nor when he left the parish. Around 1800 Cazier, in the company of a friend, had explored central New York with a view to future setdement. Ultimately, he moved his family to Hamilton, and then to Lebanon in Madison County, where he had purchased some 800 acres. T h e holder of the original patent of Lebanon was Colonel William S. Smith (A.B. 1774). Cazier may have served as pastor, schoolmaster, and later church elder at Lebanon, but church records are incomplete before 1825. H e had no pastoral charge after 1827. Matthias Cazier died on a farm in Lebanon, New York, in J u n e 1837. His son John La Conte Cazier may have briefly attended the College. T h e younger Cazier was a founder and proprietor of a medical school at Casdeton, Vermont; he died in Lebanon in 1863.

ROBERT GOODLOE

HARPER

67

SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. (1888), n, 949; J. H. Smith, Hist, of ChenangofcfMadison Cnties. (1880), 577, 581 (gives date of birth as 1752); Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; N.J. Jour., 4 Oct. 1786; J. Hayward, Gazetteer ofVt. (1849), 43; D. Maunsell, Gazetteer ofVt. Heritage (1976), 44; C. O. Rmnenter, Hist. ofPelham, Mass. (1898), 272-80, 489; L. Bacon et al., Contributions to the Ecclesiastical Hist, of Conn. (1861), 431, 477; C. Green, Hist. ofNaugatuck, Conn. (1948), 71. LKS

Robert Goodloe Harper ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER, A.B., LL.D. 1820, lawyer, land speculator, and public official, was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1765, probably early in January, the only son among eight daughters of Jesse and his wife Diana Goodloe Harper. T h e father was a modestly prosperous farmer and cabinetmaker, and evidently a very pious Presbyterian. When the boy was about four years of age the family moved to Granville County, North Carolina. T h e r e his mother taught him to read and write, and at the age of ten he is said to have been sent to a local academy, possibly a forerunner of the academy chartered in 1799 by the state legislature for establishment in Granville. Its board of trustees was headed by Governor Richard Caswell and included the Reverend Henry Patillo, pioneer Presbyterian minister in the state who was pastor after 1780 of the Nutbush and Grassy Creek congregations of Granville County. Patillo was also a close personal friend of the Harper family. After Cornwallis invaded North Carolina in 1780 fifteen-year-old Robert left school against his parents' wishes and joined a volunteer cavalry troop that served under Gen. Nathanael Greene (A.M. 1781) until the British left the state. Returning to school, young Harper found that he had acquired a fondness for military life and was eager to accept a preferred offer of a lieutenancy of cavalry. However, Jesse Harper dissuaded his son by promising that if Robert would continue his studies until he was twenty, the father would use his influence to secure him a higher commission than lieutenant and would also equip him for the service. During the summer of 1783 Robert, then only eighteen, accepted an invitation to join a surveying expedition into the area that was to become Tennessee and Kentucky. On this frontier foray he acquired "a considerable knowledge of the Western Countries and a turn for land speculations." Returning home in the cold weather Harper, according to his own account, spent nearly six months in idleness and dissipation, developing "a fondness for gaming" and "a taste for fashionable gaiety." Jesse Harper then issued his son an ultimatum that this way of life must end, giving him two

68

CLASS OF

1785

Robert Goodie Harper, A.B. 1785 BY CHARLES B. J. FEVRET DE SAINT MEMIN

choices. If Robert wished to enter some business enterprise, Jesse would assist him as much as possible. If the son preferred to go to college, which the father admitted had always been his own wish, Robert would have to support himself by acting as a tutor or usher as he had during the latter part of his preparatory school days. However, the father would provide him with transportation and funds sufficient to give him a start. "Mortification at finding myself obliged to give u p the amusements of which I had grown fond, and the expences which had placed me on a footing with the young men of my acquaintance," Harper wrote, led him to choose college because it "concurred with my love of travelling, and the desire of knowledge which I had always felt." Harper left home for Princeton in J u n e 1784 when he was nineteen years and six months of age, with less than $100 for his support. That he was well prepared is indicated by his admission to the College with advanced standing and his capture on the evening before the 1784 commencement of the prize for "English and Latin versions." During the following winter term he became a junior. By this time his funds had been exhausted, and he obtained a teaching assignment in

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

69

the Nassau Hall grammar school. Since his salary was not sufficient for his support, he also taught reading, writing, and arithmetic to several young boys who had been placed under the care of Vice President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769). Harper later claimed that these two jobs kept him busy for eight hours each day and that he devoted the remainder of his time to his studies. He spent at least part of the spring break of 1785 in New York City, where he met Richard Dobbs Spaight, later governor of North Carolina, and borrowed enough money to support himself until the end of the academic year. Released from the pressure of his tutoring jobs, Harper determined that during the next semester he would complete the work of both the junior and senior years in time to apply for a degree in September 1785. Not only was he successful in this effort, but he was also the second student to receive the annual award of the Dickinson Medal for the best essay written by an undergraduate. At his commencement he delivered an oration on "The Proper Objects of Education." Even with the tremendous amount of effort and time necessary for such an ambitious schedule, Harper also managed to become active in the American Whig Society and to develop lasting friendships with fellow Whigs, several of whom had been at Princeton with him only during the summer session of 1784. Despite Jesse Harper's encouragement of his son's college education, he may have preferred an institution nearer than Princeton, for his letters to Robert constantly enjoined him to visit home as soon as possible and not to distance himself from his family for long. T h e elder Harper's letters, as early as October 1784, complained that he was feeling unwell and that he would like to see his only son while still "in the Land of the living." At the same time he urged Harper to settle "with, near, or About" his mother and sisters in order "to Comfort & Assist them when I am Gone." Obviously dying of throat cancer, the elder Harper finally succumbed in late January or early February 1787, after eighteen months of "Constant pain" and four weeks of "Violent pain." His letters to Robert in the fall of 1784 and spring of 1785 also asked for a financial accounting. Apparently a J o h n Haywood had been authorized to advance some pocket money to Harper, but a Samuel Allen was also dunning the father, who was anxious to clear the accounts but needed fuller information to do so. Both father and sisters constantly urged Harper to write more often, and at one point they had not heard from him in eight months. Negligence by Harper may not have been the problem, for the available correspondence shows that letters written both in North Carolina and in Princeton sometimes failed to reach their destination or got there only after several months. However, the son was not

70

CLASS OF 1785

concerned enough about his father's illness to return to Granville. He was probably weighing options in June 1785 when James Morris (A.B. 1784) wrote to him from New York suggesting that he remain at Princeton, where the opportunities for improvement were great, especially for someone with a disposition for study. Instead, Harper chose Charleston, South Carolina, as his destination after graduation. He later stated that he wished to see something of the world and to enjoy advantages not available in the interior of North Carolina. Harper first spent several weeks in Philadelphia with Henry (A.B. 1786) and Meredith Clymer (A.B. 1787). He arrived in Charleston in November 1785 and, according to his own account soon after his arrival, "I met with the father of one of my little pupils at Princeton, who having heard of me by means of his son treated me with great kindness, and insisted on my receiving from him such advances of money as I might want, till I could get employment." This benefactor may have been Robert Heriot, father of John Heriot (Class of 1789) and Robert Heriot (A.B. 1792). Harper also carried letters of introduction from Col. George Morgan of Princeton, father of John (Class of 1789), another of Harper's former pupils, and George (Class of 1795) and Thomas (Class of 1804). In January Annis Boudinot Stockton wrote Harper a pious epistle which enclosed letters of introduction to two ladies of her acquaintance in Charleston, noting that though Harper had plenty of introductions to gentlemen, "it can do you no harm to be introduced to ladies." Harper was unable to secure an acceptable private tutoring position, but James Hamden Thomson (A.B. 1761), who administered a large school in Charleston, employed him as an usher at a salary of fifty guineas a year plus board, washing, and lodging. Thomson also introduced Harper to two of his former students who were beginning their legal practice, and they offered the newcomer the use of their office and their law library during his spare hours. Sometime during the winter months Benjamin Hawkins (Class of 1777), an acquaintance of the Harper family in Granville, arrived in Charleston and introduced the aspiring attorney to some of the town's leading citizens, including two brothers-in-law and law partners, Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Edward Rutledge, who gave Harper "assistance and direction in the study of the law." According to his own account, during the following spring an acquaintance offered him a "small supply of money," to be repaid when he began his legal practice, provided he would give up his teaching position and devote himself entirely to the study of law. Robert's accumulating debts gready disturbed Jesse, who could pay them only by borrowing on his real estate, which he refused to do. The father also warned his son not to

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

71

set his sights on extensive schemes needing a great deal of capital but to confine his ambitions to "a Smaller Cumpass" until he could raise some money on his own. During this period both father and various sisters continued to urge Harper to visit home, especially during the summer, the "sickly" season in Charleston. Early in 1787, only about a year and a half after his arrival in Charleston, Harper was admitted to the bar, which at the time required no more than certification of qualification by an examining judge. He began his practice at Cambridge in the Ninety-Six District in the western part of the state. He soon found employment there, but "finding that I got litde money and less improvement in a Country so litde advanced," he returned to Charleston late in 1789. However, he laid the foundation for a political career while in Ninety-Six by prompdy identifying himself with the local demand for reapportionment of representation in the state assembly. There too he began to undertake speculative ventures in western lands that were more than once to plunge him deeply into debt. In Granville his mother died within a year of her husband. Harper's brother-in-law Robert Hyde, husband of his sister Elizabeth, managed the family farm and lands and kept the estate intact until late 1788, when the decision to marry of another sister, Frances, forced a division of the property. Harper regarded his return to Charleston as the real beginning of his legal practice. By 1791 he had attained what he considered an extensive business. In that year a company asked him to purchase a large tract of land on the Mississippi River from the state of Georgia, promising him a one-twentieth share of the proceeds. He spent part of the summer of 1791 in Philadelphia attempting to sell shares in the enterprise, but he was unable to raise enough money, and the project failed. However, he later recalled, "This incident initiated me again into land speculations, diverted my mind in some degree from my professional pursuits, and gave me that relish for the northern States, which contributed not a litde, in the end, towards inducing me to accept a seat in Congress." He declined to run in 1792 but promised to do so as soon as he had accumulated more funds and could better afford a political career. However, he did become a quorum justice of the local court. In the summer of 1794 Harper left Charleston to avoid yellow fever. Visiting in Columbia he became involved with Wade Hampton, a leading figure in what soon became known as the Yazoo land fraud. Hampton had sold some South Carolina land to the Philadelphia firm of Morris & Nicholson and had a contract with it whereby that company agreed to purchase as much land as he could supply. T h e owner of large tracts of land near Orangeburg, South Carolina, had

72

CLASS OF 1785

refused to sell to Hampton but agreed to deal with Harper, offering him half of the proceeds from the resales which the latter would manage. Obtaining a power of attorney, Harper sold 150,000 acres to Hampton and his associates, which they planned to resell to Morris & Nicholson. Deciding that his income would now permit him to run for Congress, Harper returned to Ninety-Six District and announced his candidacy. H e also purchased on credit a plantation which he intended to settle and improve and which he planned to pay for from the proceeds of the sale of lands to Morris & Nicholson. Elected to represent Ninety-Six District in the fourth Congress, he began a political career that was built upon representation of a western constituency. Intending to continue his practice in Charleston until it was time to take his seat in Congress the following fall, Harper was asked to run in a special election for the unfilled term of the deceased Alexander Gillon, thereby enabling him to take his seat in Philadelphia as early as February 1795. This opportunity also enabled him an to accept an earlier offer of Charleston merchant William Price to join him, without any financial involvement on Harper's part, in buying tracts of South Carolina and Georgia lands to be resold in Philadelphia. On the strength of this agreement he purchased 220,000 acres in South Carolina and later 50,000 acres in Georgia. When Price backed out of the contract, these transactions immersed Harper deeply in debt. An effort to meet his obligations through a large shipment of wine to be resold in Charleston only intensified his problems. In spite of all these difficulties Harper was so convinced of the value of land that he purchased another 23,000 acres in Georgia in the spring of 1796 with only $600 as a down payment, and he also acquired additional acreage for his plantation. Midst the sharp controversies awakened by Georgia's initial Yazoo grant and its repeal in 1796 after a bitter political campaign, Harper contributed to the debate in the latter year a pamphlet entitled The Case of Georgia Sales on the Mississippi Considered, in which he insisted upon the legality of the original sales and denied the right of the legislature to render void its previous action. Harper's identification with the "Yazooists" would continue to be important for his career as late as 1810, when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the celebrated case of Fletcher v. Peck after Harper had served as one of the attorneys for John Peck. T h e decision upheld the validity of a title created under the Georgia statute of 1795. When his role in the sales was questioned, he relinquished all his interests and contended that he had taken no part in the purchases, but had merely accepted shares which various companies had offered him in consideration of services which he would render them.

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

73

In Congress Harper was a thorough Federalist. William B. Giles (A.B. 1781) attributed Harper's Federalism to a conversion from an earlier Republicanism, and modern scholarship has tended to support this view, even depicting him as a turncoat. But J. W. Cox has vigorously and persuasively challenged that view in a more recent biography. Apparently the charge has depended too much upon an assumption that party lines were clearly drawn much earlier than they actually were, as well as an exaggeration of the length of his service in the state house of representatives (he served only one term, representing Spartanburg in 1794), the significance of his advocacy of reapportionment of representation, and the generally favorable attitude toward the French Revolution in its early stages that Harper at first shared with most Americans. During the summer of 1796 Harper toyed with the idea of quitting Congress and devoting himself entirely to the practice of law. He spent several weeks in New York, staying with Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), who urged him to move to New York and open a practice there. However, Harper finally decided that he did not want to relinquish his political base of power. T h e "Anti-federalists having proclaimed every where that by taking the federal side I had lost the confidence of my district, and could not be re-elected, I was the more stimulated to make the attempt," he explained. Having shown that he could be reelected, he then decided not to serve the entire term but to become established in either New York or Philadelphia during the summer of 1797 and to resign at the close of the 1797 session. H e chose Philadelphia and was called to its bar, but when yellow fever in the city during 1797 made it impossible for him to set u p a practice, he returned to Congress. As the crisis with France developed, he felt it "necessary for every man of public spirit, to exert himself according to his means, for the public cause." He feared that if he left Congress his place would be filled by someone of differing views. "Having also taken some part in those measures which brought on the crisis, I considered it, in some sort, as a point of honour to remain at my post, and take my full share of the danger," he wrote. "These considerations led me to offer again in the election of 1798." Meantime, with his necessary absences during sessions of Congress, his legal practice was taking in less than anticipated, and he borrowed from a Philadelphia friend for debts incurred during the 1797 session. With his decision to run again came more traveling expenses, for which a friend in South Carolina loaned him f 1,000. There was little that was doctrinaire in Harper's Federalism. In a March 5, 1801 letter to his constituents written near the end of his last term in Congress, he placed first among the principles for which he and the Federalists had stood the preservation of the independent

74

CLASS OF 1785

authority of the Federal government. "In every struggle between the federal and the state governments," he declared, Federalists "considered the latter as possessing infinitely the greater natural strength; and therefore thought it their duty to take part with the former, in order to preserve the balance." Second came support for executive authority as a necessary check upon the "power of a popular assembly" which "being little suspected by the people, is always little watched." Third, and finally, was the provision of "liberal not large compensations" for men in public office because "the contrary system has a constant and powerful tendency, to throw the most important offices into the hands of unworthy or unqualified persons, who either neglect or mismanage the public business, or resort to dishonest means for supplying the deficiencies in their regular compensation." In the area of public policy he boasted of the maintenance of national security with honor, the establishment of "a solid and extensive system of revenue" in support of the public credit, a vigorous enforcement of the laws, and protection for the frontiers. That he well understood the location of ultimate power in the American political system is nowhere better illustrated than in his use of circular letters for communication with his constituents. These letters, a significant development of the 1790s, were employed as well by other congressmen, chiefly southern and western, but none of Harper's contemporaries in Congress made a fuller or more effective use of them. Others might send a single letter per session, usually at or toward its close, but Harper wrote as many as three in a single session. Printed and mailed under the franking privilege, Harper's letters were personal in tone, informative, and often skillfully argumentative. They consistendy employed as a form of address or transition from paragraph to paragraph, "My Dear Sir." Harper at first had tried another style of approach, that of An Address from Robert Goodloe Harper, of South-Carolina, to His Constituents, Containing His Reasons for Approving of the Treaty ... -with Great Britain, which he had had printed at Philadelphia late in 1795. Having at the beginning affirmed his conviction "that public servants, my fellow-citizens, owe those who employ them an exact account of whatever they do in discharge of their trust," he followed with thirtyfive printed pages of arguments justifying the acceptance of the Jay Treaty, which had posed the first critical issue of his career as a congressman. It should not be assumed that the letters he addressed to his constituents were entirely polemical in character. Indeed, they were intended as much to inform his readers as to persuade them, as in his letter of May 2, 1796 reporting the adoption by the House, after a "long, able, and interesting" debate, of a resolution "for car-

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

75

rying into effect the Treaty with Great Britain." This victory for the administration had come by a very narrow margin, and Harper gave the breakdown of the vote state by state, not neglecting to note that he had favored the measure for reasons already "fully explained." Over the years he repeatedly used the letters to apprise his readers of significant political developments on both the national and international scenes. In addition, his letters included some good reporting. That he undertook thus in a democratic way to keep in touch with his constituents undoubtedly helps to explain his reelection to Congress in 1796 and again in 1798. There he quickly had become a leader among the Federalists, in association with Harrison Gray Otis of Massachusetts and James Ashton Bayard (A.B. 1784) of Delaware. His influence owed much to his readiness to speak out on the floor of the House or in the public press. Whether the publication was a letter or an address to his constituents, a speech delivered in the House, or a pamphlet addressed to a specific question, his influence in the molding of public opinion reached far beyond the limits of his own constituency and state. He can be described perhaps as a low-church Federalist who was closer to John Adams than he was to Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791). He supported Adams in the election of 1796, although in the hope that Thomas Pinckney, Adams's running mate, might prevail in the choice of the president by the electoral college. In a circular letter of January 5, 1797 reporting the results of this election, he frankly expressed his preference for Pinckney and a "decided preference" for Adams over Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791), whom he thought "fit to be a professor in a College, President of a Philosophical Society, or even Secretary of State; but certainly not the first magistrate of a great nation." He explained, "I believe his hatred and dread of Great Britain to be so violent, and his enthusiastic attachment to France so unbounded, that it would be impossible for him to act with justice and impartiality between the two nations." Having thus accused Jefferson of a crippling bias against Britain, he proceeded to demonstrate that he himself was well on the way toward developing a comparable "hatred and dread" of France. His case against the French government was soon to find much fuller expression in Observations on the Dispute between the United States and France, Addressed by Robert Goodloe Harper, of South Carolina to His Constituents, in May 1797 that was published at Philadelphia and subsequently republished in enough editions here and abroad to leave no doubt that it ranks as his single most influential written piece. It was an informed review of the rapidly deteriorating relations between the two countries which had followed ratification of the Jay Treaty. It

76

CLASS OF 1785

charged France with an aggressive assault upon American interests, and with the cultivation of a French "party" among Americans, and it skillfully related this charge to the military expansion of French power on the continent of Europe. That expansion, however much it sought justification as an extension of revolutionary freedom to France's neighbors, was described by Harper in unvarnished terms of dominion, empire, and tyranny. As the Quasi-War with France developed, Harper supported a variety of measures designed to strengthen the nation's defenses against external attack. In 1798 he took a lead in the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts, legislation intended to protect the government from internal threats. H e had a way of appearing to be both extreme and moderate. During the debate on the Alien Enemies Act he suggested that citizenship ought to be restricted to the native born. On the other hand, he found an initial sedition bill sent to the House by the Senate to be altogether too extreme, and in collaboration with Otis and Bayard rewrote it. In its revised form it included such safeguards for the defendant in prosecutions under the act as a requirement that malicious intent be proved, that the jury have the power to determine all questions of law as well as of fact, and that evidence of the truth of an alleged libel might be submitted in justification of the allegation. Harper introduced the resolution that led to the enactment of the Sedition Act, and he also closed the debate that preceded the vote. In the former it was stipulated that "nothing in the said provisions,... ought to extend 'to abridge the freedom of speech and the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,' as established by the Constitution of the United States." In closing the debate he denied that the act would violate fundamental constitutional guarantees, as its opponents had charged, and insisted, for example, that liberty of the press did not carry impunity from prosecution for an abusive use of that liberty. For some Federalists the real target of the Sedition Act was probably the Republican Party, but one who follows Harper's speeches and writings closely will believe that he was guided basically by a genuine fear of French purposes and methods. He seems actually to have believed in the possibility of a French invasion of the United States, probably by way of the West Indies into the southern states where the existence of slavery could be expected to compound the risk of internal disturbances by French agents. It is worthy of special note, moreover, that Harper, unlike virtually all of his contemporaries, believed that political parties—and he specified two—were vital to the American political system.

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

77

It is a remarkable fact that Harper in a long circular letter of July 23, 1798 summarized the work of the Congress which passed the Alien and Sedition Acts without mentioning them. As to what may have been the explanation, here it is possible only to speculate. Perhaps he considered the subject to be of less importance than were those to which he devoted detailed attention: the XYZ affair and the consequent provisions by Congress for strengthening the army and militia, for naval defence, for the arming of merchant vessels, for the suspension of intercourse with France, and for the financing of these preparations against the probability of war, a subject he as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was especially well qualified to discuss. Perhaps he preferred to postpone discussion of the more controversial Alien and Sedition Acts until he was in Carolina during the fall, as he planned to be in his campaign for reelection. It can only be said that he did return to Cambridge in the fall, that he won reelection to a state congressional delegation containing then only one Republican, and that he apparently was challenged in some degree for his part in the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts. In another circular letter on February 10, 1799, he recalled the promise he had given the preceding fall to provide an explanation for his advocacy of these acts, and attributed his delay in doing so to illness. He began by referring his readers to the recendy published address by Virginia legislators who had opposed the Virginia Resolutions of December 1798 as a faithful statement of his own views, and added a summary of the acts in question with the expressed hope that "you will not only find them constitutional, but proper and expedient." Because of the war scare, 1798 generally had been a Federalist year, but by 1800 the tide was turning. Already Harper had decided not to run for reelection; indeed, his decision was not merely to withdraw from Congress, but from the state of South Carolina itself. Although he continued to represent the Ninety-Six District until the termination of the Sixth Congress on March 3, 1801, he moved his residence and his law practice to Baltimore in the summer of 1799. This move brought no slackening of his sense of responsibility for keeping his constituents informed as to the work of Congress. He mailed out three full circular letters, including the farewell letter previously discussed, before ending his congressional career. In the election of 1800 he actively supported Adams and Charles C. Pinckney. As he had done four years earlier, he attempted to supplant Adams with the second man on the ticket for the presidency. When the end result of the election became a tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr, Harper was quick to realize that the House of Representatives might choose Burr. On December 24, 1800 Harper

78

CLASS OF 1785

wrote to Burr: "The language of the democrats is, that you will yield your pretensions to their favourite; and it is whispered that overtures to this end are to be, or are made to you. I advise you to take no step whatever, by which the choice of the house of representatives can be impeded or embarrassed. Keep the game perfecdy in your own hands, but do not answer this letter, or any other that may be written to you by a federal man, nor write to any of that party." Through thirty-five ballots Harper voted for Burr, but on the final ballot, responding to the initiative taken by his colleague James Bayard, he cast a blank ballot as did other South Carolina Federalists. Thus he helped to assure the election of Jefferson without having actually to vote for him. Not long thereafter, on May 7, 1801, Harper married Catherine Carroll, daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton who at first had bitterly opposed the union. The Carrolls were Catholics, but the objection seems not to have been to Harper's Protestantism. Rather, other considerations, including Harper's chronic state of indebtedness, were apparently responsible. Carroll demanded a full financial accounting, and on January 10, 1801 Harper responded with details of his background and a justification of his involvement in the various schemes' in which he had lost money. His current obligations of $13,450 could not have been encouraging to a prospective father-inlaw, but he noted that he still owned lands in both South Carolina and Georgia that he did not wish to sacrifice by a forced sale. He also claimed that since he had started practicing in Baltimore in July 1799 he had collected $3,197 in fees, despite his attendance at Congress for six months of the year. He was owed over $1,000 in uncollected fees, and he expected to receive additional amounts for cases still in progress. Carroll eventually gave his grudging consent, and a measure of camaraderie developed between the two. The marriage ceremony was performed by Bishop John Carroll, cousin of the bride's father and the first Catholic bishop in the United States. The marriage brought an assured position in Maryland society, a credit rating that permitted the refinancing of Harper's debts, and many useful connections. Harper soon began to prosper as a lawyer. He also became a leader in a variety of community enterprises, among them the Dancing Assembly, the Baltimore Water Company, and the Baltimore Exchange. In time the couple developed a handsome estate— "Oakland"—located a short distance out of the town, and it became a favorite gathering place for the Baltimore elite. Three children, Charles, Robert, and Emily, survived their father. In spite of his relatively short time at Nassau Hall, Harper must have retained a fondness for the College. After the fire of 1802 he

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

79

contributed $100, and on July 27 President Samuel Stanhope Smith wrote him that " T h e College will, in all probability be rebuilt, & in perfect order for the reception of the students before the beginning of the Winter session." I n October 1805 Harper sent his nephew J o h n Henry Hyde to the College, where he entered as a sophomore. H a r p e r may have become the young man's guardian. Hyde was liv­ ing with him in Baltimore, was sent to Princeton with a letter of introduction from Harper, and when the student became lax in his studies and his attendance at class the next year, it was to H a r p e r that Smith wrote. In his answering note H a r p e r referred to Hyde as "my nephew; whom I regard as my son." T h e following spring Hyde was in serious trouble. His "ungovernable temper" had caused him to insult a tutor and severely beat a fellow student. Asked to leave the College, he had instead joined his particular friends in an insurrection. Trustee Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779) was called upon for his legal opinion as to the best way to end the confrontation between students and faculty. His advice to the student body to sep­ arate themselves from the combination of unruly insurgents sent the dissidents rushing from the hall, breaking windows and doors. O r d e r was not restored until the following day when the College was dis­ missed early for the spring break. H a r p e r replied that perhaps his nephew had not been "intentionally instrumental" in starting an insur­ rection, and that another student had informed him that Hyde had actually tried to dissuade the rioters. Harper also wondered whether the tutor was unnecessarily severe. Smith conceded that "it is not impossible for Mr. Hyde by proper representations, & acknowlegements to be restored. To me he has always behaved with perfect decency & propriety." Whatever he acknowledged, Hyde went on to graduate with the Class of 1808. Harper served as counsel for J u d g e J o h n Pickering and Justice Samuel Chase, in 1804 and 1805 respectively, during the impeach­ ment proceedings against them. H e appeared for Justus Erich Bollmann and Samuel Swartwout in the earliest judicial actions aris­ ing from the so-called Burr conspiracy. Contemporaries seem to have credited him with professional competence rather than with any evidence of profundity as a student of the law. Justice Joseph Story found him "diffuse, but methodical and clear," perhaps "in some degree artificial" but one who studied "his cases with great diligence." It was noted too that he argued his points "with consider­ able warmth." Over the years he trained a number of young lawyers, of whom J o h n Η. B. Latrobe perhaps became the best known. Although no longer seeking public office, H a r p e r continued to be politically active, not only in his own state of Maryland but through

80

CLASS OF 1785

correspondence with Federalist leaders in other states as well. As did many other Federalists or former Federalists, he supported DeWitt Clinton for president in 1812 against James Madison (A.B. 1771), having attended the meeting at New York that summer of mainly northern Federalists who generally reached agreement on backing Clinton. That he had surrendered none of his party bias is made abundantly clear in the Speech of Robert Goodloe Harper, Esq. at the Celebration of the Recent Triumph of the Cause of Humanity, in Germany: Delivered at Annapolis, January 20, 1814. T h e reference in the title is to the allied victory over Napoleon at Leipzig in the preceding fall. T h e target of his remarks was the "war party" in the United States which by taking the country into war with England had come dangerously close to an alliance with the forces of tyranny on the continent of Europe. T h e war party had its origins in the southern states, especially Virginia, he argued, and its history began with the debts there owed to British merchants on the eve of the Revolution. "Here we discern the germ of the war party," he declared, which "first appeared as a debtor party." With considerable detail and more than a little malice he proceeded to trace the party's history through the intervening years, as the "debtor party, nursed in the arms and nourished with the milk of aristocracy," became "a democratic party" that, "better to cloak its real views, and promote its plans" had assumed "the name of the 'Republican Party.'" T h e review from the time of the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793 and the Jay Treaty of 1794 was given in great detail. However much Harper may have opposed the war, it brought him an opportunity for fulfillment of an apparently long-standing ambition for military service. In 1798 he had sought appointment as an aide to George Washington in the Provisional Army, a request passed on by Hamilton with an interesting comment: "He is a man of very considerable talents & has the temper of a soldier. T h e shade of his useful qualities is Vanity. But I think the good much outweighs the ill." Washington expressed a preference for more experienced officers. But when the British invaded the Chesapeake in the summer of 1814, Harper received a commission as a general officer in the Maryland forces hastily assembled for the defense of Baltimore. He won approbation in the action at North Point on September 13 and 14, and to the end of his life he enjoyed being known as General Harper. For a time he seems to have assumed that the war, and its conduct by the Republican administration, offered a bright prospect for his return to public office. T h e publication at Baltimore in 1814 of the first volume of the Select Works of Robert Goodloe Harper: Conshting

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER

81

of Speeches on Political and Forensic Subjects; ... and Sundry Political Tracts (the only volume to be published) apparently was undertaken with that view in mind. As a Federalist, he was elected by joint vote of the legislature to the United States Senate in January 1816. H e took his seat on February 5, and for reasons that are not altogether clear he resigned on December 6, 1816, just at the beginning of the second session of the Fourteenth Congress. Perhaps he sensed that the Federalist Party, which had remained stronger in Maryland than in most other states, was actually dead or soon would be. Perhaps there were overriding personal considerations. Perhaps, as parts of his earlier career suggest, he was a man never fully certain of his objectives in life. Returned to private life, he threw his abundant energies into sup­ port of the American Colonization Society. It had been organized in December 1816, and by the following J u n e , H a r p e r was among the leaders in organizing a Baltimore auxiliary. For the better part of a decade, until his death in 1825, he devoted much of his time to the affairs of the society. A gifted and experienced publicist, he contributed in 1818 a promotional piece entitled A Letter from Gen. Harper, of Maryland, to Ε lias Β. Caldwell.... Caldwell (A.B. 1796) was secretary of the Society. T h e pamphlet summarized the familiar argu­ ments in behalf of colonization: Africa would provide free persons of color with better opportunities than they could expect in this coun­ try, the colony would open a "mutually advantageous" trade, and the whole enterprise would be a first step toward eliminating the "great moral and political evil" of slavery without unhinging "the whole frame of society." Harper's motion at the annual meeting in 1824 gave the name of Liberia to the colony, and in honor of President James Monroe (LL.D. 1822), Monrovia to its capital city. At the time of his death, his estate included twenty-seven slaves. Harper continued to take an active interest in politics. As the elec­ tion of 1824 approached, he tended to favor J o h n C. Calhoun, even undertook some writing in his behalf in 1823, but in the end he threw his support to Andrew Jackson. At the beginning of 1825 he announced his candidacy once more for Congress, but on January 15 he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of sixty. In his later years he impressed younger men as a "grave, dignified, refined and punctilious gentleman of the old school." J o h n Η. B. Latrobe further described him as of "middle height, straight as an arrow, strongly rather than delicately built, square shouldered, of a florid complexion and very bald, with regular features, an aquiline nose, clear gray eyes, and compressed lips, of formal carriage and precise speech." H e was fastidious in his dress. His funeral was one

82

CLASS OF 1 7 8 5

of the more impressive Baltimore had seen. Attended by some 2,000 soldiers and three bands, he was buried with full military honors. SOURCES: J. W. Cox, Champion of Southern Federalism: Robert Goodloe Harper of S.C. (1972), passim, a study chiefly of Harper's congressional career; D. H. Fischer, Revo­ lution ofAmer. Conservatism (1965), 36-38; D. H. Fischer, "Robert Goodloe Harper," unpublished senior thesis, Princeton University 1958, passim·, C. W. Sommerville, Robert Goodloe Harper (1899), 25 (quotes from Justice Story); DAB; BDUSC, 1136; St. Rec. N.C., xxiv, 296-97; als, Jesse Harper to RGH, 20 Oct. 1784 ("in the Land"), 13 Mar. 1786 ("a Smaller Cumpass"), Annis B. Stockton to RGH, 9 Jan. 1786 ("it can do"), Letitia Harper to RGH, 14 Mar. 1787 ("Constant pain," "Violent pain"), undated statement of affairs enclosed in RGH to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 10 Jan. 1801 ("a considerable knowledge," "fondness for gaming," "Mortification at find­ ing," "1 met," "assistance and direction," "a small supply," "finding that I got," "This incident," "Anti-federalists," "necessary for every," "Having also taken"), Samuel S. Smith to RGH, 27 July 1802 ("The College will"), 15 Apr. 1806 (with subjoined copy of RGH's 18 Apr. 1806 response: "my nephew"), 30 Mar. 1807 ("ungovernable tem­ per"), 3 Apr. 1807 (with subjoined copy of RGH's 6 Apr. 1807 response: "intentionally instrumental"), 11 Apr. 1807 ("it is not impossible"), Harper Papers; Min. Fac, 24 Oct. (Hyde admitted as sophomore) & 2 Dec. 1806, 30 & 31 Mar. 1807; Williams, Academic Honors, 10; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct 1785; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Heriot letters; O'Neall, Bench & Bar S.C, n, 601; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., i, 244; iv, 261-63; C. P. Magrath, Yazoo (1966), 5, 20-21, 39, 54, 64, 68, 82-83, 14048; S. G. McLendon, Hist, of Public Domain of Ga. (1924), 100, 137-39, 141; AIC, 5th Cong., 874 (on pol. parties), 1352-55 (Giles and Harper's rejoinder), 1567-68 (on Alien Enemies Act), 1691-92 (threat of French invasion), 2114-16 (on Sedition Act), 2164-71 (closes debate of); J. C. Miller, Crisis in Freedom (1951), 69-70; J. M. Smith, Freedom's Fetters (1956), 55-56, 120-21, 127; L. W. Levy, "liberty & the First Amendment," AHR, 68 (1962), 22-37; Ν. E. Cunningham, Circular Letters of Congressmen to their Constituents (1978), vol. I, where the letters are printed in chronological order, and so the dates for particular letters cited in the text above provide the key to thenlocation; these letters, except that of 5 Mar. 1801, may also be consulted in E. Donnan, ed., Papers of James A. Bayard, AHA Rept. for 1913 (1915), II; the 5 Mar. 1801 letter was included in Harper's Select Works, I, 324-50; S. E. Morison, Life & Letters of Harrison Gray Otis (1913), I, 67n, 82, 99, 109, 119, 178, 189-98, 280; M. Forden, Federalism of James A. Bayard (1955), 26, 38-41, 48, 52 (with Harper a manager for the impeachment of William Blount), 58-59; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 284-86, 288-89,298,304,318n (Harper coins phrase: "Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute"), 353; U. B. Phillips, "S.C. Federalists," AHR, 14 (1908/09), 737-38, 782-84; L. A. Rose, Prologue to Democracy: The Federalists in the South (1968), 93, 104, 136, 143, 182, 209, 271; Hamilton Papers, xix, 310-11; XX, 211, 369-72; xxn, 39 (quote from Hamilton re Harper); xxiv, 450-51, 568-70; xxv, 37, 59, 75, 113, 283n (Harper's letter to Burr); Washington Writings, xxv, 494; xxxvi, 395; B. C. Steiner, Life 6f Carres, of James McHenry (1907), 298, 301, 433-34 (advises use of full force against Fries rebellion), 458, 464, 583-87; L. M. Renzulli, Md.: The Federalist Years (1972), 219-20, 223-24, 245-46, 288-89, 31314; J. E. Semmes, John Η. B. Latrobe &f His Times (1917), 92, 96, 101, 108, 109-11 (description of Harper), 140-41, 142, 183; E. L. Fox, Amer. Colonization Society (1919), 71; P. J. Staudenraus, African Colonization Movement, 1816-65 (1961), 38-39, 65, 70, 84, 104, 110, 169, 174; S. Livermore, Twilight of Federalism (1962), 100, 151-52, 159, 167; for funeral, see Cox, 217. The subject of this sketch was not related to Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1801). PUBLICATIONS: See text above, STE, and Fischer, "Robert Goodloe Harper," 190-93. No full bibliography of his published works has been discovered, and the compilation of such a listing probably would not be worth the effort it required. Much that he wrote and spoke was printed, some of it under pseudonyms.

J O H N VERNOR HENRY

83

MANUSCRIPTS: Since Harper corresponded over the years with a number of prominent persons, his letters may be found in many different depositories, but the largest collection is that found in MdHi and may be consulted in a microfilm edition. See B. E. Marks, ed., Robert Goodloe Harper Family Papers (1970, 5 reels, MS 431 in MdHi). WFC&RLW

John Vernor Henry A.B., LL.D. Middlebury College 1823, lawyer, was born at Albany, New York in 1767, the oldest son of Robert Henry, Jr., and his wife Elizabeth Vernor Henry. T h e father inherited or received extensive land grants in upstate New York, and apparendy was also the owner of a mercantile business in Albany. Prior to his death in 1792 he had been for eight years a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Albany. No information has been discovered regarding John's preparation for college; nor can it be said when he first enrolled at Nassau Hall. He joined the American Whig Society and established close ties of friendship with fellow Whigs, including his classmate Robert Goodloe Harper, and Alexander McWhorter and James Morris (both A.B. 1784). He may have served as a tutor or usher in the Nassau Hall grammar school, since he also befriended J o h n Heriot (Class of 1789), who entered the College just as Henry was graduating. At his commencement on September 28, 1785, Henry delivered an oration on the subject of agriculture. He was the older brother of James Henry of the Class of 1794 and possibly of E. Henry of the Class of 1796. So far as is known, there was no family connection with John Henry (A.B. 1769) of Maryland. After graduation Henry spent several weeks in New York City before returning to Albany to begin the study of law. Apparendy he had proposed joining Harper in Charleston, South Carolina, but "the advice of a number of experienced persons" induced him to change his mind. H e entered the law office of John Lansing, Jr., later chancellor of New York, planning to read law by day but pursue more general knowledge during the evenings. With the condescension of youth he wrote of his hometown to his friend Harper.

J O H N VERNOR HENRY,

Albany is a place that I am not by any means pleased with. T h e manners of the people have of late improved very much but there is a certain something in which they differ so materially from the inhabitants of Princeton that I can with difficulty reconcile myself to them. However I propose spending two or three years here in the study of the law & after that an equal number in New York.

84

CLASS OF 1785

Things improved the next year after Henry's admission to the Candid Society, an organization much like his beloved Whig Society, established "for the improvement of the mind," where the membership included the leading men of the city and meetings were conducted "with spirit and good sense." By the time Henry was admitted to the bar at Albany in January 1788, there was no question but that he would establish his law practice there. Henry's admission to the bar of the state supreme court came on May 1, 1790. Early in 1800 he took his seat as a member of the state legislature from Albany County, and he served in the lower house of assembly through two ensuing sessions, the last ending on April 5, 1802. On March 12, 1800 he acquired a second office by appointment as comptroller for state accounts. In politics Henry was a Federalist, and after Governor J o h n Jay was succeeded in 1801 by former Governor George Clinton, Henry was soon dismissed from the comptroller's job. H e is said to have vowed in disgust never to hold public office again, a promise that he seems to have kept. Having decided to concentrate on his law practice, Henry evidendy achieved an enviable eminence in the profession. In time his practice was limited to the higher state and national courts. His special skill was described as that of "condensing his argument—in saying everything which could be said in favour of the position he wished to establish, with the fewest possible number of words. These words were selected in the best possible manner. He never used a single word but such as was the very best to express precisely the idea he desired to impress on the mind of his hearer." His arguments were "luminous and stricdy logical, and at times powerfully eloquent." Certainly his handwriting as shown in a personal letter is impressively suggestive of an orderly and neat mind. When he died a local newspaper described him as "one of the most distinguished lawyers in the state," and his death as "a public calamity." T h e writer added: "Those who respect the probity, the independence, the gallant bearing, and the high talents which sometimes redeem human nature from suspicion, must also lament the fall of such a man as this, in whom these traits were so happily combined." T h e supreme court of the state, in session at the time in Albany, adjourned out of respect. Henry's rejection of public office by no means bespoke an indifference to public service. He acted as trustee of the First Presbyterian Church from 1792 to 1807. In 1795 he became an original trustee of Union College in nearby Schenectady. He was a charter trustee of the Albany Academy from 1813 to 1823, and in 1814 he was one of the founders of the Albany Female Academy and a member of the original board of directors under its act of incorporation in 1821.

OLIVER LIVEMORE

KER

85

Perhaps the reputation he thus acquired as a friend of education helps to explain the honorary degree awarded him by Middlebury in 1823. Henry married twice. T h e date of his first marriage to Charlotte Seton, daughter of Andrew and Margaret Seton of New York City, has not been discovered. By this marriage there were ten children, four girls and six boys, including James Vernor Henry (A.B. 1815). On April 29, 1819 he married his second wife Eliza Wilkes, the daughter of John and Mary Wilkes, also of New York City. She bore him five children, four boys and one girl. In 1805 Henry acquired the handsome property of "Guy Park" at old Fort Johnson (Amsterdam), which served the family as a country home. In March 1827 he dissolved a law partnership with James McKown and formed one with Peter Seton Henry, possibly a nephew. J o h n Henry died on October 22, 1829 following an apoplectic seizure on an Albany Street a day earlier. His will was probated on October 30. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 226-27 (quotes re Henry's skills as a lawyer); W. H. Eldridge, Henry Genealogy (1915), 103-05; als, JVH to R. G. Harper, 26 Sept. 1784, 8 & 17 Oct. 1785 ("the advice," "Albany is a place"), 5 Apr. 1786 ("for the improvement," "with spirit"), 6 Mar. 1787; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785; G. R. Howell & J. Tenney, Hist, of the Cnty. ofAlbany (1886), 13334 (quotes from newspaper on death), 262, 354, 679, 683, 685; J. Munsell, Annals of Albany (10 vols., 1850-59), I, 75-77, 80-81, 131; v m , 93; ix, 150, 193; A.J. Weise, Hist, of the City of Albany (1884), 452; G. A. Worth, Random Recollections of Albany (1886), 70; N.Y. State Surrogate's Court, Albany Cnty., Index to Wills (1895); C. Hislop, Eliphalet Nott (1971), 46, 50, 69, 73; W. M. Reid, Mohawk Valley: Its Legends 6f its Hist. (1904), 137-38, 293; S. C. Hutchins, Civil List... of Colony & State of N.Y. (1880), 288; N.Y. Red Book (1895), 527. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi WFC

Oliver Livermore Ker A.B., A.M. 1794, teacher and lawyer, seems actually to have been the son of Nathaniel Potter (A.B. 1753), although at the time of Oliver's birth his mother was married to the Reverend Nathan Ker (A.B. 1761). Potter had married Hannah Livermore, the sister of his college friend Samuel Livermore (A.B. 1752) in November 1755. A Congregational clergyman, he first filled the pulpit at the Congregational church of Brookline, Massachusetts, and later at Old South Church, Boston. While serving Old South he was accused of an "affair with Mrs. Winchester, and other Women," and also of having "pursued a series of Wanton Intrigues, with one OLIVER LIVERMORE KER,

86

CLASS OF 1785

Woman and another, to have got his Maid with Child and all that." His response to the scandal was to desert his wife and child and to seek refuge in the New Hampshire wilderness. On his last visit to the Livermore home in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1764, he managed to seduce his sister-in-law Anne Livermore. Anne at the time was engaged to Nathan Ker, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Springfield, New Jersey, and their wedding took place on November 8, 1764. Oliver Livermore Ker was born at Springfield at some time in February 1765. On May 28, 1765 Ker petitioned the New Jersey Assembly to have his marriage dissolved, citing the details of his wife's "spurious issue." But a week later the assembly received a letter telling of a reconciliation with his wife and asking that the petition be withdrawn. Potter probably never saw the child and may not have known of his existence, since in 1765 he became secretary to Maj. Robert Rogers of Rogers' Rangers, traveling with him to England and later joining him in Canada. After a break with Rogers, Potter went to Montreal to report to British authorities that Rogers planned to join the French. On the way to England for presentation of his evidence against Rogers, Potter died at sea in August 1768. When Oliver was seven months old Ker left his post in New Jersey and accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian church in Goshen, Orange County, New York. The move probably was made to keep the family from being a continuing butt of gossip in New Jersey after the airing of the scandal. Despite the unhappy beginning of their marriage, the Kers seem to have become a devoted couple, to whom five more children were born. Ker was an ardent whig, and in 1779 he served with the local militia against the Indians and tories. Local tradition has placed him on familiar terras with more than one prominent leader of the Revolution. Oliver probably received his preparatory education at the Farmers' Hall Academy in Goshen, of which Ker was one of the founders and for a time its librarian. At least a part of Oliver's instruction there would have come from Noah Webster (A.M. 1795, A.B. Yale 1778), who left the town on August 26, 1782 with a letter of recommendation stating that he had "taught a grammar school for some time past in this place." At the College Ker joined the American Whig Society. According to an entry in the diary of his classmate James Wilkin, on February 22, 1784 Ker taught the boys in the Nassau Hall grammar school, but whether as a continuing assignment or as a one-time substitute for the regular teacher is unclear. Forced to be late for the start of the College's winter session of his senior year, Ker wrote to his classmate Robert Goodloe Harper, requesting him to get his room

JAMES McCOY

87

key from tutor Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) to prevent confusion about the assignment of the room. At his commencement exercises in 1785 Ker had the honor of delivering the valedictory oration. In March 1786 John O. Heriot (Class of 1789) commented in a letter probably addressed to Harper that Ker "is teaching the lan­ guages at an Academy at Fishkill about one hundred miles below Albany." Heriot though it "a mode of life which will never terminate to his advantage." Ker wrote to Harper on July 31, 1790, after a trip to New York City where Ker visited his classmate James Thompson and James Morris (A.B. 1784), "I hear Robert, you have Got in the teaching Way as Well as Myself." "I hope your climate is more favor­ able to teach in than Ours: for I find it a most wretched confine­ ment," he added. "I have at present the care of the Academy at Fishkill." He described his situation as profitable, but attended with few other advantages. He envied Harper the more sophisticated soci­ ety of Charleston and also asked if anything there was worth coming to see. Whether Ker ever made such a trip remains unknown. Ker evidently studied law while teaching, for his name was added to the "Roll of Attornies" in New York's supreme court on October 29, 1789. He joined the bar of Orange County in 1790, but lived and practiced at various addresses in New York City from at least 1791 until around 1796. College catalogues list him as deceased by 1797. SOURCES: Prmcetonians, 1748-1768, 80-82, 349-51; PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 57-64; M. P. Seese, A Tower of the Lord in the Land of Goshen (1945), 19-29; E. M. Ruttenber & L. H. Clark, Hist, of Orange Cnty., N.Y. (1881), 143, 524, 531; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; als, OLK to R. G. Harper, 1 Nov. 1784, 31 July 1790 ("1 hear Robert"), Harper Papers; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Williams, Academic Honors, 10; Dunlap & Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; Heriot letters, 23 Mar. 1786 ("is teaching," "a mode"); W. Duncan, N.Y. Dir., & Reg. (1791, 2 vols, in 1), I, 67; π, 42; N.Y. City directories, 1792-94, 1796. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi RLW

James McCoy (McKay) JAMES MCCOY (MCKAY), A.B., teacher and Presbyterian clergyman,

joined the Cliosophic Society on May 19, 1784, taking the name Agamemnon, after the murdered king in the Greek tragedy of that name by Aeschylus. A resident of North Carolina, he probably came from one of the numerous McCoy families residing in several dif­ ferent counties of the state. McCoy's academic career must have been impressive, for he delivered the Latin salutatory oration at com­ mencement in 1785, speaking on the union of piety and learning. He

88

C L A S S OF

1785

then taught at the Orange-Dale Academy in Essex County, New Jersey, from 1785 to 1787. During the second of his two years at this school, his classmate Matthias Cazier was also on the faculty. According to College and family sources, McCoy subsequently became a Presbyterian minister, although no official record of further education or licensing by any presbytery has been located. He died by 1794. His widow Charity Benson McCoy later married Jacob Cazier, brother of Matthias. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Delaware (1888), H, 949; N.Y. Gazetteer, 1 Nov. 1785; Elizabethtown N.J. Jour., & Potit. Intelligencer, 4 Oct. 1786. United States Congressman James Iver McKay (1793-1853) has been at times mistakenly identified as the son of James McCoy. LKS

St. G ST. C , . T h e evidence for such a student at the College of New Jersey comes entirely from the diary of his classmate James W. Wilkin. On February 25, 1784, while the juniors were reciting from Euclid, J o h n Tappan "affronted Mr. St. C. ... for which Mr. St. C. took him out and struck him." Tappan "complained to the faculty," who discussed the matter for the rest of the day without announcing any decision. St. C. expected "an admonition and is resolved not to except [accept?] of it he is preparing to depart," reported Wilkin. St. C. did not attend evening prayers, but Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) used the occasion to denounce "the ungendemanlike actions of St. C." Wilkin added that "Mr. St C. had threatened to whip Tappan and myself." Tappan was probably about seventeen at the time, but Wilkin was a twenty-two-year-old war veteran. On the next day the faculty met again, suspended St. C , and forbade all other students "to harbour him in college." By messenger, St. C. asked Wilkin to meet him at a nearby tavern "to make up with me," but Wilkin "thought it advisable not to go." Nothing more on the man appears in College sources, but the diary places St. C. in his junior year in early 1784 and thus locates him in the Class of 1785. One possibility is that "St. C." represents a first and a last name to distinguish him from a brother or cousin with the same family name. Unless the Class of 1785 contained both an "S. C." and a "St. C , " neither of whom has left any other trace, the only plausible candidate is Matthias Cazier. No relative of his has turned u p named, for example, Stephen or Stanley, neither of which was common in late colonial America. "St. C." was more likely a surname. A promising source for him would be the officer corps of the Continental Army

ST. c

89

where young gentlemen routinely imposed the lash on enlisted men, a punishment specifically disavowed by the College. T h e most obvious place to look would then be the family of Gen. Arthur St. Clair and his wife, the former Phoebe Bayard of Boston, a cousin of the patriot James Bowdoin, whose father had left her a bequest of just over £1,100 sterling, which took effect on her wedding day in May 1760. Daniel St. Clair, their firstborn of seven children, including three sons, becomes a very intriguing possibility for Princeton's "St. C." Born in Thurso, Caithress County, Scotland, on March 23, 1736 O.S., Arthur St. Clair studied at the University of Edinburgh and in London under Dr. William Hunter before going to North America as an ensign under Jeffrey Amherst in 1757. He resigned from the army in 1762 but remained in Boston at least through the birth of his second daughter in 1766. By 1768 he had moved his family to the Ligonier Valley in western Pennsylvania. With the Bowdoin inheritance and his army land claims, he acquired 4,000 acres and rapidly emerged as one of the most prominent setders in the region. When the Revolutionary War began, he entered the Continental Army as a colonel, rose to brigadier in 1776, and ended the conflict as a major general. H e exasperated George Washington in 1777 by abandoning Fort Ticonderoga without resistance. Although exonerated by a court martial in 1778, he did not receive another major command. After the war he was elected to the Pennsylvania Council of Censors as an Anticonstitutionalist, that is, an opponent of the state's radical constitution of 1776. Named to the Confederation Congress, he became president of that body in 1787 and then governor of the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1802. He had strong Federalist sympathies. Of St. Clair's three sons, the youngest, Arthur Jr., was only twelve or thirteen in February 1784, not someone likely to threaten to thrash a war veteran at least nine years older than he. John Murray, born in 1764, was about the right age in 1784, but his marriage the previous year disqualifies him from consideration. Daniel, born in 1762, is another matter. Little hard autobiographical evidence has been found. A 1791 letter to Washington soliciting an excise appointment contains no personal data. His applications for Revolutionary War pensions say little but disclose interesting inconsistencies with other sources. His correspondence with his father in the 1780s never mentions the College of New Jersey but does reveal a young man continually frustrated with his efforts to acquire an education appropriate to his status. No source yet discovered conclusively links Daniel St. Clair with St. C , but the possible connections are plausible and tantilizing. Daniel St. Clair, soldier, farmer, lawyer, and defaulting tax collector, was born in Boston in 1762 and grew up in the Ligonier Valley.

90

CLASS OF 1785

He entered his father's Second Pennsylvania Battalion as an ensign at age fourteen on September 20, 1776, and on April 1, 1777 was promoted to second lieutenant in his battalion, which was then being reorganized as the Third Pennsylvania Regiment. Five months later, though only fifteen, he became a first lieutenant. His regiment saw considerable action throughout the northern theater, and in early January 1781 it became one of the most mutinous in the Continental Line. According to official army records, St. Clair resigned his commission on January 17, 1781, the day that his unit was consolidated with the Eleventh Pennsylvania, but one muster roll for the Third Pennsylvania in 1783 still lists him. The discrepancy is intriguing. Perhaps he continued to serve. More plausibly, his inclusion on the later list indicates only that he had not yet been paid and that, after more than four years of hard service, he walked away from his unit in 1781 at one of the bleakest moments of the war. Such a gesture would suggest extreme anger, either because of the mutinies or because he had not been promoted for over three years and saw litde chance of moving up after consolidation with the Eleventh Regiment. In that case, the date of his actual resignation could have been determined retroactively. This reading of the evidence would complete the portrait of a young man quick to anger and unusually sensitive about slights to his honor or, for that matter, his father's, whose somewhat clouded career would have been familiar to Daniel's classmates in 1784. In fact, during the week of the incident at the College, the Philadelphia papers ran Arthur's announcement of February 21 that he had been appointed city auctioneer, which may have prompted Tappan to hint that the general had found a less than genteel career. Daniel was already more accustomed to being obeyed than to obeying, and he would not easily have subjected himself to insults or the discipline of the College. As Wilkin's diary shows, St. C. had no intention of submitting to a reprimand, much less a suspension. If St. C. really was Daniel St. Clair, he was the only Princetonian to enter Nassau Hall with prior experience as a regular army officer. Daniel St. Clair's pension applications, written several decades later, tend to support this interpretation of his military career. In 1818 he asserted that his official service records had been destroyed by fire, insisted that he had served with the Third Pennsylvania Regiment through the entire conflict, and claimed he had risen to the rank of captain—proof that such an ambition had been important to him. Ten years later another application affirmed that he had served with the Second Pennsylvania Regiment rather than the Third (perhaps a sign of failing memory) and repeated the claim that he had held a captaincy. In verifying this information, a treasury department

ST. c

91

official inserted his rank as "Lieutenant," underscoring the perceived discrepancy. In 1783 Arthur St. Clair was stationed in Philadelphia and issued a controversial order involving furloughs that helped trigger the protest or mutiny in the Pennsylvania Line that drove Congress to Princeton. As part of his role in quelling the disturbance, Arthur traveled to Princeton in early July 1783, where he certainly had an opportunity to discuss Daniel's education with fellow Scot John Witherspoon. Arthur could have arranged for his son's enrollment in the junior class for the winter term, and if Daniel was living with him at the time, he may have accompanied Arthur on this occasion. If Daniel was St. C , he probably spent only about three months at Nassau Hall. His threat to thrash Wilkin becomes plausible as a reassertion of the old relationship between officer and enlisted man. That St. C. would try to make amends with a former soldier rather than with Tappan also seems consistent with Daniel's prior career. Six months after St. C. left Princeton, Arthur St. Clair received a letter from William Smith, prewar provost of the College of Philadelphia who had recendy opened Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where St. Clair had obviously sent one of his sons. "Our vacation begins today," Smith wrote. "Your son says he will head off this Morning, but I cannot find him Some Part of your Son's Accounts, I fear, will be jusdy exceptionable—He had no need of a Box of Claret, nor ought Mr Anderson to have given it, I knew Nothing of it till 2 Days ago." This son had to be either Daniel or thirteen-year-old Arthur. It was almost certainly Daniel, if only because a merchant would not have been likely to sell a case of wine to a preadolescent boy on credit. Such a portrait is again consistent with the life of a disappointed former officer who had recendy left one college and was now trying another. He probably did not stay there long, for no St. Clair is included on the lists of early graduates of Washington College, although they are known to be incomplete. Daniel was already a disappointment to his father. By early 1786 he had moved to "Norris Town" in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He had expected Arthur to initiate "the familiar correspondence that we mutually agreed should take place between us," but having heard nothing from him, Daniel finally wrote the first letter. He hoped that his contribution would "give you some refreshment that is if you can receive any from the perusal of this imperfect and illiterate scrall." Although about twenty-four, Daniel asked his father to correct his "sentences, Spelling, and grammer." He briefly described his progress in the study of law, acknowledged its importance for anyone aspiring to public office, but then admitted his own preference

92

CLASS OF 1785

for history. Six months later, in response to a letter of Arthur's that has not survived, Daniel apologized for being "the cause of so much concern to you." He said virtually nothing about the law texts that probably baffled him, admitted his preference for a military career in a republic with virtually no army, and confessed that he had considered going abroad to acquire the necessary experience. By March 1787 Daniel's tone had grown more relaxed, and he was even willing to discuss some of the specific books in his professional reading. H e finally qualified for the bar. This pattern still seems consistent with what we know of the student who walked out of the College of New Jersey in February 1784. Daniel St. Clair moved west for a time, probably to family properties in the Ligonier Valley, for the 1790 census lists a "Daniel St. Claid" in Westmoreland County near the home of John St. Clair a few years later. But Daniel soon settled permanently in Montgomery County in southeastern Pennsylvania, acquired a farm and other land, married Rachel Shannon, a neighbor's daughter, on February 3, 1791, and with her produced fourteen children. He described himself as "attorney at law, near Norris town" in a newspaper advertisement dated December 30, 1792 and as "Esquire" in his letter to Washington on February 27, 1791. H e requested an appointment as collector of the new whiskey excise for western Pennsylvania, the office whose occupant would soon become, during the Whiskey Rebellion, just about the most hated person in the United States. T h e administration chose someone else. St. Clair may also have rejoined the army for the 1790 campaign against the Indians and just resigned his commission around the time of his marriage, for he is listed among the "officers of the Pennsylvania Line of the late federal army, Friday, April 22nd, 1791," and in October he received 200 acres for that service. To his eventual sorrow, he did win appointment from the J o h n Adams administration in 1798 as collector of a new federal excise and land tax linked to the Quasi-War with France. Although this tax generated the John Fries Rebellion of 1799 in Northampton County, St. Clair got into trouble, not for collecting it, but for failing to turn the revenue over to the federal government. A loyal Federalist like his father, he petitioned Congress that the monies had been lost in transmission through no fault of his. With the Jeffersonians now in power, Congress rejected his plea on December 23, 1803. On January 20, 1808 John Smith, United States marshal, announced the forced sale of 151 acres and a dwelling in Norriton Township, "taken in execution as property of Daniel St. Clair." T h e family continued to reside in the former tavern that had become their home in the 1790s, and Daniel retained enough land to

RICHARD

SMITH

93

give a small tract to his retired father, who built a log cabin and, until his death in 1818, made a modest living by selling provisions to travelers along the road to Pittsburgh. In 1819 Daniel survived a locally famous burglary. The intruder stole considerable property and left behind a crude note that proclaimed: "Tis well for ye that you was not alarm or death death death deaght [sic] woo be don." St. Clair also joined three neighbors in warning the community against the pretensions of a charlatan school teacher, a role that someone might undertake who had at least been exposed to a liberal education. He died on February 18, 1833. SOURCES: PUL Chron., 12 (1950-51), 56-57 (Wilkin diary); DAB (AStC); Papers of Henry Knox, reel L, Nos. 146-47 (Bowdoin legacy); R. K. Wright, Jr., Continental Army (1983), 261-62; Heitman, 516; Pa. Arch., 5th ser., n, 913, 919, 934, 975, 1021 (military service, but the subject must be distinguished from another Daniel St. Clair, an enlisted man who lost his left hand in the war); 6th ser., iv, 10 (1790 service), 28 (land grant); K. R. Bowling, "New Light on the Philadelphia Mutiny of 1783: FederalState Confrontation at the Close of War for Independence," PMHB, 101 (1977), 41950; Phila. Pa. Jour., & the Weekly Advt., 28 Feb. 1784 (AStC as auctioneer); W. Smith to AStC, 10 or 16 Aug. 1784 ("Our vacation begins"); DStC to AStC, 21 Mar. ("the familiar correspondence") & 19 Sept. 1786 ("the cause"), 13 Mar. 1787, Papers of AStC, Ohio State Lib., Columbus, Ohio (microfilm ed. at David Lib. of the Amer. Revolution, Washington Crossing, Pa.); Jean P. Bierman, Washington College Library, to J. Murrin, 24 Nov. 1986, PUA; DStC pension applications of II Apr. 1818 & 19 July 1828, & auditor's report, 22 July 1828, Revolutionary War Pension Applications, DNA; Notes & Queries ... relating chiefly to Interior Pa. (1897), 58-59 (genealogy); W. H. Smith, St. Clair Papers: Life & Public Services of Arthur St. Clair (1882), I, 588-90 (AStC in Princeton); First Census, Pa., 262; C. E. Duer, People & Times of Western Pa. (1985, Special Pub. 5 of Western Pa. Geneal. Soc.), 10 ("attorney at law," quote taken from Pittsburgh Gazette, 9 Mar. 1793); Washington MSS in DLC, reel 123 (DStC to Washington, 27 Feb. 1791); J. A. Meier, "Early Hist, of E. Norriton Township," Montgomery Co. Hist. Soc. Bull., 20 (1975-77), 315, 327, 337-38 (burglary, school teacher, tavern & other property); 9 (1953-54), 88 (forced sale); 22 (1978-81), 364,370,375-77 (property in 1798); 6 (1920), 345 (14 children); 31st Cong., Digested Summary & Alphabetical List of Private Claims ... Presented to House of Rep. from 1st to 31st Cong. (1853), III, 386. MANUSCRIPTS: Over 60 letters from Daniel to Arthur St. Clair, 1786-1818, are in the Papers of Arthur S t Clair, Ohio State Lib., Columbus, Ohio. JMM

Richard Smith A.B., has not been identified. The name was a common one and many Richard Smiths were eliminated from consideration, usually because of age. Richard Smith of Smithtown, Long Island, New York, and Richard R. Smith of the town of Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey, would both have been fifteen in 1785, an unlikely but not impossible age for a graduate at that time. Both had Princeton connections, but in neither case is there RICHARD SMITH,

94

CLASS OF 1785

proof of attendance at the College. Richard Smith of Philadelphia and Chestertown, Maryland, was born a year earlier, on January 25, 1769, the son of the Reverend William Smith, first provost of the College of Philadelphia. The son's college years came during the period when Smith had moved to Maryland after the loss of his position because of the trustees' abrogation of the charter of the College of Philadelphia. His two oldest sons attended the College of Philadelphia; after the move to Maryland the third son, Charles, matriculated at Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland. It seems likely that the younger son would not have been sent to the new University of the State of Pennsylvania, but again there is no firm evidence of a connection with the College of New Jersey. There is no indication that Richard Smith joined either of the literary societies at the College, and the only information we have about his college years is through the diary of his classmate James Wilkin. The diary indicates that Richard Smith must have been absent from the College during at least part of the winter term of 1784, since Wilkin states on February 24, 1784 that he "sat down and wrote a letter to D. Smith." On March 21, 1784 the diary mentions a trip to the post office where Wilkin picked up a letter from Richard Smith. At the graduation ceremonies for the class of 1785 Richard Smith delivered an oration on eloquence. College catalogues first list him as deceased in 1854. SOURCES: PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 56-62 (Wilkin diary); N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785. Richard Smith of Smithtown, Long Island, was the fifth of that name in his family. He could have been influenced to attend the college at Princeton by the Reverend Joshua Hart (A.B. 1770), who served the Smithtown church from 1773 to 1792. Timothy Treadwell Smith (A.B. 1788) was a second or third cousin of this Richard Smith. We know nothing of his career, only that in 1808 he married Eliza Woodhull Nicoll, and that he died at sixty in November 1830, leaving two sons and four daughters. See B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), m, 342, 377, 379; N. S. Prime, Hist, of Long Island (1845), 242; NYGBR, 26 (1895), 187. Richard R. Smith of Burlington, New Jersey was the son of Richard Smith, lawyer and statesman, who served as a member of the Continental Congress from September 1775 to the end of March 1776. He was one of a group of proprietors who received a land grant to 69,000 acres of land on the upper Susquehanna River in present Otsego County, New York. He made several trips to the area to promote settlement, finally building a family home in the town of Laurens. In 1789 his son Richard R. Smith accompanied William Cooper, also of Burlington, to Otsego County to set up a setdement at Cooperstown, named for William. Smith served as Cooper's clerk and later as the first sheriff of the county before moving to Philadelphia where he became a partner in a wholesale house. Abraham Tenbrook (A.B. 1784) came to Cooperstown as its first lawyer, perhaps at the suggestion of Smith, if the two were friends from college days. Tenbrook left Cooperstown nine or ten years after Smith, also to settle in Philadelphia. See F. W. Halsey, Tour of Four Great Rivers, (1906), xiv-xxi; DAB; S. M. Shaw, Hist, of Cooperstown (1886), 22-24, 26; L. H. Butterfield, Judge William Cooper (1754-1802) (1949), 5, 6, 13; J. F. Cooper, Reminiscences of Mid-Victorian Cooperstown 6f Sketch of William Cooper (1936), 19, 45; Phila. city directories, 1791-1800; W. W. Hinshaw, Encyc. ofAmer. Quaker Gen. (1938), u, 262, 422, 655, 719, 767.

ISAAC S N O W D E N , JR.

95

Richard Smith, son of William and Rebecca Moore Smith, became a lawyer and was admitted to the bar in December 1791. He settled outside the town of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on speculative property which had been acquired by his father, who laid out the town, naming it for Selina Shirley Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, because of her liberal donation to the College of Philadelphia. Richard represented the counties of Huntingdon, Bedford and Somerset in the state senate from 1797 to 1801. Noted for his generous hospitality, he did less well in his business affairs. Parcels of his real estate and eventually his library were sold to satisfy his creditors. In 1821, when his financial embarrassment had become acute, he was appointed register and recorder of the county by Governor Joseph Hiester, father of John S. Hiester (A.B. 1794). Smith died of a heart attack on 1 Oct. 1823 in the midst of a trial involving title to some of his real estate. See DAB (sketch of father); PMHB, 4 (1880), 373; H. W. Smith, Life 6f Carres, of Hie Rev. Wm. Smith (1880), 572; J. S. Africa, Hist, of Huntingdon & Blair Cnties., Pa. (1883), 72-73, 435-36. RLW

Isaac Snowden, Jr. ISAAC SNOWDEN, JR., merchant, was born in Philadelphia on February 6, 1764, the second son of Isaac Snowden and his second wife Mary Coxe McCall. The senior Snowden was a merchant, local official, and elder of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. For a brief period during the Revolution he moved his family to Princeton; in 1782 he became a trustee of the College and remained in that position until resigning in 1808, one year before his death. Young Isaac had five full brothers who attended the College: Gilbert Tennent (A.B. 1783), Samuel Finley (A.B. 1786), Nathaniel Randolph (A.B. 1787), Charles Jeffry (A.B. 1789), and William (Class of 1794). Benjamin Parker Snowden (A.B. 1776) was their half-brother. It is not known just when Snowden was in residence at Nassau Hall, but his brother Nathaniel in 1846 recalled hearing first of the battle of Yorktown while "... I with two brothers Isaac and Samuel were going to Princeton College." Isaac may have been a freshman at that lime, but his two younger brothers would have still been attending the Nassau Hall grammar school. Isaac may have been ill in March 1784, for on the sixth his brother Gilbert, then engaged in postgraduate study at Princeton, proposed going to Philadelphia to be "of some advantage to my brother Isaac, whose interest and happiness I have much at heart, by studying with him & lending him my assistance whenever I can." Later that month Gilbert proposed Isaac for membership in the Cliosophic Society. Isaac arrived in Princeton in time to join under the name of Pitt on March 31. The two brothers then left for Philadelphia the next day. N o other record of Isaac's undergraduate career has been found.

Isaac remained in Philadelphia until late November 1787 when he

96

CLASS OF 1785

purchased a two hundred acre farm with a two-story stone house about one mile from Princeton. In 1788 Isaac Snowden, Jr., was named treasurer of the CoUege, the third person to hold the post that year. It has been suggested that the new treasurer was actually his father, a trustee of the College, who at times was also known as "junior," although apparendy not in the minutes of the trustees. A significant clue is the fact that the senior Snowden for some time had been a member of the special committee for supervision of the College's accounts. T h e elder Isaac Snowden continued to reside in Philadelphia where he served as treasurer of the city. It could have been viewed as a convenient arrangement to have the son, then a resident of Princeton, charged with the responsibilities of treasurer under the watchful eye of a committee of which his father was a member. During his residence in Princeton Snowden served as a member of the local fire company. On two occasions Joseph Lewis, father of Stevens Lewis (A.B. 1791), while traveling between Morristown and Trenton "lodged" overnight at Isaac Snowden's. It is impossible to know whether the two were close friends or whether Snowden's home also served as a public lodging house. Snowden must have returned to Philadelphia not long after he relinquished his position as treasurer on September 27, 1791, for in October 1792 Isaac Snowden, Jr., "of the City of Philadelphia" deeded to his father land located near Rocky Hill, New Jersey. His marriage to Cornelia Clarkson, daughter of Dr. Gerardus Clarkson of Philadelphia, sister of George Clarkson (A.B. 1788), and cousin of Gerard Clarkson (Class of 1790), is reputed to have taken place sometime before 1791. From 1792 until his death on December 4, 1835 Isaac Snowden engaged in commerce. I n addition, he was active in the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia and was connected with several charitable and educational organizations. H e served as manager of the Philadelphia Dispensary and of the Humane Society. From his father he inherited a house on Second Street below Walnut. His wife predeceased him on February 16, 1834. H e was survived by four of his seven children, three daughters and his eldest son Isaac Clarkson Snowden, a Philadelphia physician. SOURCES: Snowden family file, PUA; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 443-46; Sprague, Annals, m, 341; N. R. Snowden, MS Diaries, 1788-1839, PHi; N. R. Snowden, "Remembrances," 1770-1846, PHi (recollections about Yorktown); G. T. Snowden, MS Journal, 1783-85, PPPrHi, microfilm in NjP; Clio lists; agreement between Isaac Snowden and Aaron Longstreet, Princeton, 6 Nov. 1787, NjPHi; "Diary or Memorandum Book Kept by Joseph Lewis of Morristown," NJHSP, 62 (1944), 217-36; J. R. T. Craine, Ancestry & Posterity of Matthew Clarkson (1971), 31. LKS

97

John Tappan (Tappen) A.B., may have been the son of that name born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1767 to J o h n Tappan and his wife Martha Hall Tappan. Numerous descendants of Abraham Tappan (Toppan, Tappen, Tophan) of Yarmouth, England were living in Newburyport and Salisbury, Massachusetts, and in the area of Tappan, New York, where one of Abraham's grandsons was said to have settled. This John Tappan and a twin sister were two in a family of ten children. T h e choice of Nassau Hall over Harvard by a Massachusetts family probably occurred because three Noyes cousins of the town of Newbury—Ebenezer, Joshua, and Nathaniel—had graduated from the College in 1759. Ebenezer was the son of Abigail Toppan Noyes, a great aunt of the younger J o h n Tappan. T h e matriculation of the Noyes cousins at the College has been attributed to the influence of Parker Noyes, father of Nathaniel and a deacon in the Presbyterian church with a preference for New Light divinity. T h e Tappan and Noyes families had many ties. In 1763 a group of the citizens of Newbury, Massachusetts, petitioned the governor of the province for a new town of Newburyport to be incorporated from a section of the town of Newbury. Parker Noyes and Richard and two John Toppans, grandfather and father of the younger John, were among the signers of the document.

J O H N TAPPAN (TAPPEN),

Another possibility for this matriculate is John Tappen, a native of Kingston, New York, who was born in 1766, the son of Christopher Tappen, and the grandson of Christoffel Tappen, both of whom were locally prominent during the colonial and revolutionary periods. Christopher Tappen was a brother-in-law of Governor George Clinton, who held the office of county clerk of Ulster County. Tappen was appointed deputy county clerk and discharged most of the duties of the office for Clinton, succeeding him as county clerk in 1812. T h e Tappens lived on Front Street in Kingston, and when sessions of the legislature were held in Kingston, Governor Clinton was a guest in the Tappen home and also used it as his executive chamber. Young Tappen studied at the local Kingston Academy. While at the College John Tappan joined the American Whig Society. H e appears to have been a close friend of his classmate James Wilkin, whose diary mentions studying with Tappan, taking an afternoon walk with him, and accompanying him on a call at Doctor "Wiggon's" [Dr. Thomas Wiggins's] home, whose daughter seems to have been the attraction. On February 25, 1784 Tappan and Wilkin were involved in an argument with a fellow student, an unidentified "Mr. St. C." Tappan somehow affronted St. C. during a Euclid recitation,

98

CLASS OF 1785

and according to Wilkin, St. C. "took him out and struck him." Wilkin adds that "Mr. St C. had threatened to whip Tappan and myself." Tappan reported St. C.'s behavior to the faculty, who on the following day agreed that he should be suspended. At the commencement exercises of 1785 John Tappan delivered a dissertation on the progress of society. Nothing further has been discovered about the Massachusetts Tappan, except that he died in July 1792. John Tappen of Kingston was admitted to the bar of the state of New York on April 27, 1789 and practiced law, probably in Kingston, until July 1814 when he purchased the anti-Federalist Plebeian from its founder Jesse Buell. From that time he confined his activities to the management of the newspaper, which was published from an office on Pearl Street in Kingston. He renamed it the Ulster Plebeian on August 1, 1815. His editorial columns never wavered from firm support of the Republican party and its candidates. A shrewd businessman, he soon stopped the delivery of the paper to a number of the surrounding towns because of the high cost of post riders. He advised readers to form clubs, having one member pick up the papers at the nearest post office or at the Plebeian office. Tappen is said to have been a man of fine talents, sterling integrity, and an exemplary Christian. He is also said to have worked so tirelessly for the Plebeian as to seriously impair his health and prematurely hasten his death. He died in 1831 at the age of 65, hardly a premature death for that time. Catalogues of the College first list John Tappan as deceased in 1854, indicating only that whatever the matriculate's identity, the College authorities had completely lost touch with him. SOURCES: NEHGR, 34 (1880), 49-55; Prmcetonians, 1748-1768, 283-84; J. J. Currier, Hist, of Newburyport, 1764-1905 (1906), 13-18; PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 56-63 (Wilkin diary); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; M. Schoonmaker, Hist, of Kingston, N.Y. (1888), 398-99, 417-19, 440, 489, 526; A. T. Clearwater, Hist, of Ulster Cnty. (1907), 506; C. S. Brigham, Hist. 6f Bibl. of Amer. Newspapers 16901820 (1947), i, 593, 596; N.Y. Dir., fif Reg. (1789), 124. No source speUs the name of John Tappen of New York as "Tappan," the form appearing in College records, but variations in spelling were so common that this is no reason to eliminate Tappen as a possibility for the Princetonian. RLW

James Thompson A.B., A.M. 1791, possibly a lawyer, unfortunately must remain one of the unidentified graduates of the College. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries numerous Thompsons, their name at times spelled Thomson, emigrated to the

JAMES THOMPSON,

HERCULES WHALEY

99

colonies from the British Isles. By the latter part of the eighteenth century Thompsons were living all along the eastern seaboard, and James apparently was a favored given name. The James Thompson who attended the College joined the American Whig Society, the catalogues of which identify him as a resident of New York. He was a close friend of his classmate James Wilkin, whose diary for the late winter and spring of 1784 mentions several evenings spent with Thompson. They studied together, visited a local tavern, and made calls on Princeton residents. Thompson evidendy had a sense of humor and enjoyed playing practical jokes on his friends. On March 23, 1784, Wilkin noted, "Th's behaviour very drole this morning again." The following week he was unsuccessful in his attempt to play an April Fool's joke on Wilkin, who fortuitously remembered the date before setting off to pick up a nonexistent letter. At his commencement in 1785 Thompson delivered an oration on the government of the passions. Sometime in October following his graduation Thompson wrote to his classmate and fellow Whig Robert Goodloe Harper, enclosing a letter from another classmate and Whig, John Vernor Henry, written while the latter was visiting in New York City. Thompson may have been the "James Thompson, jun.," who was admitted to the bar of the state of New York on October 30, 1788 and who first appears in New York City directories as an attorney-at-law in 1791, with an office at 55 King Street. By the following year he was listed as "city-marshall" and by 1804 he was "constable." He continued to be described as a constable until 1818, after which his name disappeared from the directories. James Thompson was first listed as deceased in the 1854 College catalogue. SOURCES: Amer. Whig. Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; PUL Ckron., 12 (1951), 57-64 (Wilkin's diary); N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 4 Oct. 1791; als, JT to R. G. Harper, undated butfiledafter two Oct. 1785 letters from J. V. Henry to Harper, Harper Papers; N.Y. City directories, 1791-1818, including roll of attorneys in 1793 directory. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi RLW

Hercules Whaley HERCULES WHALEY, A.B., was probably the son of that name born to Thomas Whaley of North East Harbor near New York City, the son of Scots-Irish Presbyterian immigrants from Ireland, and his wife, who was a sister of Thomas Mulligan and Cook Mulligan of New York City. The Whaley family included two other sons and a

CLASS OF 1785

100

daughter. T h e father must have died some time prior to August 16, 1784. A letter of that date from his brother-in-law Thomas Mulligan to a Mrs. Elizabeth Shaw Whaley reads: I most heartily congratulate every friend of our Independence that the happy period is now come, and that our families jointly aided in the effecting of so glorious a Revolution. My sister's health is gready impaired by the death of our dear brother Whaley, and the persecution I met with at the time from the British. According to the catalogue of the Cliosophic Society published in 1840, which incorrectly describes Whaley as being from New Jersey, he became a member of that society in 1783. However, a manuscript list of society members lists him as being from New York, and gives the further information that he joined on July 7, 1784 using the name of Homer. His roommate at Nassau Hall was his classmate James Wilkin. During the commencement exercises of 1784 Whaley was awarded two third prizes in competition with other undergraduates, one for his performance in English grammar, the other in "pronouncing English orations." At his own commencement in 1785 he delivered an oration on "Emulation." Catalogues of the College indicate that he was deceased by 1812. SOURCES: Alumni file & Whaley family file, PUA; Williams, Academic Honors, 10; Clio. Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct. 1785; S. Whaley, English Record of the Whaley Family 6f Its Branches in Amer. (1901), 103-07, 193-94 ("I most heartily"). Whaley's commencement diploma is preserved in PUA, the earliest example of an engraved diploma among earlier handwritten samples. WFC & RLW

James Whitney Wilkin A.B., lawyer and public official, was born March 19, 1762 at Wallkill, Orange County, New York, the son of William Wilkin and Elizabeth Rogers Wilkin. T h e father was a substantial farmer, the son of John Wilkin of Welsh birth who had migrated to America from Ireland in 1728. According to family tradition, James enlisted in the army at the age of sixteen, and so saw military service before entering the College. Confirmation is lacking, but some such assumption would help to account for the relatively advanced age at which he graduated, and for the rank of captainlieutenant of an artillery militia company he received in the year immediately following his graduation. It can be observed too that an

JAMES WHITNEY W I L K I N ,

JAMES WHITNEY WILKIN

101

application for a Revolutionary War pension was later made in the name of James W. Wilkin of New York. Where Wilkin was prepared for college is uncertain, but it probably was in a school taught before 1782 by Noah Webster (A.M. 1795, A.B. Yale 1778) at Goshen, county seat of Orange. Just when he entered the College is also unknown, but the fragment of a diary he kept during the winter and spring of 1784 has survived to establish his presence in Nassau Hall by that time. Perhaps he first enrolled in November 1783. Although the diary is rather disappointing, it yields several points of general interest. It shows that during the winter, at least, the 5 a.m. prayer service was not always held, doubtless because some tutor lacked stamina; that the American Whig Society to which Wilkin belonged met in the evenings; that the spring vacation in 1784 began on April 10, the day after the junior class was examined; and that roommates, then as in later years, at times quarreled. Wilkin's roommate was his classmate Hercules Whaley, also of New York. T h e quarrel occurred on April Fool's Day. There were no blows, but several days passed without so much as a word between the two. T h e three weeks he spent at home must have been for Wilkin a welcome break, for the diary makes it all too evident that he had struggled through algebra the preceding term. H e spent a good deal of time also with Euclid, but the complaints were reserved for algebra. Especially intriguing and puzzling is the evidence that Wilkin was teaching in the grammar school. T h e time was usually in the afternoon and on a Monday more often than not, although he was on duty on other days as well, including Friday, March 18, which he noted was his day "to be in school," and Sunday, March 27, when the school boys were "catechised" by Professor Smith and Wilkin "was present." Perhaps it was policy at the time to employ undergraduates as ushers for the grammar school, but the diary makes no reference to whatever may have been the compensation for this employment. It does indicate, however, that Oliver Ker, another member of the junior class, also taught at least once in the grammar school. It would be interesting to know the content of Wilkin's commencement day oration "on the importance of female education," but it is possible only to report that this was his subject. After graduation Wilkin studied law with Samuel Jones of New York City, for whom he later would name his son Samuel Jones Wilkin (A.B. 1812). Having qualified for admission to the bar of the state supreme court on October 23, 1788, he established his practice at Goshen, New York, where he would live for the remainder of his life. He became a pillar of the local Presbyterian church, which he served both as trustee and elder. In Goshen he also met Hannah

102

CLASS OF 1785

Townshend, daughter of Roger Townshend, and married her probably not long after settling there. T h e couple had a total of nine children, of whom seven, three sons and four daughters, apparendy lived to maturity. A man of large frame and "fine presence," courteous and amiable in disposition, Wilkin was destined to hold a wide variety of public offices, the first of them being the military appointment previously noted. In 1792 he was promoted from captain-lieutenant to the captaincy of an artillery company; in 1803 he advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel as the commander of an artillery regiment; and two years later he became a brigadier general in command of the second brigade of an artillery division of the state militia. He remained in this command until 1816, when he was promoted to the rank of major general. Thus for most of his mature life he carried the tide of General Wilkin. H e became a state senator from the Middle District in 1800, and served there until April 1804. In 1808 and 1809 he sat in the lower house of assembly for Orange County, and in the latter year he served as speaker of the house. H e returned to the senate in 1811 and sat there through consecutive sessions until April 1814. Three times—in 1802, 1811, and 1813—he was chosen for membership on the powerful council of appointment. It is a record which suggests that he enjoyed useful political alliances. His initial identification seems to have been with the Clintonian Republicans, and in 1812 he presided over the legislative caucus which placed DeWitt Clinton in nomination for the presidency in opposition to James Madison (A.B. 1771). In 1813 Wilkin was nominated by the state senate for election to the United States Senate in opposition to Rufus King, who had the nomination of the lower house; on the joint ballot King won, sixty-eight votes to sixty-one for Wilkin. T h e latter was elected to the Fourteenth Congress in 1815 and served by reelection until March 3, 1819. In that year he became clerk for Orange County, a position he held until 1821. Through the subsequent years of shifting political alignments, Wilkin probably wound u p in the Whig party of which his son Samuel became an active member. Wilkin's leadership in his community was not limited to politics. After the British capture of Washington in 1814, he presided over a meeting of citizens at Goshen on August 30 called for the purpose of agreeing upon the means for strengthening the defenses at West Point, and became the chairman of a committee to formulate practical proposals. T h e end result was the selection of a continuing committee with responsibilities not unlike those assigned at the time of the Revolution to local committees of safety. Already he had become a member of the original board of directors for the Bank

JAMES WHITNEY WILKIN

103

of Orange County, chartered in 1812. H e belonged to the Orange County Bible Society, organized in 1811, and in 1834 he was serving as its president. From an early date he had become a member of the Masonic order. According to the censuses of 1790 and 1800 he owned two slaves. Wilkin died at Goshen on February 23, 1845. SOURCES: Alumni file and special file for Alexander Wilkin (hon. A.B. 1846), PUA; Giger, Memoirs; BDUSC, 2052; E. M. Ruttenber & L. H. Clark, Hist, of Orange Cnty. (1881), 76, 137, 139, 149-50; G. Anjou, Ulster Cnty. ... Probate Records (1906), II, 34-35 (father's will); "Princeton in 1784: The Diary of James W. Wilkin of the Class of 1785," PUL Chron., 12 (1951), 55-66; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785 (commencement); M. E. Hoyt et al., eds., Index of Rev. War Pension Applications (1966), 1272; Military Minutes of the Council of Appointment of the State of N.Y., 17831821 (1901-02), I, 62, 83, 209, 578, 680, 760, 940; u, 954, 974, 1171, 1404, 1419, 1748; S. C. Hutchins, Civil List... of Colony & State ofN.Y. (1880), 239, 246-48, 29293, 388, 441; J. D. Hamond, Hist, of Political Parties in... N.Y. (1842), I, 343-45; D. S. Alexander, Political Hist. ... of N.Y. (1906), 211-12; First Census, N.Y., 139 (which suggests that by 1790 he was married and had one child); NYGBR, 63 (1932), 406. WFC

CLASS OF 1786

Samuel Piatt Broome, A.B., ad eundem

William Maxwell Brown, A.B. Henry Clymer, A.B. Henry Embry Coleman, A.B. William Gordon Forman, A.B. Edward Graham, A.B. Thomas Grant, A.B. Nathaniel Howe William King Hugg, A.B. Ralph Hunt, A.B. William Pitt Hunt, A.B. James Henderson Imlay, A.B. Edward Johnson (Johnston), Α.Β.

Richard Hugg King, A.B.

Maturin Livingston, A.B. Peter William Livingston, A.B. Amos Marsh, A.B. Richard Mosby, A.B. Abimael Youngs Nicoll, A.B. Thomas Pollock, A.B. Henry Smalley, A.B. Charles Smith, A.B. Samuel Finley Snowden, A.B. Samuel Robert Stewart, A.B. Anthony Toomer John Wright Vancleve, A.B. John C. Vergereau William Wallace, A.B. William Wallace, A.B.

(Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 27, 1786)

Samuel Piatt Broome A.B. ad eundem, A.B. Yale 1786, A.M. Yale 1789, merchant and adventurer, was the son of Samuel Broome, a wealthy New York merchant, and his wife Phebe Platt, daughter of Dr. Zophar Platt of Huntington, Long Island. David Platt (A.B. 1764) was his mother's brother, and Robert Ogden (A.B. 1765) was his uncle by marriage to two of his mother's sisters. T h e latter's son Robert Ogden (A.B. 1793) was Broome's cousin. Broome was born in New York City, where his father and his uncle Jeremiah Platt were partners in a thriving mercantile business. T h e family worshiped at the First Presbyterian Church of the City of New York. Matriculating in 1782, Broome spent two years at the College, where he joined the Cliosophic Society. However, in the summer of 1784 his family and the family business moved to New Haven, and he entered the junior class at Yale on September 11, 1784. He received his A.B. from Yale on September 9, 1786, and on September 27 he was admitted as an ad eundem member of the College of New Jersey. At the Yale commencement of 1789 he received his A.M. and delivered an English oration "On the literary and political improvement of the present age." Broome and Platt was the leading mercantile establishment in New Haven in the period from 1784 to 1800. They offered a large variety of cloths and textiles and a stock of imported European goods. T h e diary of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, shows that he and the tutors at Yale were regularly invited to dine at the Broome home. Mason Fitch Cogswell (A.B. Yale 1780), while traveling from New York in 1788 to spend a thanksgiving holiday at his father's home in Scotland, Connecticut, was entertained at the Broome home and was then accompanied by the younger Broome on the next leg of his horseback journey. In Hartford the two young men were entertained at the home of Jeremiah Wadsworth by the Wadsworth sisters, Harriet and Catherine, and their brother David. Describing their congenial evening together Cogswell recalled that Broome was "a lad of good sense but rather trifling at times." H e added, "He possesses a talent at punning and by occasionally throwing in a remark he prevented us from becoming too seriously sentimental." Unfortunately, the trifler seems to have been stronger than the lad of good sense. After graduation Broome went into business in New York and probably opened a branch of the family firm, since an entry for Broome, Platt and Co., merchants, appears in the New York City directories from 1791 through 1794. He is said to have been in failing health, and he spent a great deal of time abroad, mainly in France, SAMUEL PLATT BROOME,

108

CLASS OF 1786

where he lived the life of an adventurer, dissipating his inheritance. H e took his own life in England in 1811. SOURCES: Clio, lists; Min. Trustees, 27 Sept. 1786; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 466, 509, 511; Dexter, Yale Biographies, rv, 455-56 (matriculation at CNJ in 1782); NYGBR, 5 (1874), 185; 9 (1878), 18, 171; 10 (1879), 127; 20 (1889), 65; F. B. Dexter, ed., Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles (3 vols., 1901), in, 137, 337, 365; R. G. Osterweis, Three Centuries of New Haven (1953), 171; New Englander, n.s., 5 (1882), xli, 9-10, 17 (Cogswell quotes); N.Y. City directories, 1791-94. The Princeton Univ. Gen. Cat. 1746-1906 (1908), 401, incorrectly asserts that Broome received an A.M. at the 1786 CNJ commencement. RLW

William Maxwell Brown A.B., lawyer, probably was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, the son of one of the several Browns living in the county after its establishment in 1750, and through his mother a grandson of William Maxwell, an early settler west of the Susquehannah River and an original magistrate of the county. No date of birth has been discovered, nor can information be given on his preparation for college. He joined the Cliosophic Society on December 1, 1784, not long perhaps after entering the College. His residence was given as Pennsylvania, and the society name he chose was Dion, a pupil and friend of Plato and ruler of Syracuse. At his commencement on September 27, 1786, Brown delivered an oration "on the love of our country, and zeal in promoting its interests." After graduation Brown probably studied law in Philadelphia with William Bradford (A.B. 1772), and he was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia on September 10, 1789. According to family tradition he located his practice in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Franklin County, which had been set apart from Cumberland County in 1784. T h e same source indicates that he was married there in 1793 to Hadasseh (Hetty) Chambers, daughter of Col. Benjamin Chambers, one of the earliest settlers in the area, a member of the Cumberland County court from the beginning, and the founder of the town of Chambersburg. T h e couple had at least one son who was also named William Maxwell. After neighboring Adams County was created early in 1800, Brown was admitted to its bar on August 25, 1800. On January 20, 1797 he had advertised for sale in a Chambersburg newspaper 150 acres, including the junction of the West Conococheague and Licking creeks, with notice that the premises once had contained a mill, possibly one of those his father-in-law had built shortly after settling. T h e only other item of information discovered is the report by a descendant that Brown died in 1843 or 1845 at Paris, Tennessee, the county seat of Henry WILLIAM MAXWELL BROWN,

HENRY

CLYMER

109

County in the west central part of that state. By then the College had lost track of Brown's whereabouts. Its catalogues first listed him as deceased in 1860. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; Martin's Bench fcf Bar, 252; Hist, of Cumberland & Adams Cnties. (1886 repr. 1974, 3 vols, in 1), H, 9, 16, 17, 26, 28, 47, 95, 131, 137; m, 98; PGM, 12 (1935), 299; 23 (1964), 183; PMHB, 3 (1879), 195-96; 10 (1886), 458-59; 24 (1900), 23, 31, 45, 47; 34 (1910), 244. The William M. Brown who secured a land warrant for 260 acres in Huntingdon County in June 1815 may or may not have been William Maxwell (Pa. Arch., 3d ser., xxv, 688). See Sprague, Annals, HI, 388n, for the mistaken assumption that William Maxwell was the son of John Brown (A.B. 1749) and cf. sketch of William Brown, Class of 1780. It perhaps should be added that a William M. Brown witnessed a codicil to William Bradford's will on 5 May 1787, and a later will of Bradford dated 18 Oct. 1788. See Wallace Papers, PHi, vol. 3, 105-06, and Prmcetonians, 1776-1783, 291-92. WFC

Henry Clymer A.B., farmer and possible lawyer, was born in Philadelphia on July 3 1 , 1767, the third of nine children of George Clymer, merchant, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and of Elizabeth Meredith, daughter of a very wealthy Quaker merchant, Reese Meredith. T h e father was a cousin of Daniel Clymer (A.B. 1766). Henry's younger brother was Meredith Clymer (A.B. 1787), and the family presumably moved to Princeton in 1782 so that the brothers, first of the Clymer children to survive infancy, could enroll in the College. Henry had matriculated at least by August 1784 and joined the American Whig Society. Sometime early in 1786 he received a dismission from the society, whether at his own request or because of some infraction of the rules is not known. He may have been reinstated, for he is listed in Whig catalogues. T h e family soon moved to Philadelphia, and by 1785 Henry was living with Col. George Morgan's family at their home, "Prospect," which adjoined the College campus. His father wrote to him there commending his "epistolary style," enclosing $25 "to meet Mr. Smith's demands," and suggesting that Henry be attentive to Colonel Morgan. Henry did not speak at his commencement exercises in 1786. After graduation he probably read law in Philadelphia with James Wilson, another Signer of the Declaration of Independence. However, there is no record of Clymer's admission to the bar, and it is likely that his immediate postgraduate activities were confused with those of his brother Meredith. Yet Henry was familiar with the principles of Sir William Blackstone, as evidenced by correspondence with his father in 1807. HENRY CLYMER,

In 1798 George Clymer purchased "Summerseat," an estate near

110

CLASS OF 1786

Morrisville, Pennsylvania, that had once belonged to Robert Morris and had served as George Washington's headquarters in 1776. Although the elder Clymer was frequendy in residence and in fact died there in 1813, Henry managed the farm from the start, and it was deeded to him in 1805. He devoted most of the rest of his life to commercial agriculture, although he was chosen a councilman at the first election for borough officers in Morrisville on April 16, 1804. Whenever George Clymer traveled to Philadelphia and beyond, he sent "Harry" information regarding wheat markets, as well as suggestions for such activities as cheesemaking. Preserved along with this correspondence are numerous promissory notes that Henry signed throughout the first decade of the century. Whether these loans from his father, which sometimes amounted to several thousand dollars per year, were ever fully repaid is unclear. Following his father's death in 1813, Henry went to Northumberland, Lycoming, and Luzerne counties to look after the large tracts of land that his father had purchased there. In 1819 Henry moved to Trenton, New Jersey, returning to "Summerseat" in 1822, where he again devoted his full attention to the farm, raising wheat, catde, sheep, and hogs, as well as renting out some of his land to tenants. Around 1825 his health began to decline, and in March 1827 he suffered a paralytic attack, "... which affected my right hand, my speech, and memory." Unfortunately, at precisely this time a bitter quarrel concerning George Clymer's estate came to a head. The father had named James Gibson (A.B. 1787) and John Read (A.B. 1787) as executors of his estate in 1813. Henry and his younger brother, George, the principal heirs, remained on friendly terms with the executors at least until 1817, when George went to London and named John Meredith Read, son of John Read, as his attorney. Yet another decade passed and the estate had not been settled. Moreover, in 1827 Henry Clymer accused Gibson and the younger Read, who seems to have assumed the duties of executor from his father, of collaborating with Thomas Meredith to defraud the estate. The dispute centered around lands near Wilkes-Barre that had been joindy purchased by Meredith's and Clymer's fathers, and that were valued at several thousand dollars. Of the administrators, who were at one point asked to explain their actions in orphan's court, Henry Clymer wrote, "one of them is a designing knave, and the other, so far as regards our affairs, has shown himself a willing profiter." In failing health for another two years, Henry died, with the affair still unresolved, on April 17, 1830. On July 9, 1794 Clymer had married Mary Willing, daughter of Thomas Willing, the prominent Philadelphia financier who had

HENRY EMBRY

COLEMAN

111

refused to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and sister of George Willing (A.B. 1792), Richard Willing (Class of 1793), and William Willing (Class of 1796). Mary Clymer died in 1852, outliving her husband by some twenty-two years. The couple had eight children, three of whom graduated from the College, William (A.B. 1821), Thomas (A.B. 1822), and George (A.B. 1823). SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 228; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 (dismission from Whigs); J. Scharf & T. Wescott, Hist. ofPhila. (1884), I, 329; W. C. Ryan, "Founding of Morrisville," Collection of Papers Read Before the Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc, 3 (1909), 361-67; G. £. McCracken, The Welcome Claimants (1970), 208; als, HC to Giles Bleasdale, 29 June 1827 (paralytic attack), & to Joseph R. Ingersoll & Richard Peters, [n.d., ca. Jan. 1827] ("designing knave"), Clymer Letter-Book, 1815-30, PHi; corres. between HC & John Meredith Read, 181617, John Meredith Read Papers, PHi. Photocopies of 28 letters from George Clymer (father) to HC, covering the years 1784 to 1807, are found in the Small Collection, PHi. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP;

PHi

LKS

Henry Embry Coleman HENRY EMBRY COLEMAN, A.B., planter and public official, was born April 27, 1768, probably in Halifax County, Virginia. His parents, John Coleman of Halifax County, and Mary Embry of Gloucester County, first settled on land in Brunswick County that she had inherited from her grandfather, Henry Embry, Sr. John Coleman later purchased a large estate, which he called "Woodlawn," near the small town of Clover in Halifax County. Both the Coleman and Embry (sometimes referred to as Embra) families had been in the area for several generations, and numerous land patents are recorded for members of the two families. The Halifax County tax list for 1782 includes the household of John Coleman, then consisting of four whites and fifty-eight blacks. Family tradition claims that Coleman attended Hampden-Sidney College, and the general catalogue of that institution lists him as a student whose dates of residence are not known. Perhaps, like a number of other Virginians, he spent a year at the College after completing his work at Hampden-Sidney. He is said to have ridden from Virginia to Princeton on horseback, accompanied by a Negro body servant. According to the journal of John R. Smith (A.B. 1787), on the afternoon of June 22, 1786 Coleman became involved in an argument with Peter William Livingston (A.B. 1786) which resulted in a batde with their canes. Coleman, as loser, received a "compleat trouncing" in the presence of his classmates. Smith identified the two

112

CLASS OF 1786

combatants as Whigs, but no extant American Whig Society records list Coleman as a member. His disagreement with Livingston may have been considered a cause for expulsion from the society. Coleman did not speak at his commencement exercises. After completing his education Coleman apparently returned to the family estate and settled into the uneventful life of a southern planter. He followed his father's example in becoming a vestryman of Antrim Parish, Halifax County, and a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly in 1789-90. He also served at one time as a delegate to the Episcopal Diocesan Council. On August 15, 1807 he was among a panel of forty-eight jurors summoned to the circuit court at Richmond for the trial of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). After the panel was reduced to forty by excused absences, Burr suggested that the court might save several unpleasant hours, during which he would be exercising his privilege of challenging jurors, if he could be granted the privilege of selecting eight jurors from the venire. Coleman, when called, stated "that he had conceived and expressed an opinion, that the designs of colonel Burr were always enveloped in mystery, and inimical to the United States; and when informed by the public prints, that he was descending the river with an armed force, he had felt as every friend of his country ought to feel." When Burr questioned whether he had prejudged the case Coleman answered that he had not, since he had not seen the evidence. Burr replied, "That is enough sir. You are elected." T h e trial began on Monday, August 17, 1807 with Henry E. Coleman as a member of the petit jury. Thanks to the historic and narrow definition of treason laid down by J o h n Marshall (LL.D. 1802), the jury acquitted Burr, although with obvious reluctance. Coleman later served as a lieutenant colonel of the Halifax County militia during the War of 1812. On J u n e 13, 1795 he had married Ann Gordon, daughter of Thomas Gordon and Margaret Murray, whose maternal ancestry could be traced back to John Rolfe and Pocahontas. They raised a family of five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived to adulthood and marriage, a rather rare circumstance at that time. Coleman died December 16, 1837, his wife having predeceased him on J u n e 7, 1821. H e left "Woodlawn" to his son Charles. Among other bequests was one of twenty slaves to his daughter Jane. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; P. H. BaskerviUe, Genealogy of the BaskerviUe Family (1912), 69, 88, 116, 117, 119, 122, 199; P. H. BaskerviUe, Additional BaskerviUe Genealogy (1917), 139, 144; First Census, Va., 22; Hampden-Sidney CoUege, Gen. Cat. (1906), 169; Smith Diary, 11 Jan., 12 Mar., 22 June 1786; W. J. Carrington, Hist, of HaUfax Cnty. (1924), 149, 151, 288-89; VMHB, 17 (1909), 100; 29 (1921), 507-08; WMQ, 1st ser., 7 (1898), 135; 25 (1917), 116; Reports of the Trials of Col. Aaron Burr (1808), I, 42223, 426-27 (quotes), 429-30; Cal. Va. St. Papers, ix, 565. Carrington's Hist, of Halifax

WILLIAM GORDON

FORMAN

113

Cnty., 149-50 names Sarah Embry as the wife of John Coleman. Mary Embry had a sister Sarah and there is undoubtedly some confusion over the identities of the sisters. RLW

William Gordon Forman A.B., lawyer, politician, and tobacco planter, was born J u n e 22, 1770 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey, one of the five children of Joseph and Amelia Gale Forman. So many Formans had setded in this area that the neighborhood about a mile and a half southeast of Freehold became known as "Forman square." They were active members of the Presbyterian Tennent Church in Freehold Township. Little is known about Forman's college career except his membership in the American Whig Society. During the period that he attended the College, his uncle Ezekiel Forman had a home in Princeton where the nephew probably visited. On February 2 1 , 1786 when the seniors delivered orations in the college hall, John R. Smith (A.B. 1787), writing of the evening in his journal, noted that he intended to hear "Firman" and one of the William Wallaces. However, he left the hall to return to his room and study for a few minutes, where he fell asleep over his books. At 9:30, when the speeches were completed, Forman, Wallace and Edward Johnson wakened him to "tell me of their going to have fine feast (& ask me to partake) in eating pies & drinking wine." On a Sunday afternoon in mid-March Smith and Forman took an after-dinner walk together "down Morgan's Lane & view his stables." George Morgan's farm "Prospect" adjoined the college grounds, and Forman may have boarded a horse there. At commencement he delivered an ironical essay on "the absurdity of the mathematicks, and the science of demonstration." After graduation Forman studied law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in September 1791. Nothing has been found to indicate where he studied or whether or not he actually practiced in New Jersey. Family tradition credits Forman with being the first private American gentleman presented at the court of George III, and his presentation clothes were preserved as a family memento. This European trip probably took place after his admission to the bar. Sometime before August 30, 1796 he married his first cousin Sarah Marsh Forman, daughter of Gen. David Forman, commander of the New Jersey troops at the Battle of Monmouth, and his wife Ann Marsh. David Forman's will, executed on that date, appointed his eldest daughter Sarah and his son-in-law William Gordan Forman as executors. WILLIAM GORDON FORMAN,

114

CLASS OF 1786

In 1789 David Forman had negotiated with Diego de Gardoqui, Spanish minister to the United States, to obtain land in the Natchez District along the lower Mississippi in his brother Ezekiel's name. David hoped to find a profitable means of employing some of his numerous slaves in the Natchez District. The Forman party that traveled south consisted of Ezekiel Forman and his family, sixty slaves belonging to David Forman, David's overseer Benjamin Osmun, and Samuel S. Forman, a young cousin. Arriving in the summer of 1790 Ezekiel acquired a plantation of 500 acres on St. Catherine's Creek, about four miles from the town of Natchez, which he named "Wilderness Creek." In the first year the rich topsoil of the area produced about a ton of tobacco per acre. There was much partying among the plantations, and the Formans had high praise for Spanish hospitality. The family brought the first four-wheeled carriage in the district when the roads were still only bridle paths. A 1795 inventory of Ezekiel Forman's library included The Spectator, a volume of plays, "Edward's Geography," and a couple of dictionaries. However, Natchez was still a frontier community, as evidenced by the fact that Ezekiel was appointed to handle "money proceeding from the Subscription and sale of Stray creatures and ... to him should apply the Persons, that are duly entitled to rewards for killing beasts of Prey, such as Tygers [wildcats?] and Wolves." Ezekiel Forman died on May 29, 1795, and in September 1796 his brother David journeyed south to attend to the estate. On the basis that Ezekiel had been acting as his agent, David secured from his brother's widow, Margaret, a release of any claims on her husband's property in exchange for payment of a yearly annuity. David Forman suffered a stroke in Natchez and was not able to travel until August 1797 when he finally sailed from New Orleans. His ship was captured by a British privateer and taken to New Providence in the Bahamas. In his already weakened condition the hardships and anxieties of the voyage hastened his death, which occurred on September 12, 1797. He left an estate inventoried at more than $100,000, consisting of land in New Jersey, Maryland, Mississippi, and Maine, as well as numerous slaves. His daughter Sarah received his plate, household furniture, and household servants, and shared the residue of the estate with her mother and five younger sisters. Sarah Forman died less than two years later on January 18, 1799, leaving her husband as sole executor. Sometime in 1800 William Forman journeyed to Natchez where he held a public auction to dispose of some of the land and slaves held in his father-in-law's estate. However, all of these assets were sold to his younger brother Joseph, who immediately reconveyed all of the

WILLIAM GORDON FORMAN

115

property to William at the same price. The latter apparently moved into the "Wilderness Plantation," but in 1807 he again sold to Joseph the 1,000 acres known as " Second Creek Plantation," repurchasing it six months later at the same price. In 1811 William disposed of this plantation and 100 slaves for close to $50,000 more than the price originally paid for both plantations. David Forman's New Jersey lands were disposed of in a similar manner, with Joseph Scudder (A.B. 1778) acting as purchaser at the public sale of lands which William resold for a profit of $3,000. Whether Forman was willfully defrauding the heirs or simply "borrowing" assets to get his personal affairs in better shape is impossible to determine. He became active in Mississippi politics, and as late as 1811 his reputation in Natchez was sufficiently unblemished to have him named executor of a client's will. On April 7, 1798 the Natchez District had become a part of the Mississippi Territory created on that date by the United States. On December 6, 1800 William Forman and other citizens of the territory subscribed to a memorial addressed to the United States Congress. It objected to the appointment of commissioners to investigate the legality of their land titles and also protested against the territory receiving the second grade of territorial government in advance of the proper schedule. They argued that the territory was unprepared and not capable of sustaining this new status. The memorial was "read and laid on the table," with apparently no further notice taken of it. On March 28, 1801 Forman was among the signatories to a tribute of approval for Winthrop Sargent, retiring first governor of the territory. In 1803 Forman was elected to the House of Representatives of the Mississippi Assembly, and for the first quarter of the year he acted as speaker. Normally the speaker filled a term of one or two years, but during 1803 Forman was one of four who served successively. One of his first acts as speaker was to sign a memorial addressed to the president and Congress, complaining of an order by the French government of Louisiana, which prohibited all intercourse between citizens of the United States and subjects of Spain, thereby withholding a place of deposit for the trade goods of the Mississippians. In December 1803 Governor William C. C. Claiborne was appointed a United States commissioner to accompany Gen. James Wilkinson to New Orleans to accept the Louisiana cession from France, leaving Cato West, the territorial secretary, as acting governor. There now emerged three political factions in Mississippi. William Forman became the leader of a Federalist group of early settlers. West headed a Republican faction much more sympathetic

116

CLASS OF 1786

with the policies of the national administration and actively interested in promoting the development of Greenville in Jefferson County, about twenty-eight miles north of Natchez, in competition with the latter. A third faction, led by Governor Claiborne's younger brother Ferdinand, a Natchez merchant, feared that Jefferson County might eclipse Natchez. He distrusted some of West's associates, notably the Green family that had given its name to Greenville. In the 1804 election for a territorial representative to Congress, the Federalist candidate was Forman, the Claibornites supported Dr. William Lattimore, and Cato West was the third candidate. Through six ballots Lattimore and West each gained five votes and Forman four. At this point the house chamber became so noisy that Speaker of the House Philander Smith adjourned the general assembly, ignoring an attempt to hold a seventh ballot, thus leaving the territory temporarily without a representative in Congress. T h e following year Lattimore was elected as the first delegate from the territory. T h e experience may have soured Forman on politics because he apparently did not run again for public office. Forman probably returned to New Jersey for a visit, where on September 2, 1806 he married Sarah Woodhull, the daughter of the Reverend John Woodhull (A.B. 1766), pastor of the Old Tennent Church, and the sister of George Spafford Woodhull (A.B. 1790), John Tennent Woodhull (A.M. 1812), and Gilbert Smith Woodhull (A.M. 1823). T h e elder Woodhull was a shrewd and careful businessman who had amassed a large enough fortune to present his only daughter with a dower of $80,000. If she did indeed receive this munificent sum, she did not have many years in which to enjoy it. A daughter Sarah Woodhull Forman was born on March 16, 1808. T h e mother died at Natchez on November 13, 1811. On March 26, 1811 Rivine Forman, the youngest sister of William Forman's first wife, had married Col. James Neilson of New Brunswick, brother of John Neilson (A.B. 1793). Only two of Rivine's sisters were still living, Malvina Forman and Emma Forman Cumming of Newark. Disturbed because their father's estate had still not been settled, the two married sisters persuaded their husbands to travel to Mississippi to talk to William Forman. They arrived in February 1812 only to find Forman too ill to discuss business. After staying in Natchez for about a month they left with only Forman's promise that he would settle the estate as soon as he was well enough to do so. On October 3, 1812 Forman was murdered in Lexington, Kentucky, presumably by robbers who broke into the inn where he was staying overnight. En route to New Jersey to leave his young daugh-

WILLIAM GORDON FORMAN

117

ter in the care of her Woodhull grandparents, he may also have hoped to borrow money from his father-in-law. Apparendy the child was not harmed; she lived to receive her mother's bequests in her grandfather Woodhull's will, and she later married the Reverend Clifford Smith Arms. Only after Forman's death did it become apparent how badly he had mismanaged his affairs. Joseph Forman, as executor for his brother's estate, produced an inventory that showed assets of $272,000 and debts of $306,000. Included among the debts was a figure of $45,000 due to David Forman's heirs, although this was only a guess since William Forman's papers were not in good order. David Forman's land in Maryland and Maine had been disposed of along with the Mississippi and New Jersey holdings, and the only assets left in the legatees' names were some old and young slaves apparendy not sold with the more profitable ones. Although some sums had been paid to the heirs, the three surviving sisters claimed that they were still owed approximately $200,000. To prosecute these claims James Neilson retained Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), as well as a group of Natchez lawyers. Affairs were further complicated by a suit against the heirs instituted by Margaret Forman, widow of Ezekiel Forman, who claimed that for some years William had not paid her the annu­ ity promised by David. T h e Forman heirs were able to receive par­ tial satisfaction by filing claims against William Forman's share of his father's estate in Delaware. T h e complicated and drawn out liti­ gation continued until 1834, long after Rivine Neilson's death. H e r share was held in trust by h e r husband for their only daughter Ann Augusta. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Smith Diary, 21 Feb. ("tell me") & 19 Mar. 1786 ("down Morgan's"); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786 ("the absurdity"); A. S. Dandridge, Forman Genealogy (1903), 80, 97-99, 102-05, 112-16; E. Salter, Hist of Monmouth & Ocean Cnties. (1890), xxvii-xxviii; D. C. James, Antebellum Natchez (1968), 32-42,47-48 ("money proceeding from"), 245; D. Rowland, Encyc. of Miss. Hist. (1907), i, 725-26; D. Rowland, Hist of Miss. (1912), I, 309, 476; Jour, of Southern Hist., 10 (1944), 395; R. A. McLemore, Hist, of Miss. (1973), I, 166, 168-69, 202-07; J. W. Monette, Hist, of Discovery & Settlement of the Valley of the Miss. (1846), i, 588; π, 339, 345, 367, 448-49; C. E. Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the U.S. (26 vols., 1934-62), ν (Territory of Miss. 1798-1817), 82, 115, 122-23; J. F. H. Claiborne, Miss., as Province, Terr. &f State (1880), 239, 241; F. R Symmes, Hist, of Old Tennent Church (1904), 116, 408-09; KSHS Reg., 39 (1941), 68; R. T. Thompson, Col. James Neilson (1940), 48-62. Most sources refer to Forman as "Major" William Gordon Forman. In answer to a question about this tide, a letter from Mary G. Woodhull dated 27 Jan. 1908 (alumni file, PUA), says, "We never heard him called anything else and have seen it in print Possibly as an older man he belonged to some militia." Early in 1806 a company of Mississippi Blues was organized in anticipation of hostilities with the Spaniards. This or another volunteer company may have been where WGF acquired his tide. He is not listed in W. H. Powell's List of Officers of the U.S. from 1779 to 1900 (1900). RLW

118

Edward Graham A.B., lawyer and public official, probably was born about 1765 or 1766 in New York City, the son no doubt of Ennis Graham and his wife Elizabeth Wilcox Graham, and so a brother of Alexander and John Graham, both of the Class of 1777. Princeton publications have tended to identify Edward as a native of North Carolina, but other sources place his birth in New York, a view that finds support in the will he drafted on July 1, 1809 which disposed of property belonging to him in New York City. Well before the writing of this will he had established himself as a lawyer in New Bern, North Carolina, and this fact helps to explain the confusion regarding his place of birth. Ennis Graham was a native of Scotland. When he migrated to America has not been established, but his will, dated September 15, 1777 and probated on the following September 24 in Middlesex County, New Jersey, shows that he had prospered. An estate inventoried at more than £25,000, including substantial holdings of real estate in New York City, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and the area then in the process of becoming Vermont, was bequeathed to his widow and his ten children. At the time of his death Graham was living at Bound Brook, New Jersey, a refugee from the British occupation of New York City. Among the witnesses to his will was Israel Read (A.B. 1748), for many years Presbyterian minister at Bound Brook. Executors of the will were Elizabeth Graham, the widow, and two New York City merchants. Graham had married Elizabeth after securing a license on July 21, 1763, and so she could not have been the mother of his older children. Two of them pressed a suit in chancery after 1785 against the executors of the will. Ennis and James Graham, older sons of the elder Ennis, had begun the study of medicine at King's College before the Revolution, the former in 1770, the latter in 1773. Neither of them secured the degree. Edward was also enrolled at King's, in the academic program, before transferring to Nassau Hall. The general catalogue of Columbia University gives 1784 as the date of his enrollment at King's, and it seems altogether likely that he transferred to Princeton at the beginning of the academic year in November 1784. On September 27, 1785, the day before that year's commencement, he took first prize in an undergraduate competition "on reading English and English grammar, syntax and orthography." The newspaper report of the competition identified him as a junior. He joined the American Whig Society. On July 8, 1786 Graham wrote William Paterson (A.B. 1763) a EDWARD GRAHAM,

EDWARD GRAHAM

119

letter which sheds light on the way commencements at this time were planned. Graham noted that hitherto he had written his own orations, "with a view to my own improvement and to avoid being troublesome to others." However, as his class boasted "several excellent speakers," and they could be expected to "depend for the most part on the assistance of their friends of greater experience and abilities for their commencement orations," Graham did the same by asking Paterson to write his. He wanted Paterson's help not only because the task was difficult but because a large audience would be present and "perhaps to a young person just entering on the world, his appearance at such a time may be of consequence." He left the subject matter entirely to Paterson, but observed that We are required to bring in our pieces on the 7th of August for the inspection of the faculty. At that time comes on our last examination, after this we shall be at liberty to return home and spend our six weeks between examination and commencement. The design of the faculty in insisting on our pieces so long before they will be spoke is to prevent disappointments and blunderings. If Paterson could not meet that deadline, however, Graham thought an extension might be obtained. The evidence of the letter suggests that the students were often free to choose their own oration topics. Starting in 1790 the minutes of the faculty on this point survive and show that the faculty met in early July to award the commencement honors and assign disputation topics to the weaker students, with the final examinations still occurring in August. Graham and Paterson apparendy were not previously acquainted. Paterson helped found and long actively supported the rival Cliosophic Society; he would have been known to Graham as a prominent lawyer and former attorney general of New Jersey. Paterson's response to the request has not come to light. The topic of Graham's intermediate honors oration was heroism. It has been said that Graham subsequendy read law with John Jay, but confirmation is lacking. Just when he began his practice at New Bern has not been determined; he does not appear among the heads of families there in the census of 1790, but that can mean no more than that as yet he was not the head of a family. He must have moved to New Bern some time before his marriage in Craven County, of which New Bern was the county seat, on June 16, 1795 to Elizabeth Batchelor. Perhaps the clearest evidence that he ultimately prospered as an attorney is found in his purchase in 1822 of one of the most expensive pews in the recendy constructed Presbyterian church at New Bern, of which he was a trustee. In 1799 he had been selected

120

CLASS OF 1786

by the trustees of the University of North Carolina as their attorney for the "New-Bern District," and he associated on familiar terms with leading inhabitants of the town and state. His closeness to Congressman J o h n Stanly emerged when Graham served as his second in the duel of 1802 that resulted in the death of former governor and congressman Richard D. Spaight. Stanly was a leading Federalist, and Graham probably shared his friend's political convictions. Much later, in 1827, he was active in behalf of the reelection of President J o h n Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806); in fact, he was a member of the committee of correspondence named at New Bern with a view to organizing statewide opposition to the election of Andrew Jackson. In 1798 he had come to the assistance of Thomas Blount when he was threatened with involvement in his brother William's difficulties, and again in 1800 when Blount was indicted and acquitted on a charge of corruptly using a land warrant. So far as has been discovered, Graham held public office only once, when he sat in the state legislature in 1797 for the borough of New Bern. Graham and his wife Elizabeth had three children, two daughters and a son Hamilton Claverhouse Graham (A.B. 1816). Edward's will, which left all of his property to his wife for the term of her natural life, specified that his son "should live under the care of his mother until he is of the age of fourteen or fifteen years, provided he can have the advantage of approved private or academic tuition, at which age I could wish him to be placed at Princeton College until he shall complete his scholastic education." On the question of an education for his daughters Graham expressed a preference for a "domestic to a boarding school for them," but hoped "to be favoured with time and leisure to leave for their benefit a more full development, in a separate form of my wishes and ideas in this truly interesting topic." Among the law students Graham trained was Louis D. Henry (A.B. 1809), a native of New Jersey and probably a nephew. Another nephew was Edward E. Graham (A.B. 1811), who later represented New Bern in the state legislature. A codicil of the will dated September 2, 1815 provided that real estate acquired in North Carolina after the writing of his will should be disposed of according to its general provisions. No exact date of death can be given here, but it obviously came in the early part of 1833. Graham's will was probated in the May term of the Craven County court of 1833. His widow Elizabeth qualified as executrix. SOURCES: Princetonians, 1776-1783, 166-70; Alexander, Princeton, 229 (which states that "Edward Graham joined the college from North Carolina, to which State he returned after graduating, and entered upon the practice of law"); Williams, Academic

THOMAS

GRANT

121

Honors, 10 (which identifies him as a North Carolinian at the time of his residence in the College); N.Y. WMs, XII, 220-21 (will of Ennis Graham); N.J. Wills, v, 209; Thomas, Columbia, 98, 107, 111; N.Y. Marriages Previous to 1784 (1860 repr. 1968), 157; Alexander Graham et al. vs. Elizabeth Graham et al., documents from N.Y. State Court of Chancery minute books, 21 May 1785-25 Jan. 1792, original at N.Y. Cnty. Clerk's Office, copied in The Papers of Aaron Burr (microfilm, 1978), reel 18; Smith Diary, passim; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785, 2 Oct. 1786; [ W. Paterson], Glimpses of Colonial Society and the Life at Princeton College 1766-73, ed. W. J. Mills (1903), 155-59 (1786 letter to Paterson); L. C. Vass, Hist. ofPres. Church in New Bern (1886), 126; J. H. Wheeler, Hist. Sketches of N.C. (1851), i, 112-14, 122; W. H. Masterson, ed.,John Gray Blount Papers (1965), m, 244-45, 601; J. G. D. Hamilton, ed., Papers of Thomas Ruffin (1918), I, 342; n, 16-17; A. Henderson, N.C. (1941), π, 62; R. D. W. Connor, N.C. Manual (1913), 567; NCHR, 28 (1951), 277; Index of marriage bonds, courtesy of T. Shipp, Register of Deeds, Craven Cnty.; MS will of Edward Graham, Nc, photocopy in PUA. At first glance one is tempted to assume that Edward Graham may have been the younger brother with that name of William Graham (A.B. 1773), but investigation finds no support for this view. WFC

Thomas Grant THOMAS GRANT, A.B., A.M. 1789, Presbyterian clergyman, was born

in New York City on March 16, 1763 and was baptized in the Pres­ byterian church there on the following March 3 1 . H e was the son of Thomas and Catherine Stevens Grant, who are said to have moved their residence to New Brunswick, New Jersey, when their son was quite young. Presumably Thomas enrolled in the College from New Brunswick. When he first became a student in the College has not been determined, but a manuscript membership list of the Cliosophic Society dates his membership from J u n e 30, 1784 and gives his soci­ ety name as Epiphanius. At his commencement on September 27, 1786, he spoke "on the instability of human affairs." Grant promptly began to read theology in preparation for the min­ istry, but with whom he studied has not been established. Nor has the date at which he was licensed to preach, but he received his A.M. in 1789 and within a year was serving as a supply for the First Presbyte­ rian Church in Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. On December 13, 1791 his examination for ordination was approved by the New Brunswick Presbytery and he was installed as pastor of both the First and Second churches of Amwell. Before the year was out he had assumed the same responsibility for the congregation at nearby Flemington. H e continued to serve these congregations until very nearly the end of his life, which came early in March 1811. An obituary notice published in The Christian's Magazine for May 1811 revealed that he had suffered poor health from a "complaint in his breast" throughout "the whole course of his ministry." Evidently his

122

CLASS OF 1786

suffering, "endured with uncommon patience and magnanimity," had increased with time, so much so that he resigned his pastorates around 1809, a short while before his death. On August 10, 1810 he made a will while on a visit to New York City, where his brother John lived, in which he described himself as "late of Amwell, Hunterdon Co., minister of the Gospel, now residing at Mill Hill near City of Trenton." The will was proved on April 9, 1811, almost a month after his burial on March 12 from the Presbyterian church in Trenton, presumably with its pastor, James F. Armstrong (A.B. 1773), officiating. Grant had been married twice. His first marriage, which took place sometime during 1792, was to Theodosia Reading, daughter of Capt. Daniel Reading and granddaughter of John Reading, who twice, as president of council, had served as acting governor of the province. By this marriage he had four children, two girls and two sons, Thomas and John, the latter of whom may have been John Grant (A.B. 1811). After his first wife's death, Thomas Grant was married a second time on December 6, 1805, to Mary Elizabeth Bryan, daughter of Judge John Bryan of Peapack, who had died during the winter of 1802-03 in Virginia while engaged in soliciting funds for the reconstruction of Nassau Hall after it had burned in March 1802. The couple had one daughter, Elizabeth. The second Mrs. Grant was a cousin of William and John Sloan (both A.B. 1792) and her sister Rachel was the wife of George C. Maxwell (A.B. 1792). Grant's will makes it evident that he died a man of very substantial means. An inventory of March 15, 1811 showed a personal estate valued at $25,126.37^-. It is clear from the will that a part of the property had come to him through his marriages. A sum of $4,000 was set aside for his daughter Elizabeth, the interest to provide for her education until she reached the age of twenty-one, when she would come into possession of the principal. She was also to get half of the lands in Virginia and Kentucky formerly belonging to her maternal grandfather. The other half was to be divided into seven parts, a seventh going to his widow and to each of his two daughters by the first marriage, and two-sevenths to each of his sons. Out of the residue of his personal and real estate the sons were to receive $1,250 each, with provision that whatever might remain should be divided equally among his wife and five children. The inventory makes it evident that Grant's second wife died before his will was proved. None of his children had attained the age of majority at the time of his death, and their guardianship was entrusted to his two brothers, John Grant, described as a New York merchant, and Ebenezer Grant (A.B. Queen's 1792, A.M. College of

N A T H A N I E L HOWE

123

New Jersey 1796), a Presbyterian clergyman of Bedford, Westchester County, New York. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA, which includes letters of 1918 from A. Van Doren Honeyman, then editor of the Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart.; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, passim; Gibson Diary, 10 July 1786; Som. Cnty. Hist. Quart., 5 (1916), 109-10; 7 (1918), 278 (which incorrectly gives date of death as 1810); N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct 1786; Pa. Packet, £sf Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789; J. Hall, Hist. ofPres. Church in Trenton (1912), 203, 347-48; Aim. Gen. Assembly, 1789-1820, 78-79, 136, 169, 234, 288; E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers of Trenton £sf Ewmg (1883), 198; A. Nevin & D. R. B. Nevin, Encyc. of Pres. Church (1884), 274; Christian's Mag., 4 (1811), 352; N.J. Wills, XII, 151-52; Gen. Cat. Rutgers College (1909), 44. WFC

Nathaniel Howe A.B. Harvard 1786, teacher and Congregational minister, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, October 6, 1764, the third son of Capt. Abraham Howe and Lucy Appleton. He received his first instruction at Dummer Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts, and later studied under the Reverend George Leslie, pastor of the Linebrook Parish Church at Ipswich, and the Reverend Ebenezer Bradford (A.B. 1773) of Rowley, Massachusetts. While residing with the latter, Howe made a profession of faith and joined the church. He entered the College in the fall of 1784 as a member of the junior class. He remained only one year and does not seem to have joined either of the societies on the campus. On November 4, 1785 he applied for admission to Harvard, which was undoubtedly more convenient and probably more congenial for someone interested in the Congregational ministry, but he was found deficient. However, he was admitted to Harvard as a senior sophister on February 10, 1786 and graduated in July 1786, having maintained an excellent standing in his class, both in scholarship and behavior. NATHANIEL HOWE,

After his graduation Howe spent some time teaching school in Ipswich and then began his theological studies under Levi Hart (D.D. 1800) of Preston, Connecticut, completing them under Nathaniel Emmons of Franklin, Massachusetts. After obtaining his license he preached at Londonderry and Francistown, New Hampshire; Hampton, Connecticut; and Grafton, Massachusetts. He received a call from the Grafton church but for some reason refused the offer. In January 1791 he started preaching at Hopkmton, Massachusetts, and the following May he received a unanimous call from the church to remain as its pastor, with the condition imposed by the community that he retain the usage of the Half-Way Covenant. Howe himself did not accept the covenant and refused baptism under that rule,

124

CLASS OF 1786

but he found it possible to make arrangements with other ministers who were willing to do so for the accommodation of members of his congregation. He was ordained on October 5, 1791, with his early instructor, the Reverend Ebenezer Bradford, preaching the ordination sermon. Howe remained at the Hopkinton church for the remainder of his life. About three months after settling there he married Olive Jones, a daughter of Col. John Jones of Hopkinton. They had a family of one son and three daughters; the son Appleton became a physician and a member of the Massachusetts senate. T h e Reverend E. Smalley, who did not know Howe until his later years, recalled him as being of medium stature and slender proportions, and by that time of life "of stooping habit and tremulous carriage." He was said to be neither striking nor outstanding in his appearance, but when speaking on a subject that interested him "his eye would kindle and his features express great vivacity of thought and emotion." H e must have had an excellent sense of humor that was not appreciated by his fellow minister, who granted that "there were marks of genius, strokes of originality, electric touches, in his discourses," but complained that he often switched from impressive solemnity "to some merry conceit, or ludicrous illustration." While admitting that Howe was genial and ready to laugh, even when the joke was at his own expense, Smalley observed that "At times his sense of the ludicrous would seem to be excessive, so that his risibles would become uncontrollable." His humor was probably a great asset, since he is also described as having imperfect elocution, ungraceful gestures, and a nasal intonation. He paid too close attention to his notes, yet he still "riveted the attention of his hearers, and made impressions upon their minds which time could not erase." By 1830 Howe's health was failing and a colleague was called to assist him in his pastoral duties. He preached his last sermon at Franklin, December 25, 1836. H e died February 15, 1837 in his seventy-third year, the forty-sixth year of his ministry at Hopkinton. His wife died on December 10, 1843. SOURCES: Howe's alumni file, PUA, contains very little information. The file of Simeon Williams (A.B. 1765) contains a letter from Albert Matthews, 28 Apr. 1914, with information about a number of students, including Howe, who spent time at both Princeton and Harvard. Most of the information for this sketch came from Sprague, Annals, I, 590-91, 693-94; H, 303-09. PUBLICATIONS: See Sprague, Annals, II, 308. RLW

125

William King Hugg WILLIAM KING HUGG, A.B., lawyer, belonged to one of the oldest and

most influential families of Gloucester County, New Jersey. Although specific data regarding the place and date of his birth is wanting, there can be n o doubt that he was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hugg of Gloucester Township. T h e family, founded by one J o h n H u g g in the seventeenth century, originally had been stoudy Quaker in its religious affiliation, but William's father held a colonel's com­ mission in the militia and saw active military service during the Rev­ olutionary War. H e also served as commissary of purchase for West Jersey, and at different times as county clerk, clerk of the board of freeholders, member of the legislative council, judge, and justice of the peace. T h e mother's maiden name has not been established. Where and by whom William was prepared for college is not known; neither can it be said just when h e matriculated at the College. While a student at Nassau Hall he joined the American Whig Society. Apparendy his roommate Richard Hugg King was his closest friend; indeed, the story is that the two agreed each to borrow the other's name for a middle name, becoming thus Richard Hugg King and William King Hugg. At the commencement of 1785 Hugg, then a member of the junior class, took second prize in an undergraduate competition "on reading English and English grammar, syntax and orthography." At his own commencement in 1786 he spoke on "the present state of poetry in America." After graduation Hugg studied law. H e qualified for the bar of the New Jersey Supreme Court in September 1790. T h e only clue to the location of his practice that has been found is his listing among the militiamen of Newton Township, Gloucester County, in 1793, the year of his death. H e died intestate toward the end of the year, for the administration of his estate by his father was recorded in the Gloucester court u n d e r the date of December 17, valued in an inven­ tory at just over £193. N o indication that Hugg had been married has been found. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; N.J. WiUs, vm, 188; κ , 189-90 (father's will dated 10 Mar. 1795); T. Cushing & C. E. Sheppard, Hist. ofCnties. of Gloucester, Salem & Cumberland (1883), 121-23, 137, 139; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785 (quote), 2 Oct. 1786 (commencement); Riker, 59; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (1973), 321. See also alumni file of Richard Hugg King (A.B. 1786), PUA. WFC

126

Ralph Hunt A.B., A.M. 1791, lawyer, miller, storekeeper, justice, farmer, could also appropriately have "rich man, poor man" added to this list. Born in 1765, he was the eldest son of Daniel Hunt of Hopewell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, who married the widowed Eleanor (Elener) Van Lue, daughter of John Van Cleve of Maidenhead. Their youngest son was Benjamin Van Cleve Hunt, Class of 1794. At the time of Ralph's birth the family lived on the road leading from Hopewell to adjoining Maidenhead. Sometime before the Revolution Daniel Hunt bought a tract of land in Lebanon Township in the northern part of Hunterdon County, where he built and operated a large grist mill. This area, which was eventually absorbed into the town of Clinton, was known as Hunt's Mills. During the Revolution a large quantity of the flour consumed by the army stationed in New Jersey came from the Hunt mill. Hunt prepared for college at the Nassau Hall grammar school. In September 1780 he was awarded the premium for the third class after an examination on "proficiency in Latin and Greek, in the reading grammar and orthography of the English language, and in pronouncing English orations." He graduated and was admitted to the freshman class of the College on September 24, 1782. In a competition conducted that afternoon he won third prize for his command of Latin grammar and syntax, and at the exercises held in the evening he delivered a Latin oration. He presumably was in attendance as a student of the College from November 1782 until his graduation on September 27, 1786, and sometime during this interval he joined the American Whig Society. At his commencement he delivered an oration "on the evils of severe penal laws." After graduation Hunt studied law, but where and with whom have not been discovered. He was admitted to the bar of the state's supreme court at its September term in 1791. His residence continued at Hunt's Mills and on February 25, 1793 he was elected captain of the Second Company of Lebanon Township Militia. However, no record of a legal practice in the county has been found. Perhaps he was occupied looking after details of his family's increased landholdings and business enterprises. When his father died intestate on March 30, 1806, Ralph and his brother Benjamin became the administrators of the estate, and Ralph took over the superintendance of the family mills. In 1812 he built a woolen mill, which along with the original grist mill, a flaxseed-oil mill, a plaster mill and a sawmill, became part of the Hunt's Mills complex. Many of the mill employees were bachelors who boarded at the large Hunt home, and from 1802 RALPH H U N T ,

WILLIAM P I T T H U N T

127

until about 1818 Hunt also operated a store from his home. From 1812 through 1827 he served both as a judge of the court of common pleas of Hunterdon County and as a justice of the peace of Lebanon Township. Like many of his neighbors Hunt did some lime burning on the lime banks that lined the river, and he also owned the local blacksmith shop. On January 9, 1794 Hunt married Lydia Eyre in Christ Church, Philadelphia. She was the daughter of Manual and Mary Wright Eyre of Philadelphia and a sister of Manuel Eyre (A.B. 1793). Nine children were born of the union. By 1828 Hunt and his sons were deeply in debt. Whether this was due to poor management can only be speculated, but they found it necessary to relinquish all of their properties to their creditors. Benjamin Hunt had been living in Ohio for some time, and now Ralph and his family moved to a farm near Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, property which may have been owned by Benjamin, who held title to almost 2,000 acres in the area. Lydia Hunt died there on February 16, 1831 and her husband followed on March 16, 1838. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; N.J. WiUs, VIII, 193; x, 233; xi, 187; E. F. Cooley, Early Settlers of Trenton 6? Ewing (1883), 292; L. D. Cook, "Descendants of Daniel Hunt of Hunterdon Cnty., N.J.," Natl. Gen. Soc. Quart., 59 (1971), 183-85; J. P. Snell, Hist, of HunterdonfifSomerset Cnties., N.J. (1881), 257, 544-45; D. H. Moreau, Traditions of Hunterdon (1957), 38; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1780, 9 Oct 1782, 2 Oct. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 4 Oct. 1791; Alexander, Princeton, 229; GMNJ, 9 (1933), 45. The middle initial "P," found in alumni records, has been omitted in this sketch. It appearsfirstin the 1908 general catalogue of the College, and seems to have found its way into the records through some confusion with William Pitt Hunt (A.B. 1786). The two men were not related. The catalogues of 1797, 1800, 1804, and 1808 erroneously claim Hunt as deceased. RLW

William Pitt Hunt WILLIAM PITT H U N T , A.B., honorary A.B. Hampden-Sidney 1786, lawyer, was born about 1769 in Cecil County, Maryland, the son of the Reverend James Hunt (A.B. 1759) and his wife Ruth Hall Hunt. The father was a Presbyterian minister. He was also a notable schoolmaster, who undoubtedly prepared his son for college. James Hunt conducted a classical school at Bladensburg, Prince Georges County, Maryland, prior to his move in 1783 to Montgomery County in the same state. Just when William entered the College cannot be said. Apart from his joining the American Whig Society, nothing has been discovered regarding his stay in the College. He delivered no oration at his commencement on September 27, 1786.

128

CLASS OF 1786

Five days earlier, on September 22, William had been awarded the A.B. degree honoris causa by the trustees of Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia, "on recommendation from Doer. Weatherspoon and Doer. Smith of Princetown." No further explanation has been found; it can only be said that the relations between the two colleges had been close ever since Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) had served as the first head of Hampden-Sidney, that William's father had been a member of the Hanover Presbytery, sponsor of the college, before settling in Maryland, and that the latter's father, also named James Hunt, had been a leading layman of the presbytery from its earliest years. Whatever may be the full explanation for this action, it reveals that William had roots in Virginia, where he would find a wife in Susannah Watkins, the daughter of Col. Joel Watkins of Charlotte County and sister of William Morton Watkins (A.B. 1792). After graduation Hunt studied law, evidently in Montgomery County, Maryland, and probably while residing not far from Bethesda at his father's residence that carried the classical name of "Tusculum," as did President Witherspoon's house outside Princeton. James H u n t had conducted a famous school there since 1783 that at times has been referred to as the Tusculum Academy, its most famous student before its closing in 1787 being William Wirt, later attorney general of the United States and biographer of Patrick Henry. Wirt recalled that the school was about four miles from the Montgomery County courthouse, that the students were taken by their master to listen to the lawyers' pleadings when the court was in session, and that the response of the students included a decision to set up a moot court of their own, in the proceedings of which William Pitt may well have participated while himself studying law. A letter from James Hunt to Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), written in 1788, speaks of William as his assistant in the conduct of the Hampden-Sidney lottery the preceding year. On this last point there may be some room for debate, but there appears to be no question that William began to practice law at Montgomery Courthouse, which was renamed Rockville in 1801. For this step no specific date has been found, but it was certainly by 1790, when William Wirt, having returned from a southern tour undertaken for reasons of health, "took u p his abode at Montgomery Court House, and entered upon the study of the law with William P. Hunt, the son of his former preceptor." T h e study continued for about a year, at the end of which time Wirt seized upon an opportunity that had opened for him in Virginia. It is impossible to be specific regarding the details of Hunt's life after about 1794, when he was still living at Montgomery Courthouse

J A M E S H E N D E R S O N IMLAY

129

in Maryland. Even the date of his death has not been established, except that it occurred at some time before September 12, 1797, according to a reference in the Montgomery County records to a will that had been probated elsewhere, probably in that same year. There is evidence that H u n t had moved to Virginia, perhaps not long after the death of his father in 1793. As has been previously noted, his wife was from Virginia and she apparently lived there through much, if not all, of the period of her widowhood, which lasted until 1803. T h e fact that two of the couple's four children were living on August 7, 1794 provides the only clue as to the time of the marriage. Of the four children three are known to have lived to full maturity, including Thomas Poague Hunt (1794-1876), who recalled that he was about three years old at the time of his father's death. Young Thomas was reared by his stepfather the Reverend Moses Hoge (D.D. 1810), president of Hampden-Sidney from 1807 to 1820. Hoge had renewed his acquaintance with Susannah Watkins Hunt while attending a meeting of the Synod of Virginia at HampdenSidney in 1803 and had married her within a month. According to the autobiography of Thomas P. Hunt, his father got "overheated in assisting to extinguish a fire in Fredericksburg, Virginia," and "caught a cold which settled in his lungs and consumption soon laid him in the tomb." SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 268-70; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 229; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; College of Hampden-Sidney, Col. ofBoard Min., 1776-1876, ed. A. J. Morrison (1912), 34-35 (quote); Gen. Cat.... of Hampden-Sidney College (1908), 38; H. C. Bradshaw, Hist, of Hampden-Sidney College (1976), 73, 123, 396 (this last pointing out that there is no evidence in the records of the college of a lottery in 1787 and suggesting that the date is a misprint for 1777, a date altogether too early for William to have served as his father's assistant); J. P. Kennedy, Memoirs of tfte Life of William Wirt (1850), I, 36, 42, 48, 49, 54-55 (quote); W. Wirt, Utters of the British Spy (1970 ed.), 19-29; WMQ, 1st ser., 22 (1913-14), 135-39, 193; Foote, Sketches, Va., 1st ser., 562; Sprague, Annals, in, 427-28. Thomas P. Hunt took his A.B. at Hampden-Sidney in 1813, and later became a Presbyterian clergyman, noted especially for his activity in the temperance movement. He insisted that his father seriously considered exchanging "the practice of law for the preaching of the Gospel." See Life fif Thoughts of Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, An Autobiography (1901), 2-4 (quotes), 11, 12, 14. WFC

James Henderson Imlay A.B., A.M. 1791, lawyer and congressman, was the son of John Imlay and his second wife Catherine, daughter of Dr. James Henderson, whom he married in New York in 1762. Their son James was born November 26, 1764 in Imlaystown, Upper

JAMES HENDERSON IMLAY,

130

CLASS OF 1786

Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. His father was a merchant and trader and for a period of years served as judge of the court of admiralty of New Jersey. His older half-sister Margaret married Joseph Clark (A.B. 1781). A Presbyterian academy nourished in nearby Allentown from 1756 until 1820, often employing Princeton students as school masters, and it seems likely that Imlay received his early education there. He served as a major with the Monmouth County militia during the Revolution and was older than the majority of his classmates. Apparendy he first joined the American Whig Society and later the Cliosophic Society. It was possible to switch allegiance prior to 1799, when the two societies entered upon an agreement to prohibit membership to anyone who had been connected with another society. Imlay became a member of the Cliosophic Society on December 1, 1784, assuming the name of Alonzo. His attendance at several annual meetings after his graduation indicates a continuing interest in the affairs of the society. On September 24, 1800 he was elected second assistant for that year's annual meeting. At his commencement ceremonies Imlay delivered an essay on the advantages of civil society. He remained at Princeton as a tutor for a year after his graduation and then pursued the study of law. Imlay was admitted to the New Jersey bar in April 1791. He set up practice in Allentown and in April 1796 became a counsellorat-law. It is not known whether Imlay studied law under Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), but apparendy he had an amicable relationship with Stockton's law office. A bill for law books, dated May 13, 1794, was addressed to him in care of Richard Stockton, Esq., Princeton, N.J. This may have been simply a convenience because of Princeton's better postal service. Letters written by Imlay to Stockton's associate Thomas P. Johnson in 1799, 1806, and 1809 recommended clients to Stockton's office and indicate that he frequently visited Princeton and enjoyed many friendships there. Imlay was named a trustee of the Allentown Presbyterian Church in 1793. He served as a member of the New Jersey general assembly from 1793 through 1796 and as speaker during the last year, in which capacity he signed the assembly's congratulatory address to George Washington on the occasion of his retirement as president. In August 1798 Imlay was among those providing a character reference for Robert I. Chapman of Allentown, who was being considered for an appointment as subaltern by Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791) during the Quasi-War with France. Elected as representative to both the Fifth and Sixth Congresses on the Federalist ticket, Imlay served from March 4, 1797 until March

JAMES H E N D E R S O N

IMLAY

131

3, 1801. He attended sessions regularly and supported Federalist positions with his votes, but he seldom made a speech on the floor of the house. On January 31, 1798 he was one of the eleven man­ agers appointed by the House, along with James Ashton Bayard (A.B. 1784) and John Dennis (Class of 1791), to bring articles of impeach­ ment before the Senate against William Blount of Tennessee, halfbrother of Willie Blount (Class of 1789). As a witness to the fight on the house floor on February 15, 1798 between Roger Griswold of Connecticut and Matthew Lyon of Vermont, Imlay gave testimony to the Committee of Privilege investigating the affair. On February 28, 1798 he spoke on the proposed foreign intercourse bill, urging that Congress not usurp executive powers. After his terms in Congress Imlay returned to full-time law prac­ tice in Allentown but remained active politically. He seems to have been much in demand as an orator, and three of his speeches were published at the requests of the organizations to whom he spoke. They were delivered to a Federal Republican meeting at Freehold on August 2, 1808; at the Allentown Presbyterian Church on July 4, 1809; and to the members of the Burlington County Washing­ ton Benevolent Society on February 22, 1814. The earlier speeches urged neutrality, so that the country could enjoy happiness and pros­ perity such as there had been under Washington and John Adams. His Washington Birthday address was full of the Biblical quotations that led Antifederalists to attack the Washington Benevolent Society as blasphemous. He addressed the members as "Brothers" and deliv­ ered a panegyric on "the venerated Washington, whose disciples we profess to be, whom we delight to honor." They were exhorted to rise and "hurl from power and office, all who abuse your confidence and trust; all who aid and support the present ruinous and wicked war." Imlay died on his farm in Burlington County, outside of Allen­ town, on March 6, 1823. He had never married, and after bequests to several cousins his will directed that his farm be sold and the profits paid to the treasurer of the American Bible Society of New York. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; H. & N. Imlay, Imlay Family (1958), 47-48; F. D. Storms, Hist, of Allentown, N.J. (1965), 11, 14, 37, 97, 100; Stryker, Off. Reg., 366; C. H. Williams, Cliosophic Society (1916), 95-96; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 26 Sept. 1792, 9 Jan. 1793, 25 Sept. 1799, 24 Sept. 1800; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 4 Oct 1791; Riker, 59; Alexander, Princeton, 229-30; NJA, 2d ser., ν (1917), 286; G. Swain, Hist. Discourse in Connection with the Pres. Church of Allentown & Vicinity (1877); Washington Writings, xxxv, 289; Hamilton Papers, xxu, 124; NJHSP, 74 (1956), 265, 274; AIC, 5th Cong., 951, 954-55, 957, 961-62, 969, 1002, 1034, 1048, 1050, 1105; BDUSC, 1242; N.J. Index of Witts (1912 repr. 1969), i, 146. Several sources confuse JHI and a distant cousin James Imlay, who was about twelve years younger, and who at one time served as the Allentown

132

CLASS OF

1786

postmaster. The younger James was the son of a John Imlay who was a merchant and whose wife's maiden name was Hendrickson. JHI consistently used his middle name or initial, probably to avoid confusion. He definitely was not the postmaster of Allentown, who belonged to the Democratic-Republican party. PUBLICATIONS: Sh-Sh #s 15294 & 31790; Oration delivered by J111· in &' Pres- Church, Allentown, on the Fourth ofJuly, 1809 ... (1809, not in Sh-Sh but available at NjR). RLW

Edward Johnson (Johnston) A.B., probably was the Edward Johnson, born in 1767, who became a physician, brewer, and mayor of Baltimore, the only son of Ann and Dr. Edward Johnson of Calvert County, Maryland. T h e mother was the child of Rebecca Boyce Cockshutt Young Arnold, probably by David Arnold, her third husband. At the beginning of the Revolution Dr. Johnson served as clerk of the committee of observation for Calvert County, and he remained active in the American cause thereafter. In 1780-81 he sat for the county in the state assembly. H e moved to Baltimore County in 1783 and resided there until his death in 1797. When the Medical Society of Baltimore was reorganized in 1789 he emerged as its president, H e was assessed for possession of thirty-two slaves in 1782, but the federal census of 1790 indicates that in that year he owned only three. When Johnson entered Nassau Hall is uncertain, but he joined the Cliosophic Society in 1783. He obviously was a good student, for he finished second in his class and delivered the "second Latin Salutatory" oration, an innovation unique to 1786. He apparendy kept in touch with his Clio brethren, for when a decision was made in September 1793 to send a circular letter to "absent brothers," Johnson was the "agent" chosen to distribute letters in his area. After graduation Johnson studied medicine, not with his father but rather, it is said, with a Dr. Allen, for whom a more specific identification is lacking. Johnson began to practice in 1789, when he was appointed an attending physician to the almshouse of Baltimore City and County. In 1799 he became an original member of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, the state medical society. T h e extent of his practice is uncertain. Indeed, for a doctor his career is extraordinary, so unusual as to pose some question as to whether he ever practiced in a regular way. City directories did not describe him as a physician. As early as 1794 he operated a brewery attached to his residence on King George Street, near Peter's Bridge, in the Old Town, and brewing actually seems to have been his principal trade. His father died on September 24, 1797, leaving 3,067 acres of land EDWARD JOHNSON (JOHNSTON),

EDWARD J O H N S O N

133

in Baltimore and Calvert counties and a personal estate worth $1,425 after the payment of his debts. Since Johnson had only one sibling, a sister, his share of this estate must have been substantial. Public office and politics seem to have claimed the bulk of Johnson's time and energy after his father's death. He was elected to the city council in 1797. In 1799 he appears as a first lieutenant of the third brigade of the Baltimore Light Dragoons. In 1804 he became a judge of the orphans' court and associate judge of the city court. In 1805, 1809, 1813, and 1817 he served as a presidential elector, and in 1808 he was elected for the first of the six terms he would serve as mayor of the city, from 1808 to 1816, in 1819-1820, and again in 1823-1824. As this record suggests, he became a politician of great influence and power. H e had attached his political career to the rising fortunes of the Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) and James Madison (A.B. 1771). His residence on King George Street gave him a strategic place in one of the more populous districts of the city, one made u p for the most part of working people, where he probably kept his residence because of the political advantage it gave him. He finally moved from this house around 1819 and changed his address several times thereafter. Johnson's first mayoral term coincided with a particularly eventful period of Baltimore's antebellum history. After Congress declared war on England in J u n e 1812, Baltimore experienced a series of riots of more serious proportions than had probably afflicted any other city in the United States. A Federalist newspaper, the Federal Republican, attacked President Madison and the decision for war with such vehemence that a mob preceded to tear down the building used for the paper's publication. T h e trouble might have ended there, had not the publishers persisted in printing the paper out of town for distribution in the city, and in bringing into Baltimore a coterie of Federalist supporters, including Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee (A.B. 1773), who saw themselves as engaged in a crusade for freedom of the press. A second mob assaulted the house in which about twenty of the publishers' friends took refuge, an assault costing the life of one member of the mob. A temporary truce, negotiated in part by Mayor Johnson, moved the beleaguered Federalists to the jail for safe-keeping. But the mob reassembled, attacked the prison, and mounted a murderous assault upon the virtually helpless Federalists. An aging veteran of the Continental Army was killed, and Lee sustained injuries from which he never fully recovered. T h e riots brought a serious reversal of fortune to the Republicans in the state. That autumn the Federalists captured the state legislature and were able to elect a Federalist governor, while the Republicans retained control of the city.

134

CLASS OF 1 7 8 6

It is difficult to evaluate Johnson's conduct during the riots. The report of a special legislative investigation in 1813 expressed the suspicion that he had "connived at and approbated" the excesses of the mob. It probably reflected a measure of partisan bias, but Johnson's own bias likely contributed to his obvious failure to contain the explosion. He was reelected to two more consecutive mayoral terms, and during the first he received much credit for vigorous leadership in efforts to prepare the defenses of the city against the threat of a British attack in 1814. Many of the duties of his office were ceremonial. For example, on July 4,1815 he participated in laying the foundation stone for a monument honoring the memory of George Washington. Perhaps the high point in his career came in 1824, when he and members of the council received the Marquis de LaFayette (LL.D. 1790) on a visit to Baltimore during his triumphal return to the United States. Johnson has been credited with an effective use of his medical experience in a report of 1820 on a recent outbreak of yellow fever. He is also credited as one of the founders in 1812 of a school for boys later known as the House of Refuge. Johnson died in Baltimore on April 18,1829 at the age of sixty-two. He was hailed as "one of the most benevolent men that ever lived, remarkable for his fidelity to his friends, though kind unto all men," and as one who had filled his public offices "much to the satisfaction of the people, and without the suspicion of one improper motive." Unfortunately, no definite information has been found regarding his personal life. In Baltimore a man or men named Edward Johnson or Johnston married Ann Ploughman on March 31, 1791, Maria Coffal on November 24, 1795, and Elizabeth McCubbin on May 31, 1798. Whether any of these marriages involved the Princetonian or whether he had any children has not been discovered. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 25 Sept. 1793; Williams, Academic Honors, 11; Min. Trustees, 27 Sept. 1786; E. F. Cordell, Medical AnnaL· ofMd. (1903), 17, 81, 455-56, 661, 664, 670, 677, 679, 684, 685, 688, 691; Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., n, 492; Md. Hall of Records Commission, Col. Md. State Papers, no. 4 (1950-55, 3 vols.), π, 30, 48, 83; m, 127, 233, 244; First Census, Md., 20; J. T. Scharf, ChronUles of Baltimore (1874), 282, 295, 303, 305, 306-09, 312-39, 344, 346, 375-78, 403, 440; Records of City of Baltimore, (City Commissioners) 1797-1813 (1906), 143, 149, 159, 205, 299; W. F. Coyle, Mayors of Baltimore (1919); MHM, 39 (1944), 199-224, 293-309; 40 (1945), 7-23; 56 (1961), 243; 62 (1967), 26; 66 (1971), 16667, 268; 70 (1975), 46, 241-59 (F. A. Cassell, "The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812"); 71 (1976), 534; Report of the Comm. ... on the Subj. of the Recent Mobs 6f Riots (1813, Sh-Sh # 29064), 1-13 (quote), 160-78 (Johnson's deposition); W. M. Marine, British Invasion of Md. (1913), 132, 135, 175; H. Owens, Baltimore on the Chesapeake (1941), 162-65; A. L. Soissat, Old Baltimore (1931), 174, 177; F. F. Beirne, Amiable BaMmoreans (1951), 328-29; R. Barnes, Md. Marriages, 1778-1800 (1979), 119-20. In the eighteenth century the names of Johnson and Johnston were virtually interchangeable; thus, in the newspaper report of commencement in 1786 (N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786) the name is given as Johnston, but in the minutes of the trustees as Johnson. In the catalogues

RICHARD HUGG

KING

135

of the College the name at first is Edwardus Johnson, but for some reason shifts to Johnston in 1797. It is Johnson in the Clio membership records, and in his alumni file, PUA, the name was written first as Johnston, but later the "t" was struck out. WFC

Richard Hugg King A.B., lawyer, Methodist preacher, Presbyterian clergyman, and teacher, was born on July 22\ 1767 in that part of Rowan County which later became Iredell County, North Carolina, the oldest son of James King, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Sarah Hall King. On the father's side of the family he was a nephew of Andrew King (A.B. 1773) and a cousin of Andrew's son James King (A.B. 1807), and on the mother's side he was a nephew of James Hall (A.B. 1774). His family was Irish in origin, having been founded by Richard King, who migrated to America in 1728 and who, after settling first in Philadelphia, migrated to Rowan County midway through the 1750s with his sons James and Robert. Young Richard was prepared for college by his uncle James Hall, who conducted a school sometimes known as Clio's Nursery on Snow Creek near Salisbury, North Carolina, in the neighborhood of Bethany church, of which Hall was pastor; he also was instructed briefly by Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757), who moved in October 1779 from Newark, New Jersey, to Charlotte, North Carolina, to become the pastor of the local Presbyterian church and president of Liberty Hall Academy. In 1780 the area was overrun by the troops of Charles, Earl Cornwallis, and among the casualties was the Liberty Hall Academy. No indication has been found as to just when King was admitted to Nassau Hall. While a student in the College he joined the American Whig Society. In March 1786 he was planning to write to "Robert," probably fellow Whig Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785). King is said to have roomed with his classmate William King Hugg; indeed, it is further said that King acquired his middle name through an agreement by the two roommates to adopt for this purpose the other's name. King did not speak at his commencement. After graduation King returned home, but soon thereafter he went to Camden, South Carolina, where during a stay of approximately two years he probably taught school. There on April 8, 1788 he married Mary Ross, the daughter of a local planter, with the Reverend Thomas H. McCaule (A.B. 1774) officiating. The marriage apparendy was a very happy one. The couple had seven children, two sons and five daughters. During the summer or fall of 1788 King returned to North Carolina. There he began the study of law with RICHARD HUGG KING,

136

CLASS OF 1786

"Judge McCoy" of Salisbury, who undoubtedly was Spruce McCay (A.B. 1775). King had acquired a farm, and he is said to have studied at home while going into town every two weeks for consultation with his mentor. To what extent he later practiced law is uncertain. H e may have been preparing himself for a political career. He was not dependent upon a practice for a living. T h e census of 1790 shows that he possessed six slaves, only two less than the eight his father owned at that time. Moreover, he became politically active and acquired sufficient influence to secure appointment as an excise officer, which may have been eventually cosdy to his political ambitions. He ran for the legislature in 1800 and was defeated. During the great revival that swept through western North Carolina in 1802, while King may have been still suffering from depression due to the election defeat, he experienced a religious conversion which brought with it a strong sense of a call to preach. He evidently applied at once to the Concord Presbytery for a license, but although James Hall, his uncle, was probably the single most influential member of the presbytery, and although he himself was a college graduate who had done postgraduate reading in law, he was denied a license until he completed two years of theological studies. This condition he refused to meet. Instead, he turned to the Methodists and received a license from none other than Bishop Francis Asbury. Initially, this may have been no more than the license of a local or lay preacher, but the weight of the evidence argues that he eventually became a fullfledged circuit rider. He has been described as a powerful preacher and has been credited with many conversions. Strangely, however, he seems never to have surrendered a fundamental loyalty to the Presbyterian connection, and on September 13, 1816 he was licensed sine titulo by the Concord Presbytery in what appears to have been a preparation for a planned move to Tennessee. Whatever may be the full story behind this change of communions, King not long thereafter moved to Knox County, Tennessee, where he succeeded the Reverend S. G. Ramsey in the pastorate of the Ebenezer and Pleasant Forest Presbyterian churches in Grassy Valley. H e was received into the Union Presbytery from the Concord Presbytery on September 22, 1817. He quickly became a very popular preacher, one who never wrote out his sermons and who even dispensed with notes in the pulpit, "but preached like Whitfield after a brief and earnest meditation upon the text." As did many other clergymen, he added school teaching to his preaching. He also took an active interest in "scientific" subjects, including the investigation of Indian burial mounds. Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey later recorded that

MATURIN

LIVINGSTON

137

"Mr. King was somewhat scientific as well as pious and spent once a considerable time in excavating the tumulas in rear of my house. By the help of my Negro man he sunk a shaft from the summit to the base in these researches." King must have been a trencherman of the first order, for it is said that his weight ultimately reached 404 pounds. Disabled by this and other bodily infirmities, he found it impossible to stand through a sermon and gave u p his pastorates at some time before his death. Having moved to Blount County, Tennessee, where he had married daughters, he died at Maryville, the county seat, on May 27, 1835. William H. Foote in his Sketches of North Carolina stated with reference to James Hall's school that King was "esteemed the man of the finest powers of mind ever trained in Western Carolina." He is reported to have acquired a large and valuable library, and to have written for publication in a number of periodicals, but his reputation depended chiefly upon his skill as a pulpit orator. "Few men," it was said, "have ever had a more complete control of their hearers." SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; MS biographical sketch by Rev. J. K. Hall in PPPrHi ("preached like Whitfield," "Few men"); R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964), 126; W. B. Hesseltine, Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey: Autobiog. fc? Letters (1954), 293, 297-98; A. Nevin & D. R. B. Nevin, Encyc. ofPres. Church (1884), 400; W. B. Posey, Pres. Church m the Old Southwest (1952), 44; First Census, N.C., 157; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 330; F. A. Olds, Abstract ofN.C. Wills (1925 repr. 1968), 275; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 (letter to R. G. Harper); N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct 1786 (commencement). G. L. E. Carroll, Francis Asbury in N.C. (1965) provides a ready reference for the many visits of Asbury to the state which persuasively suggests that the tradition that Asbury gave King his license is dependable. WFC

Maturin Livingston MATURIN LIVINGSTON, A.B., A.M. 1789, lawyer, landholder, and county judge, was born on April 10, 1769 in New York City, the son of Robert James Livingston, New York merchant, and his wife Susannah Smith Livingston, sister of Thomas Smith (A.B. 1754), James Smith (A.B. 1757), Samuel Smith (A.B. 1766), and Chief Justice William Smith of New York and Quebec. His older brothers were William Smith Livingston (A.B. 1772) and Peter Robert Livingston (A.B. 1784) and his sister Susannah was the wife of James Francis Armstrong (A.B. 1773) and the mother of Robert Livingston Armstrong (A.B. 1802). Abraham Smith of the Class of 1777 and William Smith of the Class of 1778 were first cousins. Through the complex interconnections of his paternal family he enjoyed varying degrees of

138

CLASS OF 1786

kinship with its many members who at one time or another attended the College. His classmate Peter William Livingston was a first cousin through the latter's mother, who also was a Livingston. After Robert James Livingston died in 1771, Mrs. Livingston moved to Princeton, almost certainly before 1777 when an older invalid son of hers died and was buried there. Later Maturin claimed to have witnessed at least a part of the battle at Princeton, and he enjoyed giving his fellow students expert guidance over the battlefield. During the war years students for much of the time had to find accommodations in the village, and Mrs. Livingston apparendy kept a boarding house to provide a supplement to the income from the estate of her father, Judge William Smith of New York, who was among the founding trustees of the College, and so to provide for the education of her younger sons. T h e house she occupied in 1781 was rented from President John Witherspoon, who was accused by William Smith Livingston in March of that year of having rented the house from "over her Head without previous notice" to another who would pay a little more rent. T h e accusation is found in a letter to Governor George Clinton of New York seeking a pass for a visit to New York City that might enable Livingston to dispose of certain pieces of real estate for the assistance of his mother. T h e letter declared that Peter Robert and Maturin had "just entered" the College. This was true enough of Peter, but Maturin was actually enrolled in the grammar school, from which he would graduate in September 1782. Presumably Maturin entered the freshman class of the College in November 1782 and remained a student there through the four succeeding years. H e joined the American Whig Society, as had his brothers before him, and was chosen one of the Fourth of July speakers in 1786. A fellow student's diary shows that he enjoyed athletic competitions of one kind or another. At his commencement he had the honor of delivering the valedictory oration that brought the day's exercises to a conclusion. T h e question of what Maturin was doing immediately after graduation presents a puzzle. There can be no doubt that he ultimately qualified as an attorney at law, but the roll of attorneys admitted to practice by the state's supreme court, which may be consulted in several of the early directories for the City of New York and which record the dates of admission to the bar for Peter Robert and Peter William Livingston, does not include the name of Maturin. It is possible that the Minturn Livingston, attorney, listed among the city's inhabitants in a directory for 1793 is a misprint for Maturin, and this seems the more likely because the address given, 60 Little Dock

MATURIN LIVINGSTON

139

Street, was also the address of his brother Peter R., but the puzzle remains. His name is not found on the roll of attorneys admitted to practice that was published in 1796. However, in a directory for the next year his name appears in the following listing: "Edward and Maturin Livingston, Office, 43 Broadway." The same listing is found in 1798, with a separate Usting for "Edward Livingston, counsellor at law," at 43 Broadway, and again in 1799, this time with an office at 5 Broadway. The first listing for Maturin Livingston, attorney at law, seems to be that in a directory for 1802, with an address at 45 Liberty Street. This continued to be his address through 1809, after which he apparently left the city. One can only suggest that his decision in favor of the legal profession was a belated one, and that meanwhile he had entered some kind of arrangement with Edward Livingston (A.B. 1781) that afforded opportunity enough for Maturin to qualify himself as an attorney by 1802. Maturin followed other members of his family into vigorous opposition to the Federalists. Feelings were especially intense during and after the election of 1792, when he was one of four Livingstons who were castigated by Mrs. John Jay, herself a Livingston, for their opposition to her husband as the unsuccessful candidate for governor. In 1796 there seems to have been, for a moment at least, some risk that Maturin might face a duel with Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791). Apparently, the first office held by Maturin was that of recorder for the City of New York. On May 29, 1798 he had married Margaret Lewis, the only child of Morgan Lewis (A.B. 1773) and his wife Margaret Beekman, and when Lewis won election as governor of the state in 1804 he prompdy appointed his son-in-law the recorder, with the consent of a Republican-dominated council of appointment. In this office, second in rank only to that of mayor, Maturin distinguished himself chiefly by an extraordinary neglect of his responsibilities. The minutes of the common council reveal an almost unbelievable number of absences from its meetings before it adopted the following motion on March 13, 1806: "Resolved as the sense of this Board, that the Recorder having attended only two meeting[s] of the Common Council since the seventeenth day of June 1806 [1805] has greatly neglected his dudes as a member of the same." After discussion and the failure to pass a motion softening the judgment, the original motion was carried by a vote of eleven to two. No improvement in the record followed. His last recorded attendance was on January 25, 1808. The previous November Livingston had instituted a libel suit against James Cheetham, editor of the Republican Watch Tower, who had accused Maturin and his brother Peter of cheating at cards while attending a "dancing assembly." Maturin allegedly stood in a

140

CLASS O F 1786

position where he could observe the cards of Peter's opponent and "by signs, motions, and gesticulations," communicated his knowledge of the hand. T h e jury returned a verdict of $1,000 damages. In July 1807 Livingston helped Robert Fulton stage a public demonstration of his experimental submarine's ability to destroy a 200-ton brig. Livingston's primary responsibility was to persuade the governor, the mayor, and other dignitaries to attend. Sometime in 1808 or 1809, not long after his brother had moved to the Dutchess County community of Rhinebeck, Livingston also moved u p the Hud­ son to a residence he occupied at Staatsburgh in Dutchess County. H e and his wife purchased a farm in the township and in due course won full status as members of the community. On February 3, 1823 he became a j u d g e of the court of common pleas for the county. O n November 7, 1847 J u d g e Maturin Livingston died, having been predeceased in the preceding January by his brother Peter. Maturin and Margaret Livingston had a total of twelve children, all of whom survived their father. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; M. L. Delafield, "Descendants of Judge William & Mary Smith," Mag. ofAmer. Hist, 6 (1881), 276-82; Ε. B. Livingston, Livingstons of Livingston Manor (1910), 264, 275-78; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782 (grammar school graduation), 2 Oct. 1786 (commencement); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Smith Diary, passim; N.Y. City directories, 1789-1810; W. B. Hatcher, Edward Livingston (1940), 24; A. F. Young, Democratic-Republicans of N.Y. (1967), 283, 448; Hamilton Papers, xx, 4142, 44-45; MCCCNY, m, 629; iv, 160, 726; W. Sampson, Trial of the Hon. Maturin Livingston, Against James Cheetham, for a Libel (1807); Phila. Democratic Press, 18 July 1807 (submarine); Ε. M. Smith, Doc. Hist, of Rhinebeck (1974), 37, 71-73, 79; F. Hasbrouck, Hist, of Dutchess Cnty. (1909), 77. WFC

Peter William Livingston PETER WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, A.B., A.M. 1789, lawyer and merchant,

was born in New York City on May 9, 1767, the son of Peter R. Livingston (Class of 1758) and his wife Margaret Livingston, a dis­ tant cousin of her husband and an aunt of Peter William's classmate Maturin Livingston, and also of the latter's brothers Peter Robert Livingston (A.B. 1784) and William Smith Livingston (A.B. 1772). T h e father had attended Harvard as well as the College of New Jer­ sey, without graduating from either, and through the death of an older brother he had become the heir apparent to Livingston Manor. But such was his gift for mismanaging his affairs that his father, third lord of the manor, broke the entail on the property, with the result that the "fourth lord of the Manor," to use the courtesy title he sometimes was awarded, actually inherited only a part of that vast

AMOS MARSH

141

estate. In politics too he followed an uncertain course which carried him from an almost violent advocacy of the whig cause before the Revolution to an increasing distrust of the democratic tendencies he subsequently found in the Revolution. Where Peter was prepared for college and when he was first enrolled have not been determined. Like his cousin Maturin he joined the American Whig Society. Although members of each of the two literary societies tended to be bound together by a fraternal bond, this unity was not strong enough to prevent "a severe battle" with canes between Livingston and his classmate Henry Coleman in J u n e of their senior year. J o h n R. Smith (A.B. 1787) recorded in his diary that the entire senior class witnessed the fight, and that Coleman took a "compleat trouncing." At the commencement of September 27, 1786, Livingston spoke "on the advantages of our present civil establishment." After graduation Peter presumably studied law, probably in New York City, for he was admitted to the bar of the state supreme court on November 5, 1789. Until the end of the century he was listed as an attorney at law in directories for the city, with addresses on William Street, Cordandt Street, and by 1800 at 28 Church Street. With the directory for 1801, however, he was listed as a merchant at 28 Church Street, and thereafter the listing was consistently that of a merchant, usually with an address on Greenwich Street. T h e character of his mercantile business has not been determined. On November 13, 1793 he married Elizabeth Beekman, daughter of Gerard W. Beekman, and he died at New York City on February 11, 1826. There were six children, four boys and two girls. SOURCES: Alumni me, PUA; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 229-31; NYGBR, 42 (1911), 446; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Smith Diary, 22 June 1786; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; N.Y. City directories, 1789-1810; MCCCNY, xv, 215. WFC

Amos Marsh AMOS MARSH, A.B., A.M. Dartmouth 1789, lawyer and public official,

according to the membership records of the Cliosophic Society joined that society on December 1, 1784, assuming the name of Amicus, and was at the time a resident of Vermont. Information pinpointing the date of his admission to the College is not available. Nor is it possible to determine his parentage or the date of his birth. H e may well have been the son of the Amos Marsh who settled in Clarendon, Rudand County, Vermont, in 1769, who took an oath of fidelity to the United

142

GLASS OF 1786

States in October 1777, and who died at some time prior to January 20, 1791, probably toward the end of 1790. This conjecture is based upon nothing more than the fact that a son in eighteenth century America often bore the name of his father. Whatever the reality, the experience of the younger Amos Marsh as a student in the College left no surviving mark in its records. H e was among the graduating seniors who did not speak at his commencement. After graduation Marsh reportedly became the rector of Clio Hall at Bennington, Vermont, the earliest incorporated academy in the state and one which flourished between 1780 and its destruction by fire in 1803. Among the sponsors of the academy was Isaac Tichenor (A.B. 1775), with whom Marsh perhaps studied law. Although the evidence is entirely circumstantial, it is enough to suggest that an association with Tichenor is fundamental to an explanation of Marsh's career. Both of them received A.M. degrees from Dartmouth College in 1789. Tichenor was a stout foe of the Aliens, a strong nationalist, and was destined to become the leading Federalist in the state. Perhaps his influence explains Marsh's appointment to the post of federal attorney for the district of Vermont as early as 1794, a position he held for only two years. In 1796, a year before Tichenor's election as governor in 1797, Marsh was elected to the state legislature. Despite Republican strength in the area he sat for Vergennes, the Addison County town in which he resided, continuously through 1801. After a year's absence, he returned to his seat in the legislature in 1803, but did not sit thereafter. From 1799 through 1801 he served as speaker, and even before his elevation to that office it is obvious that he was among the more influential members of the assembly. Tichenor continued as governor through 1807. As speaker Marsh became an ex-officio trustee of the University of Vermont, which had been established under the provisions of an act of 1791. In 1802 he was elected to the board of trustees, and he served thereafter to his death in 1811. Although out of office, he undoubtedly found satisfaction in the reviving strength of Federalism in Vermont after Jefferson's embargo of 1808. T h e location of Vergennes at the falls of Otter Creek, only a few miles inland from Lake Champlain, gave it a very active interest in the trade with Canada that was seriously threatened by the embargo. As an attorney Marsh was prominently identified with the most famous criminal case arising from smuggling operations in defiance of the embargo. Cyrus B. Dean, member of the crew of The Black Snake notorious for its smuggling, was charged with murder after three men died during the boat's seizure in August 1808. Marsh, his defense attorney, proved skillful enough to prolong the judicial proceedings through

R I C H A R D MOSBY

143

October, in the process inviting charges of inappropriate partisanship, but Dean was finally executed on November 11 in the presence of one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Vermont for a hanging. Marsh died early in 1811. He had been married to Abigail Sutton of Canaan, Connecticut, apparently about 1789. No information has been found regarding any children. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Clio, lists; Alexander, Princeton, 230; Records of Gov. & Council of the St. ofVt. (1873-80, 8 vols.), i, 193; in, 225; iv, 115, 118-19, 139, 141, 148, 153, 173, 175, 208, 217, 218, 362, 370-75, 381, 487, 490, 492, 494, 498, 506, 514; v, 212, 326,424; vi, 96-97; H. P. Smith & W. S. Rann, Hist, of Rutland Cnty. (1886), 554; Hist. Rec. Survey, Vt., Inventory of the Town ... Archives of Vt., No. 11, Vol. V: Town of Clarendon (1940), 9; H. HaU, Hist. ofVt. (1868), 175-76; I. Jennings, Ntemoriak of a Century (1869), 339; J. D. V. S. & C. R. Merrill, Sketches of Hist. Bennington (1907); Washington Writings, xxxv, 239; U.S. Census office, 2nd census, 1800, Heads of Families ... 1800, Vt. (1938), 24-25; W. H. Crockett, Reports ofComms. to the Gen. Assembly, 17781801 (1932), 128, 147, 150; Univ. of Vt., Gen. Catalogue (1875), 4, 7; Vt. Hist. Gazetteer (5 vols., 1868-91), II, 342-47. WFC

Richard Mosby A.B., was born on August 15, 1765, the youngest of nine children of Littleberry Mosby of "Font Hill," a plantation in that part of Cumberland County, Virginia, which became Powhatan County in 1777, and his first wife, Elizabeth Netherland. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Netherland. Litdeberry Mosby was a wealthy planter who saw service as a justice of the peace, sheriff, and Anglican vestryman. In 1775 and 1776 he belonged to the Cumberland County Committee of Public Safety. He became colonel of the Powhatan County militia in 1777 and county lieutenant, overall commander of Powhatan's militia, in 1780. In the latter post his efforts to raise reinforcements for Gen. Nathanael Greene (A.M. 1781) were particularly energetic. Richard Mosby probably entered the College as a junior. On December 1, 1784 he joined the Cliosophic Society, taking the pseudonym Philos. The diary of John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) shows that he was athletically inclined. On February 14, 1786 Mosby bested one of his Livingston classmates in a jumping contest, going "11 feet at a hop for 36 hops together." He also participated in impromptu wrestling and running matches. At the orations by seniors which concluded the winter semester on April 7, 1786, Smith described Mosby's as "an excellent one indeed—Kept Dr. Smith & Green as well as the whole audience in a continual roar." The Cliosophic Society chose RICHARD MOSBY,

144

C L A S S OF

1786

him to give the address at the J u n e 8 meeting celebrating the anniversary of its founding, an honor it reserved for its better speakers. Despite his eloquence he did not participate in his commencement exercises. Mosby returned to Powhatan County, where he married Mary Vaughan (or Vaughn) on August 29 (or 19), 1796. No evidence that he left children has come to light, and his professional activities, if any, are equally obscure. He died on September 15, 1808. SOURCES: J. H. Mosby, Our Noble Heritage: The Mosbey Family Hist. (1975), 20-21, 110, 113, 116, 117-18, 137-38, 194-96, 211-13 (19 Aug. date of marriage for RM); WMQ, 1st ser., 5 (1896), 102-03, 143; VMHB, 2 (1894/95), 210-11, 326, 437; 4 (1897), 10607; 5 (1898), 104; J. H. Gwathmey, Hist. Reg. of Virginians in the Revolution (1938), 56768; Jefferson Papers, iv, 700; v, 412, 491, 501, 508-09; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 14 Feb., 18 Mar., 6 & 7 Apr., 3, 7 & 20 July, & 19 Aug. 1786 ("11 feet," "an excellent"); MS Whig-Clio records, PUA; Min. Trustees, 27 Sept. 1786; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; C. L. Knorr, Marriages of Powhatan Cnty. Va. 1777-1830 (1957), 45 (29 Aug. date of marriage for RM). The College sources do not give Mosby's home state, but the absence of other candidates and the date of birth of the Virginian, well within the average range for a 1786 graduate, make the identification reasonably secure. JJL

Abimael Youngs Nicoll A.B., United States Army officer, was probably born in Goshen, Orange County, New York. Although no record of his parentage has been located, family tradition indicates that he was from Orange County, to which members of his mother's family may have moved from Long Island. Both Youngs and Nicoll were common names in Suffolk County, Long Island. T h e Reverend J o h n Youngs, who emigrated from England in 1640 with members of his congregation, was the first minister to serve the community of Southold, Long Island. His grandson was the Reverend Ebenezer Youngs Prime (A.B. 1751). His great-grandson Gideon, descended from his third son Gideon, had six sons, the fourth of whom was named Abimal. Four of these brothers, including Abimal, moved to Orange County and settled at or near Goshen. It seems likely that Abimal had a daughter who married a Nicoll and gave her father's name to her son. Abimael Nicoll received his early education as a student in the classical school of the Reverend John Moffatt (A.B. 1749) at Litde Britain, a community northeast of Goshen. Several other residents of Orange County were in residence at Nassau Hall at the same time as Nicoll, including Oliver Ker (A.B. 1785), whose father, the Reverend Nathan Ker (A.B. 1761), as minister of the Goshen Presbyterian church, may have had some influence on ABIMAEL YOUNGS NICOLL,

ABIMAEL YOUNGS NICOLL

145

the choice of a college. While attending the College Nicoll wrote occasional patriotic verses about the Revolution. He joined the American Whig Society and at his graduation exercises he must have provided some humorous relief as he discoursed on "college diet, and the ingenuity of a college bean." Family sources indicate that he next studied medicine in the "college of New York." H e is not listed as a graduate of Columbia, where the medical program was inactive from 1785 to 1792, and the city's College of Physicians and Surgeons did not open until 1807. Nor is there any indication that he joined the Orange County Medical Society. Moreover, during his career as an army officer he never served as an army surgeon. Evidently he never completed his medical studies. Nicoll began his military career on March 4, 1791 as an artillery lieutenant in the United States Army. On May 9, 1794 he was assigned to the Artillerists and Engineers, and on November 29, 1794 he received his commission as captain. When the Artillerists and Engineers were divided into regiments, Nicoll was attached to the First United States Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers on May 7, 1798. On April 26, 1799 Maj. Gen. Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791), writing to James McHenry at the War Department, submitted a plan for the disposition of the First and Second Regiments of Artillerists and Engineers. It included assigning a battalion of the First Regiment to posts in Georgia and South Carolina. Hamilton's arrangement of the artillery for Georgia and South Carolina contains the name of "Captain Abimael Y. Nicholl," whose residence is listed as St. Mary's, Georgia. This places Nicoll in Georgia, where family records say that he was a commander of Fort Pulaski, located on Cockspur Island, Savannah harbor, the chief fortification on the Georgia coast, and that he married a daughter of Col. Henry Ledbetter. During the period in Georgia Lt. Samuel Allison of the First Artillerists and Engineers named Nicoll as executor of his will, on the back of which he wrote, "Left in the hands of Capt. A. Y. Nicholl, as a deposit for my only child and daughter, 800 dollars. June 25, 1799." Under an act of March 16, 1802, the army was reorganized so that a regiment of artillerists, consisting of five battalions of four companies each, was formed from the two regiments of artillerists and engineers. Nicoll was assigned to the regiment of artillerists at its formation on April 1, 1802, and on December 1, 1804 he was promoted to major. A list of the officers in the regiment of artillerists on January 1, 1805 shows Nicoll assigned to New Orleans. Prior to the establishment of the Adjutant General's Department on March 3, 1813, an act of March 5, 1792 provided for an adjutant

146

CLASS OF 1786

who would also do duty as inspector. Nicoll served as adjutant and inspector of the army from April 2, 1807 until April 28, 1812, when he received the title of assistant adjutant general. Upon assuming these duties h e was "taken from the line" and became one of the general staff officers billeted in Washington. On March 18, 1813 he received a promotion to colonel and the tide of inspector general of the army. He resigned his commission on J u n e 1, 1814 at one of the darkest moments of the War of 1812. No information has been found about his subsequent activities. Nicoll married Caroline Agnes Ledbetter, and they had at least one son, J o h n C. Nicoll (A.B. 1812), who served as judge of the superior court of Chatham County, Georgia, and as a United States district judge from 1839 to 1861. College catalogues first list Abimael Nicoll as deceased in 1836. SOURCES: Alumni files, PUA; R. Buraham, Moffat Genealogies (1909), 42; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), m, 370-75; Heitman, U.S. Army, I, 37, 38, 51, 748; II, 37, 569; W. H. Powell, List of Officers of the Army of the U.S. from 1779-1900 (1900), 38, 40, 42, 43, 45, 51, 65; Hamilton Papers, XXII, 72-75; N.J. Wills, ix, 11 (will of Samuel Allison); C. P. Wilson, Annals of Ga. (1928), in, 275. RLW

Thomas Pollock THOMAS POLLOCK, A.B., planter, was a grandson of President

Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720) and an heir, together with his brother George Pollock (A.B. 1787), to one of the great fortunes of colonial North Carolina. T h e Carolina branch of the family had been founded by Thomas Pollock (1654-1722), a native of Scotland who at the time of his death was serving as the acting governor of the province and was the owner of thousands of acres and the not inconsiderable labor force of seventy-five slaves. His grandson, also named Thomas, seems to have suffered poor health, and because of it to have moved from the lowlands of eastern Carolina to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he met and married in 1764 Eunice Edwards, a daughter of Jonathan Edwards, who then was living in the family of her brother Timothy Edwards (A.B. 1757). T h e Pollocks' son, fourth in the line to bear the name of Thomas, was born on September 8, 1769, evidendy at Elizabethtown. His father died there late in 1777 or very early in the next year, having made a will that was proved on January 12, 1778. T h e will provided that the widow should have all of his Elizabethtown property, the chief item being the house in which they lived, and 500 "Spanish milled pieces" annu-

THOMAS POLLOCK

147

ally for the remainder of her life. To each of two daughters there was bequeathed "7,500 Spanish milled pieces" and a reversionary right in the widow's $500 after her death. His "lands in North Carolina" were to be rented until his son George attained the age of twenty-one, with the provision that money "be taken out for the support and education of my children, George, Elizabeth, and Frances." His slaves "and personal estate in North Carolina" were to be divided between the two sons, but strangely, and without explanation, George was to have "all my lands in North Carolina, when 2 1 . " No information has been found regarding Thomas Pollock's preparation for college. He may have completed his preparatory studies, as did his brother George, in the grammar school conducted by the College at Princeton. Just when he began his collegiate studies also remains uncertain. According to a published catalogue of 1840, the two brothers joined the Cliosophic Society in 1784. Minutes of the society indicate that Thomas was known as Brother Aurelian and that he was in Princeton attending the annual meeting of the society in September 1795. T h e 1784 date argues that the brothers may have entered the College in November 1783, when the academic year began. T h e assumption that Thomas at least did, is strengthened by the fact that he was among the undergraduates who competed for prizes on the eve of commencement in September 1784. H e took a second prize in English grammar. At his own commencement two years later, he presented an oration on prejudice. After graduation Pollock is said to have read law with his first cousin Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), who reportedly established a marked influence on the boy while he was still in college. His study of the law cannot be confirmed, but sources agree that he never practiced that profession. Instead, he followed what S. D. Alexander described, in a very brief biographical sketch, as the "uneventful life of a planter," but apparently it was the life of a planter who had discovered from the example of his father that one did not have to live on the plantation. According to a sketch by George M. Giger, Thomas, like his father, suffered from poor health and, perhaps for that reason, spent a good deal of time traveling abroad. He is reported to have died in Lucca, Italy in September 1803 at the age of thirty-four, without issue and apparently without having married. Through much of the nineteenth century the College seems to have lost sight of Pollock. He was not listed as deceased in its catalogues until 1863. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 230; N.C. Hist. £sf Gen. Reg., 3 (1903), 156-58, 445; NYGBR, 72 (1941), 124-25; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 417; J. B. Grimes, Abstract of N.C. WiUs (1910), 292-93; J. B. Grimes, N.C. WiUsfcfInventories (1912 repr. 1967), 342-47 (founder's will); N.J. Witts,

148

CLASS

OF

1786

ν, 399 (father's will); NCHR, 20 (1943), 47, 49; 22 (1945), 463; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784, 2 Oct. 1786; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Clio. Min., 29 Sept. 1795. WFC

Henry Smalley HENRY SMALLEY, A.B., A.M. 1794, Baptist minister, was born Octo­ ber 23, 1765 in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey. A J o h n Smalley of Rhode Island had been among the Baptists from Rhode Island and New Hampshire who had first settled in Piscataway, which was considered a Baptist stronghold. Henry Smalley's father was a Baptist and his mother an Episcopalian, but the son seems to have determined from an early age to devote his life to the Baptist minis­ try and to receive college training toward this end, even though such an education was not a required part of training for the ministry in his denomination. He first attended Queen's College and subsequently transferred to the College at Princeton, but no dates have been found for either of these events. Since he is said to have entered Queen's at an early age, h e may have received his preparatory training in the grammar school there. No reason is given for his move to Princeton, but there were no graduates from Queen's during the years 1784 through 1786. Since he did not join either of the societies at the College and did not speak at his commencement exercises, he may have had little interest in the campus life at Nassau Hall. T h e award of the A.M. degree in 1794 made him one of four Baptist clergymen, out of a total of fifteen or sixteen in the state at that time, who had received advanced degrees from either the College of New Jersey or the College of Rhode Island. In 1788 Smalley was licensed to preach by the Piscataway Baptist Church, and in 1790 he was called to the Cohansey Baptist Church (present day Greenwich), in Cumberland County, which, with 109 members, was the largest of the seven Baptist churches in South Jersey. On November 8 of that year he was ordained pastor of the Cohansey Church and continued in that charge for forty-nine years. His ministry was a prosperous one for the church. Over the years he baptized 530 individuals who were admitted to the communion of his own church, as well as a large number who joined neighbor­ ing churches without stated pastors. Most of the baptisms reflect a gradual growth in the church, but he held a number of successful revivals, and on three of these occasions he performed fifty-four, fifty-five, and fifty-seven baptisms. Smalley gave himself unstintingly to the labors of his congregation and denomination. Besides preach­ ing, pastoral visitation, and weekly prayer meetings, he held frequent

CHARLES SMITH

149

catechism classes for young people. In May 1814 he was one of thirtythree delegates who met in Philadelphia to consider the formation of an American Baptist missionary body. This meeting was responsible for the formation of the Triennial Convention, a society with the aim of "sending the glad tidings of the Salvation to the Heathen, and to nations destitute of pure Gospel light." Smalley was described as being of medium height, rather stout, compact and firm, with dark hair and eyes and a grave countenance. In the pulpit he was calm, deliberate, and solemn, giving the impres­ sion of a compassionate j u d g e rather than a popular orator. H e seems to have enjoyed the affection and confidence of his congregation, and the reputation of being able to preserve harmony among its members. I n fact, he was sometimes called in by other congregations to setde disputes and to act as a peacemaker. In 1794 Smalley married Hannah Fox, who was described as ami­ able, pious, and intelligent. She died February 11, 1836, and h e r husband's decline in health began at that time, compounded by his extreme grief. About two years later he married Mrs. Elizabeth Armstrong. Sometime during the last year of his life h e preached his final sermon, prophesying from the pulpit that this would be the last time his voice would be heard within the church. From that time his mind was often "shrouded in darkness" until his death on February 11, 1839. No information about his family has been found, although there undoubtedly were children and at least one grandson. During Smalley's last week he is said to have gathered his family around him to exhort them on their faith and to bid them farewell. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Gen. Cat. of Rutgers College (1909), 42; N.J. Gazette, 2 θ α . 1786; Dunlap 6f Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; Giger, Memoirs; N. H. Maring, Baptists in N.J. (1964), 15, 57, 82, 88, 110-11 ("sending the glad tidings"); Sprague, Annab, VI, 281-83 ("shrouded in darkness"); W. C. Mulford, Hist. Tales of Cumberland Cnty. (1941), 16-17; New Brunswick Fredonian, 27 Feb. 1839. N.J. Archives, XII, 350, lists the marriage of John Smalley of Piscataway to Susannah Bray of Monmouth on February 7, 1742. If they married young they could possibly be Henry Smalley's parents, but it is more likely that they might have been his grandparents. RLW

Charles Smith CHARLES SMITH, A.B., M.B. Queen's College 1792, teacher and physi­ cian, was born December 4, 1767, at Marshall's Corner, a cross­ roads community just north of Pennington, New Jersey. H e was the fourth of the ten children of Ruth Saxon and Ethan Smith. H e attended the grammar school at Nassau Hall, and in September 1782

150

C L A S S OF

1786

Charles Smith, A.B. 1786

entered the freshman class of the College. During the afternoon competition at the time of his graduation from the grammar school he distinguished himself by winning the second prize in Latin grammar and syntax. He also delivered a Latin oration at the evening session of the ceremonies. While a student at the College he joined the American Whig Society, but there is no indication that he continued to be an outstanding scholar. At his commencement he delivered an essay on "ridicule considered as a test of truth." Smith next studied medicine with Dr. Moses Scott of New Brunswick, who had served as a surgeon for four years with the Continental Army. During the period of his apprenticeship Smith also attended classes at Queen's College, receiving the bachelor of medicine degree in October 1792, after he had already been licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey on May 1, 1792. Upon attaining his medical degree he married Mary Dickinson Scott, the daughter of Doctor Scott and Anna Johnson Scott, and the sister of Joseph Warren Scott (A.B. 1795). He served as senior tutor at Queen's during 1793-94, leaving in the fall of 1794 to serve as medical officer for the New Jersey troops duing the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania.

CHARLES SMITH

151

Capt. David Ford, whom Smith tended after he had been kicked by a horse, identified Smith as surgeon to the Jersey Cavalry. After his return to civilian life he continued to practice medicine in New Brunswick, where he was highly regarded as both an individual and a physician. He served as a trustee of Queen's College (Rutgers after 1825) from 1804 to 1839, where he was again appointed a tutor during 1807. In 1814 he became a fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and he also served as president of the State Bank at New Brunswick. An active member of the Medical Society of New Jersey, Smith was elected corresponding secretary in 1808, vice president in 1810, and president in 1818. He was a member of a number of committees of the medical society, including one appointed to draft a resolution commemorating the death of Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), and another formed to make a recommendation on the expediency of cooperating with other medical societies to form an American pharmacopoeia. From 1818 to 1824 he served as one of the Middlesex County examiners of applicants for medical licenses. In 1830 he was named a fellow of the society. At the society's meeting in May 1817 Smith delivered a dissertation on fungus haemotodes, which he described as "one of the most unmanageable and hopeless [diseases] to which the human frame is liable." Obviously some form of cancerous tumors, they claimed the lives of all of the patients whom he cited as examples, whether or not they had agreed to his suggestion of amputation. Smith enjoyed a large build and fine presence, as well as genial manners. Though his practice was highly remunerative, he had acquired habits of economy in his younger days and in his old age this trait became exaggerated to the point of being niggardly, even in spending for necessities. The Smiths died childless, Mary Smith on March 9, 1848 and Charles Smith on May 7, 1848. Their remains are in a vault in the Presbyterian churchyard at New Brunswick. Smith left an estate valued at $150,000. His will had been written in 1841, and between then and the time of his death he had added five codicils changing various personal bequests. Numerous relatives received gifts of cash and personal property, frequently with stipulations as to how the bequests were to be used. A large portion of the estate went to Smith's nephew and namesake, Charles Smith Olden, who was governor of New Jersey from 1860 to 1863, treasurer of the College from 1845 to 1869, and trustee of the College from 1863 to 1875. At Smith's death the Medical Society of New Jersey passed a resolution

152

C L A S S OF

1786

characterizing him as "One of the most learned and skillful members of the profession in the State." SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782 (grammar school prize) & 2 Oct. 1786 (commencement); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Alexander, Princeton, 230-31; Soc. of Cincinnati in the State of N.J. (1898), 117 (Dr. Scott); D. Ford, Jour, of an Expedition Made in the Autumn of 1794 (n.d.), 10; R. P. McCormick, Rutgers: A Bicentennial Hist. (1966), 21; Cat. of the Officers & Alumni of Rutgers College ... 17661909 (1909), 8, 24, 222; Rise, Minutes & Proc. of the N.J. Medical Soc. (1875), 96, 10406, 129-30, 134, 136, 139, 161, 175, 184, 268; Wickes.Hirt. of Medicine N.J., 397-98; J. P. Wall & Η. E. PickersgiU, Hist, of Middlesex Cnty., N.J., 1664-1920 (1921), 260; DAB (for Charles Smith Olden); certified copy of Charles Smith will, NjPHi. RLW

Samuel Finley Snowden SAMUEL FINLEY SNOWDEN, A.B., A.M.

1794,

Presbyterian minister,

was born in Philadelphia on November 6, 1767, the third son of Mary Coxe McCall and Isaac Snowden, merchant, public official, and trustee of the College from 1782 until 1808. Named for Princeton's fifth president, "Sammy" was one of seven Snowden sons who stud­ ied at the College. They included: Benjamin Parker (A.B. 1776), Gilbert Tennent (A.B. 1783), Isaac (Class of 1785), Nathaniel Ran­ dolph (A.B. 1787), Charles Jeffry (A.B. 1789), and William (Class of 1794). Samuel probably attended the Nassau Hall grammar school at least for the academic year 1781-82, for in September 1782 he took third place in English oration before entering the College. As a freshman he earned second prize in the undergraduate speaking competition in September 1783. Sometime that year, whether as a freshman or sophomore is unclear, he joined the Cliosophic Soci­ ety as Brother Hallam, for Robert Hallam (d. 1417), bishop of Sal­ isbury and church reformer. As a sophomore he won first prize in English grammar on the evening prior to commencement exercises; in 1785 he placed third in the competition in English orations. How­ ever, according to the diary of J o h n R. Smith (A.B. 1787), on April 7, 1786 when the seniors were speaking, "S. Snowden did not shine above the rest this evening as he had done the last." Smith several times mentions his pleasure in Snowden's company, on one occasion almost as though he is surprised by it. T h e Smith and Snowden fam­ ilies obviously knew each other well in Philadelphia, but Snowden's early schooling in Princeton may have meant that the two young men were getting reacquainted in their college years. At the 1786 commencement Snowden delivered the Latin salutatory address. Following graduation Snowden returned to Philadelphia and reputedly read law with Thomas Bradford, though for how long is

SAMUEL FINLEY SNOWDEN

153

not certain. On April 18, 1787 he was offered the position of College tutor after his brother Gilbert resigned. He declined the appointment, but the fact that the offer was made probably indicates that Samuel was not entirely committed to the law as his career. Sometime in 1792, apparently because of Gilbert's influence, Samuel returned to Princeton to study theology under President John Witherspoon and Vice President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769). His attendance at the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society in September of that year suggests that he may have been residing in Princeton by that time. T h e following September he presided as president at the society's annual meeting, one of only three alumni members present d u e to the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. Licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick on April 24, 1794, Snowden occasionally preached at the Presbyterian Church of Princeton which had traditionally been served by the presidents of the College. Witherspoon had been serving in this capacity for twenty-five years, but during the last few years his increasing blindness and other ailments had made it necessary for his son-in-law Samuel Stanhope Smith to substitute for him in the pulpit. After Witherspoon's death the congregation decided to govern its own church affairs rather than remain an appendage of the College, and it invited Snowden to become its pastor. Called on September 14, 1795, Snowden was ordained and installed on November 25, 1795 with Samuel Stanhope Smith presiding and the Reverend Joseph Clark (A.B. 1781) preaching the ordination sermon. Six days later Snowden sought the advice of the session as to whether it would be advisable to start immediate visitations to parish families "for the purpose of learning the state of religion in them." Former pastors, busy with College affairs, had not had time for this task. T h e session replied that since the congregation was not used to such visitation, the members perhaps "were not ripe for receiving them in their full strictness." It suggested instead that Snowden introduce "a system of private Instruction and visitation in families, with catechising in private houses, in the different quarters of the Congregation, and accompany it with a Lecture in each place, suitable to the occasion." Snowden's parents had moved to Princeton, and for a brief period his father served as an elder of the church. T h e young minister lived on a farm purchased from his parents that had earlier belonged to his brother Isaac. It was said of Samuel Snowden that he made up for what he lacked as a preacher through his social contacts and abilities, but perhaps this was an unfair comparison with the more practiced oratory of the College president and vice president. Snowden seemed to have a marked ability for writing, but lacked power in the pulpit Yet he worked assiduously for the church

154

C L A S S OF

1786

and was respected for his diligent efforts to increase membership and ecclesiastical discipline. After five and a half years at the Princeton church, Snowden's health failed, probably due to consumption, and in April 1801 he requested a release from his pastoral duties. After exacdy one year of rest and travel, Snowden regained his health. On April 28, 1802 he was dismissed from the New Brunswick Presbytery to the Presbytery of Albany, to take charge of the congregation at New Hartford, near Utica, New York. Over the course of the next fourteen years he built u p a large and flourishing church; at the same time he helped to found Hamilton College and served as one of its trustees. In February 1816 Snowden moved to the newly formed Presbytery of St. Lawrence and organized a church at Sackett's Harbor, New York, a military station, where he was responsible for a marked religious revival. Some ten years later he moved to Brownsville, New York. He died there peacefully in May 1845 at the age of seventy-eight A biographer wrote of him: "He was a model of clerical manners, a gentleman of the old school, and had great conversational powers." Samuel Snowden married Susan Bayard Breese. They had several children, including Ebenezer Hazard Snowden (A.B. Hamilton College 1818, Princeton Theological Seminary Class of 1822). SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 231; Sprague, Annals, in, 341; Smith Diary, passim; N. R. Snowden, MS "Remembrances,'' 17701846, PHi; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782, 4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct. 1785; G. T. Snowden, MS Jour., 21 Sept. 1783, PPPrHi; CUo. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; CUo. Min., 26 Sept. 1792, 25 Sept. 1793, 9 & 30 Sept. 1795, 28 Sept. 1803; Williams, Academic Honors, 11; Dunlap fcf Claypoole's Amur. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; Hageman, History, n, 94-97; A. S. Link, First Pres. Church of Princeton (1967), 28-29 (quotes re visitation), 56; W. E. Schenck, Hist. Acct. of the First Pres. Church of Princeton (1850), 42-44; H. G. Hinsdale, Hist. Discourse ... First Pres. Church, Princeton, N.J. (1888), 30; R. R. Cawley, Brief Hist, of the First Pres. Church, Princeton, N.J. (1954), n.p.; New Brunswick Presby. Min., 4 Apr. 1793-25 Nov. 1795 passim; F. B. Hough, Hist, of Jefferson Cnty., N.Y. (1854), 188, 390; Princeton Theological Sem., Gen. Cat. (1894), 48. The Society (Autograph) Collection at PHi contains genealogical data on the Snowden family ("model of clerical manners"). A typed genealogy by F. W. Leach, in the Snowden Family file, PUA, incorrectly suggests that Samuel moved to Tennessee. LKS & RLW

Samuel Robert Stewart A.B., A.M. 1800, lawyer, was born in 1766 in Remington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, where his father Col. Charles Stewart owned a large farm. T h e elder Stewart had emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland, though the family was of Scottish background, an ancestor having been awarded an estate SAMUEL ROBERT STEWART,

SAMUEL ROBERT STEWART

155

in Ireland for services with the Scottish dragoons in the Batde of the Boyne. Colonel Stewart was a member of the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey and of the Council of Safety of 1775-76. He was a colonel of a battalion of New Jersey minutemen, served as commissary general of New Jersey militia, and from June 18, 1777 to July 1782 as commissary general of issues for the Continental Army. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1784 to 1785. His wife was Mary Oakley Johnston, daughter of Judge Samuel Johnston and sister of Philip Johnston (A.B. 1759), regarded as one of the best-read women in the province. She probably died while Samuel was still young, since Samuel's older sister Martha Stewart Wilson, widowed by the Revolution, took charge of her father's estate while he was serving with the army, "managing his large farming enterprises to his entire satisfaction." The only facts known about Stewart's college career are that he joined the American Whig Society and at his commencement his part in the oratory of the day was an "Essay on domestick and political discord." After graduation he studied law with Samuel Leake (A.B. 1774), who had recently moved his office to Trenton. Leake was responsible for training a number of young men for the bar, and was conscientious enough about their training to set aside an hour a day in which to quiz his apprentices. Stewart was admitted to the bar in September 1790 and was named a counsellor in 1794. He setded and practiced in Flemington, which had become the county seat of Hunterdon County in 1785. His home was just east of the Presbyterian church of which he was a member, and which he served as trustee from 1795 until his death. On May 19, 1798 at a citizens' meeting in the court house at Flemington, held for the purpose of "taking into consideration our present alarming situation with the French Republic," Stewart was appointed chairman. It was unanimously agreed to send an address to President John Adams, approving his efforts at retaining peace with France, deploring the conditions imposed by the French, and professing loyalty and support "in defiance of the threats or power of any nation on earth." The communication to the president was published in the Trenton State Gazette,fcfNew-Jersey Advertiser on May 29, 1798. Stewart died at the early age of thirty-six, leaving a wife Anna and two young sons Charles Samuel Stewart (A.B. 1815) and Robert Stewart. His will was proved on September 30, 1802 and the inventory, including a list of books, totalled $2,022.21. His wife probably died soon after, since on February 4, 1803 his sister Martha Wilson and his friend and fellow counsellor-at-law George C. Maxwell (A.B. 1792) were appointed guardians of his sons. The older son Charles

156

C L A S S OF

1786

S. Stewart later gained renown through his published accounts of the Sandwich Islands, where he was one of the first missionaries. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; J. A. Garraty, ed., Encyc. of Amer. Biog. (1974), 683 (father), 683-84 (son); BDUSC, 1875; Soc. of the Cincinnati in the State of N.J. (1898), 241 (father); LMCC, VII, had; VIII, xc (father); J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon 6f Somerset Cnties., N.J. (1881), 203, 207, 243, 326; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; Trenton Federalist 6f N.J. State Gazette, 14 Oct. 1800; Alexander, Princeton, 231; Princetonians, 1769-1775, 394-97; Trenton State Gazette, 6f N.J. Advt., 29 May 1798; J. L. Connet, 150th Anniversary of the Erection of the Fleming House, Fletnmgton, N.J. (1906), 4-5; G. S. Mott, Hist. Discourse Delivered inPres. Church of Flemington (1876), 16-17, 43; N.J. WiUs, x, 423-24. RLW

Anthony Toomer merchant, the eldest son of Maj. Anthony Toomer and his wife, Ann (Nancy) Warham Toomer, of Charleston, South Carolina, was probably born in late 1768 or in 1769. T h e senior Toomer is listed merely as a "bricklayer" in Charleston directories, but he seems to have been a prosperous businessman who owned a large amount of property and had a number of bricklayers working under him. In 1767 he and a partner were awarded a contract to build the stone bridge located at the north end of the city of Charleston. He served in the Revolution, working his way u p from private to major in the Charleston Ancient Battalion of Artillery, where he commanded the first company. Toomer was among the Charleston residents interned at St. Augustine, and in the winter of 1781 Ann Toomer and her five children were among the women and children from Charleston who joined the men in exile. Toomer was elected to the first general assembly of South Carolina, to represent the parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, Charleston, and he continued to sit in the assembly for fifteen years. In 1793 he served as vice president of the Artillery Society, a group composed of former members of the Charleston Battalion of Artillery. T h e Toomer family home was at 7 Legare Street. They were members of the Independent Congregational (Circular) Church, as were many other alumni of the College, and the father was among those who, on January 1, 1778, signed articles revising the church constitution. When the elder Toomer died on October 10, 1798 after a long illness, his obituary described him as the "head of a large family." ANTHONY TOOMER,

Beyond his having joined the Cliosophic Society on J u n e 2, 1784 using the name Phocion, there is no record of the younger Toomer's career at Nassau Hall. He has been tentatively assigned to the Class of 1786. After leaving the College he returned to South Carolina and

J O H N WRIGHT VANCLEVE

157

established himself as a merchant in Georgetown. On April 15, 1800 he married Charlotte, daughter of the late John Cheeseborough of that city. A son Henry W. B. Toomer was born the following year and died September 18, 1806. Charlotte Toomer died J u n e 19, 1810 and was buried with her son in the churchyard of Prince George Winyah, Georgetown. T h e date of Toomer's death has not been found. SOURCES: Clio, lists; G. N. Edwards, Hist, of the Independent or Congregational Church of Charleston, S.C. (1947), 44; Charleston city directories, 1790-1813; C. T. Moore, Abstract ofWiUs of Charleston Distria, S.C. (1974), 400; A. S. Salley, Jr., Marriage Notices in S.C. Gazette (1902), 33; SCHGM, 7 (1906), 104; 11 (1910), 34; 25 (1924), 108; 26 (1925), 131; 29 (1928), 63; 31 (1930), 188; 32 (1931), 79; 33 (1932), 3, 97, 156, 159; 34 (1933), 82, 87, 200; 52 (1951), 50; 55 (1954), 163; 56 (1955), 46; 69 (1968), 257. A number of Anthony Toomers were living in Charleston during this period; it is particularly difficult to distinguish between the subject of this sketch and Dr. Anthony VanderHorst Toomer, who was probably a cousin and who was about ten years younger. RLW

John Wright Vancleve A.B., A.M. 1789, lawyer, was born October 25, 1767 at Maidenhead (Lawrenceville), Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the son of Benjamin and his wife Mary Wright Vancleve. T h e father had risen to the rank of major in the Hunterdon County militia prior to his resignation in November 1777 to take a seat in the state legislature, where he served through all but a few of the years extending from that time to 1805. In 1784 he was speaker of the lower house, as he was again in 1785, 1786, and 1788. Locally, he was a trustee of the Presbyterian church, and one of the county's justices. After the death of his wife in 1784 he married Anna Smith Green, the mother of Charles Dickinson Green (A.B. 1787) and Richard Montgomery Green (A.B. 1794). John was prepared for college in Nassau Hall's grammar school, from which he was graduated and admitted to the freshman class of the College in September 1782. Presumably, he was enrolled in the following November and continued his studies unbroken through the next four years. On September 28, 1784 he took first prize in an undergraduate competition in Latin grammar, and at the end of his junior year in 1785 he won third prize in an English oratorical contest. A member of the American Whig Society, he did not speak at his own commencement. From 1787 to 1791 Vancleve served as tutor in the College, and also as clerk of the faculty. There is good reason for believing that he was the first to hold the latter office. Simultaneously he must J O H N W R I G H T VANCLEVE,

158

C L A S S OF

1786

have been reading law, for he was admitted to the bar in September 1791. He was licensed as counsellor in November 1796. H e had established his practice at Trenton, but his career was destined to be tragically short. He died at Philadelphia in 1802, probably of yellow fever. His marriage to Elizabeth Coates, daughter of Isaac Coates of Philadelphia, resulted in the birth of three daughters who evidently outlived their father. J o h n Van Cleve (A.B. 1797) was a first cousin. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; NJA, 2d ser., m (1906), 485; E. F. Cooley, Early Settlers of Trenton 6f Ewmg (1883), 292,295; L. G. Gedney, Records ofPres. Church of Lawrcnceville (1941), 7; Stryker, Off. Reg., 370; J. P. Snell, Hist, ofHunterdonfcfSomerset Cnties. (1881), 256, 258, 262; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782,4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct. 1785, 2 Oct. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Smith Diary, 5 Mar. 1786; Pa. Packet, £sf Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789; Riker, 76; Alexander, Princeton, 231. Although earlier references to the faculty are found in the minutes of the trustees, the earliest known minutes for meetings of the faculty begin with the fall of 1787. In these minutes the earlier entries leave one with the distinct impression that formal meetings of the faculty had been newly instituted for the purpose primarily of strengthening the hands of the tutors in their heavy responsibility for the enforcement of discipline within the College. WFC

John C. Vergereau C. VERGEREAU was in all likelihood the son of Peter Vergereau, Jr., and his wife Abigail Hatfield Vergereau. H e was probably born in New York City, but the date remains unknown. T h e family name of Vergereau was rare in colonial America. It seems first to have been brought here by Jean and Pierre Vergereau, who apparently were brothers, not long after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. T h e son of Pierre, Pierre Louis, more commonly known as Peter, became a silversmith and an elder of the French Church in New York City. Peter Vergereau married Susanne or Susannah Boudinot, sister to the father of Elias Boudinot, later president of the Continental Congress and trustee of the College from 1772 to his death in 1821. Peter and Susanne Vergereau had a daughter named Susanne who married the Reverend William Tennent, III (A.B. 1758) and with him settled finally in Charleston, South Carolina, where until his death in August 1777 he was pastor of the Independent Congregational (Circular) Church. Charles Tennent (A.B. 1793) was their son. Peter Vergereau died in 1755, and his widow at some time thereafter moved to Charleston to live with her daughter, for in August 1777 Mrs. Susannah Vergereau died there and was buried at the Circular Church. A local newspaper described her as an ornament to religion. In addition to his widow and his daughter, Peter Vergereau left a son, like his sister still a minor, who carried the father's name and was described at times as Peter Vergereau, J r . JOHN

J O H N C. VERGERAU

159

This Peter married Abigail Hatfield, daughter of Col. Cornelius Hatfield and Abigail Price Hatfield of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, sometime before 1772. Presumably he was the Peter Vergereau of New York City who in 1759 sold a lot in Hempstead, Long Island which was described as having been occupied by himself, his father, and his grandfather. Presumably too he was the Peter Vergereau who on October 3, 1775 became an ensign in the First New York Conti­ nentals, was promoted to second lieutenant in the following Febru­ ary and was killed by lightning on August 21, 1776. Family records indicate that three children survived, a daughter Maria, an unnamed son, and an unnamed child who survived its father by less than two months. The listing of a Mrs. Abigail Vergereau on tax lists of 17781780 as a resident of the Town Ward of Elizabethtown suggests that his widow had returned to her home town. She is described as a "trader." John Vergereau was one of nine young gentlemen who were grad­ uated from the Nassau Hall grammar school and admitted to the freshman class of the College on September 24, 1782. His admis­ sion, of course, provides no proof that he actually returned in the following November to begin his collegiate studies, but there is rea­ son to believe that he did, in addition to the fact that this was the normal thing for him to do. The published catalogues and a manu­ script membership list of the Cliosophic Society include a "John C. Vergraw," a likely error in spelling of Vergereau, as having joined the Society in 1782. This is the only indication of a middle name, which may have been Cornelius in honor of his maternal grandfather. On December 10, 1783 the New-York Gazetteer carried a notice that "a son of Mrs. Vergereau" was among those lost at sea the previous month, when a schooner belonging to Moses Hatfield of Elizabethtown, New Jersey was stranded near Cape Henlopen while en route to New York from South Carolina. Vergereau probably was returning from a visit with his Charleston aunt and cousins, and he may have been attempting to return to the College in time for the beginning of his sophomore year. SOURCES: C. W. Baird, Hist, of Huguenot Emigration to Amer. (1885), 302; M. Tennent, Light m Darkness (1971), 150; G. A. Boyd, EUas Boudinot (1952), 17; NJA, x x (1898), 151; N.J. Witts, m, 37; Huguenot Soc. of Amer., Collections, ι (1886), 325; N.Y. Wills, v, 94 (Peter's will, proved 23 Jan. 1756), 369-70; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth (1868), 561 (marriage 5 Mar. 1791 of daughter of Peter Vergereau, Jr.); NYGBR, 71 (1940), 373; Heitman, 411; N.Y. Secretary of State, Cat. Hist. MSS Relating to War of Revolution (1868), i, 301; GMNJ, 43 (1968), 36; K. Stryker-Rodda, Rev. Census of N.J. (1972), 225; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782; Clio Soc., Cats. (1837, 1840, 1845); Clio, lists; Hatfield MSS, NHi; N.Y. Gazetteer, 10 Dec. 1783. WFC

160

William Wallace A.B., possible A.M. 1792, lawyer, land speculator, and banker, was born in October 1768 in Hanover Township, in that part of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania which became Dauphin County in 1785. H e was the eldest of the four sons and one daughter of Benjamin Wallace and his second wife Elizabeth, the daughter of John and Ann McNair Culbertson. Benjamin Wallace, whose family came to Pennsylvania from County Antrim, Ireland, around 1738, was a wheelwright who served as a captain in the Continental Army until his capture at Fort Washington in November 1776. He served as a justice of the peace from 1780 until his death in 1803 and as a Dauphin County judge from 1785 to 1790, and was a prominent member of Hanover's Presbyterian church. He was married a third time in 1784, to Rebecca Rush Stamper, the sister of Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) and Jacob Rush (A.B. 1765). T h e date Wallace entered the College is not known and it is difficult to make any positive references to his stay there, for the Class of 1786 included two William Wallaces and the surviving records lack specificity regarding either of them. Both of them belonged to the American Whig Society. The part they took in the commencement exercises of 1786 cannot be stated with any assurance, for the newspaper account of that day's proceedings shows that one of the William Wallaces gave an oration "on the improvement of the mind," while the other did not speak. T h e clerk of the trustees failed to specify which of the two William Wallaces received the A.M. degree as an alumnus of the College in 1792. Possibly the subject of this sketch took the higher degree to mark his completion of professional training the same year. One source credits Wallace with studying law under Galbraith Patterson of Harrisburg, also in Dauphin County, while another indicates that he was taught by John Wilkes Kittera (A.B. 1776) of Lancaster County. Wallace was admitted to the Dauphin County bar in J u n e 1792 and to the Philadelphia bar in October 1792. He seems to have resided in Harrisburg for several years, but by 1800 he had moved to Erie, the seat of Erie County, set off the same year from Allegheny County in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania. Wallace was the first lawyer to reside in the new county, which was so sparsely settled that until 1803 its courts were held jointly with those of several other counties at Meadville, Crawford County. Disputed land tides and the efforts of land speculators to turn a profit translated into opportunity for frontier lawyers. Wallace came to Erie as an attorney for the Pennsylvania Population Company, a conglomWILLIAM WALLACE,

WILLIAM WALLACE

161

erate of politicians and entrepreneurs hailing mostly from Philadelphia, whose huge holdings included most of the county. He may have obtained the position through James Gibson (A.B. 1787), who handled the company's legal affairs from the late 1790s until its dissolution in 1812. Wallace also acted as secretary and local agent of the Harrisburg and Presque Isle Company, a much smaller speculation by a group of residents of Harrisburg who bought land for resale and built mills in and near Erie. He built a sawmill of his own in Erie in 1807 or 1808 in partnership with Thomas Forster, possibly a cousin of Samuel Blair Foster (Class of 1788). From 1804 until 1809 he served as the county's deputy attorney general, the equivalent to district attorney representing the state. Wallace earned enough from his various activities to make land purchases in Erie County which a historian claimed in 1895 had proven "exceedingly valuable, and enriched his descendants." When thirty Erie citizens started a library in 1806, Wallace was one of the four directors. In the same year a town government was established, and Wallace was chosen to the three-man street commission. His brother Dr. John Culbertson Wallace, who had settled in Erie around 1802, was elected burgess, the equivalent of mayor. William served as one of three county auditors in 1809. In 1810 or 1811 he moved back to Harrisburg. H e continued to practice law in Harrisburg and seems also to have acquired a furnace in partnership with J o h n Lyon. When the state legislature chartered the Harrisburg Bank in May 1814, Wallace was elected a director and served as its first president from J u n e 1814 until his death, when he was also serving as chief burgess of Harrisburg. Politically Wallace was a consistent Federalist. In 1798 Kittera suggested that Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791) consider recommending him for a captain's commission in the United States Army, a sure sign that his party credentials were acceptable even though he did not receive the appointment. He mounted unsuccesful campaigns as a Federalist for the state legislature in 1808 and for congress in 1813. Wallace is described by an early historian as "a polite, urbane man, of slight frame and concise address." H e married twice. On April 27, 1803 he wed Rachel, the eldest daughter of Dr. Andrew Forrest, formerly of Harrisburg but then residing in Lycoming County. She died less than a year later, on March 10, 1804. On April 21 or 22, 1806 Wallace married Eleanor Maclay, the daughter of William Maclay, one of the first two United States senators from Pennsylvania and an especially colorful one, and a granddaughter of John Harris, founder of the town that was to bear his name and become the capital of Pennsylvania. Nathaniel R. Snowden (A.B. 1787) officiated at

162

CLASS OF 1786

the marriage. Wallace's three sons included a lawyer, a Presbyterian clergyman, and a physician. His only daughter Mary Eleanor married Rev. William Radcliffe DeWitt (Class of 1816) and became the mother of Rev. J o h n DeWitt (A.B. 1861), for twenty years professor of church history at Princeton Theological Seminary. William Wallace died on May 28, 1816 and was buried in the graveyard of the Paxton (Paxtang) Presbyterian Church, not far from Harrisburg. His wife survived him by seven years. SOURCES: W. H. Egle, Notes fcf Queries, Hist. 6f Geneal., Chiefly Relating to Interior Pa., 1st & 2nd ser. (2 vols., 1894-95 repr. 1970), I, 372-73, 379-80, 458; n, 456 ("exceedingly valuable"); 3d ser. (3 vols., 1895-96 repr. 1970), H, 39; W. H. Egle, Hist, of the Cnties. of Dauphin & Lebanon (1883), 543-45 (Patterson as WW's law teacher); Heitman, 566; Butterfield, Rush Letters, I, 55; Smith Diary, 21 Feb. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786; Princeton Packet, & the General Advt., 5 Oct. 1786; N.J. Journal, 10 Oct. 1792; L. R. Kelker, Hist, of Dauphin Cnty. Pa. (3 vols., 1907), I, 352-53 (Kittera as WW's law teacher); letter from W. W. Wirebach, 5 July 1989, PUA; G. H. Morgan & L. F. Black, AnnaL· of Harrisburg (1906), 94-95, 243, 338-39; Martin's Bench & Bar, 320; L. G. Sanford, Hist, of Erie Cnty. Pa. (1862, rev. ed. 1894), 91-92, 105, 144, 147, 386-87 ("a polite"); Hist, of Erie Cnty., Pa. (1884), 216, 223, 230, 262, 324, 331, 343, 425, 444, 613, 969-70; Pa. Hist, 16 (1949), 122-30; Hamilton Papers, XXII, 142; Oracle of Dauphin, & Harrisburgh Advt., 16 May 1803, 7 Apr. 1804; Lancaster Jour., 25 Apr. 1806; MS diary of Nathaniel Snowden, 1804-08, entry for 22 Apr. 1806, NjP; Poukon's Amer. Daily Advt., 3 June 1816; M. W. McAlarney, Hist, of the Sesqui-Cent. of Paxtang Church, Sept. 18, 1890 (1890), 325 (for the fulsome epitaph on WWs grave monument). Egle asserts in his history of Dauphin County cited above that Wallace graduated from Dickinson College, where he befriended John Bannister Gibson (for whom see DAB). He may have confused the latter with James Gibson (A.B. 1787). There is no evidence that the subject of this sketch attended Dickinson and strong confirmation that he was the Princetonian (letter from archivist of Dickinson College, 25 Jan. 1988, PUA; letter from John DeWitt (A.B. 1861) to V. L. Collins, 16 Jan. 1908, PUA; Princeton Theological Review, 22 (1924), 177-234, esp. 179-82). Wanda S. Gunning kindly supplied references used in this sketch. JJL & WFC

William Wallace A.B., possible A.M. 1792, one of a pair of that name who graduated in 1786, has not been identified. T h e name was common in America at this time. T h e 1790 census of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas lists thirty-three William Wallaces. Efforts to trace the Princetonian through other Wallaces with links to the College have been inconclusive. Because contemporary sources do not distinguish the two William Wallaces, the only certainty regarding their stay at the College is that both joined the American Whig Society. On commencement day 1786 one of them delivered an oration "on the improvement of the mind," but the newspaper account of the exercises which provides WILLIAM WALLACE,

W I L L I A M WALLACE

163

this information does not distinguish between him and the other Wallace, who did not speak at all. Again, six years later in September 1792, a William Wallace, alumnus of the College, received the A.M. degree, but neither the minutes of the trustees nor the newspaper account of the exercises is more specific. T h e College catalogs first list the A.M. recipient as deceased in 1839. T h e other William Wallace was so designated only in 1866, along with other classmates of whom the College had lost track. SOURCES: Smith Diary, 21 Feb. 1786; Amer. Whig. Soc, Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Gazette, 2 Oct. 1786 ("on the"); Princeton Packet, £sf the General Advt., 5 Oct. 1786; N.J. Journal, 10 Oct. 1792. William Wallace, the son of Alexander and Gertrude Low Wallace, may have been the Princetonian. Two of his mother's brothers, Cornelius Low (A.B. 1752) and Nicholas Low (Class of 1757) attended the College. Concrete evidence on his birthdate is lacking, but the ages of Gertrude's brothers suggest that her son could have been the right age for a 1786 graduate. William was in New York in 1804, when his aunt Sarah Low Wallace named him as an executor and beneficiary of her will (N.J. Witts, x, 487). Like his father and uncles Hugh Wallace and Nicholas and Isaac Low, he probably became a New York City merchant. The 1794 and 1797 city directories list a merchant of the name at 33 Wall Street, and between 1800 and 1810 one was active at two Pearl Street addresses. He seems to have moved, died, or retired around 1810, by which time the profusion of WWs in the city directories makes further tracing of the erstwhile Pearl Street merchant difficult. One great problem hinders identifi­ cation of this WW as the Princetonian. His father was a loyalist who left New York for Waterfbrd, Ireland, at the end of the Revolution, along with his brother and partner Hugh Wallace. Isaac Low shared their politics and immigrated to England (L. Sabine, Biog. Sketches of Loyalists of the Amer. Rev. [2 vols., 1864], π, 32-33, 392-93). William's mother was still in Ireland in 1804. William could have been left behind when his parents emigrated, perhaps under the care of his whig uncle Nicholas Low, but it seems at least equally likely that he returned to America only after reaching adulthood. Between 1789 and 1793 the only WWs listed in the city directories were a wheelwright and a laborer. The son of Alexander Wallace either returned to America thereafter or he completed his training and set up on his own, having been there for some time. Further evidence is wanting to decide between these hypotheses and thereby to judge the likelihood that this WW could have been educated at the College in the 1780s. The Somerset County, New Jersey, landed gentleman and public official named William Wallace (ca. 1763-26 Sept. 1796), the son of John and Mary Maddox Wallace and the uncle of Joshua Maddox Wallace (A.B. 1793) and John Bradford Wallace (A.B. 1794), was not the Princetonian. He married Sally (Sarah) Dunham sometime before 12 May 1783, and married men did not attend the College at this time. For the marriage see William Paterson (A.B. 1763) to Thomas Paterson, 12 May 1783, microfilm at NjP of typescript of Paterson letters at NN. For more on this WW see N.J. WiUs, vi, 426, 427; ix, 396; corrected proofs of newspaper article on Wallace family in Frank Willing Leach Collection, Pa. Geneal. Soc., Phila.; G. M. Hills, Hist, of the Church in Burlington (1876), passim; J. P. Snell & F. Ellis, Hist, of Hunterdon £sf Somerset Cnties., N.J. (1881), 643, 646, 662, 686. The account of the 1786 CNJ commencement in The Princeton Packet, & the General Advt., 5 Oct. 1786, lists the degree recipients as "William Wallace, sen." and "William Wallace, jun." This usage could mean that the pair were related but may also imply only that one was older than the other. Wanda S. Gunning kindly supplied references used in this sketch. JJL & WFC

CLASS

John Nelson (Neilson) Abeel, A.B.

1787

William Dobeian James, A.B. Cantwell Jones, A.B.

Evan Shelby Alexander, A.B. Isaac Blanchard Brooks Jabez Camp Meredith Clymer, A.B. George Crow, A.B. Thomas Duff, Jr. Robert Finley, A.B. James Gibson, A.B.

David Meade, A.B. George Pollock, A.B. John Ramsay Elijah Dunham Rattoone, A.B. James Bond Read John Read, A.B. Daniel Smith, A.B. John Rhea Smith, A.B.

Charles Dickinson Green, A.B.

Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, A.B.

Samuel Harris, A.B.

Lucius Horatio Stockton, A.B.

Nathaniel Cabot Higginson,

Daniel Thew, A.B.

A.B.

James Weir, A.B.

Robert Hughes, A.B.

Jeremiah Woolsey, A.B.

John Irwin (Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 26, 1787)

John Nelson (Neilson) Abeel A.B., D.D. Harvard 1804, Dutch Reformed clergyman, was born in New York City in 1769, the son of Col. James Abeel and his wife Gertrude Neilson, the daughter of Dr. John Neilson, originally from Belfast, Ireland, and sister of John Neilson (A.B. 1793). T h e father may have been the Capt. James Abeel who served with the New York militia during 1776; and a tradition that J o h n Abeel received a part of his preparation^ for college at Morristown, New Jersey, supports the possibility that he may have been the son of Col. James Abeel, deputy quarter master general under George Washington at that place, but confirmation has not been found. Just when Abeel entered the College has not been established. H e joined the American Whig Society and yet was very friendly with his classmate J o h n Rhea Smith, a Cliosophian. Smith's diary mentions Abeel frequently, joining in the evening talk sessions and playing hoop in one of the Nassau Hall entries. On one occasion the two split 100 oysters that they bought from a huckster. When Abeel spoke at evening prayers on March 4, 1786, Smith observed that he "does himself credit indeed his Piece is Alcibiades' concerning the Competition he had with a Brewer." On September 26 of the same year, shortly before commencement, another classmate, James Gibson, noted in his diary that Abeel was one of the competitors who spoke best. On July 31 Abeel was "very unwell," and Smith visited him and found him improving. However, the presence of Abeel's father on the campus two days later probably indicates that the illness was serious. During Abeel's last days at the College, he was one of six seniors who combined in an apparently unprecedented rebellion against the control the faculty normally exercised over student participation in the commencement program. T h e minutes of the trustees, before whom the six offenders were required to appear on September 25, 1787, the day before the graduation exercises, fail to give full details. Clearly each of them had been assigned by the faculty a part in disputes that he had failed to prepare, and for this "disobedience" he and his colleagues were required to ask pardon of "the board & of the faculty." In addition, all of them were reprimanded by the president and were not "permitted to pronounce any piece in the commencement except their parts in the disputes that had been assigned"— this penalty to be made public "to the College collected." One would like to know more. Was this affair in any way representative of a new spirit of independence on the part of postwar students? Was J O H N NELSON (NEILSON) ABEEL,

168

CLASS OF 1787

John Nelson Abeel, A.B. 1787

their objection to the subject assigned, or to the limit imposed upon individual participation in the program by grouping the six together in a common exercise? Wherever the emphasis belongs, the affair calls fresh attention to the role of oratory in the training of contemporary students, and spells out in full detail the procedures upon which at the time discipline depended—the public apology by the offender and the no less public reprimand by the authorities. None of the six spoke at commencement, and probably the most severely felt part of the punishment was the denial of an opportunity for each of the offenders to display his oratorical gifts before a commencement audience. Abeel's first choice of profession was the law, a subject he began to read with William Paterson (A.B. 1763) shordy after graduation. It did not take him long, however, to assert his preference for theology, which he first studied under the eminent Reverend John Livingston of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York. However, on April 28, 1790 President John Witherspoon presented to the New Brunswick presbytery Abeel's petition for support "in the study

J O H N NELSON ABEEL

169

of divinity at Princeton." Upon Witherspoon's recommendation the presbytery agreed that a sum not to exceed £12.6 could be granted to Abeel for the coming year. The following April Vice President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) appealed for Abeel, "a student in divinity dependent on the charity of this Presbytery," and he received £15 toward his board expenses. In the fall of 1791 Abeel received an appointment as tutor in the College of New Jersey which enabled him to inform the presbytery on September 21 that he no longer wished to receive support. Although he was a member of the rival Whig Society, the Cliosophians voted on July 18, 1792 to allow the tutor the use of their library. On May 15, 1793 he enjoyed, or suffered, the seemingly general fate of junior members of the faculty by acquiring the additional duties of librarian and clerk of the faculty. At the time of this appointment, he was specifically instructed to set up a book of matriculation in which to register the name and place of abode of each student of the College. During this period he continued his study of theology as a private student of President Witherspoon. On September 18, 1793 Witherspoon gave an accounting to the New Brunswick presbytery of money entrusted to him "on account of poor students of Divinity," £14.13.6 of which had been used for the benefit of John Abeel. At the same meeting of the presbytery permission was given to Abeel, who had been licensed as a probationer under the jurisdiction of the Dutch Reformed Church, to accept a call from the Presbyterian Church of Princeton. Doctor Witherspoon, as president of the College, had been serving the Princeton church without a formal pastoral appointment, but he had become too frail to continue these ministerial duties. By November 1793 Abeel had resigned as tutor and Charles Snowden (A.B. 1789) was appointed to take his place. On April 24, 1794 the minutes of the presbytery note that Abeel had not yet given an answer to the call from the Princeton church. Finally on September 17, 1794, a year after receiving the call, he formally declined. At this time he accepted his first pastoral appointment with the Second and Third Presbyterian churches of Philadelphia under an agreement that he would serve both churches in a collegial arrangement, with two-thirds of his time allotted to the Second Church, of which Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) was the pastor. This arrangement proved to be less than satisfactory, and in June 1795 Abeel received a call to become one of the pastors of the Collegiate Reformed Church in New York City. The call having been accepted, he was installed on the first sabbath of the following October. He quickly won a reputation for eloquence and painstaking attention to his pastoral duties, and although invited to accept calls to other pulpits, he remained for the rest of his life

170

CLASS OF 1787

at the Collegiate Reformed Church. His preaching was described as simple and straightforward, though marked with "extraordinary bursts of eloquence." Normally he spoke from brief notes but in a way that made his sermons often seem extemporaneous. He allowed few calls to public service to interfere with his pastoral duties, but from 1799 to 1812 he acted as trustee of Columbia College. From 1807 to 1812 he was also a trustee of Queen's College in New Brunswick. In 1804 he had become a founding member of the New-York Historical Society. He published but one sermon in his lifetime, even though contemporaries thought his series of "Discourses on Education" was worthy of publication. Of middle stature and spare build, Abeel gave the impression of suffering delicate health, which by 1809 was all too true. He then began to experience the unmistakable signs of a "consumption" which interfered with the performance of his pastoral duties. He spent one winter in South Carolina in the hope that a milder climate might help. On another occasion he journeyed to Rio de Janeiro, but all was in vain and he died on January 19, 1812 at the age of fortythree. On January 29, 1794 Abeel had married Mary, the daughter of John Stille of Philadelphia. The couple had seven children, three of whom survived their father, one son to become an army officer, another a clergyman. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 232; Giger, Memoirs; C. E. Corwin, Manual of the Reformed Church m Amer. ... 1628-1922 (5th ed., 1922), 236; Sprague, Annals, ix (Reformed Dutch), 95-98 (quote); Heitman, 834; Smith Diary, passim; Gibson Diary, 8 Mar. & 26 Sept. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept. 1787; Min. Fac, 15 May & 14 Nov. 1793; N.J. Jour., Sf PolU. Intelligencer, 10 Oct 1787; Clio. Min., 18 July 1792; New Brunswick Presby. Min., 28 Apr. 1790-17 Sept. 1794; A. S. Link, ed., First Pres. Church of Princeton (1967); Thomas, Columbia, 14, 47; Cat. cf Officers 6f Alumni of Rutgers College (1909); R. W. G. Vail, Knickerbocker Birthday (1954), 16; Hobart, Carres., ι, 232n, which states that Abeel was at times called "the beloved disciple, John" by his parishioners. NN contains a catalogue of Abeel's library, which was sold at auction after his death. It included not only a large and comprehensive collection of theological subjects, but also titles on history, poetry, and travel, as well as Newton's Works, the Newtonian System of Philosophy Explained, and a Magazine of Wit. PUBLICATION: Sh-Sh # 5 MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi (MSS of sermons under name "Abel"). For a letter see Hobart, Cones., i, 232-33 (original at TxAuCH). WFC

171

Evan Shelby Alexander A.B., lawyer and public official, was the oldest son of Col. Adam Alexander and his wife Mary Shelby Alexander. The father had been born in Pennsylvania and migrated to North Carolina about mid-century, where he became one of the earliest setders and public officials of Mecklenburg County. An elder of the Presbyterian church at Clear Creek (later Philadelphia), he commanded an infantry militia company as early as 1766. In May 1775 he was a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and in the following December he became lieutenant colonel of one of the two battalions of minute men organized in the county according to instructions from the Provincial Congress. On April 22, 1776 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. Already on March 2 he had been made purchasing agent for the District of Salisbury. Some four years later at Gen. Horatio Gates's disastrous defeat at Camden, South Carolina, Alexander commanded a North Carolina regiment which sustained ten casualties. Having survived the war, he owned five slaves by 1790 and continued as one of the leading magistrates and citizens of the county until his death in 1798. Evan Alexander's mother belonged to another distinguished frontier family. A native apparendy of Maryland, she was the sister of Evan Shelby, Jr., and of Isaac Shelby, the first governor of the state of Kentucky. Where Evan was prepared for college has not been established, but his father was a founding trustee in 1784 of the Salisbury Academy which was intended as a replacement for Liberty Hall in Charlotte, an institution defunct since Charles, Earl Cornwallis's invasion of the state in 1780. Nor is it known just when Evan entered the College, but he joined the American Whig Society and graduated second in his class. At his commencement in 1787 he opened the afternoon portion of the ceremonies by delivering the Greek salutatory address—the only year in which this specific honor was conferred. He spoke on "the elegance and beauty of the Greek language." After graduation Alexander studied law and opened a practice in Salisbury, North Carolina. He sat for Salisbury in the state legislature in 1796 and thereafter continuously from 1798 through 1803. In 1806 he replaced his cousin Nathaniel Alexander (A.B. 1776), who had resigned from his seat in the Ninth United States Congress to take the office of governor. He was reelected to the Tenth Congress, and all told served from February 24, 1806 to March 3, 1809. He can hardly be descnbed as a distinguished or especially influential member of Congress, but his attendance was regular, and although he spoke rarely and then briefly, his remarks were usually to the EVAN SHELBY ALEXANDER,

172

CLASS O F 1787

point. In general he supported the policies of President Thomas Jef­ ferson (LL.D. 1791). H e died on October 28, 1809, having served as a trustee of the University of North Carolina since 1799 and apparendy without having married. H e was buried in the old Lutheran Cemetery in Salisbury. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; BDUSC, 520; S. Wrobel & G. Grider, Isaac Shelby (1974), 4-5; A. Henderson, Star of Empire (1919), 6, 109-14; A. Henderson, "Isaac Shelby," N.C. Booklet, 16 (1917), 109-44; St. Rec. N.C., x, 3, 206, 355, 471, 531; xxn, 395, 523; xxin, 944; xxiv, 690; Foote, Sketches, N.C, 208, 246, 480, 482; J. B. Alexander, Hist, of Mecklenburg Cnty. (1902), 104-05; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Williams, Academic Honors, xi, 11; N.J. Jour., Εί Potit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787 ("die elegance"); First Census, N.C, 162; Manual of N.C. (1913), 917; R. D. W. Connor, Doc. Hist of Univ. of N.C, 1776-99 (1953), II, 453-54, 456-57, 459; AIC, 9th & 10th Cong.; W. S. Powell, ed., Diet, of N.C. Biog. (1979- ), I, 14. WFC

Isaac Blanchard ISAAC BLANCHARD was the only son of Andrew Blanchard of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who married his cousin Μehitabel, daughter of James and Elizabeth Blanchard Arnett. Mehitabel's brother Isaac, after whom h e r son was named, was the father of Susan Arnett Kollock, mother of Henry Kollock (A.B. 1794) and Shepard Kosciusko Kollock (A.B. 1812), and also the father of Hannah Arnett Chapman, wife of Robert Hett Chapman (A.B. 1789). At the time of Isaac's birth in 1772 the family was living in New Providence, a small com­ munity a little over ten miles from Elizabethtown, on land that was owned by Isaac's grandfather. This paternal grandfather was J o h n Blanchard, Jr., a justice of the peace of Essex County. His wife was Mary Joline, half-sister of the J o h n Joline who was the father of J o h n Joline (A.B. 1775) and the grandfather of Aaron Dickinson Woodruff (A.B. 1779), George Whitefield Woodruff (A.B. 1783), and Abner Woodruff (A.B. 1784). Sometime around 1775 Andrew Blanchard moved to New Bern, North Carolina. O n May 19, 1779 he was one of the committee of safety who signed a letter to Governor Richard Caswell urging that a state militia be raised to repel attacks by the British and to protect stores and private property. T h a t year he was a justice of the peace of Craven County and he also served as a commissary of militia through most of the Revolution. H e had earlier sent his children back to Elizabethtown "to escape the cruelty of the Tories to whom he was particularly obnoxious," to be cared for there by his brother John. The young Blanchards made the journey with a trusted black servant whose name is variously spelled Cromno and Quomono. It is not

ISAAC B L A N C H A R D

173

entirely clear whether he was a slave or a free servant at the time, but he remained in the north as a freeman and died in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1807 under the name Quomono Blanchard. J o h n Blanchard, a prosperous merchant, was an alderman in Elizabeth town in 1775 and later served as a justice of the peace. He sat on the board of trustees of the local Presbyterian church. Fully as involved in revolutionary activities as his brother, he was a member of the Essex County Committee of Correspondence and in 1776 became captain of a troop of light horse. T h e fact that he was executor of the estate of Thomas Pollock of Elizabethtown and New Bern implies a close friendship, and the nephew living in his home would undoubtedly have had contact with Pollock's sons, Thomas (A.B. 1786) and George (A.B. 1787). Through the marriage of John's daughter Abigail Joline Blanchard to Dr. Timothy Johnes, Isaac must have had contact with Stephens Lewis (A.B. 1791) and the three Ford brothers who attended the College, all of whom were nephews of Johnes. Sometime after the cessation of active hostilities, Isaac returned to North Carolina. The family had residences both in New Bern and on a 450 acre plantation called "Deep Gully," which was located on the Trent Road about eight miles outside of New Bern. Sometime in 1785 or 1786 Andrew Blanchard, with fellow New Jerseyan Abraham Hodge, became a partner in the printing firm of Hodge and Blanchard. T h e earlier firm name of Arnett and Hodge suggests that Blanchard bought out the interest of one of his wife's relatives. Hodge and Blanchard were awarded the contract for printing the laws of the state; they also printed military and civil commissions, blank deeds and circular letters. Sometime early in 1786 they began the publication of The State Gazette of North Carolina. Because of his age and the February 8, 1785 date of his admission to the Cliosophic Society, Isaac Blanchard has been arbitrarily assigned to the Class of 1787. Relatively few students spent four years at the College, and although many matriculated as juniors, the majority in the early 1780s still came as sophomores. Most were invited to join one of the literary societies within several months of arrival at Nassau Hall. Circumstantial evidence therefore suggests that Blanchard entered the College in November 1784 as a member of the sophomore class. He assumed the name of Polypus for Cliosophic Society use. H e probably remained on the campus only one year, for his name does not appear in the diaries kept by his classmates James Gibson and John R. Smith during their junior years, where very few names on the campus are omitted, particularly those of fellow juniors and fellow Cliosophians. Blanchard returned to New Bern about the time that his father

174

C L A S S OF 1 7 8 7

acquired an interest in the printing firm, suggesting either that he may have become involved in some phase of the business or that he may have relieved his father of some of the duties of plantation management. Andrew Blanchard died sometime before December 14, 1787 when Isaac and his cousin Silas White Arnett were acting as administrators of his estate. By March 27, 1788 Henry Wills had bought into the printing firm, which began operating under the name of Hodge and Wills. That summer the business was moved to Edenton, North Carolina. Isaac Blanchard remained in New Bern, where his own death occurred on January 11, 1794. He died unmarried and intestate, and the land that he had inherited from his father was divided among his four sisters. SOURCES: J. C. Hartman, "Blanchard Family of Elizabeth, N.J.," NYGBR, 75 (1944), 145-60; W. S. Powell, ed., Diet, of N.C. Biog. (1979- ), l, 175-76; Clio, lists; S. B. Weeks, Press of N.C. in the 18th Cent. (1891), 39; AASP, 28 (1919), 295, 308; D. C. McMurtrie, 18Λ Cent. N.C. Imprints (1938), 100-07; R. W. Cook, "The Arnett Family of Elizabeth Town, N.J.," GMNJ, 56 (1981), 72-78. Cook claims Elizabeth Blanchard as one of three women who may have been the wife of James Arnett, and "Mehitable" as "probably" a daughter of James. This article gives a ca. 1761 date for Isaac Blanchard's birth, which would have made him well above the average age of the students attending the College in the mid-1780s. RLW

Brooks BROOKS must remain an unidentified student who probably spent only a short time at the College. James Gibson (A.B. 1787) used his journal as a means of recording who spoke at prayers each day, and on both February 9 and March 9, 1786 he noted that Brooks performed this function. Since Brooks does not appear on any offi­ cial College records, it could be assumed that he was a visitor who was asked to participate at the daily prayer service, if it were not for the April 5 entry in the journal of John R. Smith (A.B. 1787). On that day a group of juniors were nervously waiting to be called into their examination, and Smith wrote, "Hughes [Robert Hughes (A.B. 1787)], Brooks, Abiel [John Nelson Abeel (A.B. 1787)] &c in my room & draw some propositions, " i.e., they practiced drawing some of the geometry theorems on which they expected to be questioned. Smith later recorded that all of the juniors passed the examination; whatever Brooks's reason for leaving the College it was not because of a failing grade. SOURCES: Gibson Diary, 9 Feb. & 9 Mar. 1786; Smith Diary, 5 Apr. 1786. Communities from which other members of the Class of 1787 originated were checked, since

JABEZ CAMP

175

schoolmates sometimes entered the College together. However, Brooks was far too common a name to make it feasible to check further with no clue as to a given name. RLW

Jabez Camp has been identified only as a resident of New Jersey, but he probably came from Camptown in Clinton Township, Essex County, the present site of Irvington, where numerous Camp families resided. Camp may have entered the College as a junior in the fall of 1785 and remained on the campus for less than a year. His active participation in campus life is recorded only in the journals of his classmates John R. Smith and James Gibson. Gibson noted that Camp, on February 15, 1786, reported the College's Rittenhouse orrery to be in poor condition; whether this concern indicated a special interest in science on the part of Camp is impossible to corroborate. Early in April Smith seemed amused at the tale of a duel between Camp and another classmate, Thomas Duff, as related to him by the participants, "Duff very serious, but Camp making only a sham." On June 7 Camp's name was proposed for membership in the Cliosophic Society, although he had earlier joined the rival American Whig Society. Whether he became disenchanted with the Whigs, or they with him, he had been dismissed from their society sometime before the end of March. He then became actively associated with a short-lived movement to organize a third society on the campus, but on June 7 the administration publicly declared its opposition to that idea and advised the proponents of a new society to content themselves with joining one of the two already active in the College. That weekend, while Camp and Smith were strolling on the campus, the latter informed Camp that the Cliosophic Society had agreed to admit him. Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786) and John Abeel (A.B. 1787) stopped Smith, "and gave their sentiments that he would not be long with us. I laugh at them and tell them what I believe was true—that they were mortified at losing him." At the next regular meeting night, Wednesday, June 14, Camp became a Cliosophian, assuming the name of Alcibiades, the Athenian general and friend of Socrates. Smith noted that he "conducted himself very well," and the next day at noon he accompanied Camp to the Society Hall and "spent a considerable time there," possibly indoctrinating the latter in the group's affairs.

JABEZ CAMP

Camp's skill as a public speaker explains his choice as one of the July 4 orators to represent the Clios, and why Nathaniel Higginson

176

CLASS OF 1787

(A.B. 1787) considered him one of his chief competitors in the contest for the coveted Dickinson Medal, the first endowed prize offered by the College. Apparendy no one came u p to the trustees' standards that year, but Higginson won the medal the following year. On August 18 Smith encountered Camp in one of the Nassau Hall entries and expressed alarm "at the situation he appeared to be in—a good deal apprehensive of his having fallen into a consumption." On the last of the month, when Camp was talking with Gibson, he indicated that he was unprepared for the approaching examinations. His poor health may have accounted for his lack of study and also for his poor showing in the oratorical contest. Smith's diary indicates that the entire group of juniors who took the examination were passed into the senior class, and since both he and Gibson were on friendly terms with Camp, it seems unlikely that the demise or serious illness of the latter shortly before the examinations would have gone unrecorded. We can assume, therefore, that Camp was examined and passed on with his class, but that he did not return for his senior year, perhaps for reasons of health. SOURCES: Hist, of the City of Newark, N.J. (1913), 539; Williams, Academic Honors, 9-11; Smith Diary, 4 Apr.-18 Aug. 1786 passim; Gibson Diary, 15 Feb., 4 & 27 July, 31 Aug. 1786; Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 (dismission from Whigs); Clio, lists. Stephen Camp (A.B. 1756) had only one surviving son, John, at the time of his death in 1775, but it is possible that he was more distantly related to Jabez Camp. CAL & RLW

Meredith Clymer A.B., lawyer, was the son of George Clymer, Philadelphia merchant, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and public official, and of Elizabeth Meredith, whose father Reese Meredith was a wealthy Quaker merchant. Clymer was born in 1771, probably in Philadelphia. His elder brother was Henry Clymer (A.B. 1786). George Clymer, a cousin of Daniel Clymer (A.B. 1766), may have moved from Philadelphia to Princeton in 1782 for the purpose of placing his sons in the College. If Meredith was attending Nassau Hall that early he would have been enrolled in the grammar school there. T h e family must have returned to Philadelphia by 1785 when Henry Clymer was living at nearby Prospect, the farm of Colonel George Morgan. Whether or not Meredith stayed with the Morgans for a time, he seems to have been very much a part of the give and take of student life in Nassau Hall in 1786, according to the diaries of his classmates J o h n R. Smith and James Gibson. Clymer seems to have been quite friendly with Smith, with whom he took walks MEREDITH CLYMER,

M E R E D I T H CLYMER

177

and visited in the evenings. On March 5 they indulged in a bit of horseplay, with Smith taking Clymer's "piece," probably an oration that he was trying to memorize, "& while he trying to get it & I to keep it hollering pretty loud. Green [Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783)] comes in & frowns like a T h u n d e r Gust." Like his brother, Clymer joined the American Whig Society. T h e trustees' minutes of September 25, 1787 show that he was one of the six seniors reprimanded by the trustees for refusing to memorize the dialogue assigned to them by the faculty for their commencement oratory. All were told that they could not speak at the ceremonies the following day, except on the faculty-assigned subject. None of the six chose to speak. After graduation Clymer pursued a course of reading and study under his father and in the office of Robert Milligan in Philadelphia. He was admitted to the bar on July 26, 1793, at the age of twentyone, as J o h n Meredith Clymer. At this time his father held the post of supervisor for collection of the excise in Pennsylvania. According to one historian of the Whiskey Rebellion, western opposition to the tax disturbed George Clymer, and he was convinced as early as 1792 that the law had failed. However, Governor Thomas Mifflin was determined to crush resistance to the excise, even though the state militia was not prepared to supply troops to President George Washington's army. Consequendy, the Pennsylvania executive called for volunteers. Meredith Clymer joined the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, under Capt. John Dunlap, on September 12, 1794. Not long afterwards, that unit marched west toward Parkinson's Ferry, where the anti-excise men had assembled. No one died in battle, but some fifty men took sick on the Pennsylvania line, six of whom succumbed. One of them was twenty-three year old Meredith Clymer, who took cold from exposure in the camp and died on November 18, 1794. He was buried in Trinity churchyard in Pittsburgh, where his father had been sent to gather evidence against the rebels, but there is no mention of Meredith's passing in any of the surviving family correspondence. Shortly after his son's death George Clymer resigned his position. T h e First Troop wore mourning for thirty days in honor of their departed companion and added his name to their roll of honorary members. In an obituary that appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper and that was written by George Clymer's good friend Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), Meredith was eulogized as follows: Few young men have ever died richer in the love of their friends. He had been stricdy educated in republican principles and habits— His genius was of the first order. His knowledge was extensive, accurate and useful Above all, his morals were

178

CLASS

OF

1787

pure, and his temper kind and benevolent was an epitome of worth.

Mr. Clymer's life

Meredith Clymer had not married. T h r e e nephews, the sons of his brother Henry, graduated from the College. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 232-33; PMHB, 9 (1885), 353-55; B. F. Fackenthal, "The Thompson-Neely House," Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc.Jour., 6 (1932), 418; Smith Diary, passim; Gibson Diary, 6 Feb., 9 Mar., 30 June, 7 & 25 July 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; Hancock House MSS; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept. 1787; N.J. Jour., &Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Martin's Bench & Bar, 257; L. D. Baldwin, Whiskey Rebeb (1939), 68; Η. M. Tinkcom, Republicans 6f Federalists in Pa. (1905), 93, 101-02, 105; W. H. Mohr, "George Clymer," Pa. Hist., 5 (1938), 284; Pa. Arch., 2d ser., iv, 460; Phila. Gazette, 1 & 3 Dec. 1794; Hist, of the First Troop Phila. City Cavalry (1875), 181. LKS

George Crow GEORGE CROW, A.B., teacher, possibly a physician, perhaps a brass founder, has left few definite traces beyond his years at the College and immediately afterwards. An undated class roster from the 178687 academic year preserved in the New Jersey State Archives at Tren­ ton identifies him as a student from Delaware. A list of Cliosophic Society members, obviously a copy of the original, seems to agree, for it names "Joseph Crow" as a student from Delaware who joined on November 29, 1786 at the beginning of his senior year. H e took the name Camillus, probably for Marcus Furius Camillus, soldier and dictator of Rome who saved the city from destruction by Gallic invaders in the fourth century B.C. All published records of the society call this person George Crow. Because the diaries of two classmates kept during their junior year, both fellow Cliosophians, never mention Crow, he probably entered the College as a senior. He did not speak at his commencement. Princeton's George Crow definitely taught school in New Jersey for at least two years after leaving the College. Exactly a week after the October 10, 1787 issue of the Elizabethtown New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer reported his graduation, the same paper carried an advertisement by Crow and classmate Samuel Harris, "both grad­ uates of Nassau Hall" engaged by the "Academy of Orange-Dale" in the Oranges, the same Orange Dale academy that Matthias Pierson (Class of 1764), the father of Isaac Pierson (A.B. 1789), and Jedediah Chapman (A.M. 1765, A.B. Yale 1762), father of Robert Hett Chap­ man (A.B. 1789) and Peter Le Conte (A.B. 1797), helped to organize. Crow and Harris probably worked together for a single academic

GEORGE CROW

179

year. On April 12, 1788 Nathaniel Snowden (A.B. 1787), who was then teaching at the academy run by Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772) in Woodbury, Gloucester County, New Jersey, noted in his diary, "Saw one of Mr. Harris & Mr. Crow's two of my classmates' scholars this afternoon." Within the next seven months Crow and Harris went their separate ways. Harris became a College tutor, and Crow moved to Morristown to open his own school on November 3, 1788. "The different branches of literature and knowledge," proclaimed the same newspaper in December, "will be taught requisite to fit young gentlemen for the senior class in Princeton College," another hint that Crow had joined the Class of 1787 as a senior and intended to institutionalize the process by which he had done so. He was probably still in northern or northeastern New Jersey in July 1789 when the Newark post office was holding two letters for him. Otherwise the only definite information about him is that he died young. He is first listed as deceased in the 1797 College catalogue. These bare facts suggest but hardly demonstrate that Crow was probably somewhat older than typical classmates. He obviously had acquired sufficient education to justify his admission as a senior, a pattern that may indicate wartime disruption of his career plans. No evidence has been found to indicate that he served in the war or transferred from another college, although either is possible. Nevertheless, the stated project of training boys for admission to the College as seniors was audacious, if not impertinent. The announcement appeared shortly after the trustees of the College declared in September 1788 that after the next term "the law requiring a residence of two years in the college," which had been relaxed during the war, would again "be strictly adhered to." Advance knowledge of Crow's plans may even have prompted the trustees' actions, although exactly what they meant by it is less clear. In September 1789 they permitted a scholarship student, David English, to graduate after only one year in residence but ordered the College treasurer to comply with the two-year regulation by paying an extra year's tuition in English's name. Because tuition accounted for only about a seventh of the minimal costs of a full year at the College, Crow's plan may still have seemed attractive to anyone eager to earn a bachelor's degree in a single year. But it is not easy to imagine how a conventional graduate who was only twenty-one or twenty-two years old in his second year out of college could have possessed the moral authority to carry out such a bold plan. The Morristown area contained several academies at various points in the 1780s, including those run by William Woodhull (A.B. 1764), Caleb Russell (A.B. 1770),

180

CLASS OF 1787

and William Campfield (A.B. 1784). In trying to identify Princeton's George Crow, the search should probably concentrate on somewhat older men, that is, on someone with sufficient maturity to carry out this daring proposal. Two attractive possibilities for the Princeton graduate meet these requirements. Both came from Delaware families, were probably at least in their mid-twenties by 1787, and died before 1797. Simply because of his profession, the more likely prospect is George W. Crow, physician of St. Georges Hundred in New Castle County, Delaware, who died shortly after composing his will on January 28, 1796. He was probably the second son and third child of George Crow of Georges Hundred and his wife Mary. He was probably born in the early 1760s. An older sister first married in 1783, and an older brother in 1785 at a time when women usually married in their early twenties, and men when they were a few years older. Also, when the senior George Crow drafted his will in 1783, he included his son George as an executor, an unlikely role for a future college student unless he already met the minimum legal age of eighteen in that year. He would thus have been some years older than normal collegians. This will was not proved until October 22, 1789, only months after the last known appearance of Princeton's George Crow in New Jersey records. T h e elder Crow's will mentioned his wife, a daughter, and five sons in 1783: John, George, Robert, Samuel, and Thomas. If the Princetonian was George W. Crow and an executor of this estate, he may have been compelled to move back to Delaware from New Jersey if he had been teaching school there until 1789. George W. Crow's will of 1796 left everything he owned to his brother Robert, except a debt from his brother Thomas, which he forgave. T h e recurrence of these three names from the 1783 will in the 1796 testament strongly suggests that both were dealing with members of the same family. T h e lack of any reference to a wife or children in the 1796 will probably indicates that George W. Crow died without marrying. A more remote possibility for the Princeton student is George Crow, a Philadelphia brass founder who died there of yellow fever in 1793. He was the son of George Crow, a Wilmington clockmaker, and his wife Mary Gandouct who had married in Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church in Wilmington in August 1746. T h e father was dead by December 4, 1762, the date of his estate inventory. T h e younger George Crow could have been born no later than 1763, and possibly years earlier, for his two sisters may have been younger than he. H e was probably somewhat older than the physician of St. Georges Hundred, Delaware, maybe even too old to be a plausible candidate for the Princetonian. Nor does his occupation suggest any likely con-

THOMAS DUFF, JR.

181

nection with a liberal arts degree, but such a link was at least possible. Without more evidence, further speculation seems pointless. SOURCES: Hancock House MSS; Clio lists; Elizabethtown N.J. Jour., £sf Polit. Intelligencer, 10 & 17 Oct. 1787 ("both graduates"), 31 Dec. 1788 ("different branches"), 15 July 1789; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1788-89, PHi; Min. Trustees, 27 Sept. 1788, 30 Sept. 1789; Calendar of Del. Wills: New Castle Cnty., 1682-1800 (1911 rept. 1969), U 9 (elder George Crow's will of St. Georges Hundred); New Casde Cnty. Wills, Book O, 145-46 (George W. Crow's will), New Casde Cnty. Court House, Wilmington; Recs. of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Del., from 1697-1773 (1890), 398; Philadelphia Cnty. Administrations, No. 108, Book H, p. 172 (27 Mar. 1794), Reg. of Wills, Phila. Although Henry C. Conrad, Old Del. Clock-Makers (1898), 7 puts the clockmaker's death in 1771 or 1772, his estate inventory was dated 1762. See Harold B. Hancock, "Furniture Craftsmen in Del. Records," Winterthur Portfolio, 9 (1974), 207. Crow families were also common in Bucks County and Philadelphia, and they included several named George, but no stronger prospect has been established of approximately the right age. JMM & WFC

Thomas Duff, Jr. THOMAS DUFF, J R . , lawyer, was the son of Thomas Duff and Jane Williams Duff of New Casde County, Delaware. T h e elder Duff served as sheriff of New Casde County from 1765 to 1766 and again from 1770 to 1773. In 1775, when the New Casde militia was called u p to take part in the Revolution, it was divided into two divisions, and Thomas Duff was elected a major of the upper division. Apparendy through a mistake in orders the men under his command missed participating in the batdes of Trenton and Princeton. In an attempt to relieve Duff of any criticism or censure because of this failure, Brig. Gen. Thomas Mifflin wrote to George Read on January 31, 1777:

the detachment of Delaware militia, commanded by Major Duff, from your State, have served the term of their enlistment with credit to themselves and satisfaction to me I have every reason to believe that he exerted himself on all occasions when his duty and my orders were clearly made known to him, and I do not recollect one single instance in which his spirit and zeal were not equal to those of any other officer of my brigade. In J u n e 1783 and November 1790 Duff was appointed justice of the peace for New Casde County. He was a member of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1782, 1784, 1785 and 1790, serving as speaker in 1784. In 1787 he was a member of the state convention that ratified the Federal Constitution. Thomas Duff, Jr.'s name does not appear in any college records,

182

CLASS OF 1787

but the diary of his classmate John Rhea Smith definitely places him in the College from January 1786 until spring of that year, along with several other Delaware students. He attended the Wilmington Academy, where his father was a trustee, and on May 6, 1783 was examined with the members of the third class. He probably entered the College as a junior. Duff is first mentioned in Smith's diary on January 9, 1786, when Smith and his roommate James Gibson were studying. "Receive rather an unwelcome visit from Duff after breakfast, but he informs us Green's indisposition to come to recitation which rendered an interruption from study less disadvantageous." In other words, if Professor Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) was not going to appear at recitation that morning, they could afford to interrupt their studies. Later the same day, "after Supper Reed [either James or John Read] & myself lay wait for Duff in the dark entry and frighten him." On April 4 Smith's diary noted, "Entertained with the humorous affair of Duff & Camp [Jabez Camp (Class of 1787)] fighting a Duel, from their own mouths. Duff very serious but Camp making only a sham." This incident may have been another practical joke at Duffs expense. On April 5 and 6 the junior class was examined by the faculty, and on the afternoon of the 6th Smith elatedly recorded, "return & receive our sentence which was the Faculty's approbation. We then disperse each happy to salute each other by the Appellation of FREEMEN." This high-spirited mood led to arrangements for a celebration at the nearby Reading's Tavern, in order to "exult in our happy situation." After appointing a committee to make the arrangements, and receiving permission for the outing, eleven members of the junior class marched to Reading's that evening, where they partook of "an elegant supper." About 11 o'clock "come home pretty orderly but Duff Etc. when coming into College make a great noise & Dr. Smith comes over." Professor Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769) was living in the president's house next to Nassau Hall. Duff would certainly have received a reprimand, but there is no way of knowing whether he was expelled for his disorderly conduct. He had obviously passed the midterm junior examinations with the other members of his class, but he never received a degree from the College. Duff apparently returned to Delaware to study law, for in April 1791 he was admitted to practice in New Castle County, and from 1794 to 1796 he served as clerk of the county court. Nothing further has been found about either his career or his personal life. A Thomas Duff, Esq. is listed in New Castle County in the 1800 Delaware census.

ROBERT

FINLEY

183

SOURCES: Smith Diary, 9 & 19 Jan., 4 & 6 Apr. 1786; Hageman, History, π, 38; Del Hist., 3 (1949), 201; H. C. Conrad, Hist, of State of Del. (1908), I, 115, 117-18 (Mifflin letter), 153-55, 272, 285, 293; H. Burr, Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church (1890), 688; Governor's Register, State of Del. (1926), I, 18, 19, 36, 38; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. (1887), l, 526, 563; R. V. Jackson, Del. 1800 Census (1972), 47. RLW

Robert Finley ROBERT FINLEY, A.B., D.D. 1817, Presbyterian minister and school­

master, was born at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1772, probably on February 15, the son of James Finley, a native of Glasgow, Scot­ land, who apparendy had migrated to Princeton in 1769 with the encouragement of President John Witherspoon. The two had been acquainted in Scotland, where James Finley was a yarn merchant at Glasgow and a great admirer of Witherspoon in nearby Paisley. In Princeton Finley became a weaver, an elder in the local church, and during the Revolutionary War a supplier of clothing for American troops. The maiden name of his wife was Angres. Robert Finley displayed an early aptitude for his studies and was especially adept as a student of the classical languages. He completed his preparation for college in the local grammar school, where he must have come under the influence of Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), later president of the College, who in his senior year was a tutor at the school. In 1783 Finley was admitted to the freshman class of the College at the age of eleven. Through four years he continued to excel in languages but showed less strength in other fields of study. There is no indication that he won any special honors, nor did he speak at his graduation. Sometime during his undergraduate years he joined the American Whig Society. After graduation Finley remained in Princeton as master of the Nassau Hall grammar school through the academic year 1787-88, a post he held once again in 1792-93. In 1788 he went to Allentown, New Jersey, where Joseph Clark (A.B. 1781), local Presbyterian pas­ tor, was instrumental in securing his services as schoolmaster. At Allentown he came into full communion with the church. After two years there he accepted a teaching position in 1791 at Charleston, South Carolina. There, despite yielding to the local custom of dining out on the Sabbath, he came to a firm commitment to the Presbyte­ rian ministry as his choice of a career. This decision brought him back to Princeton in 1792 to study theology. In 1793 he became a tutor in the College, where he also served for a year as librarian and through two years as clerk of the faculty. Although a member of the

184

CLASS OF 1787

rival society, he was given permission as tutor to use the library of the Cliosophic Society. Finley was taken on trial by the New Brunswick Presbytery on April 24, 1793, and licensed to preach on September 16, 1794. Having been called by the congregation at Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, he was ordained there on J u n e 16, 1795. T h e ordination sermon was preached by James F. Armstrong (A.B. 1773) of Trenton, and the charge was delivered by Joseph Clark. Finley would serve the congregation at Basking Ridge for almost twenty-two years. As much a teacher as a preacher, he opened a grammar school there soon after his ordination which became widely known for its excellent instruction, its discipline, and the handsome brick building that housed the institution after 1800. Finley seems never to have become noted as a pulpit orator. His preaching was described as "plain and edifying," and a sampling of the few sermons which were published tends to confirm the view that their preparation was by no means the first concern of their author. He took his pastoral duties seriously, however, and his interest in education found further expression in the development, in collaboration with George S. Woodhull (A.B. 1790), pastor of the Presbyterian church at Cranbury, New Jersey, of a systematic plan for instruction of youth in the Bible. This Bible study scheme, depending chiefly upon lectures and quizzes given by the pastor, won the endorsement of presbytery, synod, and finally in 1816 of the general assembly. An encouraging religious revival of 1803 was attributed in part to the promotional efforts of Finley in collaboration with neighboring ministers. On May 16, 1798 in the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, New Jersey, Finley married Esther Flynt Caldwell, daughter of the Reverend James Caldwell (A.B. 1759) and his wife Hannah Ogden Caldwell of Elizabethtown, both famous martyrs of the Revolutionary War. Esther was also the foster daughter of Elias Boudinot. T h e Finleys had nine children, five girls and four boys, including James Caldwell Finley (A.B. 1820), Robert Smith Finley (A.B. 1821), J o h n Caldwell Finley (A.B. 1827) and Josiah F. C. Finley (A.B. 1828). Their father, in no small part because of the many helpful connections his marriage brought him, became a man whose influence extended well beyond the narrow limits of his rural parish. In 1807 he became a trustee of the College, a position he held for ten years. He served as one of the original directors of the newly established Princeton Theological Seminary from 1812 to 1817. In 1809 he gave the "missionary sermon" before that year's meeting of the general assembly. Among historians Finley has been remembered chiefly for the initiative he took in the organization of the American Colonization Soci-

ROBERT FINLEY

185

ety in 1816. Indeed, by some he has been credited as the "father" of that society, the first to be organized on anything approaching a national scale for the purpose of taking a step toward resolving the nation's most complex and dangerous social problem, slavery. T h e idea and hope represented by the Colonization Society were by no means original with him, however. T h e American Revolution and the abolitionist sentiment it had inspired had greatly increased the number of free Negroes living in the United States, a not inconsiderable number of them in Somerset County, New Jersey. His interest in the problem seems to have stemmed direcdy from his observations of the far from happy lot of the free Negro in his own parish. In 1815, in one of the first moves he made toward creating the society, he wrote: "The longer I live to see the wretchedness of men, the more I admire the virtue of those who devise, and with patience labor to execute plans for the relief of the wretched. On this subject, the state of the free blacks has very much occupied my mind." While others shared his concern, his role was to issue a call for action. After consultation, formal and informal, with influential men in New York, Philadelphia, and his home town of Princeton, Finley went to Washington in December 1816. There he enlisted the aid of his brother-in-law Elias Boudinot Caldwell (A.B. 1796), prosperous lawyer and clerk of the United States Supreme Court, and other men of comparable standing, including Francis Scott Key and the venerable Reverend Stephen Bloomer Balch (A.B. 1774) of Georgetown. Finley had printed a pamphlet entitled Thoughts on the Colonization of Free Blacks, which was distributed among the members of Congress and others. H e sought a national organization, with headquarters in Washington, that would use federal funds for the purpose of acquiring a territory on which to found a colony of free blacks. In order to enlist the fullest possible support, he showed a willingness to leave to Congress a choice of territories that might include some remote part of the North American continent, but his heart was set upon a colony in northwest Africa, where the British setdement of Sierra Leone provided something of a model. Finley and his associates issued a call for a meeting in Washington of interested gentlemen of the area on December 16 that was presided over by Bushrod Washington. This led to a second meeting on December 21 under the presidency of Henry Clay, speaker of the House of Representatives, that took steps looking toward the memorializing of Congress and the preparation of a constitution for the society, and this in turn to public meetings on December 28 and January 1,1817 that resulted in the adoption of a constitution and the election of officers. Bushrod Washington was chosen as president, and the thirteen vice presidents named were

186

CLASS OF 1787

all influential politicians except for Finley, who by this appointment received recognition for his special role in bringing the organization into existence. Elias Boudinot Caldwell became secretary, and David English (A.B. 1789) treasurer. Finley stopped over at Philadelphia on his way home in the hope of allaying the suspicions of a group of its black leaders who had announced their opposition to the project. In February he was instrumental in organizing an auxiliary society in New Jersey, but his contribution to the colonization movement virtually ended with the organization of the national society. In the spring of 1817 Finley accepted the presidency of the University of Georgia and moved his family to Athens, where he died on October 3, 1817. This last chapter in his history presents something of a puzzle. Given his long-standing interest in education and his extraordinary achievement in the field, there is nothing surprising in his decision to accept what could be viewed as a challenging opportunity. But the acceptance came almost reluctandy at the end of a long period of negotiations in which Finley seems to have betrayed an indecisive quality of mind. Just when the negotiations were first opened has not been determined, although it is evident that they predated his visit to Washington in December 1816. In fact, one informed source suggests that the Washington visit might have become no more than a stopover on a journey to Georgia had it not been for the enthusiastic response his proposals for colonization met there. While in Washington he discussed the presidency with William H. Crawford, then secretary of the treasury, and the discussion included Crawford's assurance that the salary might be higher than a figure previously proposed. One point is clear enough, that Finley's acceptance came with some misunderstanding of what the presidency would involve. Letters written to correspondents in New Jersey after his arrival in Georgia were almost despairing in their comments on the state of the university. His chief immediate proposal to the trustees for its rescue was an appeal to the state legislature for financial support, which an especially well informed student of the university's history has described as a suggestion betraying a gross misunderstanding of Georgia politics. The trustees suffered from no such ignorance and turned the proposal down. Finley then undertook a summer tour of the lower counties of the state in search of private contributions. He combined his fund raising with preaching (perhaps he never really decided what his main calling was), contracted a disease contemporaries attributed to his abandonment at that season of the healthy climate of Athens, and died the following fall at no more than the age of forty-five.

JAMES GIBSON

187

Three of Finley's sons, professing "an hereditary attachment" to the colonization movement, became actively involved with the Amer­ ican Colonization Society. James and Josiah Finley both volunteered for service in Liberia, where the latter was killed by natives. Robert S. Finley became a traveling agent for the society, organizing auxiliary societies and making annual tours, filled with speaking engagements designed to promote the interests of the parent society. SOURCES: The fullest information on Finley's career, and the chief source followed by later accounts, is found in I. V. Brown (Α.Β. 1802), Memoirs of the Rev. Robert Finley (1819). A somewhat revised edition was published in 1857 as a Biography of the Rev. Robert Finley. On his role in the organization of the American Colonization Society see also A. Alexander, Hist, of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa (1846), 5987; J. W. Alexander, Life of Archibald Alexander (1854), 450, 497-98; E. L. Fox, Amer. Colonization Soc. (1919), 43-51 (48 for quote); and P. J. Staudenraus, African Colonization Movement 1816-65 (1961), 15-35, 140 (for sons' involvement). See also DAB; alumni file, PUA; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; N.J. Jour., £sf Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct 1787; Clio. Min., 4 Sept. 1793; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 535; W. O. Wheeler, Ogden Family m Amer. (1907), 98, 162-63; Ε. M. Coulter, College Life in the Old SouiA (1928 repr. 1951), 23-31; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 259-62; R. S. Green & W. Durant, eds., Record, First Pres. Church of Morristown, N.J. (1880-85, 5 vols, in 1), π, 206; Religious Remembrancer, 8 Nov. 1817, 43-44 (obit.); Sprague, Annals, iv, 126-31. No evidence has been found to suggest that Robert Finley was related to the College's President Samuel Finley. PUBLICATIONS: See Sprague, Annals, iv, 131. WFC

James Gibson JAMES GIBSON, A.B., A.M. 1796, lawyer, the son of Anna Maria and

John Gibson, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 1769 and baptized there in Christ Church on May 28, 1770. The father, originally from Virginia, was a Philadelphia merchant who served as mayor of the city in 1771 and 1772. He died in April 1782 when James was twelve years old and was buried in Christ Church burial ground. John Gibson (A.B. 1793) was James's younger brother. On April 28, 1781 Gibson was enrolled in the Latin school of the grammar school conducted by the University of the State of Pennsyl­ vania remaining there through the summer of 1782. From October 1, 1782 through October 2, 1784 he was a student in the philosophy school, possibly the collegiate division, with his tuition paid in full. On April 1, 1785 his name appeared on a list of delinquent students as having "left" owing three months' tuition. His parent or guardian was given as "Wid. Gib., Ches[tnut] st." Gibson probably enrolled in the College as a sophomore during the summer session of 1785, for on September 6 he joined the Cliosophic Society, where he was

188

CLASS OF 1787

known as Decius. Towards the end of that year he addressed a letter to his mother in which he favorably assessed his life at Nassau Hall, even though he missed family and friends in Philadelphia. A journal kept by Gibson during much of his junior year provides glimpses of his college life. T h e entries run from February 6 to March 10 and from J u n e 12 to October 1, 1786. Natural history was his favorite subject and he attempted to be a diligent student. Even though February 22 was declared a holiday, Gibson spent most of the day in study rather than celebration. When examinations approached he neglected his journal for days on end. However, he normally devoted a good deal of time to participation in the speaking contests sponsored by the two campus oratorical societies. While he usually preferred to work alone, Gibson was regularly interrupted by visits to his room from his fellow students. Although the two got along congenially, he does not seem to have been particularly close to his roommate and classmate, John Rhea Smith. Throughout the period covered by his journal Gibson was prone to frequent toothaches and also suffered a case of mumps. Following a social visit from Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) in Princeton, Gibson took pains to deny in a subsequent letter to his mother that he had appeared "peaked." H e reassured her that he was in good health despite the fact that he did not get sufficient exercise. While the journal chronicles Gibson's daily activities at the College, it provides a far more detailed account of his very close relationship with "Leander." This friend was not a fellow Princetonian, but rather a young Philadelphia merchant, John Mifflin, second cousin to Governor Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania. Leander served as the constant point of reference for James, who would break off studying to reflect upon "mon cher ami," to write and await letters that members of the Snowden family often carried back and forth, to reminisce about past and dream of upcoming reunions, and to polish his journal for Mifflin's inspection. When the latter visited Princeton in January and twice in August of 1786, Gibson spent as much time as possible with him; the two passed several nights together at one of the local taverns. On the first of these occasions Gibson's roommate noted in his own journal: Mr Mifflin came in—I feel a little embarrassed and sorry for James' sake we soon get settled into conversation & then I felt very easy—Mifflin conversant & easy... . James goes to the Tavern to sleep with Mr Mifflin, left alone, go to bed 11 o'clock. After an August 21 visit from Mifflin, Gibson confided to his journal how heartbroken he was at the latter's departure.

JAMES GIBSON

189

When the term ended less than a month later Gibson rushed home to Philadelphia to pass the next several days in the company of his "dear friend." Gibson's journal ends abrupdy not long after this. However, a portion of Mifflin's diary, from November 12, 1786 to May 17, 1787, makes it quite obvious that their relationship was greatly valued by the Quaker merchant as well. Although Mifflin described his rather full social life in great detail, he seldom neglected to mention Gibson, even when the latter was away at College. Anniversaries of their first meeting, on March 14, 1785, and of subsequent reunions in Princeton and Philadelphia were duly remembered. On one occasion when Mifflin was ill and frightened he dreamt of the absent "Lorenzo." And when Gibson was forced to delay his return to New Jersey for the beginning of his final year because of recurrent toothaches, Leander nursed him back to health. Another of Mifflin's dreams, no doubt later read by Gibson, suggests the intensity of their relationship. T h e two were in a small boat without oars or paddles drifting down a very long and high Philadelphia pier toward the most treacherous currents of the Delaware. People above cried out to warn them of their peril. At the last moment, Mifflin scrambled u p the pier and then reached down to pull Gibson u p as well. Gibson was stark naked. As the two sprinted to reclaim Gibson's clothes, Mifflin awoke to wonder only if the dream were some kind of premonition, a possibility he quickly discounted. Mifflin for some reason objected to his friend becoming a lawyer and, as his senior by some years, he used his influence to secure him a place in a Mr. Lewis's counting house. Whether Gibson in fact assumed this position following graduation is not clear. T h e relatively outgoing Mifflin also solicited the opinion of his usually timid companion regarding several young ladies from whom the former was supposed to choose a wife. Gibson decided on law as a career despite Mifflin's advice against it and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on September 28, 1791. In the city directory for 1793 his office is listed at 141 Chestnut Street, next to the residence of "widow Ann Gibson." In 1799 he and his mother moved to 159 Chestnut Street and in 1802 settled in a dwelling at 78 Walnut with his office at 61 South Fourth Street, "2nd door below Walnut" A letter written by Robert Morris in 1797 suggests that Gibson's legal studies had been pursued in the office of Edward Tilghman. Gibson is afraid of Tilghman. He believes him infallible, and dare not risque opposition to him, but if he meant to be a great laxvyer, he should glory in opposing the whole Bar, and of all men his old Master.

190

CLASS OF 1787

About that time Gibson was becoming active in the affairs of the Pennsylvania Population Company, of which Robert Morris was a manager. One of the real estate speculation companies set up to profit from an act of April 3, 1792, which opened unoccupied lands in western Pennsylvania for sale and settlement, the Population Company consisted largely of wealthy Philadelphians, although it also included Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772). The 1792 law provided that lands could be acquired either by purchase of a warrant with agreement to improve and settle within two years, or by actual setdement and improvement. The Pennsylvania Population Company eventually controlled approximately 483,000 acres of real estate north and west of the Allegheny, which it then attempted to lease to settlers with an option to buy. Conflicts soon developed with setders who had improved land without filing proper claims. When the Republicans gained ascendency in the state government in 1800, they favored setders over the land development companies. From 1801 until its liquidation in June 1812, Gibson acted as combined president and legal advisor to the Pennsylvania Population Company. Gibson and William Tilghman, cousin of Edward Tilghman, together represented the legal interests of the shareholders of the Population Company and the Susquehannah Company, which was having similar problems. Insufficient sales and the expenses of litigation resulted in stock in the Population Company dropping to $31.83 per share and in the forced liquidation of the company, with Gibson personally holding 100 shares of a total of slightly over 2,000, along with an additional 90 "to protect a judgment." John B. Wallace (A.B. 1794) and his partner William Griffith, who did not buy in until 1811, held 1,014 shares in the defunct company. Gibson was also involved with the Asylum Company, which was organized in 1794 by French emigres who hoped to settle in western Pennsylvania. Robert Morris was president of this company, and on September 5, 1799 Gibson, as secretary, advertised lands for sale in Northumberland, Lycoming and Luzerne counties. This company eventually sold its tides to the Susquehannah Company. In 1813 Gibson and his classmate John Read were named executors of the estate of George Clymer, father of Henry (A.B. 1786) and Meredith (A.B. 1787). The elder Clymer had purchased real estate in the above counties, and the numerous suits over land tides probably delayed setdement of the Clymer estate for over a decade, causing the impatient Henry Clymer to accuse Gibson of being a "designing knave" who willfully defrauded his father's estate. Gibson remained a bachelor until May 1817, when at the age of forty-seven he wed thirty-nine year old Elizabeth Bordley. She was

CHARLES D I C K I N S O N GREEN

191

the daughter of John Beale Bordley, lawyer, gentleman farmer, and author on agricultural subjects, and his second wife Mrs. Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin. The Bordleys had moved from Wye Island, Queen Annes County, Maryland, to Philadelphia in 1791. Elizabeth married Gibson on Wye Island, with Episcopal Bishop William White officiating. Gibson enjoyed a long and active life. He regularly attended St. Peter's Episcopal Church. When he died at nearly the age of eightyseven on July 8, 1856, he was remembered as the oldest member of the Philadelphia bar. From 1798 until his resignation in 1809, he was a member of the elite First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. At the time of his death he had been a member of the American Philosophical Society for nearly fifty years. His wife survived him by seven years. The Gibsons were buried in the Bordley family plot in St. Peter's churchyard. SOURCES: Alumni file (which includes typed transcripts of two letters from JG to "Mama"), PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 234; Giger, Memoirs; records, Univ. of the State of Pa., UPenn-Ar; Hancock House MSS; Gibson Diary, passim; Smith Diary, passim; Clio, lists; N.J.Jour.,& Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; GreenUafs N.Y. Jour., 6f Patriotic Reg., 7 Oct. 1796; Christ Church baptismal records; J. Scharf & T. Westcott, Hist. ofPhUa. (1884), in, 2213; £. L. Clark, Inscriptions in Burial Grounds of Christ Church (1864), 36; F. W. Leach, Mifflin Family (1932); Journal of "Leander" (Mifflin diary which is mistakenly attributed to Gibson), esp. 9 Dec. 1786, microfilm at NjP of MS at PHi; Martin's BenchfcfBar, 271; Phila. city directories, 1793-99; £. B. Gibson, Biographical Sketches of the Bordley Family of Md. (1865), 3-6, 111; Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., i, 145-46; By-Laws, Muster-RoU & Papers of First Troop Phila. City Cavalry (1840), 59; PMHB, 6 (1882), 112 (quote from Morris letter); 11 (1887), 358-61; 42 (1918), 285; 68 (1944), 179; 70 (1946), 207-08; Pa. Hist., 16 (1949), 122-30; P. D. Evans, HoUand Land Co. (1924), 136-37, 144; Susquehannah Papers, xi, 408-09,431; als, Henry Clymer to Joseph R. Ingersoll & Richard Peters, n.d. [ca. Jan. 1827] & Clymer Letter-Book, 1815-30, PHi; W. W. Branson, Inscriptions in St. Peter's Church Yard (1879), 33-34. MANUSCRIPTS: PHi

LKS

Charles Dickinson Green A.B., teacher, ministerial candidate, and publisher, was born on November 28, 1771 in Maidenhead (later Lawrenceville), then a part of Hunterdon County, but subsequently incorporated into Mercer County, New Jersey. His father George Green owned some 8,000 acres of land there. In 1770 he acquired "Cherry Grove" from his uncle by marriage Jonathan Sergeant, treasurer of the College from 1750 to 1777. The family lived in the handsome stone house that adorned the farm, about a mile outside of Maidenhead village along the road leading to Princeton. George CHARLES DICKINSON GREEN,

192

CLASS O F 1787

Green had married Anna Smith, an educated woman who was the daughter of Caleb Smith (A.B. Yale 1743), the College's first tutor and a trustee from 1750 to 1762. Upon the death of George Green in 1777 or early 1778, he left to her £600 and the possession of "Cherry Grove" until their oldest son Caleb Smith Green attained his majority. Another "plantation" was rented for two years and then sold for the benefit of three younger sons, two of whom, Charles and Richard Montgomery Green (A.B. 1794), later would graduate from the College. T h e Green family was to have a continuing relationship with the College of great importance in its history. In the 1870s John C. Green, son of Caleb Smith Green and nephew of Charles, gave generously to the College, providing the financial basis for the John C. Green School of Science and the Chancellor Green Library. T h e latter was named in honor of John's brother Henry Woodhull Green (A.B. 1820), chief justice and chancellor of New Jersey. Brothers of J o h n and Henry were Caleb Smith Green (A.B. 1837) and George S. Green, father of Edward T. Green (A.B. 1854). In 1786 George Green's widow married Benjamin Vancleve, father of J o h n Wright Vancleve (A.B. 1786). When she died on March 30, 1789, her three youngest sons became wards. John Woodhull (A.B. 1766), her first cousin, served as guardian for Richard, and possibly also for James and Charles. Woodhull, a nephew of Caleb Smith, was the Presbyterian pastor in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, where in addition he conducted a classical academy in which both Charles and Richard were prepared for college. Here Charles began his lifelong friendship with David English (A.B. 1789). Charles entered the College as a member of the junior class in November 1785. T h e question of his admission with that standing had been in debate as recently as the preceding August, when his mother wrote him at Freehold that she would leave the question for settlement by Woodhull and "Dr. Smith," who of course was Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), professor of moral philosophy at the College. She reported Smith's opinion "that unless you are very forward Indeed that at your age the Studies of the Junior Class will be severe and Difficult." It probably was the assurance given by Woodhull that won Green admission with advanced standing at an age just under fourteen. He joined the Cliosophic Society almost immediately, on November 12, choosing the name of Phoclides, probably in honor of the Greek poet who lived around 560 B.C. At a meeting of the society in March 1786, according to a classmate's diary, Green failed to "shine very brilliantly" in an attempted "extemporary discourse." At his commencement he presented a "disputation on the disadvantages

C H A R L E S D I C K I N S O N GREEN

193

of public punishments, and the benefit that might be derived to society, from inflicting the penalties of the greater part of laws in private." Following graduation Green returned to Freehold to begin theological studies under Woodhull. On September 22, 1790, when he presented himself to the New Brunswick Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry, he stated that the past two to three years had been spent in the study of divinity, church history, "and other studies connected therewith." Accepted under the supervision of the presbytery, Green continued to study with Woodhull, and fragments of correspondence suggest that for much of the time he was also employed as a teacher in Woodhull's academy. T h e presbytery followed its normal procedure with a ministerial candidate, making assignments and evaluating the results at succeeding meetings, until April 24, 1792, when at Green's request his examination on divinity and the delivery of a popular discourse were deferred. A deferment was not uncommon when candidates were pressed for time, but in Green's case, it may have indicated the first stirrings of doubt about the ministry as a career. On September 19, 1792 he successfully passed the examination on systematic divinity, but "upon his expressing an intention of continuing longer in the study of divinity the delivery of his popular discourse was deferred, at his own particular request until die next stated meeting." On April 23, 1793 Green opened the session with a sermon, which was approved as the concluding part of his trial, and he was licensed to preach as a probationer. T h e next day he was given several preaching assignments for the spring and summer months. However, on April 25 "Mr. Green requested permission to leave the bounds of the Presbytery for a year. His request was granted and the clerk was ordered to furnish him with an extract of the record of his licensure and with a presbyterial recommendation as his Testimonials to the Presbyteries under whose care he may come. Mr. Green was ordered to supply as much as he possibly could among the vacancies before he went away." Being "away" meant returning to his home near Lawrenceville, and at the beginning of the 1793 summer session he was replaced as assistant teacher in Woodhull's academy by David English. Green must have complied with the request to fill the pulpits assigned to him since, on October 5, 1793, the presbytery gave him additional supply appointments, and probably asked Woodhull to forward the assignments. A letter from David English to Green at "Cherry Grove" enclosed a note, which reads: "Mr. Green to supply at New Town 5th

194

CLASS OF 1787

Sab. of Deer. 8c 1 Sat. of Jany at Hardwick—and as much as he can at Baskingridge—and Greenwich until the Spring meeting of Pbyy." This is signed with the initials J. W., no doubt for John Woodhull. A subsequent letter from English to Green, dated April 7, 1794, serves both to indicate that there had been some debate in the latter's mind about his plan to enter the ministry, and to fix the approximate time of his decision to abandon the plan. It reads: The manner in which I feel myself interested in your welfare will plead my excuse if I touch upon a tenderly delicate subject— My dear Sir—your final determination as to the Ministerial office struck me with astonishment. I am convinced several pious persons to whom you are far from indifferent—will much regret it but this is not I allow what ought to have weight on such an occasion—but might you not have gained some considerable advantage in having opened your mind pretty freely to some friend who has had experience in vital Godliness but stop—this may have been done. There follows an expression of the pious hope that Green may be guided by "Him who knows what is best for us." Later correspondence from English shows that Green spent some time in New Brunswick during the next year, but his reasons for being there are not known. Sometime in 1795 Green and English, who had also been vacillating about a choice of career, decided to invest in a newspaper in Georgetown, Maryland. The firm of Hanson 8c Priestly was ready to sell its semi-weekly paper, The Columbian Chronicle, and it was probably English, who had lived for two years in Calvert County, Maryland, who heard of the opportunity. English resigned his position as tutor at the College in January 1796 and set off for Georgetown, presumably accompanied by Green. On May 23, 1796 the firm of Green, English & Co. published the first issue of The Centinel of Liberty and Georgetown Advertiser. At the original rate of $3.00 per subscription plus postage, the publishers found that they were not able to meet their expenses, and they raised the subscription price to $4.00. They also published The Centinel and Country Gazette, a weekly that was largely made up of items culled from the semi-weekly. The Centinel, decidedly Federalist in its views, was designated an official paper by the Maryland legislature, and notices published by the legislature provided much of the paper's support. Samuel Hanson of The Columbian Chronicle had stayed on as editor, with a small interest in the firm. When he retired on July 23, 1799 the firm was changed to Green and English. On November 4, 1800 the two partners discontinued The Centinel

CHARLES D I C K I N S O N GREEN

195

of Liberty, planning instead to issue a daily paper called The Museum and Washington and George-town Daily Advertiser. However, only the first two issues of the paper came out on a daily basis. On November 27 "Daily" was deleted from the paper's name, and it was thereafter published as a tri-weekly. Green and English continued as publishers until January 22, 1802, when they sold The Advertiser to William A. Rind and Charles Prentice, who merged it into the Washington Federalist of Georgetown. English, who was married by this time, remained in Georgetown, but within a few months Green returned to "Cherry Grove." Two letters written from Georgetown on December 15, 1800 and April 16, 1802, from Green to Robert Stockton of Princeton, suggest that Green may also have tried his hand at business, for the letters report his activities in behalf of Stockton in the handling of certain funds. The second letter talks of Green's plans to leave Georgetown soon and recommends his friend "Mr. English" as a dependable replacement. Green left few traces during the remainder of his life. On September 28, 1803 he was among those present at the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society. In 1808 he and his brother Richard were among the seven trustees named in the articles of incorporation for the Union School in Maidenhead. Isaac Vanarsdale Brown (A.B. 1802), another of the trustees, opened the school in his home in 1810 under the name of the Academy of Maidenhead. He was not only the instructor but appears to have conducted the school in a simple proprietorship capacity for many years, although a March 12, 1812 advertisement for the school still listed the seven original trustees. One history of Mercer County states that Green was a teacher, and he may have taught from time to time in the well known institution that went through several additional changes of name before becoming the Lawrenceville School. Green's correspondence with English continued over the years, but the only surviving letters date from 1793-94 and all are from English. They are extremely personal, even intimate, and throw some light upon their recipient. They contain reports of reading and discussions of the kind of philosophical observations one would hesitate to impose upon another without some assurance of a common interest in the subject matter. Charles obviously had a scholarly turn of mind, as indeed did other members of his family. Evidence of the continuing correspondence after 1794 has come through surviving letters from David English in Georgetown to Caleb Smith Green, some of them related to mutual business interests. More than once, as in a letter of October 25, 1820, English mentions his pleasure in hearing

196

CLASS O F 1787

from Caleb through correspondence with his brother. Usually the brother is not named, but he must have been Charles. James had died as a merchant in New York state, and Richard, about 1815, became a farmer in Lawrenceville. In 1816 Charles visited George­ town, from which English wrote on April 20 to thank Caleb for the letter sent by his brother and to express the view that the visit had been helpful to Charles. H e added: " I think with you that some suit­ able employment which he would consider worthy of his attention would be of great benefit to him." In recounting the postponement of a planned departure for home by Charles because of fatigue, English observed that his friend had become so accustomed to take rest when­ ever he thought it necessary "that it has become necessary by habit." Perhaps having rejected three career choices, Charles never did find his true calling. Green died on April 23, 1857 and was buried in the churchyard of the Presbyterian Church at Lawrenceville. H e had never married. His will, executed on J u n e 19, 1852 and proved on May 16, 1857, bequeathed all of his property after debts and funeral expenses had been met to the children of his late nephew Charles G. Green, who had died in 1847 leaving three survivors named in the will: Richard Maxwell Green, Matilda Green, and Louisa Green. T h e estate was modest and mentioned no land. T h e inventory of May 15 showed that it consisted almost entirely of $1,852 in principal and a lit­ tle over $115 in interest owed Green by the Reverend Samuel M. Hamill, Green's "trusty friend" and executor and the husband of Green's niece Matilda, one of the beneficiaries of the will. At the time Hamill shared with his brother the mastership and proprietor­ ship of the Lawrenceville School, then called the Lawrenceville Clas­ sical and Commercial High School. Perhaps Charles Dickinson Green indirecdy contributed to the development of the school by providing a part of the capital upon which its future depended. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers of Trenton & Ewmg (1883), 73-86; E. M. Woodward & J. F. Hageman, Hist, of BurlingtonfcfMercer Cnties. (1883), 560-61, 630, 732, 849; N.J. Witts, v, 211; vii, 12; N.J. Index ofWiUs, π, 708; CDG's will & estate inv., Nj; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 600-02; als, Anna Green to CDG, 16 Aug. 1785, NjP (Smith quote); Smith Diary, 19 & 28 Feb., 3, 15, 19 Mar. 1786; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 28 Sept. 1803; N.J. Jour.,fcfPolit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Alexander, Princeton, 234-35; als, Anna Green Vandeve to CDG, 14 Mar. 1788, NjP (expressing pleasure that his teaching was so limited as not to interfere with "your Studies"); als, James Green to CDG, 10 Aug. 1790, NjP; als, David English to CDG, 15 Jan., 15 Aug., 30 Oct. 1793 (J. Woodhull quote), 7 Apr. 1794 (quote on abandonment of ministry), NjP; als, English to CDG, 18 Mar. 1793 & 20 Jan. 1794, PPPrHi; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (1973), 412; New Brunswick Presby. Min., 22 Sept. 1790-5 Oct. 1793 passim; Records of Columbia Hist. Soc, 9 (1906), 91-92, 95; 37/38 (1937), 44-45; C. F. Brigham, Hist. 6f BM. ofAmer. Newspapers 1690-1820 (1947), I, 87-89, 92-93; R. J. Mulford, Hist, of Lawrenceville School (1935), 9n, 12; D. H. Tyler, Old Lawrenceville

SAMUEL

HARRIS

197

(1965), 23; G. Thurber, "The Lawrenceville School, 1810-1960," NJHSP, 78 (1960), 233-56; als, CDG to Robert Stockton, 15 Dec. 1800, 16 Apr. 1802, NjP; alumni file of English (copies of letters from English to Caleb Smith Green), PUA; MS paper on members of Green family, NjPHi. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP

WFC & RLW

Samuel Harris SAMUEL HARRIS, A.B., school teacher, according to family tradition was born in the earlier part of the 1760s, in the Poplar Tent section of what is now Cabarrus County, formerly a part of Anson and then Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His father Charles Harris seems to have been one of five brothers who migrated from Ireland to America in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, some of them settling in Pennsylvania, and Charles, at least, establishing himself in Virginia. About mid-century he moved to North Carolina, where he purchased a large tract of land on Rocky River. Charles had been married, apparendy in Ireland, to Jane Mcllhenny, with whom he had five children, the oldest of whom was Robert, the father of Charles Wilson Harris (A.B. 1792). After the death of his first wife, Charles Harris around 1760 married Elizabeth Baker, a widow and evidendy the daughter of the Reverend John Thompson, a Presbyterian minister who had moved from Virginia to North Carolina at mid-century. She became the mother of two sons, Charles and the Princeton student Samuel. Samuel Harris was prepared for college in his own part of North Carolina in what has been described as the Poplar Tent Academy. Just when he was first enrolled in the College has not been determined. Although most students enrolled for at least two years, a journal kept by a classmate speaks of Harris's attendance at recitation for the "first time" on J u n e 7, 1786. He presumably was then a member of the junior class, all of whom passed their examination on September 2 1 , 1786 and were promoted into the senior class with a pep talk by President J o h n Witherspoon. Harris joined the American Whig Society. His chief claim to remembrance as a student may be as a member of a group who participated in a presumably unprecedented rebellion against the authority of the faculty on the eve of commencement in 1787. T h e r e is no way of knowing whether Harris was the leader, but his name stands first among the six members of the graduating class who stood before the board of trustees on September 25 to answer for their failure to make preparations for participation in "disputes assigned them" as a part of the commence-

198

C L A S S OF 1 7 8 7

ment program. They were required to ask pardon of the board and the faculty. In addition, they were to be publicly reprimanded by the president and denied a right to speak during the commencement exercises on any subjects other than those that had been assigned. This sentence was rendered on the day before the commencement, and the next day the six culprits sat silently through the exercises. After graduation Harris and classmate George Crow taught at an academy at Orange Dale in Essex County, New Jersey, which Matthias Pierson (Class of 1764), father of Isaac Pierson (A.B. 1789), and Jedediah Chapman (A.M. 1765, A.B. Yale 1762), father of Robert Hett Chapman (A.B. 1789) and Peter Le Conte (A.B. 1797), had recently helped establish. In November 1788 Harris returned to Nassau Hall as a tutor and at the same time was accepted under the care of the New Brunswick Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry. He must also have joined the group of theology students studying privately under President Witherspoon. Harris died sometime before November 23, 1789, when the faculty chose Silas Wood (A.B. 1789) to replace him as tutor, but after October 21, 1789, the date of the meeting referred to in the April 27, 1790 minutes of the presbytery: "Mr. Harris who had been admitted a candidate and had made some progress in the exercises preparatory to his being licensed has been removed by death since the last meeting of the Presbytery." SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept 1787; Min. Fac, 3 Mar. & 23 Nov. 1789; Η. M. Wagstaff, "The Harris Letters," James Sprunt Hist. Pubs., 14 (1916), 55-57; Smith Diary, 7 June 1786; N.J. Jour., 6f Polit. Intelligencer, 10 & 17 Oct. 1787; New Brunswick Presby. Min., 31 Oct. 1788, 27 Apr. 1790. WFC

Nathaniel Cabot Higginson NATHANIEL CABOT HIGGINSON, A.B., lawyer and United States gov­

ernment agent, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on February 12, 1768, the third of the nine children of Stephen and his wife Susan Cleveland Higginson. He was a direct descendant of the Reverend Francis Higginson, prominent among the first generation of Puri­ tan divines who migrated to New England. Through the interven­ ing years members of the family repeatedly held positions of lead­ ership in the region and intermarried with other leading families. Nathaniel's father had spent most of the decade preceding the Rev­ olution at sea, as often as not in command of his own vessels, and in 1774 had given testimony before a committee of the House of Commons on the American fisheries and trade. With the coming of

N A T H A N I E L CABOT H I G G I N S O N

199

the war he turned to the highly dangerous and profitable business of privateering. In 1778 he returned to Boston where he began a mercantile partnership with Jonathan Jackson. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783. He did not take his seat immediately, but from February 27 until September 20, 1783 he took an active part in its deliberations, both at Philadelphia and Princeton. He served as naval officer of the port of Boston from 1797 to 1808. He had a part in the suppression of Shays's Rebellion and was a leading Massachusetts Federalist. Nathaniel Higginson had the distinction of being the only New Englander in his class. His father's contact with the College and its president while serving as a member of Congress may have influenced the son's enrollment at Nassau Hall in preference to one of the New England colleges. Higginson probably entered the junior class in the fall of 1785, and on December 13, 1785 he joined the Cliosophic Society, adopting the name of Fox, probably for the contemporary British statesman Charles James Fox. A membership list of the society gives Higginson's home city as Philadelphia. He may have traveled to that city with his father and received his preparatory training there. If so, he would already have been acquainted with his classmate John Rhea Smith. If not, they seem to have quickly formed a close friendship, with Smith's journal frequently recording discussions, walks, and games such as quoits and wrestling that they enjoyed together. One of their common interests was in public speaking, although Higginson seems to have had much more talent in this area than Smith. By August 1786 they were planning, at the suggestion of Professor Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), a "dialogue" to be jointly delivered after the regular program of undergraduate competitions had been completed on the eve of commencement. Preparations continued, despite Professor Smith's public announcement of the plan to other members of the College, which robbed the two of a hoped for surprise performance. Early in September Higginson made a trip to New York to purchase books and a new outfit to wear for the "public speaking." John Smith thought his taste very good. Smith's diary ends on September 22, with both young men subjecting their parts to the helpful criticism of Professor Smith. In his junior year Higginson entered the competition for the Dickinson Medal, which had been established by John Dickinson for the best undergraduate essay on an assigned subject. On August 11 Smith recorded that Higginson was "much vexed at the medal affair." Presumably the faculty had decided that none of the essays submitted was of sufficient quality, since the medal was not awarded that year. Higginson won it in his senior year for presenting the best dissertation.

200

CLASS OF 1787

T h e topic assigned to that year's entrants was "Zeal for religion free from bigotry and enthusiasm." More important was the distinction he enjoyed in delivering the Latin salutatory oration, as the ranking student in his class, "on the progress of letters and the assistance rendered them by the art of Printing." When receiving both of these honors he was listed as being from the state of Massachusetts, and Whig Society records claim him as a member at this time. Why he switched his allegiance from the Clios remains unknown. On July 4, 1793 when J o h n Henry Hobart (A.B. 1793) represented the Whigs at the patriotic ceremonies of the day, he delivered an oration on "The Cause of Freedom" which was composed by Higginson. After graduation Higginson must have moved immediately into the study of law in Philadelphia, for he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on December 11, 1790, while his friend John Rhea Smith was not admitted until J u n e 29, 1791. In 1791 Higginson qualified for practice in nearby Bucks County. A directory for the city in 1793 gives his address as an attorney at law as 128 North Second Street. H e was the youngest of five defense counsels who represented Pennsylvania's Comptroller General John Nicholson at his trial before the state senate from February 25 to April 5, 1794, following his impeachment for illegally profiting from his office. Higginson helped obtain Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791), his father's friend, as a defense witness at the trial, which resulted in Nicholson's acquittal although he soon resigned to avoid further investigation and eventually went bankrupt. On October 13, 1792 Higginson married Sarah (Sally) Rhea of Philadelphia, who was a daughter of John and Mary Smith Rhea, a cousin of J o h n Rhea Smith, and a sister of J o h n Rhea (A.B. 1780) and Ebenezer Rhea (A.B. 1791). T h e couple had one child, a daughter, who may have been temporarily left with relatives when her parents journeyed to the British West Indies in April 1794, where Higginson had received a four-month appointment as a United States agent authorized to enter appeals in the admiralty courts of the West Indies in the cases of American vessels captured by the British and illegally condemned. Higginson's instructions were to proceed without delay to the "Islands of Barbadoes, Tobago, Grenada, Martinico, Dominica, Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christophers, San Domingo, Jamaica, and New Providence." T h e brig Molly was chartered for his use and the financial arrangements outlined by the secretary of the treasury included $2,000 for the four months, plus $30.00 per week for personal expenses. An exact accounting of all business expenses incurred would be required by the Treasury. In early J u n e Higginson wrote from Barbados to Secretary of State Edmund Randolph, "It is much

N A T H A N I E L CABOT H I G G I N S O N

201

to be feared that nothing will be practicable at Guadaloupe, Dominica and perhaps Martinique to which I shall proceed tomorrow." Higginson's father learned via a ship from Barbados that "Nat" had finished his work on that island and was proceeding to Martinique. Further official reports followed from St. Pierre on Martinique. Higginson's death at Dominica, sometime in mid-July, and the death on board ship of his brother-in-law Ebenezer, are described in a letter of August 7, 1794 from Samuel Harrison Smith, brother of John Rhea Smith, addressed to their sister Mary Ann, who was visiting Bayard relatives in New Brunswick. Our cousins N. Higginson & E. Rhea have terminated a short, alas! a very short career. Both victims to the yellow fever, their deaths are only distinguishable by the interval of a few weeks. Mr. H. received the infection [indecipherable], which he laboured under for about ten days when mortality overtook him. Sally & Ebenezer took an almost immediate departure, both apparendy free from the seeds of disease. This day week however the fever found another victim in poor Ebenezer, after an illness of a very few days. Sally fortunately is well as to this ravaging disease. Higginson had executed his will on July 12, 1794 at Roseau, Dominica, in the presence of Sarah Higginson, Ebenezer Rhea, and William Tilton, stepson of Sarah and Ebenezer's sister Susanna, who may have been another companion on the trip. Higginson's widow took over the care of her widowed mother, and eventually married Thomas Asdey, an immigrant from Manchester, England, on February 1, 1815. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; DAB (father); BDUSC, 1185; LMCC, vu, lxviii; "Letters of Stephen Higginson," AHA Rept. for 1896 (1897), l, 704-841; T. W. Higginson, Life & Times of Stephen Higginson (1917), 9-121; E. T. & H. G. Cleveland, Genealogy of Cleveland fcf Cleaveland Families (1899), I, 219; Clio lists; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Amer. Whig Soc., "College Honors," PUA; Smith Diary, passim; Gibson Diary, passim; N.J. Jour., 6? Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; "The Cause of Freedom," MS 4 July 1793 oration written by NCH, J. H. Hobart Papers, TxAuCH (photocopy in PUA); Martin's Bench & Bar, 278, 312; J. H. Battle, Hist, of Bucks Cnty. (1887), 692; J. Hardie, Phila. Dir. 6f Reg. (1793), iv; R. D. Arbuckle, Pa. Speculator 6? Patriot: The Entrepreneurial John Nicholson, 1757-1800 (1975), 55-60; Hamilton Papers, XV, 127-29, 273-76; xvi, 235-36, 237, 281-83, 288-91 ("Islands," 291n); xvii, 94-95, 199-200, 21315; S. H. Smith letter, Margaret Bayard Smith papers, Peter Force Collection, DLC; Boston Athenaeum, Index of Obituaries in Boston Newspapers 1704-1795 (1968), II 517; "Abstracts of Phila. Cnty. Wills," # 2835, PHi; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 16 Oct 1792; Records of the 2nd Pres. Church of Phila., PHi. MANUSCRIPTS: Jay Papers, NHi; J. H. Hobart Papers, TxAuCH WFC & RLW

202

Robert Hughes A.B., was born in July 1767 in that part of Frederick County, Maryland, which became Washington County in 1776. He was the eldest son of Daniel Hughes and his first wife Rebecca Lux Hughes. The mother, who came from a prominent family of Baltimore merchants, was a Lutheran. Daniel Hughes, an Anglican, was an ironmaster in partnership with his brother Samuel. In Washington County's Antietam Valley they operated three furnaces which supplied cannon to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Daniel married two more times and had a total of twelve children, including Robert's full brother, Samuel Hughes (Class of 1792). John Hughes, Robert's uncle, married a sister of Robins Chamberlaine (Class of 1793). Robert Hughes first appears in College sources on July 20, 1785, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, taking the pseudonym Corydon, presumably after the prudent old shepherd in Colley Cibber's Damon and Phillida. Hughes emerges as a personality in the pages of the journal of his classmate John Rhea Smith, according to which he often entertained his fellow students by playing his violin. His performances enlivened campus celebrations and attracted a following of both Whigs and Clios. Apparendy he was quite good. On one occasion when Hughes stopped, "Billy Browne [William Browne, A.B. 1786] takes up the violin and plays, though much inferior to Bob." On George Washington's birthday, 1786, when the students were given a holiday, Smith in his room heard "the sound of Bob Hughes's violin— I sally forth & stop him as going to serenade the lads on the Campus to play me a turn or two." Smith's usual request was "Taliho." Spring fever may have produced the high spirits evident on March 18 of that year, a Saturday, when the afternoon was free: ROBERT HUGHES,

Go to Brown's Room & hear Bob Hughes play his violin, the Room full as usual, Whigs & Clios promiscuously. After that go to the upper entry with Abner Woodruff find Bob there who draws over a negro with a violin also, the fellows playing very well & Reed & myself having glorious exercise dancing up & down the entry & joining in the noise & confusion of 20 students hallowing and tearing about. Hughes does not seem to have been a rebellious type, but at the end of his senior year he was one of six seniors who refused to prepare their parts in the dialogues assigned to them by the faculty. They were reprimanded by the trustees and told that they would not be allowed to speak at their commencement on any other subject. All six chose not to speak.

J O H N IRWIN

203

Litde about Hughes's subsequent life has been discovered. In February 1799 he wrote to the Cliosophic Society successfully rec­ ommending that it induct John Young (A.B. 1799) of Hagerstown, Maryland. By 1800 Hughes had married Susanna, the orphaned daughter of Samuel and Susanna Schleydoon Purviance of Baltimore. The younger Susanna was probably the niece of David Purviance (A.B. 1754) and of Mary Purviance, who married Samuel Eakin (A.B. 1763). Susanna and Robert Hughes had four daughters and two sons. They lived in Jerusalem, Upper Antietam Hundred, Washington County. Hughes appeared in the censuses of 1800, 1810 and 1820. He owned one slave in 1800. In 1810 he and his brother Samuel were involved in a movement to found a secondary school which led in 1813 to the opening of the Hagerstown Academy in the nearby town of that name, with Thomas Pitt Irving (A.B. 1789) as the first principal. Hughes died before June 20, 1829, when his widow sub­ mitted his will for probate in Washington County. He left all of his property to her "during her life and widowhood" and subsequently in equal shares to their children. SOURCES: J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Western Md. (1882 repr. 1968), ii, 1011-12, 1156-57; MHM, 12 (1917), 142, 338; J. B. Kerr, Geneal. Notes of the Chamberlaine Family of Md. (1880 repr. 1973), 40, 46; Clio lists; Smith Diary, 1 Feb.-5 Apr. 1786 passim (22 Feb., "the sound"; 17 Mar., "Billy Browne," "Taliho"; 18 Mar., "Go to Browne's"), 2 Sept. 1786; Gibson Diary, 14 Feb., 24 July, 7 Aug. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept. 1787; N.J. Jour., £i Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Clio. Min., 13 Feb. 1799; Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., π, 667-69; R. B. Clark, Wash. Cnty. Md.: 1800 Census (1964), 21; R. V. Jackson, Md. 1810 Census Index (1976), 46; R. V. Jackson, Md. 1820 Census Index (1977), 55; MS will of RH, undated, submitted for probate 20 June 1829 ("during her"), Wash. Cnty. Courthouse, Hagerstown, Md. (photocopy in PUA). RLW & JJL

John Irwin JOHN IRWIN joined the Cliosophic Society on November 12, 1785,

using Sheridan as his society pseudonym, doubtless for Richard Sheridan, the contemporary playwright. The date suggests that he was enrolled at the College at least by the 1785 summer session. Win­ ter sessions started early in November, and society members were proposed for membership at least a week before actually joining, and then only after at least a short period of acquaintance when the suitability of the prospective members was discussed. On February 9, 1786 James Gibson (A.B. 1787) recorded in his diary that "Irvin" spoke at prayers that day. Irwin's name is not on an undated list of "Students at Princeton College" compiled during the 1786-87 aca­ demic year, nor does it appear in the faculty minutes. He has been

204

CLASS OF 1787

arbitrarily assigned to the Class of 1787 since the majority of students at the College enrolled for a period of between two and three years. T h e most likely identification for J o h n Irwin is the son of Matthias or Matthew and Esther Mifflin Irwin (Irvine) of Philadelphia. T h e father was Pennsylvania's master of the rolls, and the family home was at 161 Chestnut Street. O n May 24, 1793 his son J o h n Mifflin Irwin (Irvine) was described as "a young gentleman of good char­ acter, who is about to sail on a trading-voyage" to the West Indies, when Governor Thomas Mifflin applied to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) for a passport on his behalf. On April 24, 1794 J o h n Mifflin Irwin married Elizabeth Muhlenberg, daughter of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, who was ordained in the Lutheran Church but left the ministry for politics, serving in the Continental Congress and for four terms in the United States House of Representatives, two as speaker. An older Muhlenberg daughter became the second wife of J o h n S. Hiester (A.B. 1794). T h e Irwins had one daughter and five sons, one of whom was named for his uncle J o h n Hiester. Irwin maintained a mercantile establishment at 164 South Front Street from 1794 through 1796, after which his name disappears from city directories. Abraham Ritter, in Philadelphia and Her Mer­ chants, remembered him as J o h n W. Irwin who operated out of the Front Street address around the turn of the century. I n December 1803 he was described as a major when J o h n Peter Gabriel Muh­ lenberg and Tench Coxe headed a list of ten Philadelphians who unsuccessfully recommended his appointment as naval officer or sur­ veyor of the port of New Orleans. Members of the Muhlenberg fam­ ily located in Lancaster and Berks Counties, Pennsylvania, and the Irwins may have followed. J o h n Irwin died on August 27, 1814. SOURCES: Clio, lists; Gibson Diary, 9 Feb. 1786; Hancock House MSS; als, T. Mifflin to T. Jefferson, 24 May 1793 ("a young") & M. Irwin to Mifflin, 24 May 1793, DNA: Record Group 59, Letters Requesting Passports; Pa. Arch., 9th ser., I, 579; Η. M. M. Richards, "Descendants of Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg," Proc. & Addresses of the Pa. German Soc., 10 (1900), separately numbered; DAB & BDUSC, 1547 (sketches of father-in-law); Phila. city directories; A. Ritter, Phila. &? Her Merchants (1860), 191; recommendation of J. M. Irwin signed by P. Muhlenberg et al., undated but endorsed as received 12 Dec. 1803, DNA: Record Group 59, Letters of Application & Recommendation. The name Irwin, with variations in spelling such as Irvin, Irven, Irvine, Irving, Erwin, Ervin, Ervine, appears in every state along the eastern seaboard, with John and James as particularly favored first names. No relationship has been found with Nathaniel Irwin (Erwin), A.B. 1770. Numerous Erwins, including several Johns, resided in Augusta County, Va., home county of Benjamin Erwin (A.B. 1776), but there is nothing to connect any of them with the College except the possibility of a relationship with Benjamin. There appear to have been at least two pairs of brothers named John and Benjamin Erwin, but neither can be identified as the Princetonians. The family seems to have been involved in a number of land disputes in which various

WILLIAM DOBEIAN

JAMES

205

combinations of brothers brought suits against other groups of their siblings. See L. C. Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement m Va. (3 vols., 1912). There were also Irwins in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, an area that sent a number of students to the College. See W. S. Ray, Mecklenburg Signers £i Their Neighbors (1946). RLW

William Dobeian James WILLIAM DOBEIAN JAMES, A.B., solider, lawyer, and jurist, was a

schoolboy of fifteen, according to his own later account, when the British captured Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780. His father J o h n James had placed him in school at Salem on Black River in South Carolina, where Thomas Reese (A.B. 1768), the local Presbyterian minister, conducted a school. As James expressed it, the school "broke u p " and Reese retired from the area of potential conflict to Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, where he had grown u p and been prepared for college at what became Liberty Hall in 1777. James and his father joined u p with the brigade of militiamen who, under the leadership of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," gained fame as irregular or partisan troops. How much fighting young James actually did is difficult to say. No doubt he remained with the brigade, in which his father was promoted from captain to major, for most of the time until the British left Charleston at the end of 1782. With the advent of peace Reese returned to Salem and apparendy reopened his school. In paying tribute to him in a book about Marion's campaigns published in 1821, James declared that he had known Reese well "for several years after the peace of 1782; he was his friend and tutor, and he owes to Dr. Reese the highest obligations, and to his memory the most profound respect." Evidendy James was in school once more at Salem at some time after December 1782, where he completed his education for college. H e seems to have arrived at Nassau Hall in early J u n e 1786, a full month after the spring session had started. John Smith (A.B. 1787) recorded in his journal that on J u n e 5, when several of the students took an evening stroll on the campus, they were accompanied by "Mr. James the Candidate for our class with whom I was much pleased." Two days later James attended "recitation" for the first time. Smith mentioned James again in August when William Lewis (Class of 1788) of Virginia and James entertained him with "recitals of the many material curiosities which their different countries afforded." This raises a question as to just exactly where James's "country" was. T h e one known list of students in residence at the College in the academic year 1786-87 describes him as a senior from North Carolina. His preparatory education, his service with Marion, and his later career all associate him with

206

CLASS OF 1787

South Carolina. However, many Jameses lived in the lower Cape Fear region of North Carolina that was close to the swamps made famous by Francis Marion. At the College James joined the American Whig Society but had no part in the graduation exercises of September 1787 because of a prohibition imposed upon him and five of his classmates by the trustees. The six students, for reasons not explained, had refused to prepare "their parts in disputes assigned diem" by the faculty. The students were called before the trustees on September 25. They were required to ask pardon "of the board & of the faculty—to be reprimanded by the president and that this sentence be notified to the College collected, & finally that they shall not be permitted to pronounce any piece in the commencement except their parts in the disputes that have been assigned." This apparently unprecedented development provides a significant comment upon the control normally insisted upon by the faculty over student participation in the commencement exercises. The trustees probably regarded the public apology as the more serious part of the punishment, but to the students the harshest part of the discipline was, in all likelihood, the simple denial of a right to display one's oratorical talents before a commencement audience. Very little is known regarding James's career after graduation except for the tragedy that put an end to it in 1828. He obviously had returned to South Carolina and apparendy spent the normal threeyear period of study before being admitted to the bar. In July 1801 Thomas Sumter wrote to Secretary of State James Madison (A.B. 1771) recommending James's appointment as a United States circuit judge. The letter not only cited his twelve years of experience practicing in "the districts of Camden Cherow Georgeton [sic] & Sumter," but also mentioned his "revolutionary Services & principles." Kissed over for this post, he was elected judge of the South Carolina Court of Equity on December 14, 1802, a capacity in which he served until December 1824. J. B. O'Neall, historian of the state bar, had a low opinion of many of James's judgments, but credited his decrees with being "exceedingly well written." A reorganization of the court system in 1824 brought a transfer from equity to the "Law Bench." By that time James apparendy had fallen into the "intemperate habits" that became "so notorious" as to bring about his impeachment and removal from office in January 1828. It was a highly emotional occasion, as may be suggested by the opening paragraph of a letter written to O'Neall in September 1859: I was present, as you know, at the trial of judge James; and of all the duties I have been required to perform, this was the most

WILLIAM D O B E I A N JAMES

207

painful and embarrassing. I had been taught from my cradle to reverence the men of the Revolution; and there was I, who had never fought a battle for my country, suddenly invested with power to condemn one whose wounds bore witness to his valor, and whose fidelity had never been doubted; an obscure individual, who had shed no blood for liberty, sitting in judgment over the comrade of Marion and Sumter. I would have shrank had it been possible, but there was no retreat without delinquency to the commonwealth. The senate, before which the trial occurred, with many of its members reduced to tears, proceded after the conviction to adopt a resolution declaring that his "character for honest integrity as a man has not been impeached by this sentence," and voted that his full salary should be paid until January 1, 1829. James's publication of his account of Marion's brigade in 1821 poses a difficult and controversial question. James states there that on hearing many years before of a plan by David Ramsay (A.B. 1765) to publish his history of the Revolution in South Carolina, he had written an account from memory which Ramsay incorporated in his history, but a review of that history shows that it is difficult to detect the influence of James's narrative. Indeed, in the 1809 expanded edition of his history Ramsay apologizes for a former neglect of Marion simply for the lack of information. Also in 1809 Parson Mason L. Weems published a Life of General Francis Marion adapted from a text furnished by Gen. Peter Horry. A close associate of Marion, Horry had run into difficulty in finding a publisher. Weems, already the immensely successful biographer of George Washington, took over Horry's text and by methods familiar to readers of the Washington biography, turned Horry's story into a comparably successful publication, by no means to Horry's full satisfaction. In an obvious attempt to correct Weems, James supplied an appendix incorporating documents provided by Horry and Marion's nephew Congressman Robert Marion. A. S. Salley, a formidable authority on South Carolina's history, published in 1948 a new edition crediting James with correcting in no small part the Marion "myth" created by Weems. A more recent author, also well informed, tends to place the emphasis on James's own contribution to keeping the myth alive. Perhaps it must ever be thus with the history of irregular or partisan warfare. Aside from the charge on which James was convicted at the time of his impeachment, and a notice of the death of a daughter Elizabeth in 1810, nothing of consequence has been discovered regarding his private life. College catalogues first listed him as deceased in 1851.

208

C L A S S OF

1787

SOURCES: W. D. James, Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion 6f Hist, of his Brigade from Its Rise in June 1780 until Disbanded in Dec. 1782 (1st ed. 1821, see 1948 ed. for Salley intro.); D. Ramsay, Hist, of the Revolution of S.C. (2 vols., 1785); D. Ramsay, Hist, of S.C. (2 vols., 1809), I, 399; O'Neall, Bench &f Bar S.C, I, 236-40; H. F. Rankin, Francis Marion (1973); Smith Diary, 7 June & 18 July 1786; Gibson Diary, 14 July 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept. 1787 ("their parts," "of the board"); N.J. Jour., & Potit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; SCHGM, 34 (1933), 103; als, Thomas Sumter to James Madison, 3 July 1801, James Madison Pipers, DLC ("the districts," "revolutionary"). PUBLICATION: See above.

WFC

Cantwell Jones A.B., A.M. 1794, possibly a lawyer, was the son of J o h n Jones, a lawyer active in Delaware politics, who served as a lieutenant colonel during the Revolution, was a member of the convention that met at New Castle in 1776 to draft the first Delaware Constitution, and in 1777 presided as chief justice of the New Castle County court of common pleas and orphans' court. His wife was probably Mary Cantwell, whose family were large land holders near Odessa, then known as Cantwell's Bridge because of a toll bridge over the Appoquinimink Creek owned and operated by the family. When J o h n Jones died in 1780 his wife had probably predeceased him, for his will does not mention her. His estate was left to his son Cantwell, his daughter Sarah, and his sister Mary Patterson. Mary Patterson and Richard Cantwell were appointed executors. T h e two children were taken into the household of their uncle Richard Cantwell. When Cantwell first journeyed to Princeton in October 1785, he was accompanied by his classmate J o h n Read and a letter of introduction to President John Witherspoon from Read's father George Read. George Read, prominent Delaware lawyer and politician, had served on committees with both J o h n Jones and Col. Richard Cantwell, and introduced Jones as "the son of a deceased friend." There was also a family connection, because George Read's mother-in-law and Colonel Cantwell's mother had been sisters. T h e elder Read's letter noted that the two young gentlemen had been prepared for college at the New Casde grammar school, where they had studied all of the common classical Latin authors with the exception of Cicero's Orations, and he expressed disappointment that they had not been able to complete that work. Their training in Greek consisted only of reading parts of the Greek Testament. Both of the young men, Read continued, wished to study law, but they first hoped to spend twelve months in such branches of learning as logic, moral philosophy and CANTWELL JONES,

CANTWELL JONES

209

mathematics. H e further stated that their morals and conduct were exemplary. If granted a place in the College the two planned to engage lodgings and return to Princeton in time for the fall term. Actually, Jones and Read were admitted as juniors and spent two years on their college studies. They apparendy traveled to and from Princeton together, and Jones sometimes accompanied Read to his uncle's home at Bordentown, New Jersey. They did not choose to room together, but both joined the Cliosophic Society, Jones on November 12, using the pseudonym Castalio. Jones may have had more than the usually ravenous appetite of a teenager. T h e diary of his classmate John Smith, kept during their junior year at college, mentions three occasions on which Jones was involved in some type of altercation or dispute in the dining hall. On one of these the diarist indignandy reported that he had "a warm argument with Jones about the propriety of his snatching bread and butter before grace was over—but got the better for I had the right side of the question." Jones was also involved in several "tussels" or "scuffles," but these may have been playful jostlings rather than arguments. At his commencement on September 26, 1787, Jones delivered an oration on credulity, but any memories of the happy occasion were marred by the sudden death of his uncle Richard Cantwell the following day. T h e commencement exercises started at 11 a.m. with a prayer, followed by nine orations, recessed for two hours, and then continued with six more orations, another prayer, and finally the conferring of degrees. Since September days in New Jersey can be very hot, one wonders whether the rigors of the commencement could have precipitated Colonel Cantwell's attack. John Bayard, probably in attendance as a trustee, made arrangements for the funeral and interment in Princeton cemetery, assisted by Cantwell Jones and John Read. Bayard also wrote to George Read, who broke the news to Mrs. Cantwell and her niece, undoubtedly Cantwell's sister Sarah. Finally, on October 3, Jones and Read left Princeton with a letter from Dr. Witherspoon addressed to George Read, in which he expressed his satisfaction with the behavior of the two young men and added that he hoped that they "will be an honor to us by their improvement." T h e College granted the degree of master of arts to Jones in 1794, which might indicate completion of professional training, but apparently he never joined the bar in either Delaware or Pennsylvania. He settled at Cantwell's Bridge and lived there long enough for his home to become known as the Cantwell Jones Home. Perhaps he setded there in order to spend his time managing the family properties. H e was a member of the Delaware Militia, 7th Company, 3rd Regiment, and paid a fine in July 1799 for being absent on

210

CLASS OF 1787

Battalion Day and Regimental Day, and again in February 1800 for being absent on company days. The 1800 census includes him as a resident of New Castle County. College catalogues first list him as deceased in 1815. SOURCES: Del Hist, 1 (1946), 64; 9 (1960-61), 367; H. C. Reed, Del.: Hist, of the First State (1949), I, 276; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. (1887), I, 522-23; Cal. of Del. Wills, New Castle Cnty. (1969), 11, 22, 94; Historical Records Survey, Inv. of the Cnty. Archives of Del. (1941), 1,25; H. C. Conrad, Hist, of State of Del. (1908), I, 7, 62, 116,150-51; Smith Diary, 7 June & 18 Aug. 1786; Clio, lists; N.J. Jour., fcf Potit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Dunlap & Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; Hageman, History, u, 422; W. T. Read, Life 6f Corres. of George Read (1870), 458-64 (quote from Witherspoon letter); Del. Public Archives Commission, Del. Archives (5 vols., 1911-16), iv, 32, 69. RLW

David Meade DAVID MEADE, A.B., A.B. Hampden-Sidney 1786, planter, who belonged to one of the prominent families of eighteenth-century Virginia, was born about 1769 in Nansemond County, Virginia, the oldest son of David Meade and his wife Sarah, the daughter of William Waters of Williamsburg. The family traced its origins in this country to the migration from Ireland of Andrew Meade about 1685, first it appears to New York and not long thereafter to Virginia. Locating near modern Suffolk in Nansemond County, he supplemented farming with trading. According to family tradition he was raised a Catholic but in Virginia identified himself with the established Anglican Church. In 1731 David Meade (1710-1757), Andrew's oldest son, married Susannah Everard, daughter of a governor of North Carolina. The couple had numerous children, several of whom married into leading provincial families. Their oldest son David married Sarah Waters on May 12, 1768. Six years later, in 1774, he moved from Nansemond to Prince George County where he built a handsome house. The house and gardens, across the James River from William Byrd's "Westover," became one of the showplaces of Virginia. There the later graduate of Nassau Hall grew up. His uncles included Richard Kidder Meade, the father of Bishop William Meade (A.B. 1808), and Everard Meade, who in 1782 paid taxes on eightysix slaves. Like their older brother David, Richard and Everard were educated in England but did not receive university training. The younger David first enrolled in Hampden-Sidney College of Prince Edward County, Virginia. The charter given the trustees in 1783 authorized the academy to function as a college, but its collegiate program was slow to develop. It graduated its first class in

D A V I D MEADE

211

1786. David Meade was among the eight who received their degrees. Meade next came to Princeton and received his second A.B. from the College in 1787. He could have attended most of the academic year beginning in autumn 1786, but he is not on an undated class list from this year, and the amount of time he actually spent at Nassau Hall is unclear. Not until June 13, 1787 did he join the Cliosophic Society, where he adopted the name of Ossian, the legendary Gaelic poet to whom James Macpherson attributed his very free translation of ancient Scottish verse. Prince Edward Academy had been founded by Princeton graduates, notably by Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), who in 1779 had become professor of moral philosophy at Princeton, and over the years a number of students who had finished their studies at the academy moved on to Nassau Hall for completion of their college degrees. Indeed, David Meade was not alone in taking the two degrees. He probably was in residence during at least part of the academic year, and was very likely there when the seniors were examined shortly before commencement. Students had to pass this test to receive a degree. Even so, his name does not appear in the minutes of the trustees listing degree recipients for 1787. We are dependent upon a newspaper account of that year's commencement for evidence that he did in fact secure the degree, and upon the catalogues of the College which, beginning with 1792, accorded him official recognition as a graduate of 1787. Presumably David Meade returned to Virginia after graduation to assist his father in the management of the plantation. But he seems to have inherited something of the adventurous spirit which characterized the father, who had sold the paternal estate in Nansemond in preparation for the move to Prince George County, and who pulled up stakes again in 1796 for a move to Kentucky to settle on land purchased for him by his son David. How early the son had gone to Kentucky has not been discovered, but the outline of the father's subsequent career is familiar enough. At the head of Jassamine Creek in what became Jassamine County, not far from Lexington, he built another handsome house he named "Chaumiere du Prairie," and lived out a full life occupied in part by writing a family history that was considered worthy of posthumous publication. His son David was less fortunate, having died still a bachelor in or about 1799. SOURCES: P. H. BaskerviUe, Andrew Meade of Ireland 6f Ve. (1921), 34, 36, 49; W. Meade, Old Churches, Ministers, fsf Families ofVa. (2 vols., 1900), I, 293; D. L. Holmes, "William Meade 8c the Church of Va." (Ph.D. diss., Princeton, 1971), 17-19; J. Johns, Memoir of Life ofRt. Rev. Wm. Meade (1867); H. S. F. Randolph, Ancestors &f Descendants of Col David Funsten 6f His Wife Susanna Everard Meade (1926); VMHB, 12 (190405), 303; D. Meade, "Meade Family Hist.," WMQ, 1st ser., 13 (1904-05), 37, 101;

212

C L A S S OF

1787

First Census, Va., 83; Hampden-Sidney College, Gen. Cat ... 1776-1906 (1908), 46; H. C. Bradshaw, Hist, of HampdenSydney College (1976); Clio, lists; N.J. Jour., £sf Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787. Although there is a reasonably full bibliography, not always in agreement one part·with another, on the history of the Meade family, details on the brief career of Princeton's David Meade are scattered and at times difficult to find. In the above listing, page references indicate material bearing directly on the subject of this sketch. WFC

George Pollock GEORGE POLLOCK, A.B., planter and gentleman, was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, on March 16, 1772, the son of Thomas Pollock and his wife Eunice Edwards, the eighth child and seventh daughter of Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720), briefly president of the College in 1758. Through his mother, George was a first cousin of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), and a nephew of Timothy Edwards (A.B. 1757) and Pierpont Edwards (A.B. 1768). Indeed, the mother was living as a member of the family of Timothy Edwards when she met and in 1764 married Thomas Pollock, scion of a wealthy North Carolina family who had moved north to New Jersey in an apparent effort to escape the unhealthy climate of eastern Carolina. H e died late in 1777 or very early in 1778, leaving a will that was proved in Essex County, New Jersey, on January 12 of the latter year. For some unexplained reason all of the father's "lands" in North Carolina were left to George, when he attained the age of twenty-one, but it was specified that "all my slaves and personal estate in North Carolina" should be shared by George and his older brother Thomas Pollock (A.B. 1786). T h e widow was to have the house in Elizabethtown, together with the land, tools, livestock, and "goods" belonging to it, one Negro "wench," and in addition "500 Spanish milled pieces" yearly for the remainder of her life. Each of two daughters was willed "7,500 Spanish milled pieces" and a reversionary right in the annuity of 500 Spanish dollars after the widow's death. T h e lands in Carolina were to be rented until George became twenty-one, and Thomas provided that money should be "taken out for the support and education of my children, George, Elizabeth and Frances." T h e suggestion of great wealth is in no way misleading. T h e testator was a grandson of Thomas Pollock (1654-1722), founder of the Carolina family who died while acting governor of the province. He owned thousands of acres, mosdy undeveloped, and roughly seventy-five slaves, a large number for that time and place. George Pollock attended the grammar school conducted by the College, where in September 1780 he won the prize for the students

GEORGE POLLOCK

213

in the fourth or English class of the school. He graduated on September 24, 1782 and was admitted at that time to the freshman class of the College. H e was then only ten years old, and his youth may help to explain a delay of five years before his graduation from the College at the age of fifteen. When he actually began his collegiate studies has not been established. He joined the Cliosophic Society sometime in 1784, so that he was a student in the College at least by the academic year beginning in November 1784. At his commencement in 1787 George spoke on the subject of prejudice which, perhaps more than coincidentally, had been the subject of the oration delivered by his brother Thomas in the preceding year. Commencement topics were approved by the faculty, but many popular topics were repeated from year to year, and it was not at all unusual to "borrow" an admired oration. T h e eloquence of the delivery seemed to be the most important consideration. Both George and his brother Thomas may have read law with Aaron Burr, but apparendy George never practiced. Professor George M. Giger in a brief biographical sketch states that George "resided for many years in Europe & on his return at once took [over] the management of his large estate (over 1000 slaves, &c.)— was noted for energy & executive ability in the conduct of his private affairs." T h e thousand slaves can be dismissed as an obvious exaggeration, but the statement does suggest the outline of a career in which extended travels preceded the assumption of direct responsibility for the management of his extensive properties. Pollock's travels abroad followed hard upon his graduation from the College or the completion of his law studies, and after his return he lived in Philadelphia for some time. T h e residence in Philadelphia has been credited by more than one source to the years extending from 1800 to 1806. Philadelphia directories for those years provide no confirmation, but beginning in 1808 the directories show a George Pollock residing at 236 Walnut Street. In 1810, and through seven years thereafter, the entry becomes "George Pollock, gentleman, 172 Chestnut." H e belonged to a family not only noted for its wealth, but also known for an interest in books, and his election in 1813 to membership in the American Philosophical Society is not surprising. Giger described Pollock as a "gentleman of great good sense, cultivated & enlarged by reading & travel." Pollock disappeared from the Philadelphia directories with the year 1818, perhaps to assume direct control of his Carolina properties and thus eventually to win the reputation as a good manager assigned him by Giger. According to the latter's sketch, Pollock also won a reputation for "large & Judicious" benevolence. T h e account continues: "...

214

C L A S S OF

1787

while he rarely contributed on public occasions, he delighted in private charity—those he generally preferred as objects of bounty were decayed gentle folks." Giger added, somewhat enigmatically, that he "was heavily involved at one time by his relative Col. Burr; but his stern integrity would not permit the use of a clearly legal defence." His death was placed in April 1839 "at his seat Conaconara" near Halifax, North Carolina, and attributed to the fall of a horse. According to a newspaper obituary Pollock died of apoplexy at his "Connicanary" plantation on the evening of April 9, 1839 at the age of sixty-seven. Although there is no mention of a fall, the apoplexy attack may have been precipitated by an accident. The obituary notice continues: "The general character of the deceased, his benevolence and extensive charity, would sanction the highest eulogium; but to those who knew him best such a record of his worth would appear superfluous.—His remains were temporarily interred at the plantation, prior to their removal to this place, which, we understand, is intended." This last statement in a New Bern newspaper strongly suggests that Craven County, of the several counties in which the family held properties, was viewed as the family home. No mention has been found of a marriage or of descendants. Presumably, Pollock remained a bachelor, and one of the principal sources on his family specifically states that he died without issue. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA, which contains a copy of an extremely useful letter from W. S. Powell of the University of North Carolina to Miss M. Elderton of the library staff of the American Philosophical Society, dated 17 Apr. 1967, and supplied through the courtesy of Miss Elderton. The letter carries evidence suggesting that Pollock was resident in North Carolina during the later years of the 1790s. See also Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 235; sources on family cited in sketch of Thomas Pollock (A.B. 1786); H. E. Hayden, "Pollock Family of Pa.," Hist. Reg., 1 (1883), 49; N.J. Gazette, 11 Oct. 1780, 9 Oct. 1782; Clio, lists; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 5; N.J. Jour., 6f Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; NCHR, 48 (1971), 254; Amer. Phil. Soc., List of the Members ... (1880?), 23; Newbern Spectator, 19 Apr. 1839. The family's religious identification probably was Anglican, for the original Thomas Pollock served as vestryman of St. Paul's Parish (see NCHR, 50 [1937], 48), but he was a native of Scotland and at first may have been a Presbyterian. George's mother subsequently married a Robert Hunt, and her name is found among the original members of the Presbyterian church in New Bern (see L. C. Vass, Hist. ofPres. Church in New Bern, N.C. [1886], 107). WFC

John Ramsay B.M. University of the State of Pennsylvania 1787, A.M. College of New Jersey 1806, physician, planter, and state legislator, was the youngest of the four surviving sons of Sarah Seeley

JOHN RAMSAY,

J O H N RAMSAY

215

Ramsay and the Reverend William Ramsay (A.B. 1754), minister of the Fairfield Presbyterian Church, Cumberland County, New Jersey. William Ramsay's two brothers David (A.B. 1765) and Nathaniel (A.B. 1767) had also graduated from the College. David Ramsay married John Witherspoon's daughter Frances, and their sons become graduates in later years: John Witherspoon Ramsay in 1803, David Ramsay in 1812, and James Ramsay in 1814. John Ramsay was probably born in 1768. His father died of typhoid on November 5, 1771, leaving his brother, Dr. David Ramsay of Charleston, South Carolina, as guardian of his sons. The three younger boys were taken to Charleston by their uncle and raised in his home. Joseph Hall Ramsay, five years older than his brother John, who served as a surgeon's mate in the Continental Army hospital at Mt. Pleasant, near Charleston, when he was only seventeen, was captured at the surrender of Charleston and confined in the prison at St. Augustine with his uncle. John, just entering his teens, was probably not imprisoned with the men of the city. Sometime before 1780 John's mother married the widowed Reverend Robert Smith of Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, thus making John a step-brother of Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), then a professor at the College, and of John Blair Smith and William Richmond Smith (both A.B. 1773). It is difficult to determine just when Ramsay was in residence at the College. A manuscript Cliosophic Society roster, a copy of the original but usually correct, has Ramsay joining the society on December 21, 1786 using the name of"—nnoeus." The original manuscript diary of John Rhea Smith (A.B. 1787) indicates an earlier date. On March 14, 1786 Smith noted that "D. Ramsay's brother" was in the college hall for dinner. A week later on the 21st, the regular meeting night of the Cliosophic Society, Smith recorded in his journal, "Mr. Jn Ramsay brother to the Dr. (Charleston) and student of medicine—admitted this evening." The dinner guest would have been Nathaniel Ramsay, at that time serving in Congress in Philadelphia. The Charleston doctor was John Ramsay's brother, Joseph Hall Ramsay. The reference to Ramsay as a medical student suggests that he was already enrolled in medical classes at the University of the State of Pennsylvania. Visitors to the College were occasionally admitted to the debating societies, and it could be assumed that Ramsay was so honored. However, a newspaper account of the commencement of 1806, when the College awarded the degree of master of arts to Ramsay, lists him among the alumni of the College who received the degree. Though these degrees were honorary in the sense that no course of study was required by the College, they were normally presented to any alumnus who applied after completing the education or training nee-

216

CLASS OF 1787

essary to qualify in one of the professional fields. Recipients of the master's degree who were not alumni of the College were awarded what were referred to as "honorary degrees." Separate lists of these degree recipients were sent by the College to the newspapers reporting the commencements. T h e inclusion of Ramsay's name as an alumnus would seem to indicate that he was in residence at the College for one or more terms, possibly taking courses not available at the University of the State of Pennsylvania. After receiving his medical degree from that institution, Ramsay sailed for Europe on January 20, 1788 to pursue further medical studies. His uncle David Ramsay provided him with a letter of introduction to Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) in case he should visit Paris. David Ramsay described his nephew as "a young man of virtuous principles and fond of acquiring knowledge." Ramsay apparently did not get to Paris but on November 22, 1788 wrote to Jefferson asking his help in collecting money owed his uncle by a Paris bookseller, and saying that he could be reached at the Carolina Coffeehouse, London. He returned to Charleston to practice medicine and was elected to the Medical Society of South Carolina in 1793. He probably first practiced as an associate of his brother or uncle, since his name did not appear in a Charleston city directory as a physician until 1801. On March 2 1 , 1797 Ramsay married Maria Deas, widow of J o h n Deas, Jr., daughter of Thomas Loughton Smith, and sister-in-law of David Deas (A.B. 1789), Henry Deas (Class of 1789), and Robert Deas (Class of 1792). In a letter written several years later, David Ramsay described his nephew as a physician turned planter, and one authority surmised that his wife may have inherited a cotton plantation. In the Charleston city directories he is sometimes listed as a physician and sometimes as a planter, and on two occasions as "Dr. John Ramsay, planter." Whether from his medical practice or profit from a plantation, he was probably fairly prosperous. By 1800 the census shows that he had three daughters and owned eighteen slaves. In 1804 he was racing a colt at the Washington Race Course in Charleston, and in 1808 his pledge to the Willtown Presbyterian Church was "one hundred Dollars or that am't in Negro Labour." He apparently had second thoughts and paid the $100, since the last six words are lined out. His wife Maria died on September 15, 1812. According to a eulogy in a Charleston newspaper, "She bare for seven long months, a severe disorder, with the most uncommon fortitude." She left children, "great in number, little in years, and the more numerous part of that interesting sex, and at that critical period of life, when the fostering hand of a mother, and such a mother, is

ELIJAH D U N H A M R A T T O O N E

217

so essential to train them to their future duties and watch them in the early and intricate paths of life " Ramsay managed to raise the brood of young children without a second wife. He had been elected representative to the state legislature in 1801 for St. Raul's Parish. In 1822 he was elected as state senator from the Barnwell District, and in 1824 from St. Paul's. In December 1824 he introduced in the state senate a set of states' rights resolutions that concluded: Resolved therefore, That the Legislature of South Carolina protests against any claims of the United States to interfere in any manner whatever with the domestic regulations and preservatory measures in respect to that part of her property which forms the colored population of the State, and which property they will not permit to be meddled with, or tampered with, or in any manner ordered, regulated or controlled by any other power, foreign or domestic, than this Legislature. The resolutions were passed three to one in the senate, but the house, stating that the wording was too strong and intemperate, passed them in a modified form. The senate refused to accept the modifications and the resolutions were never passed because the two chambers could not agree on the proper wording. The uncle who had raised Ramsay was known, ironically, to be adamantly opposed to slavery, and may have lost his bid for a seat representing South Carolina in the First Federal Congress because of his anti-slavery views. Obviously, his example did not sway John. John Ramsay died July 7, 1831. The only one of his numerous daughters for whom a record has been found is Eliza S. Ramsay, who was born in 1802, married George B. Reid, Esq., died October 15, 1863, and was buried in St. Michael's churchyard, Charleston. SOURCES: Smith Diary, 14 & 21 Mar. 1786; Clio lists; Trenton Federalist, 6 Oct 1806; Prmcetonians, 1748-1768, 113-14, 517-21, 617-21; Vmeland Historical Mag., 26 (1941), 233-42; SCHGM, 3 (1902), 186-87; 24 (1923), 32; 37 (1936), 161; 62 (1961), 178; 67 (1966), 170; Index to WiUs of Charleston City, S.C. (1950), 239; Charleston city directories, 1790-1836; Jefferson Papers, XII, 654; xiv, 278. MANUSCRIPTS: College of William & Mary RLW

Elijah Dunham Rattoone ELIJAH DUNHAM RATTOONE, A.B., D.D. 1803, D.D. College of Charleston 1804, Episcopalian clergyman and educator, was born November 21, 1768, probably at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where

218

CLASS OF 1787

his father John Rattoone served as mayor from 1796 to 1808, as a judge of common pleas from 1796 to 1806, as warden for St. Paul's Episcopal Church from 1790 to 1801 and again in 1809-1810, and as vestryman from 1782 to 1789. Elijah's mother was Isabella Dunham, daughter of Elijah and Mary Dunham, also of Perth Amboy. Rattoone was enrolled in the College by June 2, 1784, the date on which he joined the Cliosophic Society, where he used Cliophel as his society name. At his commencement in 1787 he delivered an oration on religious liberty. Three years later he may or may not have received the A.M. degree, for surviving records state only that ten alumni of the College were awarded the degree at that year's commencement. Perhaps he took the degree to mark the completion of his professional training, since he was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopalian ministry on January 10, 1790. Apparendy at about that time Rattoone married Hannah, daughter of the Reverend Abraham Beach, who had become rector of New Brunswick parish in New Jersey by appointment of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1767. After the Revolution Beach added the responsibility for the parish at Perth Amboy, and in 1784 he became assistant rector of Trinity Church in New York City. Over the twenty-nine years of his association with the New York diocese he became one of the more influential clergymen in his denomination. Rattoone's first congregation was that of St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn, and in 1792 he was appointed professor of Latin and Greek at Columbia College. In 1794 he assumed the additional responsibilities of the professorship of Grecian and Roman antiquities. These posts he held until his resignation in 1797. From then until April 1802 he was rector of Grace Church in Jamaica, Long Island, and then accepted a call to the associate rectorship of St. Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland. The congregants living in the Old Town became his special responsibility. By 1810, and possibly as early as 1808, they were organized as Trinity Church, with Rattoone as rector. The record is filled with ambiguities, but clearly Rattoone did not get along well with either Joseph G. J. Bend, rector of St. Paul's, or George Dashiell, rector of St. Peter's, both senior to him. These early years in the history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States were difficult ones, marked by much conflict as its members struggled to establish an agreement on the basic character of the newly independent church. Dashiell seems to have been especially contentious. Having quarreled over a period of several years with leaders of the church, he eventually withdrew from it and in return was excommunicated. Perhaps the unpleasantness of the association with some of his col-

JAMES BOND

READ

219

leagues in Baltimore made Rattoone receptive to the call he received in the spring of 1810 to the principalship of the College of Charleston in South Carolina. The appointment was temporary, apparently as much by Rattoone's choice as by that of the trustees, who at first offered him the headmastership, which he refused. The trustees appointed him on March 12, and a Charleston newspaper of May 12 reported his death on May 10, 1810. He probably died of yellow fever, apparendy without issue. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; W. N. Jones, Hist, of St. Peter's Church m Perth Amboy (1924), 196, 447-48; Clio, lists; N.J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Trenton Federalist, 17 Oct. 1803; Sprague, AnnaL·, v, 255-66; W. A. Whitehead, Contributions to Early Hist, of Perth Amboy (1856), 233, 235, 239, 262; Thomas, Columbia, 26-27, 79; Hobart, Carres., vols, II-VI, and especially iv, passim, with helpful guidance through a full index under all names mentioned; F. L. Hawks, Contributions to Ecclesiastical Hist, of the U.S.A. (1836), II, passim; J. H. Easterby, Hist of College of Charlestown (1935), 5960, 268; SCHGM, 35 (1934), 30. William Rattoone (A.B. Columbia 1796), who joined the Cliosophic Society on 4 Apr. 1798, was probably the brother of EDR but was never a student at CNJ. WFC

James Bond Read JAMES BOND READ, M.D. University of Leiden 1795, physician, was

the son of the James Read who was born in New Casde, Delaware, and setded in South Carolina, where he married Rebecca Bond, daughter of Jacob Bond of Christ Church Parish, Berkeley County, Charleston District, on December 16, 1750. In 1755 he was one of the factors who paid £50 duty on a cargo of slaves in Charles Town. Around 1759 the elder Read moved to Savannah, where he became a partner in the mercantile firm of Read and Mossman, and later a member of His Majesty's Council for Georgia. The older children in the family were born at "Hobcaw," the plantation of their maternal grandfather, near Charleston, and Mrs. Read probably also returned to the family home for James's birth in 1766. Two older brothers received their early education at the boarding school of Joseph and William Gibbons in Savannah, but since James must have been about fifteen years younger, he may not have been sent to the same school. The older brothers returned to South Carolina, at least in time for Jacob Read, the eldest in the family, to have been among the residents interned in Saint Augustine after the British occupation of Charleston in 1780. The elder James Read died in 1778, leaving his entire estate in South Carolina and Georgia in trust to his eldest son Jacob, who was unable to settle the estate for a long period because of the uncertainty

220

CLASS OF 1787

of the value of debts due in Great Britain. James Read became a legatee of his aunt Sarah Bond Lemprier, who died in 1784 leaving the residue of her estate, after some personal bequests, to be divided among five nephews and nieces, one of whom was James Bond Read. The earliest evidence of Read's presence at Princeton is found in the journal of Gilbert Tennent Snowden (A.B. 1783), who had returned to the community to pursue further studies after his graduation. Snowden secured lodgings at the home of Professor Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), who was occupying the president's house next to Nassau Hall. During March 1784 Snowden several times complained, or excused his own deficiencies by insisting, that with three in a room much time was lost due to chatting. On March 6 he observed: "One of us Mr. Ja—s R—d is studying Latin & being a beginner, is continually applying to us for assistance, but more particularly to me, because Mr. Clay spends much of his time in College." Clay was Joseph Clay (A.B. 1784), with whom Read had probably been acquainted in Savannah. By 1786 James Read was rooming in Nassau Hall with his classmate John Read, whose father George Read, leading political figure in Delaware and member of the Continental Congress, acknowledged a slight acquaintance with James Read from an occasion when they were fellow lodgers at Mrs. House's boarding home in Philadelphia. Since Jacob Read was a member of the Continental Congress from 1783 through 1785, it seems likely that his younger brother was visiting him in Philadelphia at the time he became acquainted with John Read's father. If James Read joined either of the debating societies on the campus it was the American Whig Society, for which no records of nongraduate members have been preserved. It is difficult to determine from the journals that were kept by two of his classmates just how much Read participated in the social life on campus, since fellow students are almost always referred to by their last names, and only occasionally do the journalists distinguish between the two Reads. On February 17,1786 John Rhea Smith recorded in his diary that he and James Read had an argument "concerning Col. Wayne's affair," with Read disputing "with his usual warmth and positiveness." The argument was so warm that the two young men did not hear the dinner bell and were reduced to eating some leftover toast and buckwheat cakes. Read could not have known that his mother had died the previous day in Charleston. He does not appear to have left the campus to return home at this time; one can only guess at how long it must have taken for the news to reach him in New Jersey. Not until March 10 did his roommate convey the news to other classmates. Rebecca Read appointed her son Jacob guardian of her two minor children, Elizabeth and James Bond, and left a bequest of £500 sterling to

JAMES B O N D READ

221

James. With the rest of his class Read passed the examinations at the end of his junior year, but for some reason he decided to leave Princeton before graduating. Read became a physician, having obtained a medical degree from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, probably in 1795, the year he published his Latin dissertation on typhus fever. On Decem­ ber 7, 1797, at "Youngville," Waccamaw, South Carolina, he mar­ ried Louisa Young, eldest daughter of Benjamin Young, deceased, and sister of Thomas Young (A.B. 1790). Read's early practice was probably in Georgetown, Prince George, Winyaw Parish, since he was one of a committee appointed in January 1799 to establish a library in Georgetown. He retained membership in the Georgetown Library Society until 1818. Sometime around the turn of the century he moved to Savannah, where his name is included among a list of prominent physicians who served the city from the beginning of the century, but all of whom died before 1830. In 1804 he was among a group of Savannah physicians, including Nicholas Bayard (A.B. 1792), who organized the Georgia Medical Society. Read joined the society and served as vice president. In January 1809 he was again among the members of a committee seeking to establish a public library, when he attended the first meeting of what was to become the Savannah Library Society. He may have been the J. B. Read elected as an alderman on September 14, 1814. On January 1, 1827 he attended a meeting of the newly formed Charleston Anti-Duelling Association. One source gives Read's date of death as 1841. If this is correct the pre-1830 supposition of his decease perhaps means that he retired from his profession before that date. He had at least one son, named James Read, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Susannah. James Harleston Read (A.B. 1806), Charleston lawyer and planter, was his nephew. SOURCES: James Read has not heretofore been recognized as a student at Prince­ ton, probably because of confusion with his classmate John Read. The names are frequently written as "Jo." and "Ja.," or "J™." and "}".," notations which are easy to misread in handwritten records. James Read's presence on the campus is clearly established by the diaries of Snowden and Smith, and the mention of his mother's death leaves no doubt of his identification. See PUL Chron., 14 (1953), 82 (Snowden diary); Smith Diary, passim; C. T. Moore, Abstracts ofWiUs of... S.C, 1760-84 (1969), 68; BDUSC, 1697; DAB; LMCC, vi, bcxvi; vm, xcvii (biog. of Jacob Read); A. S. Salley, Marriage Notices m the S.C. Gazette (1902), 80; W. T. Read, Life £if Carres, of George Read (1870), 396; SCHGM, 24 (1923), 79; 25 (1924), 4, 10-11, 16-17, 95, 99-100; D. Ε. H. Smith & A. S. Salley, Reg. of St. Philip's Parish, Charleston (1971), 262; C. C. Jones, Hist, of Savannah, Ga. (1890), 437, 457; O. F. Vedder & F. Weldon, Hist, of Savannah, Ga. (1890), 336, 437, 527; T. Gamble, Savannah Duels 6f Duellists 1733-1877 (1923), 185; F. D. Lee & J. L. Agnew, Hist. Record of the City of Savannah (1869), 186-87; alumni file of John Harleston Read, PUA; R. M. Myers, Children of Pride (1972), 1655. PUBLICATION: Dissertatio medico inauguralis, de typho (Leiden, 1795). RLW

222

John Read A.B., lawyer and public official, was born in New Castle, Delaware, on July 17, 1769, the fourth son of George Read, one of the leading political figures in Delaware, a Signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. His mother was Gertrude Ross Read, daughter of George Ross, pastor of New Castle's Anglican Immanuel Church. Two younger brothers, George Read (A.B. 1806) and William Thompson Read (A.B. 1810), were also graduates of the College. Read's childhood was often disrupted because of his father's position as a well-known patriot. John, his mother and brothers were forced to flee from the British to the home of his uncle, the Reverend William Thompson, rector of St. Stephen's Parish in Cecil County, Maryland. The Read home commanded an extensive view of the Delaware River, and when John Read was seven he witnessed the attack upon the frigates Roebuck and Liverpool off the mouth of Christiana Creek. When he was eight his father assumed the duties of the president of Delaware after John McKinly was captured by the British as Wilmington fell in September 1777. From Philadelphia, where the Read family stayed while George Read attended sessions of Congress, they traveled to Salem, New Jersey, and rented a boat to take them across the Delaware to New Casde. They had almost reached their destination when they were spotted by a British man-of-war lying at anchor off New Casde. The tide was low and the Reads' boat became grounded offshore. When they saw that a British armed barge was coming to investigate, they hurriedly destroyed all markings on their luggage, and George Read represented himself as merely a country gentleman returning to his home. The British believed the story and even helped to carry Mrs. Read, the children, and the luggage to shore. These events no doubt made a deep impression on the child. Even in his old age Read could recall the scenes with great clarity. Read came to Princeton in October 1785, accompanied by his boyhood schoolmate, Cantwell Jones (A.B. 1787). Read's father had provided them with a letter of introduction to President John Witherspoon, which gave details of the education they had received at the grammar school in New Castle. They had read all of the common classical Latin authors with the exception of Cicero's Orations, but their training in Greek extended no further than short portions of the Greek Testament. The letter explained that the two young men planned to study law and wished to pursue studies for the next twelve months which would be useful for this purpose, that is, logic, moral philosophy and "the most useful part of mathematics." The

JOHN READ,

J O H N READ

223

letter praised their morals and added that they hoped to be granted entrance to the College, to engage lodgings, and then to return from a brief vacation in time for the start of the winter term. They apparently did not have time to return home before the fall term began. Witherspoon evidendy decided that they needed more than twelve months' study, and Read's first inclination was not to matriculate formally, but to stay on as a resident student, rooming at the home of Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), who was residing in the president's house west of Nassau Hall. However, Read soon decided to enter the College as a member of the junior class and moved into a room at Nassau Hall which he shared with his classmate James Bond Read of South Carolina, who was not a relative. Here he participated in the convivial visiting back and forth which went on in the students' rooms. On January 25, 1786 he joined the Cliosophic Society, using Syphax as his society name. Read's father made arrangements for him to meet his financial obligations by drawing upon an account under the supervision of his uncle James Read in Philadelphia. The monotony of college life was relieved by visits to the home of another uncle, Capt. Thomas Read, and his wife Mary Peale Field Read, mother of Robert Field (A.B. 1793) and future mother-in-law of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1779), at their home near Bordentown. Read graduated in September 1787 and delivered a commencement oration on "the thirst of fame." After graduation he returned to New Castle and there began the study of law under the direction of his father. He carried with him a letter from President Witherspoon saying that he "and Mr. Jones have given great satisfaction to us by their behavior, and I hope will be an honor to us by their improvement." In August 1791 Read was admitted to practice in New Castle County; he then moved to Philadelphia and was admitted to the bar on April 24, 1792. His first home in Philadelphia was a small house at 33 Dock Street, from which he also conducted his practice. In spite of a lifelong preoccupation with his health, he stayed on in the city during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 and contributed substantial sums to the agencies set up to aid the stricken population. In 1796 he married Martha Meredith, oldest daughter of Samuel Meredith, Philadelphia merchant and Signer of the Declaration of Independence. She was a cousin of John Dickinson (LL.D. 1769) and of Henry Clymer (A.B. 1786) and Meredith Clymer (A.B. 1787). The couple eventually built a spacious home at 176 Chestnut Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets, which was noted for its hospitality and for its gardens, which contained a profusion of tulips each spring. Read conducted his law business from an office in his home.

224

CLASS OF 1787

In 1797 President John Adams appointed Read agent general of the United States to act on behalf of the government under the direction of the attorney general in regard to any claims made against the United States under the sixth article of the Jay Treaty. Read filled this position until its termination in 1809, serving under Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) as well as Adams. A volume published in Philadelphia in 1798 included Read's "Observations on the part of the United States, by their agent, to the reply of Daniel Dulany." He served as a member of the Philadelphia common and supreme councils from 1809 to 1815, and in 1815 he was elected to the state house of representatives, where he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Roads and Inland Navigation. Reelected the following year, he was presiding over this committee when he became seriously ill. Read was of rather slight build, delicate in appearance, and apparently prone to illness. He constantly guarded his health with temperate diet and drinking, as well as outdoor exercise whenever possible. On the occasion of this illness his wife traveled to Harrisburg to nurse him. She also became ill and, probably exhausted from her nursing duties, she died. When Read recovered he was elected as a Federalist to the state senate to fill the vacancy opened by the resignation of Nicholas Biddle (A.B. 1801). He served in this position during 1817 and 1818, and in the latter year was elected by the senate to represent the state as director of the Philadelphia Bank. In 1819 he was elected president of the Philadelphia Bank and held this office until he resigned in 1841. In 1817 he had also been appointed city solicitor by the mayor of Philadelphia, and he served in this capacity until 1820. An active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Read served as vestryman and rector's warden of Christ Church, St. Peter's, and St. James's churches in Philadelphia and took an active part in the building of the latter. Upon his retirement in 1841 he moved to Trenton, New Jersey, where he became active in St. Michael's Episcopal Church. He was an avid reader and a collector of rare editions, and was known as a contributor to many philanthropic causes. He died in Trenton on July 13, 1854, a few days before his eighty-fifth birthday, and was interred in the Read vault at Christ Church in Philadelphia. Read was survived by only one of his five children, John Meredith Read, who served as chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and whose son John Meredith Read, Jr., was to become United States consul at Paris and United States minister to Greece. John Read's son Henry Meredith Read (A.B. 1820, M.D. University of Pennsylvania 1823) died in 1828.

DANIEL

SMITH

225

SOURCES: Alumni files, PUA; DAB; Smith Diary, passim; Alexander, Princeton, 232; Clio, lists; H. Simpson, Lives of Eminent Philadelphia™ (1859), 832-37 ("the most useful part of"); N.J. Jour.,fc?Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct 1787; W. T. Read, Life & Carres, of George Read (1870), 20, 275-78, 393-97, 428-29, 575; Martin's Bench 6f Bar, 305; H. C. Conrad, Hist, of State of Del. (1908), in, 857, 859; J. Hardie, Phila. Dir. £sf Reg. (1794); J. R. Young, Mem. Hist, of City of Phila. (1898), u, 260; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. (1887), i, 195-96; PMHB, 6 (1882), 247-49 (Federalist). PUBLICATION: STE # 34906 (joint author). RLW

Daniel Smith A.B., lawyer, was born in 1765, one of the seven or eight children of Jasper Smith and Jemima Lanning of Maidenhead, present Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where the family were members of the Presbyterian Church. The father was a first cousin of Jasper Smith (A.B. 1758). Daniel's maternal grandmother was born a Furman, and there were other marriages between members of the Furman and Lanning families, giving Daniel, if not a kinship, at least a close familial relationship with Agur T. Furman (A.B. 1784). The journal of John Smith (A.B. 1787) during his junior year at the College records a visit of Forman to Daniel Smith's room on February 2, 1786 when Forman was en route to New York. John Smith was asked to join them, and Forman gave the two students news of a dance in Trenton and of the girls they knew who had attended. Forman apparently corresponded with Daniel, who passed on news of him to John. The catalogues of both the American Whig and the Cliosophic Society list Daniel as a member; membership records of the latter show that he joined that group on November 12, 1785, using the name Carlos. At his commencement Smith delivered a dissertation in Latin "on the utility of studying the learned languages." DANIEL SMITH,

After graduation Smith studied law, probably under a Philadelphia attorney, since he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on March 11, 1790, although one authority claims that he completed his studies in New Jersey. He does not appear to have practiced in Philadelphia, but to have immediately located in Sunbury, county seat of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Although still a frontier settlement when Smith arrived, in 1790 Northumberland county already had 17,161 inhabitants, with no breakdown by township. Sunbury had no courthouse until one was built in 1797. Besides its primary purpose, the new courthouse was used for religious services of denominations with no church building and for occasional traveling shows. Smith was noted throughout the area for his eloquence, which helped to secure him important cases from Northumberland,

226

CLASS OF 1787

Lycoming, and Luzerne counties. He was described as "the only lawyer in the district who could be called eloquent in a high sense." He acted as an agent for the Penn family in the sale of their lands in the manor of Pomfret, and he may have been the private of that name in the Northumberland County Troop of Light Horse. In April 1801 he was one of five lawyers retained by the Organization of the Pennsylvania Landholders Association to represent them in their dispute with Connecticut over that state's claim to land within the bounds of Pennsylvania. In November 1803 Samuel Hodgdon, chairman of the Landholders Association, provided a list of Luzerne County lands sold for arrears of taxes. He advised the owners to act quickly to try to recover their property and to check carefully on whether the sales had been conducted strictly according to law. Hodgdon's list showed that Smith and Ebenezer Bowman, both of whom were supposed to represent the interests of the landholders, had together purchased over 6,000 shares. Because of his reputation as the foremost orator in the county, Smith was chosen to deliver the main speech at the county memorial service for George Washington held in the Sunbury German Lutheran Church on February 22, 1800. His address was printed in The Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette on March 1, 1800. Some of the comments on this oration were at least as flowery as the speech itself. As late as 1876, an article published in a History of Northumberland County recalled Smith's effect on his audience. Few, if any, now live, who heard Daniel Smith's funeral oration and eulogy ... but as long as any of those hearers did live, their old eyes would fill, and their voices grow tremulous, when they told how he stood that day, in the old Lutheran Church, with Revolutionary heroes all around him, and citizens crowding seats and aisles to their utmost; and how men and women and veterans held their breath, that not one silver word might be lost; and how the whole auditory were moved to tears, as he told them, on strains of marvelous eloquence and pathos, of the virtues and deeds, and death, of the Father of his Country. That day established his fame, and brought him clients and honors, without stint. In spite of his eloquence Smith was nervous when speaking in public. He was said to turn pale and actually tremble as he rose to speak, but once started, "his voice breaks sweetly on the ear, and words of a persuasive wisdom begin to flow, and now purr along in a rapid torrent." He was described as tall and delicate looking, and always elegantly dressed.

J O H N RHEA SMITH

227

Smith bought a farm along the southern boundary of the town of Milton, just north of Sunbury, but there is disagreement as to whether he moved there in 1795 or some time after 1799. About that time he married Cassandra Wallis, daughter of Joseph Jacob Wallis who in 1770 was one of the original surveyers of the town that was then called Wilkesbarre. Smith's brother Enoch (Class of 1793) and his nephew Daniel Scudder also came from New Jersey to Northumberland County, the former being admitted to the bar in 1798 and the latter in 1817, but both were considered mediocre lawyers compared with Daniel Smith. Smith died April 6, 1810 in his forty-fifth year and "the full vigor of his powers." He was buried in the cemetery of the old Chillisquaqua Presbyterian Church, located on the road between Milton and Sunbury. Smith's will, after leaving the main part of his estate to his wife and his two children, Samuel Jasper Smith and Grace Sarah Smith, au­ thorized his executors, his brother Enoch Smith and Ebenezer Greenough, Esq. (A.B. Harvard 1804), to care for his unfinished business as attorney and counsellor at law, with Elam (Alem) Marr to share also in the business at their discretion, after the latter was admitted to practice. The executors also were empowered to sell numerous tracts of real estate. Interestingly, Greenough was considered the best land tide lawyer in northern Pennsylvania. Smith's hope that his son Samuel would follow in his footsteps is shown by his request that his library of law books be preserved for Samuel's use. His daughter Grace married her cousin Daniel Scudder in the Presbyterian Church of Hopewell, New Jersey on October 20, 1813. SOURCES: Alumnifile,PUA; GMNJ, 46 (1971), 59-61; Smith Diary, passim; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Clio, lists; N.J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Ε. B. Cooley, Early Settlers in Trenton & Evring (1883), 39-40, 123, 153, 155, 158, 219, 263; L. C. Gedney, Rec. of Lawrencevitte, N.J. First Pres. Church (1941), 9; F. B. Lee, Gen. 6f Personal Memorial of Mercer Cnty., N.J. (1907), 74; Martin's Bench & Bar, 312; Pub. Comm. of Sunbury Bicentennial, Sunbury, Pa.: Two Hundred Years (1972), 9, 75, 77; H. C. Bell, Hist, of Northumberland Cnty., Pa. (1891), 246; Proc. of Northumberland Cnty. Hist. Soc., 7 (1935), 45-55 ("Few, if any," 55); 23 (1960), 89, 92; 24 (1963) 66; Susquehannah Papers, xi, 42, 122-23, 425-28, 530-32; will of Daniel Smith, Bk. 2, p. 122, file 109, Court House, Sunbury, Pa. RLW

John Rhea Smith JOHN RHEA SMITH, A.B., A.M. 1805, lawyer, the elder son of

Jonathan Bayard Smith (A.B. 1760) and his wife Susannah Bayard, was born in Philadelphia on June 28, 1767. T h e father was a suc­ cessful and wealthy Philadelphia merchant who held a number of

228

CLASS OF 1787

John Rhea Smith, A.B. 1787

public posts in the city. He served in the Continental Congress in 1777 and later joined the Philadelphia militia, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was a trustee of both the College of New Jersey and the University of Pennsylvania. John's younger brother was Samuel Harrison Smith (A.B. University of the State of Pennsylvania 1787, A.M. College of New Jersey 1797), who was to become well known as the editor of the tri-weekly National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, the first newspaper printed in the new federal capital. Two younger sisters were Susan Bayard Smith and Mary Ann Smith. John (A.B. 1780) and Ebenezer Rhea (A.B. 1791) were the sons of the father's sister Mary Smith Rhea. On his mother's side John Smith was related to the many Bayards associated with the College. On January 1, 1781 John and Samuel Smith were enrolled in the preparatory school run by the University of the State of Pennsylvania, John in the Latin school and Samuel in the English school. There is no way of knowing whether John elected to attend the College of New Jersey, or whether the father decided to be impartial and send one son to each of the colleges that he served as trustee. The journal that Smith kept from January 1 until late September

J O H N RHEA SMITH

229

1786 gives an intimate picture of his life in the College. Several of Smith's notebooks and some letters from his brother Samuel have also survived. From the tone of Samuel's letter of October 5, 1785 and from the bouts of homesickness that Smith recorded in his journal, it appears that he had entered college that fall as a junior. H e roomed at Nassau Hall with James Gibson, whom he probably had known in Philadelphia, until the end of J u n e when Gibson moved to Mrs. Knox's boarding house. Smith seems to have been an amiable and gregarious young man who got along well with most of his schoolmates, but his special friends were John Read and Nathaniel Higginson. H e complained about the college food, worried about examinations, played games and took walks with his friends, and spent long evenings discussing politics, philosophy, the local belles, and the affairs of the two college debating societies. He looked forward to visitors who stopped overnight in Princeton when traveling between Philadelphia and New York, and he waited for mail from home, which was often delivered by Isaac Snowden when he came to Princeton. In letters from "Sister Polly" (Mary Ann Smith) he was always glad to receive "news about the female part of my acquaintance." Smith seems to have been a great procrastinator. Again and again he resolved to do more studying or determined to finish a particular assignment by a certain time. Invariably, some of "the lads" stopped by his room and studying was forgotten. He worked himself into a nervous state for several days before an examination, "trembling" when he thought about it. He was then relieved, elated, and full of high spirits whenever an examination was over. H e was obviously not a brilliant scholar and, at a time when public oratory was considered an important accomplishment, was not particularly talented in this respect. He was usually nervous about speaking and extremely pleased to have anyone either praise him or make suggestions for improvement On March 17, 1786 he was pacing his room in the late afternoon: Myself to speak this afternoon, have my piece by memory, but a good deal uneasy because my coat which I sent to the Taylor's had not come nor did till about ^- hour before 5 which tended to discompose me considerably—however I mount first and from all persons hear that I had spoken much better than I had ever done before, this pleased me very considerably as I was in some measure discouraged at my little improvement. On J u n e 14 he did less well, even though he had written out his speech and had been memorizing it and practicing it for several days:

230

CLASS OF 1787

Spoke this evening—but having been much out of humour at my piece had not enjoyed myself in it so as to commit very perfectly to memory & being a litde embarrassed concluded it before I should have done it. Smith seems to have had some talent for drawing, and he embellished some of his pages with sketches or elaborate art work. He also liked to write verses, often full of classical references, but usually not very good. On January 8, 1786 Smith, in the company of Samuel Snowden (A.B. 1786), visited the Cliosophic Society for the first time. He was impressed with "a larger assembly than I had any idea of, the most genteel people, Gilb. Snowden officiating, much pleased with his easy manner of conducting the business of the evening." James Gibson and Nathaniel Higginson were already members of Clio, and on January 25 Smith and John Read joined, with Smith assuming the alias of Sterne, the English novelist. Society meetings now became an important part of his college life. On February 2, "this being Society day am taken up all the afternoon in dressing etc." Cliosophic Society meetings were held on Wednesday evenings, with "occasional meetings" called at other times when some matter needed to be discussed. Often on evenings when the society did not meet it still provided the main topic of conversation at the evening talk session in some student's room. Graduate members who were living or visiting in Princeton often attended the society meetings. In March 1786 some member of the Whig Society apparently tried to start another paper war such as the one that raged between the two societies in 1771. Edward Johnson (A.B. 1786) found a "paper of characteristiks," written by the Whigs, that is, a paper listing uncomplimentary characteristics and habits attributed to members of the rival society. This caused a flurry of excitement for several days, and a few "severe" letters went back and forth between the two societies, until at last it was decided that the paper found by Johnston had been planted in an effort to stir up the old rivalry between the two groups. At this point the excitement and the letter writing came to an end. On June 7, 1786 Smith recorded that the students were "this day informed of the disposition of the New Society which had been the conversation for several days—Dr. Smith discouraged it & advised them to join one of the established societies." Smith's diary is so lively and gives such a vivid picture of life at Nassau Hall that it is disappointing that it does not continue through his senior year. During August and September of 1786 Smith and Nathaniel Higginson were engrossed in plans to prepare, memorize, and present a dialogue at the undergraduate competitions held the

J O H N RHEA SMITH

231

night before the fall commencement. Higginson even traveled to New York to buy a new suit for the occasion. An excellent orator who won the Dickinson Medal at his own commencement in 1787, Higginson probably chose Smith as his partner in the dialogue because of thenclose friendship. The only thing known about Smith in his senior year is the statement in the trustees' minutes of September 25, 1787, the day before commencement, that Smith was one of six seniors who were reprimanded for not memorizing the dialogue assigned to them by the faculty. They were notified that none of them would be allowed to speak at commencement except on the prescribed topic. Since none of the six did speak, they apparently either stuck loyally by their principles or simply did not have enough time to commit to memory the faculty-approved dialogue. Smith's father and his "Uncle Bayard," his mother's cousin Col. John Bayard, were trustees at the time of this decision, although Jonathan Bayard Smith was not present, perhaps deliberately not participating. After graduation Smith returned to Philadelphia to study law with William Bradford, Jr. (A.B. 1772), attorney general of Pennsylvania. The former's poems during this period contain a few mild complaints, such as Bradford's students being required to spend too much time "scribbling mortgage writs." They also reflect a great deal of interest in the relationship between Bradford and his wife Susan. Smith may have had a youthful crush on Mrs. Bradford, who was only about five years his senior and closer to his age than to her husband's. Admitted to the Philadelphia bar on June 29, 1791, Smith for several years practiced from an office in the family home at 71 North Third Street. He may have narrowly missed death during the height of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. In a letter dated August 31, 1793 addressed "to my dear Parents" (his father and step-mother), Smith wrote: "The reason for my weakness is in consequence of fever I have just had, that reduced me by vomiting and purging to a very low state. At this time there is a most alarming fever in the city." He proceeded to describe the Philadelphia scene, including the frightening number of deaths and the precautions taken by people of wearing bags of camphor around their necks or carrying vinegar-soaked sponges, in the hope that warding off the smell of the disease would keep them from contracting it. The letter is unsigned but the handwriting has been identified as John Smith's. In 1795 when Edmund Randolph published his Vindication of Mr. Randolph's Resignation, justifying his actions as secretary of state with regard to his alleged improper revelations of details of the Jay Treaty to the French minister, Samuel Harrison Smith printed the pamphlet.

232

CLASS OF 1787

In it Randolph stated that he had deposited the original documents in question with J o h n R. Smith, Attorney, where any interested parties could examine them. No other details have been found about Smith's practice. By 1802 he had moved his office to Walnut Street, although he probably continued to live in his father's home. By 1809 Jonathan Bayard Smith had moved from Third Street to 60 South Fifth, and J o h n R. Smith is also listed at that address. H e continued to practice from Walnut Street, moving from No. 83 to No. 74 in 1819. When his father died on J u n e 16, 1812 Smith inherited one-fifth of his estate, with equal portions going to his brother Samuel Harrison Smith, his sister Susan Bayard Smith, and to Ann Caroline Smith and Jonathan Smith, the two children of his father's second marriage. College catalogues first list Smith as deceased in 1830, although Philadelphia city directories continue to include him from 1830 to 1833 at a new location at 249 Mulberry Street. His name ceases to appear after 1833. Family tradition says that after retiring from his law practice Smith resided at his brother's home in Washington until his death. Smith seems not to have held any public offices, even though many of his attorney contemporaries were frequently involved in politics. O n January 17, 1800 he was elected to member­ ship in the American Philosophical Society. Nothing has been found to indicate that he ever married. Perhaps two of the couplets in his notebook, addressed to an unknown female acquaintance, provide a clue to his bachelorhood: On B. S. granting me pardon With joys more sweet this bosom now is blest T h a n Angels tongues united can express. Retaliation on B. S. By Heav'n I care not, not a single sou For womankind nor what is more for you. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Smith Diary, passim (quotes on campus life; see also R. L. Woodward, "Journal at Nassau Hall: The Diary of John Rhea Smith, 1786," PUL Chron., 46 [1984-85], 269-91; 47 [1985-86], 48-70); Clio, lists; Min. Trustees, 25 Sept. 1787; N.J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Trenton Federalist, 30 Sept. 1805; other Smith papers in Peter Force Collection, 8d/#163, DLC; Alexander, Princeton, 235-36; DAB (father & brother); PMHB, 11 (1945), 185; Martin's Bench 6f Bar, 312; M. E. Clark, Peter Porcupine in Amer. (1974), 54; M. L. Pearl, William Cobbett (1953), 28-29; Amer. Phil. Soc., List of the Members ... (1880?), 20; Del. Hist., 2 (1947), 123, 125; J. G. Wilson, Col. John Bayard Of the Bayard Family of Amer. (1885), 6, 23; Μ. B. Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society (1906) (a collection of family letters of Margaret Bayard Smith); Princetonians, 1748-1768, 326-28; Princetonians, 1769-1775, 185-91; Phila. city directories. MANUSCRIPTS: Peter Force Collection, DLC RLW

233

Nathaniel Randolph Snowden NATHANIEL RANDOLPH SNOWDEN, A.B.,

A.M.

1794,

A.M.

Dickinson

College 1790, Presbyterian minister, was born in Philadelphia on January 17, 1770, the fourth son of Isaac Snowden and his second wife Mary Coxe McCall. The senior Snowden was a merchant, local official, and elder of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. During the Revolution he moved his family to Princeton and enrolled at least two of his sons in the grammar school; he also served as a trustee of the College from 1782 until 1808. Nathaniel, in addition to his half-brother Benjamin Parker Snowden (A.B. 1776), had five full brothers who attended the College: Gilbert Tennent (A.B. 1783), Isaac (Class of 1785), Samuel Finley (A.B. 1786), Charles Jeffry (A.B. 1789), and William (Class of 1794). Named for a distant relative who donated the land upon which Nassau Hall was built, Nathaniel studied in the grammar school between 1781 and 1783 before matriculating at the College. In 1783 he joined the Cliosophic Society, where he was known as iEmilius. "Natty" was described by an acquaintance as "not the brightest youth and yet not deficient." He delivered an oration on the abuses of independence at his commencement in 1787. Eight years later he attended a Cliosophic Society meeting on September 9, 1795. After Snowden graduated he returned home to Philadelphia. On January 2, 1788 he was invited to assist at the grammar school of Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772) in Woodbury, Gloucester County, New Jersey, where his youngest brother Billy was a student. Nathaniel accepted the position immediately, but he was not very comfortable in his role as afternoon instructor to seventeen boys and three girls. In April he confessed to his diary that he could not remember feeling so unhappy. Even after an initial period of adjustment, he found it difficult to discipline the boys and to gain their respect. While he enjoyed the time he was able to spend with Billy, he was reprimanded for showing too much favoritism. Nathaniel took advantage of every opportunity to visit familv and friends at home. Following a muchenjoyed trip to Princeton in late summer, he returned to Philadelphia rather than Woodbury, and began the study of divinity with the Reverend George Duffield (A.B. 1752), following in the footsteps of brothers Gilbert and Samuel who had earlier chosen ministerial careers. The new reading schedule was frequently interrupted by visitors, illness, and long walks about the city. Early in 1789 Duffield recommended that Nathaniel attend President Charles Nisbet's lectures on theology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On the advice of "all of my friends," Snowden left Philadelphia at the

234

CLASS OF 1787

end of January 1789. He was to spend most of his adult years in central and western Pennsylvania. Nathaniel's studies progressed well and he was awarded Dickinson's A.M. degree at the end of a year. Shortly thereafter he fell in love with Sarah Gustine. A descendant of the Reverend Thomas Hooker of Connecticut, she was in 1791 the sixteen-year-old daughter of Dr. Lemuel Gustine, a physician from Carlisle who had served in the Continental Army. Snowden noted in his diary that his morning devotions were often interrupted by thoughts of her. After being licensed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia on October 19, 1791 he returned to Carlisle and married Sarah on May 24, 1792. The newlyweds moved to Harrisburg where Nathaniel preached first on September 9 and then frequently throughout the winter. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Carlisle on April 10, 1793. On October 2 he was ordained and installed as the first pastor of the Presbyterian church at Harrisburg. At the same time he succeeded the Reverend Colonel John Elder as pastor at Paxton and Derry. Each of these congregations agreed to pay £50 as part of his salary. Snowden frequendy had to borrow money to support his growing family, and the constant traveling, often in adverse weather, wore him out. He relinquished the pastorate of Deny in October 1795, and of Paxton the following spring. But these actions served only to make his financial situation more precarious. If anything, his days on horseback increased, as he made frequent visits to his father and brothers in Philadelphia and Princeton. On almost every occasion he returned with money he had borrowed from them, sometimes as much as several hundred dollars, even though the senior Snowden was at that point close to insolvency himself. On April 16, 1794 Nathaniel was elected a trustee of Dickinson College, a post that he held until 1827. In addition, he occasionally tutored and lectured at the college in Carlisle while fulfilling his pastoral duties at Harrisburg. Finally, on June 25, 1805 Snowden resigned his charge at Harrisburg. The decision was taken reluctantly, and mainly for financial reasons. His diary contains numerous entries to the effect that he was "pinched for money" and "had to borrow one dollar to go to market." Moreover, on March 25, 1797 Snowden had calculated that for every year he lived in Harrisburg he went at least $300 into debt. On October 15, 1805 he was dismissed from the Presbytery of Carlisle and received by that of Redstone. He was soon called by the Second Congregation at Pittsburgh, which agreed to pay him $400 for three-quarters of his time. Yet within a week Snowden wrote that he was "very uneasy about continuing here," since several members of his family were sick and the salary

N A T H A N I E L RANDOLPH SNOWDEN

235

was insufficient anyway. He told the congregation of his decision to leave on December 2, 1805. Although some protested, he was dismissed to the Presbytery of New Castle some eight days later. Although Snowden apparently tried to find a position near Philadelphia, he eventually moved his family to Lancaster where he opened an academy for young ladies. For the next several months he borrowed money constantly from local acquaintances, and he preached and traveled frequendy even while conducting the school. Still he complained of not being able to pay the rent, to buy wood, and to go to market with sufficient funds. When he received $100 from his father on December 13, 1806, he noted that he "had not at dark a dollar in the house." Attendance at the young ladies' academy had not increased by 1807, nor was the harried clergyman called by any of the congregations to whom he preached. In June of that year he decided to open a Latin and Greek school for young gendemen, and by November there were twenty-four scholars. But Snowden seemed as uncomfortable teaching the boys in Lancaster as he had been in Woodbury in 1788. When he attempted to discipline a student on April 4, 1808, the latter's nose began to bleed. An irate father then removed his two sons from the school and they returned the following evening to break all the building's windows. As the diary ended in July, Nathaniel noted with some remorse that several other scholars seemed to be leaving the school as well. The course of Snowden's life over the next decade is unclear. He probably continued to preach to several congregations without ever securing a permanent position. An unpublished genealogy of the Snowden family states that Isaac, Sr., died in 1809 at Chester, Pennsylvania, during his son Nathaniel's ministry at the Old Middletown Church. According to family tradition Nathaniel volunteered as a chaplain during the War of 1812, but his services were declined. Official church records take no note of him until 1817 when, "as a minister in good standing" in the Presbytery of Carlisle, he was installed as pastor of the united congregations of Millerstown and Liverpool. However, Snowden preached again at Harrisburg as well, as the following excerpt from a November 1818 letter shows. The frustrated minister asked for compensation for two days of services: one of which caused me to ride from Philadelphia at considerable expense for neither of which did I receive any compensation. As you are rich and I am poor, it is no more than right and humane that I sd receive it. You wd not permit me to preach to you some time past, tho' vacant, tho' I wrote you two letters which you did not answer till it was too late. As you are about to receive ye blessing of a settled minister I mention it not with ill will. I only

236

CLASS OF 1787

say it was hard, as I served you 12 long years the prime of my time 8c lost my health in your service ... Your real friend & severely tried old pastor A historian of the Harrisburg congregation described Snowden as "not a man of marked ability as a preacher or a scholar," and even one of his grandsons conceded that his grandfather's sermons were "not especially noted for oratory." Yet he was not ineffective as a pastor, for in his first four months at Millerstown he received 114 new communicants and baptized thirty-one adults. These ministerial successes notwithstanding, he resigned this position within two years and was dismissed to the Presbytery of Northumberland in 1820. In 1822 Nathaniel Snowden came within the bounds of the Presbytery of Huntingdon, where he labored as a stated supply in several congregations. In the spring of 1824 he was unable to secure a permanent position in the area because of "some reports unfavorable to his character being in circulation." A church historian later added that "the charges ... were by no means of a serious character, and may be summed up by saying that they were simple indiscretions. Mr. S. was a man of many eccentricities of character, perhaps not sinful, but very inconvenient." However, the ministerial career of the fifty-four year old Snowden was not yet over. On February 1, 1825 he was named pastor of the congregation at Kittanning, Armstrong County, in the Presbytery of Northumberland. Twelve subscribers agreed to pay him $300 for two years for two-thirds of his time. This arrangement may have continued beyond the original two years, since Snowden was not dismissed to the Presbytery of Allegheny until October 6, 1830. The last surviving fragment of Nathaniel Snowden's diaries covers the years from 1836 to 1839. During this period he continued to travel frequendy throughout central Pennsylvania, preaching at Millerstown, Freeport and Harrisburg. He seems to have started yet another school in Harrisburg, where he resided at least until 1846. In good health past his eightieth birthday, he died on November 3, 1850 at the home of his son Dr. Charles Gustine Snowden at Freeport. Sarah Snowden died in 1856. In addition to Charles the couple had three other sons who became physicians, Isaac, Lemuel, and Nathaniel; a daughter Mary, who married James Thompson, chief justice of Pennsylvania; and their youngest son James Ross, who served as speaker of the house and treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as director of the United States Mint. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; G. T. Snowden, MS Jour., 1783-85, PPPrHi; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 9 Sept. 1795 (society pseudonym); MS Jour, by "Leander" [John Mifflin],

LUCIUS

HORATIO

STOCKTON

237

12 Mar. 1787, PHi ("not the brightest"); N.J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Dunlap &f Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; N. R. Snowden, "Remembrances," 1770-1846, PHi; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1788-89, PHi; C. C. Sellers, Dickinson College (1973), 100, 120, 432, 484; G. B. Stewart, ed., English Pres. Congregation, Harrisburg, Pa. (1894), 205-08, 355-57; A. Nevin, Men of Mark of Cumberland VaUey, Pa. (1876), 356, 441; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1791, PHi (whose frontispiece is a small engraving of Sarah Gustine); I. D. Rupp, Hist. & Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams fcf Perry Cnties. (1846), 288-90; Alexander, Princeton, 236; Sprague, Annab, in, 341; A. Nevin & D. R. B. Nevin, Encyc. of the Pres. Church (1884), 842; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1795-1801, PHi; Hist, of Presby. of Redstone (1889), 188, 191; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1804-08, NjP; F. W. Leach, typed genealogy, Snowden family file, PUA; W. J. Gibson, Hist, of the Presby. of Huntingdon (1874), 74, 78, 84-85; als, NRS to William Graydon, Monaghan, Pa., 30 Nov. 1818, & call to NRS, Kittanning, 1 Feb. 1825, Society (Autograph) Collection, PHi. PUBLICATION: STE # 34567. MANUSCRIPTS: PHi;

NjP

LKS

Lucius Horatio Stockton Lucius HORATIO STOCKTON, A.B., lawyer and politician, was born in Princeton in 1768, the fifth of the six children of Richard Stockton (A.B. 1748), prominent New Jersey lawyer and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton. In their personal correspondence Richard and Annis referred to each other by the literary names of Emilia and Lucius, so that Lucius Horatio was, in a sense, a namesake of his father. In later life he was often called Horace. Stockton's father and his two Boudinot uncles, Elias and Elisha, were trustees of the College, and his older brother Richard (A.B. 1779) served both as trustee and treasurer. Besides his father and brother, he was preceded at the College by his uncles Samuel Witham Stockton (A.B. 1767) and Philip Stockton (Class of 1769); by his brothers-in-law Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who married his sister Julia, and Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772), who married his sister Mary; and also by distant cousins Benjamin Stockton (Class of 1776) and Ebenezer Stockton (A.B. 1780). He was followed by Robert Field (A.B. 1793), who married his sister Abigail, and by a number of Rush, Hunter, and Stockton nephews and cousins. Stockton was raised at the family estate of "Morven", not far up the road from Nassau Hall. He was eight years old on November 29, 1776 when news reached the small community that the British were at New Brunswick and advancing toward Princeton. After burying the family silver in the garden, the Stocktons fled to the home of a friend, John Cowenhoven, whose estate was thirty miles away in Monmouth County. Most of the other Princeton families who left town headed west and crossed the Delaware River to safety, but

238

CLASS OF 1787

Richard Stockton and John Cowenhoven were taken by local tories and turned over to the British at Perth Amboy. By January Stockton, ill and worn down by the hardships of his captivity, signed an oath of allegiance to the British and was released. The family then returned to "Morven." Richard Stockton died on February 28, 1781, leaving to his son Lucius "land on west side of road that leads from Princeton to Rocky Hill," as well as half of a tract of land in Sussex County and half of a tract of 13,000 acres in Nova Scotia. All six of his children were left large parcels of land; his son Richard inherited the "Morven estate," but Annis Stockton and her unmarried children continued to live there. Lucius is said to have received a small sword from his father, one which family tradition says Richard Stockton used to defend himself when attacked by a robber on the streets of Edinburgh. Stockton attended the grammar school at Nassau Hall, where on September 24, 1782, a member of the highest class, he distinguished himself by taking first place in a competition in English oration and was admitted to the freshman class of the College. He remained out of school for a year, perhaps to help on the family's estate. In 1784 Stockton was listed among the undergraduate prizemen as a freshman, winning the second prize in Latin grammar and the first in English orations. In his sophomore year he again took first place in English orations. No undergraduate prizemen are listed for 1786. At the commencement ceremonies of September 26, 1787 he delivered a valedictory oration on the qualities of a true republican. Naturally he joined the American Whig Society, where his older brother was a member and his mother was considered an honorary member because she had stored the Whigs' furniture and other effects at "Morven" during the war years. In 1786 he was chosen as one of the three orators who represented the Whigs at the Fourth of July ceremonies held on the campus. The diary of his classmate James Gibson records a number of absences from morning prayers for Stockton, particularly during July 1786. He may have simply slept late, but the concentration of absences during July suggests that during the summer months he may have decided to reside more comfortably at "Morven" and walk to Nassau Hall each day for his classes. After graduation Stockton studied law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar as attorney in September 1791, as counsellor in September 1794, and as sergeant-at-law in April 1797. He was a member of the Institutio legalis, a moot court at Newark in which law students and attorneys gained experience in arguing cases. This connection suggests that he studied with a member of the bar residing in or near Newark. Lucius probably practiced from his brother

LUCIUS H O R A T I O S T O C K T O N

239

Richard's office until his marriage on April 18, 1797 to Elizabeth Milnor, daughter of Sarah Higbee Milnor and Joseph Milnor, a prosperous Trenton merchant. The sister of Joseph Kirkbride Milnor (A.B. 1792), Elizabeth Milnor Stockton was probably at least ten years younger than her husband. In April 1789, when the city of Trenton gave a tumultuous reception to George Washington, Elizabeth Milnor had been one of the six little girls dressed in white who strewed flowers in the path of the new president as he passed beneath the triumphal arch erected in his honor. Her mother, her future mother-in-law, and her future sister-in-law Mary were among the ladies' chorus welcoming Washington. Stockton moved to Trenton after his marriage and set up practice in that city, where his uncle Samuel Witham Stockton was already practicing. Stockton had two faiths: Presbyterianism and Federalism. He labored tirelessly and devotedly for the Federalists, making speeches and writing newspaper articles, although the only public office he actually held was as United States district attorney for New Jersey from 1798 to 1802. At a time when feeling about the Alien and Sedition acts was very intense, Stockton, as district attorney, drew up an indictment against an individual who had made a vulgar remark about President John Adams's posterior. The case provoked so much ridicule that it probably helped to spread resentment against the Sedition Act. During the presidential contest of 1800 New Jersey was a key state, since the Federalists might have been able to swing the electoral vote to Adams if they could have retained their seats in the legislature. The Republicans conducted an extremely active campaign in New Jersey on the county level, spurring the Federalists to unprecedented activity. Stockton went throughout the state delivering anti-Jefferson speeches and campaigning for Adams. The state's five electoral votes went to Adams and Pinckney, and the Republicans later admitted that, "with tongue and pen," Stockton did more damage to their cause than any other man in New Jersey. In January 1801, a few weeks before the close of his administration, Adams nominated Stockton secretary of war as one of his lame-duck appointments. When the Senate held up Stockton's confirmation, he withdrew and the office went to Roger Griswold in February. In 1803 the True American, an anti-Federalist newspaper published in Trenton, printed a letter signed by "A Middlesex Farmer," virulently attacking seven members of the Boudinot and Stockton families as "aristocratic gentry ... aiming to aggrandize themselves on the ruins of our present free republican government." Stockton wrote a rebuttal that was printed in the Trenton Federalist. His article particularly defended his uncle Samuel Witham Stockton, who had been

240

CLASS OF 1787

described as "having fled to Britain at the beginning of our Revolutionary war." Samuel was the only deceased member of the group and therefore unable to clear his own name. Stockton then wrote a series of articles defending his family's patriotism, particularly that of his uncle, which drew vituperous letters by correspondents "skulking under a borrowed tide," such as the "Middlesex Farmer," "Raritan," and '"76." On March 21 Governor Joseph Bloomfield published a denial that he was the author of any of the anonymous letters. On March 23, 1805 Benjamin Rush wrote John Adams that "Your friend and my brother-in-law, L. H. Stockton, is still at Trenton devoted wholly to the duties of his profession, in which he is daily acquiring reputation and property. H e has I believe ceased to be active in the politics of his state." On that point Rush was wrong. Between 1810 and 1812 local chapters of the Washington Benevolent Society were proliferating. This organization was composed of the more vigorous and intense Federalists, and sometime during this period Stockton founded the Trenton chapter of the society. In 1812 when the New Jersey legislature passed a law establishing six state banks over the opposition of the Federalists, Stockton was one of only four prominent Federalists appointed an officer of the new banks. In 1813 Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton were petitioning to repeal a state law granting Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773) and Daniel Dod a monoply in New Jersey waters on the operation of steamboats plying between New Jersey and New York. Stockton probably wrote the arguments on the case contained in a "Letter to a Gentleman in Washington," addressed to his brother Richard, who was then a member of Congress. Fulton and Livingston already had a monoply in New York waters, and Ogden argued that only the federal government had the constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. In 1815 Stockton wrote "A History of the Steam-Boat Case, lately discussed by Counsel before the Legislature of New Jersey." As Federalist power revived during the War of 1812, Stockton continued to write articles and to deliver public addresses appealing for party cohesion. An address printed in the Trenton Federalist on September 13, 1813 argued that the Federalists could secure the government only by means of "the VOICE OF T H E PEOPLE, audibly, repeatedly, and firmly pronounced." Early in 1814 the Federalists in New Jersey held a series of local and county meetings to plan strategy for the fall elections. At a very dark moment of the war, the culmination of all these meetings came at a state convention held in Trenton on July 4, where Stockton delivered the keynote address. H e emphasized that the Federalists were not seeking change because

LUCIUS HORATIO

STOCKTON

241

of ulterior motives, but only because of love of country. He climaxed by exclaiming, "Our rulers must be changed or we are a nation undone!" This address was printed in Trenton and a presentation copy sent to Daniel Webster (LL.D. 1818). T h e Washington Benevolent Society met in Trenton the same day, presumably to hear further exhortations from Stockton. By 1819 the Federalists had agreed upon resolutions opposing any federal measures which would extend slavery, and numerous county meetings were held to strengthen the opposition to slavery. On October 29 Stockton spoke before a Hunterdon County meeting in Trenton, arguing that the movement must be strongly supported before slavery became entrenched in new areas. H e personally did not believe that the South would secede from the Union if extension were forbidden. In 1824, when many of the old Federalists were becoming Jacksonians, Stockton was a leader of the pro-Adams forces in New Jersey. In a letter to Daniel Webster dated January 11, 1825, he described a meeting held in Trenton a few weeks earlier as exceeding "in point of numbers and weight of character" any meeting which he had seen in more than thirty years of political life. H e enclosed a pamphlet which he had written entitled Public Meeting and Address to New Jersey Representatives in Congress at a numerous meeting of the Friends of J. Q. Adams, composed of a number of the members of the Legislature now in session, gentlemen from various parts of the state, and Citizens of Trenton, held this 27th day of December, 1824, at the Council Chambers. In spite of his efforts the New Jersey delegation in the House of Representatives voted five for Jackson and only one for Adams. Richard Stockton's failure to receive an appointment as a district judge in 1826 cost John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806) the support of the Stockton family in the 1828 election. Benjamin Rush was not quite accurate in stating in his 1805 letter to John Adams that Stockton was acquiring property as well as reputation. Stockton apparently did invest heavily in real estate, but he was not a good businessman and was often in debt with his real estate heavily mortgaged. In April 1824, less than a month before his daughter's wedding, he advertised large tracts of land for sale in Trenton and Princeton, and over 5,000 acres in Ohio. For more than twenty years his brother Richard often bailed him out by endorsing his notes and supporting his credit in other ways, and in 1827 Stockton deeded to Richard, in exchange for old loans and a cash payment, the land in Princeton which he had inherited from his father. T h e following year he found it necessary to deed him another tract of land on Red Hill Road in Princeton. Richard Stockton advertised his brother's land for sale in the spring of 1827. Stockton's Boudinot

242

CLASS OF 1787

uncles and his nephew Robert Field Stockton (Class of 1813, A.M. 1820) also signed notes for him, often with real estate as security for the notes. From the time Stockton moved to Trenton he was an active, devoted and prominent member of the First Presbyterian Church. He was also among the proprietors and stockholders of the Trenton Public Library Company. At a meeting in Princeton on April 18, 1827 he spoke with "great feeling" on the subject of the foreign missions of the church. His wife was kept busy with The Female Benevolent Society of Trenton and Its Vicinity, organized by a group of Trenton women with the object of providing fuel, provisions, clothing, and bedding for the needy. Organized in March 1820, the society chose Mrs. Stockton as its first director. At the end of the eighteenth century a bitter family feud, in which Stockton sided with his uncle, had developed between Elias Boudinot and Benjamin Rush. Boudinot had been named the executor of a will drawn up in 1788 by his son-in-law William Bradford, Jr. (A.B. 1772). The day before his death in 1795 Bradford tore up his will and signed promissory notes for various amounts to his sisters, his wife's companion Esther Reed, and Rush; he then died intestate, a situation which benefitted his brother Thomas more than his wife Susan Boudinot Bradford. In 1797 Boudinot brought the matter to court, representing his daughter's interests. Rush attested that Bradford was sane and lucid when he tore up the will, and Boudinot bitterly criticized Rush for testifying in what was his own interest The litigation extended until 1811, and Boudinot and Rush were never reconciled. On December 15, 1803 Julia Rush wrote a letter to her sister Mary Hunter in which she defended her husband, saying that "Dr. Rush would not tell an untruth." She was hurt by the fact that Stockton when visiting Philadelphia had called on Susan Bradford, but had not visited her. In an undated letter, probably written in 1808, Rush wrote to Stockton, explaining his side of the case and vindicating his actions, but also accusing Boudinot of questionable business practices and "delinquency as an executor." Stockton and his wife and daughters were among the members of the family who were at Boudinot's bedside when he died in Burlington, New Jersey, on October 25, 1821 and he was one of the four nephews who were named as executors of Boudinot's will. Most personal references to Stockton mention that he was considered eccentric, and there is the implication that he would have gone further in his profession if he had been less so. The only examples given of his oddity indicate that he probably had a rather puckish sense of humor. As a child Lucius seemed more promising than his

LUCIUS H O R A T I O S T O C K T O N

243

brother Richard. Lucius's precocity as a teenager is demonstrated by his oratorical prizes, but his lack of good business sense may have led to naive decisions which seemed odd to others. He was also very emotional when delivering speeches, and this passion may have been carried a bit too far. Stockton died in Trenton on May 26, 1835, and his wife survived him only until January of the following year. Their daughter Sarah Milnor Stockton, who had married the Reverend William Jessup Armstrong (A.B. 1816), pastor of Trenton's First Presbyterian Church, on April 30, 1824, had died in childbirth the following year. Their son Richard, born July 19, 1801, was probably the Richard B. Stockton who was admitted to the College as a sophomore on May 13, 1819, joined the American Whig Society, but did not graduate. After his parents' deaths he left for the west to settle in Ohio and died unmarried in Washington County, Indiana on October 29, 1849. The Stocktons' third child Elizabeth Stockton died in Trenton on February 15, 1897, the last surviving grandchild of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. SOURCES: Alumni files, PUA; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 7-11; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 277-84; A. H. Bill, A House Called Morven (1954), 22, 39, 80-81, 83; N.J. Wills, vi, 375; J. W. Stockton, Hist, of the Stockton Family (1881), 36, 54, 68; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct. 1782; Williams, Academic Honors, 10-11; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Smith Diary, 7 Mar. & 29 June 1786; Gibson Diary, 14 Feb., 4-7 July, 17 Aug. 1786; N.J. Jour., 6f Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Elmer, N.J. Bench fcf Bar, 98, 207-09, 415-17; Riker, 41, 73; D. C. Skemer, "The Institutio Legalis & Legal Education in N.J.," N.J. Hist., 97 (1979), 134; Beam, Whig. Soc., 168-69; Trenton Hist. Soc, Hist, of Trenton 16791929 (1929), I, 20, 110, 516; u, 573-74, 611, 757-58; J. Hall, Hist. ofPres. Church in Trenton, N.J. (1912), 238, 242; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 236; Butterfield, Rush Letters, II, 893-94; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1964), 57; D. H. Fischer, Revolution of Amer. Conservatism (1965), 115-28, 331; W. R. Fee, Transition from Aristocracy to Democracy in N.J. 1789-1829 (1933), 166-68, 197-99, 200, 239-40; C. M. Wiltse & H. D. Moser, Papers of Daniel Webster: Carres., vol. 2, 1825-29 (1976), 7-9; Rush, Autobiography, 372-76; Pintard, Letters, II, 99-100; als, Julia Rush to Mary Hunter, 15 Dec. 1803, Stockton Papers, NjPHi ("Dr. Rush would not"); G. A. Boyd, Elias Boudmot (1952), 291; T. C. Stockton, Stockton Family (1911), 130; Hageman, History, I, 88, 214; Trenton True Amer., Mar. & Apr. issues, 1803; Trenton Emporium, 3 Apr. & 4 May 1824; N.J. Patriot, 22 & 29 Mar. 1827; Trenton DaUy True Amer., 6 Feb. 1897. PUBUCATIONS: Sh-Sh # s 32873 & 36022; Sh-C # s 3339 & 18109; Practical forms of various legal instruments of most familiar use (1834, R-B # 26945). NjP's cataloguing also credits LHS with A reply to sundry pretexts 6? remarks, of the friends of Mr. Southard to the six reasons offered why he should not be elected Senator (1829, Sh-C # 40244). On 13 Dec. 1877 at a meeting of the Mass. Hist. Soc., Charles Dean, recording secretary, presented the society with a list purporting to be the individuals who had written the biographies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, published by John Sanderson in Philadelphia in 1823-27. "H. Stockton," who could only have been Lucius Horatio, is credited with his father's biography. Vol. m of an 1823 edition of the Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, which includes the Stockton biography, states that the contents of the volume were either prepared by or published under the inspection of Robert Wain, Jr. However, the Mass. Hist. Soc. list

244

CLASS OF 1787

credits Wain with authorship of only one of the eight biographies in this volume. The first two volumes give no credit to Wain or any other author or editor; his name is on Volumes m through vi. The last three volumes were prepared and published after his death, and again no author or editor is named. The reference in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, 15 (1878), 393, was brought to the attention of this author by Donald Sinclair, Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Rutgers University. MANUSCRIPTS: Elias Boudinot Collection, NjP; Stockton MSS, NjP RLW

Daniel Thew DANIEL THEW, A.B., A.M. 1794, lawyer and entrepreneur, although

traditionally identified as a native of Newark, New Jersey, actually must have been the Daniel Thew who was born on September 30, 1767 and baptized on the following December 29, according to the records of an "irregular" congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church at Tappan, Orange County, New York. H e was the son of Abraham and Rachel Knap Thew, residents of the lower part of Orange County which in 1798 became Rockland County, the most southerly situated of the New York counties on the west bank of the Hudson and so immediately adjoining the state of New Jersey. Abraham Thew obviously was a man of substance, for the census of 1790 shows that he possessed ten slaves, a number that had fallen to seven by the time of the second census in 1800. Perhaps he was engaged in the business of stone quarrying in which his son later was active. Just when Daniel Thew entered the College is uncertain. A diary kept by his classmate James Gibson places him in the College on February 14, 1786 when he took his turn speaking at prayers. Thus he probably matriculated no later than November 1785, when the winter term of the academic year 1785-86 began. O n March 9, 1786 a second diarist, classmate J o h n R. Smith, expressed surprise on visiting Thew's room "at the apparent want of conveniences about him with respect to everything in fact." Possibly Thew had a taste for austerity. An undated class list for the 1786-87 academic year describes Thew as a senior and establishes New York as his residence at that time. Thew was an active member of the American Whig Society. On August 17, 1787 he wrote graduate member Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785) with news of the society. In the same letter he described the senior examination: the examination ... commenced on Wednesday last and continued two days and an half during which time a very considerable

DANIEL THEW

245

number of Trustees together with several other literary gentlemen attended. They gave us much credit for our several performances, and to ratify the same the President (in the name of the Trustees) expressed his approbation in the strongest terms. He then without hesitation pronounced the members of the Class worthy of degrees. Thew closed with an appeal to Harper. "I am shortly to launch out into the busy world, but whether I shall be properly equipped for the many temptations which here prevail I am not able to determine." Because Harper had already resided in several different areas, and presumably had dealt successfully with the temptations available in each location, Thew asked for advice on the proper conduct in such situations. H e added that future letters should be addressed to him care of Edward Darrell (A.B. 1789), for "I shall have left College, and am not determined with whom I shall study." Thew did not speak at his commencement the following month. After graduation Thew reportedly studied law and was admitted to practice in New York City, a statement which is confirmed by his listing in a New York directory for 1794 as an attorney-at-law and notary public located at 64 Market Street. That a Daniel Thew sat for Orange County in the state legislature in its sixteenth session of 1792-1793 suggests he may have been reading law somewhere in his home county. T h e late date at which Thew acquired the A.M. degree, and its coincidence with the date of his listing as an attorney in the New York City directory, also suggests that his law studies may not have begun immediately after graduation. His practice of law in the city was brief. Not only does his name appear in a directory for 1795 simply as a notary public, without the designation of an attorney, but lists of attorneys admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, carried by more than one of the directories for this period, do not include his name. After 1795 he is no longer listed even as a resident of the city. At about that time he returned to his native county where he was employed as census taker for a part of Rockland County in 1800, and where he was listed in that census as the head of a family conforming in size and detail exactly with the family he headed in the year of his death a decade later. In 1800 he also was listed as the owner of one slave. In 1807 Daniel Thew's name headed a list of Rockland County residents "concerned in the stone quarries" who petitioned the Common Council of the City of New York to appoint inspectors of building stone. T h e county was becoming famous for its limestone and traprock, basic materials which over time provided much of the stone

246

C L A S S OF

1787

that went into the building of the rapidly growing city of New York. Quarrying had probably become Thew's chief economic interest. Whether he continued to practice law is uncertain. Thew died in the fall of 1811. He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of the prominent physician Dr. William Burnet (A.B. 1749) of Newark, New Jersey, and sister of Ichabod (A.B. 1775), Jacob (A.B. 1791), and George Whitefield Burnet (A.B. 1792). Less than a year younger than her husband, Elizabeth died on August 30, 1811. His death followed by about a month. One son and two daughters survived them. Toward the end of his life, according to one reminiscence, Thew was "unhappily deprived of his reason," but this statement has not been confirmed. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 236 (identifies Thew as a native of Newark); NYGBR, 45 (1914), 273; 61 (1930), 347, 350; 102 (1971), 15; First Census, N.Y., 142; D. Cole, Hist, of Reformed Church of Tappan (1894), passim; Gibson Diary, 14 Feb., 27 & 30 July, 2, 21, 31 Aug. 1786; Smith Diary, passim; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; als, DT to R. G. Harper, 17 Aug. 1787 ("the examination," "I am shortly," "I shall have left"), Harper Papers; N.J. Jour., & Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Dunlap & Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; MCCCNY, rv, 461; L. S. Hasbrouck, Southeastern N.Y. (1946), ii, 609, 710-13. MANUSCRIPTS: R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi WFC

James Weir A.B., of New Jersey has not been further identified. He was among the graduates at the commencement of 1787, joined the American Whig Society, and is listed in College catalogues as a graduate of 1787. Oddly, two diaries kept by students in 1786 that are full of references to fellow students do not mention Weir. What is more, a search through the various standard works on New Jersey fails to provide any reference to him or his family. A few Weirs were living in New Jersey at the time, but no connection with the Princeton student has been established. Weirs were found also in Pennsylvania and New York, but no evidence of a connection with the Princetonian can be discovered. He seems to be among the unknown graduates who must be left in that category. The search for his identity has not been aided by the several variations presumably used in the spelling of the name: Weir, Wier, Weer, Weeir, Weare, or Ware.

JAMES WEIR,

SOURCES: Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; N.J. Jour., £sf Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct 1787. An undated College class list from the 1786-87 academic year calk him "Daniel Weare" of New Jersey (Hancock House MSS). WFC

247

Jeremiah Woolsey A.B., physician, was born in Hopewell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, on June 16, 1769. He was the second son and the sixth and youngest child of Jeremiah and Mary Hart Woolsey. The mother was the daughter of Joseph Hart, one of the early settlers in Hopewell, whose family was known as the "White Harts" because of their strikingly fair complexion and hair, thereby distinguishing them from the darker complexioned "Black Harts," who also lived in the area. John Hart, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a member of the latter family. Woolsey's father came from Long Island, probably around 1720, with his father George Woolsey. A prosperous farmer by the time of his death in April 1801, Jeremiah's father had acquired two farms in Hunterdon County, as well as several shares in a factory then under construction on the banks of the Passaic River. The Society for establishing Useful Manufactures, a pioneering industrial corporation, founded in 1791 and a favorite enterprise of Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791), had generated a great deal of interest in the construction of textile factories in that area, including the Beaver Woolen Factory, the Essex County Manufacturing Company, and the Passaic Manufacturing Company, and it is likely that Woolsey owned shares in one of these mills. According to a will proved May 2, 1801, he left to his oldest son Ephraim most of his land as well as a slave named Fortune, while Jeremiah received half the shares in the factory. It is not known where young Woolsey prepared for his matriculation at Nassau Hall, nor precisely when he arrived at the College, but according to entries in the diary of his classmate James Gibson, Woolsey was definitely enrolled by February 1786. He probably began his college studies no later than November 1785, the beginning of his junior year. He joined the American Whig Society and seems to have had an unexceptional college career. Woolsey is not listed as a speaker at his commencement exercises in September 1787. After graduation Woolsey studied medicine, possibly with a physician in Trenton, where he practiced his profession for several years. He was admitted to the medical profession sometime prior to 1793, the year that "Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey" was listed as exempt from the Hunterdon County militia. Woolsey married Martha Montgomery, the daughter of Alexander Montgomery, a wealthy farmer of Allentown, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Woolsey may have met his future wife through her brother Thomas West Montgomery, who was a prominent physician in Allentown. Although the date of the wedding is not known, it must have been prior to February 1, 1798,

JEREMIAH WOOLSEY,

248

CLASS OF 1787

when Alexander Montgomery signed a will in which he left his home to his daughter Martha Woolsey. Because the document mentions only one grandchild, the son of Alexander's son Thomas, the Woolseys presumably had no children at that time. They were eventually to have six, three sons and three daughters. Woolsey practiced in Allentown for a number of years, probably moving there after his father-in-law's death in the summer of 1798. H e took his family to Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, in 1821 and set u p practice there. His first office was in a brick row house on High Street. Like many physicians of the time he probably also functioned as an apothecary. By 1824 Woolsey "sold his drugs" at the store of his eldest son William, who was a druggist. William's establishment was across the Miami River in the twin town of Rossville. T h e Second Medical District of Ohio, consisting of Buder and Preble counties, was organized in 1824, and Woolsey became one of the five censors of the Second District Society. By 1829 William Woolsey had moved to Cincinnati, with a drugstore at 100 Main Street. His father had joined him in that city by 1831, with a home on Longworth and a physician's office at the corner of Sixth and Elm Streets. Woolsey died on February 9, 1834, at the age of sixty-four. Henry Harrison Woolsey (A.B. 1856) was a nephew, the son of Woolsey's brother Ephraim. SOURCES: E. F. Cooley, Early Settlers in Trenton 6f Ewmg (1883), 95, 97, 315-16; J. Hall, Hist, of Pres. Church in Trenton (1912), 29; G. Hale, Hist, of Old Pres. Cong, of "The People of Maidenhead 6f Hopewell" (1876), 26-28, 59-60; N.J. Witts, IX, 518; X, 255; J. S. Davis, Essays in Earlier Hist. ofAmer. Corps. (1917), 349-55, 504-06; Giger, Memoirs; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Gibson Diary, 15 Feb. & 10 July 1786; Smith Diary, 20 July 1786; N.J. Jour., fif Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; F. B. Lee, Hist, of Mercer Cnty. (1907), n, 619; J. S. Norton, N.J. in 1793 (1973), 158; GMNJ, 9 (1934), 41-59, 94-109; A. H. Heiser, Hamilton In the Making (1941), 257, 259; E. W. Powell, Early Ohio Tax Records (1971), 159; Cincinnati city directories, 1829-34. The General Catalogue of 1908 credits Woolsey with an M.D., but he did not receive one from the Pennsylvania or Columbia medical schools, the most convenient places for him to have attended lectures, and the attribution of the degree was probably just a recognition of his medical career. CAL & RLW

CLASS OF 1788

Thomas Hanson Bellach, A.B.

Ephraim McMillan, A.B.

George Clarkson, A.B.

William Marshall

Aaron Condict, A.B.

John Murray, A.B.

Edmund Drury, A.B.

Richard Randolph

Richard Eppes, A.B. Samuel Blair Foster

Timothy Treadwell (Tredwell) Smith, A.B.

John Wickliffe Green, A.B.

David Stone, A.B.

Thomas R. Harris, A.B.

John Taliaferro

Matthew Henderson

John Tennant

Allen S. Holmes

Smith Thompson, A.B.

Nathaniel Woodhull Howell,

Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr., A.B. John Wells, A.B.

Α.Β.

William Kirkpatrick, A.B. William J. Lewis Peter Schuyler Livingston, A.B., ad eundem

David Wiley, A.B. Samuel Wilson, A.B. Tumor (Turner) Wootton (Wooton), A.B.

(Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 24, 1788)

Thomas Hanson Bellach THOMAS HANSON BELLACH, A.B., attorney, was the eldest son of James and Elizabeth Bellach of Litde Creek Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. The father was a lawyer who was appointed justice of the peace of Kent County on June 30, 1783 and again on September 5, 1793. The family included a son John and a daughter Ann. No information has been found about where Bellach prepared for the College or just when he matriculated. On June 7, 1786 he joined the Cliosophic Society along with his fellow Delaware classmate Nicholas Van Dyke, with Bellach adopting the name of Lorenzo. At his commencement on September 24, 1788, he spoke immediately after the Latin salutatory address, giving an oration on credulity and servile imitation. After graduation Bellach studied law, perhaps in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar of Kent County on February 17, 1792. He moved to Dover and practiced law there until his death, which may have occurred in 1793 or possibly a few years later. James Bellach's will of January 9, 1793 names his wife and three children as heirs, and his wife, his son Thomas, and John Patten, Esq., as executors. A codicil dated October 28, 1793 lists only his wife as executrix and John Ratten as trustee, which suggests that Thomas Bellach by that time was either deceased or seriously ill. James Bellach died in 1794, and a report on his goods or property, dated December 30,1795, lists only Elizabeth Bellach and her children John and Ann as heirs. Elizabeth Bellach had died sometime during that month, leaving a will dated August 8, 1795 which mentions only her two younger children as heirs. Bellach died young and apparently unmarried.

SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Natl. Gen. Soc., Reconstructed 1790 Census of Del. (1962); Smith Diary, 7 & 10 June 1786; Clio, lists; Alexander, Princeton, 237; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del (1887), i, 565, 570-71; L. deValinger, Jr., Col. of Kent Cnty. Del. Probate Records (1944), 351, 473, 499, 500. RLW

George Clarkson A.B., lawyer, was the son of Dr. Gerardus Clarkson of Philadelphia and his wife Mary Flower Clarkson. Gerardus Clarkson was the stepson of the Reverend Gilbert Tennent, who was a trustee of the College from 1748 to 1764, and who took over the supervision of the education of his stepsons. Dr. Clarkson's sister Ann became the second wife of the Reverend Samuel Finley, presGEORGE CLARKSON,

252

CLASS OF 1788

ident of the College from 1761 to 1766; his sister Catherine married Samuel Hazard, trustee of the College from 1748 to 1757, and was the mother of Ebenezer Hazard (A.B. 1762). Dr. Clarkson was a trustee of the College of Philadelphia and one of the founders of the Philadelphia Medical Society. H e was elected to the American Philosophical Society, became an active participant at Christ Church, and joined a committee that in 1784 established the Protestant Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George Clarkson was born March 30, 1772, the youngest son and seventh child in a family of nine siblings, and was baptized at Christ Church, October 26, 1772. His older brother was Joseph Clarkson (A.M. 1785, A.B. University of the State of Pennsylvania 1782), and Gerard Clarkson (Class of 1790) was his cousin. His sister Cornelia married Isaac Snowden (Class of 1785). Clarkson was enrolled in the philosophy school of the University of the State of Pennsylvania from September 22,1783 until July 1, 1785. As a freshman at Nassau Hall he won the second prize for English orations in the 1785 competitions, and in 1786, though Clarkson won no prize, James Gibson (A.B. 1787) recorded in his diary that he thought him one of the best speakers. T h e following year he placed third in "reading English and Orthography." He joined the Cliosophic Society on J u n e 15, 1785, using Horace as his society name. At his commencement on September 24, 1788 he had the honor of delivering the valedictory oration. His proud father presented him with a book from his own library inscribed, "George Clarkson having received the first honours of college at Nassau Hall in his seventeenth year, this handsome volume is presented to him in testimony of his good proficiency in learning and of his filial conduct, by his affectionate father, October, 1788." Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760), who was a close friend and professional colleague of Dr. Clarkson's apparently wrote a commencement address for George. T h e practice of requesting "eminent friends" for this favor indicates that the graduates were judged chiefly on their oratorical abilities. In a letter to Jeremy Belknap dated October 7, 1788, Rush wrote: "I enclose you an oration which I composed for Dr. Clarkson's youngest son against spirituous liquors. T h e Doctor and myself lately delivered a testimony against them in a public conference of the Methodists in this city at the request of their superintendent" T h a t same month Rush had his address printed anonymously in The American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, Prose and Poetical, a Philadelphia magazine, under the tide, "An oration on the effects of spiritous liquors upon the human body, and upon society; intended to have been spoken

AARON C O N D I C T

253

at a late commencement." T h e phrase "intended to have been spoken" leaves some doubt as to whether this was actually the address delivered by Clarkson, or whether for some reason it was thought unsuitable for the occasion. Clarkson returned to Philadelphia after his graduation to commence the study of law, and was admitted to the bar of that city on March 9, 1793. He visited his alma mater at least once, when he attended the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society on September 30, 1795. H e died unmarried at the age of thirty-two on April 3, 1804 and was buried in St. Peter's churchyard in Philadelphia. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; J. R. T. Craine, Ancestry 6f Posterity of Matthew Clarkson (1971), 14, 19-20; F. W. Leach, Phila. Branch of the Clarkson Family (1912), 19; J. W. Jordan, Col. Families of Phila. (1911), I, 897-99; UPenn-Ar (preparatory school dates); Clio, lists; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Gibson Diary, 1 Mar., 4 & 24 July, 14 Aug., 26 Sept. 1786; Smith Diary, 29 June & 12 Aug. 1786; N.J. Jour.,fcfPolit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Butterfield, Rush Letters, 1,490 ("I enclose"), 49 In C'on the effects"); S. Clarkson, Memoirs ofMatthew Clarkson of Phila. & of his Brother Gerardus Clarkson (1890), 96, 101, 187, 193 (inscription in book); Alexander, Princeton, 237; Martin's Bench & Bar, 257; Clio. Min., 30 Sept. 1795. RLW

Aaron Condict A.B., A.M. 1796, Presbyterian clergyman, the fifth of the six sons of Samuel Condit, Jr., of Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, and his wife Mary Smith, was born August 6, 1765. Condits were early settlers in the region, and Samuel, a cousin of Ira Condict (A.B. 1784), farmed inherited land. Aaron was not yet five when his mother died in 1770. A year later his younger brother succumbed to smallpox. In 1774 the father married Martha Carter, widow of Stephen Wilcox of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and two more sons were added to the family before Samuel Condit's death in 1776. Aaron was then sent to live in the household of Silas Dodd, the husband of his mother's sister, where he remained for the next four years. Sometime in 1780 Condict was sent, probably as a boarding student, to the school in Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey, operated by Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) and his brother-in-law Ebenezer Bradford (A.B. 1773). This school was closed in the fall of 1781 when Bradford accepted a call to a pastorate in Massachusetts and Green decided to continue his own studies. Condict then entered the grammar school of the Reverend Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757), who had recently returned to the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. Condict later wrote of his great affection

AARON CONDICT,

254

CLASS OF 1788

and respect for MacWhorter, describing him as an extremely gifted teacher. Condict's adulation suggests that the older man may have assumed the role of a father figure. In spite of the warm impression that MacWhorter left on the teenaged boy, Condict remained in the Newark school only a year. With the intention of studying medicine he next went to live with his eldest brother John, a physician practicing in Orange. However, in 1785 he experienced a religious conversion and joined the Orange Presbyterian Church, under the pastorate of the Reverend Jedediah Chapman (A.M. 1765), father of Robert Hett Chapman (A.B. 1789) and Peter LeConte (A.B. 1797). The following year Condict decided to enter the ministry, and at this point a family genealogy states that he "entered school and pursued his educational course." Faculty minutes for November 10, 1787 list Condict as one of two students who, "Subsequent to an Examination," were admitted as members of the senior class "From other Colleges." Nothing has been found to indicate where the intervening year was spent. Not surprisingly, Condict joined the American Whig Society, the choice of his former teacher Ashbel Green and of his cousin Ira Condict. The oldest member of his class, Condict at his commencement participated as respondent in a "forensic disputation" on the subject, "Duty and interest, virtue and happiness are never really disjoined, and this is true as it respects nations as well as individuals." Condict returned to Orange to study theology with Jedediah Chapman, supporting himself by teaching at the Orange-Dale Academy, an institution of which both Chapman and John Condict were trustees. Licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York at Morristown, New Jersey, on January 7, 1790, he spent his first year in the ministry preaching in vacant pulpits within the presbytery. The following year he was nominated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church as a missionary under its direction. That body directed him to "proceed on a mission to the frontier setdements of New York and Pennsylvania, to the west branch of the Susquehanna, for at least three months." On January 1, 1793 he accepted a call to serve the church at Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York, under the auspices of the Presbytery of Albany. On January 15 the Reverend John McDonald preached Condict's ordination sermon on the faithful steward. Assured of a regular pastorate, Condict returned to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he had sometimes supplied the pulpit, to marry Mary (Polly) Dayton, daughter of Daniel Dayton, on April 28, 1794. They raised a family of one daughter and six sons, including Robert Woodruff Condict (A.B. 1814), Joseph Dayton Condict (A.B. 1826), John Howell Condict (A.B. 1831), and Jonathan Bailey

AARON C O N D I C T

255

Condict (A.B. 1827). Their daughter Hannah Maria became the first wife of William B. Barton (A.B. 1817). Condict served briefly as a trustee of Union College in Schenectady, New York, from its establishment in 1795 until 1796. In August 1796 Condict was dismissed from the Stillwater church at his own request. In December of the same year he was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey, succeeding the Reverend Jacob Green, father of Ashbel Green. Condict served there for over thirty-five years, and pastor and congregation seem to have been mutually devoted. On January 5, 1797 Condict delivered the exhortation at the ordination of Robert Hett Chapman, and on December 10, 1800 he preached at the ordination of Henry Kollock (A.B. 1794). During the years Condict served the Hanover church he conducted nine or ten religious revivals, and he is credited with receiving 644 members on examination and 81 by certificate from other churches. He also performed 988 baptisms and presided at 557 marriages. Church records show not only the baptisms of the Condict children, but also the baptism in 1814 of "Jane, black woman of Rev. Mr. Condit." Mary Condict died in 1820, and two years later Condict married Sarah Conkling of Morristown. Never a robust man, Condict resigned from the Hanover church on October 6, 1831 because of age and failing health. In 1839 the couple moved to nearby Morristown where Condict spent his last years "feeble, decrepid, trembling." He died on April 10, 1851 and was buried next to his first wife in the Hanover cemetery. The Reverend David Magie (A.B. 1817) eulogized his goodness and fidelity. Sarah Condict died in 1854 and was buried in Morristown. SOURCES: Alumni files; Alexander, Princeton, 237; J. H. Condit & £. Condit, Gen. Records of the Condit Family (1916), 16, 22-23; Sprague, Annab, m, 211, 214-15; iv, 38-39; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("Subsequent to"); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; GreenUaf's N.Y. Jour., £sf Patriotic Reg., 7 Oct. 1796; S. Wickes, Hist, of the Oranges (1892), 229; Min. Gen. Assem., 1789-1820, 35, 37; Union CoUege, Centennial Cat. ... 1795-1895 (1895), vii; GMNJ, 6 (1930), 34, 77, 78, 80, 102 ("Jane"); 38 (1963), 48; 44 (1969), 16; Hist, of the First Pres. Church, Morristown, N.J. (1882P-85, 2 vols, in 1), H, 293; W. O. Wheeler, Inscriptions on Tombstones & Monuments m the Graveyard at Whippany 6? Hanover (1894), 39-40; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 607, 632, 642; D. Magie, Good 6f Faithful Minister (1852), passim ("feeble," 15). RLW

256

Edmund Drury A.B., attorney, appears on an undated College class list from the 1786-87 academic year as "Edmond Drury, Junior," home state Pennsylvania. No other information has been found about his background. He joined the Cliosophic Society on December 27, 1786, using the name Alphonzo. Nothing else is known about his college activities. At his graduation ceremonies he was the opponent in a forensic disputation on the question, "Is it ever lawful to violate the truth under any pretence?" An Edward W. Drury is listed as having been admitted to the bar of Philadelphia on July 2 1 , 1792. This was probably an incorrect rendering of Drury's name, since an Edmund W. Drury, attorney at law, was practicing at 24 Vine Street in 1795. His name appears in the city directory only once; by the time of the publication of the 1796 directory a grocer was installed at the Vine Street address. One can only speculate whether Drury moved from Philadelphia and set u p practice elsewhere or whether he may have died in 1795 in the second yellow fever epidemic that swept through the city. He is first listed as deceased in the 1812 College catalogue. EDMUND DRURY,

SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Hancock House MSS; Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct 1788; Martin's Bench & Bar, 264; Phila. city directories, 1795-96. RLW

Richard Eppes A.B., lawyer, was the son of Richard Eppes of City Point, now Hopewell, Prince George County, Virginia, and his wife Christian Robertson, daughter of William Robertson of Petersburg, Virginia. T h e Eppeses were members of a prominent and numerous Virginia family who traced their ancestry to Col. Francis Eppes, who came to Virginia from Great Britain in the middle of the seventeenth century and who was a member of the governor's council in 1652. By the late eighteenth century the family had large land holdings in five counties; their members had sat in the House of Burgesses, had served as county clerks and sheriffs, and had been active in the Revolution. T h e name was sometimes spelled Epes or Epps. Eppes took three weeks to travel from Virginia to New York by schooner. H e apparently remained in Princeton for seven years without returning home, surely a hardship for a young boy. In September 1784, as a member of the first or senior class of the Nassau Hall grammar school, he placed second in the "competitions for preRICHARD EPPES,

RICHARD EPPES

257

miums" and presumably enrolled as a freshman at the College in November. A March 1785 letter to his mother telling of his financial difficulties may be an indication of additional expenses with the change of status from grammar school scholar to college student. The next month he wrote that he had been living with a "Master," presumably one of those in the grammar school, but had now moved into the College, which would lessen his expenses. When he joined the Cliosophic Society on August 20, 1785, Eppes assumed the name of Leonidas, the Spartan general. John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) referred to him as Rich Eppes in the diary which the former kept during his junior year, and mentions playing quoits with him. The two also shared a laugh over an American Whig Society address which had been found by a member of the Cliosophic Society, and which the Clios judged to be poorly written and "shockingly spelt." Evidendy Eppes's loyalties changed, for he is listed as a Whig in that organization's catalogues. At the commencement ceremonies on September 24, 1788, Eppes acted as replicator for a forensic dispute on the question, "Is it ever lawful to violate truth under any pretence?" Eppes became a lawyer in Virginia, but it is difficult to determine just where he studied before becoming a member of the bar. One source suggests that he stayed on in Princeton to read law. If the seven-year stay in Princeton is correct this would mean that Eppes spent only one year at the grammar school and two years studying law, a shorter than average time for both courses of study. Or he may have been at the grammar school for three years, then returned home for a family visit before commencing law studies in Princeton. Eppes's father made his will on November 27, 1788, leaving a substantial estate to his family. Richard, as the eldest son, was to inherit the plantation on which the family resided and a "track of land called City Point," with the provision that his mother have the use of the lands during her lifetime. Eppes also inherited four negroes, a feather bed and other furniture, six head of cattle, and one "middling horse," with a bridle and saddle. Three other sons were also left plantations, slaves, furniture, catde, and horses. Three daughters received land (possibly not plantations), furniture, four negroes and four head of catde each. The will shows a concern for the family slaves by providing "that particular care may be taken to satisfy the poor creatures, by keeping families together as much as the circumstances of things will admit, and that the ancient and infirm negroes in my family shall be comfortably supported in their old age." Richard Eppes was made an executor, along with his mother and his uncle, William Robertson. A codicil to the will, dated Octo-

258

C L A S S OF 1 7 8 8

ber 2, 1790, designates £1,800 to be raised from the estate for son William, who must have arrived in the interim, to be paid when he reached the age of twenty-one. The senior Eppes must have died before February 10, 1799 when his wife made her will. Richard is not included in that document in the distribution to his surviving siblings of slaves, livestock, furniture and carriage, but the will states: "It is my wish and desire that the five Hundred and fifty pounds which I lent my son Richard Eppes, should be paid by his heirs, to my son William, as a part of the Legacy left him by his Father." A codicil of the same date adds: "It is my wish that the five Hundred and fifty pounds which I lent my son Richard Eppes for the purpose of building, should not carry interest until my death and then for it to be appropriated in the way which I have before directed, so that the principle and interest arising therefrom, shall by no means exceed the legacy left my son William Eppes by his Father." Mrs. Eppes's brother Archibald Robertson and her sons Archibald and Robertson were named executors. Richard, with his legal expertise, was not included. Eppes died in 1801 without having married. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 237; Corres. of Christian Robertson Eppes with RE at N.J., Eppes Family MSS, VHi; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 16 Mar. & 21 July 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct 1788; Η. E. Hayden, Va. Genealogies (1913), xii; VMHB, 3 (1896), 395, 397; 4 (1897), 330; 5 (1898), 187; 21 (1913), 218-19, 327-28; 22 (1914), 81. The name Richard Eppes appears in every generation of this family, and there were several contemporary Richards in Nottoway, Brunswick, and Dinwiddie counties. A codicil to the will of Bathurst Skelton, dated 30 September 1768 leaves "a girl slave to be purchased for each of my 3 grandchildren, Richard Eppes, John Wayles Eppes and Fatty Jefferson." See WMQ_, 1st ser., 6 (1897-98), 64. This was not the Frincetonian Richard Eppes, who was probably born in the early 1770s. John Wayles Eppes was a distant cousin, whose mother was a half-sister of Martha Wayles Jefferson, and who married his cousin Maria, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791). Richard Eppes's sister Mary married Benjamin Cocke and had a son Richard, who took the name of Eppes and became the Dr. Richard Eppes mentioned in several sources. MANUSCRIPTS: Eppes Family MSS, VHi RLW

Samuel Blair Foster SAMUEL BLAIR FOSTER, lawyer and land speculator, was probably

born in 1772, the second son of William Foster (A.B. 1764), ardent patriot and pastor of the Presbyterian church of Upper Octarora, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Hannah Blair Foster. Mrs. Foster was the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Blair of Fagg's Manor and the sister of the Reverend Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760).

SAMUEL BLAIR FOSTER

259

William Foster died September 30, 1780, leaving four sons and four daughters ranging in age from one year to thirteen or fourteen. His will provided that his farm land was to be divided between his wife and his two eldest sons, Samuel B. and Alexander W. Foster. It also stipulated that "My son Samuel [is] to be made a scholar." In February 1779 William Foster had opened a classical school with the assistance of Francis Hindman, a theological student studying under him and boarding with the Foster family. After Foster's death Hindman kept the school open for another eighteen months. Samuel Foster may have received some of his earliest training in this school. The date of his matriculation at the College is not known, but on February 22, 1786 John R. Smith (A.B. 1787), who was a member of the rival Cliosophic Society, recorded in his diary that that day there was "an occasional meeting of the Whigs intended for the admission of Sammy Foster which I regretted the loss of very much." An "occasional" meeting was one called to conduct some special business, rather than one of the regularly scheduled meetings. On March 28 John Heriot (Class of 1789) mentioned in a letter that Foster was one of the new members of the Whig Society, and that "at his own accord [he] went back into the Sophomore class and is now the best in it." Whether Foster became disenchanted with the Whigs or they with him, on March 7, 1787, when he was a junior, he joined the Cliosophic Society, using the name Steele, for the English essayist and playwright Sir Richard Steele. Nothing has been found to indicate why or exacdy when Foster left the College without receiving his degree, nor what he did immediately after leaving. His brother Alexander had been studying law with Edward Burd of Philadelphia, and Samuel was to receive his legal education from Alexander. However, Alexander was not admitted to the bar until December 7, 1793. By 1796 Samuel had completed his legal training and the two brothers, along with Thomas Foster, probably a cousin, became agents of the Holland Land Company, which was composed of a group of Dutch bankers who had acquired tide to more than five million acres of land in central and western New York and northern and western Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's Land Act of 1792 had opened all of Pennsylvania north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny Rivers to settlement. The Holland Land Company had obtained control of more than a million and a half acres of land in the state, with the provision that a setder would be placed upon each of more than 1,100 tracts of land within two years. The board of property conceded that the two-year period could begin at the end of 1795 when the danger from Indian raids was finally past. The Fosters, giving their residence as Chestertown, Pennsylvania, signed a contract

260

CLASS OF 1788

on May 6, 1796 agreeing to locate settlers upon 200 tracts in Districts' 1 and 2 before J u n e 1, 1797. In return, the Holland Company was to supply each setder with the necessary provisions for eight months, including the time it would take to journey to western Pennsylvania. Each tract of 400 acres was to be divided into four equal parts; the Fosters could choose one quarter from each tract and receive tide in fee simple as soon as the Holland Company secured its own tide to the lands. Setders were placed as tenants upon the Fosters' quarter of land. After five years, each setder would be permitted to buy fifty acres adjoining his lot at the price of $1.50 per acre. In 1796 Alexander and Samuel moved the entire Foster family to Cussawago (later Meadville), Allegheny County, in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they bought a farm for their younger brothers William and James to cultivate. T h e town, which became the seat of Crawford County in 1800, had been settied by David Mead and his brothers in 1788, but not until the mid-l790s was the area considered safe from Indian attacks. As nearby communities sprang up with a less refined type of setder, Meadville became known as a "cultural oasis," though by 1830 it still had a population of only 544. By midsummer of 1796 the Fosters had over a hundred setders headed west, but many of them never reached the area that the Fosters were attempting to setde. Some accepted more generous terms in the area near Pittsburgh and simply ended their journey there. Others had begun the trek without ever planning to fulfill their part of the bargain. They collected their provisions and then looked for someone else on whom they could use the same ploy. Some reached their land, but forced the Fosters to promise them 100 acres in fee simple before they would begin any improvements on their tracts. T h e Fosters found it necessary to modify their scheme and give u p the idea of leases, instead granting a gratuity of 100 acres to each setder. They signed a new contract in which their compensation became partly a fixed sum in cash and partly the right to buy a considerable quantity of the company's lands at a low rate. T h e company, alarmingly short of its goal of 200 setders, also gave them an extension of their original contract. T h e Fosters now agreed to have at least 150 tracts setded before the end of 1798 and to present certificates to that effect to the board of property, which would then grant the patents. By the middle of 1800 the brothers asserted that they had setded 189 tracts, but the company conceded only 124 because of conflicting claims. Part of the problem was that the more energetic and reliable of the easterners who wished to move to western Pennsylvania had already taken advantage of the terms granted setders in 1792, under which they could take u p whole tracts of 400

SAMUEL BLAIR FOSTER

261

acres with their own choice of land. The Holland Company's terms of setdement had attracted many who never bothered to improve their holdings. By 1805 Alexander Foster was in the land business for himself. In most cases individuals working for themselves were more successful than the large land companies, beause they became more active and more resourceful on their own behalf than as agents working for the companies. Setders were usually promised 200 acres of land and defense in court if legal action became necessary to support their claims. Perhaps Samuel Foster acted chiefly in this capacity. He and Alexander became two of the most eminent lawyers in western Pennsylvania and leaders of the bar in that area; both specialized in land cases. Alexander Foster eventually setded in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, and Samuel in the borough of Mercer in Mercer County. Lawyers riding circuit often appeared at court sessions in several neighboring counties, but Samuel Foster was said to be the first attorney to reside in Mercer County. He was credited with being not only well versed in law, but one of the most brilliant lawyers in the state. He was noted not only for his eloquence before juries, presenting his cases with clear and logical arguments, but also as a fascinating conversationalist He married Elizabeth Donnell of Meadville and they had nine children, the best known being Henry Donnell Foster, attorney and congressman. Henry Foster told his contemporaries that his decision to become a lawyer was made at age ten when he sometimes attended court to hear his father argue an important case. The eloquence of his father's address convinced the boy that he wanted to follow in the paternal footsteps. Samuel Foster continued to practice law in Mercer until his death in 1831. SOURCES: Princetonians, 1748-1768, 457-58; Smith Diary, 22 Feb. 1786 ("occasional meeting"); Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 ("own accord"); Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; J. S. Futhey, Hist. Discourse on the 150th Anniversary of Upper Octarora Pres. Church (1870), 76, 84-86; P. D. Evans, Holland Land Co. (1924, in Buffalo Hist. Soc., Pubs., vol. 28), 115-18, 131; J. W. Florin, Advance of Frontier Settlement in Pa. 1638-1850 (1977), 73, 77, 78; T. H. Burrowes, State Book of Pa. (1846), 277; T. F. Gordon, Gazetteer of the State of Pa. (1833); WPHM, 19 (1936), 269-80; 21 (1938), 128-29; Hist. Soc. of Pa., Hist, of Mercer Cnty., Pa. (1888), 252; Southwest Pa. Gen. Services, Biog. £sf Hist. Cyclopedia of Westmoreland Cnty., Pa. (1980), 392-93; G. D. Albert, Hist, of Cnty. of Westmoreland, Pa. (1882), 324-26; Martin's Bench 6f Bar, 269; Phila. city directories, 1792-93; J. G. White, 20th Cent. Hist, of Mercer Cnty., Pa. (1909), I, 196-97. RLW

262

John Wickliffe Green A.B., was born in 1769 in Hanover, New Jersey, the youngest child of Jacob Green (A.B. Harvard 1744), minister of the Whippany and Rarsippany Presbyterian churches in Hanover Township, Morris County, and his second wife Elizabeth Pierson Green. Green joined a family of nine other children, four of whom were Jacob Green's by his first marriage. John's brother Ashbel (A.B. 1783) became the eighth president of the College, and his sister Elizabeth married Ebenezer Bradford (A.B. 1773). His maternal grandfather, who was living with the family at the time of Green's birth, was John Pierson (A.B. Yale 1711), who had served as pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Woodbridge and Mendham, New Jersey, and who had been a trustee of the College from 1746 to 1765. John Pierson's father, the Reverend Abraham Pierson (A.B. Harvard 1668), had been the first rector and a charter trustee of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, later Yale College. Jacob Green had lost his father, mother, and stepfather at an early age, so that his own college education was made possible only by eking out scholarship assistance with work as a waiter and monitor. Licensed to preach in 1745, he became a charter trustee of the College in 1748, and the following year was voted an honorary A.M. From November 23, 1758, after the death of Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720), he served as interim president of the College until May 9, 1759 when Samuel Davies became president. Green was erudite in both science and linguistics and extremely knowledgeable in Hebrew. In spite of his intellectual background, Jacob Green had been assigned to a poor parish; with his large family he was constantly in debt. He added to his income by building a kiln for making bricks, doing some milling and distilling, and acting as lawyer, schoolmaster, and physician for his neighbors when necessary. In 1774 he built a schoolhouse and started a Latin school, where his sons probably received their early schooling. However, Jacob did not believe that higher education was necessary for his sons, partly, perhaps, because he could not afford the tuition fees and partly, as he warned Ashbel on his departure for Princeton, because he was afraid that his sons would learn too much of "the way of the wicked world." He had first intended that Ashbel should become a farmer or an artisan. His son Calvin received only five or six years of schooling before being apprenticed to a shoemaker, where he learned to tan and curry, as well as make shoes. Calvin later decided that he preferred farming, and he and his brother Pierson worked a farm together. John Wickliffe Green appears as a junior on an undated College

JOHN WICKLIFFE GREEN,

J O H N WICKLIFFE GREEN

263

class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year, but no surviving records indicate when he actually enrolled. Not surprisingly he joined the American Whig Society, which his brother Ashbel had been instrumental in reviving in 1782. Ashbel was a tutor at the College from 1783 to 1785 and professor of mathematics and natural history from 1785 to 1787. After his marriage in the fall of 1785 he no longer resided at the College, but it still seems rather strange that his autobiography omits any mention of his brother's presence on the campus. This omission is especially odd since his father's will of April 23, 1790 granted land to Ashbel, adding "and he is to pay to my son, John W. Green, all that John owes him for his education," which suggests that Ashbel was responsible for John's attendance at the College. Perhaps Green was a disappointment to his older brother, who had been class valedictorian, because he took no honors and did not even deliver an oration at his commencement. Neither did he follow in his brother's, father's, and grandfather's footsteps to become a Presbyterian minister. No further trace of Green has been found, except in the diaries of his brothers. In the year 1794 Calvin Green noted: "The tenth day of September my son Gabriel was born at 3 o'clock in the morning. About this time [presumably September, and not 3 in the morning] my brother Wickliff was married to Eliza Fitch." In 1813 he recorded: "My brother Wickliff died." Ashbel Green, in an entry made some time after November 9, 1813, listed all of his tribulations of the moment including, "my brother John Wickliffe visited me, and soon died about seven miles from this [Princeton]." SOURCES: Ashbel Green papers, PUA; Sibley's Harvard Graduates, II, 253-58; xi, 405-16; Dexter, Yale Biographies, I, 103-05; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 404-20; C. Green, "The life of Calvin Green," NJHSP, 69 (1951), 115-36; J. H. Jones, Life of Ashbel Green (1849), 129, 139, 148, 359; N.J. Wills, vu, 92; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788. A copy of the estate inventory of a John Green (with no middle initial) of Roxbury Township, Morris County, dated 13 Dec. 1814, is on file in Nj. John Wickliffe Green seems to have commonly used his full name, and in fact his brothers referred to him as Wickliffe. The date of the inventory is more than a year after Green's death, but delays of this length sometimes occurred. The value of the personal estate came to $1,181.08, and the list of household goods and farming tools suggests that the deceased had operated a small farm. RLW

264

Thomas R. Harris R. HARRIS, A.B., A.M. 1793, B.M. University of the State of Pennsylvania 1790, physician, has been identified only as coming from Pennsylvania. T h e date he matriculated at the College is unknown, but he joined the Cliosophic Society on December 6, 1786, using the name Fayette. At his commencement exercises he participated as opponent in a debate on the question, "Doth not the progress of knowledge tend to the improvement of virtue?" Following his graduation Harris enrolled at the University of the State of Pennsylvania, where he received the degree of bachelor of medicine in 1790, a degree less prestigious than doctor of medicine. Nothing further has been found about Harris. He may have removed to another state and practiced medicine there. He is first listed as deceased in the 1830 catalogue of the College. THOMAS

SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Alexander, Princeton, 238; Gen. Alumni Cat. of Univ. of Pa. (1922), 482. CAL

Matthew Henderson MATTHEW HENDERSON was probably the physician, soldier, and public official of that name born in 1768 or 1769, the son of Matthew Henderson of Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His mother's name may have been Rachel. T h e elder Matthew, a grandson of an ethnic Scot named Thomas Henderson who emigrated from Ireland about 1727, was a vestryman of St. John's Episcopal Church, on the border between Pequea, West Cain Township, Chester County, and Salisbury Township. He owned a 563-acre farm the assessed value of which was second highest in Salisbury Township in 1780. Matthew Jr. is said to have "received a classical education," possibly at the renowned Pequea academy of Robert Smith (D.D. 1760, College trustee 1772-1793), who could have encouraged Matthew's parents to send him to the College. Henderson joined the Cliosophic Society on February 8, 1785, taking the pseudonym Francis. He was still at Nassau Hall on July 10, 1786, when James Gibson (A.B. 1787) mentioned him in his diary. His name is not on an undated class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year, and no other information on his College career has come to light. He has been arbitrarily assigned to the class of 1788 because at least two of the three students who were admitted to the Cliosophic Society on the same date as Henderson were freshmen.

MATTHEW HENDERSON

265

Subsequently Henderson became a physician. In October 1794 he was appointed the surgeon of a troop of Dauphin County dragoons marching to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection. All subsequent censuses list him in Salisbury Township. On September 16, 1820 he chaired a meeting at which St. John's church considered uniting with two nearby congregations into one corporation. The meeting approved the proposal, which would have enabled the three congregations to hire a total of two ministers, but apparently the plan was not implemented. Henderson married a woman named Margaret, who died on September 3, 1823. His seven-year-old son Isaac F. Henderson died eleven days later. From 1820 to 1822 Henderson represented Lancaster County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and he sat in the state senate from 1822 to 1826. He died on April 27, 1835 and was buried in the St. John's cemetery a day later. SOURCES: tombstone inscriptions & church records, St John's Episcopal Church, Pequea, Chester Cnty., Pa.; A. Harris, Biog. Hist, ofLane. Cnty. (1872), 274 ("received"); F. Ellis & S. Evans, Hist, of Lane. Cnty., Pa. (1883), 213-14, 1041-43, 1048-50, 1053; LCHSPA, 13 (1909), 136-46, passim; 15 (1911), 15, 17; 25 (1921), 51; 48 (1944), 92; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 14 Jan. 1786; Gibson Diary, 7 Feb. & 10 July 1786; First Census, Pa., 12, 80, 144, 209, 244; R. V. Jackson & G. R. Teeples, Pa. 1800 Census Index (1972), 135; same, Pa. 1810 Census Index (1976), 118; same, Pa. 1820 Census Index (1978), 154; same, Pa. 1830 Census Index (1976), 118; same, Pa. 1840 Census Index (1978), 278; Pa. Arch., 6th ser., iv, 495. Cliosophic Society records identify Henderson as a native of Pennsylvania. The Lancaster County man is identified as the Princetonian on the basis of his age, the reference to his "classical education" and his possible education at the Pequea academy, his father's prosperity, and his own professional career. The 1790 census enumerates five Pennsylvanians of that name, one each from Lancaster, Washington, Allegheny, Philadelphia, and Cumberland counties. The residents of Washington and Allegheny counties were a father and son pair of Presbyterian ministers. The son was just young enough to have attended the College but was ordained and installed in two congregations in November 1785, when the Princetonian was still attending Nassau Hall. The Philadelphian counted in the census was probably the tavernkeeper who appeared in city directories from 1785 to 1791, and who may also be the Philadelphian who served as captain in the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line from 1776 to 1778. Both are obviously too old, while the Matthew Henderson buried in Christ Church's cemetery in 1813, aged thirty-five, was too young. See J. Smith, Hist, of Jefferson College (1857), 234-51; Sprague, Annals, IX, [part 3], 31-36; Phila. city directories, 1785-91; Pa. Arch., 4th ser., iv, 830-31; 5th ser., ill, 381; v, 270-71; E. L. Clark, Record of the Inscriptions ...in the Burial Grounds of Christ Church, Phila. (1864), 235. Cumberland County, however, produced a Matthew Henderson who could possibly have attended the College. The man counted in the 1790 census was a Revolutionary War militia captain who lived in or near Newburg Borough, Hopewell Township, and was a trustee of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church. He was probably also the surveyor who wrote several business letters from nearby Shippensburg to Pennsylvania Comptroller General John Nicholson between 1786 and 1794. One letter shows that he was surveyor of bordering Franklin County. The names of his children have not been discovered, but the 1800 census listed two Matthew Hendersons from Cumberland County, and the second one could be the captain's son. Any connection with the College is only speculative, but Robert Cooper (A.B. 1763), the minister at Middle

266

C L A S S OF

1788

Spring from 1765 to 1797, could have influenced a decision to send Matthew to Nassau Hall. Joseph Washington Henderson (A.B. 1776), whose parentage is unknown but who came from the vicinity of Franklin and Cumberland counties and who became a Presbyterian minister, may have been related. The younger Matthew married a Margaret Miller, and they had a son in 1795. They lived near Gibson's Rock in Tyrone Township, in the part of Cumberland County which became Perry County in 1820. Matthew was listed there in 1820 but not in subsequent censuses. See Hist, of Cumberland 6f Adams Cnties, Pa. (1886 repr. 1974), I, 90, 138, 210, 262, 291, 345, 379-80; C. P. Wing et al., Hist, of Cumberland Cnty., Pa. (1879), 256, 260-61; Matthew Henderson to John Nicholson, 5 als between 15 Feb. 1786 & 4 Jan. 1794, microfilm of John Nicholson Papers belonging to Pa. Hist. & Museum Commission; R. W. Kelsey, ed., Cazenove Journal 1794 (1922), 60-62; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 48-49. Wanda S. Gunning kindly supplied references used in this sketch. JJL

Allen S. Holmes S. HOLMES is described as a member of the junior class and a resident of Virginia on an undated list of students at the College during the 1786-87 academic year. No other information is available to indicate just when Holmes entered or left the College, except that he was in residence on August 2, 1786, when he joined the Cliosophic Society at one of its regular meeting nights. He chose the name of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus for society use. The Holmes name was not uncommon in Virginia, but no reference to an Allen Holmes has been found. ALLEN

SOURCES: Hancock House MSS; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 2 Aug. 1786; £. G. Swem, Va. Historical Index (1934-36). No connection has been found with the family of the Reverend Andrew Hunter (A.B. 1772), whose sister Rebecca married a Joseph Holmes and settled in Frederick County, Virginia. The similarity in names suggests that Samuel Allen Holmes is at least a possibility for the Princeton student. Nothing has been found about his early life, but he was hired on February 22, 1796 as a tutor in the preparatory school of the University of North Carolina, where Charles Wilson Harris (A.B. 1792) taught mathematics. On July 13, 1796 Holmes was promoted to professor of languages at the university, teaching Greek to the college students. At the beginning of the fall term Joseph Caldwell (A.B. 1791) joined the North Carolina faculty as professor of mathematics. The University of North Carolina archives contain a copy of a letter addressed to the board of trustees, in Caldwell's handwriting but also from one other member of the faculty, and presumed to have been written in late 1797 or early 1798. The letter accuses Holmes of subversive principles and behavior, of being an anarchist and an atheist, and also of attempting to instill his beliefs in the students. He was further accused of fomenting trouble by taking the part of students charged with misconduct and of vilifying and slandering the other professors. Reading the accusations, it is difficult to determine whether his behavior stemmed only from his political beliefs, or whether he belittled other professors as a means of gaining popularity with the students. The particular grievances of the "undersigned professor of mathematics'' are fully enumerated. However, the extant copy of the letter is unsigned, and it is not certain that it was ever formally delivered to the trustees. Holmes did not resign

N A T H A N I E L WOODHULL HOWELL

267

until July 8, 1799. On July 10 the trustees read a letter from him, requesting an A.B. diploma from the university. Without any recorded discussion they granted it. Holmes next went to Raleigh to pursue the study of law. He died of a "bilious fever" on October 27, 1799 after a fortnight's illness, still owing the treasurer of the university £45.2.4. The Raleigh Register noted that he had been a tutor at the state university, "in which situation he acquitted himself much to his own credit and with great advantage to the Establishment.'' On December 5 Caldwell delivered a eulogistic sermon in the Raleigh Presbyterian church, motivated either by a true spirit of forgiveness or by a desire to minimize to the public the dissension within the university. See: K. P. Battle, Sketches of the Hist, of the Univ. ofN.C. (1889), 79, 148; R. D. W. Connor, Documentary Hist, of the Univ. of N.C., 1776-99 (1953), I, 479; n, 2, 26, 40, 91, 382-87, 417, 439, 468, 478. RLW

Nathaniel Woodhull Howell NATHANIEL WOODHULL HOWELL, A.B., A.M. 1791, LL.D. Union College 1822, LL.D. Hamilton College 1827, teacher, lawyer, jurist, and public official, was born on New Year's Day 1770 in the town of Blooming-Grove, Orange County, New York. His father Hezekiah Howell, Jr., was a local farmer who became a second major with the Orange County minutemen, and who served locally as the first supervisor of Cornwall, the township from which Blooming-Grove was formed, and as high sheriff of the county. The Howell family originally setded on Long Island, where Hezekiah met his wife Juliana Woodhull of Mastic, Long Island, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Smith Woodhull. She was a sister of Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull of Revolutionary fame and a first cousin twice removed of George Spafford Woodhull (A.B. 1790). The Howell family included an older brother and four younger sisters. As members of the Congregational church of Blooming-Grove, the Howells owned three pews, and Hezekiah saw that everyone in the household, including servants and guests, went to services each Sunday. Nathaniel Howell attended the academy in the neighboring community of Goshen from 1783 until he entered the College as a junior in May 1787. On June 27 of that year he joined the Cliosophic Society, adopting the name of Philemon, the Colossian to whom the aposde Paul wrote, urging him to forgive his runaway slave and welcome him as a brother. At his commencement Howell delivered an intermediate oration on the nature of man. For several years after graduation, Howell was in charge of an academy in Montgomery, Orange County, New York, while he also began the study of law on his own. In the fall of 1792 he entered the offices of Josiah O. Hoffman of New York City for more formal training, and he received his license as an attorney of the supreme

268

CLASS OF 1788

Nathaniel Woodhull Howell, A.B. 1788

court of New York in October 1794. He began practice in Tioga County and apparently planned to settle there until some time in 1795 when he was required to attend the court of common pleas in Canandaigua, Ontario County, where he tried the first jury case heard in that county. He was so attracted by Canandaigua, a growing community that served as a gateway for setders to the western areas of New York, that he moved there in May 1796 and remained for the rest of his life. On March 17, 1798 he married Sally, daughter of Gen. Israel Chapin, superintendent of Indian affairs. She died in April 1808, leaving Howell with three small children, including an infant son who died several months later. His second wife was Fanny, daughter of Dr. Seth Coleman, by whom he had seven children, including John Grieg Howell (A.B. 1833.) Howell soon became one of the leading lawyers in the county and was involved in many of Canandaigua's most important cases. As early as 1798 he was one of the legal advisors of the Holland Land Company, which owned large tracts of real estate in western New York. In 1799 he was appointed assistant attorney general for the

WILLIAM

KIRKPATRICK

269

western counties of the state. He served in this capacity until his resignation in 1802, probably in anticipation of his entry into politics. A staunch Federalist, he was elected to the state assembly in 1804 and retained his seat until he resigned in 1813 to take his place in the Thirteenth United States Congress, where he succeeded his legal associate, Peter P. Porter, as a representative of the district made up of Ontario County and five counties west of it. Howell served only one term, seldom speaking from the floor, but consistently supporting the Federalist position. When Canandaigua was incorporated in 1815, Howell became its first president. He served as a member of the commission appointed in 1817 to determine what progress had been made by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in providing a means of transportation between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. In 1819, upon the nomination of Governor DeWitt Clinton, Howell was appointed the first judge of Ontario County. He presided on the bench for thirteen years and impressed contemporaries with his manner and bearing. He was noted for being prompt and firm in whatever actions he undertook, and for his lofty integrity and evangelical Christian fervor. From 1821 until his resignation in 1829, he served as a trustee of the Presbyterian Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1833 he resigned from his judicial position to devote his time to gardening and farming. He died on October 15, 1852 after what has been described as a healthful and serene retirement. He is buried in West Avenue Cemetery in Canandaigua. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; £. M. Ruttenber & L. H. Clark, Hist, of Orange Cnty., N.Y. (1881), 531-32, 633, 637, 647; BDUSC, 1221; Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 4 Oct. 1791; Union College, Centennial Cat. ... 1795-1895 (1895), 24; Cat. of Hamilton CoUege (1893), 57; Alexander, Princeton, 238; A. E. Corning, Hist, of Congregational Church of Blooming Grove (1929), 8; J. F. Caplan, Canandaigua (1907), 13-17; M. G. Woodhull & F. B. Stevens, Woodhull Genealogy (1904), 77-79; G. S. Conover, Hist, of Ontario Cnty. (1893), 164, 464-65 (entry to CNJ in May 1787); Gen. Biog. Cat. of Auburn Theological Seminary (1918), 3; R. W. Bingham, ed., Reports ofJoseph EUicott (1937-41), I, 111, 119; AIC, 13th Cong. RLW

William Kirkpatrick A.B., physician, congressman, and administrator, was born at Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, November 7, 1769, two months after the death of his father. His parents were Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick and the Reverend William Kirkpatrick (A.B. 1757), who served the Amwell Presbyterian Church during the last three years of his life and was on the board of WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK,

270

CLASS OF 1788

William Kirkpatrick, A.B. 1788

trustees of the College from 1767 until his death. He left an estate of £957.17.2, and it was presumably from this legacy that his widow supported William and his sisters Lettice and Hannah for the next seven years. On July 31, 1776 John Warford (A.B. 1774) was appointed to supply the two churches then in Amwell, and on August 12, 1776 he married the widow of his predecessor. Before her remarriage Margaret Kirkpatrick made a will leaving her estate to her three children and to William "his deceased father's watch, silver-plated shoe buckles, silver stock buckle, shirt buckle, gold sleeve buttons." In 1779 Warford helped to establish a school in Amwell where Kirkpatrick may have prepared for college. An undated list of students in the College from the 1786-87 academic year names Kirkpatrick as a junior. It is not certain whether he enrolled earlier or spent only two years at the College. However, the absence of his name from two student diaries kept during the first half of 1786 makes it likely that Kirkpatrick was not in residence at Nassau Hall until the winter session of 1786-87. He did not join either

WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK

271

of the societies on the campus, nor was he one of the speakers at his commencement. His family had by this time moved to Salem, Washington County, New York, where the Reverend Mr. Warford had accepted a call. Kirkpatrick went to Philadelphia to study medicine, but sources disagree as to whether he studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760) or enrolled at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. His name is not included on the list that Rush kept of his apprenticed students, and Rush was an unusually meticulous record keeper. Kirkpatrick may have studied at the University of Pennsylvania and there attended Rush's lectures. He was admitted to practice in 1795 and established himself in Whitestown, Oneida County, New York. His father's reported interest in the Oneida Indians may have been part of the motivation for moving to this small frontier town. Kirkpatrick soon discovered that he was not suited to the demands of his new profession. Instead of seeking new patients he declined their requests, gradually withdrawing from his medical practice altogether except for treating a few close friends. Evidendy he had enjoyed the study of medicine and acquired a great deal of knowledge "in the closet," but his nervous temperament was "of such peculiar and sensitive character as to unfit him in a great measure for the practical duties of a physician." He apparendy sympathized and empathized so much with his patients that he could not treat them with the necessary detachment. In 1806 Kirkpatrick was appointed superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs in nearby Salina, now a part of the city of Syracuse. He was also elected from the Eleventh New York Congressional District to the Tenth Congress (1807-09) as a DemocraticRepublican. He did not speak on any question before the House, but he voted against the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 and was said to be respected in Washington as an "intelligent, educated and highminded man." When his fellow congressman William H. Crawford was later serving as secretary of the treasury under President James Monroe (LL.D. 1822), Kirkpatrick's name was among those on an application when a branch of the Bank of the United States was established at Albany. Crawford, when forwarding the application to the directors of the parent bank at Philadelphia, noted, "Among the many names to this application, I find that of Dr. Wm. Kirkpatrick. I can say with great pleasure, that I know him well, and a more honorable, high-minded and intelligent gendeman I am not acquainted with." When his congressional term ended in 1809, Kirkpatrick was reappointed superintendent of the Salt Springs, a position which he held

272

CLASS OF 1788

for the rest of his life. At this time he moved to Salina, where the springs were located. During the Revolution the land around the springs had been held by Sir John Johnson, son of Sir William Johnson, an avid loyalist who fled to Canada, leaving his holdings to become part of the public lands of the state. Settlers came and established squatters' rights to parcels of land where they could dig holes to the springs, boil the brine, and produce salt. The early history of the area is reminiscent of tales of gold rush days, and indeed, the salt was often referred to as "white gold." By hard work a man could boil down enough brine to produce thirteen bushels of salt in nine hours, and unrefined salt could be sold for $6.50 per bushel in Albany or Montreal. In 1797 the New York legislature passed a bill authorizing the surveyor general to draw up a plan of salt lots which would be leased at rentals based on the amount of salt produced on each lot, and also authorizing the appointment of a superintendent for the management of the springs. Absolute authority was vested in the superintendent to enforce the new requirements that the salt be packed in casks or barrels, that it be marked with the name of the manufacturer and the amount, and that each bushel contain a full fifty-six pounds. A maximum price was set for the salt, and a fee was paid to the superintendent for storing the containers in a public warehouse. The salt manufacturers resented any type of control and were soon smuggling salt to sell at higher prices. Judge William Stevens, the first superintendent, was very unpopular and soon found it necessary to hire deputies, whom he paid from his own salary, in order to try to control the smuggling. By the time of Kirkpatrick's appointment in 1806, relations between the Salt Springs population and the superintendent had become more harmonious, and Kirkpatrick was particularly well liked. Conscientious about collecting revenues and clever at detecting those who were trying to evade payment, he was considered both fair and kind. He was always quick to encourage improvements, both in working and living conditions. "By whatever ways he could, with honesty, aid worthy and industrious manufacturers he did so, and was well liked. He had an easy dignified manner, unaltered by circumstances, and treated the laborer with the same courtesy as the dignitary." One of his first reports to the state legislature stressed the need for improvement in the health conditions of the area, where mosquitoes from the swamps spread malaria, and noxious odors pervaded the town all summer after the spring flood waters had receded and left decaying matter exposed. Kirkpatrick was a strong advocate of a canal that would, among

WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK

273

other benefits, provide an easier and cheaper route for shipping salt to markets. In 1807 salt manufacturer Joshua Forman ran for the state legislature with the purpose of pushing for an appropriation authorizing a survey that would determine whether a canal would be practicable. Kirkpatrick, along with other county leaders, gave his endorsement to Forman, and voters were urged to set aside party loyalties and vote the "Canal Ticket." Forman won the election with only two votes cast against him. In 1809, encouraged by the results of the survey, Forman went to Washington where Kirkpatrick, in residence as a congressman, accompanied him on a visit to President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791). They reminded Jefferson of his proposal to Congress to use excess treasury funds for building roads and canals, and Forman presented his plan for a canal connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson. Jefferson replied that to try to construct a canal through 350 miles of wilderness was madness and "a century too soon." Work on the canal finally began in 1817. The New York legislature, to help swell the canal fund, raised the duty on salt from three cents to twelve and one-half cents per bushel, thereby unintentionally increasing the number of smugglers. Because salt manufacturers paid this high revenue for seventeen years before the law was repealed, salt probably paid for three-sevenths of the total cost of the Great Western (Erie) Canal and the Northern (Champlain) Canal, without including the tolls that were received on shipments of salt along the canal. When Kirkpatrick left for his term in Congress, Thomas Rawson was appointed superintendent. The state legislature was soon besieged with complaints about Rawson's habit of frequendy leasing the same lot to more than one salt manufacturer and of leasing lots that did not come under his authority. While the legislature investigated the validity of the claims, new leasing of salt lots was held up, a very real hardship for the manufacturers. An interim inspector was appointed, and some of the laws regulating the salt business were tightened. Upon his return from Washington Kirkpatrick was reappointed and warmly welcomed to the position he held for more than twenty years. His first report as superintendent of Onondaga Salt Springs, for the year ending January 1, 1806, showed 159,071 bushels of salt inspected that year. His last report, for the year 1831, indicated a total of 1,514,037 bushels. Every personal account of Kirkpatrick emphasizes his pleasant and easy manner, his intelligence, and the great pleasure he received both from reading and discussing literary topics. He subscribed to the English and Scottish reviews and, at a time when books were scarce, was said to possess one of the largest libraries in western New York. Although most of the other inhabitants of Salina were uneducated

274

CLASS OF 1788

men who worked long hours at the salt springs, Kirkpatrick was never considered too haughty or proud by the laborers. In 1822, when a new Presbyterian church building was erected in Salina, the congregation raised $500 to pay for a bell for the steeple. Kirkpatrick then contributed one hundred Spanish dollars to be melted in with the metal to enhance the bell's tone. In the summer of 1832 an epidemic of Asian cholera swept through the town clustered around the salt springs. Samuel Hopkins Adams, in Grandfather Stories, repeats an account of the epidemic related by his grandfather Myron Adams. At the height of the epi­ demic a call went out for volunteers to visit the sick, and lime vats were distributed to help dissipate the poisonous vapors. According to Adams: One of the early volunteers was a Dr. Kirkpatrick He was an avowed "contagionist," believing against the weight of profes­ sional authority that the disease was transmissible from man to man. His first assignment was to administer a syringe treatment to a stricken neighbor. He completed the operation, collapsed, and died of fright. A different version of his death was related by a friend of Kirkpatrick's: when assured that he had cholera, and had only a few hours to live, he summoned his beloved wife to his bedside, gave her a brief history of a few matters of business resting in personal recollection and a few words of affectionate condolence, and then resigned himself to his fate with apparent submission. Kirkpatrick died on September 2, 1832, and he was buried at Salina. Sixty-three at the time, he left two-year-old twin sons William and David, who with their mother moved to Cato, Cayuga County, New York. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 189-91; Princetomans, 17691775, 438-40; J. Hall, Hist. ofPres. Church in Trenton, N.J. (1912), 114, 318, 321 (quote from mother's will); N.J. Wills, TV, 235; Hancock House MSS; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; J. E. Gibson, "Benjamin Rush's Apprenticed Students," PPL; Salem Hist. Comm., The Salem Book (1896), 94-95; Alexander, Princeton, 238-39 ("high-minded"); Giger, Memoirs; BDUSC, 1317; J. V. H. Clark, Onondaga & Oswego (1849 repr. 1973), π, 16, 28, 39^14 ("of such peculiar," Crawford quote, & "when assured"); AJC, 10th Cong.; Phila. Aurora, 28 Apr. 1809 (Non-Intercourse act); L. S. Munson, Syracuse: the City that Salt Built (1969), passim ("By whatever ways," 112); S. H. Adams, Grandfather Stories (1947), 60-61. RLW

275

William J. Lewis J. LEWIS, public official and inventor, was born at Sweet Springs, Augusta County, Virginia, on July 4, 1766, the fifth of the eight children of Col. William Lewis and his wife Anne Montgomery Lewis. Lewis's grandfather John Lewis emigrated from Ireland and is credited with being the first European settler in Augusta County. His five sons were among the colonial troops who served under Gen. Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War. Col. William Lewis received his commission during the Revolution, when he fought under the command of his brother Brig. Gen. Andrew Lewis, who commanded the American army in the vicinity of Williamsburg. During times of peace Colonel Lewis practiced medicine in Augusta County, was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and earned the name of the "Civilizer of the Border" because of his interest in building schools and churches wherever new settlements sprang up. When William Lewis was only thirteen he had a brief period of military service. Volunteers were being called up to try to halt the progress of Banastre Tarleton's British troops through the Virginia mountains. Anne Lewis, whose husband and eldest son were already fighting with the American army, sent William, along with his fifteen- and seventeen-year-old brothers, with the volunteer militia. She is credited with a highly patriotic, but rather improbable sendoff speech:

WILLIAM

Go my children. I spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy, the comfort of my declining years. I devote you all to my country. Keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of Augusta, or see my face no more. Lewis apparently received his early education in the "common schools." No records have been found to indicate just when he was at the College, but he joined the Cliosophic Society on June 28, 1786, using the pseudonym Nestor. John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) noted in his journal on that date, "Mr. Lewis from Virginia admitted this evening," thus identifying Lewis's place of origin. It is difficult to follow the web of Lewis genealogies in Virginia, where the family was very numerous, but all other William Lewises of this generation who have been located would have been too young to have attended college in 1786. William J. Lewis would have been several years older than most of his classmates, which can be accounted for by the interruption of his schooling due to the Revolution. On August 18, 1786 Smith, who probably had never been south of Philadelphia, noted that he had spent "nearly an hour with Lewis and James [William James (A.B.

276

CLASS OF 1 7 8 8

1787) of the Carolinas] listening with pleasure to the entertaining recitals of the many material curiosities which their different coun­ tries afforded." Lewis had left the College by the time an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. He has been tentatively assigned to the Class of 1788. Nothing has been found to indicate whether or not Lewis studied law upon his return to Virginia, the normal sequence for the major­ ity of public office holders. Lewis's name first appears on the pub­ lic record October 1, 1800, in a communication to Governor James Monroe (LL.D. 1822), resigning as election commissioner for Buck­ ingham County because he was moving away. From this time on he is identified with Campbell County, which he represented in the state legislature in the sessions for 1810-11, 1814-15, 1815-16 and 181617. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1817 to March 3, 1819 without participating in any of the debates of the House. In spite of his record of noninvolvement he was later eulogized as "a Legislator, Statesman, Philan­ thropist, and a Patriot of the first water." In 1819 Lewis was granted a patent for a "mode of propelling boats or vessels." It is quite likely that he spent the rest of his life quietly managing his plantation and happily tinkering with possible future inventions. He married Elizabeth Cabell of Nelson County, Virginia, daughter of Col. Joseph Cabell, but there were no children of the union. He died November 1, 1828 at "Mount Athos," his plantation about ten miles below Lynchburg, in Campbell County, and was interred in a vault on the summit of Mount Athos. After her husband's death Elizabeth Lewis moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to live with her sister Mary Hopkins Cabell Breckinridge. SOURCES: BDUSC, 1370; D. F. Wulfeck, Marriages of Some Va. Residents 1607-1800, 1st ser. (1961-67), iv, 160-61; J. L. Peyton, Hist, of Augusta Cnty., Va. (1832), 108, 178, 210-11 (Anne Lewis quote), 285-87, 291, 340-41; A. Brown, Cabells & Their Kin (1939), 261-62 ("Legislator"); J. A. Waddell, Annab of Augusta Cnty., Va. (1902), 127; L. Chalkley, Records of Augusta Cnty., Va. (1912), m, 424-25, 483, 511, 526, 546, 562, 580, 582; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 28 June & 18 Aug. 1786; Cal. Va. St. Papers, ix, 179 ("Returning commission"); E. G. Swem & J. H. Williams, Reg. of the Gen. Assembly ofVa. 1776-1918 ... (1918), 398; WMQ, 2d ser., 2 (1922), 152; 8 (1928), 202; Τ. H. Benton, Abridgement of the Debates of Cong. (1857-61), vi, 59, 200. RLW

277

Peter Schuyler Livingston PETER SCHUYLER LIVINGSTON, A.B. ad eundem, A.B. Columbia 1788, A.B. Yale 1789, A.B. ad eundem Harvard 1790, A.M. Yale 1791, professional student, who was to become known as Schuyler Livingston, was born September 24, 1772, the son of Walter Livingston of Teviotdale, Columbia County, New York, who was a grandson of Robert Livingston, third proprietor of Livingston Manor. Livingston's mother was Cornelia Schuyler, only daughter of Peter and Gertrude Schuyler, and niece of Gen. Philip Schuyler, making her son a representative of two of the most powerful families in New York. Livingston's older brother Henry Walter Livingston studied under the Reverend Ammi R. Robbins of Norfolk, Connecticut, and then attended Yale, graduating with the Class of 1786. Schuyler may also have studied with Robbins, but he then enrolled at King's College, which was to become Columbia College by the time of his graduation in 1788. His father was among the early regents of King's. Livingston is listed as a nongraduate member of the Class of 1788 of the College of New Jersey, although he was actually given the A.B. degree ad eundem. The granting of an ad eundem degree was usually done for a candidate who resided near enough to take advantage of the fellowship of the academic community, and Livingston was apparently in residence long enough to join the American Whig Society. He must have gone to New Haven almost immediately after graduation, since he spent the next academic year as a member of the senior class there, receiving an A.B. degree from Yale in 1789, presumably because of his father's desire that he be associated with that institution. The following year he received an A.B. degree ad eundem from Harvard, and in 1791 he was granted an A.M. from Yale, surely a plethora of degrees. With the wealth of information available about the various branches of the Livingston family it is not difficult to trace the careers of Livingston's father and brother. Although not as well known as some members of the clan, both followed the family tradition of law and public office, and both served as members of Congress. However, no reference has been found that mentions any profession for Schuyler Livingston, nor did he hold any public office. On June 17, 1796 he married Eliza Barclay, eldest daughter of Col. Thomas Barclay and his wife Susan DeLancey Barclay. After their marriage they made their home in Harlem, and Mrs. Livingston became one of the social leaders of New York City. Livingston died on July 8, 1809 leaving three children. Thomas Barclay Livingston, who

278

CLASS OF 1788

was to become American consul at Halifax, married Mary Kearny; Ann Livingston married James Reyburn of New York; and Schuyler Livingston married one of his Livingston cousins, Margaret of the Clermont branch of the family. SOURCES: Thomas, Columbia, 111-12; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Dexter, Yale Biographies, iv, 490-91, 645-46; G. W. Schuyler, Colonial N.Y. (1885), i, 264; ii, 151; Appleton's Cyclopadia of Amer. Biog. (1888-89 repr. 1968); M. J. Lamb Sc B. Harrison, Hist, of the City of N.Y. (3 vols., 1877-96), π, 215, 284, 441; G. N. MacKenzie, Colonial Families of the U.S. (1907-20 repr. 1966), vi, 338. RLW

Ephraim McMillan EPHRAIM MCMILLAN, A.B., about whom very little information has been found, entered the College from Pennsylvania. He was not a brother of John McMillan (A.B. 1772), but it is possible that there was a more distant family connection. According to the faculty minutes McMillan was one of a pair who transferred to the College as seniors in November 1787 "from other Colleges," but just which school has not been discovered. He joined the Cliosophic Society on December 12 with the pseudonym Ossian, oddly, a name chosen six months earlier by David Meade (A.B. 1787). At his commencement McMillan took the negative side in a debate of the proposition, "The knowledge of the learned languages, and an extensive knowledge of language in general, is a necessary part of education, and the foundation of universal science." McMillan apparently lived only a few months following his graduation. He is listed as deceased in the 1789 edition of the College catalogue. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Princetanians, 1769-1775, 249-55; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("from other"); Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788. CAL

William Marshall WILLIAM MARSHALL, lawyer and judge, was the son of Thomas Mar­ shall and Mary Randolph Keith Marshall of "Oak Hill," Fauquier County, Virginia, whose eldest son John Marshall (LL.D. 1802) became chief justice of the United States. William and his twin Charles were born January 31, 1767, the seventh and eighth children in a family of fifteen. For the most part the Marshall children were instructed at home by their father and by private tutors; however, a few members of the family probably attended colleges.

WILLIAM MARSHALL

279

Marshall is listed in a catalogue of the College of William and Mary as having attended there sometime between 1785 and 1790, without receiving a degree. There is no record of when Marshall came to the College, but a membership list of the Cliosophic Society shows that he joined on January 25, 1786, assuming the name of Orlando. Although this roster mistakenly indicates that Marshall graduated in 1788, he left the College before an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. He returned to Virginia to study law in Richmond, perhaps under his brother John, and became a member of the Richmond bar. On June 28, 1788 he married Alice Adams, daughter of Col. Richard Adams and Elizabeth Griffin Adams. Richard Adams was said to be the largest property holder of his day in Richmond, owning most of Church Hill. Adams Street was named in his honor. By 1791 the young couple had built a "fine House" on Church Street, perhaps on land that was a gift from Mrs. Marshall's father. There were frequent visits between the families of William and John Marshall, but William was apparendy more negligent than John about keeping in touch with their parents, who had migrated to Kentucky. On September 9, 1796 Thomas Marshall complained to his eldest son that "Charles & Billey never write to me. In 1801 William Marshall was appointed clerk of the United States court at Richmond, with a murmer of criticism in the background because he was the fourth member of his family upon whom offices were bestowed while John Marshall was secretary of state. Alice Marshall died in April 1802, leaving her husband with three small children. On December 10, 1803 he married Mary Cary Macon, who bore him two children before her death on January 5, 1812. The Cary family was also a prominent one in the area, owning a great deal of land in and around Richmond. Marshall was reported to be a distinguished and eloquent lawyer with talents almost as great as those of his more famous brother, but he was unfortunately inclined to indolence. In 1804 Marshall was a witness at the impeachment trial forjudge Samuel Chase, since it was he who had summoned the jury panel for the James T. Callender trial at which Chase had presided and which was a major subject of the impeachment trial. He made a good impression on members of the Senate by answering promptly and lucidly, seemingly with both frankness and firmness. Marshall was clerk of the court when Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) was indicted in Richmond for treason. In the disastrous theatre fire that occurred in Richmond on the evening of December 26, 1811, Governor George W. Smith, Marshall's brother-in-law by his first wife, was one of the seventy-two casualties. Two days later Marshall reported to the

280

CLASS OF 1788

common council that he had talked with each of the bereaved families and that because of the difficulty of moving the badly burned bodies, they had agreed to a mass burial on the site. On his motion the council adopted an ordinance permitting such an interment and declaring that the area formerly within the walls of the theatre should be consecrated. A Protestant Episcopal church was later erected on the spot, and it became known as the Monumental Church. When it was completed in the spring of 1812, Marshall became a vestryman and bought pew no. 25 for $420, just in front of John Marshall's pew no. 23 which cost only $390. Sometime after 1812 Marshall married the widow Maria Winston Price. He died in the summer of 1815 leaving no children by his third marriage. He was followed at the College by his nephews Thomas Marshall (A.B. 1803), John J. Marshall (A.B. 1806), and Jaquelin A. Marshall (A.B. 1806). SOURCES: W. M. Paxton, The Marshall Family (1885), 38-39, 53; S. P. Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of Amer. (2d ed., 1958 repr. 1968), 3, 344-65; A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Marshall (1916-19), II, 560; m, 191-92; F. M. Mason, My Dearest Polly (1961), 28, 64, 83, 188, 211-13, 229, 350; Clio, lists; H. A. Johnson et al., eds., Papers of John Marshall (1974- ), III, 45 ("Charles & Billey"); G. D. Fisher, Hist. 6f Reminiscences of the Monumental Church (1880), 11-12, 19-20; S. Mordecai, Richmond In By-Gone Days (1856), 102-03; V. Dabney, Richmond (1976), 16-17, 113; VMHB, 5 (1897), 163; 12 (1904), 35; College of William & Mary, Hist, of the College (1874), 98. RLW

John Murray JOHN MURRAY, A.B., A.M. 1791, was a resident of Pennsylvania who

joined the Cliosophic Society on December 6, 1786. His society name was Telemachus. The date he entered the College has not been determined. At his commencement on September 24, 1788, Mur­ ray argued the opposition side of the question, "Duty and interest, virtue and happiness, are never really disjoined and that is as true as it respects nations as well as individuals." No verifiable traces of Murray have been located following his graduation from the College. A John Murray was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in July 1792, but no evidence has been found to prove that this Murray was the Princetonian. A perusal of Philadelphia city directories shows that he did not set up an office in that city. He is first listed as deceased in College catalogues in 1845. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Hancock House MSS; Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 4 θ α . 1791; Martin's Bench Esf Bar, 277. One strong possibility for the Princeton graduate is John D. Murray, whose father

RICHARD

RANDOLPH

281

and grandfather were attorneys in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A codicil to the will of the grandfather Col. Francis Murray, dated 17 Nov. 1816, left a tract of land "in trust for use of John Dormer Murray, reputed son of my son John; for life then to his children.'' Francis Murray's son John Dormer Murray had died in 1803 aged 52. See "Abstract of Bucks County Wills," Book No. 9, 462-63, PHi. CAL&RLW

Richard Randolph planter, was the eldest son of John Randolph and his wife Frances Bland Randolph, whose home was "Matoax," a plantation on the Appomattox River about two miles above Petersburg, Virginia. Through his maternal grandmother, Richard's ancestry could be traced to John Rolfe and Pocahontas, and he was a second cousin of Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791). Born on March 9, 1770, Richard inherited the family plantation when his father died on October 28, 1775. Three years later his mother married St. George Tucker, an emigrant from Bermuda who had come to Williamsburg about 1771 to study law, and who fought with the Virginians as a lieutenant colonel during the Revolution. The Tuckers had three sons and two daughters before the death of Frances Randolph Tucker on January 10, 1788. Tucker later married the widow Lelia Skipwith Carter who had a son and daughter by her marriage to George Carter and subsequently bore a son by Tucker. In spite of this heterogeneous family, Tucker continued to maintain a strong paternal interest in the Randolph children of his first wife. After her first husband's death Frances Randolph, with her sons Richard, Theodorick (Class of 1791), and John (Class of 1791), spent most of her time at the Bland family home of "Cawsons." Upon her second marriage the family returned to "Matoax" until they fled on January 3, 1781 before the approach of Benedict Arnold to "Bizarre," another of the Randolph estates on the Appomattox. John Randolph's will had shown his great concern that his sons receive a good education when he instructed that his children "be educated in the best manner without regard to expenses as far as their fortunes may allow even to the last shilling, and that they choose professions or trades agreeable to their inclination." Tucker had for a time tutored his three stepsons, but after their move his increasing military involvement made this instruction impossible. He tried to hire a tutor to stay at "Bizarre," but when none was available Richard heard the lessons of his younger brothers, at the same time regretting that he was not old enough to turn out and fight. Tucker continued to send advice by correspondence, encouraging studiousness and obedience. RICHARD RANDOLPH,

282

CLASS OF 1788

In January 1782 the Randolph boys were sent to a school run by Walker Maury (William and Mary 1771) in Orange County. Maury was an old friend of St. George Tucker, who believed that he would be competent to improve both the morals and manners of his stepsons, as well as supervise their studies. The school was conducted in a very primitive structure, and the master seems to have been unduly harsh. John Randolph later recalled that Richard was so indignant at his treatment that he was about to desert the school and return home, when Maury received an invitation to open a grammar school in Williamsburg in conjunction with the College of William and Mary. The Orange County school was broken up in October 1782, and the Randolphs enjoyed a few months at home until the new school at Williamsburg was established. There Richard was assigned to the second class, which was taught by Mr. Maury. For several months in 1785 Richard was away from school while accompanying his family on a visit to Tucker friends and relatives in Bermuda. When he returned to Williamsburg he studied Greek, Latin, and mathematics with George Wythe, the renowned attorney who was also a family friend. Richard then entered the College of William and Mary. Letters from his mother during this period reflect her concern about some of his friendships, but he wrote assuring her that there were only "one or two idle dissipated young men," and that most of the student body had "a more discreet turn of mind." He also protested that he was always in his room at the hours when any dissipation or debauchery took place. The younger Randolph brothers were more unhappy than ever in Maury's school with Richard gone, and first Theodorick and then John left it to return home. They were sent to the Nassau Hall Grammar School in the spring of 1787, and Richard followed them a few months later to enroll in the College. His parents seem to have been dissatisfied with his course of studies at William and Mary and may still have been concerned about his companions there. In any case, he was in the habit of looking after his younger brothers. On June 12, 1787 Tucker wrote to his stepsons encouraging their fraternal affection as more valuable than any other friendships. In September Richard wrote to his mother, "I have not experienced from My Brothers anything but the most tender affection We shall ... grow up in this attachment and be useful to each other." Richard joined the Cliosophic Society on August 22, where he assumed the name of Columbus. The day before the college commencement that fall he took first prize, as a member of the sophomore class, in two of the undergraduate competitions, English and English orations. Less than two months later, the faculty minutes of November 10 show

RICHARD RANDOLPH

283

that subsequent to an examination Richard Randolph "late member of the Junior class," was admitted to the senior class. The Randolphs were summoned to Virginia some time during the Christmas holidays that year when their mother became seriously ill. After her death none of them returned to Princeton. Richard was sent to Richmond to listen to the debates of the Virginia ratifying convention on the question of adopting or rejecting the Federal Constitution of 1787. Here he became reacquainted with his second cousin Judith Randolph, one of the thirteen children of Thomas Mann Randolph and Anne Cary Randolph of "Tuckahoe." After the convention Richard went to New York to join his brothers who were already enrolled at Columbia. He is said to have studied there also, but he is not recorded among Columbia's list of nongraduates. More likely, he studied privately under a New York lawyer. His admiring brother John pronounced him an elegant gentleman and said that he was often invited to parties in Philadelphia. Whether or not he applied himself to his studies, Richard did not remain in New York long, for he returned to Virginia to marry sixteen-year-old Judith Randolph on New Year's Eve, 1789. The following year her brother Thomas Mann Randolph married Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha. Although trained as a lawyer, Randolph never practiced the profession. He was disgusted by the trickery and cunning which he observed among Virginia county court lawyers. With ample income he saw no reason to leave his home to indulge in what he considered chicanery. He and Judith settled at "Bizarre" where, with typical southern hospitality, the household was soon expanded to include a number of relatives. Randolph's widowed cousin, Anna Bland Dudley, and her children were brought up from North Carolina. Judith's younger sister, Anne (Nancy) Cary Randolph, came to stay at her sister's home after a disagreement with her father. And Randolph's younger brothers preferred "Bizarre" to their stepfather's home in Williamsburg, particularly after his remarriage in 1791. Theodorick came as an invalid and died in February 1792. John visited from Philadelphia, often staying only a few days, then resdessly setting out on horseback to visit other relatives or friends. The outward harmony of the family group at "Bizarre" was shattered in the fall of 1792 when rumors spread through the Virginia country homes that Nancy Randolph had either aborted or delivered a child that had been murdered and disposed of by her brother-inlaw Richard. As the rumors increased, so did suspicion that Richard was the father of the child. Richard and Judith Randolph apparendy had known that Nancy was pregnant by the deceased Theodorick, and now they sought the advice of St. George Tucker, who was by

284

CLASS OF 1788

this time a judge and professor of law at William and Mary. When Nancy's fallier refused to institute a suit for slander to protect his daughter's reputation, Richard, against the wishes of his wife, publicly announced that he would appear before the spring session of the Cumberland county court to answer any charges that anyone might think proper to bring. At a hearing on April 29, 1793, with Patrick Henry, John Marshall (LL.D. 1802), and Alexander Campbell as his advocates, Richard was examined by the magistrates who decided not to prosecute the case. Probably little information was actually presented to the court since Randolph, as the accused, could not be compelled to give testimony; Nancy could not be forced to incriminate herself; and the house slaves who attended Nancy were not allowed by Virginia law to testify against whites. Although the gossip did not die easily, the three Randolphs and St. George Tucker continued to deny that Nancy had ever been pregnant, and Nancy continued to reside at "Bizarre." Richard's motives for remaining silent about the pregnancy undoubtedly included protecting his dead brother's name as well as Nancy's reputation, and the truth was not made known for years, even to his brother John. The scandal involving his family's name was probably very difficult for a proud Virginian to accept. Richard received another blow the following year when his first son John St. George Randolph was born deaf and mute, and as time progressed it became evident that the baby was also retarded. Randolph understandably was often depressed and seemed to lose his zest for living. Sometime in the early part of 1796 a second son Theodorick Tudor Randolph was born. Richard Randolph died suddenly and unexpectedly on June 14 of that year. Randolph's will contained a scathing attack on slavery. He stated that he had accepted the inheritance of his father's slaves only because of necessity, since a lien on the estate included the mortgaging of his father's slaves. Richard Randolph's will freed all of his slaves and provided a 400 acre tract of land, called "Israel Hill," on which they were to setde. Only after his long anti-slavery passage did Richard leave the residue of his estate to his wife, with instructions that she provide setdements for their children as they came of age. The freed slaves, with no direction or supervision, were unable to make a living from the plot of land provided for them. The area soon became a refuge for tramps and drifters, and in the neighborhood its name became synonymous with poverty. And Randolph seems not to have given any thought to the difficulties that his widow with two small children, one of whom was severely handicapped, would encounter in attempting to run a plantation without its black labor

T I M O T H Y TREADWELL SMITH

285

force. Until "Bizarre" was destroyed by fire in 1813, John Randolph assumed responsibility for its household. SOURCES: G. W. Johnson, Randolph of Roanoke (1929), passim; W. C. Bruce, John Ran­ dolph of Roanoke (1922), passim; Η. Λ. Garland, Life ofJohn Randolph of Roanoke (1856), passim; M. H. Coleman, St. George Tucker (1938), passim; Clio, lists; ΝJ. Jour., 6f Polit. IntelUgencer, 10 Ort. 1787; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787; VMHB, 22 (1914), 445-46; 34 (1926), 72-76; H. A. Johnson et al., eds., Papers of John Marshall (1974- ), π, 16178; R. I. Randolph, Randolphs qfVa. (privately printed), 222, 271; WMQ, 1st ser., 8 (1901), 119-20; 16 (1909), 267-68; F. A. Virkus, First Families ofAmer. (1925), 863-64; E. M. Betts & J. A. Bear, Jr., Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson (1966), 116-18; D. B. Smith, Inside the Great House (1980), 103-04 ("dissipated young men"), 179-80. RLW

Timothy Treadwell (Tredwell) Smith TIMOTHY TREADWELL (TREDWELL) SMITH, A.B.,

teacher, was

the

eldest son of Philetus Smith and Phebe Tredwell Smith of Smithtown, Long Island, New York, and the nephew of Thomas Tredwell (A.B. 1764). He was born January 17, 1768. His father served in the Revolution and the family, with several other branches of the Smith clan, probably fled Long Island in 1776 to seek temporary refuge in Connecticut. Phebe Smith died in 1778, leaving ten-year-old Timothy and three younger children, Alexander, Elias, and Hannah. Nothing has been found to indicate where Smith did his prepara­ tory work or just when he matriculated at the College. He joined the Cliosophic Society on February 8, 1785, using Hannibal as his society name. At his commencement he delivered an oration on the progres­ sive improvement of the human race. Several sources credit Smith with an A.M. degree, but there is no record of his having received such a degree from the College. Family records show that Smith taught for a time at "the Academy at East Hampton," that is, Clinton Academy. He must have been there between 1788 and 1792, since in the fall of 1792 he was warmly welcomed to the Kingston Academy in Kingston, New York, where he was appointed principal and instructor. His predecessor in the position, George Ewart, had been so unsatisfactory that thirty-six of the parents had signed a petition for his dismissal, stating that their children were not learning anything. The school had been closed for nearly a year after Ewart's departure, but by December 1792 the trustees of the academy were able to advertise in the newspapers that the academy was again in session and that "A gendeman of competent education and abilities has been procured who at present presides over it. The Greek and Latin languages, and in general the various branches of education usual in academies are taught here."

286

CLASS OF 1788

The academy prospered under Smith, and on February 21, 1794 the trustees applied to the regents of the University of the State of New York for its incorporation. The application was renewed on January 5, 1795, this time with a favorable response. On June 10, 1795 the trustees met to draw up a list of rules and regulations for the school. They agreed that Smith would continue to be in charge: "Resolved that Timothy Tredwell Smith be and he is hereby appointed to take charge of the Academy as Principal Tutor thereof for two years, to commence on the 14th day of May, 1796, and that he be allowed for his services for the first year, to terminate the 14th day of May, 1797, the sum of 170 pounds ($452), and for the year next thereafter the sum of 185 pounds ($462.50)." On December 21, 1795 the academy library was founded with a pair of globes and 103 volumes of English literature. The job of librarian was added to the duties of the principal tutor, his compensation to be free use of the library, the charge for other nonstudents being four pence a week for each volume borrowed. On March 18, 1796 Smith's salary was increased to £200. The trustees further showed their confidence in him in September 1798 when they were approached by a parent who complained that his son should be allowed to deliver an oration of his own choice, rather than one proposed and corrected by the principal tutor. The board discussed the problem and were "unanimously of opinion that upon the present and similar cases the principal Tutor ought to be the sole judge of what is more proper and conducive to the edification of his pupils; and unless this confidence is reposed in him, his authority as Tutor would be diminished, and the promotion of knowledge thereby endangered." In February 1799 the trustees voted that the salary of the principal tutor would be continued at the same rate. They discussed but did not approve a plan whereby the principal would receive an amount proportionate to the tuition collected from the students. Smith resigned his position on August 1, 1801. He probably wanted to move on to teach at a more advanced level, but he may also have believed that he was building up the enrollment of the academy without being properly compensated. The man who succeeded him had such an inducement included in his contract. Sometime during his stay in Kingston, Smith married Sarah Wynkoop, who was probably the Sally Wynkoop, daughter of Dirck Wynkoop, Jr., who had been a student at Kingston Academy in 1777. The trustees of the academy had stated that they preferred to employ a married man, as not being so likely to change his situation. On December 1, 1801 Smith was appointed to a professorship at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Union, chartered in 1795, was an outgrowth of Schenectady Academy, a Dutch Reformed

T I M O T H Y TREADWELL SMITH

287

school. However, it was not a denominational college, and the name signified an institution founded on Christian unity. It had strong ties to the College of New Jersey, for the Reverend Theodore (Dirck) Romeyn (A.B. 1765), minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady, was instrumental in securing the charter for Union College; John Taylor (A.B. 1770) was the first professor and acting president; John Blair Smith (A.B. 1773) and Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (A.B. 1765), served as the first presidents; and several College of New Jersey alumni sat on the board of trustees. Smith began teaching at Union on January 18, 1802. The minutes of the trustees for November 16, 1802 note that they had agreed to underwrite the cost of moving the "Family of Timothy T. Smith" to Schenectady. Two histories of Union College, as well as its centennial catalogue, list Smith as a professor of Greek and Latin languages and also credit him with the A.M. degree. Smith died in Schenectady on October 24, 1803, and was buried in the Kingston Dutch Reformed cemetery. An obituary written by his colleague, Benjamin Allen, says that Smith had been confined by a fever for eleven weeks and described him as having been professor of moral philosophy and logic. The plan that the trustees of Union presented to the state board of regents in 1795 called for the college president to officiate as professor of moral philosophy, history, chronology, and natural jurisprudence, and the professor of languages to serve also as professor of geography, rhetoric, logic, and belles-lettres. Whether or not these rules had changed in the interim, Mrs. Smith seems to have had the last word. Her husband's tombstone states that he was a professor of "Moral philosophy and logick," that he was "esteemed and lamented by all who knew him," and that the monument was erected by his bereaved partner. SOURCES: F. G. Mather, Refugeesfrom Long Island to Conn. (1913), 607; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), III, 136, 382; Prmcetonians, 1748-1768, 468-72; Alexander, Princeton, 239 (identifies Smith as a professor of Greek & Latin); Giger, Memoirs (identifies Smith as a professor of moral philosophy and logic); Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS (where TTS is described as a resident of South Carolina); Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; J. Pearson, Hist, of The Schenectady Patent (1883), xii, 433; M. Schoonmaker, Hist, of Kingston, N.Y. (1888), 349-56; Trustees' Minutes & als from William S. Smith, 2 June 1857, Union College Archives; A. V. Raymond, Union College (1907), l, 13-14, 25, 86; m, 8 of appendix; B. F. Hough, Hist. Sketch of Union College (1876), 8-10, 59; Union College, Centennial Cat. ... 1795-1895 (1895), xi; T. Alden, Collection ofAmer. Epitaphs (1914), 203 (tombstone inscription); NYGBR, 43 (1912), 138; 45 (1914), 272. Smith's maternal relatives spelled their name "Tredwell," but all of Smith's college records use the spelling "Treadwell." Other references include both spellings. A letter from the archivist of Union College, dated March 26, 1981, states that Allen's obituary, which was incorporated into die college's Record of Discipline, is their only record of the courses that Smith may have taught. RLW

288

David Stone A.B., lawyer, judge, congressman, governor, and senator, was born February 17, 1770 at "Hope," a plantation five miles from Windsor, the county seat of Bertie County, North Carolina. He was the son of Elizabeth Williamson Hobson and her second husband Zedekiah Stone, who had migrated to Bertie County from Massachusetts. The elder Stone purchased large tracts of land from the Tuscarora Indians and became a prosperous merchant and planter on the Cashie River. He was an active whig, who served in the provincial congresses of August 1775 and November 1776 and was a state senator representing Bertie County in 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1786. When he married the widow of Francis Hobson she was the owner of the "Hope" tract, land which had been granted to the Hobson family in the early eighteenth century by the lords proprietors of North Carolina and which her first husband deeded to her in 1765. David Stone and his sister Elizabeth were probably born in a house that had been built by the Hobsons around 1750 or earlier. Stone prepared for college at Windsor Academy, which was said to offer the best elementary education available in Bertie County. He apparently entered the College as a sophomore after an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year, and he joined the American Whig Society. "By order of Society" on September 4, 1787 Stone wrote to graduate member Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785), inviting him to visit if possible, or at least to continue corresponding with the society. News included the Whigs' move since Harper's time to a room across the hall from their previous meeting place, "considerable additions" of furniture and acquisitions for the society's library, and a current membership count of twenty-six. Along with Richard Randolph, after taking an examination Stone jumped a class and became a senior on November 10, 1787. He ranked first in his new class when he graduated and delivered the Latin salutatory oration, speaking "on the foundation of the law of nature." President John Witherspoon is said to have referred to Stone "with approbation to his studious and exemplary conduct, and predicted for him a bright career of honor and usefulness." He was later described as a brilliant man, with a great deal of personal charm and magnetism, suave of manner, but with independence of character. After graduation Stone returned to North Carolina to study law under William R. Davie (A.B. 1776), who had become one of the most prominent lawyers in the state. Davie's practice was in Halifax, the county seat of Halifax County, which adjoined Bertie County. DAVID STONE,

D A V I D STONE

289

A Federalist, Davie had sat in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and was later to serve as governor in 1798 and 1799. Stone's aptitude for the law was demonstrated by his admittance to the bar as early as 1790. He set up his law practice in Halifax, and his involvement as a public official began almost immediately. Even before joining the bar he was chosen as a delegate from Bertie to the second ratifying convention of 1789, which met at Fayetteville and finally committed North Carolina to the union. Stone was part of the majority favoring the adoption of the new Constitution. In 1790, at only twenty years of age, Stone became a member of the lower house of the state legislature, and he retained his seat by annual reelection through 1794. When the legislature of 1792 divided North Carolina into ten districts, Stone submitted the measure with the most equitable divisions. In February 1793 Zedekiah Stone deeded his son the "Hope" tract, comprising 1,051 acres, as a wedding gift. Stone married Hannah Turner, daughter of Simon Turner of Bertie County, on March 13. Late in the century the young couple probably started building their impressive home, completing it in 1803. In spite of Stone's public duties he took a personal interest in the construction of his house, which combined elements of Georgian and Federal design. Correspondence remains between Stone and a supplier of Italian marble and of a red stone found near Newark, New Jersey, which were used for the chimney pieces. The library contained massive bookshelves covering two walls of the room, for Stone owned over 1,400 books, a very impressive number for the time. Four daughters and a son David W. Stone were raised in this home. In 1794 Stone was elected to the state supreme court, the youngest judge to have presided in North Carolina. He served in this capacity until elected to Congress for the session commencing March 4, 1799. During his time in the house he became a member of the first standing Ways and Means Committee. Although he was elected to the house as a Federalist from the Edenton district, his votes were more often cast with the Republicans. During the contest between Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) and Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), Stone consistently voted for Jefferson throughout the thirty-six ballots. By 1800 Stone's Republicanism was so obvious that the Republican state legislature elected him to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate, defeating his old teacher Davie by ninety-four votes to seventy-two. He started his term in the Senate March 1801, just barely fulfilling the thirty-year age requirement, and served until resigning in 1806. When Congress debated the nonimportation bill in 1806, those favoring it argued that shutting off imports of manufactured

290

CLASS OF 1788

British products would encourage the United States to develop a stronger manufacturing interest Stone, who lived near the coast and probably participated in its export trade, saw the disadvantages that any trade restrictions would have for North Carolina and opposed the bill. A more popular opinion held that refusal to adopt the nonimportation agreement would demonstrate a cowardly failure to assert American rights. Stone was proved partially correct when exports from the South fell off 85 percent after adoption of the embargo in 1807, a law that was eventually repealed. In 1806 North Carolina was divided into six circuits, with the stipulation that a supreme court session be held twice a year in each county. This new law made it necessary to add two extra judges, and Stone was again elected a member of the supreme court. He resigned from the Senate on February 17, 1807 to take his seat on the bench. On November 28, 1808, and again the following fall, he was elected governor by a joint ballot of the two houses of the general assembly, which was predominantly Republican. During his terms as governor Stone showed an interest in all aspects of state life, urging the development of agriculture by the introduction of new crops and new techniques, and encouraging the growth of new industries as a means of decreasing the state's dependence on foreign markets. He also advocated improvements in transportation and an extensive public education system for both sexes. He sought protection for property owners from the claims of the heirs of John Carteret, Earl Granville, claims that were eventually disallowed when it was ruled that the state's sovereignty canceled all rights of the British crown. When James Madison (A.B. 1771) was elected to the presidency, Stone, who had been considered a Federalist not even ten years before, assured him that he was happy to be able to offer him the complete support of the state legislature. The line between North and South Carolina was fixed while Stone was governor and he, along with Peter Browne, a fellow lawyer who had also served in the North Carolina House of Commons, financed the publication of the first survey map of the state. Stone returned to the lower house of the state assembly for 1811 and 1812 as a representative of Bertie County. The assembly of 1811 repealed an act of 1803 and vested the choice of presidential electors in the assembly of 1812, which meant a solid Republican electoral vote, rather than the divided vote which would have followed from the use of the district plan. Stone approved of the new law, saying that it would give North Carolina full weight in the presidential election by having an undivided Republican vote, and that the state would therefore be more correcdy represented. Under the name "North-

DAVID STONE

291

Carolinian," he wrote three articles which were published in several papers throughout the state, upholding the new law because it would give North Carolina the "due and constitutional weight" to which she was entitled because of her population and resources, and which she had not had when the Federalist minority had divided the electoral votes during the past four presidential elections. Under this new law Madison received North Carolina's fifteen votes, but after widespread protests the law was repealed in favor of the district system. The state legislature of 1813 chose Stone to succeed Jesse Franklin in the United States Senate, even though Stone had not sought the office. The southern and western states generally upheld the war measures of Madison's administration, and the Republican legislature of North Carolina certainly expected Stone to do so. Although his own section of the state was strongly prowar, Stone voted against such measures for the prosecution of the war as additional taxes and the appointment of Albert Gallatin as an envoy extraordinary to the peace commission held under the aegis of the Emperor of Russia. Because Gallatin lost by a margin of eighteen to seventeen, Stone's vote against him was decisive. Stone's defection from party objectives roused public opinion against him, and citizen meetings in Camden, Hertford, and Bertie counties accused him of treason, with either ambition or corruption deciding his votes. Disappointed and enraged colleagues were to say that he had fallen under the influence of "Massachusetts' disloyal leadership." After a long debate the state legislature on December 13, 1813 resolved on a vote of censure for Stone because he had "disappointed the reasonable expectations and incurred the disapprobation of this General Assembly." Arguments in favor of the censure declared that the people had a right to approve or disapprove the conduct of their public servants, and that Stone had certainly known the war sentiment of the state. Those arguing against censure insisted that a senator represented the entire nation and should therefore be allowed to be independent, and that it was actually unconstitutional for the legislature to censure a senator for his vote. The degree of public interest in this controversy may be indicated by the fact that at the 1813 commencement of the University of North Carolina one of the disputations was on the subject, "Should a representative act agreeably to his own judgment or in conformity with the directions of his constituents?" In spite of the furor Stone did not resign immediately. He later said that the assembly was in such a state of turmoil that he did not think it was a good time for its members to be entrusted with the election of a new senator. He had probably also hoped that a new assembly would reflect a modified

292

CLASS OF 1788

point of view. When this change did not happen he resigned in December 1814, explaining that his objectionable votes had not been cast because he opposed the war but rather because he opposed the extravagant way in which it was waged and was disgusted with the ineffectual leadership of the administration. Stone retired to a plantation he owned in Wake County, near Raleigh. He may have been following his father's example in deeding "Hope" to his son before his own death, or perhaps he felt more comfortable living in a different area after the accusations that had been voiced by his former neighbors. Some said that he retired in shame, others that he retired because of an independent nature that refused to let him conform to party politics. His first wife died sometime in 1816, and in June 1817 he married Sarah Dashiell of Washington, D.C., a niece of Governor William Grayson of Maryland. He lived quietly on his plantation, never recovering his influence in the state. He died October 7, 1818, with interment in the family burial ground on the banks of the Neuse River, near Raleigh. His son studied at the University of North Carolina where his father had been a member of the first board of trustees. SOURCES: DAB; BDUSC, 1882; alumni file, PUA; brochure of Historic Hope Foun­ dation, Inc.; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 239-40; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; als, DS to R. G. Harper, 4 Sept 1787 ("By order," "considerable additions"), Harper Papers; Min. Fac., 10 Nov. 1787; Trenton Federal Postal Oct. 1788 ("on the foundation"); Princetonians, 1776-1783, 25-31; D. H. GUpaXrkk, Jeffersonian Democracy in N.C. 1789-1816 (1913), 58, 111, 116, 123, 129, 135, 166, 187, 189-93, 208-11; NCHR, 36 (1939), 332, 438; 61 (1964), 481; 70 (1972), 111, 116-17; J. H. Wheeler, Reminiscences & Memoirs of N.C. (1884), 30-32 (Witherspoon quote); A. Henderson, North Carolina (1941), I, 504-05, 514-15; Η. T. Lefler & A. R. Newsome, North Car­ olina (1954), 285, 287, 297, 596; S. M. Lemmon, Frustrated Patriots: N.C. 6f the War of 1812 (1973), 168, 175, 179, 183-84; AIC, 13th Cong., 1st sess., 58-59, 65, 68, 89, 10001; S. A. Ashe, Hist, of N.C. (1908), II, 219, 237-38. David Stone's son sold the family plantation, "Hope," in 1876. After passing through several owners, the Stone mansion, along with eighteen acres of land, was acquired in 1966 by Historic Hope Foundation. Now restored, it is open to the public as a house museum (see Historic Hope Foundation brochure). PUBLICATION: An address to the freemen of North-Carolina by a member of their late General Assembly (1812, Sh-Sh # 24565) MANUSCRIPTS: NC; Southern Hist. Collection, NcU; NHi; R. G. Harper Papers, MdHi RLW

John Taliaferro JOHN TALIAFERRO, lawyer and public official, was born in 1768 on the Taliaferro estate of "Hays," near Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The Taliaferro family was well known in Virginia,

J O H N TALIAFERRO

293

and there were numerous marital connections with many of the other prominent families of the state, as well as intermarriages among Taliaferro cousins. Taliaferros married into the Lewis family, which was connected by two marriages to the Washingtons. There were also family ties to James Monroe (LL.D. 1822) and to Taliaferro's classmate Richard Eppes. Taliaferro was the second son of Betty Gamett, daughter of James and Margaret Garnett, and John Taliaferro of "Hays," who was a member of the House of Delegates in 1789. Taliaferro probably attended the "common schools," which may mean that he attended nearby Fredericksburg Academy. But it is quite likely that he received at least some of his preparation for college from Andrew Kirkpatrick (A.B. 1775) who in 1777 became a tutor to some branch of the Taliaferro family; even if this was not the family at "Hays," the usual practice was to have cousins and nephews join the sons of the family under one tutor. Kirkpatrick may have been responsible for Taliaferro's decision to come to the College of New Jersey. The only records of the latter's presence at the College are during 1786. John Smith (A.B. 1787) on several occasions that year noted in his diary that he had had contact with Taliaferro, giving his name the phonetic spelling of "Toliver." James Gibson (A.B. 1787) dutifully recorded that Taliaferro took his turn in speaking at prayers on March 7, 1786. And on December 13 Taliaferro joined the Cliosophic Society, where he was known as Pelopidas, the Theban general and statesman. Taliaferro returned home to study law, was admitted to the bar, and began practicing in Fredericksburg. John Taliaferro, Sr., died on April 8, 1789, having served as political advisor to James Madison (A.B. 1771) in the early part of the latter's political career. Virginia records show a John Taliaferro representing King George County in the house of delegates from 1789 through 1793; presumably this means that Taliaferro was appointed to fill out his father's unexpired term and was reelected for the following year. In 1794 he married Lucy Thornton Hooe. He served another term in the house of delegates from 1800 to 1801. He was then elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventh Congress of the United States, which met from March 1801 to March 1803, and in 1804 he served as a presidential elector on the Democratic-Republican ticket of Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) and George Clinton. By 1805 Taliaferro was being addressed as colonel, a position which he probably held in the King George County militia. That fall he hired Samuel L. Southard (A.B. 1804), son of fellow Congressman Henry Southard, to come to "Hagley," his estate on the north shore of the Rappahannock River about twelve miles from Freder-

294

CLASS OF 1788

icksburg, as a tutor for his sons and daughters. This association was a felicitous one for Southard. During his stay in Virginia he became a close friend of James Monroe, who was later to appoint him secretary of the navy, and he met and courted his future wife Rebecca Harrow, who was residing at "Hagley" as Taliaferro's ward. Southard was later to write, "It is not easy now to fully appreciate the advantages enjoyed by an acceptable tutor in the family of a rich and cultivated planter of Virginia." He praised the library and the "rare and pleasant appurtenances" of the household and said of his employer, "Col. Taliaferro was a relation of James Monroe, and enjoyed not only his acquaintance and fellowship, but was also intimate with Jefferson and Madison, and most of the other distinguished men of his time." Southard usually had eight students, which included the two sons of the family and various nephews and cousins. The James Taliaferro who was admitted to the College as a junior in 1812 and dismissed on November 17 before attending classes because of poor health was probably Taliaferro's son James Monroe Taliaferro. The John S. Taliaferro who was "dismissed for making gun powder crackers in room 29 Nov. 1815" may have been his second son. He also had at least one daughter, Lucy. William Francis Taliaferro (A.B. 1811), the son of Taliaferro's brother James Garnett Taliaferro, was probably also one of Southard's charges. In the spring of 1806 Taliaferro petitioned the governor for his right to become sheriff of King George County, arguing that he had not forfeited his hereditary claim to this position by serving in Congress during the period of his proper rotation as sheriff. On October 12, 1808 he married his second wife Sarah Frances Brooke, a union which one source claims was the seventh between members of the Taliaferro and Brooke families. In November 1811 Taliaferro petitioned the United States Congress, contesting the election of John P. Hungerford as representative from Virginia. The two had been opposing candidates in a district composed of Westmoreland, Richmond, Lancaster, Northumberland, King George, and Stafford counties, and Hungerford had won by six votes. Only freeholders had the franchise, and Taliaferro claimed that there had been many unqualified voters. An investigation turned up 414 illegal votes, and the new count gave Taliaferro a majority of 121. On December 1, 1811 he was declared entitled to a seat in the house, where he served until March 1813. During this period he joined fellow Republicans in voting for most war measures; however, he voted against an expanded navy, an issue on which the party split. He missed the vote on another controversial issue, the reorganization of state militias. In 1813 he again contested the election of Hungerford, this time unsuccessfully.

JOHN TENNANT

295

Taliaferro turned his attention to the state legislature and filled four terms in the Virginia senate, serving from 1817 to 1821. In 1820 he again served as a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket of Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins. In 1824 he was chosen to fill the vacancy in Congress created by the death of William L. Ball. Reelected three times, he sat in Congress until 1831. In Decem­ ber 1827 Taliaferro and Southard had tried to persuade Monroe to accept the vice-presidential nomination on the ticket with John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806), but Monroe declined. Taliaferro was also a delegate to the 1829-30 Virginia constitutional convention. He was later elected to four terms in Congress as a Whig, sitting from March 1835 until March 1843, giving him an unusually long record of service as a representative. However, except for his arguments against the seating of John Hungerford, he seems to have had litde to say from the floor of the House during all these years. In 1850 Taliaferro was appointed librarian of the United States Treasury Department and served in that position until his death at "Hagley" on August 12, 1852 at the age of 85. He was interred on the grounds of "Hagley." SOURCES: Alumni a e s , PUA (Taliaferro & Southard); BDUSC, 1909; Appleton's Cyclopedia of Amer. Biog. (1888-89 repr. 1968), vi, 25; F. A. Virkus, Abridged Com­ pendium ofAmer. Genealogy (1925-37), I, 626; v, 610; vi, 323; WMQ, 1st ser., 10 (1902), 51, 182; 20 (1912), 211-14, 270-71; VMHB, 10 (1903), 434; 18 (1910), 332; 33 (1925), 29-30; J. T. Goodrich, FredericksburgfcfThe Cavalier Country (1935), 40; Smith Diary, 22 & 28 Feb., 21 July 1786; Gibson Diary, 7 Mar. 1786; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; H. Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity (1971), 65-66, 68, 559; W. P. Cresson, James Monroe (1946), 92, 506; AJC, 12th Cong., 1st. sess., 332, 363, 377-96; E. G. Swem & J. H. Williams, Reg. of the Gen. Assembly qfVa. 1776-1918 ΰ of the Const. Conventions (1918), 245, 434; Collections of N.J. Hist. Soc, 6 (1872), 204-07, 306 (Southard quotes); Tyler's Quart., 2 (1921), 95; Col. Va. St. Papers, ix, 480, 482; R. L. Hatzenbuehler, "The War Hawks & the Question of Congressional Leadership in 1812," Pacific Hist. Rev., 45 (1976), 5-6. MANUSCRIPTS: James Monroe Papers, DLC; Thomas Jefferson Papers, MHi; MB RLW

John Tennant JOHN TENNANT appears as a junior from North Carolina on an undated list of "Students at Princeton College" compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. He entered the College no later than his sophomore year, for John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) noted in his diary on September 2, 1786 that Bob Hughes (A.B. 1787), who often enter­ tained the College with his violin playing, was using Tennant's instru­ ment that afternoon. Like many other southern students, in 1786 Tennant joined the Cliosophic Society, where he assumed the name of Franklin.

296

CLASS OF 1788

A Cliosophic Society membership roster indicates that Tennant came from Virginia. No Tennants have been found in North Carolina sources. Dr. John Tennant of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia was a physician during the Revolution and the period immediately following. He could have been the father or uncle of the college student. Nothing else has been found about Tennant. SOURCES: Hancock House MSS; VMHB, 14 (1907), 238; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 2 Sept. 1786. John Tennant is not the son of William Tennent, Jr. (1758), whose son John Charles has been identified as Charles Tennent (A.B. 1793). See C. T. Moore, Abstracts of the WMs of the State ofN.C. (1969), 263. RLW

Smith Thompson SMITH THOMPSON, A.B., LL.D. 1835, LL.D. Yale 1824, LL.D. Harvard 1835, teacher, lawyer, jurist, and cabinet member, was born in Dutchess County, New York, probably on January 17, 1768. There seems to be some uncertainty about his birthdate and at least one source gives 1767 as the year. Both the towns of Amenia and Stanfordville, New York, have been identified as his birthplace, a confusion probably resulting from their geographic proximity. Thompson was die fifth of ten children, the son of Ezra Thompson, a prosperous farmer who was a noted Antifederalist and who served as a delegate to the New York State ratification convention of 1788. His wife Rachel Smith Thompson was also a Dutchess County native. Smith Thompson apparently prepared for college in Amenia before enrolling at Nassau Hall, where his name first appears on an undated 1786-87 class list as a junior. He joined the American Whig Society, and at his commencement exercises he spoke twice. In the morning he participated in a debate on the question, "Doth not the progress of knowledge tend to the improvement of virtue?" During the afternoon he delivered an oration on education. Following his graduation Thompson returned to New York to study law in the Poughkeepsie office of James Kent, a well-known Federalist in state politics. Kent's law partner, Gilbert Livingston, a member of the powerful Livingston family of New York, had been a political ally of Thompson's father. There were probably many lively political discussions in the firm. Young Thompson sided with Livingston in subscribing to Antifederalist views, while Kent trod a conservative Federalist path. This adversarial relationship never disintegrated into open hostility, although Kent later described Thompson as "a plain modest sensible ignorant young man with narrow views and anti-Federalist politics."

SMITH THOMPSON

297

«•582

Smith Thompson, A.B. 1788 While he studied law with Kent and worked in the offices of Kent and Livingston, Thompson supported himself by teaching in a Poughkeepsie school. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1792 and for a short time practiced law in Troy. When James Kent was appointed to the New York bench in 1793 Thompson became associated with the office of Kent and Livingston. On April 30, 1795 he married Livingston's daughter Sarah. The couple had two sons and two daughters, but the younger son died in infancy. There is every indication that the Thompsons had a warm and close family relationship. After his return to Poughkeepsie Thompson's own proclivity for politics, plus his connections with the Livingston family and with Kent, soon immersed him in New York state politics. As a member of the Republican party he was elected in 1800 to the state legislature as a delegate from Dutchess County, and he represented the county at the constitutional convention in 1801. Thompson's quickly rising star as a member of the Livingston faction climbed even higher when he was appointed district attorney for the Middle District of New

298

CLASS OF 1788

York in 1801 and almost immediately received a second appointment as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of New York, which precluded his taking over the functions of the district attorney. He began his judicial duties on January 8, 1802, joining his former law teacher, Kent, who was chief justice of the court; Jacob Radcliff (A.B. 1783), who shared Kent's Federalist views; and Antifederalists Henry Brockholst Livingston (A.B. 1774), a cousin of Sarah Livingston Thompson, and Morgan Lewis (A.B. 1773). Although all were strong-minded in their opinions, they were a congenial group whose disputes produced a dynamic court. Thompson's decisions during his tenure on the state bench began to elaborate a fairly consistent philosophy, which has been described by one of his biographers as "a states' rights mercantilism tempered with a humanitarian overlay." His views were probably also influenced by his family connections and political ambitions, as in his opinion in Livingston v. Van Ingen, which involved the issue of a steamboat monopoly on New York waterways. Thompson decreed that there was no collision between state and federal powers when the state of New York granted a monoply to the Livingston-Fulton steamboat company. As a member of the state supreme court Thompson also sat on the council of revision, which was composed of the governor and the chancellor, as well as the judges of the court. The council had the power of veto over measures passed by the legislature. As on the bench, the influence wielded by Thompson, Kent, and Brockholst Livingston seems to have been an odd mixture of public and selfinterest. When the Erie Canal legislation first came up for review by the council of revision in 1817, the Kent-Thompson-Livingston triumvirate opposed it because, in their eyes, it gave "arbitrary rights and powers to the commissioners, transcending private rights without sufficient provisions and grounds." Another opponent of the bill suggested that the state might better use its money in preparing for the next war with England. At this remark Kent, a fierce antagonist of the War of 1812, jumped to his feet and declared: "Then if we must have war or a canal, I am in favor of the canal. I vote for the bill." He thus cast the deciding vote in favor of the canal over the negatives of Thompson and Livingston. Thompson's service on the court required him to move to New York City, and in 1807 the council of appointments offered him the mayoralty of the city. Governor Morgan Lewis probably arranged to have this invitation extended to Thompson to keep the office in the family. Lewis's daughter Margaret married Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786), thus making Lewis, like Thompson, a Livingston in-law.

SMITH T H O M P S O N

299

Thompson, however, preferred to remain on the bench and declined the offer. In 1813 he became a regent of the University of the State of New York. The last four years of his tenure on the New York bench, 1814 to 1818, were served as chief justice, after Kent was appointed chancellor of the state. When Thompson presided, his sternness and sharpness shook the nerves of young men, according to observers, and he was regarded with fear by the timid and with awe by junior members of the bar. While Brockholst Livingston impressed contemporaries with his genius, few could excel Thompson in legal acumen, clearness of perception, and logic. In November 1818 President James Monroe (LL.D. 1822) nominated Thompson to sit in his cabinet as secretary of the navy, an office that he assumed on January 1, 1819. One explanation for the appointment of a man who was personally unknown to Monroe is that the president sought to assemble a sectionally balanced cabinet. John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806) of Massachusetts was serving as secretary of state, and the secretary of the navy was Benjamin W. Crowninshield, also of Massachusetts. When the latter tendered his resignation in a fit of pique because the president had criticized his arrangements for an inspection tour, Monroe announced that the vacancy would be filled by someone from the Middle Atlantic states. He approached several others for the post before offering it to Thompson, whose reputation as one who had managed to avoid the intrigues of New York state politics apparently appealed to Monroe. Another factor in the appointment may have been Thompson's relationship with Monroe's vice president, Daniel D. Tompkins. The former governor of New York had at one time been considered the political protege of Martin Van Buren, who for the past ten years had been a close friend and political ally of Thompson. Cementing the connection was the marriage of Thompson's son Gilbert to Tompkins's daughter Arietta. Thompson was simply too well connected in New York politics to be overlooked. He, however, was less than enthusiastic about accepting a position with a salary that he considered inadequate and agreed only at the urging of Van Buren, whose interest lay in strengthening the position of the New York Republicans in the national administration. To celebrate Thompson's elevation to the cabinet, he was feted at a dinner hosted by the members of the New York bar, at which his college classmate John Wells delivered one of the toasts. During Thompson's term as secretary the Monroe administration had to deal with such important issues as the Missouri controversy, relations with Latin America, the Atlantic slave trade, and Andrew

300

CLASS OF 1788

Jackson's Florida exploits. Thompson, however, seldom spoke at cabinet meetings and was not a significant figure in the administration. He chose not to air an opinion on the Missouri question or on Jackson's invasion of Florida. He did support John Quincy Adams's Latin American policy, which later evolved into the Monroe Doctrine. Adams described both Thompson and his predecessor as filling an office which sat lightly on the shoulders of its occupants. Rather than become actively involved in the Washington political scene, Thompson chose to use his new influence to cultivate his power in his home state. His official duties, which included patronage appointments, naming ships, and awarding midshipmen's warrants, gave him ample opportunity to further his political influence, and he kept in close touch with Van Buren concerning state positions in Dutchess County. As a member of the American Bible Society, which he served as vice president from its organization in 1816 until 1827, he used his cabinet position to promote the work of the society in the fleet Apparendy his best advice to Monroe as a cabinet member was to wait until Congress convened before appointing ministers to the new South American republics, since the Senate might question the president's power to make interim appointments. Despite his lack of involvement in national affairs, Thompson apparently had high aspirations. In March 1823 he was offered the Supreme Court seat left empty by the death of Brockholst Livingston. Pleading ill health and asking for time in which to consult friends before giving an answer, Thompson contacted Van Buren, from whom he hoped to receive the support of New York in the next year's presidential contest. Van Buren pleaded that any commitment would be premature, although he had already decided that Thompson was not a strong enough candidate. Thompson's name had been suggested in party circles, but his nomination was never a realistic possibility against rivals of national reputation and stature such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. He was also considered too austere and secretive to become a popular candidate. When communicating with Van Buren, Thompson indicated that if he did not accept the Supreme Court post, it would be offered to Van Buren. The latter applied for the appointment, only to learn that Thompson had not actually refused the post and that Monroe admired Thompson's more extensive legal background and reputation. When Thompson saw that he had no chance of a presidential nomination, he agreed to the Supreme Court appointment and was formally nominated by Monroe in July 1823. Senator Van Buren cast his vote for confirmation in January 1824. Thompson's appointment to the Court seems to have strained

SMITH T H O M P S O N

301

beyond repair his deteriorating relationship with Van Buren. Their friendship, which began after Van Buren's entry into the New York political scene, had become so close that Van Buren in 1817 named his youngest son after Thompson, and Van Buren's influence may have been another factor to which Thompson owed his cabinet post. However the two had begun to drift apart, and when Thompson, with no explanation offered, broke a pact which the two antiClintonians had made to boycott DeWitt Clinton's 1820 inauguration as governor, Van Buren's absence became more glaringly noticeable. Both men had been less than forthright in the affair of the Supreme Court appointment, Van Buren by not admitting that he had already decided to give his support to William Crawford for president, and Thompson by not promoting his friend for the Court seat, but rather holding the presidential offer in reserve for himself. Because of his daughter's illness Thompson delayed joining the court until February 10, 1824. Thus he missed the landmark Gibbons v. Ogden monoply controversy. He at first joined the unanimity of the Marshall Court, but by 1827 he reluctantly began to dissent from the majority decisions and assert his states' rights commitments. Thompson and Van Buren were involved in one further clash when both ran for governor of New York in 1828. Samuel Lewis Southard (A.B. 1804), Thompson's successor as secretary of the navy, wrote to his fellow alumnus urging him to run against Van Buren. "I feel deeply the importance of the present contest to the Institutions of our country Your consent to be a candidate for governor of New York would be decisive of the contest." He was expressing the sentiment of Adams supporters who were convinced that the New York gubernatorial contest would determine the selection of that state's presidential electors. However, Southard's optimism, which in part helped to persuade Thompson to make the ill-advised attempt, was not borne out. The contest proved to be especially bitter, and because of Van Buren's relationship with presidential candidate Andrew Jackson, it became closely tied to the even more acrimonious national campaign. The political alignments and factions that produced three candidates for governor made it even less likely that Thompson could defeat Van Buren than if they had faced each other one on one. In any event, the man whom Van Buren had once described as "the most unambitious mortal on the face of the earth," finished second to his former friend and ally, who now boasted, "I was elected by a plurality of more than 30,000 over my quondam friend, Smith Thompson." Thompson's refusal to resign his Supreme Court seat when he entered the race for governor did not endear him to New

302

CLASS OF 1788

York voters either, since there had recently been criticism leveled against state judges who retained their seats while actively pursuing elective office. Thereafter Thompson's public career lay with the Court, while Van Buren continued to rise in state and national politics. Thompson's first wife Sarah died on September 22, 1833. On November 7, 1836 he married Sarah's young cousin Elizabeth Davenport Livingston, the daughter of Maj. Henry Livingston and Jane McLean Paterson Livingston. Elizabeth bore three children, one of whom died in infancy. Shortly after his second marriage Thompson bought a 133 acre farm in Dutchess County which he named "Rust Plaetz" or "Resting Place." "Rust Plaetz" was Thompson's home for the remainder of his life. He remained on the Supreme Court until his death in 1843. Although he wrote the opinion of the Court in eighty-five cases, relatively few involved constitutional matters but dealt more with questions of pleading, practice, or procedure, for which his judicial background made him well qualified. He also wrote eleven dissenting opinions and five concurring ones. His greatest judicial work came in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, in which, more than John Marshall (LL.D. 1802), he spoke for the rights of the Cherokees in the treaties they had signed with the United States. His dissent from the majority opinion reflected the country's awakening social conscience. He was not a strong reformer, but his opinions in the slavery cases which came before him reflect his antislavery views. Contemporaries disagreed over whether he was a man who never reached his full potential, or whether, with only mediocre talents, he had been exceptionally fortunate in his connections and timing. Thompson died on December 18, 1843 in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the age of seventy-six. The Reverend A. A. Mann, of the Dutch Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie, who delivered the eulogy, praised him as one whose "private life was as faultless & exemplary as his public career." An obituary memorialized him as "one of the most illustrious ornaments of American jurisprudence," and historians agree insofar as he participated in decisions which helped to define the foundations of American law. Friends remembered him for his modesty and plain deportment. Thompson left his estate, which appears to have been substantial, to his widow and his five surviving children. SOURCES: W. B. Thompson, Thompson's Lineage (1911), 17-18; Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Amer. Biog. (1888-89 repr. 1968), vi, 94-95; DAB; G. B. Kinkead, "Gilbert Uvingston & Some of His Descendants," NYGBR, 86 (1955), 35-43; £. B. Livingston, Livingstons of Livingston Manor (1910), 349; Giger, Memoirs; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig

NICHOLAS

VAN

DYKE,

JR.

303

Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Smith Thompson Papers, NjP; A. F. Young, Democratic Republicans ofN.Y. (1967), 52; D. Alexander, Political Hist, of the State ofN.Y. (1906), I, 155, 362-63, 368; D. Fox, Decline of Aristocracy in the Politics ofN.Y. 1801-40 (1965), 342-51; D. Lynch, An Epoch £·? A Man: Martin Van Buren S? His Times (1929), 161, 167, 247-49; D. B. Cole, Martin Van Buren & the Amer. Political System (1984), 52, 54, 58, 61, 117-19, 173-75; J. Niven, Martin Van Buren (1983), 58, 60, 75-78, 89, 133-37, 207-08; J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Autobiog. of Martin Van Buren, AHA Rept. for 1918 (1920), n, 220 ("I was elected"); H. Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity (1971), 363-64, 432, 447, 473; J. D. Hammond, Hist, of Political Parties m State ofN.Y. (1842), l, 180-81, 236, 365-66; π, 136-37, 284-85; A. Steinberg, The First Ten: Founding Presidents Gf Their Administrations (1967), 191-244; J. T. Horton, James Kent: A Study in Conservatism, 1763-1847 (1939), 64-66, 139-41, 14950; W. Kent, Memoirs &f Letters of James Kent (1898), 56 ("a plain, modest"), 165, 169 ("then if we must have war"); S. Hess, America's Pol. Dynasties, Adams to Kennedy (1966), 83-122; Poughkeepsie Jour., 31 July 1793; R. Sobel, Biog. Dir. of the U.S. Exec. Branch (1971), 131-32; H. O. Dwight, Centennial Hist, of the Amer. Bible Soc. (1916), 29, 545; H. G. Spafford, Gazetteer of the State ofN.Y. (1824), 149-50, 425-26; Memorial of Life 6? Character of John Wells (1874), 45, 92, 131; L. Friedman & F. L. Israel, Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969), I, 475-509 ("a states' rights mercantilism"); N.Y. Tribune, 19 Dec. 1843, & N.Y. Evening Post, 19 Dec. 1843 (obits.). MANUSCRIPTS: Smith Thompson Papers, NHi; Smith Thompson Papers, NjP; Smith Thompson Papers, DLC; NjP-SSP; Gilbert Livingston Papers, NN; John Gwinn Papers, John Shaw Papers, & Martin Van Buren Papers, DLC; Amer. Colonization Soc. Records, Chicago Hist. Soc.; Usher Parsons Papers, Brown Univ.; William F. Shields Papers, Miss. Dept. of Archives & Hist.; H. L. Carson Collection, Phila. Free Lib. RLW&CAL

Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. NICHOLAS VAN DYKE, Jr., A.B., A.M. 1796, lawyer and public official

born in New Castle, Delaware, on December 20, 1770, was actually the fourth generation of his family of that name. His father, the third Nicholas Van Dyke, referred to as Nicholas Van Dyke, Sr., was also a lawyer, as well as one of the leaders of the Delaware revolutionists. He was a member of the Council of Delaware, serving as its speaker in 1777, a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1782, and president of Delaware from February 1783 to October 1786. His wife Elizabeth Nixon Van Dyke was a daughter of Thomas and Ann Nixon of Dover, Delaware. Van Dyke probably prepared for college at the New Castle Academy. On May 12, 1786 President John Witherspoon wrote to Nicholas Van Dyke, Sr., "I have the Pleasure to inform you that your son gave Complete Satisfaction on his Examination & is admit­ ted into the Sophomore Class." On June 7, 1786 Van Dyke and his classmate Thomas Bellach joined the Cliosophic Society, with Van Dyke assuming the name of Hostilius. On June 10, 1786 John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) recorded in his journal that the two new mem-

C L A S S OF

1788

Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr., A.B. 1788

bers were "much impressed with the idea of Society as they had just entered." In October 1787 when John Read (A.B. 1787) was returning home to New Castle after graduation, Witherspoon sent a letter along to his father George Read, which said in part, "If you have any opportunity of seeing Mr. Van Dyke, please assure him that his son is, I think, without doubt, the first in his class." Witherspoon was handing out praise overgenerously, since Van Dyke was not among the nine undergraduate prizemen that year. As the second student in his graduating class, he delivered the English salutatory address at commencement, an honor revived by the College in 1788 and continued every year thereafter through 1896. He also participated as replicator in a forensic dispute on, "The knowledge of the learned languages, and an extensive knowledge of language in general, is a necessary part of education, and the foundation of universal science," and later in the day he gave an address on the effects of superstition. After graduation Van Dyke returned to New Castle, where he studied law in the office of his brother-in-law Kensey Johns. His father died in February 1789 and Johns, who was ten years Van Dyke's senior, seems to have taken his father's place as mentor. Johns had married Van Dyke's sister Ann on April 30, 1784. Van Dyke and

N I C H O L A S VAN DYKE, JR.

305

Johns eventually built homes only a block apart and remained fast friends, even after other members of the Van Dyke family unsuccessfully sued Johns for mismanagement of the estate of Nicholas Van Dyke, Sr. One Van Dyke son was christened Kensey Johns Van Dyke (A.B. 1816), and one Johns son was named Van Dyke Johns. In 1798 Johns became chief justice of Delaware, a post which he held for thirty-two years, resigning in 1830 to become chancellor. Van Dyke was admitted to the New Castle bar in 1792 and the same year married Mary Van Leuvenigh, daughter of Zachariah Van Leuvenigh and Ann Armitage. In 1797 he was appointed a member of a commission of five to survey the town of New Castle, fix its boundaries and plan the layout of its streets. The following year he was elected representative from New Casde to the lower house of the Delaware general assembly. Although New Casde County was becoming a Democratic-Republican stronghold, Van Dyke remained a Federalist who voted on the Federalist side on all national issues. In 1799 he bought a plot of land and built a brick home for his family at 400 Delaware Street. In 1801 he was appointed attorney general of Delaware. About this time he became a trustee of the New Casde Academy and enrolled as a member of the New Casde Fire Company. He was also instrumental in aiding the establishment of a ferry at New Casde. In 1801 he purchased "The Hermitage," a country estate of 141 acres about a half mile outside of New Casde. He built a spacious addition to the existing house, and it served as a summertime retreat for his family for many years. In August 1807 James M. Broom (A.B. 1794), Delaware's Federalist representative in Congress, resigned because he planned to move to Baltimore. For a special election called by the governor, the Federalist state committee nominated Van Dyke to succeed Broom, and he was elected to Congress on October 24, 1807. Because Delaware's representatives were elected at large, Van Dyke won reelection in 1808 even though his own county was not Federalist He voted Federalist on every question, but it eventually became so frustrating to him always to be part of the minority that he spent more and more time at home with his private law practice. Senator James A. Bayard (A.B. 1784) was also absent from Congress a great deal, and the grand jury of New Casde County drew up a presentment against them which stated that it was "highly improper, that those who are chosen to represent this state in the councils of the union should withhold their services." Assuming, especially after this reprimand, that his convictions could carry litde weight with a government dominated by a party of which he disapproved, Van Dyke refused to seek reelection in 1810.

306

CLASS OF 1788

He was happy to be able to spend more time in his own community and with his family, which probably included eight children of his own, as well as his wife's nephew Robert Montgomery Bird. Bird's father John Bird, who had married Elizabeth Van Leuvenigh, died in 1810 of a heart attack presumably hastened by the failure of his business, Riddle and Bird, government navy agents. Robert Bird was later to become noted as a professor of medicine, editor, novelist, and playwright. Kensey Johns Van Dyke was sent to Princeton for his education, where he graduated in 1816, then studied law under his father and was admitted to the bar of New Castle in 1819. Van Dyke later built a house for this son at 300 Delaware Street, not far from the family home. Van Dyke's eldest daughter Ann died in 1814 and his oldest son Nicholas (A.B. 1812), the fifth of that name, who was also a lawyer, died in 1820. On October 6, 1824 his daughter Dorcas Montgomery Van Dyke married Charles Irenee du Pont, grandson of Eleuthere Irenee du Pont. The Marquis de Lafayette (LL.D. 1790) attended the wedding, one of the most brilliant social events in New Castle history. Active in his community, Van Dyke became a director of the New Castle branch of the state bank. When the New Castle Blues, a company of light infantry, was formed in May 1813, it was under the command of Nicholas Van Dyke as captain. The Blues were assigned to the Second Regiment, First Brigade of Delaware militia commanded by Lt. Col. David Niven, but apparently they did not see combat. In 1807 Van Dyke had presented a pair of silver cups to the Presbyterian church at New Castle, and he was elected an elder on December 4, 1815, but by 1822 he was listed as a pewholder in Immanuel Protestant Episcopal Church. Van Dyke was a member of the committee appointed in 1817 by the trustees of the academy at Newark, Delaware, to approach the legislature for permission to run a lottery in order to increase the funds of the academy and to obtain collegiate recognition for the institution. Some supporters of the academy objected on religious grounds, and the lottery was not established until 1825. The Newark Academy later consolidated with Delaware College. When part of the city of New Castle was destroyed by fire in 1824, Van Dyke appealed to the Boston City Council to reciprocate the friendship that New Castle citizens had shown in 1774. The port of Boston had been closed by enforcement of the Port Bill, and Van Dyke's father and George Read had raised £500 in subscriptions from residents of New Castle to help the beleaguered city. Bostonians repaid this generosity by contributing to the fund that had been set up to help stricken residents of New Castle.

N I C H O L A S VAN DYKE, JR.

307

People remembered Van Dyke for his easy elegance in manners and conversation. He had a reputation as a sound lawyer, skillful in the management of his cases. Fond of literature, he was well read outside of his own professional field. He was also gready interested in architecture, and the houses that he built were both elegant and convenient He again became a public officeholder in 1815 when he was elected to the Delaware assembly for a three-year term in which he actively supported the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. In 1817, before his term in the assembly was completed, he was elected to the United States Senate and attended his first session on December 19. The principle of equal representation gave considerable power to the senators of small states, and Van Dyke felt that the Senate would provide more occasions to act on his Federalist convictions than had been possible in the House. He also found that many schisms divided the Democratic-Republican party. A number of its members actually supported some Federalist policies, and a Federalist could gain strength by capitalizing on their differences as competing factions vied for support. Senator Van Dyke spent much of his time doing committee work on pensions, claims, roads and canals, and public lands. In 1819 the Delaware general assembly instructed its representatives in Washington to oppose any extension of slavery. Van Dyke, Congressman Louis McLane and Senator Outerbridge Horsey refused to follow these instructions on the grounds that they were unconstitutional. In a speech of January 28, 1820 Van Dyke insisted that the Constitution neither gave Congress power to limit the migration of slaves from state to state, nor power to dictate constitutional provisions to new states, conditions which a state could amend as soon as it became a part of the Union. He did not defend slavery but argued that Congress could not abolish slavery from a state against the will of the people of the state. Out of such debates emerged the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In 1823 the Democratic-controlled Delaware state legislature was unable to agree on a senatorial choice, and it adjourned leaving Delaware without representation. Although there was no longer a national Federalist organization, it did retain strength in some areas along the eastern seaboard, and in Delaware factionalism had so weakened the Democrats that a Federalist legislature was chosen, which returned Van Dyke to the Senate in 1824, where he became a staunch supporter ofJohn Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806). However, his health was failing by this time, and his only important speech during this term was against a proposed bill which would abolish imprisonment for debt. Most states already had laws against debtors' prisons, and Van Dyke felt that the proposed bill contained provisions that

308

C L A S S OF

1788

would have made it difficult for a creditor to force a dishonest debtor to pay. Van Dyke died at his home on May 21, 1826 and was interred in the Immanuel Protestant Episcopal churchyard at New Casde. After the Senate reconvened on December 4, Senator Thomas Clayton, in proposing the usual mourning in respect for a dead senator, a mourning crape worn on the left arm for one month, said of Van Dyke, "His amiable temper and gentlemanly deportment—his talents and high standing in this body, were too well known to all the members to need any eulogy from me." SOURCES: J. A. Munroe, "Sen. Nicholas Van Dyke of New Castle," Del. Hist., 4 (1950), 208-26 passim ("I have the Pleasure," 210; "If you have," 211; "highly improper," 218; "His amiable," 226); alumni file, PUA; Smith Diary, 7 & 10 June 1786 ("much impressed"); Williams, Academic Honors, xi-xii, 11; Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct 1788 ("The knowledge"); Greenleaf's N.Y. Jour., fif Patriotic Reg., 7 Oct. 1796; Del. Hist., 1 (1946), 8, 17; 3 (1948-49), 87; 7 (1956-57), 301-02; 8 (1958-59), 369-70; 15 (1972-73), 298-99; Governor's Reg. of the State of Del. (1926), 74, 112, 201, 227, 251, 262, 283; W. T. Read, Life & Carres, of George Read (1870), 493; Del. Federal Writer's Project, New Castle on the Delaware (1936), 44, 61, 68, 82-83, 85, 88-89, 96, 102; H. C. Reed, Hist, of the First State (1947), I, 129, 145-47, 165; G. Moore, Mo. Compromise 1819-21 (1953), 223. MANUSCRIPTS: Eleutherian Mills Hist. Lib., Greenville, Del.; PHi; DLC; MB RLW

John Wells JOHN WELLS, A.B., LL.D. 1822, LL.D. Union College 1819, lawyer, justice, and editor, was born in Cherry Valley, eventually part of Otsego County, New York, sometime in the latter part of 1770. Wells did not know his exact birth date because of the loss of all of his immediate family when he was still a child. He was one of the five children of Robert and Jane Dunlop Wells. His paternal grandfather, after whom he was named, was the first justice of the peace in Cherry Valley and his maternal grandfather, the Reverend Samuel Dunlop, was the first minister to serve the frontier settlement. On November 11, 1778 a band of Indians and loyalist rangers, led by Chief Joseph Brant, made a surprise raid upon Cherry Valley, leveling the town and killing many of its inhabitants. The Wells home was located at the point where the marauders entered the town, and Wells's father, mother, siblings, grandmother, aunt, and uncle were all slain, along with the household servants. The aging Samuel Dunlop died soon after, traumatized by shock and sorrow. John Wells escaped the fate of the rest of his family because he was attending school in Schenectady and living in the home of his father's sister Mrs. Eleanor Wilson.

J O H N WELLS

309

Wells apparently was slow in recovering from the shock of this experience. Some years later when Brant returned to New York State, the youthful Wells had to be persuaded not to seek reprisal. He became the ward of his aunt and continued to attend school in Schenectady until the household moved to Jamaica, Long Island, in 1783. There he studied under the Reverend Leonard Cutting of Hempstead, but he completed his preparatory work with the Reverend Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757) in Newark, New Jersey. He had entered the College by the time an undated class list was compiled during his junior year, and he joined the American Whig Society. An unidentified roommate later remembered the ease and accuracy with which Wells solved mathematical problems and his fluency in translating Greek. He became a favorite of President John Witherspoon, who admired his scholastic industry, his personal neatness, and his exemplary conduct. However sometime during his stay in Newark, Wells had suffered a severe attack of "bilious fever" which left him in a weakened condition. His friends at the College worried about his dedication to his studies and feared that overwork would have a negative effect on his health. They advised him not to pursue the study of law, where the demands of his professional life might prove to be more than his fragile constitution could stand. He found it necessary to leave the College for a time, improving his health by long horseback rides through the Long Island countryside. He returned in time for his commencement, where he took the part of respondent in a "forensic disputation" on the question, "Is it ever lawful to violate truth under any pretence?" In spite of the admonitions of his friends, Wells joined other young law students in the office of Edward Griswald of New York City. He was licensed as an attorney in 1791, admitted to the Supreme Court of the State of New York on August 11, 1792, and became a counsellor in 1795. He began practice in New York, first on Broadway, later moving his office to Pine Street. For several years his practice was small and consisted mainly of debt collections. While waiting for clients he diligently studied various branches of the law. His family's farm had been sold in order to finance his education, but during this lean period he remarked that if he only had a farm and $500 he would be glad to abandon law forever. Some of his spare time was spent in the weekly meetings of the Friendly Club, whose members discussed literary subjects and practiced writing essays. Wells received his first break in 1797 when a new court of justices of the peace was established in New York City. Federalist Governor John Jay, looking for young lawyers of promise, included Wells on his list of appointments to the tribunal. Presiding as a justice, Wells had an opportunity to display his accurate knowledge of the law and the

310

CLASS OF 1788

logical manner in which he analyzed evidence. He was also a dignified and impartial figure on the bench, and friends began to urge him to give up his rather minor office to become an advocate at the bar. However, Wells remained at his position until the DemocraticRepublican victory in the state administration in 1800 brought about his removal the following year. Perhaps his income as a justice enabled Wells, on March 15, 1797, to marry Elizabeth (Eliza) Lawrence, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Fish Lawrence of Newtown, Queens County, Long Island, and sister of Nathaniel Lawrence (A.B. 1783). They had one son, Thomas Lawrence Wells. In 1798 John Wells was elected commander of a volunteer company of militia organized to meet the danger of war with France. For July 4 of that year Wells was chosen by the Young Men of the City of New-York to deliver a patriotic oration at St. Paul's Chapel in Trinity Episcopal Parish. He rose to the occasion with a display of stirring oratory which amazed even some of his closest friends who had not hitherto had a chance to hear him speak. A staunch Federalist, Wells was a great admirer of Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791). When the New-York Evening Post was established in 1802 by Hamilton and his friends as a Federalist mouthpiece, Wells's friend and fellow lawyer William Coleman became editor, and Wells acted as a volunteer associate editor. Wells's replies to the attacks of James Cheetham in the Democratic-Republican American Citizen so aptly expressed the Federalist point of view that they were sometimes attributed to Hamilton. Intrigued, Hamilton sought the acquaintance of the young editor. This relationship led to Wells's publication of the fifth edition of The Federalist Papers, which passed through Hamilton's hands only for final revisions. Cheetham's zeal in the press earned him a number of libel suits. In 1804 William Stephens Smith (A.B. 1774), John Adams's son-inlaw and surveyor of the customs of the port of New York, instituted action against Cheetham because of the latter's charges against Smith's character and the conduct of his office. Cheetham, recognizing Wells's abilities in spite of their political differences, retained him as his leading counsel. The trial began on January 9, 1805, and Wells's eloquence delighted the courtroom audience. Although the case was lost, Cheetham was required to pay only $200 for nominal damages, and Wells's reputation as a skilled advocate was assured. Cheetham publicly acknowledged his satisfaction with Wells's defense, and a newspaper account described Wells's summation by saying, "his lucid arrangement, forcible and brilliant expression, striking and pertinent reflections, conveyed in the tones of real eloquence, were such as to command universal admiration from those who heard him."

J O H N WELLS

311

From that time forth Wells shared with Thomas Addis Emmet the bulk of the New York commercial practice previously enjoyed by Hamilton and Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), and he was often engaged as counsel by the city of New York. Emmet, about five years older than Wells, had arrived in New York from Ireland the previous year with more trial experience than Wells. However, Wells was conceded to be the superior lawyer, excelling in logic, while Emmet could not be topped as an exciting and impassioned speaker. In 1807 Wells tried his first case before the state supreme court and thereafter had a large and varied practice before that tribunal. Probably his best known case was that of Griswold v. Waddington, shortly after the War of 1812, in which he argued that the war had effectively dissolved the partnership between two Waddington brothers, one a resident of Liverpool and the other a New Yorker. Emmet, who acted as his associate counsel in this case, observed that he had never heard an abler or more polished argument, even in the English and Irish courts. James Moore Wayne (A.B. 1808) of Georgia, visiting New York, probably around 1814, heard Wells and Emmet argue a case. Several years later, when Wayne was involved in a case treating the same question of law, he remarked, "I used, almost without addition, my notes of Mr. Wells' argument, having the power from Mr. Emmet's to anticipate everything against it, and out of both I made my argument The case was won." In 1819 Wells was one of the counsel representing Thomas Gibbons in his suit against Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773), which sought to invalidate Ogden's monopoly of the New Jersey to New York steamboat traffic. Wells argued unsuccessfully that New York's grant of the monopoly was unconstitutional, since Congress alone had the right to regulate interstate traffic. Wells's death came before the case reached the Supreme Court in 1824, but his fellow-counsel, pursuing the same argument, secured a reversal of the lower court's decision, with Chief Justice John Marshall (LL.D. 1802) declaring the exclusivity of federal regulations over interstate commerce. Elizabeth Wells died in September 1812, and in July 1815 Wells married Sabina Elliott Huger and took her on a wedding trip to Boston. The late Senator Daniel Huger of Charleston, South Carolina, and his wife Sabina Elliott were the parents of the bride. Daniel Elliott Huger (A.B. 1798) was her brother and Daniel Lionel Huger (Class of 1789) and Jacob Motte Huger (Class of 1793) were cousins. Originally from Charleston, Sabina had been residing for several years at the home of her sister Anne and her husband Edward W. Laight, another New York City attorney. Wells had four children by his second marriage.

312

CLASS OF 1788

Popular in his personal, as well as his professional life, Wells impressed others with his even and cheerful disposition, becoming modesty, and natural urbanity in social situations. He was also noted for his benevolence and integrity and his thoughtfulness toward young lawyers beginning their careers, as well as his acute and log­ ical mind. A member and a vestryman of Grace Episcopal Church in New York City, he owned pew no. 5 on the south side of the sanctuary. In 1818,1820, and 1821 he was one of Grace Church's del­ egates to the diocesan convention. He served as a trustee of Columbia College and of the General Theological Seminary from 1815 until his decease in 1823. His circle of friends included his former class­ mate Smith Thompson, David Hosack (A.B. 1789), and John Vernor Henry (A.B. 1785). Wells's home on Brooklyn Heights overlooked a crowded and squalid area near the waterfront. In the late summer of 1823, learn­ ing of illness in one of the homes there, he stopped by twice to see that the family had the necessary foods and medicines. He thus became one of the first victims of the yellow fever epidemic which had its start in that section of the city. He died on September 7, 1823. The bar associations in both New York City and Albany declared a mourning period of thirty days and passed resolutions to his memory in which he was described as "the pride of the New-York Bar." Wells's professional colleagues obtained permission from Grace Church to erect a monument in the church in his memory. When the church building was sold in 1845, the bust of Wells was moved to St. Paul's Chapel. Thomas Lawrence Wells continued his father's law practice. SOURCES: DAB; W. W. Campbell, "A Memoir of the Late John Wells," Amer. Monthly Mag. (Mar. 1838), 236-44 ("lucid arrangement" & "pride of"); Memoir of the Life 0 Character of John WeUs (1874), passim; J. H. Brown, ed., Lamb's Biog. Diet, of the U.S. (7 vols., 1900-03), vn, 542; alumni file, PUA; J. Sawyer, Hist, of Cherry Valley (1898), 24-25; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 240-42; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 O c t 1788; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), π, 57-72, 579; in, 619; N.Y. City directories, 1793-1825; Prmcetonians, 1769-1775, 328-34; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 425-29; C. S. Brigham, Hist. Esf Bibl. of Amer. Newspapers 1690-1820 (1947), I, 631; A. A. Lawrence, James Moore Wayne (1943), 16 ("I used"); W. R. Stewart, Grace Church 6f Old New York (1924), 69-71, 83-84, 109, 481, 488; Thomas, Columbia, 15, 90; Cat. of Officers 6? Graduates of Columbia College (1888), 14; SCHGM, 43 (1942), 50, 52-53, 151, 232; N.Y. Evening Post, 8, 11 & 12 Sept. 1823 (obit.). PUBLICATION: STE # 34998 RLW&CAL

313

David Wiley A.B., A.M. 1801, Presbyterian clergyman, educator, agriculturist, editor, and seemingly jack-of-many trades, was a native of Pennsylvania, but no further information about his background has been located. He enrolled in the College in time to appear on an undated class list compiled during his junior year. On January 12, 1787 he joined the Cliosophic Society using the pseudonym Martial. At his commencement exercises on September 24, 1788, Wiley delivered an oration in Greek on the Spartan government. Wiley must have started south soon after graduation, for on November 1 he assumed the duties of a tutor at Hampden-Sidney College in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Here he joined the small group of ministerial candidates, both students and tutors, who studied theology under the guidance of Hampden-Sidney's president, John Blair Smith (A.B. 1773). It seems likely that Wiley was recommended both for the tutorial position and as a promising divinity student by Smith's brother Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), professor of moral philosophy at Nassau Hall. On July 2, 1789, the same date that John Blair Smith tendered his resignation to the trustees, he also informed them that he had empowered Wiley to act as master in the college. Wiley offered his own resignation on March 1, 1790, effective at the end of April, undoubtedly with the aim of resuming his ministerial studies. He is remembered at Hampden-Sidney as being instrumental in the formation of the Union Society, said to be the earliest literary society in the southern states with a continuous existence. Hampden-Sidney's earlier Cliosophic and American Whig societies, modeled after those at Princeton, had become casualties of the Revolution. A small group met in Wiley's room on September 22, 1789, with plans for the formation of the Union Society, "for the promotion of literature and friendship." Wiley was one of a committee of three who drew up bylaws, and the society held its first meeting on November 6, 1789, with fourteen members and with Samuel Stanhope Smith elected an honorary member. DAVID WILEY,

Wiley must have resumed his training for the ministry within the bounds of the New Castle presbytery, since he was licensed by that body on April 10, 1793. On September 26, 1792 he attended the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society in Princeton. He received a call from the congregations of Cedar Creek and Spring Creek in Centre County, Pennsylvania and filled these pulpits for a year as a licentiate. On April 9, 1794 he was ordained and installed as pastor of the two churches by the Presbytery of Carlisle, in the town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When the Presbytery of Huntingdon was organized in

314

CLASS OF 1788

1795, Wiley was one of the eleven ministers within its boundaries, an area that was eventually divided into fifteen counties in the inte­ rior of Pennsylvania. For the first year and a half of its existence the new presbytery had no clerk, since it had so few minutes; in October 1796 Wiley was appointed the first stated clerk of the Presbytery of Huntingdon. He also served on a committee which reviewed the cre­ dentials of foreign ministers wishing to enter the presbytery. Some­ time during this period the church at Sinking Creek was added to Wiley's pastoral responsibiUties. The Cedar Creek and Spring Creek churches had originally been part of the West Penn's Valley congre­ gation and shortly after his arrival they merged. In October 1797, with the agreement of the congregation, which regretted that it could not support him, he asked to be released from Sinking Creek. On May 12, 1799 he also resigned from the Spring Creek church, and soon surrendered his post as stated clerk. Until his dismissal to the Presbytery of Baltimore on April 22, 1801, Wiley supplied various vacancies within the Huntingdon presbytery. Wiley's colleagues in the Huntingdon presbytery later remembered him as "a faithful and instructive minister, an efficient presbyter, ... held in favorable esteem by the people of his charge." Whether he found the responsibilities of two, and sometimes three, rural parishes too rigorously demanding, or whether he was actively looking for a teaching position and wanted to be free when an opportunity arose, can only be conjectured. Whatever the case, after correspondence with the Reverend Stephen Bloomer Balch (A.B. 1774), Wiley was persuaded to succeed Balch as principal of the Columbian Academy, located on Ν Street Northwest in Georgetown, D.C. As pastor of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church Balch found his dual duties a drain on his strength. Although Wiley remained a member of the Baltimore presbytery there is no record of his having served any of its churches; he did, however, take on a number of diverse respon­ sibilities, apparendy to the detriment of the academy, where he was known as a better mathematical than classical teacher. When a pub­ lic library was organized in 1803, it was housed in a room in the Columbian Academy and therefore called the Columbian Library. Wiley was appointed the librarian, with the duty of keeping it open twice a week during the winter and only on Wednesdays during the remainder of the year, but he seems to have been completely disen­ gaged from his responsibilities. A history of the library notes that "the books were scattered and never regathered, for the principal and librarian had more than even his mighty mind could manipulate successfully, for he was the superintendent of a turnpike, the editor of an agricultural paper, the postmaster, a merchant, a miller and a

D A V I D WILEY

315

minister. He did not seem to care whether the school kept or not, when he went surveying...." In addition, Wiley served as mayor of Georgetown from January 1811 to January 1812. He was a trustee of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church and may have taken over Balch's pastoral duties when the latter was absent or incapacitated. He is said to have divided the fee with Balch whenever he performed a marriage in Balch's absence. Wiley was also one of the incorporators of the Georgetown Lancaster School Society. In November 1811 the society opened an elementary school modeled on the educational theories of the Englishman Joseph Lancaster. Apparently Wiley was more fascinated by science than by teaching, and he is best known for his interest in agricultural science. When the Columbian Agricultural Society for the Promotion of Rural and Domestic Economy was founded in 1809, Wiley was not only its secretary, but by far its most energetic member. Members of the society were residents of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia who planned to observe the state of agriculture and domestic manufactures in their own neighborhoods and to strive for the introduction of any necessary improvements. Wiley believed that most farmers were slow to change outmoded agricultural routines and that there was a great need to disseminate up-to-date agricultural information, especially through the example of enlightened agriculturists. The following year he became the editor of the Agricultural Museum, "designed to be a repository of valuable information to the farmers and manufacturers, and to be the means of a free communication of sentiment and general interchange of ideas, on the important subjects of their occupation." Well edited, the journal consisted largely of extracts from proceedings of agricultural societies, both in this country and abroad, and agricultural items from newspapers, but it also contained considerable original material. The first agricultural periodical in the United States, it was published semi-monthly for the first year, and then monthly until May 1812, with each issue containing thirty-two pages and no advertisements. On May 16, 1810 the Columbian Agricultural Society held the first of its semi-annual exhibitions, with President James Madison (A.B. 1771) and wife Dolley among the important visitors who made it a point to wear clothing of domestic manufacture for the occasion. Critics of the society suggested that there were too many exhibitions of cloth and clothing of domestic manufacture and that it would be more profitable to encourage the planting of crops that thrive best in this country and to discourage the careless destruction of woodlands, rather than try to rival the manufactures of more developed nations.

316

CLASS OF 1788

These exhibitions tended to be lively social affairs, and a newspaper reported that among those in attendance on May 15, 1811 were "the President, heads of departments and generally all the prominent officers of the government, the French minister, and our minister to France." The last exhibition, as well as the last issue of the Agricultural Museum, was that of May 1812. The initial purpose of the society had been to conduct a program for three years, but the organizers seem not to have thought of discontinuing their program at that time, rather of possible expansion to a national level. The most obvious conclusion is that both society and journal were casualties of the War of 1812. Wiley's death occurred sometime in 1813 while conducting a government survey in North Carolina, presumably before May 10, when his name was not included on a list of the members of the Baltimore presbytery. One source states that Wiley married and had many children, but no other suggestion of any family life has been found. He was quite appropriately described as "a man of great public spirit and energy, and of remarkable versatility." SOURCES: DAB; alumni file, PUA; Hancock House MSS; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 26 Sept. 1792; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct 1788; H. C. Broadshaw, Hist, of Hampden-Sidney College (1976), 76-77, 91, 307-08; Gen. Cat. ... of Hampden-Sidney College (1908), 29; College of Hampden-Sidney, Cal. of Board Min., 1776-1876, ed. A.J. Morrison (1912), 36-37; W. J. Gibson, Hist, of the Presby. of Huntingdon (1874), 10-12, 18, 35, 43, 23435; Presby. of Huntingdon, Hist. Mem. of the Centennial Anniversary of the Presby. of Huntingdon (1896), 56-57; Centennial Mem. of the Presby. of Carlisle (1889), I, 454-55; MS Biog. Sketch of David Wiley ("man of great"), PPPrHi; J. P. Carter, Presby. of Baltimore (1876), 34; Records of the Columbia Hist. Soc, 15 (1912), 79-81 ("books were"); 51 (1955), 33-39; G. D. Ecker, Portrait of Old George Town (1933), 26, 56; W. B. Bryan, Hist, of the National Capitol (1914), I, 484, 596-97; C. R. Barnett, "The Agricultural Museum: An Early Amer. Agricultural Periodical," Agricultural Hist., 2 (1928), 99-102. MANUSCRIPTS: PPPrHi

RLW

Samuel Wilson SAMUEL WILSON, A.B., entered the College after an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year and before March 28, 1787, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, taking the pseudonym Norval, for a character in John Home's 1757 play entided Douglas. At his commencement he acted as respondent in a disputation on whether "The knowledge of the learned languages, and an extensive knowledge of language in general, is a necessary part of education, and the foundation of universal science." In 1837 the first published Cliosophic Society catalogue listed him as deceased.

SAMUEL WILSON

317

Although the identification has not been definitely confirmed, Wilson, a native of Maryland, was quite likely the man of that name who was one of three children of Samuel Wilson of "Great Hope," a plantation on Back Creek in Manokin Hundred, Somerset County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The elder Samuel was a planter whose personal estate included forty-nine slaves when its value was assessed at £2,256 in 1783. When he died he owned about 4,659 acres of land in Somerset County and in Accomack County, Virginia. An elder of Manokin Presbyterian Church, he represented Somerset County in the lower house of the colonial legislature several times between 1757 and 1774, and served in the state senate from 1777 to 1779. In 1760 he married Peggy Custis of Accomack County, Virginia, daughter of Col. John Custis V and his wife Anne Kendall. They had a son John. In 1765 he took as his second wife Mary Gale, the daughter of Milcah Hill Gale Airey and her first husband John Gale. Samuel Wilson, Jr., was probably a child of this second marriage, and thus a second cousin of George Gale (Class of 1774) and Robert Gale (A.B. 1791). He was also the first cousin of Ephraim King Wilson (A.B. 1789). In 1767 the elder Samuel Wilson helped found a school, ini­ tially known as the Back Creek School but chartered in 1779 as the Washington Academy. This institution prepared a number of Princetonians and counted Ephraim Brevard and Thomas Reese (both A.B. 1768), and Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Philip Freneau (both A.B. 1771) among its early faculty members. Since Wilson served as a trustee of the school and contributed the land on which it was origi­ nally built, located only half a mile from his home, he probably had both of his sons educated there. Wilson had been trained as a lawyer but retired from practice while young. He befriended Luther Martin (A.B. 1766) and offered him the use of his law library around 1770. On September 25, 1771, "for his known literary merit and reputa­ tion," the College honored Wilson with an A.M. degree. Unfortunately, very little is known of the son and namesake of Samuel Wilson, Sr. The only mention of him which has been discov­ ered is in his father's will, dated April 29, 1790, and recorded less than a month later. This document bequeathed "all my lands on the North & South side of Pocomoke River to my son Samuel Wilson." SOURCES: Hancock House MSS; Clio, lists; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788 ("The knowledge"); Clio. Soc., Cat. (1837), 6; Biog. Diet. Aid. Leg., ι, 304-05, 336; n, 900-01; MS will of Samuel Wilson, dated 29 Apr. & proved 25 May 1790 ("all my"), Somerset Cnty. Court House, Princess Anne, Md. (photocopy in PUA); letter from Md. Leg. Hist. Proj., 4 June 1985, PUA; MUM, 44 (1949), 202-03; 50 (1955), 158-59; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Ma. (1879 repr. 1967), π, 514; Pa. Chron., 7 Oct. 1771 ("for his"). Most Maryland Princetonians at this time came from the Eastern Shore, and no

318

C L A S S OF

1788

other likely Samuels from that region have been discovered. Since Samuel Wilson, ST., was born in 1735, his children would have been about the right age to attend the College. Ephraim King Wilson (A.B. 1789) of neighboring Worcester County seems to have been the only son of David Wilson, who was probably a brother of Samuel Wilson, Sr. His brothers Ephraim and James apparently had no sons named Samuel (wills of Ephraim Wilson, 21 Dec. 1777, proved 17 June 1778, & James Wilson, 10 Nov. 1792, proved 28 June 1796, photocopies at PUA of originals at Md. Hall of Records, Annapolis, & Somerset Cnty. Court House, Princess Anne, Md.). For Samuel Wilsons from other parts of the state whose dates of marriage were approximately right for a 1788 A.B., see R. Barnes, Md. Marriages 1778-1800 (1979), 253; & G. N. MacKenzie, Colonial Families ofAmer. (1907-20 repr. 1966), il, 440 (Harford County); & H. W. Brown, Index of Marriage Licenses, Prince George's Cnty., Md. 1777-1886 (1971), 243. JJL

Turnor (Turner) Wootton (Wooton) A.B., planter, lawyer, and public official, was born in 1770 or 1771 at "Essington," an estate on the Patuxent River one mile from Queen Anne, Patuxent Hundred, Prince Georges County, Maryland, the only son among two children of William Turnor Wootton and his wife Anne, who was probably his first cousin, a daughter of Osborn and Rachel Belt Sprigg. The father was a planter who served as high sheriff of Prince Georges County from 1765-67, became a member of the county's committee of association in January 1775 and of its committee of observation in September of the same year, and served as quartermaster of the county militia in January 1776. Anne Wootton died on November 18, 1774, and her husband followed in March 1777. The orphaned Turnor Wootton inherited the bulk of his father's estate, including "Essington." The will named his uncles Singleton, Richard, and Thomas Sprigg Wootton as executors and guardians. Richard's children included Singleton Wootton (A.B. 1811). Wootton entered the College sometime before March 7, 1786, when a fellow student indicated in his diary that Wootton had spoken at afternoon prayers. He joined neither literary society. At his commencement on September 24, 1788, he spoke twice. In the morning he acted as respondent in "A forensic disputation on the following question: Doth not the progress of knowledge tend to the improvement of virtue?" During the afternoon exercises he gave an oration "endeavouring to prove, that women ought to hold an equal rank with men in society." After his graduation Wootton returned to Prince Georges County. In 1789 his uncle Thomas Sprigg Wootton bequeathed him an estate which included land in Prince Georges, part of which was the former TURNOR (TURNER) WOOTTON (WOOTON),

TURNOR WOOTTON

319

endowment of that county's defunct free school, at least 615 acres of land in Montgomery County, Maryland, and some slaves. The 1790 census indicated that Wootton's household at this time consisted of himself, fifty-three slaves and one free black. Although his wealth presumably made such activity optional, he is said to have become an attorney. Wootton represented Prince Georges County in the lower house of the state legislature in 1793, 1794, and 1795. He was probably a Republican. On March 27,1794 he married Mary Mackall Bowie, the daughter of Robert and Priscilla Mackall Bowie. Robert Bowie, who subsequently became a Republican leader arid governor of Maryland, was Wootton's first cousin and was also the father of James John Bowie (Class of 1807). The Woottons' only child William Tumor Wootton served in both houses of the state legislature and was Mary­ land's secretary of state in 1845. Wootton died young, on January 12, 1797. His end came suddenly, for he lacked the time to finish and sign his will. A witness reported that after Wootton had dictated several provisions and heard them read back, he approved them and then asked the witness "to lay it by as he was not in a situation to proceed any further at present." He died without resuming the task. Wootton left the bulk of his estate to his wife during her widowhood. She later married Thomas Contee Bowie (Class of 1791), her second cousin. SOURCES: G. N. MacKenzie, Colonial Families of the U.S.A. (1907-20 repr. 1966), π, 78083; J. M. Mzgruder, Magruder's Md. Colonial Abstracts... 1772-77 (1934-39 repr. 1968), part one, 62-63; MHM, 18 (1923), 281, 288 (death of TW & his mother; TWs age at death is source for year of birth); Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., I, 151-52; n, 763-65, 910-12; E. G. Bowie, Across the Years in Prince George's Cnty. (1947), 697-98, 701-03; J. L. Hienton, Prince George's Heritage (1972), 126, 154, 175, 177, 198; Gibson Diary, 7 Mar. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct 1788 ("A forensic," "endeavouring"); Min. Trustees, 23 Sept. 1788; M. G. Malloy, Abstracts of WiUs, Montgomery Cnty. Md. (1977), 155; First Census, Md., 98; Votes 6? Proc. of the House of Delegates of the State of Md. (1793-95), passim; G. M. Brumbaugh, Md. Records (1967), I, 171; H. W. Brown, Index of Marriage Licenses, Prince George's Cnty., Md. 1777-1886 (1971), 246; F. F. White, Governors of Md. 1777-1970 (1970), 51-53; MS will of TW, undated, proved 12 Apr. 1797 ("to lay"), Prince George's Cnty. Register of Wills, Upper Marlboro, Md. (photocopy in PUA). JJL

CLASS OF 1789

William Anderson, A.B. William Blackledge Willie Blount

John Ouldfield Heriot (Harriott) David Hosack, A.B. Daniel Lionel Huger

Nathaniel Britton Boileau (Billew), A.B.

Thomas Hutchins, A.B.

Robert Hett Chapman, A.B.

Thomas Pitt Irving, A.B.

John Collins, A.B.

Henry Jennings

Henry Cook (Cooke)

Lawrence

Isaac Watts Crane, A.B.

George McClenachan

Edward Darrell, A.B.

John Morgan

David Deas, A.B.

William Perry, A.B.

Henry Deas

Isaac Pierson, A.B.

Christian DeWint

William Stevens Smith, A.B.

Mahlon Dickerson, A.B.

Charles Jeffry Snowden, A.B.

Thomas Donaldson, A.B.

O'Neal Gough Stevens

David English, A.B.

John Thompson

James Freeman

George Morgan White Eyes

David Gardiner, A.B.

Ephraim King Wilson, A.B.

John Lyon Gardiner, A.B.

Silas Wood, A.B.

(Commencement took place

Wednesday, September 30, 1789)

William Anderson A.B., A.M. 1792, physician was the second son of Isaac and Sophia Anderson of Princeton, New Jersey. William was born about 1771 when the family was living near Princeton or Hopewell, New Jersey. Isaac Anderson was a prosperous carriage maker who in August 1779 announced in a local paper the removal of his business to Princeton: WILLIAM ANDERSON,

The subscriber takes this method to inform the publick, that he is now carrying on the chair-making business, at his shop in Princeton, where he has chairs and sulkeys; likewise desks, drawers, tables, &c. also an eight day clock, either of which he will dispose of for country produce, or continental currency, as may best suit the purchaser. The family home was located about two blocks from the College in the large brick house still standing on the corner of what is now Nassau and Charlton streets. Isaac Anderson owned so much real estate in this area east of the College that locals called it Andersontown. The family attended the Princeton Presbyterian Church, of which the father was a trustee. William Anderson graduated from the Nassau Hall grammar school in the fall of 1785 and then entered the College as a freshman. He joined the American Whig Society, and on at least one occasion while a junior he was involved in a serious disciplinary matter. At a meedng of the faculty on March 17, 1788, Anderson and four fellow students were found guilty of creating a riot in the College. All five were sentenced to receive a public admonition and to read a confession before the entire college, as well as to repair any damages. Only Anderson and Peter Markoe (Class of 1791) complied with the terms of the sentence; the other three students were suspended. At his commencement on September 30, 1789, Anderson took the opposition view in a disputation on the question, "Is there more personal happiness in a polished than in a savage state?" After graduation Anderson probably attended some medical courses at the University of Pennsylvania, but took no degree. He may also have apprenticed under a local doctor and practiced in Princeton for a short time before moving to Schenectady, New York, at that time a part of Albany County. Anderson practiced in Schenectady in partnership with Joseph W. Hegeman, a friend from Princeton. Both men acquired strong professional reputations. Anderson's brother James, who became a pharmacist in Schenectady, probably moved to that town at the same time. James died at Balls-

324

CLASS OF 1789

ton Springs (or Ballston Spa), about fifteen miles from Schenectady sometime in 1802. On August 30, 1802 Anderson married Elizabeth (or Eliza) Sanders, daughter of Judge John and Deborah Sanders of Scotia, a Schenectady suburb. The mother was a member of the Glen clan, one of the original families of Schenectady. The father, whose family was also one of the earliest in the area, served on the board of trustees of the Schenectady Academy which in 1795 became established as Union College. Elizabeth's younger brother Robert was a student at Nassau Hall in 1802, residing at the Anderson home in Princeton. In September 1801 Anderson had approached Vice President Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) through Anderson's future father-in-law, who recommended him for an appointment in the war department, apparendy without success. Presumably Anderson was a DemocraticRepublican. Anderson's mother died in Princeton on October 31, 1804, and his father died intestate at Ballston Springs on August 14, 1806. It is not known whether Isaac Anderson had moved to the area, was visiting his son, or was perhaps looking for good investments in the region. On August 31, 1808 William Anderson joined his sisters Eliza and Sophia and his brother Thomas in executing deeds dividing real estate in which they all held interests as Isaac's heirs. William's share included land in both Middlesex and Somerset counties, Nassau Street then being the dividing line between the two jurisdictions. By the time of his marriage Anderson had built up a large practice and gained a reputation for his skill in surgery. When the Medical Society of the County of Albany was organized in 1806, he joined the group and attended its first meeting even though it meant nearly a full day's travel each way. Although Anderson received good fees for his services, he apparendy made no effort to collect from those who neglected to pay. He also spent lavishly as he "sought to enjoy life as he went along in its swift current." Correspondence with his fatherin-law indicated that he was having financial difficulties, and it may have been the need for a larger income that sent him to New Orleans to investigate the opportunities available for setting up a practice there. While on the return voyage to New York he contracted yellow fever and died on August 30, 1811 at the age of forty. His body was committed at sea. He left no children, but his wife survived until 1850. SOURCES: C. C. Gardner, "A Genealogical Diet, of N.J.," GMNJ, 22 (1947), 9-10, 8182; G. R. Howell & J. Tenney, Hist. ofCnty. of Albany, N.Y. (1886), 209; Anderson file, NJPHi; NJA, 2d ser., m (1906), 554 ("The subscriber"); Hageman, History, I, 19394; alumni file, PUA; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 4 Oct. 1785, 7 Oct. 1789 ("Is there

WILLIAM

BLACKLEDGE

325

more"); Hancock House MSS (WA appears on both class lists, with that of 10 Apr. 1789 identifying him as a resident of Princeton); Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Min. Fac, 17 Mar. 1788; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1792; J. Munsell, Annals of Albany (10 vols., 1850-59), ix, 93; J. Pearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of the Patent 6? City of Schenectadyfrom1662 to 1800 (1873 repr. 1976), 156-57; J. Pearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany from 1630 to 1800 (1872 repr. 1976), 95-96; A. Burr to J. Sanders, 9 Sept. 1801, M. Kline, ed., Political Con. & Public Papers of Aaron Burr (2 vols., 1983), n, 623; "Mercer Cnty. Tombstone Inscriptions, Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, N.J." (typescript at NjPHi); N.J. WiUs, xi, 9 (father's estate); H. G. Spafford, Gazetteer of the State of NY. (1824), 39-40; S. D. Willard, ed., AnnaL· of the Medical Soc. of the Cnty. ofAlbany 1806-51 (1864), 234 ("sought to enjoy life"). Alexander, Princeton, 243, erroneously states that Anderson studied law and became a member of the New Jersey bar. He mistook Princeton's William Anderson for William A. Anderson of Sussex County, who did become a lawyer in 1792 and who died young. Subsequent College catalogues copied Alexander's error. For evidence that Robert Sanders was a CNJ student living with Isaac Anderson in 1802, see Isaac Anderson to John Sanders, 30 May 1802, als in NjP. The letter also contains details of his tuition and board expenses and the impact of the disastrous Nassau Hall fire of 1802. For more on Robert Sanders see Pearson, Contributions ... Schenectady, 157. MANUSCRIPTS: William Anderson Collection, NHi, contains 26 WA letters dated 180017 (A. J. Breton, Guide to the MS Collections of the N.Y. Hist. Soc. [1972], l, 263). RLW

William Blackledge lawyer, businessman, and congressman, was born in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, third of the four sons and three daughters of Richard Blackledge, Sr., and his wife Ann. Richard Blackledge was a close friend, neighbor, and business partner of Jacob Blount, father of Willie Blount (Class of 1789). In 1761 the two men had purchased a store at the fork of the Tar River, later Washington, North Carolina, which was the beginning of various mercantile and trading interests shared by the two families. In the spring of 1776, as one of four men authorized by the North Carolina provincial congress to draw sufficient funds from the public treasury to establish salt works, Blackledge set up a successful salt evaporating plant at the mouth of Core Creek on the Newport River in Carteret County. He drowned in the fall of 1777 while attempting to cross from Beaufort to the salt works. His considerable estate was divided among his widow and children. William received a grant of over 1,000 acres of land, a saw and grist mill, livestock, six slaves, and a lot in New Bern. An inventory of the estate showed that the father had owned about 15,530 acres of land, forty-nine slaves, 320 head of cattle, other farm animals, farm tools, and two stills, as well as silver, china, furniture, and a library. Although Jacob Blount was not named guardian of William BlackWILLIAM BLACKLEDGE,

326

CLASS OF 1789

ledge, he was one of the executors of the father's will, and he and his older sons seem to have supervised William's education. By the summer of 1783 Blackledge and Willie Blount were enrolled in the Nassau Hall grammar school, and a New Bern neighbor passing through Princeton wrote that "The Boys ... seem to be going on very well." In September 1784 Willie's half-brother Thomas Blount, on a business journey to Philadelphia, took time for a side trip to Princeton to visit the two students. That same month Blackledge, then in the second class, placed first in a competition for premiums held in the grammar school. A year later, as a member of die first class, he placed second in a comparative trial of Latin grammar and syntax. He then entered the College as a freshman, and on November 30, 1785 he and Willie Blount joined the Cliosophic Society, with Blackledge assuming the name of the Spartan king Agesilaus. He spoke at prayers twice in February 1786. It is not certain when he left the College, but he was still in residence when an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. Blount seems to have spent some time at Columbia College before returning to New Bern in the fall of 1787, and it may be that the two young men continued on a parallel course, although there is no record of either matriculating at Columbia. In February 1788 when William Blount, another half-brother of Willie, made arrangements for his brother to study law under Judge John Sitgreaves of New Bern, he noted that Billy Blackledge was also to study with him. Blackledge was licensed to practice in North Carolina, but he was also actively involved in the business ventures of the Blackledge and Blount families. He kept up a long and warm correspondence with John Gray Blount, still another of Willie's half-brothers, who seems to have been the practical businessman of the family, supervising their stores and factories. The marriage of William's brother Richard Blackledge to Louisa Blount further cemented the close relationship of the two families. Blackledge first entered public life as a member of the state house of commons, representing Craven County from 1797 to 1799. In 1802 he was elected to the state senate to fill the unexpired term of Richard Dobbs Spaight, a former governor of North Carolina, who had been mortally wounded in a duel. When the general assembly established the Spring Hill Seminary of Learning that year, Blackledge was appointed one of its trustees. He next won a seat in the United States Congress as a DemocraticRepublican, and from 1803 to 1809 he represented Newbern District, which was composed of Lenoir, Craven, Carteret, Jones, Greene, Wayne and Johnson counties. In the 1802 election he ran against Federalist John Stanly, Spaight's duelling opponent, but in the fol-

WILLIAM BLACKLEDGE

327

lowing two contests he was unopposed. Relatively quiet during his first term, he gradually participated more frequently. He supported the merchants of New Bern, a port city, and always showed great concern for the Blount business interests, sending long reports to John Gray Blount on political developments in Washington. On May 30, 1803, still new to congressional politics, he wrote to Blount: Having entered into business with which I am but little aquainted, & having an adversary possessed of great art considerable information & but little Candor, I feel myself frequently at a loss how the objections he makes to some of the measures of the present administration ought to be answered, and as I am convinced your brother Thomas is master of the subject & expect you will probably soon see him have ventured to trouble you with a request to get him to inform me upon what principles Mr. Jefferson justifies his conduct in repairing the Corvette Barceau. Blackledge seemed troubled by the pro-French policies of President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791), and indeed the previous year the House had asked for an explanation of why the Barceau had been repaired at United States expense. Blackledge's letter also questioned some of Jefferson's political appointments and went on to request that Thomas Blount let him know where to find documentation of taxes collected during 1802. Blount had served in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Congresses and was later elected to the Ninth, Tenth and Twelfth. In spite of the complaints in his letter, Blackledge usually voted with the Republican majority. In 1804 he was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives to conduct impeachment proceedings against Judge John Pickering. When the North Carolina delegation split on the embargo question in 1808, Blackledge voted against the measure, believing it would be injurious to trade. In the "Embargo election" that year he was defeated by Stanly, who won by a slender majority after a particularly vituperative campaign. During 1809 Blackledge again sat in the state house of commons. In the election of 1810 he was opposed for the congressional seat by Federalist candidate William Gaston (A.B. 1796). In this bitterly fought campaign, during which Blackledge suggested the expulsion of all Federalists from office, a favorite Federalist toast was: The Freemen of Newbern District: may they, by their suffrages on the 10th of August next, place William Gaston where he should be, in the councils of the nation; and again leave William Blackledge where he ought to be, in domestic retirement.

328

CLASS OF 1789

During his early years in Congress, Blackledge never spoke at length on anything. In 1806 he opposed selling public lands on credit because, he feared, the need to foreclose on defaulters would destroy respect for government and "the peace of the union." He also preferred a form of resistance to Britain milder than the blanket nonimportation then under consideration. But two years later during the embargo crisis, he was ready to contemplate war and urged the construction of a dozen new revenue cutters. Their seizures alone, he insisted, would more than pay for their cost. He favored arming the whole militia in 1808 but still hoped that Congress could find some inexpensive way to do it. Blackledge achieved his summit of eloquence during the final crisis of 1812 that led to America's declaration of war against Britain. His speeches grew longer and also became more forceful. Mistakenly believing with other Republicans that the United States Army could easily overrun Upper Canada, he focused attention on naval and maritime issues. He scoffed at those who argued that the United States was not strong enough to challenge Britain when the men of 1775 had succeeded with one-third of the 1812 population. He deflected Federalist contentions that the time to build a fleet was a decade earlier, and simultaneously challenged Republicans who proposed to construct ten frigates without enough seasoned timber to complete the job. He countered with his own proposal to build four 74s (men-of-war) with the materials on hand, insisting that they could be completed more rapidly and would also force the British into a more drastic redeployment. He provided a friendly but devastating rejoinder to the suggestion by John C. Calhoun and William Lowndes that the United States briefly reopen the import trade with Britain before declaring war. The two South Carolinians hoped to recoup for the republic some of the more than $20 million trade surplus that American merchants had accumulated in Britain under nonimportation. Blackledge insisted that their proposal would lead to a greater export of specie, not a net import, and that if Britain suspected a forthcoming declaration of war, the ministry might confiscate all American vessels as well. He also worried that such a measure might be read as a sign of weakness at home and undermine public morale. Once hostilities began, he opposed the validation of foreign licenses for trading with the United States but favored publication of a list of American officers with their places of nativity "to dispel the ridiculous and false stories which had been circulated through the country of our armies being mainly officered by Frenchmen." The war raised serious political difficulties for Blackledge. Within Congress he did everything he could to blunt a threatened investi-

WILLIAM BLACKLEDGE

329

gation by Federalist Josiah Quincy (A.M. 1796) of Albert Gallatin's management of the Treasury. He also sought Gallatin's help in his own reelection campaign. Expecting "a warm political contest" and wishing "to be armed as well as possible," he asked the secretary to provide him with some proof that the Federalist Army of 1798 "was raised for the purpose of & with a view to our invasion of the Spanish American Colonies in Conjunction with the English." Whatever assistance Gallatin provided, it was not enough. Blackledge's district was antiwar and contained many Federalists. The Newbern Federalist Republican vigorously opposed him and the administration of James Madison (A.B. 1771), and he was defeated by his old antagonist William Gaston. For the remainder of his life Blackledge seems to have served as an elder statesman. Each year from 1814 through 1827 he was elected councilor of the state by the general assembly. Even out of Congress he remained a war hawk. When he heard that the frigate United States had captured the British Macedonian, he wrote to John Gray Blount, "Kindle the powder light the lamps string the musick & be merry." He was instrumental in securing military commissions for Blount's sons, whom he regarded as nephews. Blackledge was still in Washington at the time of Thomas Blount's death in February 1812, and he made the funeral arrangements, planned the widow's transportation home, and broke the news to Blount's family. In a charming letter written not long afterward, Blackledge advised John's wife Mary Blount to break the habit of "cleaning the teeth with snuff" and suggested methods that he had used five years earlier to give up chewing tobacco. Blackledge died on October 19, 1828 at Spring Hill, Lenoir County, and his wife Winifred died seven days later. No further information about her has emerged. In the New Bern Spectator Blackledge's former opponents acknowledged "his uniform urbanity, kindness and disposition to accommodate." He was credited with having been an excellent husband, father, master and citizen. His son William Salter Blackledge also served in the state house of commons and in the United States Congress. SOURCES: BDUSC, 627-28; J. B. Grimes, N.C. Witts 6f Inventories (1976), 41-49; W. H. Masterson, William Blount (1954), 11, 76, 145; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct. 1785; Clio, lists; Gibson Diary, 19 & 23 Feb. 1786; Hancock House MSS; NCHR, 6 (1929), 186, 323; 10 (1933), 178-79; 11 (1935), 363; 14 (1937), 177, 179-80; 18 (1941), 107; 22 (1945), 403-08; 23 (1946), 351-53; 25 (1948), 194; S. M. Lemmon, Frustrated Patriots: N.C. 6f the War of 1812 (1973), 15, 22-23, 163, 172-73; D. H. Gilpatrick, Jeffersonian Democracy in N.C. (1931), 176-77, 197, 199-200, 242; W. S. Powell, ed., Diet, of N.C. Biog. (1979- ), I, 166; A. B. Keith et al., eds., John Gray Blount Papers (4 vols., 195282), passim; R. L. Hatzenbuehler, "The War Hawks & the Question of Congressional Leadership in 1812," Pacific Hist. Rev., 45 (1976), 3-12; AIC, 9th Cong., 1st sess.,

330

C L A S S OF

1789

767, 849-50; 10th Cong., 1st sess., 2194-95; 10th Cong., 2nd sess., 521; 12th Cong., 1st sess., 909-10, 921-28, 1302-10; 12th Cong., 2nd sess., 920, 1115; WB to Albert Gallatin, 20 July, 13 & 17 Dec. 1812, Microfilm Ed. of the Papers of Albert Gallatin (1970, C. E. Prince, ed.), reel 46. RLW & JMM

Willie Blount lawyer and public official, was born at "Blount Hall" in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, on April 18, 1768. His parents were Jacob Blount, an extensive landholder and businessman, and his second wife Hannah Salter Baker, widow of William Baker of South Quay, Virginia. There were already four older Blount half-brothers and three half-sisters in the family when Willie, whose name was pronounced Wylie, was born. By the time he was a young man the older brothers were already involved in the family enterprises. With the exception of the third son Reading Blount, who was considered too openhanded and too impulsive to be a good businessman, the family seems to have been ambitious and acquisitive, especially in acquiring land. They sold, rented, and leased both land and slaves and were also active in a number of trading ventures, sometimes with outside partners. William Blount, who was nineteen years older than Willie and who exerted the most influence on him, became the best known member of the family, serving as a member of the Continental Congress, as governor of the Territory South of the Ohio River, and as United States senator from Tennessee. In 1797 he was expelled from the Senate after the failure of an attempt to impeach him. Thomas Blount, also a politician, served in the United States Congress for more than a decade. John Gray Blount was the practical businessman with a mastery of detail who supervised the family's stores and factories. Willie may have received some early schooling in the New Bern Academy, but by August 1783 he and his future classmate William Blackledge, son of Jacob Blount's deceased friend and business partner, were attending the Nassau Hall grammar school. A New Bern neighbor visiting Princeton that summer reported that the two boys were doing well. In September 1784 Thomas Blount, on an extended trip to establish credit in northern cities for the family's mercantile enterprises, stopped in Princeton to visit and found Willie and William well and "pleased with their situation." In the fall of 1785 they both entered the College as freshmen, and together they joined the Cliosophic Society on November 30. Blount assumed the WILLIE BLOUNT,

WILLIE B L O U N T

331

Willie Blount, Class of 1789

pseudonym Philetas, the Alexandrian poet who was noted for being excessively thin. One can only conjecture whether Blount admired his poetry or identified with his physique. At the campus Fourth of July celebration in 1786, Blount gave one of the two humorous addresses which followed the more formal orations of the day. He was no longer at the College when an undated class list was compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. Although there is no record of his having matriculated at Columbia College, Blount later recalled being instructed by both John Witherspoon and John Kemp, professor of mathematics at Columbia. Perhaps he spent the summer of 1786 in New York attending Kemp's lectures. By the fall of 1787 he was back with his family at New Bern. At this point Jacob Blount seems to have preferred keeping Willie at home, perhaps to be trained for business. However, early in 1788, at the insistence of and through arrangements made by William Blount, Willie and William Blackledge began the study of law under Judge John Sitgreaves of New Bern. In 1790, when William Blount was appointed governor of the Territory South of the Ohio River, Willie accompanied him to Knoxville as his private secretary. William

332

CLASS OF 1789

referred to his brother as still a student of law, and he may have continued the instruction himself. On February 5, 1794 Willie wrote to John Gray Blount, "I have some thought of making application to these Judges for an admittance at the bar, but have not yet fixed on a time." Sometime that year William licensed him to practice law in the territorial courts, and Willie may have given up his position as his brother's secretary to begin his practice. Willie represented Montgomery County in the provincial assemblies of 1794. When Blount College, later the University of East Tennessee and presendy the University of Tennessee, opened its doors in 1795, both William and Willie Blount were trustees. In 1796 the first legislature of the state of Tennessee elected Willie one of three judges of the superior court of law and equity. Some authorities say that he declined the office, others that he accepted but resigned in the same year. Court records show that he never delivered an opinion from the bench. By 1797 he was being described as a prominent lawyer and landowner, but during this year William's financial situation became strained. International disputes over the control of the Mississippi River had depressed the value of western lands, and the temporary appointment in 1796 of Benjamin Hawkins (Class of 1777) as principal agent for Indian affairs south of the Ohio River brought a sympathetic approach to Indian land claims, which meant that speculators might lose some of their valuable land. Harassed by creditors, William Blount evaded bankruptcy by deeding to Willie most of his land, his twenty-six slaves, his household belongings, and his farm stock and equipment. William, who was representing Tennessee in the United States Senate, was expelled in 1797 on charges that he was involved in a plot to aid the British in acquiring Louisiana by instigating the Creeks and Cherokees to fight against the Spanish. He returned to Knoxville, not to censure, but to the acclamation of his neighbors and friends. To demonstrate their confidence in him, his fellow Tennesseans appointed William Blount to the state senate to complete the term of James White, who had resigned to serve as Indian commissioner. On December 3, 1797 the Tennessee Senate elected him to serve as its speaker. He continued his land speculations, trying to recoup his losses, but died suddenly on March 26, 1800 when an epidemic of malaria swept through Knoxville. Mrs. Blount was to die two years later. Willie took over the task of supervising the education of their children, and with the help of John Gray Blount he salvaged what he could of the depleted estate. In 1835 he was to write for private distribution among the family a full account and explanation of the charges of conspiracy for which William Blount was expelled from the Senate.

WILLIE B L O U N T

333

Willie's political popularity was almost surely due to the prestige of the family name. He appears to have been a man of ordinary talents and ability who was born into a family of overachievers. Around 1802 he left Knoxville and moved to Montgomery County, northwest of Nashville, where he married Lucinda Baker, daughter of Maj. John and Ann Norfleet Baker, who bore him two daughters, Eliza Ann and Lucinda. During this period he wrote a pamphlet entitled A Catechetical Exposition of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee: intended principally for the use of Schools, which was printed in Knoxville in 1803. In 1807 he represented Montgomery County in the state legislature, and in 1809 he was elected governor of Tennessee by an overwhelming majority. In 1811 and 1813 he was reelected for the constitutional maximum of three successive terms. He was a Democrat who admired President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) and became a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson. William Blount's "mansion" served as the first capitol of the territory, since he conducted his official business from an office on the ground floor. He felt that his position as territorial governor called for a standard of living as nearly as possible like that on the eastern seaboard, and so he built the first two-story frame house west of the Smokies. The home of the governor continued to serve as the capitol of the territory and the state, and Willie Blount may have retained tide to his brother's home during his first and second terms, while the seat of the government was still in Knoxville. In 1812 the capital was formally moved to Nashville, returned to Knoxville in 1817-18, next located in Murfreesboro until 1826, and finally settled at the more central location of Nashville. The only significant legislation passed during Blount's first term was an act that reformed the judicial system in Tennessee at the urging of state senator Thomas Hart Benton. Blount had little interest in national or international affairs but continually promoted the development of the wealth of the state through the improvement of communication and transportation facilities and the opening of new lands for setdement. He arranged for tides to Indian lands between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to be relinquished and proposed that the Cherokees and Chickasaws be given land west of the Mississippi. This process involved the dispossession of 25,000 square miles of Cherokee land and over seven million acres of Chickasaw land. His justification to the federal authorities was that it would be much easier to improve the Indians' "condition, manners, customs, habits, neighborhood and friendship for the United States," if they were setded in a less dispersed manner, rather than roaming a wilderness that no longer had enough game to support them. A letter Blount wrote to Andrew Jackson on December 28, 1809

334

CLASS OF 1789

stated his reasons why eastern Indians should all be moved west of the Mississippi and may have served as partial impetus for Jackson's later removal of the eastern Indians. On February 9, 1812 Blount married Mary White, widow of Hugh Lawson White of Knoxville. When the United States declared war against Great Britain the following June, Blount offered President James Madison (A.B. 1771) 2,500 volunteers under the command of Andrew Jackson and raised $15,000 on his own responsibility to equip this small army. When, in August 1813, Creek Indians massacred the garrison and inmates of Fort Mims near Mobile, Alabama, Blount called for 3,500 volunteers to be mobilized and led by Jackson. Afraid that the national government would be too absorbed with the Canadian border to remember the south, the state legislature authorized Blount to dispatch 3,500 troops to any place within the territory occupied by the Creek Indians for the purpose of "repelling the invasion of Tennessee." The troops were mobilized at Camp Blount, named for the governor, which was located outside of Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tennessee. They subdued the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and protected the Gulf coast against British invasion. These troops later fought with Jackson at New Orleans. In October 1814 Blount wrote to his brother, "The war has so multiplied duties that I am kept almost constantly employed about what relates to the prosecution of it. This State has a conspicuous part to act as all the lower Country has necessarily to look this way in the first outset of any difficulty for momentary relief or aid as to defence." In April 1815 he was jubilant over the victory at New Orleans, "an affair in which Tennesseans acted a conspicuous part." Blount also wrote to his brother that "next Septr puts an end to my public service and I look forward to the time with much delight." On September 19, 1815 in his last message to the legislature he stated, "I do most sincerely rejoice at the arrival of the period when I am to retire to private life." For several years he lived quietly as a planter at his home, "Bakerdon," in Montgomery County. He became interested in writing a history of Tennessee, which apparently was never completed. In 1819 he was again asked to run for governor but pleaded his poor health and that of his wife. For some reason he decided to come out of retirement in 1827 and try for the gubernatorial post. He was soundly defeated in a three-way race, receiving only 1,330 votes out of almost 68,000. In 1834 he was asked to serve at the state constitutional convention, where he was a member of the committee on internal improvements which strongly recommended that the states cooperate with each other in setting up a system of railroads to encourage trade.

NATHANIEL BRITTON BOILEAU

335

Blount was predeceased by both of his daughters, but in his later years he greatly enjoyed the company of his five grandchildren. He died on September 10, 1835. On May 2, 1876 a monument honoring Governor Willie Blount was unveiled at Clarksville, Tennessee. SOURCES: W. H. Masterson, William Blount (1954), passim; J. W. Watson, Kinfolks of Edgecombe Cnty., N.C. (1969), 109-10; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784, 10 Oct. 1785; Md. Gazette: or, the Bait. Gen. Advt., 14 Oct. 1785; Clio, lists; Smith Diary, 4 July 1786; R. Horsman, Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815 (1970), 179; R. Horsman, War of 1812 (1969), 216, 219; W. Allen, Messages of Gov. ofTenn. 1796-1821 (1952), I, 27475, 279-80, 362-67, 397, 426, 438 (quote from message to state legislature); Β. B. Creekmore, KnoxviUe (1967), 29, 31, 37-38, 39-41, 42-43, 51-52, 84, 178-79; Tenn. Hist. Mag., 5 (1919), 178-79; n.s., 1 (1931), 270-71; THQ, 1 (1942), 309-27 (quote re Indians); 3 (1944), 210; 15 (1956), 175-77, 237; W. S. Powell, ed., Diet, of N.C. Biog. (1979- ), l, 184; A. B. Keith et al., eds., John Gray Blount Papers (4 vols., 1952-82), passim (quotes from family letters). PUBLICATION: Catechetical Exposition of the Constitution of the State ofTenn. (1803). MANUSCRIPTS: Blount's official papers and most of his private papers have been destroyed. Blount papers that have survived are at Τ & THi. RLW

Nathaniel Britton Boileau (Billew) NATHANIEL BRITTON BOILEAU (BILLEW), A.B.,

A.M.

1795,

farmer,

lawyer, radical Jeffersonian, and public official, was the son of Isaac and Rachel Brittan Billew of Moreland Township, in that part of Philadelphia County that is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Isaac was a prosperous farmer who owned eighty acres of land about two miles northeast of what was to become the Borough of Hatboro. His parents Jacob and Ann Billew had been among a group of French Huguenots who came from Long Island to this section of Pennsylva­ nia because they believed that the soil and weather conditions were right for the cultivation of grapevines. Nathaniel and his two sisters were born on the family farm, his birth occurring in 1763. Nathaniel began his formal education in 1768 at a small school about half a mile east of the village of Hatboro. His family warmly supported the Revolution, and on May 1, 1778 when Nathaniel was fifteen, the Billew farm became the site of one of the grizzlier atroc­ ities of the war. Just before dawn a large British raiding party out of Philadelphia surprised and nearly surrounded a detachment of Gen. John Lacey's militia which had been negligent in maintaining scouts. Isaac barely escaped with his cattle and, presumably, the rest of the family. Not only did the intruders kill nearly thirty Americans at small loss to themselves, but they also threw some of the wounded onto buckwheat straw, set it ablaze, and burned them to death. No doubt

336

CLASS OF 1789

this incident contributed to Nathaniel's passionate Anglophobia in later life. When the lad turned eighteen in 1781, he volunteered for service in a Philadelphia County militia troop of horse that helped George Washington feint an attack on New York City while the Continentals marched to Yorktown instead. Boileau remained in service until after the surrender of Charles, Earl Cornwallis on October 17. Boileau entered the College at the late age of twenty-four, probably because he had had to divide his time between studying and working on his father's farm. He was admitted as a member of the junior class on November 10, 1787, transferring from an unnamed college, possibly the University of the State of Pennsylvania. He enrolled under the name of Billew or Billeu, but during his stay at the College he changed his name, which was sometimes also written Bellew, to the French spelling of Boileau. He also altered the spelling of his middle name to Britton. He joined the Cliosophic Society on November 12, 1787 and assumed the name of Flaccus after Valerius Flaccus, ideal Roman citizen and patron of Cato the elder. Boileau represented his society by delivering one of the patriotic orations on July 4, 1789. At the undergraduate competitions held prior to the 1788 commencement he took third place in the English competition. A year later, at his own commencement, he gave the first speech after the Latin salutatory address, an oration on peace. Boileau had become acquainted with John Fitch, who had been working on his steamboat models in Bucks County, and during college vacations Boileau constructed the paddle wheels for the first successful prototype that Fitch tried. Boileau also helped Fitch test the capacity of the boat on some of the ponds near his father's farm. Handy with tools and mechanically inclined, he enjoyed working with wood. Throughout much of his life he made most of his farm implements, including some of his wagons, carts, and plows. And despite other responsibilities, he continued to work on the farm during haying and harvesting seasons until past middle age. He truly believed in the dignity of physical labor. After graduation Boileau studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Montgomery County, where he was considered capable and trustworthy in settling estates and handling arbitrations. He returned to Princeton to receive his A.M. in person in 1795 and took the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society. A year later he bought his father's farm, along with twenty adjacent acres in Bucks County, for £550. He then exchanged this land for 200 acres on the southern limit of the Borough of Hatboro, where in 1801 he built one of the finest residences in the county. He probably dug the cellar himself and quarried the stone for the

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

337

dwelling with his own hands, all while a widower with one small son. Sometime after his college years he had been engaged to Charlotte Leech, who died shortly before their scheduled wedding day. In June 1795 he married her sister Hester Leech, who immediately became pregnant. On March 26, 1796 while an attending physician sent for instruments to destroy the fetus in a desperate attempt to save the mother's life, she finally gave birth after days of agony to Boileau's only child Thomas Leech Boileau (Class of 1815). She survived that ordeal only to die in September 1797. Seven years later Boileau married a third Leech sister, Ann, who lived until March 1834. In all likelihood the excitement of the French Revolution electrified Boileau and drove him into politics. The French "caught the sacred spark of liberty" from America and kindled it into "an unextinguishable fire to illuminate and ultimately emancipate the world from the thraldom of slavery," he recalled years later. "We fondly fancied we saw the millenium approaching, when nations should learn war no more and universal peace and good will among men should pervade the world." But it was not to be, for "the powers of hell and the government of Britain, equally hostile to the happiness of man, combined to blast our pleasing anticipations. The era was not yet arrived when Satan was to be bound a thousand years." Boileau ran for the Pennsylvania house in 1797 and won by a single vote in a contest in which Federalists took the other three seats in the county. When his opponent contested the result, a committee of the Federalist-dominated assembly held hearings for eighteen days only to confirm that Boileau, a radical Republican, had won. As a rare college graduate among the Republicans (especially those from rural areas), he quickly assumed a leadership position. When the Federalist majority passed an address to President John Adams in December 1798 praising his policies, applauding Britain, and condemning France, Boileau organized the minority of twenty-two representatives and drafted their dissent, which objected to the monopolization of high federal offices by Massachusetts and Connecticut men, attacked the President for doubting whether (in Adams's words) "the object of France in its revolution ever was liberty," condemned the Alien Act as arbitrary, and denounced the Sedition Act as unconstitutional. Because the Federalists refused to enter the dissent on the house journal, the Republicans published it separately. When the Jeffersonians at last won a three-seat majority in 1799, Boileau "was spoken of as Speaker, but it was concluded that he might be more useful on the floor, the democrats having but few men who were in the habit of public speaking," as a brief campaign biography later explained. He served in the house until 1802, when he lost a

338

CLASS OF 1789

bid for a congressional seat to Frederick Conrad, a more conservative Republican also from Montgomery County. Boileau returned to the assembly in 1803 and 1804 and won three more times in 1806, 1807, and 1808. Boileau in 1801 proposed a bill in the assembly to abolish English common law and all English legal precedents as ill-suited to the plain and simple nature of republican government. Common law required a special education to understand, he argued, while statutes were available for all to read. The assembly rejected his proposal but was more sympathetic with his efforts to make inexpensive arbitration proceedings a viable alternative to costly common-law trials over both small and moderate claims. Boileau's rhetoric fiercely assailed the greed of lawyers. His opponents insisted that arbitration threatened trial by jury. Boileau's attack on the judiciary divided Pennsylvania Republicans into a "Democratic" and a "Constitutional Republican" or "Quid" faction under Governor Thomas McKean (LL.D. 1781), who was willing to work with Federalists to protect common law, the legal profession, and the traditional privileges of judges. In 1802 Boileau sought to weaken the governor's appointive powers and punish a prominent Quid, Alexander J. Dallas, father of George M. Dallas (A.B. 1810), by introducing the Incompatibility Act, which forbade the holding of two offices. The legislature passed the measure over McKean's veto. Two years later Boileau took the lead in the assembly's effort to impeach three supreme court justices for their allegedly arbitrary decision in the case of Thomas Passmore v. Andrew Bayard (A.B. 1779). At issue was the power of judges to punish for contempt even for events that occurred outside the courtroom. Justice Hugh Henry Brackenridge (A.B. 1771), a Republican but also a firm believer in English common law as the root of the American legal system, shocked the legislature by siding with the accused Federalists. He had been absent on the day the Passmore case was decided, but he wrote the assembly that he agreed with the decision and demanded to be impeached with his colleagues. Instead the assembly asked McKean to remove him from the bench, which the governor refused to do. The impeachment trial lasted through January 1805 and closely paralleled national events in which John Randolph (Class of 1791) and other radical Jeffersonians were trying to rid the United States Supreme Court of Justice Samuel Chase. Boileau appealed "for the rights of my fellow citizens, and for the rights of man, which I feel have been violated by those venerable gendemen now at your bar." "Shall we hold our liberties by the sacred tenure of the constitution, or by the uncertain tenure, or capricious will of angry ... Judges,"

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

339

he asked. Thirteen senators voted to convict; eleven to acquit, three yeas short of the required two-thirds majority for impeachment. The trial widened the rift between McKean and the radicals, who tried to unseat the governor in the 1805 election by turning to Boileau's friend Simon Snyder, speaker of the house and an unpretentious German farmer and tanner from the interior whom the Quids scorned as a "Clodhopper." McKean won only with Federalist votes. Boileau added to the growing controversy by writing a newspaper essay for William Duane's radical Jeffersonian Aurora that called for constitutional amendments mandating the annual election of state senators, a reduction of executive patronage, the abolition of virtual lifetime tenure for judges, further simplification of judicial procedures, and limitations on the governor's veto power. Perhaps he agreed with the Philadelphia radicals who were beginning to grumble that Pennsylvania had made a big mistake in replacing the democratic constitution of 1776 with the more conservative one of 1790. Thus the radical impulse continued to grow in Pennsylvania after it had begun to recede in Washington where, after the Chase trial, Albert Gallatin and James Madison (A.B. 1771) gave full support to Philadelphia's Quids. Political exchanges became exceptionally barbed in Pennsylvania. As Quid strength waned locally, the radicals began to split into an urban and largely Irish wing under fiery William Duane and Michael Leib, who resented the growing power of the rural and predominantly German wing headed by Snyder and Boileau. In 1807 Boileau failed to win election as United States senator after becoming the principal Republican candidate at the last moment. He lost to the Quid-Federalist candidate, Andrew Gregg. As the split in the party grew worse than ever, Leib and Boileau accused each other of sordid intrigues to undo one another. Boileau endured scurrilous allegations of alcoholism, which few believed, and the accusation that he had offered to support Robert Whitehill for the 1805 gubernatorial nomination in exchange for his own appointment as secretary of the commonwealth, a charge that at least identified his ambitions correctly. Back in the assembly, Boileau carried a measure in April 1806 banning the reading of foreign cases or statutes in Pennsylvania courts. His opponents assailed the bill as provincial and anti-intellectual, stemming from the kind of mind that would also reject improvements in medicine and science if they happened to originate abroad. Boileau had a ready reply. The analogy with medicine would hold, he declared, only if "it was the practice for physicians to carry cart loads of Books and read them to their patients." He was happy to let

340

CLASS OF 1789

lawyers learn their law from any source they chose to study, and he would let them cite—from memory—even British cases. His measure would rescue jurors from listening to lawyers "read numerous and contradictory cases and [give] their lengthy comments thereon." It would also encourage counsellors "to improve their memories and save them considerable expense in employing porters to carry baskets full of books from their office to the court houses." He hoped the reform would "render our laws less complex and of course easier understood" and that "we might thereby be gradually acquiring a 'common law' of our own, which might from time to time be incorporated into our statutes, and every citizen might then have an opportunity of making himself acquainted with the laws of the land." Although the bill passed, McKean's pocket veto killed it. In early 1807 Boileau drafted an address to President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) urging him not to withdraw his name from the presidential race of 1808, when—if he ran—he would have been seeking a third term. "The enemies of the equal rights of man" had long argued that republics were viable only in small societies for short periods of time, Boileau noted, but Jefferson's administration had provided "a practical exposition and refutation of that sentiment" and had "demonstrated that a free republican government ... is not an Utopian and illusive [sic] idea, but a practicable and blessed reality." Although the address was toned down and amended in both houses, Boileau's central argument remained intact, and the final version passed overwhelmingly. As earlier, law reform combined with other issues to widen the chasm between the Democrats (often their term of choice by this time) and the governor. In 1807 Boileau joined Leib and other radicals in carrying a close vote to impeach McKean, but he also favored a successful motion to postpone the trial until after the fall elections. Amidst rumors that the McKean family desired Leib's assassination, the impeachment threat hung over the ill and aging governor until the house voted in early 1808 not to proceed to trial. McKean was a lame duck in any case. The radicals, increasingly confident of their strength in central and western Pennsylvania, believed that they could win the governorship and control of the state in 1808. They were correct. The national embargo crisis forced Republicans to unite in Pennsylvania despite their factional differences. In practice, Duane and Lieb had to back Snyder for governor, giving him a huge majority, while Snyder's men had to support Madison for president despite sharp misgivings. The "clodhoppers" had come to power. Victory in 1808 signaled a new phase of factional strife within

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

341

the party. By an impressive majority, the assembly elected Boileau speaker in December and then sent Leib to Washington as United States senator, probably because the Snyder wing—now called "Quadroons" by the Aurora but "New School Republicans" by themselves—wanted him out of Pennsylvania. Then, on December 20, Snyder named Boileau secretary of the commonwealth, the post he had long been accused of seeking. Duane and Leib could not easily criticize the governor's choice of a man whom they had just supported for speaker. Snyder and Boileau had already established their own editor, John Binns, in Philadelphia to offset the Aurora, and Boileau, although he denied it, was widely regarded as the chief financial backer of Binns's Democratic Press, which inaccurately claimed to be the first American newspaper to use the word "Democratic" in its tide. With the Federalists demoralized and the Quids all but destroyed, the two radical factions faced each other, and on almost all important questions over the nine years of Snyder's administration, his rural wing defeated Duane and Leib and in the process began to build its own kind of urban support. To celebrate his elevation to the second highest office in the commonwealth, in January 1809 Boileau commissioned Thomas Sully to execute a bust portrait of him in oil for $50. Boileau's first months as secretary got him into political difficulties that he and Snyder were lucky to surmount. Olmstead v. executrixes of David Rittenhouse, a piece of interminable litigation dating back to a privateering dispute of 1778, had in a series of legislative and judicial confrontations pitted federal judicial authority against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. By 1809 the defendants were Elizabeth Sergeant and Esther Waters, the daughters and heirs of David Rittenhouse (A.M. 1772, LL.D. 1788), two eminently respectable ladies from whom federal marshals at the command of Chief Justice John Marshall (LL.D. 1802) were attempting to collect over $14,000. As their counsel they engaged Mrs. Sergeant's stepson John Sergeant (A.B. 1795). Pennsylvania insisted that Rittenhouse had become involved in the case in his public, not his private capacity, and therefore that the commonwealth rather than any individual was the proper defendant, a claim that would have invalidated the suit under the Eleventh Amendment. Also at issue was the legality of a federal court overturning the facts established by a Pennsylvania jury. Boileau played a prominent role in the case once Snyder decided to take a dramatic stand for states' rights which, unfortunately for party harmony, meant challenging Madison's Republican administration as well as the Federalist chief justice at the height of the embargo crisis. The governor ordered state militia to protect the women and pre-

342

CLASS OF 1789

vent federal marshals from entering their home, which newspapers gleefully christened "Fort Rittenhouse." As the crisis unfolded in the spring of 1809, one man was bayonetted, the women grew embarrassed at their loss of privacy, several militiamen were arrested and convicted of serious federal charges, and Duane accused the Snyder administration of damaging the Republican cause everywhere. At first public opinion favored Duane, but the sufferings of the militiamen rapidly reversed this sentiment. Snyder on behalf of the state paid the plaintiffs, thus extricating "the ladies" from their plight, and Madison then pardoned the militiamen. This result left Duane more isolated than ever and gave firm control of the commonwealth to Snyder and Boileau. In 1810 they finally secured the legal reform they had sought for a decade, the prohibition on reading foreign cases in Pennsylvania courts. Snyder's administration became the most popular one that Pennsylvania had yet experienced under the 1790 constitution. To judge from the Aurora's complaints, Boileau controlled most routine patronage decisions. As he once lamented to the governor upon hearing of an officeholder's death, "I look now hourly for a swarm of applicants to perplex me." After the Olmstead case, he made significant inroads upon Philadelphia's German population, always loyal to Leib before 1809. "Had he rushed blindfold into the street, and seized the first passing in his way," complained Leib of Boileau's appointments, "the chance would have been more favorable to a good choice." Duane fumed impotently against Boileau and the other "silly, unprincipled, intriguing sycophants who govern the governor: the little squad into whose hands Simon Snyder, from consciousness of his own incapacity, has surrendered the reins of the government of Pennsylvania." The Aurora portrayed Boileau as the malign genius behind this transformation, scheming late at night with his cronies to invent new ways to corrupt the legislature. In a sustained attempt to destroy the administration's reputation, "Conrad Weiser" wrote fourteen essays for the Aurora in early 1810, assailing "the imbecile and incapable men whom Mr. Snyder has selected for his advisers," chiefly Boileau and State Treasurer William Findlay. At first Boileau was depicted as both stupid and evil, a "corrupter" who after failing to win over a legislator "retired, not with the dignity of Milton's devils; but with that callous and untouched obduracy of heart, which alone can bear employment in pursuits so derogatory to virtue and probity." The Snyder regime had, in short, degenerated "into the most debased and debasing of all governments, an oligarchy of ignorance and vice." Evidendy this kind of criticism began to seem too elitist for a Democratic paper, for the writer then tried a more populist approach by

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

343

mocking Boileau's Princeton education. "Weiser" preferred "to hear a plain farmer offer his plain sense" than listen to the ponderous oratory derived from "the stiff technical kind of routine which is taught at colleges" and which fills youthful minds "with a dull series of lessons by rote," culminating in a set of incomprehensible resolutions rumored to be written by Boileau and recently introduced into the house by a relative. Other critics of Boileau were pointed but less savage. Jonathan Roberts, an independent Republican, saw in Boileau "an instance of where to very moderate capacities, & acquirements, was joined an immoderate desire to fill the first places." Snyder, on the other hand, believed that Boileau's "reserved manners and habits" impaired his political effectiveness. Perhaps a man who wanted everyone to say "Boileau" instead of "Billew" simply lacked the common touch that was becoming essential to electoral success in Pennsylvania. "What can you do," the governor complained, "for a man who comes to dinner when the last dish is about to be set on the table, and retires with the first which is about to be carried away?" National events continued to strengthen Snyder. Commercial conflict with Britain before and during the War of 1812 created new opportunities for prosperous tradesmen to move into manufacturing, and this emerging business wing of the party attracted significant numbers of young lawyers to the Republican banner for the first time. Ever more mechanics and tradesmen sought to give their children educations, without which, ruefully observed one Federalist, "it is impossible to attain any eminence, beyond that of an assessor, a colonel, a magistrate, or a bank director." Snyder and Boileau strongly supported the construction of canals, roads, and bridges to improve transportation, and both encouraged public and private education. Banks were another matter. Both men loathed the spirit of speculation that they associated with banking. After the Bank of the United States failed to win renewal of its charter in 1811, a mania for state banks swept across Pennsylvania and even its Democratic Party. A bill to create more than twenty passed the legislature in 1813, only to fall before Snyder's first veto. A frenzied effort in 1814 produced a much bigger "monster" which chartered forty-one new banks. Amidst a furious bargaining for votes that struck some observers as the armageddon of republicanism, the banking interests carried the bill over Snyder's veto. Boileau backed the governor on this question, while Findlay, the state treasurer, began to come to terms with this new political force and even explored the possibility of replacing Snyder in the 1814 election. But once the veto had been overridden, the

344

CLASS OF 1789

legislative caucus unanimously chose Snyder to run for a third term, and he won easily. As Snyder neared the end of his third and final term, he made clear his preference for Boileau as the next governor, but he could not transfer his vast popularity to the secretary. Amidst warnings of dark doings in "Sycophantsburg," Duane repeatedly asked, "Shall Simon Snyder nominate his successor?" Boileau and Findlay dueled for control of the legislative caucus in the new capital of Harrisburg. Duane's Aurora denounced the whole caucus system as irredeemably corrupt and demanded a party convention from which all officeholders would be barred. The campaign was on. Boileau had quite a respectable record to build upon. Snyder reappointed him secretary of the commonwealth in 1811 and 1814. During the War of 1812 he became a military aide to the governor, received the rank of lieutenant colonel, and assumed much of the responsibility for directing the operations of the state militia. In 1814 as British invaders once again menaced the land, Boileau delivered a passionate Fourth of July address on the site of the British atrocity of 1778. Anyone unstirred by this memory, he urged, ought to "Haste away to that gloomy island [Great Britain], enveloped with the mists and fogs of political Oppression, [and] there shout hosannas to an ideot king, or a debauched prince regent." He told over two thousand listeners that this "crisis is the most important that ever has occurred in the history of man," for "You stand alone, the only free people on the globe" and must fight Britain, a power that has "by force and fraud enslaved the greatest portion of Europe. Single handed you must fight her." The address was printed and distributed to inspire the state militia during the invasion alarm of the next few months. Boileau even mortgaged his land to raise close to $4,000 to buy blankets for the troops after Pennsylvania drafted 14,000 men without voting adequate funds to maintain them. He was never repaid. He served as acting adjutant general from May 1816 to January 1817. Nevertheless, Boileau's political career plummeted disastrously in 1817. The Democratic caucus met in Harrisburg in March and nominated Findlay for governor by a margin of ninety-nine votes to only fourteen for Boileau, although many Boileau supporters defected to the state treasurer before the balloting began when they concluded that Findlay would win anyway. In The Crisis (1817), written to influence the caucus, Boileau—if he really was the author—accused Findlay of frequent inconsistency and occasional disloyalty to Snyder and charged that he controlled most party printers who would not even acknowledge Boileau's candidacy. But after making a temperate case that impressed many readers, he reached an extreme and

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

345

insulting conclusion. "The annals of this state, or of any state in the union, cannot produce a parallel instance of a man recommended to so high an office," he announced, "upon pretensions so bold, not to say ineffably ridiculous." In Reply to "The Crisis" (1817), the Findlayites declared that state printers favored their man because he was the choice of the people and assailed the "corrupt and prejudiced" Boileau. As early as January 1817 Boileau concluded that his candidacy had litde chance of succeeding, but he did believe he could block Findlay. The Crisis, he told his son on January 27, "has made trouble in the wigwam," and Findlay "must ultimately fall. Most probably a third person will be taken up," such as Isaac Weaver, the speaker of the senate with a reputation for incorruptibility who, ironically, was also Duane's first choice. Two weeks later after Binns refused to publish another attack on Findlay, Boileau "set him down for a mean cowardly Editor" and swore never to "have any more confidence in him." Findlay's overwhelming triumph in the caucus left Boileau dejected and bitter, partly because the treasurer's supporters refused to permit a secret ballot. "As I expected," he informed his son on March 4, "intrigue, bribery, and corruption has triumphed over principle The members and delegates are all cowed, & a majority of them voted I believe contrary to their judgments." "Indeed I am so disgusted with the duplicity of men," he concluded as early as February 13, "that I am sick of public life & perfecdy willing to retire from it to the bosom of my family where there is friendship sincere." Yet he advised his son on June 17 to be noncommittal about the contest, to say that he would not vote for Hiester, and to affirm only "that you intend to pursue your studies & not interfere in the election." Even in the Aurora, which had long been bitterly anti-Boileau, several correspondents thought his credentials much stronger than Findlay's. Writing from Harrisburg, one admitted that he could not "help feeling sorry for him, especially, as it must on all hands be allowed that he had foul play." A writer from Fayette County attributed Findlay's triumph to "intrigue and corruption" because, "of the two [men], Boileau has been the most uniform, useful, and intelligent." "We have never been the eulogist of Mr. Boileau," agreed the editor of the Norristown Herald, "but his integrity and probity have never by us been questioned." To the Aurora's embarrassment, Boileau's own ward organizer in Philadelphia described him, in a letter surreptitiously copied and printed, as "but a child in politics, he is not half enough acquainted with the underhand work, that marks the bold and discerning politician." While dissenting from this judgment about Boileau, Duane published the letter because of its vague

346

CLASS OF 1789

discussion of a "scheme" he hoped to probe. It turned out to be nothing more sinister than an effort to establish a nonpartisan newspaper in Harrisburg. The correspondents speculated that Boileau, as an educated man, might provide financial support. "Much depressed" by his defeat, Boileau fled from the new capital at Harrisburg to Lancaster where he helped plan the Snyder administration's last attack on the judiciary, an unsuccessful effort to impeach state judges who had upheld the power of the United States to courtmartial Pennsylvania militiamen temporarily in federal service. His spirits revived, he looked forward to retirement from public life, but politics would not yet let him escape. Duane Democrats had held their convention of non-officeholders at Carlisle and nominated a popular German veteran of the Revolutionary War, Joseph Hiester, father of John Hiester (A.B. 1794). Findlay's committee in Montgomery County demanded that Boileau announce his preference. After a long delay and an admission of his reluctance, he conceded that he thought Hiester the better man. Denounced for "the most malignant political turpitude imaginable," he replied in devastating detail that the chairman of the local Findlay committee had embezzled soldiers' pay in 1814. In October Boileau took his ailing mother to a mountain resort for a brief holiday, but he could not forget about politics or the significance of Findlay's victory. The opposition will attempt to impeach the new governor, he accurately predicted on October 27, but the legislature "will sacrafice their principles, to their pride, & whitewash their Governor," he told his son, "& the state [will] be governed three years, by a man who ought to sit in the penitentiary, rather than the executive chair." He probably did not fully realize how badly his own reputation among Snyderites had been compromised by his support for Hiester, who also attracted Federalist voters. His campaign for the governorship got nowhere in 1820. For the most part, Boileau retired to his Hatboro farm after 1817, although some Democrats still hoped to make him governor as late as 1823 when Hiester, victorious over Findlay in 1820, refused to run again. Despite his political defeats, Boileau always retained the affection of the people in and around Hatboro. They saw and admired the generosity, industry, frugality, and good cheer of their neighbor. They knew intimately this well-built, rather short man of dark but florid complexion who loved "bringing himself down to the capacity and moods of children, and jesting with them to their great delight." His sense of fun did not extend to dramatics, however. When three boys broke their arms trying to imitate the acrobatics of circus turn-

N A T H A N I E L B R I T T O N BOILEAU

347

biers, he drew a very traditional conclusion. The accidents were an "evidence of the bad consequences resulting to the limbs as well as the morals from all theatrical exhibitions." As late as 1879 a local historian called him "in many respects the greatest man Montgomery County ever produced." He served the area long and well. From 1803 to 1806 he acted as paymaster of the county volunteer militia. In 1804 he obtained an appropriation of $2,000 for the endowment of the Norristown Academy. Three years later he introduced the law that established the Montgomery County poor house and was also responsible for a bill authorizing a lottery to raise money for an English school at Sunneytown. As a private citizen and executor of the estate of his friend Judge Robert Loller, Boileau oversaw the building of Loller Academy according to his own plans. A handsome two-story brick structure, the school was erected and dedicated on land adjacent to Boileau's own property. At his death Loller had been the legal guardian of the children of David Davis, a responsibility that devolved on Boileau as executor until the parties reached a cash settlement in 1811. Boileau took a more active role in raising Anne and Oliver Iredell after the death of Robert, their father. They lived in his household from at least 1817 to 1824, but this guardianship ended unhappily. When Boileau balanced the accounts in 1824, he found that the estate owed him about $90. The widow, Mary Iredell, joined Anne in challenging his stewardship, even after one of their male relatives spent a day authenticating the accounts. "They both broke out upon me in a manner to which I have never been accustomed to before—Insinuated, & more than insinuated that I was disposed to defraud them," Boileau explained to his friend Simon Hart. Inclined at first to forego his commissions as a way of restoring peace, he let the law take its course instead when the women continued to denounce him. Their suit failed, for the orphans' court of Montgomery County awarded him a settlement of $257.37 on October 28, 1824. Still active in local affairs after his retirement from politics, Boileau was a member of the Abington Presbyterian Church and of the Montgomery County Bible Society. When a Montgomery County Temperance Society was formed in 1833, he served as its president for a number of years. Like most temperance associations of the time, it required that its members abstain from indulgence in "ardent spirits," but partaking of wine and beer was left to individual consciences with a warning against excesses. In 1829 Boileau had become a strong advocate of the anti-Masonic movement. In January 1836, after Joseph Ritner had been elected governor by the Anti-Mason

348

CLASS OF 1789

party, he appointed Boileau register of wills, a county post which he held for three years with his son Thomas acting as his deputy and clerk. Along with the unfulfilled aspirations of his political career, Boileau suffered great personal loss. His son Thomas Leech Boileau attended the College at Princeton but left in his junior year in 1813 because Nathaniel urged him to volunteer for military service. Although Thomas received his A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, he was still preparing some kind of college oration in January 1817 when he asked Nathaniel's permission to use one of his unpub­ lished addresses. "It is too long I expect for the ordinary exercises of the Colleges," Nathaniel replied on January 27, "& must be curtailed, which I expect can be done without destroying the sense." But most of the letter discussed the "universal rebellion" among students at the College of New Jersey, particularly the involvement of the sons of prominent men in the Pennsylvania government. Boileau arranged to have Thomas study law with Charles J. Ingersoll (Class of 1799), a political opponent he greatly respected. Thomas was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1821 and practiced in that city for several years before he left his wife and "fell into irregular habits." Boileau apparendy spent his remaining years and much of his estate paying off his son's debts and trying to achieve a reformation. Employing Thomas as his deputy from 1836 to 1839 was probably an effort in that direction. Sometime after that date Boileau made a trip west to an undisclosed destination to look after his son's welfare. In 1849, eighty-six years old and near poverty, he left his farm and went to live with a niece in Abington. He died there on March 16, 1850 and was interred in the Abington Presbyterian churchyard. The burial was an especially sad occasion, for Boileau had outlived nearly all of his active contemporaries, "and there were not enough present at his funeral to carry him to the grave without his relatives assisting." SOURCES: M. Auge, Lives of the Eminent Dead ... of Montgomery Cnty., Pa. (1879), 4351 ("in many respects," 43; "We have never been," 49; "bringing himself down," 50; "not enough present," 51); "Sketch of the Public Life of Nathaniel B. Boileau," Phila. Democratic Press, 18 Nov. 1816 (military service, "spoken of as Speaker"); alumni files, PUA; Min. Fac., 10 Nov. 1787; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Pa. Packet,fcfDaily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Clio. Min., 30 Sept. 1795; Dunlap & Claypoole'sAmer.DailyAdvt., 8 Oct. 1795;N.Y. Sun, 14Mar. 1915; Alexander,Princeton, 243; PMHB, 32 (1908), 410; 61 (1937), 116-17, 125-26 ("rights of man"); 62 (1938), 94-95; Butt, of Hist. Soc. of Montgomery Cnty., Pa., 3 (1941), 290, 300; 6 (1947-49), 5658 (atrocity), 66-67, 79; 12 (1959), 51, 101; Ν. B. Boileau, Oration delivered ... on the Fourth of July, 1814, at the Village of Hatborough, Montgomery Cnty., Pa. (1814, not in Sh-Sh but available at Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc, Doylestown, Pa., from which quotes are taken; MS draft at PHi), passim ("caught the sacred spark," 7; "Haste away," 3; "crisis is the most," 16; "You stand alone," 25); Pa. House of Rep., Jour.: (1797-98), 38 Sc passim; (1806-07), 196, 410-13 ("practical exposition and refutation," 411), 488,

ROBERT

HETT

CHAPMAN

349

506, 540-46, 702-03, 807-09); N. B. Boileau, The Dissent of the Minority, of the House of Rep. of the Commonwealth of Pa., from the Address to the President of the U.S., Adopted by said House, Dec. 1798 ([1798 or 1799], not in STE but bound next to title page of PHi's copy of Pa. House of Rep., Jour. [1798-99]), 5, 7-8 ("object of France"); Hist. Soc. of Montgomery Cnty., Pa., Historical Sketches, 4 (1929), 143; S. W. Higginbotham, Keystone in the Democratic Arch: Pa. Politics 1800-16 (1952), 40, 77, 81-82, 141, 176, 17980, 201, 205-07, 319; Phila. Democratic Press, 22 Apr. 1807 ("cart loads of Books"); T. W. Bean, Hist, of Montgomery Cnty., Pa. (1884), 108, 188-91, 508, 728; R. E. Ellis, The Jeffersonian Crisis: Courts fc? Politics in the Young Republic (1971), Chap. 11-12; Phila. Aurora, 17 Jan. 1810 ("imbecile and incapable," "Milton's devils"), 22 Jan. 1810 ("Oligarchy of ignorance"), 26 Jan. 1810 ("hear a plain," "stiff technical," "dull series"), 12 Mar. 1817 ("help feeling sorry," "intrigue and corruption," "Much depressed"), 28 Mar. 1817 ("but a child''); K. T. Phillips, William Duane: Radical Journalist in the Age of Jefferson (1989), 219 ("moderate capacities"), 265 ("rushed blindfold"), 309 ("an assessor"), 431 ("Sycophantsburg"); E. Biddle & M. Fielding, Life 6f Works of Thomas Sully (1921 repr. 1970), 104, No. 174; P. S. Klein, Pa. Politics, 1817-32 (1940), 68 ("swarm of applicants"), 84-90, 101-08, 111, 132, 142-43; The Crisis. Think Twice Ere You Speak Once: But When You Speak—Speak the Truth, without Fear, Favor or Affection (1817, Sh-Sh # 40594, anon., but attributed to NBB by several contemporaries), passim, esp. 3, 5, 16 ("The annals"); Reply UfThe Crisis" (1817, Sh-Sh #41952), 4-6, 11 ("corrupt and prejudiced"); A Private Circular by the Corresponding Committee ... [and] A Reply by N. B. Boileau ... (1817, Sh-Sh # 40280), 1 ("most malignant "); John Binns, Recollections of the Life ofJohn Binns (1854), 197, 203; NBB to T. L. Boileau, 24 & 27 Jan. ("trouble in the wigwam," "universal rebellion" at CNJ), 6 Feb. (Binns as "mean cowardly Editor"), 13 Feb. ("Indeed I am so disgusted"), 4 Mar. ("As I expected, intrigue"), 26 Mar. (son's birth), 17 June ("that you intend to pursue your studies"), 25 Sept. ("bad consequences" of "theatrical exhibitions"), 29 Oct. 1817 (legislature "will sacrafice their principles"), NBB Papers, Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc., Doylestown, Pa.; R. Loller estate papers in Simon Hart Papers, Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc. (fol. 41; NBB to S. Hart, 12 May 1824, fol. 86; M. & A. Iredell, exception to NBB's accounts, 19 Aug. 1824, fol. 3; orphans' court judgment for NBB, 28 Oct. 1824, fol. 75); Martin's Bench 6f Bar, 169, 250. For the Olmstead case, Pennsylvania's side is conveyed in Pa. Arch., 9th ser., IV, 2651-68, 2771-87. For Duane's reaction, see Aurora, 2 Mar.-6 May 1809, passim. PUBLICATIONS: See Sources. Some contemporaries believed that Boileau wrote many or most of Governor Snyder's messages, addresses, and state papers. They are collected in Pa. Arch., 4th ser., iv, 655-965; 9th ser., IV-VI. MANUSCRIPTS: NBB Papers & Simon Hart Papers, Bucks County Hist. Soc, Doylestown, Pa.; scattered letters, Simon Snyder Papers & other collections, PHi JMM & RLW

Robert Hett Chapman A.B., A.M. 1792, A.M. Queen's 1791, D.D. Williams 1815, Presbyterian minister and educator, was born March 2, 1771 in Orange Dale, later Orange, New Jersey. He was the second son of the Reverend Jedediah Chapman (A.M. 1765, A.B. Yale 1762), minister of the Presbyterian church in Orange Dale, and his first wife Blanche Smith Chapman. An ardent patriot, known as the "fighting parson," the elder Chapman preached "Resistance to ROBERT H E T T CHAPMAN,

350

CLASS OF 1789

Oppression," and was frequendy compelled to leave his home to hide from the British. He also championed the name Orange Dale for his community. Not until some time after he had moved to western New York in 1800 was the name of the town shortened to Orange. From time to time he received invitations to visit Princeton and preach at the College, and in correspondence in 1772 he referred to a revival of religion in "our college." He was a zealous promoter of its wel­ fare even before he became a tmstee, serving from 1795 to 1800. Robert's mother died when he was less than three years old, and about 1777 his father married Margaret (or Margaretta) LeConte, daughter of Dr. Peter and Valeria Eaton LeConte, of Μiddletown, Monmouth County. Two sons and a daughter were added to the family by this marriage. The eldest of these, Peter LeConte Chap­ man, later dropped the family name and received his A.B. from the College in 1797 as Peter LeConte. In December 1772 a school was opened in Orange Dale "for the instruction of youth in Latin and Greek languages and other branches of literature necessary for their entering any class in college," with Caleb Cooper (hon. A.B. 1769, A.M. 1771, A.B. King's 1769) as instructor. Jedediah Chapman headed the group of trustees who pledged to take particular care of the morals of the youth in the school. Robert Hett Chapman undoubtedly received his early educa­ tion in this school. The Academy at Orange Dale, or Orange Acade­ my, was founded in 1785, and opened late that year, with Jedediah Chapman as president of the board of trustees. Robert could have spent a semester or two at the academy, for he may have entered the College as late as the summer term of his junior year, when he joined the Cliosophic Society on June 11, 1788, adopting the name of Charlemagne. On the afternoon of his commencement, Chapman took the affirmative side in a disputation on the question, "Does reli­ gion derive any advantage from variety of denominations?" In 1792 he attended the Cliosophic Society's annual meeting. After graduation Chapman returned home, where he concen­ trated on general reading, meanwhile trying to decide on his future profession. Having spent all but two years of his life in the strict morality of a Presbyterian manse, there is no indication that he had ever sown any wild oats. However, during this year of study and introspection he became convinced of his deep sinfulness and of the Christian faith as the only means of his salvation. He decided to pre­ pare for the ministry, and spent the next three years doing so, prob­ ably under his father's guidance. During part of this period he also acted as a tutor at Queen's College in New Brunswick, with the object of having the college library at his disposal. Licensed to preach by the

ROBERT H E T T CHAPMAN

351

Presbytery of New York on October 2, 1793, he immediately left on an extended missionary preaching tour of the southern states. He had no compensation but the "rich blessing attending his labour." Upon his return to New Jersey Chapman served for a time as supply minister for a newly organized church at Wardsesson (Bloomfield), New Jersey. On October 12, 1796 he received a call from the Rahway, New Jersey, Presbyterian church, and on January 5, 1797 he was ordained and installed, with the Reverend Asa Hillyer preaching the sermon and the Reverend Aaron Condict (A.B. 1788) giving the exhortation. A month later, on February 14, Chapman married Hannah Arnett, daughter of Isaac and Hannah White Arnett of Elizabethtown and sister of Susan Arnett Kollock, mother of Henry Kollock (A.B. 1794) and Shepard Kollock (A.B. 1812). The Chapmans had a family of twelve children, seven of whom survived their father. He was remembered as a lover of home life and his domestic circle, a particularly affectionate husband and father. Robert Hett Chapman, Jr. was a nongraduate member of the Class of 1855. Chapman's pastorate at Rahway lasted only until October 2, 1799, when he was dismissed because the congregation was unable to continue to support him adequately. He may have continued to serve the Rahway church on a supply basis, since it was not until 1801 that he became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, New York, a small community about thirty-five miles northeast of Albany. Chapman served there for ten years during which the church prospered. A highly evangelical preacher, he sparked several revivals during his tenure, and new members were taken into the congregation each Communion season. In 1811 Chapman was elected to the presidency of the University of North Carolina. Joseph Caldwell (A.B. 1791), who had taught at that institution from 1796 and who had served as its president since 1804, had asked to be relieved of bis duties as president so that he could return to teaching and a continuation of his studies. Chapman and Caldwell would certainly have become acquainted during the year when Chapman was a senior at the College and Caldwell a sophomore. Caldwell probably persuaded Chapman to succeed him. Caldwell had used his alma mater as his example when setting up classes, deciding on curriculum, and selecting textbooks. All of this would have been familiar to Chapman, and in the fall of 1812 he moved to Chapel Hill to take up his new duties. Reluctant to give up his preaching, Chapman spoke from many pulpits throughout the state while conscientiously carrying out his duties at the university. It was said that the lamp of Presbyterianism had already been lit in

352

CLASS O F 1789

North Carolina, but that it had only a feeble flame until Chapman brought it fresh oil by his untiring zeal. He was largely responsible for the establishment of a Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill. As a college administrator, however, he was less than successful. Part of his difficulties stemmed from his Federalist leanings in a school whose student body was avidly Republican. These differences could no longer be reconciled after September 1816 when William B. Shepard, a member of the class of 1817, defied Chapman by reading in public a strongly pro-Republican paper. For this action he was suspended by the faculty. T h e trustees, who had instituted the ban on political speeches, promptly expelled him. Even with this support Chapman resigned in November to return to the fulltime ministry that he much preferred, and Caldwell was reelected president of the university. Chapman's choices of the parishes he served for the remainder of his life indicate a preference for rural or even frontier pastorates. In 1817 he went to the Shenandoah Valley as pastor of the Bethel Church, under the aegis of the Synod of Virginia. In 1823 he moved to the lower end of the valley where he served the area in and around Winchester for four or five years. He next spent a year or two preaching in the North Carolina hill country until, in 1830, he moved his family to Covington in western Tennessee, just a few miles east of the Mississippi River. In the spring of 1833 Chapman was chosen to represent the Presbytery of West Tennessee at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Sixty-two years old, he made most of the journey on horseback, extending it into a missionary tour by making preaching stops along the way. At the close of the assembly he visited his brother, who was living in New York City, and then started for home. At Winchester, Virginia, he was forced to stop because of illness. He lingered for four days before dying on J u n e 18, 1833 of what was diagnosed as severe constipation. H e was buried in the cemetery at Winchester. Throughout his ministry Chapman was extremely conscientious, as well as very pious. Dedicated to Presbyterianism, he still showed a real liberalism toward other denominations. His sermons were carefully prepared in language that was dignified yet simple enough for anyone in his frontier congregations to understand. T h e real strength of his preaching, however, came from his deep conviction and earnestness about the truth of his message of salvation. SOURCES: Alumni file & nongraduate file, PUA; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, fif Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Clio. Min., 26 Sept. 1792; Alexander, Princeton, 24344; Dexter, Yale Biographies, II, 737-39; J. H. Raven, Cat. of Officers £ff Alumni of Rutgers

JOHN

COLLINS

353

CoUege (1909), 333; E. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 632-33; S. Wickes, Hist, of the Oranges (1892), 198, 229, 262; J. Hoyt, Hist, of First Pres. Church, Orange, N.J. (1860), 114-19; D. Pierson, Hist, of the Oranges to 1921 (1922), I, 93, 96, 175; W. H. Shaw, Hist, of Essex 6? Hudson Cnties., N.J. (1884), II, 735-36; J. J. Pomeroy, Hist. Sketch of the First Church ofRahway, N.J. (1877), 20; GMNJ, 56 (1981), 72-78; Sprague, Annals, iv, 95-99; Foote, Sketches, N.C., 551; R. D. W. Connor, Doc. Hist, of the Univ. ofN.C, 1776-99 (1953), II, 73-74; S. M. Lemmon, Petdgrew Papers (1971), I, 532. PUBLICATION: Sh-Sh # 10113. Alexander also credits Chapman with A Sermon on Conscience and A Sermon on Regeneration, but neither has been found. RLW

John Collins A.B., schoolmaster and Presbyterian clergyman, was born on February 16, 1769, in Somerset County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. While his parent's names have not been discovered, their ancestors are known to have been English. He may have studied at the Washington Academy near Princess Anne, Somerset County, a school which prepared several of his contemporaries for the College. On November 10, 1787 Collins was one of six students admitted to the junior class "from other Colleges." T h e term college was probably used loosely enough to encompass Washington Academy, which taught Latin, Greek, science, mathematics, geography and history. Collins joined the Cliosophic Society on December 18, 1787, taking the pseudonym Parmenio, for the general of Alexander the Great. At his commencement exercises on September 30, 1789, Collins gave an oration on "the advantages of society and civil government." After graduating, Collins studied for the Presbyterian ministry and in 1791 was licensed by the Presbytery of Lewes, which comprised the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, and parts of Delaware. At about the same time, if the age given at the death of his eldest son can be trusted, Collins married Margaret Ker, the daughter of Rev. Jacob Ker (A.B. 1758) and his first wife Esther Wilson of Somerset County. T h e marriage produced five sons and two daughters, but only Stephen Collins (A.B. 1818), a physician, and William Handy Collins (A.B. 1822), a prominent lawyer, reached adulthood. In 1792 Collins became president of the Washington Academy. This institution had had eighty students and a staff of three collegeeducated teachers in 1784. T h e choice of a man as young as Collins to head it suggests that it may have begun to decline. If so, under his leadership the trend accelerated. Late at night on April 18, 1797, the school burned down. Rumor alleged that the fire had been purposely set by a disgruntled student seeking revenge for being punished or expelled. Although the exact date of Collins's resignation has not

J O H N COLLINS,

CLASS OF 1789

354

been ascertained, he appears to have left the school in the wake of this incident. In the ensuing years the academy was very nearly given up, but completion of a new edifice in 1802 sparked a revival, and the school carried on until the public educational system absorbed it in 1872. Collins remained active as a clergyman during his years as an educator. He seems generally to have been a minister without a charge, taking his turn in the rotation supplying vacant churches. In April 1796 the presbytery ordered him to preach until August at Wicomico, Manokin, and Rehobeth, all in Somerset County. The first two churches, which had recendy fallen vacant through the death of his father-in-law Jacob Ker, voted on August 29,1796 to offer Collins the combined pastorate at a salary of £150 a year. He declined the invitation. Collins still belonged to the Presbytery of Lewes in late May 1797, when he represented it at the Philadelphia meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. On September 1 the Presbytery of New Castle installed him as pastor of the church at St. George's, a village in Red Lion Hundred, New Casde County, Delaware. The new pastor's influence may account for a vote by his church's session on January 9, 1798, in which the members agreed both to refrain from "strong drink at Funerals" and to try to persuade their friends to do the same. Collins remained at St. George's until his early death on April 12, 1804. In his autobiography his son Stephen recalled hearing his mother say that on his deathbed one of Collins's "most emphatic injunctions to her was 'Educate my children.'" He was interred in his church's burying ground, which was taken over and expanded in 1871 by the St. George's Cemetery Company. SOURCES: Alexander, Princeton, 244; S. Collins, Autobiog. (1872), 9-11, 26 ("most emphatic"); Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("from other"); Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, If Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789 ("the advantages"); Princetonians, 1748-1768, 228; alumni files of sons, PUA; R. B. Clark, "Wash. Acad., Somerset Cnty., Md.," MHM, 44 (1949), 200-10; Writers' Program, Md., Md.: A Guide to the Old Line State (1940), 425; H. P. Ford, Hist, of the Manokin Pres. Church: Princess Anne, Md. (1910), 19, 52-53, 69, 83; J. S. Howk, Rehobeth by the River (1897), 14-15, 28; Aim. Gen. Assent., 1789-1820, 55, 84, 101, 118, 140, 267; J. T. Scharf, Hist, of Del. 1609-1888 (1888), M, 967-71, 989-90 ("strong drink"). JJL

Henry Cook (Cooke) was probably born in Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville, New Jersey. His parents possibly were Henry Cook and his wife Eleanor, who owned about 200 acres on the highway HENRY COOK (COOKE)

ISAAC W A T T S C R A N E

355

running through Maidenhead, the site of the present Lawrenceville School Golf Course. They were neighbors of various Furmans, Greens, and Scudders, all of whom sent sons to the College. Cook's will, proved on November 26, 1786, lists a son Henry among eight other children. This Lawrenceville family was related to the several Cook families in nearby Trenton, where the name Henry appears in several generations, although none was of the right age to have been a college student in the 1780s. The only thing known for certain about Cook is that he joined the Cliosophic Society on June 18, 1788, where he is listed as a member from New Jersey who assumed the name of Cloanthus, the companion of Aeneas in Roman legend. He attended the annual meeting of the Society held on September 30, 1795. His assignment to the Class of 1789 is conjectural. SOURCES: N.J. WUL·, vi, 91; VII, 50; xi, 76; D. H. Tyler, Old Lawrenceville (1965), 10, 32, 85; E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers of Trenton £sf Ewing (1883), 18, 42-43; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 30 Sept. 1795. Cook is a very common family name, but the only part of New Jersey where the given name Henry has been found is in the Lawrenceville and Trenton area. RLW

Isaac Watts Crane ISAAC WATTS CRANE, A.B., A.M. 1792, teacher and attorney, was born May 3, 1773 in Essex County, New Jersey, the son of Elihu Crane and Hannah Mix Crane, daughter of Dr. Timothy Mix of New Haven, New Jersey. Members of the Crane family, originally emigrants from England, had moved from Connecticut to New Jersey in the mid-seventeenth century, where they were one of the founding families of Newark. The area of Newark which is the present city of Montclair was known as Cranetown because so many families of that name resided there, and this community was probably Crane's birthplace. His paternal grandmother Mary Crane became the second wife of Jonathan Dickinson, the first president of the College. A list of her children identifies Crane's father as "Elder Elihu." Presumably he was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Newark where the family worshiped. The faculty minutes of the College for November 10, 1787 list Crane as a junior who was admitted from another college. At the commencement exercises at the end of his junior year he was one of the undergraduate prizemen, achieving third place in English orations. He joined the American Whig Society, and in March 1789 he was the victim of several fellow students who broke into his room,

356

CLASS OF 1789

created a disorder, and physically assaulted him. T h e principals in the affair were William Hanna (A.B. 1790), Charles Ross (Class of 1791), Israel Harris (A.B. 1790), Charles Colcock (Class of 1790) and Samuel Henry (Class of 1791), with Charles Snowden (A.B. 1789) and Mahlon Dickerson (A.B. 1789) acting as abettors. Their confession was read before the assembled college at evening prayers. The faculty minutes also note that Colcock, Ross and Henry were considered the most culpable, since they were the ringleaders and they had also received previous warnings about misconduct. They were given to understand that only their prompt confession had prevented more severe punishment. There is no indication that Crane was reimbursed for any breakage or damage to his room. During the morning session of his commencement exercises, Crane joined his classmates David Gardiner and Silas Wood in a dialogue on the questions, "Are the rules of politeness perfecdy consistent with sincerity and truth, and ought they to be practised by a good man?" In the afternoon he delivered an oration on luxury. Nothing has been found to indicate with whom Crane studied law after graduation, but it would have been someone practicing in the Newark area, since Crane joined Newark's Institutio legate, a moot court society. T h e invitations he received to deliver Fourth of July orations at the Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church in 1794 and at the Newark Presbyterian Church in 1797 probably indicate that he was a spirited and effective public speaker. One source claims that he became a teacher in Cranetown, and he may have taught for several years, since he was not admitted to the bar until September 1797. At that time he settled in Salem, Salem County, New Jersey, and began practice there, becoming a counsellor in November 1800. In 1805 he moved to Bridgeton, Cumberland County. In October 1810 he was elected as a Democrat to a one-year term in the state assembly. He moved to Camden in Gloucester County in 1819, returning to Bridgeton in the spring of 1823. A year later he supported Andrew Jackson for president On October 31, 1834 he was appointed prosecutor of pleas for Cumberland County for a five-year term, a position which required him to act as deputy for the state attorney general. Crane apparently had a reputation as an able lawyer and an accomplished French scholar, but he was also known as an eccentric. Perhaps because of his "peculiar characteristics," along with the resentment of native south Jersey lawyers toward outsiders competing for their potential clients, Crane was not very successful. H e retired from practice in 1839. His support of Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in the 1840 presidential campaign was public enough to elicit comment about his change of party.

EDWARD

DARRELL

357

Crane married Anna Maria Alberti of Philadelphia, daughter of Dr. George Frederick Alberti. They had at least three daughters and two sons. One son may have been the J o h n A. Crane who edited the Gloucester Farmer from its establishment on January 1, 1817, to its merger with the Columbia Herald on December 20, 1820. Isaac Crane owned the Gloucester Farmer, and on December 13, 1820 he published a notice of the intended merger. T h e Elizabethtown NewJersey Journal of January 28, 1817 carried a note that "John A. Crane, editor of the Gloucester Farmer, Woodbury, has been severely beaten by a number of persons, for a publication in that paper." Possibly because of this attack, the paper moved to Camden the following year. Crane's sister Martha (Patty) married Episcopal Bishop J o h n Croes (A.M. 1797). Their son J o h n Croes, Jr., graduated with the Class of 1806. Sometime around 1850 Crane returned to the northern area of New Jersey where he died in 1856. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; W. H. Shaw, Hist, of Essex & Hudson Cnties., N.J. (1884), ii, 853; Hist, of the City of Newark, N.J. (1913), 539; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, NJ. (1868), 354; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787, 3 Mar. 1789; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6? Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; N.J. Hist., 97 (1979), 123-24; South Jersey—A Hist. (1924), ii, 854; W. C. Mulford, Hist. Tales of Cumberland Cnty., N.J. (1941), 24; Ε. B. Crane, Gen. of the Crane Family (1895-1900), II, 353; T. Cushing & C. E. Sheppard, Hist, of Cnties. of Gloucester, Salem & Cumberland, N.J. (1883), 551-52 ("peculiar characteristics"), 578, 580; Riker, 51; I. W. Crane, Address delivered before the Jackson convention of delegates from the different townships of the county of Cumberland assembled at Bridgeton, July 27,1824 (1824). PUBLICATIONS: STE # S 28449 & 32000; Sh-C # 15891; Sh-C # 20216 (under pseudo­ nym Juridicus); Report on the location and business prospects of the Watertown & Rome rail­ road, Sept. 1st, 1848 (1848). RLW

Edward Darrell EDWARD DARRELL, A.B., A.M. 1795, attorney, was the eldest of the

six children of Capt. Edward Darrell and Ann Smith Darrell of Charleston, South Carolina. T h e father was a native of Bermuda, where he was a sea captain and master of the schooner Experiment. After settling in Charleston Darrell, his brother-in-law Josiah Smith, J r . [father of William Stevens Smith (A.B. 1789) and Edward Dar­ rell Smith (A.B. 1795)], his wife's cousin George Smith, and Daniel DeSaussure started the firm of Smiths, DeSaussure and Darrell, one of the major mercantile establishments in that city. Darrell was not only a partner but also acted as attorney for the business. In Novem­ ber 1780 he was among the Charlestonians exiled by the British to

358

CLASS OF 1789

St. Augustine; after his exchange in July 1781 he and his family remained in Philadelphia until the end of the war. Upon return­ ing to Charleston he sat in the state house of commons from 1782 through 1790. He and his partners were directors of the local bank and active leaders in the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, which Darrell served as president in 1793. As individuals, and as a firm, they supported Anglo-American understanding and a profitable trade agreement. The elder Darrell was an active member of the Indepen­ dent Congregational (Circular) Church and a close friend of its pas­ tor, William Tennent (A.B. 1758), father of Charles Tennent (A.B. 1793). Edward Darrell must have entered the College as a freshman, since he joined the Cliosophic Society on December 13, 1785, using the society name of Codrus. He and his classmate and cousin, William Stevens Smith, probably traveled to Princeton together. James Gib­ son (A.B. 1787) noted in his diary that Darrell spoke at prayers on February 21, 1786. Sometime during his stay at the College, Darrell switched his allegiance to the American Whig Society, whose records list him as a member. At the 1787 commencement he was awarded the second prize in English in the undergraduate competitions. On February 27, 1788, when he was a junior, Darrell was called before the faculty and found guilty of "bad conduct" toward his tutors, for which he received an admonition in the presence of the faculty. At his commencement on September 30, 1789 he participated as replicator in a disputation on the question, "Is there more personal happiness in a polished than in a savage state?" Very lhtle has been discovered about Darrell's later life. He became an attorney in Charleston in 1793, practicing from an office on Broad Street, and on February 16, 1796 he married Sarah White, daughter of Sims White, at St. Philip's Parish Church. Presumably she was an Episcopalian. On February 1, 1802 George Smith Darrell was bap­ tized, "the son of Edward Darrell, deceased, and Sarah, his widow." Sarah Darrell died on June 7, 1815. SOURCES: A. S. Smalley, S.C. Marriages (1902), 42; M. A. Tennent, Light tn Darkness (1971), 246; G. C. Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys (1969), 5, 117-18; C. T. Moore, Abstracts ofWiUs of... S.C, 1760-84 (1969), 236; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., l, 4-8; πι, 169-70; Clio, lists; Gibson Diary, 21 Feb. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1787; Min. Fac, 27 Feb. 1788; Pa. Packet, 6? Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Dunlap & ClaypooWs Amer. Daily Advt., 8 Oct. 1795; D. E. H. Smith & A. S. Smalley, Reg. of St. Philip's Parish (1971), 260; SCHGM, 23 (1922), 154; 32 (1931), 73-74; 33 (1932), 1, 82, 87, 100, 311 (son's baptism); 40 (1939), 102; Charleston city directories; 0"Neall, Bench £sf Bar S.C, u, 600; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 273-75. RLW

359

David Deas DAVID DEAS, A.B., lawyer and public official, was born sometime in 1771, the son of John and Elizabeth Allen Deas of Charleston, South Carolina, and "Thoroughgood Plantation" at Goose Creek. Like his older brother Henry (Class of 1789), he was probably born in Edinburgh, Scotland, since the Deas family did not return from an extended trip to Great Britain until January 1, 1772. His father and uncle had emigrated from Scotland, and they certainly had relatives there with whom the family could stay during the mother's confinement. John Deas and his brother David were active in the slave trade, and John became a wealthy landholder and also the owner of a large number of slaves. John sat in the third South Carolina general assembly and was active in Charleston community affairs. He also served in a Charleston militia unit and lent £17,800 to the state during the war, but after the fall of Charleston he accepted British protection, for which his estate was amerced twelve percent. Robert Deas (Class of 1792) was David's younger brother. Another brother, who died in 1769 at the age of three, had also been named David. David and Henry Deas were sent to the grammar school at Princeton together. In September 1785 as a member of the school's second class, David placed first in both the Latin grammar and syntax competition and in English orations, with Henry placing second in the latter. David skipped all or part of the last year of grammar school to enter the College as a freshman during the 1785-86 academic year. On September 26, 1786 James Gibson (A.B. 1787) noted in his diary that he thought Deas one of the competitors who spoke best at that evening's undergraduate competition. In September 1787 he placed first in the undergraduate Latin competition. The following year, a junior, he was first in both English and Latin and second in English orations. Deas joined the American Whig Society, and at his commencement he had the honor of delivering the valedictory oration on the topic of virtue. Deas studied law in Charleston, probably in the office of Charles Pinckney, and was admitted to the bar in 1793. When his Federalist brother Henry resigned from the state general assembly to become solicitor of the southern judicial circuit of South Carolina, David was elected to replace him as the representative from St. James Goose Creek, qualifying on November 16, 1795. When Charles Pinckney was appointed minister to France in 1796, he chose Deas to care for his legal affairs during his absence. The two families had close associations. After Thomas Pinckney became minister to the Court of St. James in 1791, Deas's elder brother William Allen Deas acted as

360

CLASS OF 1789

his private secretary, assuming the post of interim charge d'affaires during the period when Pinckney was in Madrid negotiating the treaty which defined Spanish boundaries adjoining the United States. Deas was elected in his own right to represent St. James Goose Creek in 1800, and for the three succeeding terms, serving until December 12, 1807. Edward Hooker of Connecticut visited the lower house of the South Carolina assembly on December 5, 1803, where he heard Deas speak. H e described him as having "a loud, vehement, overbearing manner of delivery, though his voice is not heavy, uses fewer gestures than most of the Speakers and takes very little pains to polish his language. H e is however a pretty good speaker. I under­ stand he is a lawyer of some note in Charleston and represents one of the country parishes." In October 1800 Deas married Mary Somers of Charleston. Some­ time during the late winter or early spring of the following year, the miniaturist Edward Greene Malbone painted their portraits. A cata­ logue of Malbone's miniatures describes Mary Deas as fair complexioned, with brown curly hair and hazel eyes. T h e only information provided about Deas is that his eyes were gray and his complexion fair. However, Thomas Pinckney, Jr., of Charleston, writing to his cousin Harriott Pinckney on February 2, 1802, described a contem­ porary as being "as fat as David Deas." Several older Deas brothers seem to have been quite active in civic and cultural organizations in Charleston. David was a visitor to the St. Thomas Hunting Club where his brother Seaman was a member, but no other mention of his participation in Charleston social or community activities has been found. H e is first listed as deceased in College catalogues in 1839. SOURCES: N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Gibson Diary, 26 Sept. 1786; Hancock House MSS; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1787; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Pa. Packet, 6? Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., I, 242, 256, 261, 266, 270; in, 178-80;, O'Neall, Bench £ff Bar S.C, π, 600; SCHGM, 21 (1920), 59; 46 (1945), 210-11; 41 (1940), 101, 113; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 89; M. R. Zahniser, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1967), 136; F. L. Williams, Founding Family: The Pinckneys of S.C. (1978), 300, 304-07, 445; J. F. Jameson, ed., "Diary of Edward Hooker, 1805-08," AHA Rept. for 1896 (1897), I, 866-67, 871; A. S. Smalley, S.C. Marriages (1902), 110; R. P. Tolman, Life fcf Works of Edward Greene Malbone (1958). RLW

Henry Deas HENRY DEAS, lawyer, merchant, and public official, was one of the nine sons of J o h n Deas and Elizabeth Allen of Charleston and "Thoroughgood Plantation" at Goose Creek, South Carolina. H e was born

HENRY DEAS

361

June 20, 1770 at Edinburgh, Scotland. His father's home was in Leith, Scotland, and the family must have been on an extended visit to relatives. A Charleston paper announced the arrival from London on January 1, 1772 of John Deas, Esq., and family, on board the Brittania. The elder Deas and his brother David, who were partners in the firm of Lennox and Deas, eventually formed their own company which participated in the slave trade. John Deas had extensive landholdings, and the 1790 census showed that he owned 208 slaves in St. James Goose Creek alone. An ardent whig at the start of the Revolution, he suffered from the depredations of the British in both his townhouse and his plantation; after the fall of Charleston he accepted British protection, for which his estate was later fined twelve percent. David Deas (A.B. 1789) and Robert Deas (Class of 1792) were Henry's younger brothers. Henry and David Deas were sent to the grammar school at the College, and in September 1785, as a member of the second class, Henry placed second in two of the grammar school competitions, Latin grammar and syntax and "pronouncing English orations." In both contests his brother David took first place. Henry and his brother skipped a class and entered the College as freshmen during the 178586 academic year. Henry soon joined the American Whig Society, which he represented in orations on July 4, 1786. John Smith (A.B. 1787) referred to him in his diary as "Harry," and the two enjoyed several trips to town together for cakes and beer. On another occasion they feasted on watermelon and pears in Deas's room. In September 1787, as a sophomore, he received second place in the English orations competition. Deas's college career was cut short near the end of his junior year. He was called before the faculty on August 22, 1788 and accused of having absented himself from his class for some time without just cause and ordered to join it immediately or leave the College. On September 10, when he was again called before the faculty he admitted that he had not obeyed their order of August 22, and said that he had no intention of doing so. He was then ordered "to leave the College immediately or wait the Consequence." This terse notation evokes the possibility of a confrontation between two stubborn Scotsmen, John Witherspoon and Deas. Returning to Charleston, Deas read law and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1791. He won a seat in the lower house of the state general assembly for the 1794-95 term, representing the St. James Goose Creek district as a Federalist. However, he resigned after his appointment as solicitor of the southern judicial circuit of South Carolina. Commissioned to that office on August 14, 1795, Deas served until 1798. He again sat in the general assembly, rep-

362

CLASS OF 1789

resenting St. Philip's and St. Michael's, from 1802 to 1808, and in the South Carolina senate for the same district from 1824 to 1836, officiating as presiding officer during the last eight years when the nullification party gained control of the state. The diary of Edward Hooker of Connecticut, describing his travels through the southern states, records a visit to the South Carolina lower house on December 6, 1805, when Henry Deas "distinguished himself by an eloquent speech." Hooker found Deas to be animated, energetic, clear and precise. His gestures were very forcible, and not without expression, his language choice but not flowery—his voice loud and thundering. I think I like his oratory better, considering all circumstances, than that of anyone whom I have before heard. Mr. Deas is said to be an uncommonly well informed legislator on questions of Banks, insurances, incorporations and subjects of that nature, but on questions in general does not often take an active part. Deas married Margaret Horry, daughter of Elias Horry and sister of Elias Lynch Horry, both South Carolina state senators, on November 8,1796. A son Elias Horry Deas later served in the general assembly. Although continuing to reside in Charleston, Deas owned "Pleasant Meadows" and "Richmond" plantations on the North Santee River. Because Edward Hooker described him as a merchant, he probably had already acquired some mercantile interests. Among his many community activities, he served as both a junior and senior warden of the St. Cecelia Society, which arranged concerts for the citizens of Charleston, and belonged to the South Carolina Society, the social and charitable organization of Charlestonians of Huguenot descent. He was a member of St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, and in 1810 he was one of the organizing wardens of the Protestant Episcopal Society for the Advancement of Christianity in South Carolina. He served as a commissioner of the orphan house and as a director of the state bank. From 1805 to 1809, and again from 1828 to 1836, he was a trustee of the College of South Carolina. In 1823 he was one of the organizing members of the South Carolina Association, a group set up to protect citizens and their property because of the fear of black uprisings after the Denmark Vesey conspiracy. This states' rights vigilante group insisted that a South Carolina law, the Negro Seamen's Act, could override a federal treaty, despite a judicial decision to the contrary by Justice William Johnson, Jr. (A.B. 1790). Deas died December 2, 1846 in Charleston and was interred at the family burial ground at "Old Town" plantation on the Ashley River. A memorial tablet in St. Michael's Church reads in part:

CHRISTIAN DeWINT

363

With earnest patriotism and enlightened devotion to constitu­ tional liberty, he zealously engaged in eventful political measures, and by his wise and prudent counsel, by his graceful, earnest and persuasive eloquence and by the moral force of a pure and elevated character entered a prominent influence in public affairs.... [He presided over the Senate] with memorable cour­ tesy, dignity and ability. To the social attractions of elegance, refinement, wit and engaging benevolence he added fidelity in the discharge of every relative duty. A husband, tender, assidu­ ous, devoted; the affectionate friend and counsellor of his chil­ dren; a humane and gentle master, he excelled in the domestic virtues. In life, and in death, with a reasonable, religious and holy hope, he trusted in God. Deas's wife survived him, dying on March 14, 1852. SOURCES: G. C. Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys (1969), 5; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785 ("pronouncing English orations"); Smith Diary, 29 June, 15 & 29 July, 5 & 11 Aug. 1786; Hancock House MSS; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1787; Min. Fac, 22 Aug. & 10 Sept. 1788 ("to leave"); Η. K. Leiding, Charleston, Historic & Romantic (1931), 171; E. B. Reynolds & J. R. Faunt, Biog. DW. of the Senate of... S.C. 1776-1964 (1964), 203-04; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., I, 242, 262, 267, 271; in, 178-80; J. F. Jameson, ed., "Diary of Edward Hooker, 1805-08," AHA Rept.for 1896 (1897), I, 866-67, 872; C. jervey, Inscriptions in St. Michael's Church 6f Churchyard, Charleston, S.C. (1906), 18; SCHGM, 23 (1922), 206-07; 59 (1958), 49; 70 (1969), 150, 159-60; 78 (1977), 191-93; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 89. RLW

Christian DeWint CHRISTIAN DEWINT, A.B. Queen's 1790, A.M. Queen's 1794, A.M.

Dartmouth 1795, was born in 1771 on the island of St. Croix (Santa Cruz) in the Danish West Indies, the son of Joseph and Anna Maria DeWint. Christian was named for his maternal grandfather Chris­ tian Suhm, who served as governor-general of the Danish West Indies, and whose widow Maria de Malleville Suhm married Lucas von Beverhoudt. Both DeWints and von Beverhoudts were early settlers in the Danish West Indies, and both families owned land on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. Mrs. DeWint's sister Maria later married John Wheelock, president of Dartmouth College from 1779 to 1815, and her half-sister Adriana von Beverhoudt married Tobias Boudinot, nephew of Elias and Elisha Boudinot, trustees of the College. A third sister Elizabeth was the wife of Johannes or John Rogiers of St. Croix. Christian's mother died in childbirth when he was two years old.

364

CLASS OF 1789

He and his brother Lucas accompanied their grandmother and her second husband when the von Beverhoudts moved from St. Thomas to Morris County, New Jersey, sometime in 1779. The household also included Mrs. von Beverhoudt's two Rogiers grandsons, her daughter Maria Suhm, and the von Beverhoudts' daughter Adriana. Lucas von Beverhoudt had purchased a 2,000 acre working plantation just outside Morristown in Hanover Township in 1772. The estate was named "Beverwyck" (Beaverwick) after the von Beverhoudt family home in Holland, and was worked by numerous slaves imported from the West Indies. With possibly the largest apple orchard in New Jersey, the farm also had cherry, peach, plum, and pear trees. The von Beverhoudts were members of the First Reformed Dutch Congregation at nearby Boonton. They entertained lavishly with imported wines from St. Croix, and their home was especially popular with the officers stationed nearby during the Revolution. The spacious house, referred to as the "Beverwyck Mansion," was set in the midst of a large lawn, which was flanked by long rows of servants' lodgings. On August 24, 1779 von Beverhoudt wrote to Joseph DeWint: I have the pleasure to inform you that your two sons are well and in school. I have a prospect to place them at Prent's Town next January, the best school on the Continent, they are to board with the widow Livingston, mother to Coll Livingston [William S. Livingston (A.B. 1772)], son-in-law to Mr. [Abraham] Lott and she is a gentle woman of the first family & Character. She has two sons, they are of the most promising boys I ever saw [Peter R. Livingston (A.B. 1784) and Maturin Livingston (A.B. 1786)]. At the end of his long letter von Beverhoudt added: I wrote you about a prospect to place your sons at Prince Town College & that they were to Board with Mrs. Livingston. I have now the pleasure to inform you that Mrs. Livingston has agreed to take your sons at 40 f hard money (that is in silver and gold yearly a piece and 3 £ a piece each for washing besides their schooling). Continental dollars will not do. A letter of Nov. 23, 1779 to John Rogiers informed the father that his two sons were learning to read and write at a local school preparatory to attending either "Paramus College or Print's Town College." The institution at Paramus was actually a preparatory school administered by the Dutch Reformed Church. No surviving records place the Rogiers brothers at Nassau Hall; Warner Rogiers received his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1793. Neither is it known when Lucas DeWint left the Nassau Hall grammar school, but he also appears nowhere in College records.

CHRISTIAN DeWINT

365

Christian DeWint graduated from the grammar school in the fall of 1785 and entered the College as a freshman. He joined the American Whig Society early in 1786. On August 1, 1786 James Gibson (A.B. 1787) noted in his diary that DeWint had informed him of a letter awaiting him at Mrs. Knox's boarding house, which suggests that DeWint may have been living off-campus at Mrs. Knox's home. By his junior year he had become openly rebellious against College authority. On December 23,1787 DeWint, his classmates John Heriot and George White Eyes, and freshman Charles Ross, were convicted of insolent behavior to one of the tutors and sentenced to receive an admonition in the presence of their classes. On February 27, 1788 DeWint was called before the faculty and convicted of contempt of authority and sentenced to receive another public admonition. He appeared before the faculty again on March 17 and with a group of four other students was found guilty of causing a riot in the College. On this occasion the culprits not only received the usual public admonition, but they were also required to read a confession before the whole College and to repair all damages which they had directly caused or to which they were accessories. Two of the group accepted these terms, but not DeWint, freshman Peter Marchant, and junior Daniel Bell, all of whom were suspended. Marchant soon asked pardon, went through the terms of the punishment, and was readmitted to his class. Bell must have eventually done the same after a prolonged suspension, for he graduated a year behind his classmates. DeWint probably never returned to the College. In 1790 he received his A.B. from Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, but there is no way of knowing whether he stayed out of school for a year or was asked to repeat his junior year. Morristown attorney Joseph Lewis, father of Stevens J. Lewis (A.B. 1791), was in Princeton on December 26, 1788 and wrote in his journal, "did some business with Dr. Smith & Aaron Mattison Esq. & paid Mr. Mattison £5.16.3 for Lucas V. Beverhoudt, Esqr. & took Christian D'Wints books from Mr. Mattison." Nothing has been found to indicate whether DeWint undertook any postgraduate study in order to earn A.M. degrees from Queen's and Dartmouth, although the latter may reflect his relationship to the Wheelock family. In October 1793 Warner Rogiers, following his graduation from Dartmouth, visited "Beverwyck" before returning to the West Indies. The two cousins must have enjoyed each other's company, for Adrianna von Beverhoudt wrote to her sister Maria Wheelock on May 19, 1795, "Mr. Rogiers has sent for Christian he means to send him with Warner to Europe, he will sail in a week or two." It is not known when DeWint returned to New Jersey, but he may have been accompanied by a bride. No record of his first marriage has been found in the

366

CLASS OF 1789

Morris County clerk's office, and Mrs. DeWint's obituary on August 30, 1798 identifies her only as "consort of Mr. Christian DeWint," with the added information that she had been "in a bad state of health for sometime past." Lucas von Beverhoudt's early letters to friends and family in St. Thomas and St. Croix were full of enthusiasm for his new home. Urging DeWint's father to visit, he said, "were you to pay us a visit you would so much like the Jerseys that you would never think of returning to Pittiful St. Thomas." However, in the spring of 1796 von Beverhoudt suffered severe financial losses because of heavy flooding of his crops. Sometime in the latter part of the year he was thrown from his gig and died as a result of the injuries he received. He left "Beverwyck" and the surrounding 671 acres to his daughter Adriana Boudinot, with his wife Maria to have joint use during her lifetime. The residue of his real estate, referred to as "the outlands of the Beverwyck estate," were to be sold and the proceeds divided. One-fifth of this amount was to be shared equally by his wife's grandsons "Christopher DeWint and Lucas DeWint." On October 2, 1797 John Wheelock, en route home after a visit with his mother-in-law, wrote to an acquaintance enclosing depositions from John Darbe, DeWint's future father-in-law, and from DeWint, concerning a Mr. Gillet who had briefly worked as an overseer on von Beverhoudt's farm. Wheelock's covering letter describes DeWint as "a reputable gentleman of New Brunswick." However, DeWint's statement is dated from "Beverwyck," and the tone suggests that he may have taken over the management of the farm at that time. Lucas DeWint died intestate on February 14, 1798, leaving a wife and small daughter, with the only sizable asset of his estate being a mortgage obligation of his aunt Elizabeth Rogiers of St. Croix in the amount of $23,040.00. Adriana's letter informing her sister of the event described the deceased as "Our Dear unhappy Lucas," whose "embarrassed circumstances without & discords within has been the means of sending him to his grave in the bloom of youth." The "violent fits" that she described may have been epileptic seizures. His finances may have been straitened because 700 acres of the Beverwyck "outer lands" were not sold until six months after his death. Christian DeWint suffered not only the loss of his brother and his wife that year, but his grandmother Maria von Beverhoudt died sometime before August 1798. On January 19, 1800 Warner Rogiers issued a bill of sale to John Wheelock for the estate of his father "purchased of Messrs L & C DeWint." Christian retained the Rogiers mortgage, however. On August 7, 1800 a local paper announced the sale of "a number of

CHRISTIAN DeWINT

367

lots of land, being part of the farm formerly belonging to Christian DeWint," the wording suggesting that DeWint may have lost the real estate because of nonpayment of taxes or some other lien. If things were not going well financially, at least they were happier on another score. On June 26, 1800 Adriana wrote, "Kit found his beloved well, altho a litde thin in fleasch." The object of his affec­ tions was his neighbor Luanda Darbe, whom he married on Septem­ ber 26, 1800 with the bride's seventy-six year old father officiating. John Darbe (A.B. Yale 1748), Presbyterian minister and a practicing physician of Hanover, New Jersey, was one of the "rebel parsons" during the Revolution. He helped the American cause more through his medical ministrations than through his sermons, and for these services he was awarded an honorary M.D. by Dartmouth in 1782. Lucinda was the daughter of his second wife Hester White Huntting. In the spring of 1801 the DeWints visited the Wheelocks in New Hampshire. Apparently John Wheelock was quite upset over the dis­ tribution of the von Beverhoudt estate, claiming that the New Jersey acreage had been bought with the proceeds of land in St. Thomas and St. Croix, a part of Christian Suhm's holdings that von Beverhoudt had persuaded his wife to sell for that purpose. Wheelock argued that von Beverhoudt had promised a deed to "Beverwyck" to his wife and her children by Suhm. Presumably the deed was drawn up and signed, but not recorded; von Beverhoudt thinking it destroyed "made his will to answer his own purpose." Wheelock further stated that "Cousin Christian is wholy of my mind," and, "I have reason to think that had the affair all happened in this country, the Heirs of GOVT. Suhm would have the whole Β k estate, exclusively, as belonging to them by law." Despite these accusations Adriana Boudinot seems to have remained on good terms with Maria Wheelock and continued to cor­ respond with her. The Boudinots moved to Newark, New Jersey, for a time and from there Adriana reported on October 4, 1801 that Lucinda DeWint was expecting a child in six weeks. On January 25, 1802 she wrote that "Kit is well, but we see very litde of him, as he is so much taken up with his litde one, they say it is a very fine child." DeWint, unfortunately, did not have much time in which to enjoy his young daughter, also called Lucinda, for he died on April 13, 1803. Although his will of April 7 says that his estate consisted chiefly of bonds, an inventory shows that his main asset was the mortgage of Elizabeth Rogiers once held by his brother and still in the amount of $23,040. The remainder of DeWint's estate was worth only a little more than $300, inviting speculation as to what became of the von Beverhoudt inheritance. The will provided that in the event of the

368

CLASS OF 1789

deaths of both wife and daughter, the latter without issue, the entire estate should go to his friend Dr. William Campfield (A.B. 1784), or his heirs, "as a grateful acknowledgement of the many favors I have received from him." Campfield and DeWint's widow were appointed executors. J o h n Darbe died in December 1805, and in the division of his estate his daughter L u a n d a received a slave, acreage opposite their home, and "use of my dwelling house and lands adjoining as long as she may chose." She also received one share of the net estate, butreven with this help Lucinda DeWint apparently did not have an easy life. According to Adriana Boudinot, Dr. Campfield cheated Lucinda and her daughter of Christian's "fortune." T h e two executors apparendy agreed that, instead of depending on interest for income, part of the estate should be used to purchase a lot with a brick house, the rent from it to be used in lieu of interest. For some reason this property was held in Campfield's name. In July 1811 he conveyed it to Jabez Campfield (probably the 1759 A.B.) of Morristown. Whether Campfield actually cheated the DeWints or simply used poor judgment in managing the estate, it seems a questionable practice to have had tide to the land in his name, thereby assuring his wife a dower interest. T h e younger Lucinda married a Mr. Ross, "who turned out very badly." In December 1823 Adriana Boudinot wrote to her niece, Maria Wheelock Allen, thanking her for assistance to "poor Mrs. DeWint," which arrived "in the hour of her extremest need." T h e daughter had accepted a teaching position in Washington, D.C., and the elder Lucinda, in feeble health, was caring for her granddaughter and trying to earn extra money by whatever sewing and knitting she was able to do. By 1829 Lucinda DeWint Ross had returned to Morristown and was teaching there. Her mother died on March 25, 1838, never having remarried. SOURCES: C. F. Emerson, Gen. Cat. of Dartmouth College (1910-11), 572-76; J. H. Raven, Cat. of OfficersfcfAlumni of Rutgers College (1909), 43; W. C. Westergaard, Danish West Indies under company rule (1671-1754) with a suppl. chap., 1755-1917 (1917), 38, 169, 189, 286; F. Lewisohn, The Amer. Revolution's Second Front (1976), 14-15, 26-27, 49; A. D. Fowler, Splinters From the Past (1984), 120-32; T. Thayer, Colonial &f Revolutionary Morris Cnty. (1975), 68,96-97,235-36; Hist, ofMorris Cnty. (1882), 218, 253; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 (joins Whig Soc); Gibson Diary, 1 Aug. 1786; Min. Fac., 23 Dec. 1787, 27 Feb. & 17 Mar. 1788; Mrs. B. S. Gondii, "The Story of Beverwyck," NJHSP, n.s., 4 (1919), 128-41; "Diary or Memorandum Book Kept by Joseph Lewis of Morristown," NJHSP, 62 (1944), 107 ("did some business"); GMNJ, 4 (1928), 120 (which gives incorrect date for CDW's second marriage); Dexter, Yale Biographies, II, 157-59; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 640-41; Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J., 194-96, 224-25; N.J. Wills, x, 114 (Darbe will); will of von Beverhoudt, estate inv. of Lucas DeWint, will & estate inv. of CDW, guardianship papers for Lucinda DeWint, Jr., Nj; Wheelock genealogy 8c family corres. (quotes from letters), Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.; Morristown, N.J., Genius of Liberty,

MAHLON

DICKERSON

369

30 Aug 1798, 22 Apr. 1803 (obits); The Jerseyman, 4 Apr. 1838; CDW & LD marriage certificate & deed, William Campfield et we to Jabez Campfield, Book W, p. 18, Office of Morris Cnty. Clerk; renunciation of estate of LDW, Morris Cnty. Surrogate's Office. On 7 May 1787 Joseph Lewis of Morristown recorded in his journal: "I continued at Mr. Becerhoudts [sic] drew out his acct agt Lucas Chrism Dewint & send a copy thereof to Gart Spr. DeWint Esq. St. Croix with letter &c. by Mr. Ths. McEven who this day came to Mr. Beverhoudts & says he is going to sail for St. Croix next Sunday." Garret S. DeWint served as a captain in the 3rd Regiment of the New York City Militia during the Revolution. A merchant of St. Thomas, he also had a home in Orangetown, Orange County, New York. The list of students at the College for the academic year 1786-87 preserved in Nj, which has usually been found to be correct, gives CDWs home as New York. This may have been a simple error, but it is also possible that DeWint spent some time with Garret DeWint in New York state and that Garret was an uncle or cousin. See NJHSP, 61 (1943), 115; Revolutionary Papers (1879-81, 3 vols., NYHS Collections, 11-13), I, 129, 163, 238-39; Hancock House MSS. RLW

Mahlon Dickerson MAHLON DICKERSON, A.B., A.M. 1804, lawyer, city councilman, judge, iron manufacturer, state legislator and governor of New Jersey, United States senator, and secretary of the navy, was born on April 17, 1770 in Hanover Neck, New Jersey, about ten miles northeast of Morristown. "I believe myself to be a descendant of a race of honest, industrious, psalm-singing deacons, with which pedigree I am content," he reflected in old age. His paternal ancestors had migrated from Salem, Massachusetts, to Southold, Long Island, in the 1640s and to Morris County a century later, where his grandfather Peter Dickerson and his father Jonathan both became local public officials and conspicuous patriots. Mahlon's mother Mary, daughter of Thomas Coe, was also descended from a prominent Long Island family. Mahlon, the eldest child, was raised in affluent circumstances among a growing family that successfully pursued landholding, farming and iron mining and manufacturing at Suckasunny (now Succasunna), New Jersey, roughly nine miles northwest of Morristown. His early education is unusually well documented. His father, who was named in honor of Jonathan Dickinson (A.B. Yale 1706), first president of the College of New Jersey, was one of Morris County's most generous contributors to the struggling College, to which he probably always intended to send his son. T h e lad began to learn Latin at Morristown in 1782 under Caleb Russell (A.B. 1770), who later founded the first newspaper in Morristown which, reorganized as The Genius of Liberty, became the county voice for Jeffersonian Republicanism (and Dickerson) in the late 1790s. Mahlon's three classmates at this early stage were all girls. For the next two years he continued Latin

370

CLASS OF 1789

Mahlon Dickerson, A.B. 1789

at nearby Roxbury under William Woodhull (A.B. 1764), formerly the town's Presbyterian minister, then a leading patriot, and from 1780 to 1811 a justice of the peace. Dickerson returned to Morristown in 1785 to study Greek with William Campfield (A.B. 1784) and later with Isaac Ives. He boarded in the comfortable home of Joseph Lewis who would soon become one of the county's most conspicuous Federalists and whose son Stevens (A.B. 1791) was also studying for entry to the College. For most of this period, as Dickerson recorded at the opening of his diary, he remained "in very ill health— frequendy resolved to quit my studies." But he persevered and in the summer of 1786 attacked mathematics, geography and languages at Hanover, New Jersey, under Jacob Green (A.B. Harvard 1744), longtime trustee of the College, its acting president in the discouraging months that followed the death of Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720) in 1758, and the father of Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), future president of the College. These influences all propelled Dickerson toward Prince Town and its College which, according to his diary, he entered in 1787, proba-

MAHLON DICKERSON

371

bly with junior-class standing. Close undergraduate friends included Whigs Joseph Caldwell (A.B. 1791) and David Hosack (A.B. 1789), and also Samuel Sharp Dickinson (Class of 1791) and George Spafford Woodhull (A.B. 1790), members of the Cliosophic Society, all of whose careers or obituaries he subsequendy noted in his diary. College records do not mention Dickerson until his senior year when he was one of seven students who, on March 3, 1789, confessed to committing a "disorder" in the chamber of classmate Isaac Crane, including an assault on his person, although Dickerson was only an abettor and not an active participant. He joined the American Whig Society, which left a deep impression on him. His gift of $100 in 1836 made him the Whigs' most generous donor to that time. As he assured President James Carnahan (A.B. 1800) in 1843, the society "was in high standing" in the 1780s. "It was under the finest discipline and was eminendy serviceable in maintaining the character and promoting the interest of the college." He noted the lack of "paper wars" with the Clios during his stay. At his commencement on September 30, 1789 he defended the negative of the question: "Would universal frugality and severity of morals produce greater wealth, as well as greater happiness, in a nation than if the public manners admitted a degree of luxury?" Dickerson's elegant lifestyle and the courtly manners for which he was later renowned suggest that he enjoyed refuting this proposition. Two days after graduation Dickerson began to study law in Morristown under Caleb Russell. Personal tragedy soon interrupted his efforts, for on November 18 his eight-year-old-brother, Jonathan Elmer, died from the delayed effects of accidentally swallowing potash. "I felt on this occasion for the first time the bitter sensation of having lost a dear relative & a favorite brother," he reflected. Thirty years later he was still observing the anniversary of the lad's death. Nevertheless, he continued to read law with Russell into 1792 while boarding with several different families, and then he added a year of study under hard-drinking, profane Col. John D'Hart, whose library Mahlon devoured. He consumed multivolume editions of David Hume, Abb6 Guillaume Thomas Raynal, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, John Gay, John Dryden, John Locke, Charles Louis de Secondat (Baron Montesquieu), James Burgh, William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Tobias Smollett, Henry St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke), and many others. Although he also read through the standard collection of English state trials and Emmerich de Vattel's Law of Nations, his frequent book lists indicate that belles lettres and history engaged his interest far more intensely than law. He also studied German. In July 1791 he visited Philadelphia and "resolved to make

372

CLASS OF 1789

that city my future place of residence." By September 4, 1793 he felt ready to begin the practice of law and was examined in Trenton for his license, but the New Jersey Supreme Court adjourned in the regional panic over yellow fever, and Dickerson could not be sworn in until November 15. He became ill during court sessions in November 1793 and also the following May, and thus he made litde professional progress during his first year at the bar. Perhaps for this reason he next did a drastic thing. He enlisted as a private in the Second Regiment of Cavalry, New Jersey detached militia, organized by the Federalist administration of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791) to crush the whiskey rebels in western Pennsylvania. Although strongly advised by friends not to go, Dickerson, still suffering from a fever, mustered in at Princeton on September 26, 1794, marched to Trenton, danced at a ball there a few days later, and then crossed the Delaware and rode west on October 2. Within two weeks his ailments had left him, and after two more weeks he rejoiced that he "was never in better health or so fat before." Along the way he eyed the young women of Reading, who were attractive "but nearly all German," while those in Carlisle impressed him as quite "handsome." On October 19 he was present when Washington reviewed the troops. Dickerson's mess of five men skirted disaster in the early hours of November 5 when their tent caught fire. A comrade's hair was badly singed, and Dickerson burned the skin off both hands helping to extinguish the blaze. In acute pain, he could not use his hands at all for days. His friends fed him, covered him in a great coat, replaced his cavalry cap with a hat, and led his horse along the road, a spectacle that convinced local residents that he must be a captured rebel. After two days of this agony, he gave up, stopped at a tavern to recuperate for eleven days, and then rode on to rejoin his unit. He caught up just west of Pittsburgh as the militia were ready to start home again. On the way back a friend tried to kill himself after "a very severe fit of the gravel," and Mahlon "slept but little during the night" of November 19. Four days later he met Nancy Symms, future wife of William Henry Harrison. Dickerson got back to Trenton on December 9 and reached Morristown on the eleventh, only to learn that Julia Ford Dickerson, wife of his brother Silas, was near death after delivering a son named for Mahlon. "Thus expired at the age of twenty-two," wrote Dickerson sadly on December 15, "a woman more amiable than any other with whom I was acquainted." Despite his grief, he rejoiced in the complete restoration of his own health, "but not by drinking whiskey which was esteemed so beneficial," he declared on December 11, "— drank none of the vile stuff during the expedition."

MAHLON DICKERSON

373

If Dickerson's willingness to suppress the whiskey rebels betrayed any Federalist sympathies, he soon overcame them. As he rose in the legal profession, he also entered public life, first as a newspaper polemicist in Morristown, and then in Philadelphia, where he moved in 1797. By 1796 at the latest he was a committed Jeffersonian Republican. During the inauguration of Federalist President J o h n Adams on March 4, 1797, Dickerson stood near him and claimed that "the old man seemed much frightened,—read a very long & very dull address, in which he made many fair promises, which I fear he will not keep." When the administration proclaimed a public fast for May 9, 1798 in connection with the deepening crisis in Franco-American relations, Dickerson cheerfully recorded: "dined with Wpnthrop?] Sergeant at Broadhurst's,—forgot that it was fast." On October 15 as he finished reading the third volume of Adams's Defense of the American Constitutions, he dismissed the work as "a weak attempt to support aristocracy," written with "not a ray of genius in the author, or rather compiler." Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, by contrast, he had proclaimed "the best book in the English language (bible excepted)" as he finished it on February 2, 1795. No doubt as his protectionist views matured, he found occasion to revise that judgment, but he was happy to call himself a "Democrat," without further qualification, as the century closed. However, among Pennsylvania Republicans, "Democrat" often described a moderate, with "Jacobin" reserved for the radicals. T h e national political crisis associated with the Quasi-War with France, the Alien and Sedition Acts, John Fries's tax revolt of 1799 in Northampton County, and the election of 1800 all affected Dickerson profoundly. "For my part I do not expect a serious war with France," he wrote his brother Silas on July 2 1 , 1798; "this provisional army [under Hamilton] is established more for the purpose of enforcing arbitrary laws, than for fighting the French." H e thought the presiding judge "gave a vile charge" at the Fries trials on April 25, 1800, and that Samuel Chase delivered "an infamous charge to the Jury" five days later. When three offenders were sentenced to death on May 3, he recorded in disgust how "Judge Chase appeared to be wonderfully affected on this occasion,—he began to cry in such a way, that it was impossible for him to finish the sentence ag[ains]t Fries, which was written under a supposition, no doubt, that his grief might choke his utterance. He gave the sentence to brother [Richard] Peters, who had forgot to cry. Judge Peters went thro it with a grace." Chase left Philadelphia the next day. "God be thanked," exclaimed Dickerson, "—may we never see his beefsteak face again." By 1800 Mahlon in Philadelphia and his brother Silas in New Jersey were working hard in a coordinated effort to elect Thomas Jef-

374

CLASS OF 1789

ferson (LL.D. 1791) president. When the contest generated a tie in the electoral college between Jefferson and Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), Dickerson awaited the decision by the House of Representatives with considerable anxiety. "This is the day on which the fate of our Republican Government depends," he wrote Silas on February 11, 1801 as everyone anticipated news from Washington, D.C., where the government had recendy moved. Something bolstered his confidence, for within a week he was betting friends that Jefferson was already chosen. When confirmation arrived on Thursday, February 19, he enthused: "A delightful day,—rec[eive]d news this morn[in]g that Jefferson was elected at 12 O'clock on Tuesday last,—Bells ringing— cannons firing—the most joyful day of my life,—attended St. Tammany Society." In 1797 Dickerson had rented an office on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia at $80 per year, and he boarded at a Mr. Shewell's until the building burned down. He moved his office to Arch Street in 1798 and to 59 South Third Street, opposite the Bank of the United States, in January 1800. Two months later he paid rent of $100 for a house on Arch Street. By then he had been admitted to practice before the Philadelphia and Bucks County courts and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 1801 he added the United States circuit court to his list. Although Dickerson socialized genially with women in Morristown and Philadelphia, no permanent relationship developed. As he recorded on April 17, 1800, "My [thirtieth] birthday,—resolved to get a wife in the present year,—to begin to lay up money, & to read law with more attention than I have done." As he approached age thirty-five, his tone grew rather more desperate. "If I can but get a wife in the course of the winter to please me, I shall rejoice I did not leave this place," he wrote his sister Mary on New Year's Day, 1805. "There is a lady in this city I have serious thoughts of making love to, but she knows nothing of the matter, and I suspect never will. However, with the blessing of God, I hope another year will not find me an old bachelor." Again he was disappointed, for he never married. He did maintain a busy social schedule with frequent dinners, Tammany meetings, and other gatherings. He enjoyed skating in the winter and swimming on hot summer days. In his Philadelphia years he also became a personal friend of Meriwether Lewis, the future explorer. While Lewis was away from the city he requested Dickerson to look after his half-brother John Marks, who was attending medical lectures there, and even to supply Marks with up to $300 if necessary. At both Morristown and Philadelphia, Dickerson's religious prac-

MAHLON DICKERSON

375

tices also took shape. Although he never became the full communicant of any church, he usually attended Sunday services, most often with the Presbyterians. He sometimes went to church on Christmas and occasionally noted such other solemn days as Good Friday. His observations about the religious behavior of others were often touched with irony. Attending a presbytery meeting on April 29-30, 1795, for example, he found "much carnal strife among the holy men of God" and what he called "AristocracyX" He bought a pew at the Morristown Presbyterian Church for £96 on March 1, 1796 and, to his mother's "great spiritual pride," he delivered a lay sermon on August 27, 1797. He "read but badly, being sore afraid, at which diverse of the ungodly were moved to laugh. Mem[o]: Never read in Church again." Instead he frequently sampled other offerings. He heard a "stupid Irishman preach" on November 30, 1794 and "a woman preach terror" at a Quaker meeting on January 29, 1797. Several times in 1796 he went to "hear Austin preach," presumably David Austin, the eloquent premillennialist who was then predicting the imminence of the Second Coming and the end of the world, even to the precise date. Dickerson also listened to the famous English rationalist, Joseph Priestley, sometimes attended Episcopal services in Philadelphia and later in Washington, scoffed at Federalist panic over the Bavarian Illuminati, and sustained a cordial relationship with an unbeliever, Dr. Thomas Cooper. As late as July 31, 1836 he "went to Trinity Church [in Washington] to hear Mr. Cox preach upon the [unforgiveable] sin against the Holy Ghost," but as Dickerson grew older, religious questions became less prominent in his diary. His most extraordinary encounter was his attendance through the religious crisis of his godless friend and mentor, Col. John D'Hart, who had not been to church in twenty years and thought he was dying at Morristown in mid-September 1799. Dickerson, who in 1797 had defended D'Hart's character in a Newark newspaper, found him "in a state of perfect madness, sat up with him all night." Raving until dawn, D'Hart believed he was in hell, sexually slandered a pious woman who was trying to help, raged lewdly at his servants, and was civil only to Dickerson, to whom he confessed his numerous "debaucheries," including a particular seduction that now tormented him. The next day he was lucid and euphoric, "Professing his belief in Jesus Christ ... said he was a new man, that he thanked God he had an opportunity of shewing me the powerful influence of saving grace,—that he had always set me a bad example, & he hoped now to set me a good one." D'Hart's delirium returned the next day, this time transporting him to heaven. His conversion endured all of two weeks past his recovery, as Dickerson drily observed. However, when

376

CLASS OF 1789

the colonel died on J u n e 17, 1801 Dickerson noted in his diary, "He was my friend, Faithful & just to me." Nevertheless, close involvement with the false conversion of an admired acquaintance may have left Dickerson, a fundamentally religious man, reluctant to experience one of his own, much less to proclaim it to the world. After Jefferson's triumph, Dickerson made steady advances in politics. Among Philadelphia's rising young lawyers, reported William Duane to Jefferson on October 18, 1802, Dickerson was the "only one who is decidedly republican that displays talents." Some of his business came from defending Duane and other victims of the Sedition Act. Elected to the Philadelphia common council in 1802, and also chosen a commissioner of bankruptcy, Dickerson served until his friend Governor Thomas McKean (LL.D. 1781) named him adjutant general of Pennsylvania in 1805, an office that entitled him to be called "General," much to Dickerson's amusement and the consternation of Federalists. He resigned that position in 1808 to become Philadelphia's city recorder for the next two years. Although Dickerson entered Pennsylvania politics closely aligned with William Duane's radical faction and often wrote material for Duane's Aurora, over time he drifted away from Duane and toward the ex-Federalist McKean, a process that identified him as a "Quid" in local politics but made him more acceptable to Jefferson's administration in Washington. Simultaneously his brother Silas soared upward in New Jersey politics, becoming assembly speaker as early as 1801, too rapidly for Mahlon's taste, only to have his career cut short through a tragic death in an industrial accident in 1807. Their father had died in 1805, leaving an estate valued at over $6,800 in real property. Perhaps because the surviving brothers—Philemon (a future New Jersey governor), Aaron (A.B. 1804), and John—were still young, Dickerson decided by 1810 to return to New Jersey. No doubt he also realized that political power in Pennsylvania had passed to more radical Jeffersonians, including his classmate Nathaniel B. Boileau. H e resigned as recorder, bought a controlling interest from his relatives in the mine and iron works at Suckasunny, and took charge of what may have been the most extensive iron mine in the nation prior to the opening of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota later in the century. He was soon one of the richest men in the state, and he built a country house on his property which he called "Ferromonte." Naturally he returned to politics. His Morris County neighbors elected him to the assembly in 1811 and 1812, and he then surrendered the seat to accept an appointment to the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1812. None of his judicial decisions has survived, but his primary interests remained political. While on the bench he lost a

MAHLON DICKERSON

377

close fight in the legislature for a seat in the United States Senate in 1814, but the next year he won the governorship without opposition. As governor he automatically became chancellor of New Jersey, but he had to resign from the supreme court. During Dickerson's fifteen months as governor, he asked the legislature to petition Congress for a protective tariff, a particularly sensitive issue right after the War of 1812, when British firms deliberately flooded American markets with underpriced goods in an attempt to destroy the new American industries started during the war. He also urged internal improvements and public education upon the legislature, but he greatly overestimated how much private support a bit of pump priming could attract to these areas. Litde was accomplished until the next decade, when the state finally offered sufficient inducements to launch the public school system in 1829 and to open the Delaware and Raritan Canal in 1830. The most alarming problem Governor Dickerson faced in 1816 was the weather, "the year without a summer." His diary for May 15 recorded a "Heavy black frost, ground frozen -£- inch." On May 31 he observed, "End of most wintry spring I ever knew." A week later he noted two more days of hard black frost and then white frost on June 11. He still found the weather uncomfortably cold on June 29 and August 21, and reported more frost on August 22, 28, and 30. As a frugal Jeffersonian, he took no political or administrative action during this famine threat beyond urging citizens not to distill "poison" from what was "intended by the bounty of Heaven to man for his nourishment." In other words, he still hated whiskey, which he later identified as one of the nation's gravest social problems. Dickerson resigned the governorship in January 1817 when the legislature unanimously elected him to the United States Senate. One of his last acts in New Jersey was to help organize a state chapter of the American Colonization Society. He arrived in Washington just in time to be entertained by Dolley and James Madison (A.B. 1771) at the inauguration ceremonies for James Monroe (LL.D. 1822). Dickerson served two full terms and then the last four years of the term of Ephraim Bateman, who resigned in 1829. By 1833 Dickerson's sixteen years in the Senate gave him greater seniority than every colleague but one. He was able to boast that since 1817 he had never been away from Washington while the Senate was in session and had been absent no more than ten days, a remarkable record for a man of precarious health. Although in 1815 he had moved an audience to tears during a Fourth of July oration on Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans, contemporaries did not consider him a great public speaker. Rather, he impressed others through

378

CLASS OF 1789

his diligence and attention to detail while chairing the Joint Library Committee or serving on the Standing Committee on Commerce and Manufacturing. As always, Dickerson made important friends, such as Joel Poinsett and Martin Van Buren. With Van Buren, he was one of the earliest Americans to accept the two-party system as a political norm. Two "great parties," he told the Senate on February 10, 1818, "now divide, and ... in all probability, under their present, or some other denominations, will continue to divide the United States," although he also recognized that "there is now less of party animosity than there has been at any period whatever since the establishment of our present form of Government." His most passionate political cause, to no one's surprise, was protection. The British government regulated American "commerce from the time of our revolution till the adoption of our constitution," he warned, "and will do so again, if the friends of free trade succeed in destroying the protective policy of this country." His views on the subject became quite predictable, although he never ceased to compile new evidence for his position. Once when John Randolph (Class of 1791) was asked to listen to Dickerson on the tariff, he declined, explaining, "I heard that speech sixteen years ago." Dickerson also supported internal improvements but in a way that kept the tariff primary. In 1826 he became the first public figure to propose that Congress distribute its surplus revenues among the states and allow them to choose their own improvement projects. He thought public education and canals ought to get high priorities, but he insisted that his plan was a sound Jeffersonian device that would preserve the tariff and American industry without generating a gigantic and intrusive central government. The most important choices would be made locally. This constitutional ingenuity scarcely masked his real concern. Because the national debt was being paid off very rapidly, Congress would soon face overwhelming pressure, already conspicuous in South Carolina, to cut duties drastically. Dickerson voted against the admission of Missouri in 1820-21 and against recharter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832. In addition, he was invited to help examine graduating cadets at West Point, played a minor role in organizing the Library of Congress, expressed his distrust of judicial review (an attitude he traced to his firsthand observations during the Sedition Crisis), tried to get financial compensation for such early victims of Federalist justice as Matthew Lyon and Thomas Cooper, and supported William H. Crawford's presidential ambitions into 1824 before switching his allegiance to Jackson. Dickerson and Van Buren visited "Monticello" in 1824, where he and Jefferson reminisced fondly about their

MAHLON DICKERSON

379

opposition days together in Philadelphia. In Washington he generally opposed the administration of John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806), publicly denied reports that Vice President John C. Calhoun had treated him discourteously, and in 1828 moved Senate adoption of what many southerners called the "Tariff of Abominations." In February 1832 he resisted the "Man-worship" that he detected behind the lavish plans of Congress for celebrating the centennial of Washington's birth. Although he gave hearty support to Jackson's government, his last two years in the Senate vexed him greatly. "Attended the Senate for two hours," he noted on July 16, 1832, "—finished one of the longest & most unpleasant sessions I have attended in fifteen years." South Carolina's nullification of the tariff the following winter only made things worse. Dickerson vainly resisted Henry Clay's compromise, which called for a gradual lowering of duties over a ten-year period. In 1832 Dickerson also reached and passed the summit of his political ambitions. Mentioned prominently as Calhoun's replacement for vice president, he lost the nomination to his friend Van Buren because his own protectionist views seemed too provocative to the southern wing of the Democratic Party. As a small-state senator, Dickerson knew he could expect to rise no higher than vice president Weary of legislative wrangles, he left national office with a sense of relief in March 1833 and returned to New Jersey where state politics lured him once more. Elected to the New Jersey council (upper house), he was also chosen its vice president in 1833, an honor that placed him ex officio on the state court of appeals. His diary entries for February 25 and 26, 1834 reveal just how troublesome these responsibilities could be, how wretched transportation conditions still were, and how truly loyal Dickerson always was to his political allies. He rode from Suckasunny to Morristown through a snow storm just to get a case postponed, then rode back through the storm and went to bed. At 10:30 p.m. a messenger awakened him to request his immediate attendance in Trenton. He reached Morristown by horse at 12:30 a.m. and nearly froze traveling to Elizabethtown by carriage. After breakfast at 7 a.m., he rushed by steamboat and rail to Trenton, arrived at 1:30 p.m. and promptly cast the decisive vote "for the New Brunswick bank." The Jackson administration rewarded anyone that faithful. Dickerson had always wanted to visit Europe, and in 1834 the Senate confirmed his appointment as minister to Russia. He had everything packed and was scheduled to sail on July 1 when, to his great disappointment, Jackson and Van Buren urged him to become secretary of the navy instead. He agreed with obvious reluctance or. June 30,

380

CLASS OF 1789

promptly took over the department, supported Van Buren for president in 1835-36, and as a result remained in the cabinet until 1838 while his health deteriorated and his frustrations mounted. He was both the oldest and the richest member of the cabinet. Contemporaries considered Dickerson a failure as a naval administrator. When he took charge, the United States Navy contained twenty-five men-of-war and frigates plus twenty smaller vessels, with sixteen large ships and nine small ones either planned or under construction on an annual budget for "Gradual Improvement" of $1 to 1.5 million. When he left office, nearly all of the big ships were laid u p in port as an economy measure, and morale in the fleet was extremely low. H e encountered several longterm problems of great magnitude. T h e Navy had too many officers and too few seamen. Neither received sufficiendy rigorous training, and the lash remained a common method of discipline throughout the fleet T h e commander of one frigate whipped every member of his 72-man crew during a single voyage of three months, but despite complaints, Dickerson ignored the problem. In addition, European navies were beginning to convert to steam, but after an early initiative during the War of 1812, the United States did virtually nothing. Dickerson managed to get one "floating battery" built, a cumbersome and sluggish hulk packed with heavy cannon, thought fit for coastal defense but not high-seas operations, but not even this cautious step drew emulation from his successor. To improve the officer corps, Dickerson recommended two years for each midshipman at West Point rather than the alternative of establishing a separate naval academy, but neither idea won approval. Dickerson sometimes found himself corresponding directly with individual midshipmen—teenage boys—and scolding their lack of progress in their studies. To increase the number of able seamen, he persuaded the government to recruit primarily among boys aged thirteen to eighteen, an experiment that continued into the 1840s when the Navy Department abandoned it as a disaster. T h e ineptitude of the Navy Department emerged in two stages. During the war scare with France occasioned by the Jackson administration's belligerent stand on old spoliation claims, the navy was hard put to get its frigates to sea or even to send an urgent diplomatic message to France, much less plan coherent operations. On a smaller scale, the navy also tried to launch a South Seas expedition between 1836 and 1838, but Dickerson quarreled in the newspapers with the two principal officers, J. N. Reynolds and Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, who also savaged each other. Reynolds assumed that he was preparing for a voyage through tropical seas gathering useful navigational

MAHLON DICKERSON

381

and commercial data. Dickerson, a member of the American Philosophical Society since his Philadelphia days, was planning a polar venture to collect scientific data, but in order to save money he kept reducing the expedition's size below what navy professionals considered feasible. T h e two ideas, obviously, would require very different sorts of preparation. In some desperation, President Van Buren finally put Secretary of War Joel Poinsett in administrative charge. Poinsett gave the command to a junior officer, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who launched the small fleet in August 1838, shortly after Dickerson left office. Wilkes eventually discovered and mapped the coastline of Antarctica. On earlier occasions when his colleague Lewis Cass was out of town, Dickerson also had to administer the War Department. In this capacity he had to cope with major race riots in Washington and Baltimore between August 8 and 15, 1835. He seemed primarily concerned with the protection of government property, but the riots also occasioned one of his rare statements about racial issues. On August 12 he described one of the victims as "an insolent Mulatto who had used insulting language respect[in]g Mechanic's wives, and was corresponding with the Abolitionists of New York,—deserved a litde hanging." As a northern Democrat, he seems to have avoided all discussion of slavery, even during the prolonged Missouri crisis, but his duties in the Navy Department did require him to administer a tiny budget for the suppression of the African slave trade. Dickerson's cabinet service encompassed the last three years of Jackson's administration and the first of Van Buren's. An eyewitness to Richard Lawrence's attempt to assassinate Jackson on January 30, 1835, Dickerson "stood by the side of Gen'l Jackson & could look into the muzzle of the pistolfs]," both of which misfired. He began to weary of public entertainments, such as the president's Christmas Eve ball and supper in 1835, "an immense party ... where gentlemen behav'd like hogs,—ladies excluded from the table." Seven weeks later on February 11, he attended Jackson's "great party,—about 1500 present,—eat & drank all before them,—came home in disgust—hope never to witness such another exhibition." Although Jackson's plan to distribute surplus revenues provided Dickerson with a brief success, the staged reduction of the tariff combined with the Specie Circular and the panic of 1837 to increase the latter's frustrations. Administrative strains and an unappealing social life may also have intensified his loneliness. From January to April 1835 he met privately with a "Mr. Bowas" eleven times, in his own chamber or Bowas's, and—a unique pattern in his diary to this point—he noted when "Bowas did not come." At their April 26 meeting Dickerson

382

CLASS OF 1789

paid him $12 and did not see him again. Later that year from August to November, Dickerson repeated this pattern with "Mr. Ungerer," a minister at the "German church." They met alone seventeen times, usually by prearrangement, and Dickerson paid the man $10 at an early and again at their last encounter, but he continued to carry Ungerer's calling card in his wallet for years and preserved it among his papers. Dickerson's biographer Robert R. Beckwith thinks these contacts may have been homosexual encounters, although other readings for this sparse evidence are at least possible. For instance, the secretary of the navy may have consulted paid informants now and then. On the other hand, some months before these incidents Dickerson ceased attending church regularly. Perhaps he was experiencing some kind of religious crisis throughout the period, one that involved his sexual identity. He described 1836, not 1835, as "the most perplexing & busy year of my life," but he sought no comparable diversions, if that is what the meetings were, after November 1835. By the spring of 1838 Dickerson's cabinet record had rendered him a political liability, but he was even more eager to resign than Van Buren was to replace him. In his late sixties, his health again worried him, and he remained in the Cabinet in 1837 only at Van Buren's insistence, parting tearfully with Jackson in March. By April 1838 he was importuning Van Buren "to appoint my successor." The president at last found a replacement, James K. Paulding of New York, a man convinced that steam would never conquer sail. On July 1, 1838 Dickerson became "once more a private citizen,—with a full determination never to be a slave to office again." Complaints against Dickerson's administration of the Navy Department, explained the Washington Globe, the nation's most important Democratic newspaper, "originated in those qualities, which, though they constitute the charm of social life, too often stand arrayed in direct hostility to our public duties. He was too indulgent." Dickerson construed this valediction as complimentary. His friends wondered. Back in New Jersey Dickerson spent August 20, 1838 "fatigued & vexed" after failing to learn who was spreading the awful rumor that "I was a conservative." His health improved as he energetically rescued his iron business from the beating it had taken in the panic of 1837, and he invited Van Buren and other friends to spend a weekend at "Ferromonte." A member of the presidential party, after being lowered into one of Dickerson's deeper mine shafts, reported happily that "it would make a first-rate subtreasury," a reference to the administration's controversial substitute for the Bank of the United States that Jackson had destroyed. After 1840 Dickerson rebuilt "Ferromonte," more than tripling its size.

MAHLON DICKERSON

383

Even in retirement he could not leave politics alone. He warmly endorsed Van Buren's unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1840 and once again received an annoying reward. To his genuine consternation, Dickerson learned during the campaign that at age seventy he had been appointed and confirmed as federal district judge for New Jersey without anyone even soliciting his approval. Rather than embarrass his friends, he held the office for several months, just long enough to get it transferred to his brother Philemon. Van Buren's defeat ended his close association with Dickerson, who backed Lewis Cass in both 1844 and 1848, partly because they had become close friends in Jackson's cabinet and shared similar views on protectionism, and also because Cass's daughter had married Dickerson's nephew. Dickerson never got to Europe, but at age seventy-five he did tour the North American interior from Montreal to Chicago and Milwaukee. The experience strengthened his conviction that "the commerce [of the interior] was of vasdy more importance to the Adantic states [than all the] foreign commerce of the world," an attitude that says much about his earlier troubles at the Navy Department. Mahlon also served actively in the American Institute of the City of New York, a protectionist society. His presidential addresses of 1846 and 1847 were, if anything, more stridently Anglophobic than earlier pronouncements and insisted that free trade was a "system as visionary and impracticable as the everlasting and universal pacification of the world." The dignity and prosperity of American labor, he warned, required protection against cheap British imports, although labor apparently did not need the right to strike, as Dickerson's own workers learned when he crushed one such attempt. He fumed whenever he thought of America paying the British over $85 million for iron in the decade after 1832. "We are the most stupid nation in Christendom," he growled, "except the Portugese." In his declining years Dickerson gradually withdrew from public life. Although he attended the New Jersey Constitutional Convention at Trenton in June 1844 and was chosen its vice president, he played no major role and disliked the end result. He showed more interest in the Democratic National Convention sitting simultaneously at Baltimore, where Van Buren and Cass lost to another old acquaintance, James K. Polk. Mahlon found time on June 26, "an intensely hot day," to leave the Trenton convention and attend the Princeton commencement. In the coach on the return trip, he chanced upon an old Washington messmate, President John Tyler with his young bride Julia Gardiner, a distant cousin of Dickerson's college classmates John and David Gardiner. The presidential couple had been married secredy in New York earlier that day and were on their way to Virginia. Tyler's administration soon yielded to Polk's, whose

384

CLASS OF 1789

revenue tariff and other policies utterly exasperated Dickerson. But after Cass narrowly lost the election of 1848, the disgrunded elder statesman left politics to younger men. Dickerson's nephews and nieces, who well into his fifties were still trying to marry him off, afforded him a vigorous family life. His sister Mary, separated from her husband David S. Canfield, served until her death in 1830 as housekeeper at "Ferromonte," where she raised her four children. In 1830 Dickerson named her youngest, Frederick Canfield, the manager of his estate and mine. After Fred married in 1838 his family dominated the uncle's affections. Occasionally the press of young people grew burdensome, as on September 5, 1839 when Dickerson recorded: "—plagued at ev[enin]g with company,— boys & girls from the academy,—sick of them." As late as 1850 Dickerson still walked erect on his six-foot, two-inch frame, which had filled out from just above 140 pounds in the 1790s to over 180, and he retained his slowly graying hair. H e enjoyed frequent social excursions to New York City, which the railroad had reduced to a trip of just a few hours, and on his last venture to Washington in February 1851 he visited President Millard Fillmore at the White House. H e also traveled to his ancestral home in Southold and erected a marker to his forebears. Nearly every evening he read from the more than 3,600 books and bundles of public documents with which he cluttered even the hallways of his mansion. His hearing was beginning to fail, he tired more easily, and he showed occasional signs of forgetfulness, once mislaying nearly $100. His handwriting grew distincdy more feeble in 1851, and in January 1852 he stopped keeping his diary. At some point in the following year he survived a paralytic stroke, but he finally died on October 5, 1853 in his eightythird year and was buried at the nearby Suckasunny Presbyterian Church. "His achievements are written in the executive, legislative, and judicial records of the time," proclaimed his simple epitaph. His estate was inventoried at $295,859. "Ferromonte" survived into the 1950s, when it was razed. Dickerson's principal biographer considers him New Jersey's most important public official before Woodrow Wilson (A.B. 1879). Without question he was a major political and industrial presence in his long lifetime. He probably knew by sight every American president from Washington to Fillmore, and he socialized with nearly all of them from Jefferson on. (No evidence has been found linking him with Zachary Taylor who, however, was stationed in Washington in the mid-1820s while Dickerson was in the Senate.) Dickerson's protectionist policies triumphed a decade after his death and remained in force well into the twentieth century. On a scale that probably even

THOMAS DONALDSON

385

he had never imagined, America's internal market during that period utterly dwarfed the scale of the nation's foreign trade. Although no prophet, he foresaw more of the future, other than the Civil War, than did most of his contemporaries. SOURCES: For all otherwise unidentified quotations, see M. Dickerson's Diary, 17881809, 1832-52 (NjHi; typed copy used for 1788-1801, 1832-45), and 1809-19 (NjR); corr. with Silas Dickerson, sub. diem (NJHi). Other sources include alumni file, PUA; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 3 Mar. 1789; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789 ("Would universal"); R. R. Beckwith, "Mahlon Dickerson of New Jersey, 1770-1853" (Ph.D. diss.: Columbia, 1964), esp. 475 ("psalmsinging deacons"), 59-61 (Whig Soc), 435n (homosexuality), 477 ("commerce of the interior"), 491 (epitaph); P. A. Stellhorn & M. J. Birkner, Governors ofN.J., 1664-1974 (1982), 93-96,108-10 (Mahlon & Philemon); DAB; J. C. Pumpelly, "Mahlon Dickerson, Industrial Pioneer & Old Time Patriot," NJHSP, 2d ser., 11 (1890-91), 131-56, esp. 137 (1805 romance), 140 (Randolph quotation), 148 ("except the Portugese"); W. J. Dunham, "Mahlon Dickerson: A Great but Almost Forgotten Jerseyman," NJHSP, 68 (1950), 297-321; R. Dillon, Meriwether Lewis (1965), 30, 285; Κ. T. Phillips, William Duane: Radical Journalist in the Age of Jefferson (1989), esp. 103 ("Democrats" and "Jacobins") & 122 ("decidedly republican" lawyer); C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1964); H. Ershkowitz, Origin of the Whig 6? Democratic Parties: N.J. Politics, 1820-37 (1982), esp. 93-94; U.S. Cong., Register of Debates for 1818-34, passim, esp. 15th Cong., 1st sess., 178 (two-party system), 16th Cong., 2d sess., 116, 390 (Missouri), 22d Cong., 1st sess., 161 (tariff), 298,327 ("Man-worship"), 1073 (Bank); R. L. Meriwether, W. E. Hemphill, C. N. Wilson, et al., eds., Papers of John C. Calhoun (1959- , 18 vols.), X, 91; "Letters of Dr. Thomas Cooper [to MD], 1825-32," AHR, 6 (1901-02), 725-36; H. & M. Sprout, Rise of Amer. Naval Power 1776-1918 (1939), Chap. 6-7; Amer. Phil. Soc, List of the Members ... (1880?), 22; L. D. White, The Jacksonians (1954), 213-31, esp. 229 (Globe quotation); J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Autobiog. of Martin Van Burnt, AHA Rept. for 1918 (1920), n, 182-83 ("Monticello"); D. B. Cole, Martin Van Buren 6f the Amer. Political System (1984); J. Niven, Martin Van Buren 6f the Romantic Age of Amer. Politics (1983), 453 ("subtreasury"); M. L. Wilson, Presidency of Martin Van Buren (1984); Amer. Inst, of City of N.Y., Sixth Ann. Rept. (1848), 488-98 ("universal pacification of the world"). PUBLICATIONS: See above, National Union Cat., 8c Amer. Inst, of City of N.Y., Fifth Ann. Rept. (1847), 276-83. N o attempt has been made to identify the numerous newspaper essays of MD. MANUSCRIPTS: See Beckwith, "Mahlon Dickerson," 492-97 JMM

Thomas Donaldson THOMAS DONALDSON, A.B., of Maryland, entered the College as

a junior from another college in the fall of 1787. O n December 18, 1787 he joined the Cliosophic Society using the pseudonym Albemarle. Four other Maryland students, all from the Eastern Shore, joined the society the same evening. T h r e e of the four—John Collins, Thomas Irving, and Ephraim Wilson—were classmates who had also transferred as juniors from another college. These three may have attended Washington Academy, near Princess Anne in

386

CLASS OF 1789

Somerset County, Maryland, and possibly Donaldson matriculated there also. At his commencement in the fall of 1789 Donaldson acted as replicator for the disputation that was the third item on the after­ noon portion of the program: "Does religion derive any advantage from variety of denominations?" A search of Maryland records produced the name Thomas Donald­ son only in Baltimore, where a family of that name was well known. A Thomas Donaldson appears in Baltimore directories from 1794 through 1799 as a notary public at 36 South Gay Street. As of Jan­ uary 8, 1796 he belonged to the Library Company of Baltimore. Sev­ eral Donaldsons were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore. Thomas Donaldson is first recorded as deceased in the 1824 College catalogue. SOURCES: Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; MHM, 12 (1917), 309; 35 (1940), 258; Bait, city directories. The Thomas Donaldson whose name appears most frequently in Maryland sources was probably about forty years younger than Thomas Donaldson (Λ.Β. 1789) and was the son of John Johnston Donaldson. He was a lawyer and civil engineer who chaired the Committee of Ways and Means of the Maryland House of Delegates. See H. Ellery & C. P. Bowditch, Pickering Genealogy (1897), ii, 456-58; J. E. Semmes, John H. B. Latrobe 6f His Times, 1803-91 (1917), 417, 462-63. RLW

David English DAVID ENGLISH, A.B., A.M. 1792, teacher, publisher, and banker, was

born April 23, 1769 in Englishtown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, a community which had been settled by members of the English family sometime before 1730. His parents were Jonathan English and Martha Elizabeth Laird, whose family had also been early setders in the area. David English received his early education at the classical school in nearby Freehold, under the Reverend John Woodhull (A.B. 1766), pastor of the Freehold church. There he also began his long and close friendship with Charles Dickinson Green (A.B. 1787), who was a cousin and ward of Woodhull. On September 23, 1788 the trustees of the College passed a motion "that two years interest on the legacy left by Mr. Samuel McConky for the purpose of educating poor youth in this college" be applied to the education of David English, with Woodhull empowered to receive the interest and apply it as needed. This was done with the proviso that English be found properly qualified and that he matriculate at the beginning of the ensuing session. Reconvening the following day, the

D A V I D ENGLISH

387

trustees noted that during the war years the requirement of a minimum two-year residence in the College had been relaxed, and "that after the next session of the college the law be stricdy adhered to." When they met the following September they agreed that although English's tuition had been paid for only one year, "agreeably to a resolution of the board," nevertheless the college rules required that tuidon be paid for two years and Woodhull was instructed to defray the unpaid tuidon. On December 4, 1788 English had been elected a member of the Cliosophic Society, where he adopted the name of the French bishop, orator, and historian, Bossuet. At his commencement he took the negative side in a disputation on the question, "Does religion derive any advantage from variety of denominations?" English next taught for two years in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, at the school conducted by the Reverend Samuel Kennedy (A.B. 1754). This classical school was a forerunner of the Basking Ridge Academy, which was headed for many years by the Reverend Robert Finley (A.B. 1787), who went to Basking Ridge in 1795 as pastor of the Presbyterian Church. A number of sources erroneously state that English did not teach at Basking Ridge until after 1795, at the persuasion of his friend Finley. Sometime in 1791 English was offered the position of tutor in the home of Michael Taney, a tobacco planter of Calvert County, Maryland. Here one of his pupils was fourteen-year-old Roger Brooke Taney, later secretary of the treasury and chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, who credited English with recommending to his father that he receive the college education that led to his choice of law as a profession. In his memoirs Taney remembered English as an accomplished scholar who enjoyed teaching. In 1836, when Taney assumed his position on the Supreme Court, English was retired and living in Georgetown, and he took pleasure in visiting the Court and observing his former pupil preside. English was a prolific letter writer throughout his life; though only a small proportion of his letters survive, they often mention visits and correspondence with other friends, which show clearly how much English's college connections meant to him. On January 15, 1793 he wrote from Maryland to his friend Charles Dickinson Green, addressing him at Monmouth, New Jersey, "in care of Mr. R. Green, Student, Princeton." This would have been Charles's younger brother Richard (A.B. 1794). In seven closely written pages English noted that he was recovering from the ague, that he had a high opinion of John Adams but was afraid that the government was not drawing the purse strings close enough, and that in his spare time he had been reading William Shakespeare and the satiric poems by John Wolcot

388

CLASS OF 1789

published under the pseudonym "Peter Pindar," though he found the latter disappointing. In describing the Christmas festivities at the Taney home, he praised the southerners' "genuine hospitality" and talked of "dancing & jollity—with feasting & drinking." Green had been studying theology under John Woodhull while teaching in the latter's school but, probably at the beginning of the summer session of 1793, he returned to his home near modern Lawrenceville, New Jersey. English replaced him as the assistant teacher. It is not clear whether English also undertook theological studies. In a letter to Green dated August 15, 1793, in which he expressed great uncertainty as to what course his life would take, the heading of "Parsonage Hall" indicates that he was living with the Woodhulls. A letter of April 7, 1794 expressed English's disappointment with Green's decision not to enter the ministry. It also noted that the school session had concluded and that the accounts had been adjusted to his satisfaction. Sometime that spring English became a tutor at the College. Robert Finley was already serving as a tutor, and for a year the two worked and probably roomed together, establishing a lifelong friendship. On May 26 English was given the title and responsibilities of librarian. His report to the treasurer of the College the following year shows that he was paid an additional £2 for his library duties for the session ending September 1795. At the same time he turned over to the treasurer £20.15.0 that he had collected in library fees of five shillings each. On May 13, 1795 he was appointed clerk of the faculty. When the faculty met on January 16, 1796, tutor Joseph Caldwell (A.B. 1791), who had replaced Robert Finley, acted as clerk pro tern and recorded English's resignation in the minutes of the faculty. President John Witherspoon died while English was tutoring at the College, and on November 17, 1794, he wrote an account of that event to his "Dearest Friend," Charles Green, then at New Brunswick, even though he had already spent most of the day writing letters to the trustees, notifying them of Witherspoon's demise and requesting their presence at the funeral service. In his letter to Green, English shared information about the contents of the late president's will, details of which were apparently already being discussed in the College community. English was still uncertain about his own future. The letter complained of "my indefinite intentions as to a plan of life or professional employment—my eyes are so poor or my prospects so gloomy I can discover no goal to produce vigorous exertions or to point out of what kind they should be. If a person has not a confidence in himself that he will succeed—can he profitably succeed?" Apparendy this feeling of uncertainty caused English to talk

DAVID ENGLISH

389

of resigning as a tutor as early as September 1795, when overtures were first made to J o h n Henry Hobart (A.B. 1793) to replace him. However, English changed his mind and remained in the position until the following January. By the time he resigned from the faculty in 1796, English and his friend Green had decided that their future lay in the field of newspaper publishing. They joined with Samuel Hanson, one of the previous owners, in purchasing The Columbian Chronicle, a struggling semiweekly in Georgetown, Maryland. They changed its name, and on May 23, 1796 published the first issue of The Centinel of Liberty and Georgetoxtm Advertiser. They also issued a weekly paper, The Centinel and Country Gazette, which was made up of items culled from the semiweekly. T h e masthead of The Centinel was a quotation from Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron Montesquieu: "Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit; and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty, because all of his fellow citizens would have the same power." For the issue of February 20, 1798 this heading was changed to a quotation from George Washington in honor of his birth date: "Every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole." T h e paper was a vehicle to express their Federalist point of view. T h e rival Washington Gazette complained that the city commissioners gave all the official notices to The Centinel, which had been designated the official paper by an act of the Maryland legislature. When Hanson retired as editor on July 23, 1799, the firm name became Green and English. Surviving letters from early 1796 through December 1797 show that English had formed a close friendship with John Henry Hobart, who succeeded him as tutor at the College. These letters mention English's correspondence with Joseph Caldwell, whose term as a tutor had overlapped his own. English described both the pleasures and rigors of his journey to Maryland in early 1796, discussed progress in the construction of the Capitol and the President's house, and took delight in the "sight of the greatest man on earth when he passed thro Geo. Town on his way to the seat of government." Through his correspondents English often conveyed his "respects" to a number of other Princeton acquaintances. In one letter he advised Hobart, "I wish a detail of every interesting occurrence & almost every thing concerning your affairs will continue for a long time to interest me." Soon after the start of his career as a publisher, English felt secure enough to wed. On October 14, 1796 he married Lydia Scudder, daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Scudder (A.B. 1751) and Isabella Anderson Scudder, of Monmouth County, New Jersey. His wife's brothers

390

CLASS OF 1789

included John Anderson Scudder (A.B. 1775) and Joseph Scudder (A.B. 1778). On November 4, 1800 the Centinel of Liberty was discontinued, and Green and English established in its stead the daily Museum and Washington and George-town Daily Advertiser. However, only the first two numbers of the paper were issued daily, and on November 27 the word "Daily" was dropped from the tide and the paper was published triweekly. The Advertiser was discontinued with the issue of January 22, 1802 and sold to William A. Rind and Charles Prentice who merged it into the Washington Federalist of Georgetown. Sometime after the publishing firm folded, Charles Green returned to New Jersey, but English continued to seek his niche in life in Georgetown. He is said to have "engaged in mercantile pursuits." He eventually became associated with the Union Bank of Georgetown and for many years acted as stockbroker and financial adviser to some of his friends. In a letter to Charles Green's brother Richard written November 6, 1809, he noted that Green had requested him to subscribe for sixty shares in the Union Bank; subscription books for the sale of these shares opened the following day at $50.00 per share. English also enclosed certificates of stock in the Bank of Columbia which Green had presumably asked him to obtain. He wrote of an upcoming election for directors of the Union Bank "soon after which my fate will be determined." Two years later he became the cashier of the Union Bank and continued in that position until the bank's liquidation in 1840. Lydia Scudder English died childless on March 26, 1800. On April 7, 1801 English married Sarah Threlkeld, daughter of the Reverend Joseph Threlkeld. This marriage produced three sons and three daughters, the oldest daughter named Lydia Scudder English after English's first wife. Sarah Threlkeld English died sometime after July 1818, and on November 9, 1819 English married Lydia Ridgely, widow of John Henderson. A daughter who lived less than a year and a son were born of this marriage. Letters from English to Caleb S. Green in Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville, New Jersey, covering the period from 1814 to 1821, provide glimpses of both English's business and personal life. Apparently he continued to look after the business interests of the Green brothers. His letters continued to ask news of, and send regards to, various Princeton, Monmouth, and Philadelphia friends. He wrote of local news and mutual friends and usually included an account of an interesting sermon which he had heard. Although a regular attendant at the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, he seldom missed an opportunity to hear interesting preachers of other denominations.

D A V I D ENGLISH

391

A letter of November 7, 1814 described the confusion as the British invaders neared Washington. English supervised the moving of the bank's effects to Frederick Town, while his wife took the children and what she could manage of their household belongings to a friend's farm about seventeen miles from Georgetown. The war scattered the family for a time. The youngest child remained on the farm after the parents returned to Georgetown. The oldest daughter Lydia spent the winter with Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, sister-in-law of John R. Smith (A.B. 1787), who was instructing her own daughters in her Washington home. The second daughter Jane attended a day school, and two sons were sent to the Moravian School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. English's letter also described the turmoil in financial circles caused by the uncertainties of the war. His bank, however, survived the vicissitudes in good shape, for by February 4, 1816 he could report, "I have 4 aids & a porter & we need another because when one gets sick our business gets behind the daily transactions." Later in 1816 he had a five-week visit from Charles Dickinson Green. The two men attended the debates of Congress, heard sermons delivered by most of the preachers in Washington, and enjoyed rides in the country. When the Reverend Robert Finley, English's friend from tutoring days, began to organize a colonization society to settle free Negroes in Africa, he sought the aid of his brother-in-law Elias Boudinot Caldwell (A.B. 1796), a Washington lawyer. Caldwell immediately enlisted the aid of his friend and fellow attorney Francis Scott Key, who was the brother-in-law of English's former pupil Roger B. Taney. The three then sought the help of English and the elderly Stephen Bloomer Balch (A.B. 1774), who was English's pastor. A meeting was held on December 21, 1816 to establish the colonization society, and a second on December 28 to elect its officers. Bushrod Washington (hon. A.B. 1803) became president of the new American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color in the United States. Elias Caldwell was elected secretary and David English treasurer, while Robert Finley became one of the vice presidents and Stephen Balch a member of the board of managers. In the summer of 1817 Caleb Green was recovering from a long and serious illness, and on July 30 English wrote, hoping that he was doing well, but carefully inquiring about the redemption of his friend's soul in case his health was not improving. English also described a spiritual revival in the District of Columbia which affected churches of all denominations. In December of that year he noted that the Lord had seen fit to take his eldest son. He also wrote nostalgically about having hoped that he could visit Princeton at the last

392

CLASS O F 1789

commencement and at the same time renew his ties with relatives and friends in Monmouth. In July 1818 he again expressed a wish to attend a commencement, with the hope that he would be able to do so that year. It is doubtful, however, that he found it possible, because his second wife died sometime in the late summer or early fall. Writing to Caleb Green on February 15, 1820, several months after his third marriage, English expressed his happiness in his new partner and explained that he had consulted with his daughter Lydia before proposing to the Widow Henderson. " I was aware that it was dangerous to mix 2 kinds of children but I was satisfied there was a better prospect of peace & quietness with a person of h e r well known piety & prudence than almost any person I knew who would have been a prudent match even without children." In the same letter English mentioned that "Mrs. Ε is now in the country looking after the family there," and that he hoped to join her soon. If Mrs. English still maintained her former home and the family divided its time between the country home and the Georgetown residence, that information would fit both Taney's description of English as a Georgetown retiree visiting the sessions of the Supreme Court and the claim that Robert Magruder English, son of English and his third wife, was born in Georgetown but later moved with his parents to Jefferson County in present-day West Virginia. In 1820 English reacted to economic depression, telling Green that he would be able to get him only seventy cents on the dollar for some certificates, and advising him not to take it. H e also visited Congress to hear his classmate Silas Wood debate on the Missouri Bill. By Jan­ uary of the following year he was worried about the fate of his bank. "We have an extension of our charter to J u n e 1822—The Senate now have before them the subject of rechartering the District Banks—I doubt whether they will do anything so much business is pressing upon them & the time limited to 5 weeks." H e advised Green that the bank stock which had been selling at 12 percent above par was now going at 20 to 22 below, and that his salary had been reduced to $200 the previous April. H e expected another reduction in April. At the same time he wrote cheerfully of some excellent sermons he had heard. H e also expressed his concerns about his son Charles Green English, who was apparently visiting the Greens. English professed a low opinion of "the Law or Physic" as professions. H e was willing to send his son to college only if he was interested in the ministry or teaching. H e also considered apprenticing Charles to a farmer and then presenting him with the money that two years of college would have cost. Richard Green was mentioned as a possible farmer

DAVID ENGLISH

393

with whom Charles might stay. English rejected from consideration a Maryland friend who would have liked Charles on his farm, because the friend had "too many blacks." T h e next month English wrote to Green that there was an opportunity of selling his Union Bank stock at 78 to 80 percent, but that his Columbia stock would bring only about 55 percent. He also informed Green that "A Bill has been reported in the Senate for continuing our Charter C District Bank ... to the year 1836 when that of the U S Bank will expire—It may get thro' this Session & then we must keep on with prudence until a Revival of Commercial prosperity." However, the panic of 1837 proved too much for the Union Bank, and Congress authorized it to wind u p its affairs. Several charters extended the date by which its business would have to be accomplished, but the bank was prohibited by law from incurring any new obligations, nor could it issue any bills payable to bearers. No further letters survive to provide glimpses of English's opinions and philosophy. In 1826 his daughter Lydia founded the Lydia S. English Seminary for Young Ladies, later the Georgetown Female Academy. One source suggests that Lydia did not get along well with her stepmother and was eager to move from the parental home. In any case, her father disapproved of the undertaking and declined to help her get started. However, the school grew rapidly, acquired a fine reputation, and soon became the school attended by the daughters of senators and congressmen. Its May Day celebrations were social events for the whole community. Lydia English found a lifelong vocation and her school grew to become not only famous, but the largest female academy in the south. With the Union Bank finally closed, English undoubtedly kept busy with the affairs of the colonization society, and of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, where he was a ruling elder. Described as a man of amiable manners and fine scholarship, he retained his love of literature and the classics throughout his life. He died at Georgetown on March 30, 1856. His widow died on November 8, 1859 near Charles Town in what soon became West Virginia. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 245; E. Salter, Hist, of Monmouth 6f Ocean Cnties. (1890), xxv, xxxv; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 26 Sept. 1792, 30 Sept. 1795, 28 Sept. 1796; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Min. Trustees, 23 Sept. 1788, 29 Sept. 1789; D. Murray, Hist, of Education in N.J. (1899), 94; C. M. Allen, "The Early Great Basking Ridge Academy," NJHSP, n.s., 16 (1931), 5154; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 101; Princetonians, 1769-1775, 522; E. F. Cooley, Gen. of Early Settlers in Trenton & Ewing (1883), 241-42; S. Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney (1872), 35-36; DAB (R. B. Taney sketch); W. S. Dix, "The Princeton Univ. Lib. in the 18th Cent.," PUL Chron., 40 (1978), 74, 76-77; Min. Fac, 26 May 1794, 13 May 1795, 16 Jan. 1796; J. McVickar, Early Years of Bishop Hobart (2d ed., 1836), 134-35; als, David English to Charles Dickinson Green & Richard M. Green, NjP; C. S. Brigham,

394

C L A S S OF

1789

Hist, fcf Bibl. ofAmer. Newspapers 1690-1820 (1947), I, 87-88, 92-93; Records of Columbia Hist. Soc, 9 (1906), 91-92, 95, 104-05; 37/38 (1937), 44-45; F. R. Symmes, Hist, of Old Tennent Church (1904), 42, 418; Hobart, Cones., I, 161-70, 199-204, 222-31, 327-41; P. J. Staudenraus, African Colonization Movement 1816-65 (1961), 15-27, 30-31; S. S. Mackall, Early Days of Washington (1899), 301-06; J. J. Walsh, Early Banks in the Dist. of Columbia (1940), 131-34. MANUSCRIPTS: English Corres., NjP; typescripts of DE letters to Caleb S. Green in DE's alumni Ble, PUA; J. H. Hobart Papers, TxAuCH RLW

James Freeman joined the Cliosophic Society on December 6, 1786, where he assumed the name of Achmet and was identified as being from New Jersey. An undated College class list for the 1786-87 academic year describes a Jonathan Freeman as a sophomore from New Jersey. Freemans seem to have been most numerous in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, and in Orange, Essex County. None has been identified as the member of this class.

JAMES FREEMAN

SOURCES: Clio. Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; N.J. Wilb, VI, 45, 154; ix, 135; F. W. & S. B. Ricord, eds., Essex Cnty., N.J. (1898), 120. RLW

David Gardiner A.B., A.M. 1812, lawyer and sheep raiser, was the second son of David Gardiner (honorary A.B. 1759; A.B. Yale 1759) and Jerusha Buell Gardiner, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Buell (A.B. Yale 1741), minister of the Presbyterian church at East Hampton, Long Island, and an early supporter of the College. T h e younger David was born February 29, 1772 on Gardiner's Island, a privately owned island situated midway between the two eastern tips of Long Island at Orient Point and Montauk Point, of which his father was the sixth proprietor. T h e father died September 8, 1774, leaving to David "all my lands in the township of New London, Connecticut and all my lands in the township of East Hampton, New York, to be rented out for his benefit by my executors." David was also to receive the remainder of his father's personal estate not otherwise given away in the will. T h e executors, Gardiner's uncles Abraham Gardiner and David Mulford and his friend Thomas Wickham, were entrusted with the care of David and his older brother John Lyon Gardiner (A.B. 1789). DAVID GARDINER,

D A V I D GARDINER

395

Though the business affairs of the estate may have been cared for by the executors, the Reverend Buell seems to have taken it upon himself to supervise the training of his grandsons. He saw that they were prepared for college at Clinton Academy in East Hampton. Since he was a close friend of President John Witherspoon, the college at Princeton was a natural choice for the young Gardiners' advanced education. Both boys entered the College no later than their sophomore year. During David's stay at Nassau Hall he joined the American Whig Society. At his commencement he took part in a dialogue on the questions, "Are the rules of politeness perfectly consistent with sincerity and truth, and ought they to be practised by a good man?" For three years after graduation Gardiner studied law in the office of Samuel Jones of New York City. He never practiced law, but one authority suggests that he wanted the knowledge of the law to enable him to regain part of the inheritance which his father's executors had evidendy not cared for wisely, since "nearly three-fifths ... went for the liberties of his country ... while one other fifth was otherwise minus." During the Revolution, British ships anchored in Gardiner's Bay had plundered the island, taking sheep, cattle, swine, fowls, cheese, and hay, although it is not certain whether any of this loss was part of David's estate. Gardiner purchased a valuable farm called "Eagle Nest Neck" in Flushing Township, Long Island, personally taking over the management of the property. He was among the earliest Long Island farmers to introduce and propagate successfully a line of full-blooded Spanish merino sheep. Their wool was sent to a factory at Hartford, Connecticut, which wove superfine cloth for use by members of the Gardiner family. Gardiner's college French served him well when a number of French refugees, driven from Santo Domingo in 1795, landed on Long Island. Gardiner was able to greet them in their native tongue, allay their fears, and offer them hospitality in his home. He was a director of the Flushing and Newtown Bridge and Road Company and was interested in the success of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. A Federalist, he took only a mild interest in politics, and when he was offered the nomination as representative for the First Congressional District he demurred in favor of his classmate Silas Wood and Ebenezer Sage, both of whom were to serve in Congress for several terms. Raised as a Presbyterian, he became an Episcopalian in Flushing, where there was no Presbyterian church, and served as a vestryman of St. George's Church. His neighbors considered him amiable and highly respected, an educated gentleman agriculturist.

396

CLASS OF 1 7 8 9

On July 7, 1796 Gardiner married Julia Havens, daughter of James Havens of Shelter Island. She died in 1806 after bearing him three sons. Two years later he married Lydia Dann of Stamford, Connecticut. There were no children of this marriage. Gardiner died suddenly on April 6, 1815, from the results of a supposedly minor operation for a "local difficulty." He was buried beside his first wife beneath the pavement of St. George's Church. His second wife survived to the advanced age of 101 years, ten months and twenty-two days. David L. Gardiner (A.B. 1836) and Alexander Gardiner (A.B. 1837) were distant cousins; in 1844 their sister Julia Gardiner became the second wife of President John Tyler. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Giger, Memoirs; C. C. Gardiner, Lion GardinerfifHis Descendants (1890), 145-46; Alexander, Princeton, 245; NYGBR, 23 (1892), 167, 181; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), m, 313-25; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789; Dexter, Yale Biographies, I, 664-69; n, 580. RLW

John Lyon Gardiner JOHN LYON GARDINER, A.B., agriculturist, historian, and seventh

proprietor of Gardiner's Island, was the son of David Gardiner (honorary A.B. 1759; A.B. Yale 1759), sixth proprietor, and his wife Jerusha Buell Gardiner, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Buell (A.B. Yale 1741), minister of the Presbyterian church in East Hampton, Long Island. Born November 8, 1770, John Lyon, as the eldest son, was destined for proprietorship of the island which had been owned by the family since 1639, when his ancestor Lion Gardiner purchased it from Sachem Wyandanch of Montaukett. Lion Gardiner then received a patent from William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, secretary of the kingdom of Scotland. This charter declared the island a separate and independent plantation and empowered the grantee "to execute and put in practice such laws for church and civil government as are agreeable to God, the king, and the practice of the country." When Lion Gardiner moved his family and servants to the island, his was the first English settlement in what was to become New York State, and his youngest daughter may have been the first English child born in New York. On March 7, 1788 the island was annexed to the town of East Hampton and the state of New York. David Gardiner died September 8, 1774, at the age of thirtysix, leaving his two young sons John Lyon and David (A.B. 1789) entrusted to the care of his executors, his uncles Abraham Gardiner

J O H N LYON G A R D I N E R

397

and David Mulford and his friend Thomas Wickham. J o h n Lyon inherited Gardiner's Island, consisting of about 3,500 acres "lying near the east end of Long Island," and all husbandry, tools and wainage thereon. He was directed to use the rents of the island to complete the new residence that his father had started during the last year of his life. T h e Gardiner brothers stayed with their Grandfather Buell at East Hampton from 1775 to 1785, where he supervised their education at the local Clinton Academy. A close friend of President Aaron Burr (A.B. Yale 1735), Buell had been a strong supporter of the College in its early days. Also an intimate acquaintance of J o h n Witherspoon, he sent his grandsons to his friend's college to complete their education. John Lyon entered the College no later than his sophomore year, joined the American Whig Society, and deUvered an oration on music at his commencement ceremonies. After graduation Gardiner settled on the family island, which came into his possession at age twenty-one. T h e island had been plundered by the British during the Revolution, when Col. Abraham Gardiner, as one of the executors of the sixth proprietor, was living in the manor house. When the citizens of East Hampton appealed to the Continental Congress for protection because of the exposed position of their community and of Gardiner's Island, Congress advised that the best means of protection was to make the island as desolate as possible so that it would not serve as an attraction for British ships. Island lore reports that in April 1813 during John Lyon Gardiner's proprietorship, British ships again anchored in Gardiner's Bay. While a portion of the fleet blockaded an American squadron in New London harbor, a small group of Americans managed to slip past the enemy ships and land on Gardiner's Island, where they ambushed some British officers and took them as prisoners to New London. British Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy, believing that Gardiner had arranged the ambush, sent a detachment of men to arrest him. Feigning illness, Gardiner retired to bed in the manor's green room, where the reflection from the green curtains on the bedstead gave him a sickly complexion. T h e British left him in bed, deciding that it would be too great a burden to have such an ill man on board ship. However, it was made explicitly clear that Gardiner's Island would remain unmolested only so long as no further hostility was shown to the British, and that no armed Americans were to be allowed to land on the island for any cause. Gardiner oversaw the agricultural pursuits of the island, and on March 5, 1801 he was elected a member of the New York State Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures.

398

CLASS OF 1789

However, he was more fond of intellectual pursuits and especially interested in antiquarian research. The Reverend Lyman Beecher, Gardiner's close friend and successor to the Reverend Buell as minister of the East Hampton church, commented that he never felt that one of his sermons was ready for the press "till it had been submitted to the inspection of John Lyon Gardiner." Gardiner's interest in local history led him to write "Notes and Observations of the Town of East Hampton, Long Island" and "Observations from Books and Aged Persons Concerning the Setdement of this Island." He also compiled a list of Long Island Indian words and wrote a number of brief sketches of people and events important in local history. His collection of antiquities included a Geneva Bible and a copy of Eliot's Indian Bible printed in 1663. He apparently was also a lover of trivia for, when he purchased a family Bible in which to copy a complete family tree, he added on the last page: This book contains 31,173 verses, 773,692 words, and 3,566,450 letters. The middle and least chapter is the 107th Psalm; Jehovah is named 6,855 times; the middle one of these is in 2nd Chronicles, 4th chapter and 16th verse; the word and is found 46,227 times; the least verse in the Old Testament is 1st Chronicles, 1st chapter and 10th verse; the least verse in the New Testament is in John, 11th chapter and 35th verse. On March 4, 1803 Gardiner married Sarah Griswold of Lyme, Connecticut, daughter of John and Sarah Diodote Griswold, and granddaughter of Governor Matthew Griswold. They had three sons and two daughters. When Gardiner died on November 22, 1816, aged forty-six, he was buried in the cemetery on Gardiner's Island. A portion of the inscription on his tombstone reads: Skilled in the lore of the schools and correct in sentiment and taste, dispassionate in judgment and pertinent in remark, chaste in language and unostentatious in deportment; his influence in society was great, but his private worth none could more correcdy appreciate than the poor, who lived in the vicinity of his estates, and participated in his daily charities. Possession of the island descended to his eldest son David Johnson Gardiner (A.B. Yale 1824). When this son died unmarried and intestate in 1829 the property descended in equal portions to his surviving brothers and sisters. Upon attaining his majority the second son John Griswold Gardiner purchased the interests of his siblings and became the ninth proprietor. In 1861 he also died unmarried, and John Lyon's youngest son Samuel Buell Gardiner became the

JOHN OULDFIELD HERIOT

399

tenth proprietor of the island. Ownership of Gardiner's Island has remained with Samuel's descendants. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Giger, Memoirs; Alexander, Princeton, 245; Dexter, Yale Biographies, I, 664-69; ll, 580; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6f DaUy Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; NYGBR, 23 (1892), 167, 181; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), in, 313-25;/our. of Trustees of East Hampton Town 1772-1807 (1927), 52-63; C. C. Gardiner, Lion Gardiner & His Descendants (1890), 128-29, 141-44 ("till it had been," "This book"). PUBLICATIONS: JLG's Notes and Observations of the Town of East Hampton was published by the New-York Historical Society in 1870; his Gardmers of Long Island in 1927. RLW

John Ouldfield Heriot (Harriott) planter, was born about 1768, the eldest son of Robert Heriot and Mary Ouldfield Heriot of All Saints Parish, Georgetown District, South Carolina. The father was born in Dirleton, Scotland, and immigrated to South Carolina via Holland and Jamaica. The mother was the only child of John Ouldfield and Anne LaRoche Ouldfield of St. James Goose Creek. Orphaned in 1751, Mary Ouldfield became the first great heiress of the region. Col. Thomas Middleton was appointed her guardian to look after the affairs of her several plantations and seventy-three slaves. After their marriage in 1761 Robert Heriot increased his landholdings and by the 1790 census owned 3,888 acres and 128 slaves in the Georgetown District. Planter and merchant, he was a partner with Daniel Tucker in the firm of Heriot and Tucker. Robert Heriot served in a 1759 militia expedition against the Cherokees. He fought on the side of the colonists in the Revolution, first as a captain and then as a lieutenant colonel, while his wife managed not only their own plantation, but that of her brotherin-law William Heriot. One of her concerns during this period was maintaining a school for the children during the wartime disruptions. Heriot fought at Fort Moultrie and after the fall of Charleston was taken prisoner. Charles, Earl Cornwallis granted him a parole on the condition that he go immediately to one of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. However, he was given special permission to visit Georgetown because of illness in his family. On August 8, 1780 his leave was compassionately extended by Maj. James Wemyss, since Heriot's daughter Janet had died the day before and his wife and son were seriously ill. The ailing son could have been either John Heriot or his brother Robert (A.B. 1792). In May 1781, after Georgetown had been in British hands for almost a year, Fran-

JOHN OULDFIELD HERIOT (HARRIOTT),

400

CLASS OF 1789

cis Marion captured the town. A departing British warship fired a shot that passed through the Heriot house, undoubtedly an exciting event for the two boys. As a member of the graduating class of the Nassau Hall grammar school, Heriot entered the College as a freshman in the fall of 1785. Several letters written during his freshman year with the salutation "Dear Robert" were in all probability addressed to Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785). Harper is the only known Robert who had recendy left Nassau Hall, and his position as a teacher in the grammar school probably gave him a close relationship with the younger Heriot. Greetings from members of the American Whig Society and news of new recruits indicate that Heriot, like Harper, was a Whig. On July 29, 1786 Heriot took part in a fencing match with one of the Deas brothers, also South Carolinians who had been sent to the grammar school at Nassau Hall. A letter Heriot wrote to Harper on August 15 suggests his family's affluence, as well as its close des. Papa and family have gone to Rhode Island and I believe will go from thence to Boston, & at Commencement they will return to New York and there we spend the vacation together, at the expiration of which we return to Princeton, where Papa leaves Mama for the Winter. H e returns to Carolina to look after the mane chance, and in the Spring he comes and takes away Mama, and then I shall be denied the greatest blessing upon earth, that of being in the presence of Parents who so dearly love their children as mine do. Perhaps the trip never took place, for on July 10 Robert Heriot informed Tench Coxe, a Philadelphia merchant and family friend, that Mrs. Heriot, "unfortunately growing much worse since her arrival in this country," might be unable to travel, but he still hoped that they could manage to set out for Rhode Island within a few days. It would have been nice had the Heriots been able to travel from New York to Princeton for the public speaking night held the evening before the September commencement, since their son was one of the young orators. Although no record of nongraduate Whig members survives, Heriot's participation in this event adds to the evidence that he joined that society, as his brother later did, since the speakers were usually chosen to represent the two rival societies on the campus. On December 23, 1787 Heriot and three other students were called before the faculty and convicted of insolent behavior to one of the tutors and sentenced to receive an admonition in the presence of their class. Whether this humiliation drove Heriot from the College

J O H N OULDFIELD H E R I O T

401

is unknown, but such a public reprimand was probably difficult for a proud southerner to accept. In any case while Heriot's classmates were completing their final semester at Princeton, he was back in South Carolina preparing to sail for Philadelphia where his father was trying to arrange a mercantile apprenticeship for him. John had probably already discussed the matter with Tench Coxe, for in a letter of July 1, 1788 to Coxe, Robert rejoiced that "my own sentiments have entirely coincided with yours on preferring a mercantile education'in America, since the revolution, to Europe, & have resolved to fix my Son in Philadelphia & after finishing his education there, to send him to Europe, when his judgement will be more matured, & he may have more leisure & experience to make & profit by his observations." John was already studying French as part of this grand plan. Robert hoped that Coxe could place John with "Messrs: Mordecai Lewis & Co. or Mr. Robt. Morris" but was willing to accept advice on this matter from Coxe and his friends. Family tradition does indeed relate that Heriot worked in Philadelphia for a time before returning to South Carolina. A family heirloom, a small book bearing Heriot's name and inscribed "Philadelphia, December 22nd, 1788" substantiates this claim, but no evidence has been found to indicate whether he also undertook his European tour, where he would have encountered at first hand the turmoil and excitement of the French Revolution. He may thus have been abroad when his father died after a sad accident in Georgetown in July 1792 and when his brother Robert graduated from the College two months later. If John did establish a mercantile business in Philadelphia, he did not remain there long. His name was not listed in that city's directories of the 1790s, and he was back in Georgetown by May 1799 when he and his brother Robert agreed to serve as joint trustees for the property of their sister Susanna Mann Heriot in the prenuptial contract that was arranged when she married Robert Brownfield, a local physician. Perhaps sharing his mother's anxiety expressed as early as 1776 that "there will be scarce a white man left in this part of the country," Heriot joined the turn-of-the-century migration from the rice plantations around Georgetown to the upland cotton regions of the state. The 1820 census found him located as a planter near Stateburg in Sumter County. On December 12, 1809 he had married Martha Ann Kirkpatrick, daughter of Robert and Agnes Kirkpatrick and more than twenty years his junior. His mother-in-law may have lived with the couple, for she died at Heriot's plantation "Enfield" on October 23, 1827. Martha died at age forty-two on May 29, 1832.

402

CLASS OF 1789

Heriot followed her on February 4, 1833, in his sixty-fifth year. They were buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Stateburg. The couple had a daughter Agnes and a son Robert. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA, incl. MS genealogy by H. T. Harrington; A. S. Salley, Jr., Marriage Notices in the S.C. Gazette & its Successors (1732-1801) (1902), 22; G. C. Rogers, Hist, of Georgetown Cnty., S.C. (1970), esp. 61, 118n ("scarce a white man left"), 124 (father's military parole), 133-34, 142n, 150, 166, 262, 275, 315, 528; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., m, 100-01,331-32; Md. Gazette: or, the Bait. Gen. Advt, 14 Oct. 1785; Heriot letters, passim ("Papa and family," 15 Aug. 1786); R. Heriot to T. Coxe, 10 July 1786 ("unfortunately growing much worse") & 1 July 1788 ("my own sentiments"), Papers of Tench Coxe, Coxe Family Papers, PHi, microfilm ed., reek 49 & 52; Smith Diary, 29 July 1786; Hancock House MSS (1786-87 class list describes JOH as resident of North Carolina); Min. Fac, 23 Dec. 1787; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 20 Aug. 1792 (father's death); B. H. Holcomb, comp., S.C. Marriages, 1688-1799 (1980), 29 (sister's wedding); M. L. Houston, Index to the Cnty. Wills of S.C. (1964), 220; Τ. E. Wilson & J. L. Grimes, comp., Marriage & Death Notices from the Southern Patriot, 1815-30 (1982), I, 166; S.C. Magazine of Ancestral Research, 9 (1981), 92, 93 (deaths of Martha & JOH). MANUSCRIPTS: For transcripts of four letters dated 9 Jan. to 15 Aug. 1786, see Caldwell Woodruff, "Family of Heriot..." (1918 typescript in DLC), 126-27. RLW

David Hosack DAVID HOSACK, A.B., A.M.

1794, LL.D.

1818, M.D. University of

the

State of Pennsylvania 1791, LL.D. Union College 1818, physician, medical educator, botanist and historian, was born on August 31, 1769 in New York City, the eldest of seven children born to Alexan­ der and Jane Arden Hosack. William Arden Hosack (A.B. 1792) was his brother. Their father was a native of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, who came to America as an artillery sergeant in the British Army and served at the retaking of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. After his discharge in 1762 he went to New York and established himself as a moderately successful merchant. His wife was of English, Dutch, and Huguenot stock; her father Francis Arden was a butcher in New York City. Hosack's family remained in New York during the British occupation. How he was educated at this time is not known. After the British withdrew in 1783, Hosack attended the academy kept by Alexander MacWhorter (A.B. 1757) in Newark, New Jersey. In 1785 he transferred to Peter Wilson's academy in Hackensack, New Jer­ sey, apparently in order to concentrate on Greek. He enrolled as a freshman at Columbia College in 1786 and stayed there through the spring of 1788. Although he pursued the arts curriculum, he also took up the study of medicine during these years when his father apprenticed him to the surgeon Richard Bayley, a former student of

D A V I D HOSACK

David Hosack, A.B. 1789 BY REMBRANDT PEALE

William Hunter of London. Bayley's private anatomy class sparked the Doctor's Riot of April 1788, when a jesting student waved a dissected limb from a window of the New York Hospital. A mob prompdy stormed it and also attacked Columbia College, the houses of several physicians, and the jail to which they had fled for safety's sake. Hosack himself was hit by a rock and only saved from further injury because a friend intervened. This incident may have prompted Hosack's transfer to the College as a senior in the fall of 1788, though in later years he said his desire to study under John Witherspoon, Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), and Walter Minto had motivated him. His family's Presbyterian background also may have had a bearing. He joined the American Whig Society. At his commencement, he responded affirmatively in a disputation on the topic: "Is there more personal happiness in a polished than in a savage state?" After his graduation Hosack returned to New York and began medical studies in earnest by attending lectures at the private medical school of Nicholas Romayne. In autumn 1790 he proceeded to

404

CLASS OF 1789

Philadelphia, where he attended lectures at both the University of the State of Pennsylvania and the College of Philadelphia, whose medical faculties did not unite until September 1791. His teachers included William Shippen, Jr. (A.B. 1754), Adam Kuhn, Caspar Wistar, and Benjamin Rush (A.B. 1760). He presented his thesis, a defense of Kuhn's views on cholera morbus, to the faculty of the University of the State of Pennsylvania in May 1791. After receiving his M.D., Hosack moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and started a practice there, having been assured that it would be the site of the new capital and an ideal spot for a young doctor. He soon discovered that this optimistic assessment of the town's prospects was at best premature and, furthermore, he was ambitious for the opportunities and cachet afforded by study in Europe. In August 1792 he sailed for Liverpool and proceeded to Edinburgh, where he attended lectures at the university during the fall and winter. He later recalled having had an uninterrupted schedule of lectures and clinical attendance from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In the summer of 1793 Hosack went to London and spent the ensuing year walking the wards of St. Bartholomew's and St. George's hospitals. He also found time to begin the intensive study of botany, which was regarded as an important attainment for physicians and taught in many medical schools at this time. Hosack undertook field work with William Curtis, author of the Flora Londinensis, and attended the lectures of James Edward Smith. Smith, president of the Linnean Society and an important figure in international botanical circles by virtue of his purchase in 1784 of the personal library and herbarium of Linnaeus (Karl von Linne), became a lifelong friend. Hosack was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1793 and permitted by Smith to add some duplicates from the Linnaean herbarium to his own collection. During his stay in London Hosack also read a paper on vision to the Royal Society, which printed it in its Philosophical Transactions in 1794. In it he sought to explain the eye's ability to focus on objects at varying distances as a function of its external muscles. Hosack returned to New York in the fall of 1794, armed with a large library and collections of botanical and mineralogical specimens. During the voyage home typhus broke out in the steerage section, and he battled the disease so well that none of the passengers died. His biographers attribute the immediate success of his New York practice to the publicity this performance earned him. His training was so far superior to the contemporary norm, however, that an enthusiastic reception was probably assured in any event. Hosack remained in full practice for the next thirty-six years. Samuel Bard, the only member of the King's College medical faculty to stay on in

D A V I D HOSACK

405

the city during the Revolution and perhaps the most respected physician in New York afterward, made Hosack his partner around 1795. When Bard retired in 1798, Hosack took over the whole practice. Thereafter, he was the physician of choice for many of the city's first families. His patients included Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), Alexander Hamilton (LL.D. 1791), De Witt Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Fulton, and John Pintard (A.B. 1776). Hosack earned a very respectable $1,500 in his first year of practice in New York, and at the peak of his career his income exceeded $10,000, a figure rivaled by few of his contemporaries. Pintard estimated it to be $12,000 in 1819, but added "he is liberal, hospitable and expensive. I doubt if he is worth a dollar." Hosack owed his success to superior training and courtly breeding, tireless labor, and a renowned bedside manner, which combined his formidable self-confidence and authority with a surprising gendeness. Hosack supplemented his private practice with a long and controversial career as a medical educator. In 1795 he was appointed professor of botany at Columbia College after Samuel Latham Mitchill resigned in his favor, and this post was augmented by the chair in materia medico, when the incumbent died in 1796. Hosack held both chairs until 1811, but he soon became dissatisfied with the very low enrollment at the school, a result both of poor facilities and of the school's requiring higher standards than its competitors before awarding degrees. He therefore supported the founding of the College of Physicians and Surgeons by the Medical Society of the County of New York in 1807, and he was professor of botany and materia medica and lecturer on surgery and midwifery during the new institution's first session. He resigned in February 1808 after his demand for the professorship in surgery and midwifery was not met, but continued to serve as a trustee. In 1811 Hosack advocated a merger of the two schools. He argued that pooling talent and boosting enrollment were the best ways to improve medical education. His colleagues at Columbia disagreed and censured him for the flagrant conflict of interest of serving as a trustee and agreeing to rejoin the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons while retaining his chair at Columbia. Hosack resigned from Columbia and became professor of theory and practice of physic and of clinical medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He continued to work for a merger of the two schools, a goal achieved in 1813 when the Columbia faculty all took appointments in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Columbia medical school ceased to exist. In the reshuffle, Hosack gave up his chair of clinical medicine while retaining that of theory and practice of physic.

406

CLASS OF 1789

The College of Physicians and Surgeons became the only medical school in New York City when the unlicensed Medical Institution of the State of New York, one of several schools Romayne established during his career, failed in 1816. Hosack helped along its demise by successfully lobbying against a bill to give it a charter in 1815. The monopoly status of the College of Physicians and Surgeons exposed it to the jealousy of the rest of the local medical profession. The trouble surfaced in 1819 in a complicated series of complaints, allegations, and investigadons involving the faculty and trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the regents, and the state legislature. The main source of friction was the trustees, who were dominated by doctors who were not on the faculty. They sought to make life unbearable for the faculty by accusing them of corruption and mismanagement and by tampering with their authority to approve degree candidates. The faculty responded by seeking to have the board of trustees purged and confined in future to laymen. This proposal's failure to clear the legislature prompted the resignation of the entire faculty in 1826. Hosack and four of his colleagues lost no time in opening their own medical school. They chipped in to pay for a new building on Duane Street, with Hosack contributing $20,000. Initially they advertised themselves as the New York Medical College, with Hosack as president At the same time they sought an academic affiliation which would enable them to award degrees. After being rejected by Columbia and Union colleges and even considering seeking a connection with the College of New Jersey, they reached an agreement with Rutgers College. Rutgers was to award the M.D. degree to those recommended by Hosack and his colleagues. In return it would receive a $10 graduation fee, and neither institution would be responsible for the other's debts. From its opening on November 6, 1826, the Rutgers Medical College outdrew the newly appointed faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, a clear tribute to Hosack's reputation as a teacher. But despite its popularity, the Rutgers Medical College proved short-lived, thanks to astute maneuvering by its rival. From the beginning, supporters of the College of Physicians and Surgeons argued that the affiliation with Rutgers, a New Jersey school, was an encroachment on the sovereignty of the state of New York. In 1827 the legislature agreed and restricted the right to practice in New York without a license to graduates of New York medical schools. Hosack responded by affiliating with Geneva [now Hobart] College in Geneva, New York, and by seeking a charter from the legislature for his school in its own right. The latter was not granted, and when his enemies secured a state supreme court ruling that Geneva College

D A V I D HOSACK

407

could only award degrees to those educated in Geneva, Hosack was obliged to concede defeat. On November 1, 1830 the Rutgers Medical Faculty of Geneva College, as Hosack's school then styled itself, announced that it was disbanding. For the most part the battles over medical education in which Hosack was so deeply involved appear to have been struggles for money and prestige. The parties did not differ over medical curriculum or teaching technique, but rather over who was to reap the benefits that teaching conferred. For example, after acting to prevent the chartering of a rival to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1815, Hosack found himself arguing in 1826 that competition between rival schools was healthy and to be encouraged. His opponents were no more consistent. The ferocity with which the controversy raged, culminating in Hosack's 1827 challenge of the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, John Watts, to an (averted) duel, illustrates the importance doctors attached to holding a medical chair. Student tuition fees were paid directly to each professor in lieu of a salary, so that faculty members fought any competition which could reduce income by reducing enrollment. Faculty also received indirect benefits in the form of private pupils and increased patronage and consultations attracted by their enhanced reputation. Hosack's case demonstrates the stakes involved; he received an average of $1,800 a year, approaching 20 percent of his income, from teaching in the years between 1795 and 1826. Hosack established a modest record as a medical innovator and thinker. Shortly after his return from England he performed the first operation in New York to cure hydrocele by injection, and in 1808 he was the first in America to tie the femoral artery for aneurysm. His suggestion that ergot be used to stop post-childbirth hemorrhage may have been a first anywhere. More questionable was his advocacy of drinking massive quantities of wine as a remedy for tetanus and his suggestion that pimpernel might cure rabies. Hosack's main contribution came in the debate about both the nature and treatment of yellow fever. He argued that the disease was a tropical import and contagious, on both of which points he was an outspoken opponent of the views of Benjamin Rush. The issue was not settled during Hosack's lifetime, and the controversy between the contagionists and anti-contagionists raged with astonishing fury. Hosack was prompted by numerous critiques in the anti-contagionist Medical Repository to found his own journal, the American Medical and Philosophical Register, which he and his partner, former apprentice John W. Francis, edited from 1810 to 1814. Yellow fever is now believed to be neither domestic nor contagious, which would suggest that Hosack and Rush were

408

CLASS OF 1789

each half-right, although such a judgment is anachronistic since neither understood the disease in twentieth century terms. With regard to treatment of yellow fever, Hosack opposed Rush's use of drastic dosages of purgatives coupled with bloodletting. Hosack preferred to combine sweating the patient with concentration on good nursing care. In general Hosack's medical thinking was an odd mixture of old and new. He rejected the solidistic theories of Rush's school and sought to revive in modified form the humoral approach of Thomas Sydenham and Hermann Boerhaave. He was the only American and one of the last anywhere to produce a nosology, a treatise which elaborately arranged and listed all diseases in classes, orders, genera, and species, according to symptoms, in a manner analogous to the Linnasan system of plant nomenclature, which, given Hosack's botanical background, may explain its appeal to him. Hosack's more theoretical work was clearly obsolete almost before it was written; a physician of the next generation remarked that when a volume of his medical lectures appeared posthumously, "it failed to attract favorable notice, and may indeed be said to have fallen stillborn from the press. T h e matter had grown obsolete, and should have been consigned to the flames." On the other hand, Hosack has been hailed as a progressive for opposing drastic remedies like purges and bloodletting, preferring to rely on cleanliness, good nursing, and nature's healing properties. This praise has some merit, though Hosack's opposition to the lancet is usually overstated. J o h n Pintard once noted that Wright Post and his school did not believe in bleeding, while "Hosack is a proper drawcansir" (that is, bloodthirsty). Like his contemporaries, Hosack apparendy believed in and practiced bleeding as a general rule, but in certain instances, such as yellow fever, he permitted his own empirical observations to override theoretical considerations. Hosack's view of social status within the profession was thoroughly old-fashioned. He gave u p surgery at about forty, and Valentine Mott later recalled that "in none of his students was the passion for anatomy or surgery ever awakened. He taught them to regard such pursuits as necessary in truth, but inelegant, and unworthy of gendemen." He thus looked back to the view that a gendeman could prescribe but not be involved in the manual labor of operating or setting bones. This attitude went against both the need of almost all American doctors to engage in general practice because physicians were in short supply and the emergence of top surgeons like Post and Mott as the leaders of the profession. Throughout his life Hosack retained the interest in botany he had developed in London. He agitated for the establishment of a botan-

D A V I D HOSACK

409

ical garden while he was botany professor at Columbia, and when both the trustees and the state legislature turned him down, he used his own funds to establish the Elgin Botanic Garden. Starting in 1801, he turned twenty acres of land in what was then a suburb of New York into the most elaborate garden in America, complete with greenhouse, library and herbarium. A catalogue issued at its peak listed some 2,000 plants growing there. Hosack hoped that by establishing the garden as a going concern he would be able to attract support for a takeover of the venture by the public, an increasingly urgent goal as the expenses of the project began piling up. After several years of lobbying he persuaded the state to buy the garden for $75,000 in 1810. It thus became the first public botanical garden in America. Critics then and later asserted that the purchase price was scandalously high, to which Hosack retorted that he was losing $25,000 on the transaction. The garden may in fact have cost Hosack $100,000, but the failure to maintain it vindicated his critics' contention that the money was ill-spent. Bullying the legislators into the purchase was one thing; persuading them to vote regular sums for maintenance was quite another; and the garden was quietly permitted to decay. Ultimately the legislature unloaded it on an unwilling Columbia College in lieu of an appropriation, and it became the site of Rockefeller Center and remained the prime jewel in Columbia's endowment for many years. After giving up his chair in botany and selling his garden, Hosack was less visible as a botanist, but he continued to push for the discipline's study in America, befriending and acting as patron to the rising generation of botanists, including John Torrey and Caspar Eddy, and trying on several occasions to save or revive the Elgin Garden. In 1816, with the aid of some shameless lobbying, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He was elected to the Horticultural Society of London in 1817 and responded by transmitting to it a paper on the Seckel pear, for which he received the society's gold medal two years later. He became president of the Horticultural Society of New York in 1824. Hosack purchased the 700-acre Hyde Park, Dutchess County estate of Samuel Bard in 1828, and spent large sums thereafter on a garden almost as extensive as his earlier effort and on the practice of model scientific agriculture. Hosack managed to find time for a bewildering array of philanthropic and cultural activities. His medical interests spilled over into several public health projects. He was one of the leading spirits in the Humane Society and helped persuade its members to expand the scope of their activities from relief of jailed debtors to operation of a soup kitchen, attempts to restore apparent victims of drowning, and

410

CLASS OF 1789

promotion of temperance. Hosack founded an Asylum for Lying-in Women in 1799; and, though it failed for financial reasons in 1801, its assets were transferred to the New York Hospital, which then established a lying-in ward. While he was the city's resident physician in November 1820, Hosack made a speech advocating an ambitious program of public improvements, including the elimination of privies and burials within the city limits, an improved water supply and sewer system, and a strict housing code. None of these goals was achieved, and few were even addressed during Hosack's brief tenure as resident physician. This failure is largely explicable in terms of political realities which forbade the massive public expenditures involved, but Hosack's personality was also to blame. Pintard recalled that "Dr. Hosack had great & deserved merit, but his overbearing dogmatic manner gave such umbrage as to forbid his being reinstated. Plain folks who mean well, do not like to be treated contemptuously." In 1820 Hosack launched a single-handed campaign for creation of a municipal hospital for indigent victims of fever, which resulted in the establishment of Bellevue Hospital in 1822. While he was prepared to contribute considerable time to such projects, he was more sparing of his purse. After his third marriage brought Hosack wealth, Pintard wrote "except in his ostentatious style of living, he spends nothing, for he is neither benevolent nor munificent, reluctantly & rarely giving to pious or charitable purposes. I once hoped better of him." Hosack played a major role in much of the cultural life of his time. He was a founder and first vice president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and a patron of the Academy of Fine Arts of New York. Elected a vice president of the Alumni Association of Nassau Hall in 1830, his maintenance of a link with the College was also shown when he gave it his mineralogical collection in 1818. Hosack helped found the New-York Historical Society in 1804 and served as its president from 1820 to 1828. During his presidency the society faced a financial crisis and once even voted to sell its library. This decision so incensed Hosack that he resigned, but he was coaxed back, and the threat was averted thanks to a legislative grant of $5,000 in 1827. On a less formal level, the open house the Hosacks kept on Saturday nights was perhaps the closest thing to a salon New York had to offer. Most of the city's cultural elite attended, including William Cullen Bryant, Thomas Cole, and John Trumbull, along with such foreign visitors as Alexis de Tocqueville. Arguing that the muse of medicine was a jealous mistress, Hosack taught that a doctor should hold no public office and pursue no

DAVID HOSACK

411

other vocation. He refrained from political activity as a rule, and his nonpartisanship is illustrated by his friendship with both Burr and Hamilton. At their duel, Hosack was the physician in attendance on Hamilton, and he later subscribed $400 to a fund to pay off Hamilton's debts, but he also loaned Burr money for his trip to Europe. Hosack's friendship with De Witt Clinton may have extended into politics, however. T h e American Medical and Philosophical Register carried articles supporting a system of canals for New York, and Hosack was sometimes lampooned by Clinton's enemies. After Clinton died Hosack delivered a two and one-half hour memorial oration, which he later expanded and published along with a 400-page appendix relating the history of the Erie Canal. In religion, Hosack gradually moved from his parents' Presbyterianism towards Episcopalianism, although he never entered the communion of the latter. Hosack married three times. He met Catharine Warner during his year at the College and married her in Princeton on April 14, 1791 at a service probably conducted by Samuel Stanhope Smith. In J u n e 1792 she bore him a son Alexander, who died the same year. Catharine died in childbed in February 1796, as did the infant. On December 2 1 , 1797 Hosack married his second wife Mary Eddy in Philadelphia. Episcopal Bishop William White officiated. Mary Eddy belonged to the Philadelphia Quaker elite and is said to have played chess with Benjamin Franklin in his old age. She enjoyed and participated in the literary and scientific discussions at the Hosack openhouses. Nine children were born of this marriage, two dying young. Alexander Eddy Hosack, who also became a physician, achieved the most renown. Emily Hosack became the second wife of John Kearny Rodgers (A.B. 1811). Hosack's second wife died on April 19, 1824, and he married Magdalena Coster on February 26, 1825. T h e wealthy widow of the merchant and shipowner Henry A. Coster, she brought $300,000 and seven children from her earlier marriage into the Hosack household. This infusion of money enabled Hosack to live and entertain as lavishly as he liked, and he did so to the hilt. T h e splendor of his parties was the talk of the town, and the sums he spent establishing his baronial estate on the Hudson also attracted comment, not all of it favorable. Pintard noted that Hosack "has great taste and appears determined to exhibit it on a large scale, at the expense of his heirs." He also suggested that this marriage had changed Hosack's character; hitherto he had been hospitable to "strangers, especially literary," but now he was slighting both them and old friends and consorting only with the rich. In December 1835 Hosack was in New York for the marriage of one of his stepdaughters and thus was present when a disastrous fire

412

CLASS O F 1789

swept the city. T h e blaze wiped out several insurance companies in which Hosack h a d invested heavily. T h e worry these losses induced may have contributed to the attack of apoplexy which killed him on December 22 of that year. SOURCES: C. C. Robbins, David Hosack: Citizen ofN.Y. (1964), passim ("in none," 133; for photos of several likenesses of DH, see between pp. 118-19); S. W. Williams, ed., Amer. Medical Biog. of 1845 (1967), 276-85 (sketch by J. W. Francis); S. D. Gross, ed., Lives of Eminent Amer. Physicians 6f Surgeons of the Nineteenth Cent. (1861), π, 289-337 (sketch by A. E. Hosack); S. D. Gross, Autobiog. of Samuel D. Gross, M.D. (1887), II, 87-91 ("it failed"); J. J. Walsh, Hist, of Med. in N.Y. (1919), I, 148-52; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789 ("Is there more"); Dunlap 6? Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1794; Trenton Federalist, 12 Oct. 1818; Union College, Centennial Cat. ... 1795-1895 (1895), 17; Thomas, Columbia, 64, 112; B. Stookey, Hist, of Colonial Medical Education: In the Province of N.Y., with its Subsequent Development (1767-1830) (1962), 127-237; D. L. Cowen, Medical Education: The Queen'sRutgers Experience, 1792-1830 (1966); L. B. Priest, "David Hosack & the Rutgers Medical College," Journal of the Rutgers Univ. Library, 5 (1941), 9-14; S. Rezneck, "A Course of Medical Education in N.Y. City in 1828-29: The Journal of Asa Fitch," Bull, of the Hist, of Med., 42 (1968), 555-65; H. S. Klickstein, "David Hosack on the Qualifications of a Professor of Chemistry in the Medical Dept.," Bull, of the Hist, of Med., 28 (1954), 212-36; H. W. Haggard, DevUs, Drugs 6f Doctors (1929), 219; R. H. Shryock, Med. fcf Society in America 1660-1860 (1960), 65; R. H. Shryock, Med. in America: Hist. Essays (1966), 218-19; J. W. Francis, Old N.Y. (1866), 30-31, 84-86, 15255, 277; J. Duffy, Hist, of Public Health in N.Y. City 1625-1866 (1968), 168-69, 215, 222, 243, 250-51; R. A. Mohl, Poverty in N.Y. 1783-1825 (1971), 97, 125, 130-31, 153, 214; Pintard, Letters, passim ("he is liberal," I, 219; "great and deserved" and "proper drawcansir," π, 63-64; "except in his ostentatious," "great taste," m, 95; "strangers, especially literary," iv, 39); R. W. G. Vail, Knickerbocker Birthday (1954), 23, 59-68; Amer. Phil. Soc, List of the Members ... (1880?), 23; W. Dunlap, Diary (1929-31), III, 659, 663-64; N.Y. Hist., 18 (1937), 378-85; J. Parton, Life & Times of Aaron Burr (1858), 532; B. Tuckerman, ed., Diary of Philip Hone 1828-51 (1889), I, 5, 188-89; Maclean, History, n, 174, 359. PUBLICATIONS: Hosack's most important works are Essays on Various Subjects of Medical Science (3 vols., 1824-30), which reprints many of his separately published works; Hortus Elginensis (1811); Observations on the Laws Governing the Communication of Contagious Diseases (1815); System of Practical Nosohgy (1818); Discourse on the Means of Improving the Medical Police of the City of N.Y. (1820); Memoir of the late De Witt Clinton (1829); Lectures on the Theory 6? Practice of Physic (1838); and various articles in the Amer. Medical &f Philosophical Register (1810-14). See Robbins, Hosack, for a complete list of Hosack's publications. MANUSCRIPTS: See the comprehensive list in Robbins, Hosack

JJL

Daniel Lionel Huger DANIEL LIONEL HUGER, public official, was born May 17, 1768, the

son of Brig. Gen. Isaac Huger and Elizabeth Chalmers Huger of Georgetown, South Carolina. His birth was recorded in the register of St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, where his father owned a townhouse.

D A N I E L L I O N E L HUGER

413

Isaac Huger bore arms against the Cherokees in 1761 and later, along with his three brothers, Daniel, John, and Benjamin, fought with the patriots during the Revolution. The youngest brother Benjamin became the hero of the family when he died defending Charleston. Isaac, one of the leading rice planters in the area with large land holdings in four different counties, was the political leader of the family. He sat in the commons house of assembly, the first provincial congress, and both the South Carolina house of representatives and senate. The Hugers were of Huguenot descent, moderate Federalists, and one of the few planting families in the district with no mercantile alliances. There is no record of when Daniel enrolled at the College, nor of when he left, but he joined the Cliosophic Society on December 19, 1787. After his return to South Carolina he was referred to as "Esq.," a tide used for justices and members of the bar. However, nothing has been found to indicate that Huger studied law, and the honorary tide could simply have been recognition of his status as a member of a family with large land holdings. The position of the first federal marshal, responsible for the first census figures for South Carolina, had been awarded to Isaac Huger as a means of keeping the members of that important family allied to the Federalist cause. Upon his retirement on December 9, 1793 Daniel succeeded him as marshal. Huger died on July 17, 1798, probably without having married. Jacob Motte Huger (Class of 1793) and Daniel E. Huger (A.B. 1798) were first cousins and Benjamin J. Huger (A.B. 1850) was a second cousin. SOURCES: Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., n, 541-43 (sketch of father); D. Ε. H. Smith & A. S. Salley, Jr., Reg. of St. Phitip's Parish (1971), 11; Clio, lists; G. C. Rogers, Hist, of Georgetown Cnty., S.C. (1970), 175-79; G. C. Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys (1969), 118; SCHGM, 25 (1924), 102; 43 (1942), 151-53; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 182-83; U.S. Senate, Jour, of Executive Proc. (1828, 3 vols.), I, 140-41. There were four cousins named Daniel in this generation of Hugers. Daniel Elliot Huger (A.B. 1798), son of DLH's uncle Daniel, was the best known of the four. Of the two sons of John Huger named Daniel, the first died as a young child and the second was too young to have matriculated with the Class of 1789. A letter of John O. Heriot (Class of 1789) dated 28 Mar. 1786 reported that "Mr. Joel Thompson who returned here this session has quit College with Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Huger." Cliosophic Society records do not place DLH at the College before December 1787, and he is not on an undated class list from the 1786-87 academic year nor on one dated 10 Apr. 1789. The notation is especially puzzling since Lawrence has not been located in any College records. Huger may have left the College and been reinstated. We have assumed that Joel Thompson and John Thompson were the same person and that all of these men belong with Heriot in the Class of 1789. RLW

414

Thomas Hutchins A.B., A.M. 1795, land speculator, was one of the three illegitimate children of Thomas Hutchins, geographer general of the United States. The elder Hutchins was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, the son of John Hutchins, an emigrant from London, and Margaret (or Magdalen) Pintard Hutchins, making him a distant cousin of John Pintard (A.B. 1776) and Lewis Pintard (A.B. 1792). Orphaned in his teens, Hutchins became an ensign in the British army where he acquired his knowledge of surveying, drafting, and cartography. He served first as a commissary officer at Fort Pitt (present day Pittsburgh) but left the army for a time to become an assistant Indian agent at the northern posts. On behalf of the Indian Department he toured the tribes north of the Ohio River. Resuming his career in the British army, he became deputy engineer and later acting engineer at Fort Pitt. From 1768 until 1771 he was stationed at Fort Chartres on the east bank of the Mississippi River. His next duty was at Pensacola, where he acted as surveyor of the British province of West Florida. His great love was cartography, and wherever he traveled he drew maps. He embarked for London in March 1776 to publish his Topographical Description of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Hutchins does not seem to have been seriously concerned about the growing colonial dissent, perhaps because so much of his time had been spent in isolated areas. In London he made a fruitless attempt to receive compensation for extra services he had rendered to the crown. Accused of traitorously corresponding with an American agent in Paris, he was imprisoned and his papers and assets seized. Released after seven weeks, he resigned his commission in the British army and traveled to France, where he contacted Benjamin Franklin, who aided him in securing passage home. He joined the southern army of Gen. Nathanael Greene (A.M. 1781), where he was given the tide of geographer of the southern army. At the close of the war he was promoted to geographer general of the United States, a tide which he held until his death. He helped to complete the extension of the Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, he directed the surveying by the states of the western lands acquired during the Revolution. He helped to devise the rectangular township system of land survey under which most areas of the United States were later developed. Hutchins's first child was a daughter Margaret who was born at Fort Pitt in 1762 or 1763, and whose mother is unknown. In December 1774 his second daughter Susannah was born at Pensacola, the THOMAS HUTCHINS,

THOMAS HUTCHINS

415

child of his housekeeper Elizabeth Green, who seems to have been a camp follower. His son Thomas was born at Fort Pitt, probably in September 1771, since a Mary Mackay provided mother and baby with "goods" from September 23, 1771 until January 23, 1773. The mother, identified only as Ann Smith, had accompanied Hutchins when he left Fort Chartres on June 10, 1771, a long and arduous trip for anyone, probably a wretched one for a pregnant woman. Robert L. Hooper, an associate of Hutchins who happened to be at Fort Pitt at the time, acted as godfather and described the baby as a lovely boy with a sweet open countenance. Although Hutchins provided for the care of mother and child, he did not remain at Fort Pitt for the delivery, since on September 4, 1771 he was reporting on conditions at Fort Chartres to Gen. Thomas Gage in New York City. From there he set sail for Pensacola by way of Jamaica, and when he left Pensacola in the spring of 1776 it was to sail to England. Ann Smith probably took the boy to Philadelphia when he was four, and here she seems to have disappeared from his life. Sometime before leaving for London the elder Hutchins, who had had no opportunity to see his son, arranged for his care with his close friend Col. George Morgan, then living in Philadelphia. Morgan was a partner in the Philadelphia firm of Boynton, Wharton, and Morgan, which was engaged in the fur trade and land speculation. He had visited Fort Chartres in 1766 as the company's agent, and he and Hutchins became acquainted when they traveled together from Fort Pitt to Fort Chartres. They became fast friends, often stationed in the same area, sharing scientific interests, and sometimes collaborating on land deals. During the Revolution Morgan served as Indian agent and deputy commissary general for the American army at Fort Pitt. He not only acted as guardian for Hutchins's son, but also as the father's financial agent. He served as custodian of Hutchins's legal papers, since the latter spent so much of his time traveling through wilderness country. Morgan's account book itemizes his expenditures on behalf of "Tommy" Hutchins. The relationship between the two men was so close that Morgan apparently reimbursed himself from Hutchins's funds without a formal accounting. Tommy Hutchins's name first appears in the account book in the summer of 1777, when Morgan reimbursed Sarah Moon for board and clothing for the child. Sarah and Mary Moon appear to have shared the responsibility of caring for Hutchins while he remained in Philadelphia. There were also disbursements to local merchants for items of apparel, and to a tailor for making a coat, a jacket, and two pairs of breeches. In 1779 the Morgans moved to "Prospect," their farm in Princeton which adjoined the College grounds. Young

416

CLASS OF 1789

Hutchins now became part of the Morgan household, along with the three Delaware Indian boys who were left in Morgan's care to be educated. There were also three Morgan children, plus four more born during the family's residence at "Prospect." George Merchant (A.B. 1779), who was teaching at the Nassau Hall grammar school, was engaged to tutor the Indian boys privately to prepare them to enter the school, and Hutchins may have been included in this arrangement Not until 1784 do payments for Hutchins's tuition at the grammar school appear in the account book. Tuition payments continued until October 1785, when Hutchins entered the College as a freshman. Presumably during this period Hutchins at last became acquainted with his father. When the elder Hutchins returned from England in 1781, he spent several months in Philadelphia before joining the southern army, and although he traveled for the rest of his life, he made a number of trips to Philadelphia and New York to make reports to Congress or to importune for additional funds for his surveying expeditions. The only evidence of a visit to "Prospect" is the fact that on June 10, 1786, while staying at Philadelphia, Hutchins sent a servant to pick up his horse and other belongings at "Prospect," since he did not have the time to get them before leaving for Fort Pitt. He presumably stopped in Princeton for visits whenever possible. His letters to Morgan frequently referred to his son, recommending that the boy study hard so that he could participate in the great plans he had for him. On one occasion he sent a hat and a cravat to Tommy. He probably corresponded with the boy as well, but only the letters to Morgan have survived. Entries in Morgan's account book during Hutchins's college years show that the latter roomed on the upper floor of Nassau Hall with his classmate George White Eyes until White Eyes left the College in September 1788. Payments for tuition and "chamber rent" on two occasions also included "repairs in College." There were also payments to David Lyall and Jonathan Tinsley for "waiting on" Thomas Hutchins and George White Eyes, to John Clark for whitewashing their room, to Caesar Trent for cutting firewood and carrying it up to their room, and for cleaning the room. David Lyall also received three shillings and nine pence for tolling the bell, and there was a charge of three shillings and nine pence for paper for Hutchins's "Share of Blackboards." The diary of James Gibson (A.B. 1787) shows that Hutchins took his turn in speaking at prayers. While an undated class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year described Hutchins as a resident of Pennsylvania, a list dated April 10, 1789 identified him as coming from the "Back woods." He joined

THOMAS HUTCHINS

417

the American Whig Society, and its membership records show that he graduated with intermediate honors. At his commencement he spoke during the afternoon session, giving an oration on the influence of the new Constitution. On April 28,1789, during Hutchins's senior year, his father died at Fort Pitt after several months of illness. One obituary eulogized him as a man of good character and great integrity who made a regular practice of religion; another claimed that he was known for his piety and charity. The geographer's will, dated April 1, 1782, provided for his natural children by large grants of land in several states. His son Thomas received all profits from the publication of his father's maps. George Morgan's son John (Class of 1789) received a bequest, and the elder Morgan was appointed executor. Nothing has been found to indicate what professional training Hutchins received, if any, or where he lived after graduation. On January 18, 1798, when he presented a memorial to Congress, he gave his residence as Philadelphia, although his name does not appear in the Philadelphia directories. In the memorial Hutchins requested compensation for his father's losses and injuries "by his adhering to the American cause during the late war." He claimed that in his flight from England his father had lost the sum of £2,969.19.0 sterling, a warrant for ten thousand acres of land, his appointment as an engineer, and the money which he had advanced in the service of the crown, for all of which no reimbursement was ever made. He also claimed that his father had refused a majority in a new regiment being raised in England because he would not bear arms against his countrymen. The memorial was referred to the House Committee of Claims, and on June 28, 1798 this committee recommended that the memorial be discharged from consideration, with the memoriahst given leave to withdraw it. From the time of his first trip down the Mississippi in 1766, the elder Hutchins had been excited about the possibilities of settlements in the Natchez region, then a part of West Florida. Although he had acquired other land wherever he had seen particularly desirable acreage during his extensive travels, the bulk of his land was located along the southern course of the Mississippi. It was undoubtedly his enthusiasm which brought his elder brother Col. Anthony Hutchins to the area in 1772. By this time Thomas Hutchins held title to almost 7,000 acres of the most desirable land in the area and had petitioned for an additional grant of 25,000 acres, with the hope of transporting settlers to colonize the tract. A portion of Anthony's acreage was received "on family right," and it may have been this particular plot that involved the brothers in a land dispute which

418

CLASS OF 1789

became so drawn out that the legal battle was continued by their sons. Anthony settled in the Natchez district and became one of the largest landholders in the area. Although he held no political appointment more important than justice of the peace, he became one of the most powerful political figures in the territory. When Florida passed out of the hands of the British, Thomas Hutchins, Sr., had applied to Don Diego de Gardoqui, Spanish plenipotentiary to the United States, for confirmation of his lands. When the Mississippi Territory was formed in 1789, the United States required that all the old land claims be approved by the land commissioners of the territory. Thomas Hutchins, Jr., traveled to the region to have his claims to his father's lands validated. While in Mississippi he wrote a series of letters to George Morgan, by then living at "Morganza," outside of Pittsburgh, seeking information about his father's affairs, since Morgan had in his possession the elder Hutchins's papers, patents, and accounts. Hutchins needed to know whether his father had appealed for his lands through his British patents or as a citizen of a nation in alliance with Spain; he also wanted to know what claims his uncle had to the land over which they were contending. Hutchins's letters were preserved by Morgan, but Morgan's answers to these questions are not available. Hutchins was so eager to establish a clear tide to the valuable land that he made light of a charge of $25 for postage for four patents that were forwarded by Morgan. In spite of the possession of these patents, the legal bailie dragged on. In the fall of 1801 Hutchins wrote to Morgan appealing for any other papers available, saying that "the great decay of my health, a perpetual warfare, hourly increasing expenses, disappointment after disappointment, all urge me to get from you any matters which you may deem of moment to the estate in these parts." His finances dwindled while he waited for a setdement, and he stated that he was so distressed in mind and body that he was not able to engage in any remunerative business. In another letter he referred sarcastically to "honest Anthony," whose law suits were eating away all of his patrimony. Anthony Hutchins died in 1804, but the battle was continued by his son John, also a prominent citizen of Natchez. Only around 1816 was the claim finally settled, with local gossip of the opinion that only the lawyers involved in the case actually secured a profit. If Hutchins did realize any financial gains, he had little time in which to enjoy them. He is first listed as deceased in College catalogues in 1818. SOURCES: A. M. Quattrocchi, "Thomas Hutchins, 1730-89" (Ph.D. diss., Pittsburgh, 1944), passim, esp. 167-76 ("great decay" & "honest Anthony," 175); Indians at Prince-

THOMAS

PITT

IRVING

419

ton file, PUA; DAB (sketch of father); Pintard FamUy file, NHi; T. Hutchins, Hist. Narrative fi? Topographical Descrip. of La. &? W. Fla., facsimile reproduction of 1784 ed. (1968), with introduction by J. G. Tregle, v-xlviii; George Morgan Account Book, 5 Oct. 1778-17 Aug. 1789 passim (quotes), MS in NjP; M. Savelle, George Morgan, Colony Builder (1932), 28, 126, 184, 186, 194; Md. Gazette: or, the Bait. Gen. Advt., 14 Oct 1785; Gibson Diary, 19 Feb. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS ("Back woods"); Pa. Packet, &? Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; "Annual Hists. of Amer. Whig. Soc.," PUA; Dunlap & Claypoole's Amer. Daily Advt., 8 Oct. 1795; Jour, of the House of Rep. of the U.S. (1826, 9 vols.), in, 153, 356; MS Abstract of Phila. Cnty. Wills, Book v, 497, PHi; N.Y. Daily Gazette, 20 May 1789; Pittsburgh Gazette, 2 May 1789; WPHM, 57 (1974), 96-98; Encyc. of Miss. Hist. (1907), I, 914-16; BuU. of Chicago Hist. Soc. ι (1935), 70; T. Hutchins, Topographical Descrip. ofVa., Pa., Md. fcf N.C., repr. of 1778 ed. with biog. sketch by F. C. Hicks (1904), 7-51; V. L. Collins, "Indian Wards at Princeton," Princeton Univ. Bull., 13 (May 1902), 104-05; C. S. Sydnor, Gentleman of the Old Natchez Region (1938), 9, 26, 44. The marriage of a Thomas Hutchins and a Hanna Morgan on May 29, 1790 in the Gloria Dei ("Old Swedes") Church in Philadelphia suggests that Hutchins may have married a relative of George Morgan. Because Morgan had no daughter named Hanna, a niece seems the most likely relationship. On May 25, 1795 a Prisalla Mason, daughter of Capt. Thomas Mason, married a Thomas Hutchins. In this case the Philadelphia location is the only connection that has been found with the Princetonian. See P. McFarland, Marriage Records, 1750-1863 of Gloria Dei Church "Old Swedes," Phila. (1879), 116; Dunlap's Amer. Daily Advt., 29 May 1795. MANUSCRIPTS: George Morgan Papers, 111. Hist. Survey, Univ. of 111., Urbana; Burton Hist. Collection, MiD RLW

Thomas Pitt Irving A.B., teacher and Episcopalian clergyman, is reputed to have been a native of Somerset County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Possibly he was the son of Thomas and Grace Irving of that county. When the elder Thomas Irving died in February 1784, he left his son George a 100-acre tract to be sold with the proceeds dedicated "to the schooling of my son Thomas Irving" and afterwards to Thomas's support. Young Thomas was also left an indeterminate residue of lands not otherwise bequeathed. The faculty minutes for November 10, 1787 name Irving as one of several students admitted to the junior class "from other colleges." In living's case the "college" may have been the Washington Academy of Somerset County, a classical school which prepared some of his contemporaries for the College. He joined the Cliosophic Society on December 18, 1787, taking the name of Bellerophon, the rider of Pegasus, killer of the Chimaera, and local hero of Corinth in ancient Greece. Irving's rhetorical skills were recognized at his commence­ ment, where he spoke twice. In the morning he delivered "An oration on quackery" and in the afternoon he joined his classmate Ephraim King Wilson in a dialogue "on the union of vanity and dullness." THOMAS PITT IRVING,

420

CLASS OF 1789

After graduation Irving considered studying for the ministry. On April 28, 1790 John Witherspoon notified the Presbytery of New Brunswick that John N. Abeel (A.B. 1787) and Irving had "signified to him a strong desire to fall upon some means to be supported in the study of divinity at Princeton." Witherspoon confirmed their eligibility, and the presbytery voted them £12.10.0 each, with the proviso that bond be taken that "if they should not answer the views of Presbytery in entering into the ministry they refund said monies." How long Irving persisted in his studies is unclear. Either he decided to refuse the money or he eventually returned it, for he is not among the ministerial candidates whose stages of training are recorded in the minutes of the presbytery. Perhaps he, like John H. Hobart (A.B. 1793), was an Episcopalian who intended to pursue general theological studies at Princeton and complete his training elsewhere, in which case the presbytery's restriction on the award would have made it unacceptable. Such a hypothesis is alluring in light of his subsequent career. By 1793 Irving was in charge of the New Bern Academy in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. Tuition rates that year ranged from twenty shillings per quarter for reading, writing, and arithmetic to fifty shillings for "the dead languages." Irving guided the academy's fortunes for the next twenty years and acquired a reputation as a fine Greek scholar and mathematician. Under his leadership the school, founded in 1764 but hitherto not fully recovered from the turmoil of the Revolution, soon revived. By April 5, 1794 it had fifty "younger pupils" alone, and the New Bern Gazette of that date congratulated its readers on "the present flourishing state of our Academy." Irving's pupils included William Gaston (A.B. 1796), United States congressman and chief justice of the North Carolina supreme court; Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., United States congressman and governor of North Carolina; and George E. Badger, secretary of the navy and United States senator. The New Bern Academy burned twice during Irving's tenure as principal. A fire in 1795 claimed the original structure of 1766, after which Irving obtained permission to use part of the "Tryon Palace," former seat of the royal governor, as both residence and schoolhouse. The palace in its turn burned on February 27, 1798. The school's location between 1798 and 1806 is uncertain. In the latter year a fine new school building was completed on the site of the original edifice. Sometime in 1798 Irving traveled to Philadelphia, where he was ordained into the Episcopal ministry by Bishop William White. On his return he became rector of Christ Church parish at New Bern, a

THOMAS P I T T IRVING

421

position he held concurrently with his teaching post until he left New Bern in 1813. Irving's pastorate was undistinguished. A later historian characterized him as "lacking in zeal and religious fervor" and complained that some of his most prominent parishioners defected to the Methodists and Presbyterians during his ministry. Nevertheless, Irving made an impression on the community. In a letter of 1812 a New Bern citizen described an acquaintance as having conversed "with as much sang froid as ever parson Irving took a pinch of snuff." Irving was an active and enthusiastic Mason. He joined the New Bern chapter, St. John's Lodge No. 3, on May 15, 1794. In the ensuing years he was frequently chosen the lodge's chaplain or orator, and from 1807 to 1810 he served as its "Worshipful Master." He thus presided over the consecration of the local Masonic hall on June 24, 1809, when he delivered an oration. Two anthems he had composed were also sung. Throughout his years in New Bern Irving conducted most lodge funerals and contributed music and poetry on both festive and melancholy occasions. His penchant for oratory, music, and poetry found expression in other ways as well. The fire which destroyed the academy building in 1795 is traditionally ascribed to the carelessness of one of Irving's singing classes. In April 1804 he was permitted to conduct singing lessons in the as-yetunfmished Masonic hall. Irving helped lead the New Bern Theatrical Society and may have been among the amateurs who helped to flesh out the cast in the productions staged occasionally when small itinerant troupes passed through New Bern. Certainly Irving encouraged dramatic productions at his school. On July 3, 1794 the trustees were treated to a production of Henry Fielding's translation of a Moliere farce, The Mock Doctor: or, The Dumb Lady Cur"d, followed by a "petite piece," probably written by Irving himself, "in which the pretender to science was highly characterized and ridiculed." The evening concluded with "an elegant extemporaneous address by Mr. Irving, in which he depicted in lively colours the numerous advantages of science." Sometime in 1804 the academy students staged a play that netted $138.50, which they contributed toward construction of a cupola for the new Masonic hall. Irving left New Bern in 1813 to become the first principal of the new Hagerstown Academy in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. On September 13 of that year he was also made rector of Hagerstown's St. John's parish, with an annual salary of $400. By February 27, 1816 Irving was suffering from ill health and sought to resign his ministerial duties. He must have succeeded, for in April he was elected to the vestry. However, he may have retained his teaching

422

CLASS OF 1 7 8 9

position, since the Raleigh Register of February 6, 1818 referred to him as the "principal of the Hagerstown Academy" when announcing that he had "died lately." Irving's marital status is somewhat obscure. A letter from Thomas B. Haughton of New Bern dated June 7, 1806 observed that "Mr. Irving has quit keeping school, & is gone to the Northward I am informed to get goods to set up a store—Mrs. Irving & family are well." The assertion that Irving quit teaching to set up a store is contradicted by other evidence. Linking "Mrs. Irving & family" to Thomas Pitt Irving may therefore be incorrect. On the other hand, that two Irvings were teaching simultaneously near New Bern seems unlikely. If the Mrs. Irving of 1806 was Thomas's wife she was dead by December 30, 1816, when he married Bridget Philburn in Hagerstown. N o issue is recorded from this marriage. SOURCES: S. M. Lemmon, ed., Pettigrew Papers, 1,1685-1818 (1971), 320-21, 389 ("quit keeping"); MS will of Thomas Irving, 19 Feb. 1784, proved 9 March 1784, Somerset Cnty. Court House, Md., photocopy in PUA ("to the Schooling"); ΑίΗΛί, 44 (1949), 200-06; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("from other"); Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789 ("An oration," "on the union"); New Brunswick Presby. Min., 28 Apr. 1790 ("signified," "if they"); A. T. Dill, "18th Cent. New Bern," NCHR, 23 (1946), 501-03, 526-33 ("as much sang"); J. B. Cheshire, Sketches of Church Hist, in N.C. (1892), 258-59 ("lacking in zeal"); C. L. Coon, N.C. SchooL· & Academies 1790-1840: A Documentary Hist. (1915), 50-52 ("dead languages," "present flourishing," "petite piece," "died lately"); G. S. Carraway, Years of Light: Hist, of St. John's Lodge, No. 3, AS. 6? AM., New Bern, N.C, 1772-1944 (1944), 8, 57-59, 63-65, 73, 74, 82-87, 97, 98, 100, 102; L. C. Vass, Hist. ofthePres. Church in New Bern, N.C. (1886), 92-93; Sprague, Annals, v, 679; alumni file, PUA; T. J. C. Williams, Hist, of Washington Cnty. Md. (1906 repr. 1968), l, 385; Η. B. Taylor, Guide to Hist. New Bern, N.C. (1974), 60, 62 (photographs of the 1806 academy and the 1809 Masonic temple); A. B. Andrew, "Richard Dobbs Spaight, Governor of N.C. 1792-95," NCHR, ι (1924), 118-20 (extracts from one of Irving's sermons).

JJL

Henry Jennings HENRY JENNINGS was among the 1785 graduates of the Nassau Hall grammar school, where the previous year, as a member of the third class, he placed first in the competitions for premiums. He entered the College and took his turn at speaking at prayers on February 21, 1786. A month later, on March 28, a classmate described Jennings as a new member of the American Whig Society. Apparendy he left the College by the following year, since his name is not on an undated list of "Students at Princeton College" compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. The will of Zebulon Jennings, Jr., a yeoman of Elizabethtown in Essex County, New Jersey, dated May 6, 1776, left all of his land to

LAWRENCE

423

his sons Henry, Jonathan, and Jacob. The will also instructed that his sons be "put to trades," which would seem to preclude this Henry's matriculation at the College. However, when Zebulon Jennings, ST., also of Elizabethtown, died the following year, he left his plantation to Henry and his brothers. It could have provided the means to pay for their education. Zebulon Jennings was a member of the session of the Presbyterian Church and one of the early settlers in the area which in 1794 separated from Elizabethtown and became the township of Westfield. Positive identification of Henry Jennings has not been possible. SOURCES: N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Md. Gazette: or, the Bait. Gen. Advt., 14 Oct. 1785; Gibson Diary, 21 Feb. 1786 (speaks at prayers); Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786 (member of Whig); N.J. With, v, 271; E. F. Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth, N.J. (1868), 580, 583. RLW

Lawrence remains unidentified but was probably from South Carolina. Evidence for his attendance at the College rests entirely on a single source, a letter from John Ouldfield Heriot (Class of 1789) to a friend, in all probability Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785), dated at Nassau Hall, March 28, 1786. Heriot, who studied under Harper in the Nassau Hall grammar school, seemed to be passing on information about members of the American Whig Society and about fellow South Carolinians whom Harper had taught before moving to Charleston himself in late 1785, although Heriot never said that he was mentioning only other students from his state. Thus Lawrence could have come from anywhere, but South Carolina seems the most appropriate place to look. Within that category, Heriot reported, "Mr. JOEL THOMPSON [see John Thompson, Class of 1789] who returned here this session has quit College with Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. [Daniel Lionel] HUGER [Class of 1789]." Huger and probably Thompson later reentered the College, but apparently Lawrence did not. The family of Henry Laurens, one of the state's most prominent patriots, seems an obvious place to search, but it had no males of the appropriate age. In the absence of a first name, further speculation seems futile. LAWRENCE

SOURCES: J. O. Heriot to friend, 28 Mar. 1786, Heriot letters. JMM

424

George McClenachan physician, was the fifth of the six children of Blair McClenachan and Ann Darragh (Darrach) McClenachan of Philadelphia. According to varying sources their son was born either December 25 or December 29, 1769. Their eldest daughter Deborah McClenachan Stewart was the mother of William Stewart (Class of 1799). Blair McClenachan, who had emigrated from Ireland at an early age, was involved in a number of successful mercantile, banking, and shipping pursuits. He was one of the founders of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry and served with it during the Revolution. He and Robert Morris were the two highest loan subscribers to the Continental Congress in 1780 when it raised money to provision the army. Unlike Morris, McClenachan later became an ardent Democratic-Republican, serving in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1790 to 1795 and in the Fifth Congress of the United States. A member and a founder of St. Paul's Anglican Church, he was described in his old age as "burly and gouty." George McClenachan was a student at the Nassau Hall grammar school in the fall of 1782 when he took fourth place in the competition in English orations held the evening before commencement. On an undated list of "Students at Princeton College" set down during the 1786-87 academic year, he is included with the sophomores as "George McClanigan" of Pennsylvania. Nothing has been found to indicate when or why he left the College before another class list was compiled on April 10, 1789. On July 2, 1795, in St. Paul's Church, McClenachan married Mary Morris, daughter of Isaac and Meribah Morris. Six sons and three daughters were born of the marriage. McClenachan patented land in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on December 4, 1797. The property consisted of two contiguous tracts of land, with a three-story stone "merchant mill," a two-story gristmill, a stone paper mill, a sawmill, and a dwelling house. Ten years later he sold the saw mill, but he retained the rest of the estate until his death. It is not known where McClenachan received his training, but Montgomery County records refer to him as Dr. George McClenachan. His second son Morris also became a physician. McClenachan died August 17, 1833. GEORGE MCCLENACHAN,

SOURCES: BDUSC, 1449; J. F. Watson, Annals of PhOa. 6? Pa. (1891), I, 180, 475; J. T. Scharf & T. Westcott, Hist. ofPhila. (1884), I, 409, 424, 428, 452, 477, 481, 485; PMHB, 50 (1926), 5; R. M. Baumann, "John Swanwick, Spokesman for 'Merchant Republicanism' in Phila., 1790-98," PMHB, 97 (1973), 167, 174, 219, 224; H. Darrach, Gen. Notes of Blair McClenachan fcf His Children (1899), 4, 8; Morris family Bible,

J O H N MORGAN

425

collections of the Geneal. Soc. of Pa.; Bull, of Hist. Soc. of Montgomery Cnty., Pa., 1 (1936), 63; N.J. Gazette, 9 Oct 1782; Hancock House MSS. RLW

John Morgan army officer and planter, was born in Philadelphia on Sunday, July 22, 1770, the eldest son of Mary Boynton Morgan and Col. George Morgan, merchant, pioneer western explorer and Indian agent, and gentleman farmer. John was named for his uncle and godfather, Dr. John Morgan, founder of the College of Philadelphia medical school and medical director of the Continental Army. John had ten younger siblings, three of whom died in infancy. His brother George was a member of the Class of 1795, and his brother Thomas enrolled in the Class of 1804. George Morgan, who was orphaned at an early age, entered the service of the Philadelphia firm of merchants, Boynton and Wharton, as an apprentice when he was thirteen. In 1763 he became a full partner in the company and later married the daughter of the senior partner. Morgan spent a good deal of time traveling in western Pennsylvania and as far west as the Illinois country as an agent for his business, which was engaged in fur trading and land speculation. He established a good rapport with the western Indians and learned to speak their language, which resulted in his appointment in 1776 as agent of Indian affairs with the rank and pay of colonel in the Continental Army. In 1777 he was appointed deputy commissary general for the Western District, a capacity in which he served until 1779, at which time the family moved to "Prospect" in Princeton, which Colonel Morgan purchased from Jonathan Baldwin (A.B. 1755) by deed of April 1, 1779. When the Morgans arrived at "Prospect" they found that both the house and grounds had been badly damaged by the British. However, it soon became a flourishing experimental farm under George Morgan's careful stewardship. The bustling household eventually included a number of people in addition to the nine Morgan children. One was Thomas Hutchins (A.B. 1789), Colonel Morgan's ward, the son of his friend Thomas Hutchins, geographer general of the United States. George Morgan was also given the guardianship of three young Delaware Indians who were left in Princeton to be educated, George White Eyes (Class of 1789) and his cousins John and Thomas Killbuck. The Morgans also extended hospitality to members of Congress during their stay in Princeton in the summer of 1783, and congressional meetings were held in a large room

JOHN MORGAN,

426

CLASS OF 1789

at "Prospect" until Nassau Hall was ready for that body's occupancy. Before the departure of Congress the citizens of Princeton adopted a resolution pledging their support of the government and thanking the delegates for honoring their town. The presentation was made by Col. George Morgan and the vice president of the College, Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769). George Morgan's account book provides evidence of his belief in education for all of his children. Numerous entries detail amounts paid out for schooling, with the daughters of the family receiving at least an elementary education. John's name first appears on November 16, 1778 when, as a lad of eight, he and seven-year-old Nancy (Anne) were enrolled in the Philadelphia dancing school of F. William McDougall (McDowell) at the rate of $8 each per month. On August 13, 1779 the elder Morgan obtained a receipt for $176 from McDougall "for his childrens Tuition at Dancing School." John was a student at the Nassau Hall grammar school by September 1780, when he won the competition, open to all classes, "for pronouncing English orations." The first indication of tuition paid is a copy of a note to President John Witherspoon, dated February 2, 1782, in which George Morgan indicates that his son is delivering the amount of his tuition in full. A memorandum in the account book notes that "Johnny" delivered the money and note to "parson Smith who said he would deliver them to the Doctor." Morgan also carefully recorded that £0.2.10 in change had not been returned. On June 6, 1785 he paid the last grammar school fee for his son John and for Thomas Hutchins, which included tuition, firewood, books, and incidentals. On November 10, 1785 Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), then a tutor at the College, signed a receipt covering John's entry fees to the College, tuition "for the ensuing session," room rent, and repairs. But because College records contain no trace of Morgan, it can be assumed that he remained at Nassau Hall only a short time. Notations of payments to the College for Thomas Hutchins and George White Eyes continue in Morgan's account book, but there are none further for John. On June 11, 1787 Morgan received a receipt from David Lyall for "waiting on" Hutchins and White Eyes (probably carrying firewood to their room), with an additional amount "for J. Morgan Junr." Lyall had performed the same duties for Hutchins and White Eyes the previous year. Whatever services he did for John in 1787 cost a different sum, which suggests that John was no longer attending College and that Lyall was doing other chores for him at "Prospect." Hutchins and White Eyes roomed together at Nassau Hall, but there is no way of determining whether Morgan shared their room for a time. Whether or not he got along well with Hutchins, he apparently

J O H N MORGAN

427

was not congenial with White Eyes and may have been contemptuous of the Indian. When the latter appealed to George Washington in June 1789 in an attempt to get promised support from Congress, he mentioned the "cruel usage" which he had received in the Morgan home. He badly needed clothing because, he maintained, John had appropriated his garments, something he had been accustomed to doing "when he thought proper." Dr. John Morgan died childless in 1785, and his nephew and namesake became his principal heir. It may be that John left school to start managing his estate. On January 8, 1787 Benjamin Franklin wrote to him expressing his obligation to George Morgan for a gift of honey, "the best I have met with in America," and to John "for thinking of me, and proposing it." A receipt of November 24, 1787 acknowledges that Samuel Osgood and Henry Knox paid in full to John Morgan, Jr., a debt against Joshua Winslow, Mariner "late of Boston." This obligation may have been part of Dr. Morgan's estate, since John was still rather young to incur business debts. In May 1790 John Morgan joined the United States Army with the rank of ensign and was assigned to the First Infantry Regiment. The following year, as an aide of Gen. Richard Butler, Morgan accompanied the expedition against the Indians of the Northwest Territory led by Gen. Arthur St. Clair, possibly the father of "St. C." (Class of 1785). Butler, who was second in command, had served as Indian agent in 1775 and as superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern District in 1786. More experienced in Indian warfare, he resented the fact that St. Clair continually ignored his advice. On November 4, 1791 St. Clair's underequipped and poorly prepared army experienced a disastrous defeat at a battle on the St. Joseph River near Fort Recovery, Ohio. St. Clair blamed Butler for the rout because he had changed the order of march during the absence of his commanding officer. Butler was mortally wounded in the battle and Morgan was slightly hurt, fortunate enough to have three bullets pass only through his clothing. He was promoted on the spot to lieutenant. However, his luck soon changed. In a letter of condolence to Butler's widow, Morgan was rash enough to make a statement exonerating Buder of all fault and casting the blame for the ignominious defeat entirely on St. Clair. The letter was published, probably by one of Butler's brothers in an attempt to clear his name, and Morgan was court-martialed for insubordination. Gen. Anthony Wayne, who succeeded Buder, sent Morgan's papers to Washington, asking for a decision in the case, but Washington returned them to Wayne, saying that the disposition was his. George Morgan was hurt and resentful of this action after his long association with Washington.

428

CLASS OF 1789

John Morgan appealed in person to Secretary of War Henry Knox in February 1792, but Knox informed him that it would be improper for his office to get involved in a public controversy. St. Clair had already requested a court of inquiry, and if that were granted, Morgan's letter relative to the general's conduct would be judged by that court. At this time Morgan was referred to as "Ensign," the higher rank probably revoked until his conduct was investigated. He next attempted to have the place of his trial moved to Philadelphia. In a letter of September 24, 1792 to Knox, Washington firmly vetoed this possibility. "If discretion was a trait of this Officers character or fairness the view of his Advisers, I should hope he would abandon the idea of presenting a memorial to be tried in Philadelphia." He added that it would be well "to have him and his friends admonished in a friendly way of the consequences that must follow disobedience, for neither Military nor Civil government shall be trampled upon with impunity whilst I have the honor to be at the head of them." A trial in Philadelphia would violate military propriety and set a dangerous precedent whereby any officer facing court-martial might apply for a change of venue "as inclination or the expectation of benefits to be derived from it, might prompt." Unfortunately, court-martial cases filed at the Library of Congress begin in 1808, so that it is impossible to learn the details of Morgan's trial, only the final decision that he was cashiered from the army on December 31, 1793. One writer states that the citizens of New Jersey so resented this slur to one of their prominent citizens that Morgan was appointed adjutant general of the state militia and thereafter known as General Morgan. It seems much more likely that such resentment would have been felt on behalf of Colonel Morgan, who was indeed a prominent citizen on both the state and national level, rather than John, who could hardly have been widely known at the age of twenty-three. In October 1790, as part of the campaign against the Indians, Morgan had participated in a raid led by Gen. Josiah Harmar, which resulted in the destruction by fire of six Indian settlements at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers. At the time he was incorrectly informed that his former classmate White Eyes had been among those who died in the blaze. Whether Morgan made any effort at that time to determine the fate of White Eyes and members of his family is unknown. Not until April 26, 1793 did he address a letter to the Indian on the chance that he might still be alive. Morgan rather unctuously reminded White Eyes of the "Peace and Friendship" that the two had enjoyed as boys and dismissed the firing of the village as a mistake due to the difficulty of distinguishing hostile from friendly

J O H N MORGAN

429

Indians. The letter was written at the instigation of Colonel Morgan, as an introduction to be carried by Postmaster General Timothy Pickering (LL.D. 1798), who was traveling to Ohio as a member of a commission to negotiate peace with the Indians of the Old Northwest Territory. After leaving the army John Morgan gradually assumed the management of "Prospect," and his father transferred the property to his name. Since real estate transfers within a family did not have to be recorded, there is no public record of when the conveyance took place. A receipt of December 18, 1792 is in payment of an account against both father and son. By the spring of 1794 John was paying for materials and workmen for remodeling the house, while George was purchasing household supplies and clothing for the family. The remodeling was probably in anticipation of John's marriage on September 26, 1794 in New York City to Margaret Bunyan, daughter of James and Juliana DeKay Bunyan. In the spring of 1795 John complained to the College faculty about damage done to the sod wall separating his property from the campus. At first this incident seemed to be a student prank, but the culprits turned out to be cattle whose owners were allowed pasturage on the College grounds. In 1796, probably October, the George Morgan family moved to their property "Morganza," about fifteen miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A contemporary noted that Margaret Morgan chose not to preside over her husband's household until after her inlaws had departed. In 1798 John Morgan traveled to Charleston to escort his widowed sister Anne to Princeton after the death of her husband Thomas Gibbes (Class of 1790). She and her four children remained at "Prospect" until 1801, when she purchased a home of her own. On his extensive acreage in Pennsylvania George Morgan established an experimental farm such as he had had at "Prospect," and many of his seeds were brought from Princeton. He was particularly interested in cultivating grapes. He laid out the streets of a town to encourage settlers. By 1805 John had decided to rejoin his family, and he sold his Princeton property to John Craig. Six of his nine children had been born during his residence at "Prospect," and two were buried there. The home that John Morgan built in Pennsylvania is described as a long, narrow frame building, with two wings "lower than the body," probably only one-story high. On August 22, 1806 Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) and his chief of staff, Col. Julien de Pestre, stopped at "Morganza" while they were in the Pittsburgh area trying to recruit followers. At dinner with Colonel Morgan and his sons John and Thomas, Burr inquired about local

430

C L A S S OF 1 7 8 9

military strength, specifically questioning how many men could be called to arms on short notice and how many had been active in the Whiskey Rebellion. He also made rash statements against the government and declared that the West would leave the Union within the next five years. However, he was apparently careful enough to make rather ambiguous statements and did not specifically mention a plot. While Thomas, a law student, was probably sympathetic, John is said to have jeered at Burr's ideas. After the visit Colonel Morgan, worried that Burr was proposing to split the Union, wrote to President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) on September 15. This report was the first information that Jefferson received about Burr's plans, but he thought that the letter was too vague and ambiguous to warrant action. The concerned Morgan also wrote to Gen. Presley Neville, inviting him, Chief Justice William Tilghman of Pennsylvania, and Judge Samuel Roberts to dine with him and his sons. Tilghman later noted that "Col. was a good deal indisposed, & his order had considerably affected his brain." The guests concluded that Morgan was either senile or delirious. When the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia convened at Richmond for the trial of Burr on May 22, 1807, Morgan and his two sons were on hand as witnesses against the accused. However by the time a jury was finally sworn on August 15, only George and John Morgan were still available to testify. As far as can be determined, the remainder of Morgan's life was uneventful. His father died in March 1810 and John on April 19, 1819. Some years after his death the estate was taken over for use as a reform school. SOURCES: M. Saville, George Morgan, Colony Builder (1932), passim (inc. genealogical table); L. M. Drum, "Genealogical Records of Evan Morgan," PUA; George Morgan Account Book, 16 Nov. 1778-11 June 1787 passim (quotes), MS in NjP; East Jersey Deeds, liber H, 3, p. 333, Nj (Baldwin to Morgan); N.J. Gazette, 11 Oct. 1780; DAB (for father and uncle); Heitman, U.S. Army, I, 726; u, 31; Washington Writings, xxxil, 10709, 159-63; A. S t Clair, Narrative of the Campaign Against the Indians (1812); Timothy Pickering Papers, MHi, microfilm at NjP (letter from JM to George White Eyes); Min. Fac, 27 & 28 May 1795; Τ. B. Abernathy, Burr Conspiracy (1954), 63 (quote re GM's condition), 84, 184, 235, 245, 258; H. S. Parmet & Μ. B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (1967), 254-55; D. B. Chidsey, The Great Conspiracy (1967), 53-55; G. Swetman, Pittsylvania Cnty. (1951), 56-58. MANUSCRIPTS: Timothy Pickering Papers, MHi RLW

431

William Perry A.B., was the only son of William and Elizabeth Hindman Perry of Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The mother was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Trippe Hindman of Dorchester County, Maryland. The elder William Perry was a planter from that part of Dorchester County which in 1773 was set off to Caroline County. Around 1770 he moved to "Edmondson's Difficulty," St. Peter's Parish, Talbot County, and about seventeen years later he moved to St. Michael's Parish, also in Talbot County. He owned 1,880 acres of land and seventy-one slaves in Talbot County in 1798, when his total valuation of $9,200 was the seventh-highest on the county tax list. His landholdings in Caroline and Talbot together totalled about 5,000 acres when he died. He was an Anglican and Episcopalian vestryman and attended several church conventions. A prominent Federalist, from 1783 until his death in January 1799 he sat in the Maryland senate, serving as its president during most of the years from 1792 on. The younger William Perry first appears in College records on December 6, 1786, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, taking Ulysses as his pseudonym. One source asserts that at the commencement on September 28, 1789, Perry delivered the French oration. A contemporary newspaper account, however, does not mention Perry at all. Perry served as clerk of the Maryland senate in 1793, a year that his father presided over that body. He died young. The 1797 catalogue of the College already listed him as deceased.

WILLIAM PERRY,

SOURCES: Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., II, 644-46; W. H. Ridgway, Community Leadership in Md. 1790-1840 (1979), 323, 326, 329; L. M. Renzulli, Md.: The Federalist Years (1972), 187; MHM, 18 (1923), 289; Clio, lists; MS "Annual Hists. of Amer. Whig Soc," PUA; Hancock House MSS (WP on undated 1786-87 class list as sophomore); Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Alexander, 247; letter from Md. Leg. Hist. Proj., 29 Jan. 1982, PUA. Cliosophic Society records and two class lists in Nj indicate that Perry was from Maryland. The identification of the subject of this sketch with the son of the senate president rests on the absence of other candidates, the status of the Talbot County family, and the fact that when the elder Perry made his will in 1798 he made no mention of his son William. If the son had died by then, this would fit the 1789 A.B., who was dead by 1797.

JJL

432

Isaac Pier son ISAAC PIERSON, A.B., A.M. 1792, physician, farmer, and public official, was born in what later became Orange Township, Essex County, New Jersey, on August 15, 1770, the third child and eldest son of Matthias Pierson (Class of 1764) and his wife Phebe Nuttman (Nutman) Pierson. The father founded a line of physicians who served Orange for at least four generations, and was well-to-do by the time he wrote his will in 1799. Isaac Pierson attended the Orange-Dale Academy before coming to the College. The academy opened late in 1785 with Matthias Pearson as a trustee. James McCoy and Matthias Cazier (both A.B. 1785) were among the first faculty members. George Crow (A.B. 1787), who taught at the academy with Samuel Harris (A.B. 1787) during the academic year 1787-88, graduated from Nassau Hall in one year and was soon to advertise his ability to prepare students to enter the College as seniors. Pierson could conceivably have been Crow's first prodigy. The available facts, while scanty, are consistent with Pierson's having matriculated as a senior, for his name is not on an undated College class list compiled during the academic year 178687, while he does appear on a roster dated April 10, 1789. Pierson joined the American Whig Society, and in a letter written around 1843 Mahlon Dickerson (A.B. 1789) remembered him as having been one of its "leading members" in 1789. Pierson became friendly with his classmate David Hosack during their stay at Princeton and is said to have maintained the connection for the rest of his life. At his commencement Pierson acted as respondent in a disputation on the topic: "Would universal frugality and severity of morals produce greater wealth, as well as greater happiness, in a nation than if the public manners admitted a degree of luxury?" He answered in the negative. Pierson studied medicine at Columbia College during the academic year 1793-94 but left without receiving his M.D. The traditions that he received an M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and was later a fellow there are both unfounded. When and where he conducted the rest of his studies is unknown, though it is reasonable to speculate that he served an apprenticeship with his father. What is certain is that after leaving Columbia he returned to Orange to assist in his father's practice. He remained there as a physician for the next forty years. On December 29, 1795 Pierson married Nancy Crane, daughter of Aaron Crane of Cranetown, who bore him four daughters and six sons, including Dr. William (A.B. 1816), Rev. Albert (A.B. 1816), and Rev. George (A.B. 1823). The manuscript daybook of Pierson's

ISAAC PIERSON

433

medical practice exists for the years 1797-1800, from which it appears that at this time his usual charge for a visit was two shillings six pence. He seems to have had a business connection with his brotherin-law and distant cousin Dr. Cyrus Pierson (A.B. 1776), for the daybook shows Isaac charging Cyrus for "attendance on his business at Caldwell," and settling one of his debts. When Cyrus Pierson died in 1804, Isaac was one of the executors of his estate. Pierson soon became active both in his church and in local politics. He had been baptized in 1771 into the Mountain Society, which incorporated in 1783 as the Second Presbyterian Church of Newark and later became the First Presbyterian Church of Orange, and by 1801 he was a trustee. He was elected in 1802 to a committee of three which negotiated a compromise to a dispute over a plot of land claimed by both the Newark and Orange Presbyterian churches. In 1802 and again in 1817 he purchased house lots which were carved from the church's glebe lands. Pierson evidendy underwent some sort of conversion experience in 1810, for he is said to have "made a profession of his faith in Christ" at that time. When Orange Township was created in 1807, Pierson became its first assessor. He held the same position in 1809. In 1807 he became involved in a bitter dispute over the location of a new Essex County courthouse. The citizens of Newark and its hinterland were determined to keep it in that city, in the face of a vigorous effort by a group centered in Elizabethtown to move it to Day's Hill in Springfield Township. In February the Newark supporters narrowly won a referendum which was rendered a travesty by shamelessly fraudulent voting on both sides. Women voted on a massive scale, many illegally, and both sexes engaged in multiple balloting, so that the final tally of votes cast was not far short of the entire population of the county. The legislature soon set aside the result of the election as tainted, and the incident also prompted passage of a law denying the vote to women and free blacks. The contest for Essex County sheriff, held in October, came to be regarded as a second referendum on the courthouse issue, and Pierson ran as the candidate of the Newark region. He narrowly won an apparently fair election, and Newark contrived to keep its courthouse. Pierson was reelected sheriff in 1808 and 1809. At this time the Federalist Party was effectively dormant in Essex, and so the winning of elective office by Pierson suggests that he was a Republican. Piersons's father Matthias died in May 1809, leaving Isaac the only physician in Orange. The increased workload may explain his apparent decision to withdraw from politics and concentrate on his profession for nearly the next two decades. In 1814 he treated discharged soldiers returning to Orange with fever, and in 1821 he combined

434

CLASS OF 1789

economic advantage with professional interests by investing in a company that marketed a local mineral water for medicinal purposes. Pierson first appeared at a meeting of the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1819 as a delegate from the district society of Essex and was increasingly active thereafter. In 1820, 1821, and 1822 he was appointed a censor for the Essex district, one of five doctors who examined and certified aspiring doctors. He was elected second vice president of the state society in 1822 and first vice president in 1823. At the annual meeting held May 11, 1824, Pierson became involved in a protracted dispute between the state society and his own district society of Essex. The Essex society had expelled Dr. James Lee for reasons now obscure, and Lee appealed to the state society at this meeting. Pierson, presiding in the absence of the president, stepped down to avoid a conflict of interest, and the society then backed Lee and requested that the Essex society readmit him. Later at the same meeting this rebuke to the Essex society was softened by the reelection of Pierson as first vice president. The Essex society, however, remained adamant. On May 10, 1825 the state society noted that Dr. Lee had not been reinstated and therefore resolved that the Essex District Medical Society "have deviated from the path of duty, and are highly censurable for their improper and uncourteous conduct." There may be no connection, but at the same meeting Pierson was not elected to office in the state society for the first time in four years. The tables were turned at the ensuing meeting, for on May 9, 1826 Pierson successfully moved that the criticism of the Essex society be expunged from the records, and he was once again elected first vice president The controversy apparently ended on this note. At the meeting on May 8, 1827, despite his absence, the Medical Society of New Jersey elected Pierson president The society did not flourish under his leadership. The semiannual meeting was not held in November, for the first time since such meetings began in 1818, and Pierson did not attend the annual meeting in May 1828. This neglect may have been caused less by inattention to duty than by a conflict in obligations prompted by his resumption of a political career in 1826. In the 1820s Isaac's son William (A.B. 1816) joined him in his medical practice, and the younger Pierson played an increasingly prominent role in the affairs of the New Jersey and the Essex district medical societies. This sharing of responsibilities must have lightened Isaac Pierson's workload, which may help explain his return to an active political life. He won election to the Twentieth Congress, which began March 4, 1827, and was reelected to the Twenty-first Congress. Pierson was conscientious but timid in the House. He is

ISAAC

PIERSON

435

not recorded as having spoken on the floor, but a sample of rollcalls taken during his two terms shows Pierson voting twenty-six out of twenty-eight times. His voting behavior suggest strict adherence to the emerging National Republican party line. He voted for the 1828 "tariff of abominations," consistently backed road- and canal-building bills, and favored the Second Bank of the United States. In a letter to his son in April 1828 he blamed his recent indisposition on "my rest­ less impatience at what appears to be the interminable discussion of the Tariff Bill" and recounted with relish his participation in a plot to cut off debate and force a vote, which succeeded, "to the utter discomfiture of our speech-making gendemen." Later that year he expressed hostility towards United States Senator Mahlon Dickerson, a Jacksonian, in a letter to Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard (A.B. 1804). Silas Condit (A.B. 1795), a fellow National Republican, defeated Pierson in his second bid for reelection. When his term ended in March 1831, Pierson returned to Orange, where he died on Septem­ ber 22, 1833. The inventory of his personal estate shows that he operated a farm where he grew wheat, corn, potatoes, apples, and pumpkins and kept a herd of four horses, six oxen, twelve cattle, forty sheep, and eleven hogs. Overall the estate was valued at almost $1,600, in addition to holdings of about $1,200 each in good and bad debts owed Pierson. He was buried in the Old Burying Ground and reinterred in Orange's Rosedale Cemetery in 1840. SOURCES: S. Wickes, Hist, of the Oranges m Essex County, N.J. (1892), 208, 223, 291, 298-300 ("made a profession"); N.J. Witts, x, 352; xi, 264; Amer. Whig S o c , Cat. (1840), 6; Beam, Whig Soc, 68 ("leading members"); Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 O c t 1789; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1792; Thomas, Columbia, 182; I. Pierson, MS daybook of medical practice, 1797-1800, NjP; J. H. Condit, Early Records of the Township of Orange (1897), 1-2; als, IP to sons William fc Albert, 3 Dec. 1814, NjP; J. H. Clark, Medical Men of N.J., m Essex Dist., from 1666 to 1866 (1867), 23; D. L. Pierson, Hist, of the Oranges to 1921 (1922), I, 222-23; rv, 78; C. E. Prince, N.J.'s Jeffersonian Republicans (1967), 132-37; Smith College Studies in Hist., 1 (1915/16), 18183; W. H. Shaw, Hist, of Essex & Hudson Cnties. (1884), l, 213, 216, 305; Alexander, Princeton, 247; H. Whittemore, Founders 6f Builders of the Oranges (1896), 102; Rise, Minutes &? Proc. of the N.J. Med. Soc. (1875), 182-272, passim ("have deviated," 231); BDUSC, 1648; als, IP to son William, 22 Apr. 1828, NjP ("restless impatience"); als, IP to S. L. Southard, 2 July 1828, NjP-SSP; Τ. H. Benton, Abridgement of the Debates of Cong., 1789-1856 (1857-61), IX-XI; IP's MS estate inv., 11 Oct. 1833, proved 15 Apr. 1834, Nj (photocopy in PUA). See "Annual Histories of the American Whig Society" (MS in PUA) for an assertion that IP graduated with honors in mathematics. The claim is unlikely, since IP participated only in a disputation at commencement, and higher ranking students were almost always assigned orations. Matthias Pierson was omitted from Prmcetonians, 1748-1768; for evidence that he attended the College see his sketch in Appendix A of Princetonians, 1791-1794. MANUSCRIPTS: NjP; NjP-SSP JJL

436

William Stevens Smith WILLIAM STEVENS SMITH, A.B., attorney, the son of Josiah Smith,

Jr., and his wife Mary Elizabeth Stevens Smith, was born in 1773, either in Charleston or on one of the family plantations outside of the city. Josiah Smith, a deacon of the Independent Congrega­ tional (Circular) Church of Charleston, was a partner in the finan­ cially and politically prominent mercantile firm of Smiths, DeSaussure and Darrell. His associates were his cousin George Smith, his brother-in-law Edward Darrell, father of Edward Darrell (A.B. 1789), and Daniel DeSaussure. Smith was a member of the South Carolina general assembly for several terms, representing St. Philip and St. Michael, and from 1790 to 1810 was cashier of the Charleston branch of the Bank of the United States. He supported most Federalist pro­ grams, including the Jay Treaty. He was also one of the Charlestonians exiled by the British to St. Augustine in 1780. He remained there for several months before being sent to Philadelphia in an exchange of prisoners. Among his eight children were Edward Darrell Smith (A.B. 1795) and Ann Martha, who married Charles Tennent (A.B. 1793). William Smith entered the College as a freshman. On February 10, 1786 he delivered a letter to John R. Smith (A.B. 1787) from John's sister Polly in Philadelphia. Presumably Smith and his classmate and cousin, Edward Darrell, traveled from South Carolina to New Jersey together. Smith joined the American Whig Society and at his com­ mencement exercises he delivered an oration on politeness. After returning to Charleston Smith became a practicing attorney. On March 24, 1796 he married Juliet Lee Waring, daughter of Thomas and Mary Waring. Thomas Waring was a wealthy Charleston merchant who had served in the general assembly, representing St. George Dorchester. His family owned a number of plantations along the upper Ashley River. The Smiths resided at 35 Laurens Street in Charleston with their family of six daughters and four sons. Juliet Smith predeceased her husband in 1817; he died on August 20, 1837. SOURCES: M. A. Tennent, Light in Darkness (1971), 245; Smith Diary, 10 Feb. 1786; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1789; Β. H. Holcomb, S.C. Marriages 1688-1799 (1980), 234; SCHGM, 23 (1922), 157; 33 (1932), 1-2, 308, 310; 60 (1959), 178-79; 80 (1979), 262-63; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., HI, 665-67, 744-45. RLW

437

Charles Jeffry Snowden A.B., A.M. 1795, tutor, ministerial candidate, newspaper proprietor, and businessman, was born in Philadelphia on February 1, 1772. He was the fifth son of Mary Coxe McCall and Isaac Snowden, Sr., merchant, public official, and trustee of the College from 1782 until 1809. Seven Snowden sons attended the College: Benjamin Parker (A.B. 1776), who was Charles's half-brother, Gilbert Tennent (A.B. 1783), Isaac (Class of 1785), Samuel Finley (A.B. 1786), Nathaniel Randolph (A.B. 1787), Charles, and William (Class of 1794). In September 1784 Charles won first prize in the competitions for the first (i.e. senior) class of the grammar school at Nassau Hall. No official College records are available for the freshman class entering in the fall of 1784, but the normal course would have been for Charles to matriculate at the College upon completion of the first class in the grammar school. Confirming that he did so, Cliosophic Society records show that he joined on February 8, 1785, using the name Eumenes. He spoke at prayers on March 6, 1786. Since he still appears as a sophomore on an undated class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year, he must have repeated his freshman or sophomore year, possibly, given his consistent excellence as a student, for health reasons. On December 23, 1787 he was convicted "of abusing a Stranger and his wagon," and "of bad conduct in the dining room," for which he was ordered to apologize to W. Van Cleve, presumably John Wright Vancleve (A.B. 1786), then a tutor at the College. In March 1789 Snowden again appeared before the faculty on a matter of discipline, although it was agreed that he was only an abettor, rather than one of the actual participants in an assault upon Isaac Crane and a "disorder" committed in Crane's room. In spite of these breaches of conduct, Snowden must have been a good student, for he took second place in the undergraduate English competition in 1788 and delivered the English salutatory on "politics" at his commencement in 1789. CHARLES JEFFRY SNOWDEN,

There is a gap of several years after Snowden's graduation when he may have been trying to decide on his future career. He finally began the study of theology as three of his older brothers had done. He was probably in Princeton for this purpose in May 1792, when he was at Nassau Hall to deliver the exhortatory address at a Cliosophic Society meeting. He remained actively involved in the society until 1796. On November 14, 1793 he was appointed a tutor in the College, but he resigned the position exacdy two weeks later. On April 23, 1794 Snowden was admitted to the New Brunswick presbytery as a

438

CLASS OF 1789

candidate for the ministry, with that body satisfied as to his "real piety and upright views." On October 24, 1794 the members of the presbytery met during an interval between meetings of the Synod of New York and New Jersey, when the Reverend James F. Armstrong (A.B. 1773), pastor of the Presbyterian churches in Trenton and Maidenhead (later Lawrenceville), laid before them charges against Snowden signed by George Morgan of Princeton. Morgan, whose farm "Prospect" adjoined the campus, was a prominent member of the community who seems normally to have been on good terms with both the College authorities and the members of the student body. He is known to have planted cherry trees along the border of his property to make it convenient for the students to help themselves to the fruit. His charge against Snowden was for falsehood, but no further details are known. The presbytery appointed Armstrong to request both interested parties to appear at its next meeting. On December 3, 1794 neither Morgan nor any representative appeared. Snowden was given an opportunity to explain his actions, and the presbytery unanimously resolved that the charge was groundless and dismissed the matter. At this meeting Charles's brother Gilbert attended as a regular member of the presbytery, and his brother Samuel was a licentiate member who would be ordained within the year. On September 16, 1795 Samuel Snowden informed the presbytery that his brother Charles had been prevented by "necessary business" from attending to his studies, and the presbytery granted a deferral of his examination. The November 24, 1795 minutes of that body note that "Snowden" was still not prepared to make a report, but it is unclear whether it was Charles who did not report on his studies or Gilbert who failed to report for some committee of which he was a member. No further mention of Charles has been found in the presbytery minutes. On September 30, 1795 he was awarded the A.M. degree by the College and, in a break with recent tradition, he delivered an oration on eloquence at the commencement ceremony. After the Revolution only candidates for the bachelor's degree normally participated. According to one historian Snowden "was licensed to preach, and delivered one very eloquent and pathetic sermon, and that was all." Since he usually seems to have done well at oratory, and even on this occasion was praised for his eloquence, a lack of conviction on his part may have caused him to leave the ministry almost as soon as he entered it. His brother Nathaniel's diary does not discuss this decision or the reason for it, but at that time the family was probably much more concerned about William's deteriorating condition than about Charles's change in career.

CHARLES JEFFRY SNOWDEN

439

In 1798 Snowden married Frances Malcolm, daughter of Gen. William Malcolm, who had served on George Washington's staff during the Revolution and who was a member of the St. Andrew's Society in New York City. For the next decade or so the couple made their home on Staten Island, where they raised a family of six daughters and two sons. On July 10, 1798 Snowden's name first appeared on the New York City Daily Advertiser. By January 16, 1800 the paper was being printed and published by Robert Wilson "for the Proprietor," and by February 15, 1802 this was changed to "for the Proprietors." Sometime in 1803 Samuel Bayard (A.B. 1784) acquired sole proprietorship of the paper, and it is not known what other interests Snowden pursued. He and his wife often traveled to Cranbury and Princeton to visit his parents and brothers. In August 1807 Nathaniel, whose second son was named for Charles, recorded that he had received "Very disagreeable news about bro. Charles. We are likely to lose 25,000 acres of land in Berks." Some two months later Nathaniel rode to Staten Island to see his brother. "Much pleased that I come," he wrote. "C. very candid & proved that he had a free gift from Papa & that they are of no value. He gave me ye lease." Aside from one additional notation that he wrote to Charles on December 25, 1809 to warn him of their father's imminent death, Nathaniel never mentioned his brother again. Snowden probably moved to Berks County, Pennsylvania, not long after the above episode. In 1813 a Charles Snowden was ordained as one of the first set of four ruling elders of the First Presbyterian Church of Reading; the same individual also served on a local committee to collect muskets for companies of volunteers in September 1814. Finally, in a will probated in New York County, New York, on March 20, 1815, reference was made to a Charles Snowden, formerly of that location, who had since moved to Reading. Tradition has it that Snowden engaged actively in both the development of a coal property which he owned and in the building of a canal in Pennsylvania. At some point he moved to Ossining, New York, where he died on January 23, 1855. SOURCES: Alumni files, PUA; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Clio, lists; Gibson Diary, 6 Mar. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac., 23 Dec. 1787, 3 Mar. 1789, 14 & 28 Nov. 1793; Clio. Min., 25 Sept. 1793, 3 July Sc 22 Sept. 1794, 28 Sept. 1796; Williams, Academic Honors, 12; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789 ("politics"); Dunlap & ClaypooWs Amer. Daily Advt., 8 Oct. 1795; Alexander, Princeton, 247 ("was licensed to preach"); N. R. Snowden, MS Diaries, 1795-1801, PHi; W. M. MacBean, Biog. Reg. of St. Andrew's Soc. (1922), i, 100; N. R. Snowden, MS Diary, 1804-08, NjP; New Brunswick Presby. Min., 23 Apr., 24 Oct., 2 Dec. 1794; M. L. Montgomery, Hist, of Berks Cnty., Pa. (1886), i, 173; C. S. Brigham, Hist. &Bibl. ofAmer. Newspapers 1690-1820 (1947), 1,620; NYGBR, 71 (1940), 258 (ref. to Charles Snowden in a N.Y. Cnty. will). LKS & RLW

440

O'Neal Gough Stevens attorney, was a South Carolinian. A clue to his family background is found in the 1773 will of Thomas Jones, Sr., a planter of St. Bartholomew's Parish, Colleton County, who made bequests to a son-in-law John Gough and a grandson-in-law Neal Gough Stevens, who was still a minor. John Gough, who served with the Colleton County Regiment of Foot, was the son of the senior John Gough who obtained a grant of 3,500 acres of the "Cypress Barony" on the eastern branch of the Cooper River. Another of John Sr.'s four sons was Edward O'Neale Gough. The name of the Jones daughter who married into the Stevens family has not been discovered. Stevens entered the College, probably as a freshman, by March 12, 1786 when a student's diary mentioned him. He joined the Cliosophic Society as Cincinnatus on February 16, 1787 but had left Nassau Hall by the time an undated class list was compiled sometime during the 1786-87 academic year. Stevens apparently returned to South Carolina, studied law, and became a member of the bar. During his adult life he resided in St. Stephen's Parish, and in June 1801 he was assessed £7.8.0 for support of the minister of the parish church. He first married a Miss Richbourg, daughter of Charles Richbourg and Elizabeth Palmer, by whom he had three children: Catherine, Mary, and Charles. Mary's birth date of September 25, 1793 is the only reference to the time frame of this marriage that has been found. Stevens was married a second time in May 1794 to Ann Palmer, eldest daughter of Capt. John Palmer of St. Stephen's and his wife Ann Cahusac. Stevens's two wives were probably distant cousins. Two daughters, Ann Palmer and Laura, were born of the second marriage. The date of Stevens's death has not been discovered, but his widow married Capt. Peter Gaillard on November 7, 1805. The children of the first marriage chose not to remain with their stepmother but were raised by her sister Marianne Porcher. Charles, Stevens's only son, studied law in Charleston but was not admitted to the bar. He served for a short time as master of the Pineville Academy, but increasing deafness forced him to give up teaching. He eventually setded into a commercial partnership with John Ravenel of Charleston, wherein he operated a store in Pineville which supplied the neighborhood planters. O'NEAL GOUGH STEVENS,

SOURCES: Smith diary, 12 Mar. 1786; Clio, lists; C. T. Moore, Abstracts ofWilL· of... S.C. 1760-84 (1969), 206; SCHGM, 1 (1900), 329; 2 (1901), 6; 12 (1911), 9; 19 (1918), 143; 20 (1919), 55; 22 (1921), 70; 27 (1926), 217; 29 (1928), 160; 44 (1943), 76; 45 (1944), 82-83; 46 (1945), 46-47. RLW

441

John Thompson has not been identified, nor is it known how long he was in residence at the College. If he entered as a freshman from the Nassau Hall grammar school, he may have been the "Joel" Thompson mentioned in a letter of March 28, 1786 from John Ouldfield Heriot (Class of 1789) to a friend, probably Robert Goodloe Harper (A.B. 1785), who had recently moved to Charleston, South Carolina. According to Heriot, "Mr. JOEL THOMPSON who returned here this session has quit College with Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. [Daniel Lionel] HUGER [Class of 1789]." Heriot was probably bringing Harper up to date on the activities of South Carolinians whom Harper had taught in the grammar school. Apparently Lawrence never returned to the College, but Huger did. Thompson may have also, but his assignment to the Class of 1789 is conjectural. A "John" Thompson joined the Cliosophic Society on June 4, 1788, taking the name Lysander, the Spartan naval commander who defeated Athens to bring the Peloponnesian War to a triumphant close. Neither the Society catalogues nor the manuscript membership lists record Thompson's state, but a card file of unknown origin in the Princeton University Archives suggests that he came from South Carolina. A search of the records of that state produced no John Thompson likely to have attended the College, although a man of that name who lived from July 1769 to December 1849 came from a part of South Carolina that sent other men to Princeton. Nothing has been learned about him except the dates on his tombstone at the First Presybterian Church, Anderson County. Joel and John Thompson could have been two distinct persons, possibly brothers or cousins from South Carolina, and either or both may have come from elsewhere. It seems more probable to assume, however, that they are the same man. The presence of two ghostly J. Thompsons apparently from the same state at the same time is at least unlikely. The manuscript Cliosophic Society membership lists, although nineteenth century copies, are older than and deserve priority over the surviving typed copy, of unknown provenance, of Heriot's letter in identifying the first name of this student.

JOHN THOMPSON

SOURCES: J. O. Heriot to friend, 28 Mar. 1786, Heriot letters; Clio, lists; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 7; alumni files, PUA; WPA tombstone file, ScCoAH. Neither an undated class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year nor another dated 10 Apr. 1789 record the name of either Thompson. Dr. John Thomson, father of James William Thomson (A.B. 1822), John A. Thomson (Class of 1823), and Archibald M. Thomson (Class of 1830), is the most likely candidate for the 1789 student if the South Carolina place of origin is ignored. Dr. Thomson was the son of the Reverend James William Thomson, who came from Scotland in 1763 and became the first rector of Leeds Parish in Fauquier County,

442

C L A S S OF

1789

Virginia. The son could have received his early education in the classical school in Warrenton, Fauquier County, which was organized by Hezekiah Balch (A.B. 1766) in 1777, and incorporated as Warren Academy by 1788. Here Thomson could easily have been influenced to attend the College of New Jersey. See C. S. McCarty, FoothiUs of the Blue Ridge m Fauquier Cnty., Va. (1974), 86, 124; H. C. Groome, Fauquier During the Proprietorship (1927), 150, 213; £. L. Goodwin, The Colonial Church m Va. (1927), 311. At least two Philadelphians named John Thompson could be considered in identifying the Princetonian, and a John Thompson of Petersburg, Virginia, who attended William & Mary in 1792, could have matriculated at the College earlier. A John Thompson who graduated from Dickinson College in 1790 became a journalist in Frederick, Maryland, and died in 1855. Nothing is known about when he entered Dickinson, or from whence be came, and there is nothing to suggest that he transferred from the College of New Jersey (letter from Dickinson College Archivist, 19 Apr. 1982, PUA). RLW & JMM

George Morgan White Eyes was the son of the Delaware Indian sachem White Eyes or Koquethagachton, and a descendant of Chief Tamanens, or Tammany. Said to be half-white, young White Eyes was born in 1770 or 1771, probably in the area in the upper Muskingum Valley in present Ohio then known as White Eyes Town or White Eyes Plain. In 1774 Chief White Eyes made an extensive journey which included stays in New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The impressions he gained on this trip made him resolve to obtain for his own people the benefits that he had observed. He has been described as brave and virtuous, but his eloquence and leadership are the traits most frequendy mentioned. Never baptized himself, White Eyes nevertheless urged his people to accept the teachings of the Moravian missionaries who founded the town of Goshen, if only as the best means of acquiring an education. White Eyes was able to maintain the neutrality of the Delawares during the Indian disturbances that followed Lord Dunmore's attempts to setde English colonies on the Ohio River, even though it gained him the deep hatred and personal enmity of the Shawnees. At the outbreak of the Revolution he still endeavored to remain neutral, but finding this impossible he signed a treaty with the Americans on September 17, 1778 in the hope that eventually there might be an Indian state in the new confederation. When Henry "Hair Buyer" Hamilton, the British governor of Detroit, incited the other tribes in the Ohio area against the colonists and tried to convince the Delawares that they had embraced the losing side, only White Eyes's strong leadership kept his people in line. He was given the tide of captain in the American army and acted as a scout and messenger. He GEORGE MORGAN WHITE EYES

GEORGE M O R G A N WHITE EYES

443

offered to guide General Lachlan Mcintosh's troops through the forest in Mcintosh's unsuccessful attempt to capture Detroit. On November 10, 1778 he was killed by the American soldiers he was guiding, but both his tribesmen and the Moravian missionaries were told that he had died of smallpox. Mcintosh, commandant at Fort Pitt, had been persistendy aggressive toward the Indians, and was denounced before Congress for White Eyes's murder by Col. George Morgan, the Indian agent, who resigned his post after learning the truth of White Eyes's death. Morgan had first become acquainted with the western Indians when he traveled to the Illinois country for the Philadelphia firm of Boynton, Wharton, and Morgan, fur traders and land speculators. Among the assets of the partnership was its share of the Indian grant made by the Six Nations to traders whose goods had been destroyed by Indians. Morgan quickly established rapport with the Indians, and in 1776 he was appointed agent of Indian Affairs with the rank and pay of a colonel of the Continental Army. In 1777 he was appointed deputy commissary general for the Western District and served in this capacity until the end of the war. Morgan and Chief White Eyes, who had frequent contact and admired each other, vowed an agreement of friendship "as long as the Sun shall shine." White Eyes traveled to Philadelphia in September 1777 to deliver to Congress the message that the Delawares wished to remain friendly, even though other Indians were on the warpath. He affirmed to Congress that he had always found Morgan to be true, upright, and faithful. During the chief's stay in Philadelphia, Morgan served as his guide and counsellor. Sometime during this period, White Eyes's son was given the name of George Morgan White Eyes. After White Eyes's death Congress asked the Delaware Indians to send a delegation of chiefs to visit the government as a sign of their continuing peaceful disposition. Through Morgan, Congress requested the Delawares to elect a replacement for White Eyes and to send the dead chief's children to be educated in the ways of white men so that they might become better leaders for their people. Congress expected the Delaware nation to repay this kindness through a land grant to the United States. Nevertheless, this act was probably the first instance of federal aid to education, antedating die Land Ordinance of 1785. By the time the Indians arrived in the spring of 1779, Morgan had moved to his farm, "Prospect," which adjoined the College grounds. Ten chiefs and their retinues pitched their camp on his side of the turf walk that separated the farm from the campus. Along with eight-year-old George White Eyes, the Delawares brought sixteen-year-old John Killbuck, son of White

444

CLASS OF 1789

Eyes's cousin Chief Killbuck, and eighteen-year-old Thomas Killbuck, Chief Killbuck's half-brother. The three boys were left in Morgan's care, and he temporarily made arrangements for them to board with Thomas Moody, whose home was on Nassau Street across from the President's house. Mr. Moody accommodated them "at the rate of 13.4 for each, per week, for Board, Washing & Lodging—The United States to find them Bedding and to pay in Produce at the Current Prices in the Year 1777." At about this time Thomas Hutchins (A.B. 1789), for whom Morgan acted as unofficial guardian, moved from Philadelphia to join the Morgans at "Prospect." The Indian boys were later absorbed into the Morgan household, where there were also three Morgan children, with four more to be born during the family's residence at Princeton. It is not known whether the Indians had received any education under the Moravian missionaries who had setded in their part of the country, but they at least knew how to speak English. George Merchant (A.B. 1779), then teaching at the Nassau Hall Grammar School, was hired to tutor them in preparation for entry into the grammar school. And according to Morgan's account book they were almost immediately fitted for trousers by Josiah Harned, two pairs for John, two for Thomas, and one for George. That year and again in 1782 Thomas Wiggins (A.M. 1758, A.B. Yale 1752), a local physician, sent Morgan statements that separately itemized medicines and attendance for his family and for the three Indians. Samples of the Indians' first attempts at penmanship and their early efforts at translating Caesar are preserved in the National Archives. It soon became apparent, however, that Thomas Killbuck was not at all interested in his studies. Even without the added burden of cultural displacement, he was far too old to feel comfortable with the grammar school boys. According to Morgan he was addicted to "Liquor and Lying." He was first sent to work on a farm in Bucks County and later apprenticed to a blacksmith, probably receiving more practical training than the two who remained in school. Overwhelmingly homesick, he made repeated requests to Congress to be allowed to rejoin his people. John Killbuck, more quiet and studious, was mastering geography, mathematics, and Latin until the summer of 1783 when it was discovered that he was responsible for the pregnancy of one of the Morgan maids. Morgan brought this complication to the attention of Robert Morris, United States superintendent of finance. John was willing to be married but also wanted to continue his studies. After much consideration a congressional committee directed Morgan to provide for Killbuck's family and to continue to oversee his education, along with that of George White Eyes. In

GEORGE M O R G A N WHITE EYES

445

1785 the Killbucks finally received permission to return to Ohio. It is not clear what sort of education John received in the interim since, as a married man, he would certainly not have been welcome in the grammar school. However, when he started home he asked for additional books for his "litde Library." In October 1785 the two Killbucks, along with John's wife and child, left for Ohio, properly provisioned for the journey by the largesse of Congress. Before leaving, John wrote a letter to Congress expressing appreciation for the education he had received. Thomas is said to have become a blacksmith and John to have helped found the setdement that grew into the city of Cleveland, where he became a merchant. During this period White Eyes had apparendy been doing well in the grammar school. In the fall of 1784, as a member of the second class, he placed second in the competitions for premiums, and he was reading Virgil and beginning the study of Greek. Morgan, meanwhile, had been experiencing difficulties in obtaining remuneration from Congress for the financial needs of the Indians. In the summer of 1781 he forwarded to the Board of War, which maintained jurisdiction over the Indians, bills amounting to £137 to cover tuition, board, and maintenance. The matter was referred to Congress, which passed the bills on to the Board of Treasury, instructing them to devise ways and means of reimbursing Morgan. The solution of the Board of Treasury was to instruct President John Witherspoon to pay Morgan "out of moneys placed in his hands by the North Carolina provincial prisoners of war, exchanged in the year 1778, to discharge the demands of the United States against them for subsistence." Witherspoon protested this use of the funds, and the matter went back to a committee. By October they had solved the problem by directing Witherspoon to close the account for the said funds by forwarding them to the superintendent of finance. Presumably he then reimbursed Morgan. Morgan received $512.30 in November and further payments at irregular intervals without any further complications. In May 1784 Morgan had written to Congress urging that the two Killbucks be allowed to return home because they were too advanced in age to receive much benefit from a common school, but at the same time he asked for continued support for White Eyes, describing him as the best scholar in his class. "His mildness of disposition is equal to his capacity; and I cannot but take the liberty to entreat a continuance of the patronage of Congress to this worthy orphan, whose father was treacherously put to death at the moment of his greatest exertions to serve the United States." Morgan assured the members of Congress that he was continuing to conceal from young

446

CLASS OF 1789

White Eyes the circumstances of his father's death, and he urged them to grant the boy 30,000 acres of land on the Muskingum River which his father had settled and farmed. On May 20, 1785 Congress reserved 10,000 acres for the Moravian Brethren and "Killbuck and his descendants, and the Nephew and descendants of the late Captain white Eyes, Delaware Chiefs who have distinguished themselves as friends to the cause of America." White Eyes began his freshman year at the College in the fall of 1785, at about the time that the Killbucks were leaving Princeton. He too was probably homesick after six years, but Morgan had taken particular interest in his namesake, the son of his special friend. White Eyes and Thomas Hutchins became roommates on the upper floor of Nassau Hall. Morgan's account book shows that David Lyall and Jonathan Tinsley were paid for "waiting on" White Eyes and Hutchins, that John Clark whitewashed their room, and that Caesar Trent cleaned the room and cut and carried up firewood. In the fall of 1786 White Eyes was ill, for Morgan was billed by Dr. Benjamin Stockton (Class of 1776) for medicine and "attendance at Sundry Times." It is impossible to determine whether there was any discrimination against the Indian youth. If one were looking for it, an entry in Morgan's account book for June 21, 1784 might be so construed. It records a suit of clothes for Hutchins and "turning a coat & trimmings" for Whiteyes, but perhaps Morgan was simply being a good steward of congressional funds by not ordering new clothes for White Eyes. More suggestive is an entry in the diary of James Gibson (A.B. 1787) for February 28, 1786 saying that "Whiteys spoke at prayers." Gibson always noted who spoke at prayers, but other members of the College were given the tide "Mr." White Eyes is not known to have joined either of the societies on the campus. Whether or not he was happy, his college career seems to have proceeded uneventfully until December 23, 1787, when along with Christian DeWint (Class of 1789), John Heriot (Class of 1789), and Charles Ross (Class of 1791), he was called before the faculty and convicted of insolent behavior to one of the tutors. All four were sentenced to be admonished in the presence of their class. This is the only record of White Eyes being called before the faculty, but apparently it was not his only lapse from acceptable behavior. In the fall of 1788 Morgan was making plans to leave for Missouri to attempt to establish a colony at New Madrid, and although White Eyes was about to become a senior at the College, Morgan did not consider him responsible enough to remain after his own departure. He therefore sent him to New York, placing him under the care of Robert Cox (Cocks), a "merchant taylor" at 4 William Street, while awaiting fur-

GEORGE MORGAN WHITE EYES

447

ther instructions from Congress. White Eyes carried with him a letter from Morgan to the Board of Treasury, written September 25, 1788, explaining his absence and adding: The murder of Col White Eyes as mentioned in my letter to Congress 12 May 1784 recommends his son for further protection; notwithstanding he has lately been much deranged in his studies and conduct; which I impute to my absence and to the news of the murder of his mother, said to be by a party of white men painted like Indians, for the sake of the pelts she was bringing to market, which some officious person has told her son of. He has neglected his studies several months past, and associated with other lads in College, who have been expelled; and has been induced to sell all his cloths, books, maps, instruments, etc. with an intention to go off to the Western Country; but as he really is, or pretends to be, conscious of his error and promises future attention; and as his mistakes and misconduct have been far surpassed by white boys of his age, who have the superior advantage of enlightened and tender parents to guard over them I presume to solicit Congress on his behalf that he may compleat his school education for which his abilities, sprightliness yet mildness of temper is in every way equal. Morgan added his belief that with a good education White Eyes might be of considerable service to the United States and to his Indian nation but recommended that he continue his studies at Yale or some other institution, rather than return to Princeton where he would be subject to temptation from his former undesirable companions. As an alternative, Morgan suggested employment as a writer, presumably a clerk, in some government department, as a means of gaining knowledge. But if Congress thought it advisable to return White Eyes to his nation, he concluded, then he would arrange to accompany him and would wait until October for an answer. But Congress, or its committees, did not move that fast. On June 2, 1789, apparendy after repeated appeals to the Board of Treasury, White Eyes went straight to the top and presented his problems in a letter to President George Washington. Not until he came to New York, he claimed, did he realize that he was under the protection of Congress. "I never knew who maintained me & was taught to look upon myself as a poor Outcast, & depending for Food & Raiment &c. on the Goodness of that Gentleman [Morgan]." He mentioned his happy moments at college but also the cruel usage which he had experienced at Morgan's home, often for boyish faults that were overlooked in other children. He had anticipated attending

448

CLASS OF 1789

school in New York but had heard nothing of it, nor had he even been provided with necessities. The Board of Treasury had furnished him with a few articles of clothing, although not enough to keep him comfortable through the winter. After repeated vain appeals he walked to Princeton to get the extra clothing he had left with the Morgans, only to find that Mrs. Morgan had let her son John (Class of 1789) use them until they were worn out, "but that is nothing new for he always wore my Cloaths when he thought proper." Reprimanded by the Board for going to Princeton without permission, White Eyes tried to apologize but was not given a chance to be heard. He pleaded that if he was too much of a burden to educate, he would like to be given employment. The most puzzling thing about this letter is not the degree of congressional procrastination and neglect, but White Eyes's description of his treatment by the Morgans. George Morgan is invariably described as a good, even an ideal, Indian agent. He was familiar with their language and habits and was described as being frank, generous, and honest in his dealings with them. He argued that not only good policy but simple justice demanded that the Indians be treated as equals. His fairness won him the respect of the Indians and prompted the Delawares to make him an honorary chieftain. His letters reflect concern for White Eyes, and it is difficult to imagine him taking advantage of the boy. With Colonel Morgan away from home a great deal, Mrs. Morgan may have resented the extra burden on her household. And the unhappy experience with the Killbucks may have inclined her to be much more strict with White Eyes than with her own children. By the time he wrote Washington again on July 8, White Eyes was no longer interested in further schooling but rather wished to go home "to live in Contentment & Quietude [rather] than a life [of] Contempt & Ignominy." By this time he claimed to be almost naked and declared that his sponsors "are tired of doing any thing for me & I am tired waiting for their duty which is incumbent on them by a resolve of Congress." Although no direct answer from the president has been found, Washington apparently made arrangements for White Eyes to receive credit until such time as Congress came through with funds. On August 11, 1789 Atcheson Thompson of New York City petitioned Congress for payment for clothing and supplies that he had furnished to White Eyes "by order of the President of the United States." Despite this order, there was quibbling about the bill, and when White Eyes again wrote to Washington on August 8, he asked him to use his influence to see that Thompson was not left with this debt. He

GEORGE MORGAN WHITE EYES

449

complained that the Board of Treasury had objected to every article of clothing that he had bought, making him feel "not of as much Consequence as a Dog." He concluded by saying that he was grateful for his education, "But I am very sorry that the Education you have given & Views that you must have had when you took me into your Possession, & the Friendship which my Father had for the United States (which I suppose is the chief Cause) are not sufficient Inducements, to your further providing for me." Thompson was presumably not immediately reimbursed, for Elizabeth Thompson also wrote to Washington saying that she had given White Eyes credit only by the particular order of Tobias Lear, Washington's personal secretary. Records show that White Eyes's tuition was paid to September 30, 1788, and on March 1, 1790 the secretary of war was reimbursed $452.52 "for sundry Articles of Cloathing a Horse and money supplied him [White Eyes] to carry him back to his own Country." There was also a payment of $110.72 to Andrew G. Fraunces of 69 Crown Street for "board etc. of G. M. White Eyes." On August 12, 1790 Congress approved additional compensation to reimburse the secretary of war for advances made to White Eyes. This ignominious end to a dozen years spent among the white men, completely dependent upon their philanthropy, would certainly have embittered White Eyes. And he was to have yet another encounter with his former classmate John Morgan, which could only have increased his resentment of that young man. The incident is described in a letter addressed to White Eyes, written by John Morgan on April 26, 1793, at the instigation of Colonel Morgan. It appears that John, serving under General Josiah Harmar, was part of the American force that burned an Indian town and five smaller villages in Ohio at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers in October 1790. John Morgan, on the information of another Indian, assumed that White Eyes was among those killed in the conflagration. However, on the chance that White Eyes might still be alive, Colonel Morgan had his son write a letter, to be carried by Timothy Pickering (LL.D. 1798), the postmaster general, who was a member of a commission sent to attempt to negotiate peace with the Indians of the Old Northwest Territory. John's letter recommended Colonel Pickering as trustworthy and assured White Eyes that the attack on his community had been a mistake, entirely due to the difficulty of distinguishing hostile from friendly Indians. John sent the regards of his family and mentioned twice the "Peace and Friendship" that he and White Eyes had enjoyed as boys and which he would be happy to resume. Although his sentiments may have been sincere, the letter was written almost three years after the event and only because

450

CLASS OF 1789

Pickering requested it. It remains questionable whether John Morgan harbored any real affection or concern for White Eyes. There is no indication that Pickering had an opportunity to deliver the letter, but the report of White Eyes's death was certainly exaggerated. A great deal of misinformation about his later life has been published. To have stepped into his father's position of leadership after such a long absence from his people would have required a strength of character that White Eyes apparently did not possess. He has been described as a scholar and gentleman who became a noted chieftain, and also as a dissipated son, an unworthy descendant of his father, who squandered his inheritance in debauchery and drunkenness. Unfortunately, the only firm evidence available points to the latter as the true picture. An autobiography by Thomas Ewing describes a fishing trip that Ewing took with his father and brother as a young boy in the summer of 1796. Their canoe was hailed by an Indian who gave them a command invitation to visit a nearby Indian camp. It turned out to be the camp of George White Eyes and George Girty, the half-Indian son of the renegade Simon Girty, probably not the most desirable type of companion. White Eyes is said to have taken pride in exhibiting his college books, including a greasy copy of Aeschylus's tragedies in the original Greek. His wife is described as a beautiful half-Indian, not more than fifteen, whose robe was decorated with a number of silver brooches, and whose moccasins were "richly wampumed." Much to their distress, the guests were served a stew concocted of venison and young puppies. On May 27, 1798 White Eyes was shot by William Carpenter, Jr., at West Point, now in Columbiana County, Ohio. While intoxicated White Eyes ran at Carpenter with an uplifted tomahawk. He may have intended only to intimidate, not assault Carpenter, but evidendy this distinction was too fine for Carpenter. When White Eyes gained on him, Carpenter turned and shot him, hitting him upon the chin and under die jaw, killing him instandy. On August 14, 1798 an indictment was brought against William Carpenter, Jr., for killing an Indian in time of peace, and against William Carpenter, Sr., for aiding, helping, abetting, comforting, assisting, and maintaining his son. If there was a trial, records seem to have been lost, but tradition maintains that a trial was held and both Carpenters acquitted. Settlers in the area, apprehensive that a desire for vengeance might grow into a full-scale Indian war, showered the Indians of the neighborhood with a number of gifts, including $300 for White Eyes's widow. Several sources claim that White Eyes signed the Treaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, by which the Indians ceded the eastern and southern portion of the state of Ohio to the United States, but his

GEORGE MORGAN WHITE EYES

451

name does not appear among the representatives of the twelve tribes who signed. The Moravian missionaries recorded the baptism of Mary, widow of Chief White Eyes and wife of Joseph Pemahoaland, along with her son Joseph White Eyes and his wife. This information accords with Morgan's account of the death of George White Eyes's mother only if Chief White Eyes had more than one wife. In any case Joseph White Eyes seems to have taken over his father's position in tribe. He and John Killbuck "inherited" the title of captain which their fathers had had in the American Army. Another source claims that White Eyes fought in the War of 1812 on the British side and was involved in the peace negotiations at the end of the war. Joseph White Eyes may have participated in the War of 1812, or this may have been presumed because of his use of "Captain." Joseph did sign the treaty in 1818 which reestablished peace with the Indians. Fin­ ally, the George White Eyes killed by an Osage war party in Missouri in February 1826 was with a group of "young Delaware hunters" who were all slaughtered. He may have been a son of George Mor­ gan White Eyes. If so, his death culminated a tragic tradition. In three succeeding generations, the heads of this family of Indians died violently. Two were slain by American citizens whose culture they had tried to share. SOURCES: Transcript of V. L. Collins, "Indians at Princeton" file, PUA; Ε. E. Gray & L. R. Gray, Wilderness Christians: Moravian Mission to the Delaware Indians (1956), 52-53, 61, 85, 303, 309; B. W. Bond, Jr., Foundations of Ohio (1941), i, 57, 347-49; E. A. DeSchwenitz, Life & Times of David Zeisberger (1971), 390-91; R. G. Thwaites & L. P. Kellogg, Dunmore's War (1905), 29, 384; R. G. Thwaites, Chronicles of Border Warfare (1917), 150, 179, 302; WPHM, 15 (1932), 97, 103; R. G. Thwaites & L. P. Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1777-78 (1912), 95-97, 100-01; R. C. Downer, "George Morgan, Indian Agent Extraordinary, 1776-79," Pa. Hist., 1 (1934), 202-16; L. H. Gipson, ed., Moravian Indian Mission on White River ... (1938, vol. 23 of Indiana Hist. Collections), 23, 25, 27, 33; DAB (sketches of Chief White Eyes & George Morgan); V. L. Collins, Princeton (1914), 84; M. Savelle, George Morgan, Colony Builder (1932); J. A. Harding, "Col. George Morgan, a Biog. Sketch,·* MS in NjP; A. Morgan, Hist, of the Family of Morgan (1937), 185-86; George Morgan Account Book, June 1779-8 Oct 1788 passim (quotes), MS in NjP; N.J. Gazette, 4 Oct. 1784; Gibson Diary, 28 Feb. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac., 23 Dec. 1787; V. L. Collins, "Indian Wards at Princeton," Princeton Univ. Bull., 13 (May 1902), 101-06; Julian Boyd memo re George Morgan exhibit, 27 Jan. 1963, PUA; I. Craig, "Koquethagaeelon, or Colonel White Eyes," Hist Reg., 1 (1883), 232-33; W. C. Ford et al., eds., JournaL· of the Continental Cong., 1774-89 (1904-37), xxv, 660-61; XXVIH, 410-11,467-68; xxxui, 42930 ("Killbuck and his descendants"), 513; J. Bioren & W. J. Duane, Laws of the U.SA. (1815), I, 606; C. E. Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the U.S. (26 vols., 1934-62), II: Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1787-1803, 63-64, 525-35; Hamilton Papers, v, 385, 406; N.Y. Dir., & Reg. (1789), 21 ("merchant taylor"); W. W. Abbot, D. Twohig, et al., eds., Papers of G. Washington: Presidential Series (1987- ), n, 433-35 ("I never knew," "wore my Cloaths"); in, 152 ("Contentment & Quietude"), 403-04 ("by order," "not of as much"), 493-94; L. G. DePauw et al., Documentary Hist, of the First Federal Cong, of the U.S. (1972- ), m, 144, 607; C. A. Weslager, Delaware Indians (1972), 296, 306, 318, 326, 352, 365; W. H. Hunter, "Pathfinders of Jefferson Cnty.," OSAHQ, 6 (1900),

452

CLASS OF 1 7 8 9

227-30; C. L. Martzolff, "Autobiography of Thomas Ewing," OSAHQ, 22 (1913), 13437; als, J. Morgan to GMWE, 26 Apr. 1793, Pickering Papers, MHi, microfilm at NjP; 31st Cong., Digested Summary &f Alphabetical List of Private Claims ... Presented to House of Rep. from 1st to 31st Cong. (1853), m, 634; E. O. Randall, Hist, of Ohio (1912), u, 51318; O. Pickering, Life of Timothy Pickering (1867-73, 4 vols.), πι, 45-52. MANUSCRIPTS: Papers of the Continental Congress, DN A RLW

Ephraim King Wilson EPHRAIM KING WILSON, A.B., lawyer, farmer, and public official,

was born on September 15, 1771, the son of David and Priscilla Winder Wilson of Worcester County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Wilsons had been a prominent Presbyterian family in Worcester and adjacent Somerset counties since the late seventeenth century. Ephraim was the only son David mentioned in his will in 1810; he also named three daughters, including Polly, who probably married John B. Slemons (A.B. 1794). David Wilson's brother Samuel (A.M. 1771) may have fathered Samuel Wilson (A.B. 1788). Wilson was one of four Marylanders admitted to the College's junior class as transfer students "from other colleges" on Novem­ ber 10, 1787. The school in question was probably the Washing­ ton Academy, an institution in Somerset County which prepared other Princetonians and which Ephraim's father served as a trustee when it incorporated in 1779. The Cliosophic Society admitted Wil­ son on December 18, 1787, with the pseudonym Polyphemus, after the unamiable Cyclops of Greek mythology. On December 15, 1788 the faculty concluded that Wilson had shown "contempt of authority in refusing to appear when sent for at three different times first by [Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy] Dr. [Walter] Minto 2dly by Mr. [Samuel] Harris [A.B. 1787] & then by the Faculty in a body." He was admonished in front of his class and ordered to ask pardon severally of the three offended parties. On March 3, 1789 the faculty identified Wilson as a prime suspect in a recent "disorder committed in the chamber of Isaac Crane [A.B. 1789] and an assault upon his person," but he was spared punishment when seven students, only one of whom had been accused by the faculty, stepped forward to confess and in so doing absolved Wilson. At his commencement Wilson spoke twice. In the morning he was replicator in "A disputation on the following question, 'Would universal frugality and severity of morals produce greater wealth, as well as greater happiness in a nation, than if the public manners admitted a degree of luxury?'" In the afternoon

EPHRAIM KING WILSON

453

Thomas Pitt Irving joined him in a dialogue "on the union of vanity and dullness." Wilson studied law, and is said to have been admitted to the bar in 1792. He practiced in Snow Hill, Worcester's county seat, and purchased a 500-acre plantation nearby called "Scarborough's Castle." On June 24, 1794 he was commissioned captain of the Third Company of the Ninth Regiment of Maryland militia. He must subsequently have attained the rank of major, for he was so called in the inventory of his estate taken after he died. In 1805 Wilson was an original stockholder and director of the Eastern Shore branch of the Farmers Bank of Maryland, which became the Easton Bank of Maryland in 1854, and he served a number of one-year terms as a director between 1805 and 1831. Between 1794 and 1820 Wilson represented Worcester County in the Maryland House of Delegates eighteen times, including service as speaker pro tern in 1815. Along with most of his constituents, he was a Federalist In 1804, when nine of Maryland's eleven electoral votes went to Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791), Wilson was chosen a Charles Pinckney presidential elector by a two-to-one margin in the district comprising Somerset, Worcester, and part of Dorchester counties. When Maryland's Federalist minority in the house of delegates denounced the newly declared War of 1812 in July of that year, Wilson took an active role in their unsuccessful effort to kill a Republican bill authorizing state banks to help the war effort by lending money to the national government. Late in 1813 he championed the Federalist attempt to sustain a very dubious election ruling through which all four Federalist candidates for the house from Allegany County were seated. This ploy succeeded and thereby gave the Federalists the votes they needed to reelect Wilson's uncle Levin Winder governor. After a six-year hiatus from office Wilson was elected to the United States House of Representatives for the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses, serving from 1827 to 1831. Presumably his obtaining this new position explains his decision to decline his March 9, 1827 appointment as associate judge of Maryland's fourth judicial district. Wilson did not speak on the floor of the House. He participated in a little more than half of the roll call votes held during his congressional service. He was elected as a Jacksonian, but his voting behavior suggests that by the end of his second term he had joined the emerging National Republicans. Since Wilson consistently backed federal funding of internal improvements, Andrew Jackson's opposition to such measures may have prompted Wilson's apparent defection. Wilson married Sally Handy, one of four children of Mary and Col.

454

CLASS OF 1789

Samuel Handy of Worcester County, on December 17, 1799. They had at least one son. By February 12, 1812 Wilson was a widower, for on that day he married Anna Drummond Gunby. Anna, who was twenty-one years younger than Wilson, was the daughter of Gen. John Gunby, a planter who lived near Snow Hill. Wilson's second marriage produced at least three daughters and three sons, including Ephraim King Wilson, Jr., a judge and United States senator, and William Sidney Wilson (A.B. 1835), who became a lieutenant colonel in the army of the Confederacy and died at Antietam. Just before leaving Congress, on March 3, 1831, Wilson voted for a resolution urging greater efforts to suppress the Atlantic slave trade. Around June 1, 1832 he was elected president of the newly organized "Colonization Society of Worcester," an auxiliary to the state colonization society. Wilson died on January 2, 1834. He left a personal estate valued at $4,360, including eleven slaves. His will suggests that he was deeply in debt. He ordered that most of his real and personal estate be sold and applied to his debts, with any residue going to his wife and two younger daughters. He requested that a friend lend his son William the money to finish his education, and urged the guardian of his son Ephraim immediately to change "the course of his education" by preparing him for a mercantile career in Philadelphia. Wilson was buried in the cemetery of the Snow Hill Presbyterian Church, which was renamed Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1890. SOURCES: BDUSC, 2066; will of David Wilson, 14 Apr. 1810, proved 30 Oct. 1810, will of EKW, 1 Jan. 1834, proved 14 Feb. 1834 ("the course"), & estate inv. of EKW, 5 Apr. 1834, recorded 8 Apr. 1834, photocopies at PUA of MSS in Md. Hall of Records, Annapolis; MHM, 21 (1926), 151, 164; 44 (1949), 203; 56 (1961), 258-59; Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., I, 403-04; n, 900-01; First Census, Md., 125; C. Torrence, Old Somerset on the Eastern Shore ofMd. (1935), 468; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("from other"), 15 Dec. 1788 ("contempt of"), 3 Mar. 1789 ("disorder committed"); Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, fcf Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789 ("A disputation," "on the union"); R. V. Truitt & M. G. Les Callette, Worcester Cnty.: Md.'s Arcadia (1977), 388-89, 459, 462, 573-74; E. Buse, 150 Years of Banking on the Eastern Shore (1955), 5, 11, 37, 86, 106, 163; R. Barnes, Md. Marriages 1778-1800 (1979), 252; R. Barnes, Marriages &f Deaths from Bait. Newspapers 1796-1816 (1978), 354; W. T. Wilson, Thirty Four Families of Old Somerset Cnty., Md. (1974), 311-14; letter from Md. Leg. Hist. Proj., 4 June 1985, PUA; L. M. RenzuUi, Md.: The Federalist Years (1972), 266-67; J. T. Scharf, Hist ofMd. (1879 repr. 1967), π, 514, 613; in, 57; F. F. White, Governors ofMd. 1777-1970 (1970), 97; Clay Papers, v, 755-56, 787-89; U.S. Cong., Reg. of Debates in Cong., rv-vu (20th & 21st Cong.), passim.

JJL

455

Silas Wood SILAS WOOD, A.B., educator, lawyer, public official, and historian, was born September 14, 1769 at "West Hills," the family estate near Huntington, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He was the youngest of the three sons of Joshua Wood and Ruth Bush Wood. A number of the Wood relatives who had settled on Long Island in the previous century had returned to England, and Joshua Wood inherited much of their land. Between the ages of seven and fourteen Silas with his family had to endure the British military occupation of Long Island. He watched with indignation while the loyalist Benjamin Thompson (the future Count Rumford) erected a fort in the middle of Huntington's public graveyard in late 1782 to vex the inhabitants and to establish a claim for future reimbursement from the British. Another memory from the Revolution still rankled forty years later. When Long Island was reunited with the rest of the state after the British departure, it faced punitive taxation from an angry New York legislature instead of reimbursement for its losses to the invaders, which for Huntington alone Wood later estimated at four times the £7,250 acknowledged by the British but never paid. From 1782 to 1784 Silas studied under the tutelage of the Reverend Benjamin Tallmadge of Brookhaven, Long Island. The following year he was sent to a school at Fairfield, Connecticut, but sometime during the year he must have transferred to the grammar school at Nassau Hall. A newspaper account in October 1785 identifies Silas Wood as a member of the first class in the grammar school, who placed first in a comparative trial on Latin grammar and syntax. Wood entered the College as a freshman that fall and joined the Cliosophic Society on November 30, using the society name of Germanicus. He continued his linguistic excellence, placing second in the Latin competition for undergraduates in his sophomore year. Ranking first in his class, he delivered a Latin salutatory oration on eloquence at his commencement. Later in the program he joined his classmates David Gardiner and Isaac Crane in a dialogue on, "Are the rules of politeness perfectly consistent with sincerity and truth, and ought they to be practiced by a good man?" Princeton University possesses Wood's college diploma and his diploma from the Cliosophic Society, the latter being the oldest of its kind in the University Archives. It is signed by George Spafford Woodhull (A.B. 1790) as clerk, and by a dozen fellow Cliosophians, whose diversity illustrates the popularity of large reunions at commencement even at this early date. Two of the signers were Wood's classmates John Collins and Ephraim King Wilson. The other ten were alumni members of Clio,

456

CLASS OF 1789

Silas Wood, A.B. 1789

five of whom came from various places in New Jersey, two from Philadelphia, one from Baltimore, and one from Ulster County, New York. Timothy Ford (A.B. 1783), who came from Charleston, South Carolina, to receive his A.M. in person, had the distinction of being the alumnus traveling the longest distance. After graduating, Wood served as a tutor at the College from November 1789 until April 1794, except for the summer semester of 1793. His appointment also called for him to be "inspector of the rooms," an office requiring him to make sure that students had adequate furniture when a semester began and that none of it had been broken or removed when it closed. From 1791 to 1793 he assumed the additional duties of clerk of the faculty. On March 26, 1794, when the Cliosophic Society decided to spend $30 on books for the society's library, the volumes were selected on Wood's recommendation. Sometime during his tenure as tutor he wrote "A Juvenile Performance on the Subject of Indian Civilization," which was published in 1794 under the title, Thoughts on the State of the American Indians, By A Citizen of the United States. That Indians displayed "a natural incapacity for improvement," he insisted, was a principle "utterly inadmissable." Like many an Enlightenment spokesman, he hoped to speed them along the path from "barbarism" to "civility" even

SILAS WOOD

457

though, in his judgment, the steady decline in Indian population was depriving them of the single most powerful motivation for improvement, the pressure of growing numbers upon fixed resources. By strengthening the Indians' belief in one supreme God, by securing the institution of monogamous marriage among them, and by developing within each tribe a firm notion of private property and the willingness to accept a fixed residence, the Indians, he believed, could fulfill his civilizing mission and improve their relationships with the setders. Apparently Wood's dedication to his duties and his writings severely impaired his health. In any case he had probably tired of teaching. Offered the principalship of the academy at Esopus, New York in 1804 and a professorship at Union College in 1805, he declined both opportunities. Instead Wood returned to Long Island, where he was elected to the state assembly in 1796, 1797, 1798, and 1800. When he lost his reelection bid in 1799, he ran for Congress later that year from New York's First District, comprising Long Island and Staten Island. He again suffered defeat when at the last minute Jeffersonian Republicans distributed an anonymous circular that denounced him as "a person of doubtful political gender" whose public "conduct has been marked with extreme indecision—like a pendulum, he has oscilated, now towards one party, then to another: It would appear that he has been exclusively governed by motives of interest, convenience, or caprice" and has always been "open to the advances of the highest bidder." Wood's wounded response appeared in January 1800, after the results were in. His politics would appear inconsistent, he declared, only to someone blinded by the rage of party. He admitted that he had applied unsuccessfully to a Federalist governor for the office of New York secretary of state, but denied that his ambitions had influenced his voting in the legislature. He portrayed himself as an honest independent until the last paragraph of his pamphlet, Letters Addressed to the Electors of Representatives to Congress for the First Election District in the State of New York, when, almost as a postscript, he finally identified himself as an Adams Federalist. "I decidedly approve of the general complexion of the measures of the administration," he admitted, and "firmly believe every man is bound, by every social and moral obligation, to support them, whatever may be his private sentiments respecting them, until they are constitutionally repealed." Much like John Adams, he could not survive politically in the middle ground between Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians. In subsequent years he drifted into the Jeffersonian coalition through his association with New York Clintonians.

458

CLASS OF 1789

In the state legislature Wood chaired the joint committee that introduced the first General Highway Act, which became the basis for road laws throughout the state. During this period he began his avocation of visiting Long Island towns, gathering information about both the communities and their early setders. In a letter written August 6, 1841 Wood claimed that in gathering information about Long Island he checked the records in the clerk's office in every town and county on the island, the records of the secretary of state, church and court documents, libraries and historical societies, family papers, wills, deeds, and tombstones. After his four years in the assembly Wood acquired a large tract of land in the northern section of Johnstown, Montgomery County, New York, although it is not clear whether he got it by purchase or inheritance. He spent several years establishing a setdement on his land. In 1802 he married seventeen-year-old Catherine Huyck of Kinderhook, a descendant of Dutch setders. She died on July 18, 1803, leaving a newborn son who survived her by three days. The birth must have been premature, since she died unexpectedly while on a journey through a wilderness area of Montgomery County, far enough from civilization that her distraught husband was forced to bury her without assistance. Wood was so distressed by this double misfortune that it had the effect "to partly unhinge his mind." His later eccentricities were blamed on "occasional insanity." Wood eventually decided to study law under Daniel Cady of Johnstown, the father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Admitted to the bar on February 15, 1810, Wood became a master in chancery on May 2, 1810. He practiced in Cady's office until the spring of 1813, at the same time contributing columns to the Montgomery Republican. On May 25, 1813 he became a solicitor in chancery, and about that time he returned to Huntington and took up practice in Suffolk County, soon establishing himself as a leading member of the county bar. On June 12, 1818 Governor DeWitt Clinton appointed him district attorney of Suffolk County, a position that he held for three years. Also in 1818, Wood was elected a representative to the Sixteenth Congress on the Democratic ticket. He was reelected for four succeeding terms, serving from March 4, 1819 until March 8, 1829. Wood was thorough in everything he did, including his congressional duties. His infrequent speeches show careful preparation. Often lengthy, they set forth reasonable and logical arguments for the propositions that he supported. He was not a firm party man; he still voted on the issues themselves and switched sides so frequently that DeWitt Clinton, like Wood's angry opponent of 1799, was said to have likened him to a pendulum, "first on one side and then on

SILAS WOOD

459

the other." Speaking on the bill for admitting Missouri to the union, Wood expressed moral and political convictions against slavery. On the question of sending an agent to Greece, he cited the dangers of the United States intervening as the arbiter and champion of liberty all over the world. Addressing a proposed constitutional amendment that would provide a more uniform system of choosing presidential electors, Wood thoroughly analyzed the Constitution and pointed out the differing powers of the national and state governments. He usually opposed measures that in his opinion would lead to a usurpation of states' rights by the federal government. He spoke against using public funds for the improvement and defense of ports only in proportion to the revenue collected at each harbor. Local interests, he insisted, should not influence the House in deciding issues that concerned the public welfare. In 1824, while serving in Congress, Wood published the results of his careful collection of data throughout Long Island in the form of a small volume entitled, A Sketch of the First Settlement of Several Towns on Long Island, With Their Political Condition, to the End of the American Revolution. Wood was so meticulous about the correctness of his facts that, in 1815, to settle a dispute about the highest point on Long Island, he commissioned a surveyor at his own expense to check the elevation of the hill on the farm of Zebulon Rogers in the village of West Hills. Proved correct in his contention that this was the highest point on the island, Wood filed the surveyor's notes and calculations with the town clerk. He published successively larger editions of his Long Island history in 1826 and 1828. The last edition was dedicated to Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull and included additional details on the Long Island Indians. The first edition was limited to 250 copies and the second and third to 100 copies, and yet even some of these small numbers remained unsold. Wood also published A Sketch of the Geography of the Town of Huntington in 1814. He distributed this pamphlet free, apparently in an effort to halt large-scale migration from Long Island. Wood's histories combined scrupulous but often antiquarian detail with robust whig values. The first English settlers, he affirmed, came to America to establish civil and religious liberty. In the early Long Island towns they created "pure democracies" that had to sustain themselves, first against "the Tyranny and Imbecility of the Dutch government," then against the continuing "tyranny" of James, Duke of York, and even against the arbitrary demands of Jacob Leisler's revolutionary regime of 1689-91. Royal government after 1691 exhibited "a constant conflict between the claims and encroachments of power on the one hand, and the spirit of liberty struggling to

460

CLASS OF 1789

defeat them on the other," a contest that prepared Long Islanders for their batde for independence. Nearly all of them warmly embraced the Revolution, he maintained, even if the British forced most of them to submit to the crown from 1776 to 1783. Wood's views on Indians remained in 1828 substantially what they had been in 1794, although he shrewdly noted the difficulties that the settlers encountered when they failed to use the Indians' slash-and-burn technique to control the growth of underbrush. Running as a John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806) Republican in 1828, Wood lost to a Jacksonian in his bid for a sixth term in Congress. The next year, with the continuing support of Adams Republicans, he became the radical Workingman's Party candidate for the state senate. His district, which embraced the city and Long Island, chose two senators, and he was the Long Islander on the ticket. The Workingman's Advocate insisted that all of its party's candidates were "favorable to a National System of Education." The newspaper also supported "the protection of industry" and, as a longterm objective, sought for all citizens "an equal amount of property on arriving at the age of maturity, and previous thereto, equal food, clothing, and instruction at the public expense." Once again a Jacksonian defeated Wood, this time by a margin of 255 votes out of more than 20,000. Wood carried the city and Queens but lost in his native Suffolk and the rest of Long Island, where, apparently, he refused to campaign. For weeks after the 1829 election, New York City newspapers brisded with exchanges about the Workingman's ticket, which orthodox Jacksonians denounced as "the Fanny Wright Party" with its "spirit of infidelity." A month later, in December 1829, Wood married Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Josiah Smith of Long Swamp, Huntington. She gave birth to one child, a daughter born June 10, 1832, who died the same day. The repetition of his earlier double political defeat of 1799 and the personal tragedy of 1803 affected Wood deeply, and he devised an extreme response to his disappointments. Sometime in the spring of 1830 he announced that he was giving up public life and his professional pursuits to devote himself to religious meditation and domestic cares. Some acquaintances speculated that he was too old to adapt to the fundamental change in the state's legal system whereby the revised statutes were substituted for the body of common law, but Wood embarked upon his new contemplations with characteristic thoroughness and precision. He stopped all business and professional activities, canceled newspaper deliveries to his home, and sold his law library, replacing it with a theology collection which included four editions of the Bible, as

SILAS WOOD

461

well as commentaries on scripture and a history of the Bible. He was particularly interested in the writings of John Witherspoon and Jonathan Edwards (A.B. Yale 1720), and in 1832, sixty-three years old, he made a public profession of faith and joined the Presbyterian Church in Huntington. After uniting with the church, he considered it his duty to watch for any relaxation of strictness in the forms of the church or any latitude in the interpretation of doctrine. During this period of his life he became indifferent to his appearance and negligent about his personal habits and the condition of his clothing. He did retain enough interest in the world to correspond briefly with Benjamin F. Thompson about the latter's multivolume History of Long Island. No contemporaries offer a clue to Mrs. Wood's reaction to this change in lifestyle. Wood was described as about five feet ten inches tall, broad shoul­ dered, with an amiable countenance. He was apparently much more animated in private conversations than during public speeches. Cred­ ited with integrity and correct moral conduct, his passion for order could be annoying to those who were more easy going. A neighbor is said to have remarked that if Silas Wood saw a blade of grass bent down, he would have to straighten it up. Wood died on March 2, 1847 after being severely troubled with asthma for several years. He had to spend many of his nights in a chair, and he resorted to the use of stimulants so that he some­ times "lost self-control." Eight months before his death he had a severe fall which confined him to bed thereafter. The immediate cause of his death was probably some complication resulting from the confinement. He was buried in the Old Hill Burial Ground in Huntington. Wood is best remembered for his indefatigable efforts as a historian. In 1865 his Sketch of the Early Settlements of Long Island was reprinted with a biographical sketch of the author by Alden J. Spooner. In March 1917, the seventieth anniversary of his death, the Huntington, Long Island, Historical Society put together a Silas Wood memorial exhibition and announced plans for dedicating a bronze tablet recording his services as the pioneer historian of Long Island. On September 14, 1917, the 148th anniversary of Wood's birth, the tablet was placed in the auditorium of Huntington High School. SOURCES: Alumnifile,PUA; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; N.J. Jour., 6f Polit. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Pa. Packet, 6? Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1789; Clio. Soc. diploma, PUA; Min. Trustees, 29 Sept. 1789, 1 Oct. 1790 ("inspector of the rooms"), 15 Apr. & 19 Dec. 1793, Apr. 1794; Min. Fac, 23 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb. 1790, 16 Mar., 15 May, & 28 Nov. 1793, 18 Jan. 1794; Clio. Min., 26 Mar. 1794; AIC, 16th to 18th Cong.; Τ. H. Benton, Abridgement of the Debates of Cong., 1789-1856

462

CLASS OF 1 7 8 9

(1857-61), VI, VII, VIII; C. Jaray, Hist. Chronicles of New Amsterdam, Colonial N.Y. 6f Early Long Island (1968), v-xxi ("partly unhinge" & "first on one side"); BDUSC, 2083; B. F. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island (3d ed., 3 vols., 1918), I, xii, 416-18; W. S. Pelletreau, Hist, of Long Island (1905), π, 518-19; C. J. McDennott, Suffolk Cnty., N.Y. (1965), 42; D. M. Tredwell, Personal Reminiscences of Men & Things on Long Island (1912), I, 327; W. S. Pelletreau's MS notes on SW (1898), and als, SW to B. F. Thompson, 9 Sept. 1839, NHi; W. Hugins, Jacksonian Democracy 6f the Working Class: A Study of the N.Y. Workingmen's Movement, 1829-37 (1960), 14, 15n; H. Secrist, "The Anti-Auction Movement & the N.Y. Workingmen's Party of 1829," Wise. Acad, of Sciences, Arts & Letters, TVeni., 17 (1914), 159-61 (where SW is confused with a city merchant of the same name). PUBLICATIONS: STE # S 28126 & 39135; A Sketch of the First Settlement of Several Towns on Long Island, With Their Political Condition, to the End of the Amer. Revolution (1824, 1826, 1828, 1865); A Sketch of the Geography of the Town of Huntington (1824); Speeches of Mr. Wood, of N.Y., on the Proposition to Amend the Constitution of the U.S. [respecting the election of president and vice president] and on the Resolution Making an Appropriation for the Panama Mission (1826). MANUSCRIPTS: Wood's will ordered his executors to burn all of his manuscripts and papers; apparently they complied, although a total of three outgoing letters and one paper can be found at N.Y. Geneal. & Biog. Soc. Lib.; DeWitt Clinton Papers, Columbia Univ. Lib., N.Y.; Peter Force Collection, DLC. RLW&JMM

CLASS OF 1790

Samuel Alston

Robert Gibbon Johnson, A.B.

Daniel Bell, A.B.

William Johnson, Jr., A.B.

Armistead Churchill, A.B.

Ralph Phillips Lott

Gerard (Gerardus) Clarkson

John G. McWhorter

Charles Jones Colcock

William Mathewes, A.B.

Lewis Ladson Gibbes

Bryan Morell (Morel)

Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes

Ezekiel Pickens, A.B.

Barach Gibbons

John Hyndman Purdie, A.B.

Joseph Gibbons

John Ruan, A.B.

William R. Hanna, A.B.

Jacob Smith

Israel Harris, A.B.

Isaac Steele

Augustus William Harvey,

John Taylor, A.B.

A.B.

Benjamin Franklin Timothy

John Hollingsworth William Tryon Howe Henry Joseph Hutchins

George Spafford Woodhull, A.B.

Thomas Young, A.B.

(Commencement took place on Wednesday, September 29, 1790)

Samuel Alston SAMUEL ALSTON, probably a planter, was the tenth and youngest child of Col. Phillip and Winifred Whitmel Alston of the section of Bute County, North Carolina, which became Warren County in 1779. When Samuel was born on July 5, 1770, his oldest brother was already twenty-three years old. Their grandfather was John Alston, the patriarch of a large family who acquired extensive tracts of land in expanding areas of North and South Carolina. In 1781 the family and its home barely survived an attack by David Fanning's loyalists, who usually hanged their prisoners, but made an exception in the Alstons' case. Phillip Alston's will of November 11, 1783 suggests that he owned many slaves. He died on November 20, leaving specific bequests to his older children and the residue of his estate to Samuel. His three oldest sons, as executors, were instructed to do with Samuel's share "as they think will be most to the interest thereof until he comes of age." Apparently the executors thought Alston would benefit from an education at Nassau Hall. The earliest record of his attendance at the College is his appearance on a class list dated April 10, 1789 as a junior from Virginia. His family's home was not far from the Virginia border, and he may have lived with a relative in that state after his father's death. Alston did not become a member of the Cliosophic Society; since no records of nongraduate members are available for the American Whig Society, it is impossible to know whether he joined that organization. On February 19, 1790 the College steward reported that six members of the senior class, including Alston, had been boarding out of the College without a certificate. The six, all southerners, were ordered to return to the College immediately or show certificates of indisposition. Because of this infraction of the rules, sterner restrictions on students living off campus immediately went into effect. On March 10 the steward's list of those in arrears for "diet in College" included Alston, who owed £2.2.0. Students who had not actually been eating in the College dining hall complained and were given a hearing before the faculty, who decided that those who had been dining at the College were indebted in the amounts that the steward reported, but "that respect is to be had to the date of the certificates of those who have dieted in the Town." Alston last appeared before the faculty on July 2, 1790, when he was one of a group of students accused of eating and drinking to excess at David Hamilton's tavern on the evening of June 26. As a climax to the evening the miscreants placed a calf in the pulpit

466

CLASS OF 1790

of Nassau Hall and overturned the College outhouse. All denied being in any way involved. After adjourning to sift the evidence, the faculty declared that it had been sufficiendy proven to them that Alston, Jacob Smith (Class of 1790), Charles Ross (Class of 1791), and Alexander Johnes (Class of 1791) were the chief perpetrators of the "enormities," and ordered them to leave the College. Three others were later expelled for taking part in these escapades; two confessed, expressed their sorrow, promised better behavior in the future, and were readmitted. Alston probably became a planter. On December 4, 1791 he mar­ ried Elizabeth Faulcon, daughter of Nicholas Faulcon and Lucy Wyatt of Surry County, Virginia. Their five children all survived to adulthood. Alston died in November 1809. SOURCES: Alumni files, PUA; J. A. Grover, Alstons Sf AUstons of North & South Carolina (1901), 75-81, 95-96, 110-16, 138-39, 307-09, 346-47; W. S. Powell, ed., Diet. ofN.C. Biog. (1979- ), i, 27-30; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb., 10 & 21 Mar., 2 July 1790; VMHB, 34 (1926), 228; SCHGM, 14 (1913), 75; W. H. Hoyt, ed., Papers of Archibald D. Murphey (1914), π, 389-96. The rather violent and tempestuous Col. Philip Alston of Cumberland County, North Carolina, a first cousin of Samuel Alston, is sometimes mistaken for the latter's father Phillip. Willis Alston, congressman from North Carolina, a first cousin once removed, is generally said to have attended CNJ (see BDUSC, 531, and other sources), but no verification of this claim has been found. Joseph Alston (Class of 1797), sonin-law of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), and his brothers John Ashe Alston and William Algernon Alston (both A.B. 1799) were more distant cousins. RLW

Daniel Bell DANIEL BELL, A.B., probably a merchant, was the son of the Philadel­

phia merchant William Bell, who operated from 217 High (Market) Street and also had an establishment at 2 Sims's Alley. Daniel Bell may have been the student of that name who attended the philosophy school run by the University of the State of Pennsyl­ vania in 1784. However, in the fall of 1785, as a member of the first class in the grammar school at Nassau Hall, Bell placed third in a comparative trial of Latin grammar and syntax; he then entered the College as a freshman member of the Class of 1789. His classmate John O. Heriot noted on March 28,1786 that Bell had recendy joined the American Whig Society. On March 17, 1788 he was one of five students found guilty by the faculty of rioting in the College and sentenced to receive a public admonition and to read a confession before the assembled College, as well as to repair all damages for which they were responsible. Two of the group submitted to the

D A N I E L BELL

467

prescribed punishment, but Bell and two others refused to do so and were suspended. One soon capitulated and was readmitted; the other dropped out completely. Bell must eventually have accepted the punishment, but only after missing so much course work that he had to drop back a class. The faculty minutes do not record his readmission, and his name is not on a class list dated April 10, 1789. He had returned to the College but left the American Whig Society by September 1789, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, using Americus as his pseudonym. On March 21, 1790 Bell was again called before the faculty, this time convicted of the lesser infraction of disobedience to authority, for which he received an admonition in the presence of the faculty. Still, he managed to graduate with the honor of delivering one of the intermediate orations at his commencement exercises on September 29, 1790. He was also appointed replicator on the third debate of the afternoon: "Is the present system of education[,] so remote apparently from the ordinary business of the worldf,] a proper discipline to train young persons for its active employments?" Bell probably returned to Philadelphia to work in his father's mercantile establishment. He attended the annual meeting of the Cliosophic Society in Princeton on September 26, 1792. His father apparently had a friendly as well as a business relationship with Henry Laurens, the merchant, planter, and revolutionary statesman of South Carolina. From the time the latter returned to Charleston in 1785, the two men carried on an active correspondence, with Laurens entrusting Bell to act as agent for produce that he shipped north and ordering household and plantation needs to be sent from Philadelphia. The two frequently exchanged complimentary gifts, particularly foods that would be enjoyed by their respective households. After Laurens died in December 1792, the correspondence was continued by his son Henry Laurens, Jr. In March 1794 William Bell and his sons visited Charleston. There William became involved in America's neutrality policy toward France in a way that suggests strong Federalist loyalties that Daniel probably shared. In Charleston the Bells stayed with William Decker, a merchant at 8 Elliott Street, with whom the elder Bell had a business relationship and may even have had some type of partnership agreement. He and his sons were also cordially invited to visit the Laurens plantation. On Wednesday, April 23 one James Henderson fatally wounded Daniel Bell in a duel. He died the following day, and on Friday, April 25, 1794 he was interred in the burial grounds of Charleston's Independent Church, with the funeral attended by "a

468

C L A S S OF

1790

large number of respectable citizens." No further information about the duel has been found. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Heriot letters, 28 Mar. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 17 Mar. 1788, 21 Mar. & 8 July 1790; Clio, lists; Clio. Min., 26 Sept. 1792; G. M. Giger, "Hist, of the Clio. Soc.," in Clio. Soc., Proc. 6? Addresses at the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Clio. Soc. (1865), 90; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; letter, archivist of UPenn-Ar, 26 Apr. 1979, PUA; SCHGM, 24 (1923), 2-16, 53-68; 25 (1924), 23-35, 77-87 (Laurens corres.); Hamilton Papers, xvi, 446-47; Phila. Gen. Advt., 13 May 1794 (obit.). The author wishes to thank Wanda S. Gunning, who located Bell's obituary, which reached Philadelphia via the Charleston "Shipping Notices." RLW

Armistead Churchill A.B., was the seventh child of Armistead Churchill and Elizabeth Blackwell Churchill. Born December 16, 1772, Churchill was given the name of a nine-year-old brother who had died the previous summer. The first Churchill to emigrate from England to Virginia had married into the Armistead family, and the Princeton student was a member of the third generation to bear both family names; he also had cousins and nephews of the same name. The Churchill family had settled in Middlesex County, Virginia, where they became large landholders and members of Christ Church Parish. Through his father's sister, Churchill was related to the powerful Carter family of "Nomini Hall" plantation. Soon after their marriage his parents moved to Hamilton Parish in Fauquier County, where Churchill was probably born. During the Revolution his father commanded a regiment of the Second Battalion of Fauquier County militia. In 1787 the Churchills moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, along with several members of the Blackwell family. There they developed their plantation called "Blenheim," located just south of the city limits of Louisville. The name was probably a whimsical notion, since there seems to be no family connection with John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough. This property eventually became the site of Churchill Downs, and the private burial ground on the site was moved to Cone Hill Cemetery in Louisville. Churchill came to the College as a freshman and joined the American Whig Society. On May 21, 1788 he was called before the faculty because of an altercation with his classmate William Howe. Howe was convicted of calling Churchill a liar and scoundrel and other names, and Churchill was convicted of retaliating by physically assaulting Howe. Each was made to ask pardon of the other, and of the faculty, for disregarding the rules. On March 10, 1790 Churchill was ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL,

ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL

469

one of several students in arrears to the steward for their board. He owed £13. At his commencement exercises Churchill delivered one of the intermediate orations and also took the part of replicator on the first question debated: "Can sensual pleasures, when pursued to a criminal degree, ever compensate the pains they create?" Since Churchill's family had moved to Kentucky the year he entered the College, he probably felt no ties to that part of Virginia. After graduation he remained in New Jersey, apparently to study law. When he married Jane Henry, daughter of David and Mary Rosbrough Henry of Lamington, Somerset County, he listed his residence as "of Winchester Virginia." The date of his marriage is not known. The couple had two daughters, only one of whom survived her father. Jane Churchill's sister Mary, widow of Jeremiah Halsey (A.B. 1752), had married John Cleves Symmes, Ohio colonizer, who had purchased and was attempting to resell to setders several large tracts of land situated between the Miami and Little Miami rivers. No doubt the Symmeses urged the Churchills to follow them west. Acting under the authority of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the governor and two judges met as a legislature for the first time at Cincinnati on May 29, 1795 and elected Churchill clerk. His duties included preparing drafts of bills, with remuneration in proportion to the amount of writing required. A resolution adopted June 5, 1795 set the rate at eight cents "for every hundred words he shall write, ... in full compensation for all services incident to his office." Churchill did not have long to enjoy these munificent benefits, for he died on July 22 and was buried the following day. A newspaper obituary reported that his funeral was attended by "a great number of respectable citizens among whom were the governour, judges, and other officers of government." It also praised Churchill's amiable manners and deportment. Churchill died intestate and his wife and her brothers Robert and John were appointed to administer his estate. On November 14, 1802 at Lamington, Jane Churchill became the second wife of Symmes's son-in-law Maj. Peyton Short, with whom she settled in Woodford County, Kentucky. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; S. P. Hardy, Col. Families of the Southern States of Amer. (1968), 22-23; VMHB, 22 (1914), 441; 31 (1923), 57; WMQ, 1st ser., 7 (1899), 18687; 9 (1901), 246-49; H. C. Groove, Fauquier During the Proprietorship (1927), 149, 187; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Min. Fac, 21 May 1788, 10 Mar. & 8 July 1790; Pa. Packet,fcfDaily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; W. H. Eldridge, Henry Genealogy (1915), 154, 158; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon & Somerset Cnties. (1881), 599, 707; DAB (sketch of J. C. Symmes); N.J. WiUs, vm, 72; IX, 172; G. N. Mackenzie, Col. Families of the U.S. (1907-20 repr. 1966), v, 13, 448; KSHS Reg., 22 (1924), 225; 26 (1928), 303; 39 (1941), 103; OSAHQ, 30 (1921), 13-19; Cincinnati Centinel of the Northwestern Terr., 25 July 1795. See Parish Reg. of Christ Church, Middlesex Cnty., Va. (1897

470

C L A S S OF

1790

repr. 1964) & C. G. Chamberlayne, Vestry Book of Christ Church Parish, Middlesex Cnty., Va. (1927) for numerous references that establish a family connection with the parish. R. C. Jobson, Hist, ofEarly JeffersontownfifSoutheastern Jefferson Cnty., Ky. (1977), 8485, identifies Armistead Churchill, brother of Mary Churchill Prather Bullitt, as the overseer of a farm adjoining the Bullitt farm who, on 31 Aug. 1816, shot and killed the Bullitt's overseer Joseph Frederick. The Princetonian was indeed the brother of Mary Bullitt, but the murderer must have been a different relative of the same name. RLW

Gerard (Gerardus) Clarkson A.B. University of the State of Pennsylvania 1790, probably became involved in the mercantile interests of his father Matthew Clarkson, who was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and politician. Matthew Clarkson had been raised and educated by his stepfather, the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, who was a trustee of the College from 1748 to 1764. His sister Catherine, the mother of Ebenezer Hazard (A.B. 1762), married Samuel Hazard, trustee of the College from 1748 to 1757. Another sister, Ann, had become the second wife of the Reverend Samuel Finley in 1761, the year he became president of the College. After Finley's death in 1766 she resided with the family of her brother Matthew. In 1775 and 1776 Matthew Clarkson was an appointee of Congress to oversee the printing of Continental bills. He was also a supporter of and publicist for Benedict Arnold, at least through 1778. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and at various times held the offices of justice of the court of common pleas, justice of the county court, marshal in the court of admiralty, commissioner of bankruptcy, and trustee of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Gerard Clarkson was the ninth and youngest child of Matthew Clarkson and his wife Mary Boude. He was born July 7, 1772, three months later than his cousin George Clarkson (A.B. 1788). On October 26 of that year he was christened Gerardus, a name he probably shortened during his school years. He attended the grammar school at Nassau Hall, graduating and being admitted to the freshman class of the College in autumn 1786. He joined the Cliosophic Society on December 3, 1787, adopting the name of Xenophon. A list of the students at the College dated April 10, 1789 includes a "Jerod Clarkson" as a junior; however the Biographical Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania lists Clarkson as having entered that institution in 1787. Whatever the date of his transfer, he graduated from the University of the State of Pennsylvania in 1790. In 1790 Clarkson's father became an alderman of the city, and in 1792 he was elevated to mayor, an office to which he was three times GERARD (GERARDUS) CLARKSON,

CHARLES JONES COLCOCK

471

reelected. He had to keep the city functioning during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, when roughly 10 percent of the population of Philadelphia died. The mayor remained in the city when many other officials had fled and served as chairman of the citizens committee which was set up to deal with the many emergency situations. His wife became ill with the fever on October 7 and was not considered out of danger until October 14. Some time earlier their son Gerard had gone to the West Indies to join his elder brother David. He was probably entrusted with some business transactions for one or more of the mercantile establishments with which his father was associated, and whose records show a substantial amount of trade with the West Indies. Clarkson died unmarried at St. Christopher, British West Indies, on July 30, 1793. SOURCES: S. Clarkson, Memoirs of Matthew Clarkson of Phila. & of His Brother Gerardus Clarkson (1890), 21, 27, 54, 58; J. R. T. Craine, Ancestry &f Posterity of Matthew Clarkson (1971), 18-19; J. R. Young, Mem. Hist, of the City of Phila. (1895), I, 408; J. W. Jordan, Col. Families of Phila. (1911), I, 897-99; Phila. city directories, 1785, 1791, 1793; Clio, lists; Univ. of Pa., Biog. Cat. of the Matriculates of the College, 1749-1893 (1894), 31; Hancock House MSS; Butterfield, Rush Letters, H, 707, 710, 712, 715; F. W. Leach, Phila. Branch of the Clarkson Family (1912), 10. RLW

Charles Jones Colcock CHARLES JONES COLCOCK, attorney, judge, and public official, was born in Charleston, South Carolina at 7 a.m., August 11, 1771. He was the second of the five children of Millicent Jones Colcock and John Colcock, an attorney and ardent patriot. John Colcock was one of the local Sons of Liberty who sat in the first provincial congress of South Carolina and served for some time as secretary to the privy council. During the Revolution he lent £6,500 of his own funds to boost the state finances. In August 1781, as defense attorney for Col. Isaac Hayne, he challenged the legality of the British practice of forcing American parolees to take up arms against their former comrades. Colcock and his family were banished from Charleston by the British in April 1782, and he died in August of that year in Jacksonboro, South Carolina. Charles Colcock graduated from the grammar school at Nassau Hall in the fall of 1786 and was thereupon admitted to the College. He joined the Cliosophic Society during his freshman year. Colcock seems to have shown an increasing disregard for authority. On December 23, 1787, as a sophomore, he was convicted of insolent behavior towards a tutor. On September 10, 1788 he was one of a

472

CLASS OF 1790

group of students given a severe admonition for frequenting a "house of ill fame" in the neighborhood. Of the six who were involved, Colcock was one of the three who were judged to have "given most ground of Suspicion." On March 3, 1789 he was one of the group who broke into the room of Isaac Crane (A.B. 1789) and physically assaulted him. Again, Colcock was considered one of the leaders. He was still at the College when the summer term began in April 1789 but did not return for his senior year. Although their minutes do not indicate that he was asked to leave the College, the faculty must have breathed a collective sigh of relief at his departure. Colcock returned to Charleston, where he studied law under Henry W. DeSaussure and was admitted to the bar on January 23, 1792. He moved to Cambridge (later Ninety Six) in the central part of the state, where he practiced for several years and also commanded a troop of state militia cavalry. In 1795 he married Mary Woodward Hutson, daughter of Thomas and Esther Maine Hutson, and moved to St. Helena Parish in Beaufort District, on the southern coastline of the state. In December 1798 Colcock was elected solicitor of the southern circuit, a position which he held until he resigned in 1806, when he was elected on the Democratic-Republican ticket to the state house of representatives, sitting for St. Helena's. He was returned to the House in 1808, and in 1809 he was among the minority who voted against the General Suffrage Bill which became a part of the state constitution the following year. On December 9, 1811 the legislature elected Colcock an associate judge of the Court of Law of South Carolina. He soon moved to neighboring Prince William Parish, where his residence was known as "Experiment." He was a member of the committee appointed by the parishioners of Prince William on April 19, 1824 to receive subscriptions for the rebuilding of their church which had been burned during the Revolution. The original edifice, erected by wealthy planters, had been the largest and most impressive rural church in the state, and it was now restored to its original splendor. After the death of Justice John Faucheraud Grimke in 1819, Colcock presided over the Court of Law of South Carolina. In 1821, while hearing a case in which a free Negro was brought to the court as a witness, Colcock upheld the objections to the witness, saying that the court did not recognize the propriety of allowing free Negroes to testify in any case where the rights of white persons were concerned, except out of absolute necessity. He emphasized that "the degraded state in which they [South Carolina free Negroes] are placed by the laws of the State, and the ignorance in which they are reared" would make

CHARLES JONES COLCOCK

473

them incompetent witnesses. A reorganization of the judiciary system in December 1824 created an appeal court of law and equity, and the legislature chose Colcock one of the three judges of this new tribunal. In discussing his attitude toward the law Colcock is said to have explained, "In deciding a case I always look for the justice of it, and having ascertained that, I am very sure that I can find the law to sustain it." He had a reputation for being stern and uncompromising in following what he thought was his duty. In 1830 Colcock resigned his judicial position because of poor health and moved to Charleston. Although the nature of his illness is unknown, he reportedly suffered a great deal of pain during the last years of his life. However, he remained active and was elected president of the powerful Bank of the State of South Carolina, a position which he held until his death. As president he was invited to give information at meetings of the Ways and Means Committee of the South Carolina House of Representatives. In his memoirs Frederick Adolphus Porcher noted that few availed themselves of the right to make inquiries, since Colcock invariably rose and remained standing as long as the questioning lasted. With Colcock's superiority in "years, position, and public estimation," he usually left the questioners feeling quite uncomfortable. As Porcher concluded, "If his intention was to put a stop to enquiries he succeeded completely." In Charleston Colcock again took an active part in the building of a church, this time St. Peter's on Logan Street, where he also chaired the vestry. He became president of the board of trustees of the Medical College of South Carolina. In the summer of 1835 he served on a committee appointed by the citizens of Charleston when feelings were running high about northern abolitionist literature flooding the South. The local postmaster was torn between his oath to protect the United States mail and his feelings as a southerner that abolitionist literature should not be disseminated through the mails. Colcock was one of the speakers at a mass meeting that the newspapers praised as being prudently and responsibly conducted. The local committee agreed that the postmaster should set up his own censorship and remove all objectionable pamphlets. They argued that this action vindicated the oath of the postmaster because the mail would have been stopped by local vigilantes if the pamphlets had gone out. This form of local censorship established the precedent by which southern whites protected themselves from abolitionist publications. Colcock died on January 26, 1839 and was buried in St. Peter's churchyard. He was survived by a daughter and four of his five sons, of whom William Ferguson Colcock became a congressman and

474

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

Richard Woodward Colcock was appointed superintendent of the Citadel Military Academy in Charleston. Colcock's sister Eliza had married William Ferguson (Class of 1791). SOURCES: Heriot letters, 9 Jan. 1786; Princeton Packet, 5 θ α . 1786; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac., 23 Dec 1787, 10 Sept. 1788, 3 Mar. 1789; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., n, 145-46 (sketch of father); SCHGM, 3 (1902), 218-30; 49 (1948), 210; 54 (1953), 183; 56 (1955), 151; 64 (1963), 196; 68 (1967), 150-51 ("the degraded state"); A. S. Thomas, Hist. Acct. of the Protestant Episcopal Church m S.C. (1957), 247; S. G. Stoney, ed., "Memoirs of Frederick Adolphus Pbrcher," SCHGM, 46 (1945), 200 ("If his intention"); O'Neall, Bench 6? Bar S.C, I, 125-28 ("In deciding a case"); R. M. Myers, Children of Pride (1972), xi-xxv, 1495. The Reverend Charles Colcock Jones, whose family papers comprise the text of The Children of Pride, was a great nephew of CJC. RLW

Lewis Ladson Gibbes LEWIS LADSON GIBBES, probably a planter, was born either on St.

John's Island or at Charleston, South Carolina, September 25, 1771, the fourth son of Robert Gibbes and his wife Sarah Reeve, and the younger brother of John Gibbes (A.B. 1784) and Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes, also of the Class of 1790. The father was a wealthy planter who owned property in Charleston but had his principal seat in St. John's Parish, where the census of 1790 listed him as the owner of 110 slaves. His family had reached South Carolina in the seventeenth century by way of Barbados. In August 1783, when Sarah Gibbes wrote to her oldest son John, then a student at the College, she described Mr. Neale, who had been tutoring the younger members of the family for the past three months, as an Irishman whose impudence she attributed to a natural characteristic of his nationality. He was apparently fluent in English, Latin, Greek, and French, and conversant with Spanish and Italian, and the children had made good progress under his tutelage, but Mrs. Gibbes did not quite trust him. She was summoned from her letter writing to be told by her husband that he had fired Neale because of his "consummate impudence," and she asked her older son to try to find another tutor for die family. Someone middle-aged would be best, she said, and if he could be procured for eighty pounds a year plus his passage to Charleston that would be fine; however, John was authorized to offer as high as a hundred pounds annually if necessary. In the meantime their father proposed to start the younger boys immediately in a Charleston school run by a Mr. Baldwin. The Gibbeses were apparently staying at their town house, and the mother worried about what living arrangements could be made for her sons

LEWIS LADSON GIBBES

475

when they returned to the plantation. She also feared it would be a real disadvantage for them to be put in a class with other boys after having had the attention of a private tutor. Whether or not John was able to secure a tutor, Lewis and Thomas were probably among the students attending the grammar school conducted at Charleston from 1785 by the Reverend Robert Smith, longtime rector of St. Philip's Parish and later Episcopalian bishop of South Carolina, who was the first president or principal of the College of Charleston. The two Gibbes brothers entered the College of New Jersey in November 1787 as sophomores admitted "from other Colleges." Apparendy, their careers at Princeton were closely parallel. After two years they became seniors in November 1789. On the following February 19 the faculty cited them for living out of the College without permission, and on March 18, 1790 they were listed as students owing the steward for their board. Whether because of some difference with the authorities, or simply because of indifference to the degree, they did not enroll for the summer session of 1790, which normally would have been the last term of their residence before graduation. According to faculty minutes they were dismissed on April 10. Lewis joined the American Whig Society, as had his brother John, and was considered one of the leaders of the society in 1789. Little has been discovered regarding Lewis's later life. In 1809 he married Marie (Maria) Henrietta Drayton, and the couple had eight children, six boys and two girls. The oldest, Lewis Reeve Gibbes, subsequently served the College of Charleston as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. A charming letter written to his mother in 1820 shows the companionable relationship enjoyed by father and son. The boy described a trip to town with his father, where they visited a circus and then climbed the church steeple in order to hear the bells chime and the clock strike. Gibbes died on November 7, 1828, his wife having predeceased him on April 23, 1826. His will divided his property equally among his children and appointed his two oldest sons executors and guardians of their younger siblings. SOURCES: SCHGM, 12 (1911), 89, 95; 29 (1928), 24; J. H. Easterly, Hist, of the College of Charleston (1935), 27-29; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787, 10 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb. & 18 Mar. 1790; Beam, Whig Soc, 68; Hancock House Mss; als, Sarah Gibbes to John Gibbes, 11 Aug. 1783, & Lewis R. Gibbes to his mother, 6 Mar. 1820, ScHi; LLG's will, proved 3 Dec. 1830, ScCoAH. WFC

476

Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes presumably a planter, was born on April 6, 1770, at Gharieston or St. John's Island, South Carolina, the third son of Robert and his wife Sarah Reeve Gibbes, the younger brother of John Gibbes (A.B. 1784) and the older brother of Lewis Ladson Gibbes, also of the Class of 1790. Thomas, like his brother Lewis, was initially tutored at home. He may have been old enough to have received his first instruction under the Mr. West who had prepared his brother John for college, but by 1783 he was being taught by an Irish tutor named Neale whom his father discharged for impudence. Thomas and Lewis probably completed their preparation for college in the grammar school conducted at Charleston by the Reverend Robert Smith, rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, first president of the College of Charleston, and subsequently bishop of South Carolina. The Gibbes brothers were admitted to the College at Princeton in November 1787, and in the minutes of the faculty were listed as of November 10 as two of three members of the sophomore class "from other Colleges." Apparendy they continued their studies unbroken, except for the normal vacations, through November 10, 1789, when they were listed among those admitted as of that date to the senior class. On February 19, 1790 they were among a number of seniors reported to the faculty as living out of the College without certificate, and were ordered immediately into the College unless they could show a certificate entitling them to do otherwise. Whether the March 18 notation that they were among the students owing the steward for their "diet" indicates compliance with this order may be debatable. Neither of the brothers enrolled for the summer term of 1790, in which they could have completed the work for their degrees, and both apparendy had left the College on April 10. Thomas Gibbes returned to Princeton at least one more time, not to complete his studies but for his wedding on May 17, 1792 to Anne Morgan, sister of John (Class of 1789) and George Morgan (Class of 1795) and daughter of Col. George Morgan, whose farm "Prospect" immediately adjoined the College campus on its south side. The young couple sailed for Charleston on October 1793 and eventually setded at "Gibbesville," their estate on the Combahee River. Anne returned to "Prospect" in 1795 for the birth of her second son. Gibbes's life was destined to be tragically short. The Charleston City Gazette for November 24, 1798 carried the following notice: "Departed this life, on the 21st instant, Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes. This amiable and virtuous gendeman, has been cut off in the bloom

THOMAS STANYARNE GIBBES,

BARACH G I B B O N S

477

of life, in his 28th year. His disconsolate widow, and four infants, his mother, relatives and friends, live to deplore their inestimable loss." His father-in-law noted that Gibbes died in his wife's arms. John Morgan traveled to Charleston to bring his sister and her children, three boys and a girl, back to Princeton, where they resided for a time at "Prospect." The Princeton family estate was now John Morgan's home, his parents having established themselves at "Morganza" in western Pennsylvania. In 1801 Anne Gibbes bought her own home in Princeton, calling it "Peaceful Retreat." In May 1804 she visited "Morganza" for six months and then returned to South Carolina to live on the property she owned on the Combahee River. In the latter part of 1806 she became the second wife of her brother-in-law John Gibbes. Probably the 1806 sale of Anne's Princeton property took place because of her remarriage and her intention to remain in South Carolina. Robert Morgan Gibbes (A.B. 1813) was the second son of Thomas Gibbes. The youngest son Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes was the father of Charlotte Augusta who in 1846 married John Jacob Astor of New York City. SOURCES: See sketches of John & Lewis Gibbes in this volume; and SCHGM, 2 (1901), 50, 68; 12 (1911), 88, 89, 91, 94; 13 (1912), 133; 25 (1924), 110-11 (obit.); J. H. Easterly, Hist, of the College of Charleston (1935), 27-29; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787, 10 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb. Sc 18 Mar. 1790; Hancock House MSS. M. Savelle, George Morgan, Colony Builder (1932) carries a helpful genealogical table for the wife's family after p. 240. V. L. Collins, "Prospect Near Princeton," Princeton Univ. Bull., 15 (1925/26), 169 is helpful, as is also a substantial file in PUA on George Morgan, which includes extensive correspondence between Collins and descendants of the Morgan family. See also L. M. Drum, MS "Genealogical Rec. of Evan Morgan," NjP; Baynton & Morgan Genealogical Notes, collections of the Gen. Soc. of Pa. WFC&RLW

Barach Gibbons BARACH GIBBONS, planter, was the son of William and Sarah Gibbons, who had extensive land holdings in Newington Township, Chatham County, about nine miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia. Barach was probably the eldest son in a family of ten children. The family worshiped at the Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah. Barach's cousins included Hannah Gibbons, who married Matthew McAllister (A.B. 1779), and the colorful Thomas Gibbons who served as mayor of Savannah and later sued Aaron Ogden (A.B. 1773) in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden. The Princeton Packet of October 5, 1786 listed "Barack" Gibbons as a graduate of the grammar school who was being admitted to the

478

CLASS OF 1790

freshman class of the College. He was joined by his younger brother Joseph (also Class of 1790). Both joined the Cliosophic Society, where Barach assumed the name of Aristides, probably for the Athenian statesman and political opponent of Themistocles sometimes called Aristides the Just. In the undergraduate competition at the end of his freshman year Barach was third prizeman in Latin. The brothers probably remained at the College only one year. It is not known whether Gibbons established himself in any profession, but he undoubtedly remained busy supervising his rice lands in the Savannah River area. He owned a city lot in Savannah, a plantation called "Sharon," land in Newington Township, and several other tracts. He was surely the "Banack Gibbons" who was a member of a grand jury that appeared before Judge Jabez Bowen, Jr., on April 23, 1804. The judge was a New Englander who had recently been elected to the superior court of Chatham County. He opened the court session with a tirade against slavery and other southern customs to which he objected. This address so angered the jurors that they ignored the case they had been called to hear and delivered a presentment against the judge. He thereupon committed the entire panel to jail. They were released the next day by a writ of habeas corpus signed by the judges of the inferior court, who commended the jurors for their "patriotism, firmness and dignity." Judge Bowen was charged with attempting to excite a domestic insurrection and was confined in jail until his father arrived from Rhode Island with $8,000 bail. He left Georgia immediately, without again presiding in that state. Gibbons died in 1814, apparendy without having married. He bequeathed property to his sister Sarah Telfair and several nieces. Four nephews were appointed executors. SOURCES: T. O. Brooke, Ga. WUb, 1733-1860 (1976), 72; Natl. Gen. Soc., Abstracts of WiUs, Chatham Cnty., Ga. 1773-1817 (1963), 46-48, 50, 52, 55; Princeton Packet, 6 Oct 1786; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; N.J. Jour., 10 Oct. 1787; O. F. Vedder & F. Weldon, Hist, of Savannah, Ga. (1890), 423-24, 500; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 269-72; Writers' Program, Ga., Savannah River Plantations (1947 repr. 1972), 292-93,299, 319. RLW

Joseph Gibbons attorney, was one of the ten children of William and Sarah Gibbons of Newington Township, Chatham County, near Savannah, Georgia. He was probably younger than his brother and classmate Barach. There is no record that he attended the Nassau Hall grammar school with Barach, and he may have been sent to

JOSEPH GIBBONS,

WILLIAM R. H A N N A

479

school at Charleston, as was the case with many well-to-do Georgians. Both joined the Cliosophic Society in 1786, with Joseph using as his society name Shandy, for the hero of Laurence Sterne's novel. Gibbons was an attorney practicing in Liberty County, south of Chatham County, when he died in 1795. He left his property to his sister Sarah Telfair and his brothers Barach and William. SOURCES: T. O. Brooke, Ga. WiUs, 1733-1860 (1976), 72; Natl. Gen. Soc., Abstracts of WiUs, Chatham Cnty., Ga. 1773-1817 (1963), 46-48, 50, 52; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Writers' Program, Ga., Savannah River Plantations (1947 repr. 1972), 319. RLW

William R. Hanna R. HANNA, A.B., of Alexandria (now Frenchtown), Hunterdon County, New Jersey, was one of the thirteen children of the Presbyterian minister John Hanna (A.B. 1755) and his wife Mary McCrea. His mother's brother John McCrea (A.B. 1762) and her half-brother Robert McCrea (A.B. 1776) graduated from the College, as did Hanna's older brothers James Hanna (A.B. 1777) and John Andre Hanna (A.B. 1782). Their father served the Presbyterian churches at Bethlehem, Kingwood, and Alexandria in Hunterdon County for forty years, while also acting as the local physician. A school teacher before his ordination, he very likely prepared his sons for college. It is not certain when Hanna matriculated at the College, and he seems to have joined neither campus society. On March 3, 1789, after three students had been accused by the faculty of creating a disorder in the room of Isaac Crane (A.B. 1789), Hanna and six others voluntarily appeared before the faculty and admitted that they had committed the "outrage." Their confession was announced to the assembled college the following evening at prayers. The extenuating circumstances, so far as Hanna was concerned, were that he was not one of the leaders and that he had voluntarily confessed. He was involved in the escapade of June 26, 1790, when some members of the College were accused of eating and drinking to excess at David Hamilton's tavern. Later in the evening they placed a calf in the pulpit of Nassau Hall and overturned the College necessary or outhouse. On July 2 the faculty summoned nine students to appear before them, but Hanna and one companion did not obey. On July 10, when again summoned before the faculty, he confessed his part in the June 26 disorders and "having promised regular behavior for the future and having received an admonition in the presence of the Faculty is admitted to his former standing."

WILLIAM

480

C L A S S OF

1790

Two days earlier the faculty had assigned topics for the forthcoming commencement exercises. In an entry which may have been added later, Hanna was assigned to dispute the question: "Is common swearing consistent with the character of a polite scholar more than of a religious man?" Nothing has been found about Hanna's life after graduation. College catalogues first listed him as deceased in 1804. SOURCES: Princetonians, 1748-1768, 141-43, 387-89; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 75-77, 174-75, 363-66; Som. CtUy. Hist. Quart., 4 (1918), 92; NJHSP, 2d ser., 9 (1886-87), 95; 11 (1890-91), 158; Min. Fac, 3 Mar. 1789-10 July 1790; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, 6? Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1790. RLW

Israel Harris A.B., lawyer and businessman, was the son of Dr. Isaac Harris of Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, New Jersey, who served during the Revolution as a surgeon in Gen. Silas Newcomb's brigade. Prominent in his profession, Isaac Harris was one of the founders of the state medical society, and he was also for many years an elder in the Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church. Israel was the son of Isaac's first wife Margaret Pierson of Morris County, New Jersey. Her father was the Reverend John Pierson, a trustee of the College from 1746 to 1765, and her grandfather was the Reverend Abraham Pierson, rector from 1701 to 1707 of the Connecticut school that later became Yale college. Her sister Elizabeth Pierson Green was the mother of Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) and John Wickliffe Green (A.B. 1788), making them Israel's first cousins. Ebenezer Pierson (A.B. 1791) was a distant cousin. Harris was born sometime in 1770 when his family was residing in Piscataway Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. In November 1771 they moved to Pittsgrove, where he was raised and which he claimed as his place of residence. A newspaper account of his commencement identifies him as a resident of Deerfield, not far from Pittsgrove, over the county line in Cumberland County. Harris entered the College before March 3, 1789, when he was one of seven students who voluntarily confessed that they had assaulted Isaac Crane (A.B. 1789), thereby exonerating others who had been erroneously accused. The circumstances of the confession were mentioned in the presence of the entire College the foUowing evening at prayers, and the culprits' candor made their punishment relatively light. Although Harris actively engaged in this escapade, he was not considered a ringleader. Apparently he joined neither campus literISRAEL HARRIS,

ISRAEL HARRIS

481

ary society. At his commencement he was one of the disputants on the question: "Is common swearing consistent with the character of a polite scholar more than of a religious man?" After graduation Harris studied law with Frederick Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1770) at Millstone, Somerset County, New Jersey. While he was still a student of law, Harris married Aletta Schenck, the younger sister of Frelinghuysen's first wife Gertrude (Gitty) Schenck. Their father was Hendrick Schenck, a prosperous merchant and one of the founders of the Dutch Reformed Church at Millstone. The three children born of Harris's marriage were Henry Schenck Harris, a physician; Margaret, who married Abraham Voorhees, a prominent New Brunswick merchant whose family business has survived to the present; and Gertrude Frelinghuysen Harris. Harris was admitted as an attorney of the supreme court of New Jersey at the May term in 1795. He resided for a time in Middlebrook, where he apparently engaged in a wide practice, but gradually became involved in what are vaguely referred to as business pursuits, which probably meant real estate investment and development. He acquired several hundred acres in Hillsborough, Somerset County, along with valuable personal property. Some of his wealth came from his father, from whom he inherited £500 in 1807. The will also provided for a discharge of the interest on a £3,000 bond held against him by his father, on the condition that he pay £200 to each of his siblings. Harris also received his father's encyclopedia and gold sleeve buttons. As a young man he was active in politics as a member of the Federalist party, although the only public office he held was as sheriff of Somerset County, from 1808 to 1810. He eventually moved to Somerville, New Jersey, where he resided until his death in June 1816. Harris was the great-grandfather of Congressman Henry S. Harris (A.B. 1870), Franklin V. Harris (Class of 1880), Charles E. Harris (A.B. 1882), Francis Harris McGee (Class of 1895), and Bennington R. McGee (A.B. 1905). Two nephews by marriage were Theodore Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1804), who ran for vice president of the United States in 1844, and Frederick Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1806). SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Hist, of the First Pres. Church, Morristown, N.J. (1882P-85, 2 vols, in 1), II, 181, 185; T. Cushing & C. E. Sheppard, Hist. ofCnties. cf Gloucester, Salem 6? Cumberland (1883), 49,354,495; Min. Fac, 3 Mar. 1789,8 July 1790; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, £sf Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1790; Princetonians, 1769-1775, 78-84; N.J. Wills, XI, 159-60; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Hunterdon 6f Somerset Cnties., N.J. (1881), 586; J. P. Snell, Hist, of Sussex 6? Warren Cnties., N.J. (1881), 517; Alexander, Princeton, 249. RLW

482

Augustus William Harvey A.B., M.D. University of Edinburgh 1794, physician, was born in Bermuda on June 22, 1772, the son of Samuel T. and Sarah Riddell Harvey. His grandfather John Harvey had served as president of the Bermuda council and was lineally descended from Sir Nathaniel Rich, one of the original landed proprietors of Bermuda. Harvey's name is first found associated with the College on a class list dated April 10, 1789, when he was a junior. In July 1790 he was among a group of students called before the faculty for excessive eating and drinking at David Hamilton's tavern, for installing a calf in the pulpit of Nassau Hall, and then overturning the College necessary. The group denied all of the charges, whereupon the four who were considered the ringleaders were ordered to leave the College immediately. When the faculty reconvened, Harvey admitted that he had been among the party at Hamilton's, but since he was not involved in the later escapades, he was merely admonished in the presence of the faculty and admitted to his former standing. For his commencement exercises he was assigned the role of respondent on the question, "Can sensual pleasures when pursued to a criminal degree ever compensate the pains they create?" A year after his graduation Harvey began medical studies at the University of Edinburgh. He received his degree in 1794 after submitting a thesis entitled Dissertatio medica inaugurate, de scarlatina, and then returned to Bermuda, where he practiced medicine for the rest of his life. As a member of one of the leading families, he also served on the Bermuda council and as puisne judge, that is, an inferior judge of the supreme court. In 1795 he married Amelia, daughter of James and Anne Harvey Tucker. They had a family of nine children; of the four sons, the two oldest died in infancy, and Adolphus John Harvey eventually joined his father in the medical profession. The Harvey home, "Mt. Pleasant," was a rambling stone mansion, overlooking the sea on one side and an old fashioned garden on the other. A separate outbuilding served as the physician's consulting office. Harvey himself had blue-grey eyes and a florid complexion. Something of Harvey's personality emerges from the letters he wrote to his sons while they were studying abroad. Adolphus Harvey left home in 1825 to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh and returned to Bermuda sometime in June 1829. His father's letters show a deep concern and affection, although his constant advice may have been a trial to a young man. He recommended strict attention to anatomy and dissection above other medical courses. His wider

AUGUSTUS WILLIAM HARVEY,

A U G U S T U S WILLIAM HARVEY

483

Augustus William Harvey, A.B. 1790

interests are reflected in the lists of books that he suggested for leisure reading. Harvey cautioned his son to live within his means and, perhaps with the memory of the incident at Hamilton's tavern in mind, repeatedly advised him to choose his companions carefully. "Be polite to all, but intimate with few, and these few should be talented men who are examples of Industry and Diligence from whose Society you may derive improvement." A picture of Harvey as a family man shows through in his description of a Christmas celebration where "We talked of you, speculated where you would get your Cassava pie and drank your health." Harvey also related how he unwillingly attended the king's birthday ball on the island but only to act as escort for his daughters. He showed a sense of humor when describing a local wedding where "Erastus Brown has been 'catchei by a Ketchum." The flight of a runaway horse with two bridesmaids trapped in the carriage became "a dashing affair," and the entire paragraph telling of the wedding was dotted with puns. Harvey's letters mentioned his failing sight and his precarious state of health, although he survived for another quarter of a century. He

484

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

had already lost two sons, and he was eager for this one to return and join his practice before he himself had to retire. Harvey was impressed with new scientific discoveries and wrote to his son, The present is pre-eminendy an age of Inquiry, of Enterprise, of Discovery, of Invention and of Universal Improvement. How necessary then it is to employ every moment, to raise your mind to that state of elevation, as to go along and hold converse with the rapidly improving world. If you lag behind you may be assured that you will soon be trodden down and mingled with the Rabble. Only one letter to the younger son Eugenius is available. He sailed for Quebec in April 1831 in order to study or work under a Mr. Leacraft. His father showed the same concern for a member of the family going so far from home, cautioned him to strict economy, and advised him never to "let your passions be inflamed by Drinking, Gaming or any kind of Debauchery." Harvey died in Bermuda on October 20, 1856. Two greatgrandsons, Samuel Roosevelt Outerbridge and Frank Roosevelt Outerbridge, were nongraduate members of the Class of 1896. SOURCES: Alumni file (which includes copies of excerpts of letters to sons), PUA; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac., 10 Nov. 1789, 8 July 1790; Pa. Packet,fifDaily Advt., 7 Oct. 1790. PUBLICATION: Dissertatio medico inaugurate, de scarlatina (Edinburgh, 1794) RLW

John Hollingsworth HOLUNGSWORTH entered the College as a sophomore on November 10,1787, one of three sophomores who transferred "from other Colleges." However, he was on campus rather earlier, as evidenced by his joining the Cliosophic Society on August 29 of the same year, with the pseudonym Appius. The most obvious source of this name is the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus, who constructed the Appian Way in 312 B.C.; another possibility is the ancient Roman historian Appian of Alexandria, who lived during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. The length of Hollingworth's stay at the College is uncertain, but it had ended by April 10, 1789 when he was no longer listed among the students. This Princetonian has not been positively identified. The catalogue of the Cliosophic Society described him as a resident of Maryland.

JOHN

JOHN HOLLINGSWORTH

485

One likely candidate is the John Hollingsworth born on August 10, 1771, one of five sons and two daughters of Jesse Hollingsworth of Baltimore and his first wife Sinai Ricketts Hollingsworth, the daugh­ ter of Thomas and Mary Sovency Ricketts. Jesse Hollingsworth was a merchant and active Methodist who served Maryland as a purchas­ ing agent during the Revolution and represented Baltimore in the state legislature during the 1786-87 session. His son John married a Rachel Wilkins. He may be the John Hollingsworth of Baltimore who appears in the 1800 but not the 1810 census. Some of the Baltimore Hollingsworths, a family of Scots-Irish stock, were among the flour millers important to the rise of that town, but John's occupation has not been established. Neither has the date of his death. Jesse Hollingsworth's brother Zebulon married Mary, daughter of Robert and Margaret Kirkpatrick Evans, and lived at Elk Landing (incorporated as Elkton in 1787), Cecil County. They had a daugh­ ter and six sons, including John Hollingsworth, who was born on November 18, 1774 and died unmarried on June 18, 1840. John's nephews included William Hollingsworth (Class of 18S7) and Robert Hollingsworth (A.B. 1849). Zebulon Hollingsworth was a merchant, shipowner, and miller who served as an officer in the Cecil County militia in the Revolution. He was an Episcopal vestryman, although his wife, the niece of Rev. James Finley who in turn was the brother of Samuel Finley (College president, 1761-66), continued attending Presbyterian services after marrying him. At least three of his sons entered his mercantile firm, but John's occupation has not been discovered. Unless one of the above John Hollingsworths moved there, the man of that name who lived in Queen Annes County is yet another possibility, especially given the sizable contingent from the Mary­ land Eastern Shore entering the College around the same time Hollingsworth did. No personal data have been discovered. He was first listed in the 1810 census, and was elected as a DemocraticRepublican to the state's house of delegates from that county in 1819. In the three ensuing years he lost bids for reelection. He was a Methodist, which could imply some connection with the Baltimore Hollingsworths. SOURCES: Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1787 ("from other"); Clio, lists; Clio. Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., i, 448-49; J. Λ. Stewart, Descendants of Valentine Hollingsworth, Sr. (1925), 27-28, 29, 39-41, 75, 116; Μ. H. Jamar & A. Dubin, Hollingsworth Family & Collateral Lines (1944), 1-3, 16, 18-22; G. L. Browne, Bait, in the Nation 1789-1861 (1980), 12, 41; F. Emory, Queen Anne's Cnty., Md. (1950), 207, 445-47. JJL

486

William Tryon Howe probably a planter, was the son of Job and Anne Vail Howe of the Cape Fear District of North Carolina. Job Howe was the third generation of that name in North Carolina. He was the older brother of Gen. Robert Howe, who became commander of the Southern District of the Revolutionary Army. In 1771 Robert Howe served as a colonel of artillery in the expedition against the Regulators led by Governor William Tryon, after whom his nephew was presumably named. Job Howe died when his son was very young, since his widow married Robert Schaw and had a second son, Alexander Schaw, sometime before 1775. Robert Schaw was a partner in the mercantile firm of Duncan and Schaw of Wilmington, North Carolina, and a rice planter at his plantation "Schawfield." Schaw was considered reliable and dependable but only lukewarm in his support of the American cause. His wife's brother-in-law, the colorful Robert Howe, remained a friend of the family and undoubtedly took an interest in his young nephew. Howe entered the Nassau Hall grammar school at an unknown date and was among the graduates admitted to the freshman class of the College in the autumn of 1786. He joined the Cliosophic Society the same year. On May 21, 1788, during his sophomore year, he was called before the faculty and charged with swearing and abusing his classmate Armistead Churchill by calling him "Lyar, Scoundrel, etc." At the same time Churchill was found guilty of assaulting Howe. Both were required to ask pardon of each other and of the faculty. Since Howe was still enrolled as a junior almost a year later, his departure from the College before the beginning of his senior year did not result from this incident. Howe's stepfather died in 1786 and his mother in 1788, leaving her property to be divided between her two sons, Howe and his half-brother Alexander Schaw. Howe may have considered it more important to return to North Carolina to manage his property than to remain in New Jersey to continue his education. No information has been located about his later life. WILLIAM TRYON HOWE,

SOURCES: BAB (sketch of Robert Howe); E. W. & C. M. Andrews, Jour, of a Lady of Quality (1922), 160, 317, 319, 320; L. Lee, Lower Cape Fear in Colonial Days (1965), 148, 176; Princeton Packet, 5 Oct 1786; Hancock House MSS; Clio. Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Min. Fac, 21 May 1788. RLW

487

Henry Joseph Hutchins A.B. College of Philadelphia 1790, A.M. University of Pennsylvania 1793, merchant and banker, was born in Barbados, West Indies, October 17, 1773, the son of Dr. Benjamin and Mary Mission Hutchins. From time to time Henry resided at the Philadelphia address of Joseph Hutchins (College of Philadelphia Class of 1765), an Anglican clergyman and professor at Franklin College (later Franklin and Marshall College). Joseph had also come from Barbados to Philadelphia for his education and was undoubtedly a relative, probably an uncle. Hutchins appears in College records only as a member of the Cliosophic Society, which he joined June 11, 1788, taking the name of the English novelist Fielding. His name appears on no extant class list, thus indicating that he was in residence for no more than three semesters, from winter 1787 through winter 1788. After leaving Princeton Hutchins graduated from the College of Philadelphia in 1790. Hutchins's name is first found in Philadelphia city directories in 1796 as a merchant in partnership with James Clements, operating as the firm of Hutchins and Clements. By 1804 Hutchins was an "accomptant." He may have done the necessary accounting for the mercantile establishment, for he was still designated a merchant in succeeding directories through 1816. From 1818 through 1828 he was a "clerk in loan office" or "loan officer." In 1829 he was referred to as a clerk in the Bank of the United States; thereafter he was given that title or simply "clerk" until 1841, when he was described as a gentleman. After 1841 his name disappeared from the directories. Hutchins eventually became the chief clerk of the Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, which Congress chartered on April 10, 1816. He was probably associated with the bank from the time it opened for business. The charter expired on March 3, 1836. Hutchins's four extra years of being listed as "clerk" indicate that he remained with the institution during its unsuccessful attempt to survive with a state charter. His disappearance from the directories after 1841 probably indicates that at about this time he moved to Albion, Illinois, where he died on April 14, 1861. Hutchins married Jane Simmons of Philadelphia, daughter of Capt. Leeson Simmons. A son Benjamin Hutchins (A.B. University of Pennsylvania 1821) became an Episcopal clergyman. HENRY JOSEPH HUTCHINS,

SOURCES: Nongraduate file, PUA; Clio, lists; Phila. city directories, 1793-1844; A. W. Barnes, Hist, of the Phila. Stock Exchange, Banks & Banking Interests (1911), 30-31, 7576; Univ. of Pa., Biog. Cat. of the Matriculates of the College, 1749-1893 (1894), 12, 31,

488

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

63; Β. Hammond, Banks & Politics m Amer. from the Revolution to the Civil War (1957), Chap. 16. RLW

Robert Gibbon Johnson ROBERT GIBBON JOHNSON, A.B., gendeman farmer and public offi­

cial, the only son of Robert Johnson of Salem, New Jersey, and his second wife Jane Gibbon Johnson, was born July 23, 1771 in nearby Mannington at the home of his father's uncle John Pledger. Both parents were descendants of Richard Johnson, who emigrated from Surrey, England, in 1675 and acquired a large tract of land in what was then called Salem Tenth from John Fenwick, the chief proprietor of Salem, who had received his land grants from John Lord Berke­ ley and Sir George Carteret. Richard Johnson served as one of the first burgesses after the town was incorporated in 1682. In 1687 he built a large family home, "Guilford Manor." Robert Gibbon John­ son's maternal grandmother had been a widow of Samuel Fenwick Hedge, a great grandson of John Fenwick, who had inherited some of the proprietor's land. With this concentration of land in the family, Johnson eventually inherited over half of the acreage incorporated in the present city of Salem. The Revolution brought several traumatic experiences to the young Johnson. The British massacre of some of Salem's citizens, including several noncombatants, was an act which Johnson never forgot or forgave. In March 1778 the British commandeered the Pledger house, imprisoning the family members while they used their home as headquarters. Seven-year-old Johnson, who had been vis­ iting his relatives, was held for several days. On another occasion Johnson is credited with leading his mother and his half-sister Mar­ garet through wooded and swampy areas until they reached a haven safe from the British. Johnson's first schooling was under the Reverend William Schenck (A.B. 1767), minister of the Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church in Salem County. He later studied under William Thompson at Newark Academy in Newark, Delaware. He entered the College as a fresh­ man in the fall of 1786, and he joined the American Whig Society. His first recorded brush with the faculty came on December 23, 1787 when, along with Jacob Smith (Class of 1790) and Charles Ross (Class of 1791), he was admonished for damaging the "buildings about the college," and ordered to make good the cost of repairs. Since Nassau Hall and the president's home were the only permanent structures

ROBERT G I B B O N J O H N S O N

489

Robert Gibbon Johnson, A.B. 1790 on the campus at the time, and it seems unlikely that the students would have ventured to damage the latter, the use of the plural probably indicates that the boys had once again tipped over the College necessaries. On July 10, 1790 Johnson was expelled as one of a group of students who on this occasion did overturn the outhouses, and who also put a calf in the Nassau Hall pulpit after imbibing too heavily at nearby Hamilton's tavern. Johnson asserted his innocence but was convicted and was not readmitted to the College until August, when he appeared before the faculty, confessed his guilt, professed sorrow for his actions, and promised better behavior in the future. At some point in Johnson's college career his father reportedly complained to President John Witherspoon because his son was not advancing as rapidly as he wished. Witherspoon replied, "I tell you, sir, the boy wants capacity!" When the faculty met on July 8, 1790 Johnson was assigned to defend the second question to be debated at commencement exercises, "Is form in business or formality in conduct ever of real benefit in any cases or in any characters?" This

490

CLASS OF 1790

disputation was never held. Instead, Johnson became one of three seniors who received their degrees but were "necessarily absent" from the commencement exercises. It seems too bad that his father was deprived of the pleasure of seeing his son receive his diploma. A page in the former's account book was devoted to recording "Expenceses [sic] for Schooling and Boarding." These outlays began in August 1780 and show that a litde over £200 was spent on Johnson's preparatory education. On November 10, 1786, when he entered the College, his father disbursed £17.6.4 for "Sundry Clothes & books & other Expenses," £3.15.0 for board and tuition, and £11.0.0 to the college steward. There is also an entry for £1.15 for "Tuition, Room Rent & damage money." Since the first two items had already been cared for, presumably this was simply a deposit in case of damage to College property. The father also included £11.0.0 as his own expenses in making the round trip between Salem and Princeton. When Robert Johnson received his degree total expenses amounted to £676.12.6^, which his father labeled with a flourish, "So Much Giving a Child a Liberal Education." However, he had forgotten some cash that a friend had delivered to his son and also the guinea necessary to pay for a diploma. The corrected total for Johnson's four years of college came to £683.10.6^-. Johnson had planned to continue his education by preparing for the bar, but because of his family's large landholdings he either decided or was persuaded that he should take over the management of the estate. This decision led to a lifelong interest in agriculture. However, he took time out from agrarian pursuits from October through December 1794 to serve with the New Jersey troops who were sent to Pennsylvania to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. He was appointed paymaster of the Second Regiment of Infantry of the New Jersey detached militia under Gen. Joseph Bloomfield. In 1796 he received a commission from Governor Richard Howell as captain of a troop of horse. Two years later he was promoted to major of cavalry, and in 1817 to full colonel. On June 19, 1798 Johnson married Hannah Carney, the younger daughter of Thomas and Mary H. Carney of Penn's Neck, Salem County. Johnson's father had died by this time, making his son the largest land owner in the county. Hannah Carney Johnson inherited several valuable farms in Upper Penn's Neck from her father to add to her husband's holdings. Four children were born of the union, two of whom died in infancy. Hannah Johnson died in childbirth on September 29, 1811, and Johnson in 1813 married Julianna Eliza-

ROBERT G I B B O N J O H N S O N

491

beth Zantziger, daughter of Paul and Esther Zantziger of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They had no children. Johnson began the construction of a home for his family in 1806 and moved there in the fall of 1807. He was his own architect for the brick house that has been described as having "consciously classical" details. Special features included a widow's walk on the roof, an impressive fanlight over the front entry, and intricately carved woodwork both inside and out. Sheaves of wheat and ears of corn, symbolic of the family's agricultural wealth, were carved on the mantel. Johnson chose the best lot on Market Street for "Johnson Hall" and used only the best materials, but he also haggled with his workmen until he had a brief but successful strike on his hands. The carpenters working on the job demanded seventy-five cents per day and an eleven-hour day. Other artisans who were already being paid seventy-five cents a day asked for an increase to a dollar each day. Members of the Johnson family occupied this home until 1923, when it was acquired by the county; it has since been used for Salem County offices. In 1796 the New Jersey legislature passed a bill to relieve agrarian distress in Salem County. Johnson took charge of administering loans from a new office, which then closed on March 1, 1797 after Salem County residents had borrowed $16,000 to meet agricultural needs. Johnson became known as the almost legendary hero who first ate a "love apple" in public, even though there is plenty of evidence that many people were eating tomatoes long before his dramatic gesture. Always interested in improving his yield and in experimenting with new crops, he imported some tomato seeds from South America. Annoyed that no one was interested in trying this new specialty, one July day in 1820 he carried a basket of tomatoes to the court house steps and offered samples to passersby. When no one accepted his offer he climbed the steps and demonstrated the fine art of eating a ripe, juicy tomato, while the crowd that had gathered waited for him to drop dead. This act encouraged the acceptance of the tomato, which soon became a major crop in the southern part of the state, and by 1900 supported thirty canning factories in the county. A marker on Market Street commemorates the site of Johnson's feat. After persuading the local farmers to plant tomatoes, he instructed them in the best growing methods. In 1816, as a means of promoting the farm products of the county, he reorganized the county fairs that had been held by the early setders, delivered the opening address at the first agricultural exhibit, and offered prizes for "the finest tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables."

492

C L A S S OF

1790

Johnson became by far the wealthiest man in the county, mainly through the sale of inherited building lots, but the discovery of marl in the area in 1826 gready increased the value of his farmlands. Salem County farmers at least doubled their crop yield by using marl as a fertilizer and a reconditioner for worn-out fields. By 1840, during a period of deflation in most of the country, the price of such land in the county had risen from $8 and $10 an acre to $70 or $100 an acre, with some particularly valuable properties claiming even more. Johnson's early forebears were members of the Friends' Meeting at Salem, and his parents were married at the Swedish Lutheran Church at Penn's Neck. He, however, became an active member of the local Episcopal church. From 1812 on, a small Presbyterian congregation had been allowed to hold evening services in the Episcopalians' building whenever a visiting minister was available. On the evening of December 3, 1820 the church building was, for some reason, locked when the Presbyterians arrived. Unfortunately for the Episcopalians, the preacher that evening was the Reverend Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783), president of the College, who had been invited to speak by Johnson. The group proceeded to the court house and held their service there, but Johnson, who apparently always had a low boiling point, was incensed at this insult to his guest. He immediately appointed a committee to organize a Presbyterian church and erect a building. He contributed half an acre of ground next to his home and $1,200, nearly half the cost of the building, as well as a mahogany pulpit. The church was recognized by the Presbytery of Philadelphia on November 13, 1821, four months after the dedication of the building. Johnson became an elder in 1823 and continued his generous support of the church. Along with his agrarian and religious pursuits, Johnson took an interest in all aspects of his community's life. By two votes he won a seat in the New Jersey assembly as a Federalist in 1821-22, and he served again from 1823 to 1826. In 1838 he ran for election to the legislative council as a Whig and lost by thirty-eight votes because the Democrats had gained ascendancy in the county. Despite his lack of legal training he was appointed a judge of the Salem County Court in 1833 and held this post until his death. He served on the board of directors of Princeton Theological Seminary from 1823 to 1824 and on its board of trustees from 1827 to 1834. He also acted as a trustee of the local Salem Academy, to which his father had donated land, and of Newark College, the former Newark Academy and present University of Delaware. Johnson was instrumental in the establishment of a public library in Salem, and he apparendy spent a great deal of time writing letters to newspapers, where he expressed

ROBERT GIBBON J O H N S O N

493

his opinions frequently and vociferously on any topic that interested him, but particularly on those subjects on which he encountered any opposition. Always interested in the history of West Jersey, and particularly that of Salem County, on March 5, 1839 he delivered the first of a series of lectures on Salem history before the Salem Lyceum. The lectures formed the basis of his book, An Historical Account of the First Settlement of Salem in West Jersey, by John Fenwick, Esq., Chief Proprietor of the Same; With Many of the Important Events That Have Occurred, Down to the Present Generation, Embracing a Period of One Hundred and Fifty Years, which he published the same year. Although valuable as the first written history of Salem, it has often been corrected by later historians of the area. Johnson apparently believed that most historians had slighted John Fenwick in favor of William Penn, and his history is told from Fenwick's point of view. The book also reveals Johnson's bitter anti-British bias. Samuel Prior, editor of the local Freeman's Banner, planned to publish the book, but after he and Johnson quarreled about some aspect of its publication, the latter took his manuscript to a Philadelphia printer. Prior then accused Johnson of breaking an oral contract, and the readers of the Banner were treated to columns of recrimination from both sides. Johnson had long favored the creation of an institution to preserve and commemorate the state's past, and in 1845 he helped to found the New Jersey Historical Society. Elected its first vice president, he held that office and attended meetings regularly until his death. At a session in Elizabethtown a year after the society's organization, he read a biographical sketch of "John Fenwick, Chief Proprietor of Salem Tenth." He was warmly thanked, not only for presenting the memoir, but for his "devotedness to the best interests of the society." His commitment made him a generous donor to its archives of early letters, deeds, and wills, some of which he simply appropriated from the Salem County Surrogate's Office and carried to the society's headquarters in Newark. After a meeting of the society at Morristown in the fall of 1850, he started on a journey to New England to visit friends. Taken suddenly ill in New Haven, Connecticut, he died there on October 2, 1850. Although he had donated the land for the Presbyterian cemetery, he was buried in the Johnson family plot in St. John's Episcopal churchyard. Despite his militant outspokenness and his intolerance of other people's convictions, Johnson was described as kind and benevolent, and extremely fond of extending the hospitality of his home. He was also noted for his equestrian skill, and he rode until he was past seventy. His only son Robert Carney Johnson became the first mayor

494

C L A S S OF

1790

of Salem after it was incorporated as a city. He served during the Civil War as colonel of the Twelfth New Jersey Volunteers, called the Johnson Guards. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; T. Shourds, Hist. & Gen. ofFenwick's Colony (1876 repr. 1976), 103-10; GMNJ, 37 (1962), 6; R. G. Johnson, Hist. Account of the First Settlement of Salem, in West Jersey (1839); J. A. Munroe, Federalist Delaware (1954), 59, 63-64; £. H. Roberts, Biog. Cat. of the Princeton Theological Seminary (1933), x, xvii; Biog. Encyc. of N.J. of the 19th Cent. (1877), 428-29 ("I tell you"); Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Min. Fac, 23 Dec. 1787, 8 & 10 July, Aug. 1790; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; W. H. Chew, Salem Cnly. Hand Book (1924), 7; J. S. Sickler, Hist, of Salem Cnly., N.J. (1937), 64, 155, 196, 198, 200, 202, 227, 242, 250; "Semicentennial Celebration of the Founding of the N.J. Hist. Soc.," Collections of the N.J. Hist. Soc, 8 (1900), 44-45; J. S. Sickler, Old Houses of Salem Cnty. (1949), 40-44, 82-83; I. Y. Hancock, In the Shade of the Old Oak (1961), 30-33; T. Cushing & C. £. Sheppard, Hist, of the CnAes. of Gloucester, Salem, 6? Cumberland (1883), 337, 341, 351, 358-59, 381, 396, 403-05; account book of Robert Johnson of Salem, N.J., NjR; NJHSP, 1st ser., 5 (1851), 94-95 (eulogy); N.J. Hist., 98 (1980), 6-8 ("the finest tomatoes"). PUBLICATIONS: Letter to the Reverend William Mulford of Salem (N.J) (1819, not in ShSh but available at NjP); Hist. Acct. of the First Settlement of Salem, in West Jersey (1839); "List of Judges, Clerks, Sheriffs, Surrogates, & Attornies of Salem Cnty.," NJHSP, 4 (1849), 37-52; "Memoir of John Fenwicke, Chief Proprietor of Salem Tenth, N.J.," NJHSP, 4 (1849), 53-100 RLW

William Johnson, Jr. A.B., LL.D. 1817, LL.D. Harvard 1818, lawyer and justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born December 27, 1771, the second of the eleven children of William and Sarah Nightingale Amory Johnson. His birth probably took place at the family plantation, "White House," which was located on the Cooper River in St. James Goose Creek, about thirteen miles from Charleston, South Carolina. William was baptized in the parish church of St. James Goose Creek the following Christmas. His mother was the heiress of a wealthy English immigrant. His father, a descendant of a Dutch family that had setded in New York, migrated to South Carolina in his youth, where in 1766 he became an artisan leader among the Charleston Sons of Liberty. The elder Johnson, a highly skilled blacksmith and ironwright, was also an astute businessman. After working a few years in partnership with another Charleston blacksmith, Johnson established his own shop and prospered enough to be elected to the South Carolina assembly. Those who sat in the assembly qualified for this privilege by the ownership of 500 acres of land and ten slaves, or of personal property valued at £1,000. Johnson served seven terms, sometimes representing Charleston parishes but more frequently sitting for St. James Goose Creek. He was a WILLIAM JOHNSON, JR.,

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

495

William Johnson, Jr., A.B. 1790

delegate to the second provincial congress and a representative to the 1788 state convention, where he voted to ratify the Federal Constitution. He served in the state constitutional convention in 1790 and also held a number of local commissionerships. During the Revolution Johnson repaired American arms and stored munitions at his smithy. During the British occupation a tempting offer of a monopoly on all of the smith's work for the British navy did nothing to change his patriotic views. As a cannoneer with the Charleston Battalion of Artillery he was among the Charleston citizens exiled to St. Augustine. Sarah Johnson and her children set sail for Philadelphia, where the father was eventually reunited with his family. They spent the fall of 1781 in a cottage on the Schuylkill River, which gave the youngsters a close-up view of a nearby French army encampment. By winter the Johnsons had moved into the city, and the sons were enrolled in school, with their tuition paid by the earnings from several of the family's slaves whom Johnson had trained as smiths. His sons received only a relatively short period of schooling, for in the spring or summer the Johnsons returned to South Carolina, this time making the journey by wagon and stage. The family settled in Charleston, perhaps because of wartime depredations to the plantation home. Nothing has been

496

CLASS OF 1790

found to indicate whether the sons' education was resumed immediately upon their return, but William probably was enrolled in 1785 in an academy opened that year by the Episcopal clergyman Robert Smith. William entered the College as a freshman in the 1786-87 academic year, along with a number of other Charlestonians. Despite his relatively short periods of formal schooling before entering Nassau Hall, he became an outstanding scholar. He won the undergraduate prize for translating English into Latin at the end of his sophomore year, and as the highest ranking member of the senior class he delivered the Latin salutatory address at his own commencement. He joined the American Whig Society sometime during his undergraduate years. On June 10, 1788, when William Johnson, Sr., was renewing correspondence with an English relative and bringing him up to date on news of his family, he proudly declared that William was pursuing studies at the College, and "has a good character." Johnson's own evaluation of his years at Nassau Hall are contained in a letter that he wrote to his classmate George S. Woodhull in 1817: "I have now passed the meridian of life, and I shall die in the conviction that to minds which acquire a taste for intellectual improvement the days of a college life are among the happiest spent on earth." Johnson returned to Charleston to study law with the eminent attorney and product of the Inns of Court, Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. He qualified for admission to the bar in January 1793. His father had retired from political life in 1792, and Johnson soon plunged in to take his place. In 1794 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature as a Democratic-Republican, with two reelections immediately following. During his second term he acted as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In 1798, only twentysix years old, he was chosen speaker of the house. Johnson's legal expertise was recognized in his appointment to a committee set up to revise the state's judicial system. During his last term in office this committee submitted its report, which was largely accepted by the legislature. One change enacted was the creation of circuit courts to give citizens easier access to justice. The judges of the appellate court of common pleas were to rotate on these circuits. The number of judicial appointments was increased, and on December 18, 1799 the legislature awarded one of the new positions to Johnson. The example of the state legislature's control over the courts in South Carolina reinforced his conviction that the legislature should hold the central role in government. He served on the state court for over four years, where he attracted attention, not only because of his judicial talents, but because of his relentless opposition to Federalism.

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

497

On March 16, 1794 Johnson married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Bennett, a Charleston architect, and sister of Thomas Bennett, Jr., who became a political associate of Johnson's and later governor of South Carolina. Family tradition says that the groom's mother refused to attend the ceremony at the "Scotch Presbyterian Church," presumably because of her Episcopalian loyalties. The marriage seems to have been happy despite the loss of six of the eight children born to them. The Johnsons also adopted the orphaned John and Marie Madeleine L'Engle, refugees from the Santo Domingo revolt; evidence that the relationship endured is the inclusion of John L'Engle as one of the executors of Johnson's will. At the death in 1808 of his friend and fellow jurist, Lewis C. Trezevant, Johnson also assumed the guardianship of four-year-old Lewis Cruger Trezevant. In an 1802 letter to one of his sisters, Johnson described a trip being planned by his wife, noting, "For my part like a very obedient spouse I will follow where she leads." Johnson also found time for a number of civic activities. In 1799 he helped to organize a mutual fire insurance company in Charleston and was chosen its director. He also served as director of a local water company, as a commissioner of Charleston's orphanage, and as chairman of the school committee of the South Carolina Society* which operated a charity institution in the city. But he gave his greatest efforts to promoting the College of South Carolina, chartered in Columbia in 1801 and later to become the state university. Because of his position as a state judge, he first sat on its board as an exofficio member, but by late 1802 he was elected its president. He held that position for two years and served on a dozen different committees before resigning from the board in 1808. One observer gave him principal credit, or blame, for choosing titles for the college library, which as late as the 1820s still numbered only about 5,000 volumes. His selections favored modern over classical authors, and English translations over Latin and Greek originals. This pattern reflected his reading tastes. He valued Lord Byron, Thomas Southey, Sir Walter Scott and other contemporaries over Homer and the ancients, although classical allusions continued to dot the writings of the prize Latinist of his sophomore class. His youthful respect for natural law slowly gave way to an exasperation with John Locke'as too metaphysical. He placed much greater reliance upon positive law. He feared the greed that the Revolution had liberated among his fellow Americans, but he addressed this problem, not by trying to resurrect a lost world of eighteenth-century civic virtue, but by empowering American legislatures, both state and federal, with sufficient discretion to respond adequately to whatever difficulties might arise.

498

CLASS OF 1790

In April 1804 Johnson received the most important news of his life from Secretary of State James Madison (A.B. 1771). He had just been appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. His seat covered the sixth circuit, comprising Georgia and South Carolina. President Thomas Jefferson (LL.D. 1791) needed not just a good lawyer and loyal Republican, but also a native of the area. On April 18 Johnson accepted what he claimed was a totally unexpected honor, asking only that his commission be delayed until May 1 to give him time to wrap up his state responsibilities, particularly to the college. He assumed his new office on May 6 at the circuit court in Savannah, and he took his seat in Washington the following February. As the first Republican to hold a seat on the court and at thirty-two much the youngest judge, Johnson carried with him the high expectations of other Jeffersonians. Although the Federalists had been voted out of executive and legislative power by 1801, they still dominated the Supreme Court. John Marshall (LL.D. 1802) had become Chief Justice only a month before John Adams left the presidency. Marshall immediately replaced the separate or seriatim opinions that so far had prevailed in the court with a new system that stressed unanimity and a single opinion, which he usually wrote. At a time when numerous Republicans were demanding widespread impeachments of Federalist judges, this practice gave his opponents much less leverage against any particular man. Republicans hoped that Johnson could somehow shift this momentum. Johnson's judicial career was novel and significant, even when he disappointed Jefferson and Madison. In thirty years on the bench he won a reputation for judicial independence, unwilling to be intimidated by either the president who appointed him or the people of South Carolina in their angrier moods. Although his preference for seriatim opinions achieved success on only a few occasions, he worked quiedy to make the court less monolithic, less an expression of Marshall's powerful will, and more flexible on constitutional issues. He gradually earned renown for his carefully argued dissenting and concurring opinions. His pronouncements on bankruptcy, the commerce and contract clauses, and the militia developed at least one common theme. More than any other judge of his day, he battled to establish concurrent jurisdiction rather than exclusive spheres of federal and state authority. Where he could, he left important choices to legislatures rather than courts. He was, in short, an innovative Jeffersonian jurist, committed to national integrity and yet comfortable with a high degree of state autonomy. Apart from an orthodox Jeffersonian dissent in one of the Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) conspiracy cases (Ex parte Bollmann and Swartwout,

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

499

1807), Johnson's first constitutional challenge delighted Federalists and embarrassed Jefferson's administration. Gilchrist v. Collector of Charleston (1808) grew out of the embargo crisis of 1807-09, in which the United States tried to halt all exports to foreign countries as a gigantic protest against British and French maritime depredations. But when American vessels in the coastal trade too often claimed to be blown into foreign ports against their will, Congress authorized collectors to detain those deemed suspicious, and the Treasury Department issued even stricter guidelines. After the Charleston collector refused clearance to Adam Gilchrist for a cargo of cotton and rice bound for Baltimore, Gilchrist sued in Johnson's circuit court. Johnson granted the clearance by a writ of mandamus because the only basis for restraint in this case derived from Treasury instructions, not congressional mandate. His terse decision included a ringing passage that extolled the "legal restraint" to which all "officers of our government, from the highest to the lowest, are equally subjected." Attorney General Caesar Rodney publicly denounced Johnson's action as judicial interference in executive matters. Citizens, replied the indignant Johnson in the Charleston Courier, had a right to trade freely unless restrained by law, not ministerial fiat. The Gilchrist case suggested to Jefferson and Madison that Johnson had been seduced by Marshall's Federalist principles, but in fact the young justice continued to wage Jeffersonian battles within the court. Although he accepted his brethren's judgment far more often than not and wrote more majority opinions than anyone except Marshall and Joseph Story, he became by far the most eloquent dissenter on the Marshall court, choosing his issues carefully and writing nearly half the dissents filed during his years on the bench. Unlike Marshall, he ardendy supported the War of 1812, especially in a Fourth of July oration that year at St. Philip's Church in Charleston. America's poor performance in that struggle did heighten his concern for national self-sufficiency and made him sympathetic with measures that many still equated with Federalist rule. He favored protective tariffs, the Second Bank of the United States, and internal improvements at either state or federal expense. Most of these policies became highly unpopular in South Carolina by the 1820s. His address to the South Carolina Society on October 14, 1815, an organization he then served as senior vice president, extolled many of these measures, idealized the planter's life, urged scientific agriculture and crop experimentation upon his audience, and recommended humane treatment for slaves. As early as 1810 his broad learning had secured his election to the American Philosophical Society, and it won him LL.D. degrees from the College in 1817 and Harvard in 1818.

500

C L A S S OF

1790

As the War of 1812 neared its end, Johnson, perhaps weary from years of circuit riding, considered a major career shift. In 1814 he tried to persuade the administration to let him swap positions with his friend William H. Crawford of Georgia, the American minister to France. Instead Crawford became secretary of the treasury in 1817 under President James Monroe (LL.D. 1822). Johnson tried to use Crawford's influence to win appointment as secretary of war, but John C. Calhoun received that post. In 1819 Crawford offered Johnson the lucrative office of collector of customs in Charleston. Johnson hesitated several months, tried to secure the position for his brother, and then decided to remain on the court, partly because the justices had just received a raise of $1,000. These maneuvers disgusted John Quincy Adams (LL.D. 1806). Johnson, he grumbled, "is a man of considerable talents and law knowledge, but a restless, turbulent, hotheaded, politician caballing Judge. He has been an ardent canvasser for Crawford, and though a Judge flaringly independent, a placehunter for himself and his brother, a carpenter in Charleston." Extrajudicial matters preoccupied Johnson from 1818 to 1822 when he visited battlefields and read over 4,000 documents while writing and publishing at his own expense and the family's request a two-volume biography of Gen. Nathanael Greene (A.M. 1781), another artisan's son who had risen to high national office. The study expressed abhorrence for the recruitment of slaves and strong approval for a national draft as the fairest way to raise an effective republican army. These asides attracted far less attention than Johnson's evaluation of individuals. The biography aroused the fury of Henry Lee who believed the exploits of his Federalist father, Gen. Henry ("Light Horse Harry") Lee (A.B. 1773), had been slighted. The North American Review took similar exception to Johnson's claim that Count Casimir Pulaski had slept through much of the Battle of Germantown. The judge also drew fire for attributing the inflammatory Newburgh addresses of 1783 to Federalist Gouverneur Morris at a time when it was just becoming known that the real author was John Armstrong, Jr. (Class of 1776), who became Republican secretary of war under Madison. As this incident suggests and as Jefferson and Madison both recognized, Johnson had produced a Republican history of the war, a detailed response to the five-volume Federalist biography of George Washington by John Marshall. Despite the controversy, neither sold well. Even after reducing the price from $10 to $6, Johnson moved fewer than 600 of his thousand-copy press run. Johnson's absorption in the Greene project may explain his secondary role in the Supreme Court's epochal decisions of these years. He said little in the controversies surrounding McCulloch v. Maryland,

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

501

the Dartmouth College case, Sturges v. CrowninshieU, or Cohens v. Virginia, but he did make clear his support for the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States and his approval of internal improvements at federal expense. He also drafted an elaborate proposal for a national bankruptcy policy. Once again observers began to suspect that Marshall had won him over. The Greene biography argues otherwise, and it provided Johnson with an occasion to renew correspondence with Jefferson in 1822-23. His long letter of December 10, 1822—the most revealing personal document of Johnson's that has survived—discussed reactions to his book, his decision not to follow it up with a history of political parties in the early republic (although Jefferson continued to urge this project upon him), and his role on the Supreme Court. He recounted how Marshall had established the practice of delivering one opinion for the whole bench, his own preference for seriatim opinions, his explanation for why they would not take hold on a bench with seven judges, his argument for reducing the court to four justices, his fear of a "Separation of the States" which he traced to New England Federalists despite the more recent southern agitation during the Missouri debates, his vexation over the contract clause, and other matters. Jefferson's letters favored the states' rights jurisprudence of Virginia's Spencer Roane and urged upon Johnson a principle basic to Jefferson's republicanism. Internal affairs, the former president insisted, were best left to the states, external matters to Washington. Echoes of Jefferson's advice appeared in Johnson's writings for the rest of his life. His most important concurring opinion came in 1824 in Gibbons v. Ogden [Aaron Ogden, A.B. 1773], in which Marshall struck down a steamboat monopoly established by New York State because, the chief justice insisted, the Constitution gave Congress exclusive control of interstate commerce. Johnson agreed with the result but stressed the absurdity of trying to banish the states entirely from such a role. To him the issue was a matter of degree, not of absolutes. Several other cases, notably Ogden v. Saunders (1827), reflected a similar shift in his thinking about the contract clause, which Marshall used to ban states from a wide variety of activities that Johnson believed were lawful and even essential, such as debtor relief laws or bankruptcy laws affecting cases not yet regulated by Congress. Over time he grew far more reluctant than Marshall to invoke the contract clause at all, which he tried to confine to cases of retrospective interference. By 1830 his views were exerting considerable impact upon his younger colleagues, to the consternation of Marshall and Story. For a brief period even seriatim opinions seemed likely to revive.

502

CLASS OF 1790

Besides the Greene biography and the renewal of contact with Jefferson, one other event of 1822 decisively altered the remainder of Johnson's life. The Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy forced Johnson's judicial convictions and social relationships into a common pattern, one that made him an ardent South Carolina Unionist by the end of the decade. News of the threatened uprising broke in the summer of 1822 and led to thirty-five executions. The slaves planned to set Charleston ablaze and then slaughter the men who appeared to extinguish the flames, reported Ana Hayes Johnson, William's daughter. It seems that the Governor, Intendant [i.e., Mayor], and my poor father were to have been the first victims—the men and Black women were to have been indiscriminately murdered—& we poor devils were to have been removed to fill their Harems— horrible—I have a very beautiful cousin who was set apart for the wife or more properly, the 'light of the Harem' of one of their Chiefs. Yet as the trials and executions proceeded, Johnson, his brotherin-law Governor Thomas Bennett, his daughter, and several of their friends began to suspect that the "conspiracy" was mosdy, perhaps entirely, a product of public hysteria. In an anonymous piece in the Charleston Courier on June 21 when the serious investigations were scarcely a week old, Johnson urged caution on the court, and his daughter shared this skepticism by the end of July. The hangings proceeded anyway. "I have lived to see what I really never believed it possible I should see," Johnson wrote Jefferson on December 10, "—courts held with closed doors, and men dying by scores who had never seen the faces nor heard the voices of their accusers." He considered nearly all the evidence tainted because it stemmed from the accusations of condemned slaves who had been promised their lives in exchange for their testimony. Johnson's solicitude for the civil liberties of slaves is truly remarkable behavior for any large slaveholder in the middle of such a crisis. Most Charleston citizens shared none of these reservations. Tracing racial tensions to outside ideas and agitators beginning with the Missouri Compromise debates of 1819-21, the legislature passed the Negro Seamen's Act in December 1822. It prohibited free blacks from entering South Carolina. Black sailors aboard incoming ships were to be imprisoned while their vessels remained in port. Ship captains had to pay the costs. If they defaulted, the sailors would be sold as slaves. Because this statute violated an Anglo-American treaty, Great Britain protested to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who worked out a quiet understanding with Governor Bennett that

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

503

the measure would not be enforced. However, a group of citizens formed the South Carolina Association, and it persuaded the sheriff of Charleston to arrest and detain Henry Elkison, a free Jamaican black. Elkison applied to Johnson for a writ of habeas corpus or, more obscurely, the writ de homine replegiando, the use of which had not been sharply defined by Congress. Johnson granted the latter, proclaimed the law an unconstitutional infringement of the treaty power and the "supreme law of the land" clause, and defended his position in the newspapers. His antagonists began to see the federal government's control over commerce and treaties as an explicit threat to the institution of slavery, and some of them turned Johnson's own restrictive arguments for limiting the commerce and contract clauses against his position in this case. The Negro Seamen's Act continued to be enforced and remained on the books into the 1850s. As Johnson fully understood, South Carolina nullified a United States treaty a decade before it presented Congress with a similar challenge over the tariff. After Jefferson's death on July 4, 1826, Johnson delivered a eulogy that urged his fellow citizens to rally behind the republican values and gentle nationalism of America's third president, but passage of the Tariff of Abominations in 1828 greatly intensified the chances of a direct confrontation between South Carolina and Washington. Vice President Calhoun's anonymous arguments for nullification rapidly gained popularity, and in the summer of 1830 Johnson received an invitation to meet in Columbia with other leading men of the state and express his views on the subject This confrontation pitted against each other the College's highest-ranking students from the class of 1790. Former governor John Taylor (A.B. 1790) headed the committee that invited him. At first Johnson accepted, but four days before the meeting he withdrew and sent an eight-point manifesto instead. He denounced nullification as unconstitutional and defended the tariff as legitimate and beneficial to both state and union. He added his suspicion that some of the milliners hoped to provoke a general conflict with the federal government, persuade other states to join them, and destroy the Union. "If there are any such," he concluded, "I trust that they are very few in number, and must think them only fit to be consigned to the care of the regent of the lunatic hospital." Only then did he hear again from Taylor, who explained that he was not responsible for the invitation and believed it improper for any federal judge to pronounce in advance on a subject that might come before him in a judicial capacity, but stated that the milliners would hear Johnson out even though he had already made

504

CLASS OF 1790

himself "accuser, witness, and advocate" in his own cause. Johnson's conciliatory response reminded Taylor of their long friendship and their common struggle in the "stormy days of ultra federalism." He conceded the integrity of most milliners, admitted that he too would "cry out for revolution" if he saw the facts as Taylor did, and urged that both sides turn for arbitration to the Senate, where all states were represented equally. Publication of these letters brought widespread condemnation of Johnson's views and probably made him a political liability among South Carolina Unionists, most of whom detested both nullification and the tariff. Nevertheless, strong bonds of continuity connected those who agreed with Johnson about the Vesey conspiracy, resisted the Negro Seamen's Act, and fought nullification. Johnson was part of a considerable, though a minority, group. He retained enough interest with his neighbors to win election as commissioner of the poor for Charleston Neck every two years from 1826 until his death. His influence also helped to destroy the most vulnerable of the milliners, Dr. Thomas Cooper, president of the College of South Carolina, the man who urged Carolinians "to calculate the value of the Union." "I am about publishing a collection of Cooperiana," Johnson wrote a friend in September 1830, "for we are beginning here to think very generally that the interests of God and man require that we should undertake to get rid of a pest to both." The collection never appeared, but Cooper soon resigned in the uproar over his denial of the existence of the soul, free will, and the Trinity. Johnson's relatives dominated Charleston's Unionists, whose 1830 slate in the state elections included the judge's brother Col. John Johnson, his nephew Edward McCrady (son of John McCrady [A.B. 1791] and his wife, William's sister Jane), his brother-in-law Bennett, and Bennett's adopted son Christopher G. Meminger, future treasurer of the Confederacy. At their insistence and to his disgust, he played a less prominent role in state politics after 1830. His brother tried to persuade him to take a long trip to France in 1831 to study French beet and grape culture but was only able to convince him to make an agricultural tour of the states from Virginia north. While traveling from Philadelphia to Lancaster he contracted a "bilious remittant fever" which he could not shake off, and he abandoned his plans to sweep through New York and New England. Thus he was back in Charleston when two South Carolina lawyers refused to pay a duty of $137 on imported British wool. They hoped to get a jury that would circumvent the bench and declare the tariff unconstitutional. A district court ruled that the jury could not pronounce on this question, and the case was appealed to Johnson's circuit court. It was post-

WILLIAM J O H N S O N , JR.

505

poned when Johnson's fever returned and confined him to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the winter 1831-32. When he reached home in the spring and heard arguments in Holmes v. United States, he affirmed the authority of the federal courts to interpret and enforce federal laws. This decision further infuriated the milliners, who felt cheated out of a promising opportunity to challenge the tariff. In the fall elections they gained overwhelming control of the state legislature, and it summoned a constitutional convention that nullified the tariff. All state officers and jurors had to take an oath to uphold this ordinance. President Andrew Jackson's proclamation denouncing nullification as treason produced only a state call for additional militia to repel federal tyranny. Barely able to write because of "the effect produced upon my hands by disease," Johnson suggested a strategy of legislative and military response in a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Louis McLane in January 1833. Even more pressing than the question of national powers versus states' rights, he warned, was the protection of individual rights threatened by the mandatory oath imposed on jurors. Henry Clay's incremental reduction of the tariff and Jackson's Force Act broke the nullifiers' resistance, although South Carolina got in the last word by sourly nullifying the Force Act. Despite the judge's deteriorating health and the pain of being treated as a pariah by former friends, he held his circuit courts in June and November. By then he had also contracted an infection or cancer of the jaw, variously described as "an affection of the jaw," or a "caries of the jaw-bone." In the summer of 1834, after making his will, he traveled north to New York where he may have visited the scenes of his father's youth before he placed himself under the care of an eminent surgeon, Dr. Valentine Mott. Although warned that he probably could not survive an operation on his jaw, Johnson insisted that it be done. It took place in Brooklyn on August 4 without anesthetics and, at the patient's insistence, without friends on hand to hold him and without being bound. Bearing "the most excruciating tortures" with "the utmost fortitude and calmness," he died of "exhaustion" at 1 p.m., half an hour after the completion of the surgery, reported the New York Star the next day. The funeral took place at 4:30 p.m. August 5 from Brooklyn Heights, with the federal and municipal courts closed in his honor and with members of the bar, army, navy and militia officers, and Brooklyn and New York City officials in attendance. A week later the Charleston bar paid tribute to their former colleague, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of the city commended his virtues

506

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

and intellectual traits. His children erected a simple monument in St. Philip's Churchyard, which memorialized his personal qualities: "His virtue pure his integrity stern his justice exact his patriotism warm and his fortitude not to be shaken in the hour of Death." Survivors remembered him as courteous, handsome and dignified, a lover of books with a fine personal library, an interesting conversationalist always eager to absorb and impart fresh knowledge. One former col­ league recalled that although Johnson was obnoxious as a Unionist, he never lost the confidence even of those most bitterly opposed to him. Johnson's reputation has its own curious history. During his years on the Supreme Court, he ranked third behind Marshall and Story in the number of majority opinions he wrote, and he far exceeded all contemporaries in the frequency of his dissenting and concur­ ring opinions. Yet he was largely forgotten by the end of the nine­ teenth century, only to experience resurrection in the twentieth. His grandnephew Edward McCrady became his generation's most significant historian of colonial and revolutionary South Carolina. Johnson's skepticism about the Vesey conspiracy has become the cen­ tral problem in the historiography of that event since 1964. Above all, he has been rediscovered by historians of the Supreme Court and by the legal profession. In 1937 Justice Felix Frankfurter pro­ claimed him still a "much neglected figure." That description was soon dated. Because Johnson's flexible jurisprudence met New Deal needs far better than the somewhat ossified Marshall doctrines that prevailed until 1937, Johnson became a major focus of legal scholar­ ship between 1944 and 1953, during which time he was the subject of twelve essays in law journals, one in a historical periodical, and at last a full biography. The republic he helped to establish had finally come to terms with his accomplishments. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Biog. Dvr. S.C. House Rep., in, 383-85; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; Min. Trustees, 23 Sept. 1817, & Trenton Federalist, 29 Sept. 1817 (LL.D. from CNJ); Η. K. Leiding, Charleston, Historic 6f Romantic (1931), 103; 0"Neall, Bench & Bar S.C, I, 72-79 ("caries of the jaw-bone," 78); u, 601; SCHGM, 1 (1900), 4-12; 3 (1902), 43; 44 (1943), 230; 45 (1944), 187; 46 (1945), 60, 150; D. Morgan, "Mr. Justice William Johnson & the Constitution," Harvard Law Review, 57 (1944), 328-61; Morgan, "Justice William Johnson & the Treaty-Making Power," Geo. Washington Law Rev., 22 (1953-54), 187-215; Morgan, "Origin of Supreme Court Dissent," WMQ, 3d ser., 10 (1953), 353-77; Morgan, Justice William Johnson, the First Dissenter (1954), passim ("good character," 17; "passed the meridian of life," 20; "like a very obedient spouse," 38; exchanges with John Taylor, 261-68; "bilious remittant fever," 278n; "effect produced upon my hands," 276; obit, ("affection of the jaw") & funeral, 281; "His virtue pure," 282n); Amer. Phil. Soc, List of the Members... (1880?), 23; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (17581812) (1962), 398-99; G. C. Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys (1969), 145-

RALPH

PHILLIPS

LOTT

507

46; L. Friedman & F. L. Israel, Justices of the US. Supreme Court (1969), I, 355-83; D. C. Roller & R. W. Twyman, Encyc. of Southern Hist. (1979), 654-55; Jefferson letters to Johnson, 27 O c t 1822, 21 Feb. 1823,12 June 1823, Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. P. L. Ford (1892-99), XII, 246-52,252-59n, 277-80; als transcript copy Johnson to Jefferson, 10 Dec. 1822, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, NjP (orig. in DLC); O. Schroeder, "The l i f e & Judicial Work of Justice William Johnson, Jr." Univ. of Pa. Law Rev., 95 (1946-47), 164-201 (Frankfurter's "much neglected figure," 164), 344-86; A. J. Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson & the Unenviable Dilemma," Mich. Law Rev., 42 (1944), 803-30; Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson, Creative Dissenter," ibid., 43 (1944), 497548; Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson & the Common Incidents of Life," ibid., 44 (1945), 59-112, 243-93; Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson, Jurist in Limine: The Judge as Historian & Maker of History," ibid., 46 (1947), 131-86; Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson, Jurist in Limine: Views on Judicial Precedent," ibid., 46 (1948), 481520; Levin, "Mr. Justice William Johnson, Jurist in limine: Dissent & the Judging Faculty," ibid., 47 (1949), 477-536; C. Warren, The Supreme Court m U.S. Hist. (rev. ed., 1926), esp. I, 324-38, 624-27; G. L. Haskins & H. A. Johnson, Foundations of Power: John Marshall, 1801-15, Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise Hist, of U.S. Supreme Court, π (1981); R. C. Wade, "The Vesey Plot: A Reconsideration," Jour, of Southern Hist., 30 (1964), 143-61 (daughter's quote, 144); I. F. Greenberg, "Justice William Johnson: S.C. Unionist, 1823-30," Pa. Hist., 36 (1969), 307-34, esp. 325 (Cooper), 330-31 (illness); J. F. Jameson, ed., "Diary of Edward Hooker, 1805-08," AHA Rept. for 1896 (1897), i, 852 (contributions to S.C. College Lib.); N. Amer. Rev., 14 (1822), 312-13 (same); 15 (1822), 416-31; 20 (1825), 391-92; 23 (1826), 414-40 (Greene controversy); J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, ed. C. F. Adams (1874-77), iv, 128-29 (Johnson's reading tastes); v, 43 (quote); H. Lee, Campaign of 1781 in the Carolinas (1824), 1-65. PUBLICATIONS: Sketches of the life & Correspondence ofNathanael Greene, Major General of the Armies of the U.S., in the War of the Revolution (1822); Oration Delivered in St. Philip's Church; before the Inhabitants of Charleston, S.C, on Saturday, Fourth of July, 1812 (1813); Nugae Georgicae; an Essay Delivered to the Literary & Philosophical Soc. of Charleston, S.C. Oct 14, 1815 (1815); Bill to Establish an Uniform System of Bankruptcy in the U.S. (1820); To the Public of Charleston (1822); Opinion of the Hon. William Johnson, delivered on 7th Aug. 1823, in the case of the arrest of the British Seaman (1823); Remarks Critical & Historical on an Article in the Forty-seventh number of the North American Review, Relating to Count Pulaski (1825); Eulogy on Thomas Jefferson, Delivered Aug. 3,1826, in the First Presbyterian Church (1826). MANUSCRIPTS: For an extensive but incomplete listing, see Morgan, Justice William Johnson, 301-02. JMM 8c RLW

Ralph Phillips Lott physician, was born in 1770, the son of Gershom Lott and his wife Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah) Phillips. When the Lotts were married in 1768 Gershom's residence was listed as Hun­ terdon County, New Jersey. His bride came from Maidenhead (later Lawrenceville), New Jersey, the daughter of William Phillips and his first wife Mary Carpenter. It is not certain when the young couple moved to Perth Amboy, but Gershom served during the Revolution as a private in Capt. Robert Nixon's Middlesex County Light Horse Troop. Gershom Lott died in Perth Amboy sometime before DecernRALPH PHILLIPS LOTT,

508

CLASS OF 1790

ber 12, 1777, when an inventory of his estate valued it at £178.0.1. Neither is it certain just when his widow moved to Princeton. She may have been the Mrs. Lott to whom the Princeton council of safety paid fifteen shillings on August 30, 1777 for the use of her room for the council. She is definitely the Hezekiah Lott who pledged £1.10 toward the repair of the Presbyterian church on March 11, 1784, and she was probably the Mrs. Lott who on October 13, 1783 offered to let two rooms with fireplaces for the use of members of the Continental Congress during the time that body met in Princeton. Soon after the Lott family's move to Princeton, Ralph became a student in the grammar school at Nassau Hall. His sister Ruth probably greatly enjoyed her life in the college town. John Rhea Smith (A.B. 1787) described her in his journal as "our College Bell," and on April 7, 1786, when there was a program of senior orations, he chose a particular seat in the hall so that he might have an excellent view of Miss Lott and be able to "eye her closely" without her being aware of his scrutiny. She first married Gilbert Tennent Snowden (A.B. 1783) and, after being widowed, she married Andrew King (A.B. 1773). John Lott Phillips (A.B. 1774) was a distant cousin to Ralph and Ruth Lott, and Juliet Phillips, the young bride of Manuel Eyre (A.B. 1793), was a first cousin. Lott graduated from the Nassau Hall grammar school in the fall of 1786 and entered the College as a freshman. He joined the Cliosophic Society on June 13, 1787, using the name Sophocles, for the ancient Greek tragic playwright. It is not known how long he remained at the College, but he was gone by April 10, 1789. His mother sold her house and land on the north side of Princeton's main street on January 10, 1788, which probably coincided with her marriage to Nathaniel Hunt of nearby Cranbury. Hunt, who had served as a colonel in the Second Regiment of Hunterdon County militia during the Revolution, had been widowed since the summer of 1785. He was the father of Nathaniel Hunt (A.B. 1793). Lott may have left the College around the time of his mother's second marriage. He next studied medicine with Dr. Hezekiah Stites of Cranbury and also attended medical lectures in Philadelphia. Several sources credit him with a medical degree, but the University of Pennsylvania does not claim him as an alumnus. Dr. Stites died in November 1796, and Lott took over his practice. Lott practiced in Cranbury for forty years. He was said to be wellversed in his profession, skillful as a surgeon, and highly esteemed in the community. With a large country practice spread out around the small village, he often rode thirty or forty miles to call on patients. He was among those present when a group of physicians met in

RALPH PHILLIPS L O T T

509

New Brunswick in May 1816 to reorganize the Medical Society of the State of New Jersey. He was appointed one of the fifteen managers charged with carrying on the business of the society for the following year. He was also among the eight Middlesex doctors named to organize a Middlesex County branch of the society, which first met on June 13, 1816. Prior to 1816 Lott's attendance at meetings of the state society had been very indifferent; after reorganization only delegates from each county society were expected to attend, and Lott was present as a delegate from Middlesex County only on November 11, 1823. He was also a member of the Masonic Order, with his attendance recorded at a Grand Lodge session held in Trenton on August 21, 1811. Lott seems to have been something of an eccentric who apparently enjoyed his status as a character. He is described as being exceedingly profane and passionately fond of music. He liked to entertain by simultaneously dancing, singing, and playing the violin. He married Ann Wetherill, daughter of Vincent Wetherill, on January 3, 1793; his brother-in-law Gilbert Snowden performed the ceremony. The Lotts had one son, Dr. John Wetherill Lott, who was born December 10, 1804 and baptised the following July 21 in the Cranbury Presbyterian Church. John succeeded his father in the Cranbury practice but stayed with it only a short time before heading west and founding the town of Jerseyville, Illinois. He subsequently went further west and may have been killed in a duel in Texas. Ralph Lott's wife predeceased him on July 23, 1827. He died on September 17, 1845 and was buried beside her in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery at Cranbury. His grandson William Phillips Lott succeeded his father in the Cranbury practice but left the medical profession for reasons of health and became a successful grain speculator. Lott's will left all of his real estate to this grandson, with bequests to his granddaughters Catherine Ann and Angella Lott, and to his housekeeper Sarah Snedeker. A codicil to the will freed a slave named Richard. SOURCES: NJA, XXII, 243, 312; N.J. Wills, v, 319; Stryker, Off. Reg., 342, 368, 672; V.

L. Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton (1908), 196; Princeton Packet, 5 Oct. 1786; Hageman, Princeton, I, 166; 11, 88; Princetonians, 1769-1775, 299-301, 423-25; Princetonians, 1776-1783, 443-46; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Somerset Cnty. Deeds, Liber A, 123, Somerset Cnty. Court House, N.J.; Wickes, Hist, of Medicine N.J., 316; Proc. of the N.J. Med. Soc. (1875), 129-45, 149, 151, 222; W. W. Clayton, Hist, of Union 6f Middlesex Cnties. (1882), 519, 520, 522; F. B. Rogers & A. R. Sayre, The Healing Art: Hist of Medical Soc. of N.J. (1966), 63, 70; R. B. Walsh, Cranbury Past 6f Present (1975), 77, 130, 557, 559; A. V. Phillips, Lott Family inAmer. (1942), ix, 1, 59, 86, 123; E. F. Cooley, Early Settlers in Trenton 6? Ewmg (1883), 183-84; J. H. Hough, Origin of Masonry in N.J. (1870), 135; GMNJ, 28 (1953), 91; 31 (1956), 40. RLW

510

John G. McWhorter G. MCWHORTER, lawyer, one of the five children of the Reverend Alexander (A.B. 1757) and Mary Cumming MacWhorter, was born in 1773 at Newark, New Jersey, where his father was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church. His brother Alexander Cumming McWhorter (A.B. 1784), who is credited with changing the spelling of the family name, preceded him at the College. Their father served as a chaplain with the continental forces and established a personal friendship with George Washington. He was a trustee of the College from 1772 until his death. His wife was the daughter of Robert Cumming, the high sheriff of Monmouth County, New Jersey, a niece of Samuel Blair (A.B. 1760), and a sister of the Reverend Alexander Cumming (A.M. 1760). When she suffered an accident in the summer of 1778, her husband left the army and returned to Newark to care for her. Well-known for his patriotic activities, he and his home were in constant danger from British troops. In 1780 he moved his family first to Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and after the fall of that city to Abington, Pennsylvania. Early in 1781 the family returned to Newark. Alexander MacWhorter probably reopened his grammar school in Newark soon afterward. On October 23, 1782 he advertised that he was about to open a philosophical academy to be conducted during three months in the winter. His own son was probably one of the students at this revival of the Newark Academy. McWhorter is first mentioned in extant College records as a junior on April 10, 1789. He was admitted to the senior class on November 10, 1789 and was dismissed on April 10, 1790. He did not join the Cliosophic Society; membership lists for nongraduates of the American Whig Society are unavailable. McWhorter must have read law somewhere in the Newark area, for he joined the Institutio legalis, a society of lawyers and law students who conducted moot court sessions in order to hone their professional skills. His brother Alexander, also a member of the society, had been admitted to the bar in September 1788, and John may have studied law under him. McWhorter was called to the New Jersey bar in May 1796. On February 6, 1803, with his father officiating, he married Martha Dwight, daughter of Stephen and Hannah Dwight of Newark. At her father's death in October 1785, Martha had inherited all of his estate in Newark, and her brother was instructed upon his majority to turn over to her his right in his grandfather Eagle's estate. McWhorter died, probably in Newark, in February 1807. His death

JOHN

WILLIAM MATHEWES

511

was unexpected; his parents, who were "in the neighborhood," did not even know he was ill. His father had not recovered from injuries received in a fall on Christmas evening of 1806, and his mother was growing frail and infirm. The shock of their son's sudden death may have precipitated their own, hers on April 2, and his on July 20, 1807. McWhorter left a personal estate inventoried at $1,035.68. It included among other items 113 books and pamphlets, a flute, a fishing line, five turnpike shares, one old female slave, and one young female slave. SOURCES: Prmcetonians, 1748-1768, 194-99; Hist, of the City of Newark (1913), u, 739; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789; D. G. Skemer, "The InstitvOio legalis & Legal Education in N.J.: 1783-1817," N.J. Hist., 97 (1979), 123-34; Riker, 63; Sprague, Annals, in, 208-12; GMNJ, 9 (1934), 80; 10 (1935), 67; N.J. Witts, vi, 128; xi, 227. RLW

William Mathewes A.B., was the son of John Mathewes and his first wife Mary Wragg. His paternal grandmother was a Gibbes, giving him a distant kinship with the Gibbeses of South Carolina who attended the College. His father was a lawyer and politician, as well as a wealthy landowner, whose chief residence was his 806-acre plantation "Uxbridge," where he kept sixty-two slaves. He also had a town house in Charleston and owned a number of undeveloped tracts of land, both within the city and in the surrounding countryside. A colonial patriot, he served in the royal assembly, the provincial congress, and the state general assembly. From 1778 to 1782 he represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress, where his efforts were mainly directed toward preventing any peace agreements between Great Britain and the other states which would have given George III the Carolinas and Georgia. He also urged strengthening the authority of Gen. George Washington. Elected governor by the assembly in 1782, Mathewes conducted state business wherever he could, including on his own plantation, finally taking possession of his capital city when the British sailed from Charleston harbor. He held other important posts throughout his life. A Jeffersonian in later years, he was also active in a number of Charleston philanthropic and cultural organizations. William, an only child, attended the grammar school at Nassau Hall, graduated in the fall of 1786, and entered the freshman class of the College. He became a member of the American Whig Society, and his college career appears to have been uneventful until the June evening in 1790 when he joined some of his college friends in a WILLIAM MATHEWES,

512

C L A S S OF

1790

drinking bout at David Hamilton's tavern. The group was disciplined for this escapade, which included placing a calf in the pulpit in Nassau Hall and overturning the College necessary. Four of the worst offenders were asked to leave the College, but the faculty minutes do not record how Mathewes's part in the case was resolved. He graduated with his class and at the commencement exercises took part in the last disputation of the afternoon: "Is common swearing consistent with the character of a polite scholar more than of a religious man?" After his return to Charleston Mathewes probably studied law. He married Mary Frampton, daughter of Jonathan Frampton, and had a son who was also named William Mathewes. He died on September 5, 1793. In 1809 his widow married Winburn Lawton of Edisto, South Carolina. SOURCES: Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., II, 438-39; DAB (for father); Princeton Packet, 5 Oct 1786; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 2 Oct. 1790; Min. Fac., 2 & 8 July 1790; SCHGM, 22 (1921), 20; 60 (1959), 89. RLW

Bryan Morell (Morel) BRYAN MORELL (MOREL) was the son of John Morell and his second wife Mary Bryan Morell of Savannah, Georgia. He was born at six o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, but no date was recorded. His older sister Elizabeth was born November 1, 1767, and his younger brother Isaac was born August 27, 1770, so that Bryan's birth must have taken place late in 1768 or in 1769. The father's family, of French Huguenot extraction, had emigrated from Zurich, Switzerland, early in the century. John Morell's first marriage had produced five children. His second added six more. When he died on January 3, 1776, he left "Ossabaw" to his three sons, with Bryan Morell's share being the "north end," but the will does not specify whether this bequest was a plantation of that name on Ossabaw Island, or the entire island. Each son also received 100 slaves and 300 cattle. Ample provision was also made for the daughters of the family. The two sons of the first marriage had both reached their majority and probably took over the management of the entire estate. After her husband's death Mary Morell and her young children moved to "Brampton" plantation, her father's estate three miles from the city on the Savannah River. Both John Morell and his father-inlaw Jonathan Bryan had been among the early leaders of Georgia's sons of liberty. Bryan, a wealthy and influential planter, presided at the Savannah meeting of September 16, 1769 which protested the

BRYAN MORELL

513

Townshend Acts and pledged not to import any of the newly taxed articles. For this offense the crown ordered him suspended from the governor's council and forbade him to hold any office in Georgia, making him the first political martyr in the colony. On June 3, 1784 Mary Morell married Col. Richard Wylly at "Brampton." Probably Bryan Morell entered the grammar school at Nassau Hall in the fall. In September 1785, as a member of the third class, he placed third in a comparative trial of Latin grammar and syntax. He graduated from the grammar school in the fall of 1786 and was admitted to the College as a freshman. Before the calendar year ended he joined the Cliosophic Society. He left the College at some point before a class list was compiled on April 10, 1789. Jonathan Bryan died on March 13, 1788, leaving Morell a one-sixth interest in the "Brampton" estate; perhaps he decided to return to Georgia at that time to look after his property. The First African Baptist Church of Savannah, one of the earliest Negro Baptist churches in the country, was organized in the "Brampton" plantation barn on January 20, 1788. Andrew Bryan, a slave of Jonathan Bryan's who had taken his master's name, was baptized by an itinerant preacher from Jamaica and began to preach at "Brampton" in 1783. White fears of slave rioting halted Bryan's attempt to extend his ministry to Yamacraw. For several years the "Brampton" barn was the only place where the First African Baptist Church of Savannah was allowed to meet. On February 7, 1792 Mary Wylly and her husband sold their undivided interest in "Brampton" to John G. Williamson, a relative of her mother, who gradually bought all of the other shares. Morell probably moved to Savannah, where he married Harriet McQueen, daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth McQueen, on December 4, 1800. The union produced two daughters and two sons, one of whom was Bryan McQueen Morrell (Class of 1821). The listing of Morell as administrator of a will in 1807 indicates that he was still residing in Savannah at that time. No further information about him has been found. SOURCES: Nongraduate file, PUA; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct 1785; Princeton Packet, 5 Oct. 1786; Clio. Soc., Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; J. G. B. Bulloch, Hist. &? Gen. of the Families of Bellinger & DeVeawc (1895), 18, 84; R. G. Killion, Georgia & the Revolution (1975), 18, 97-98, 103; GHQ, 1 (1917), 334-35; W. J. Northern, Men of Mark in Ga. (1907), i, 23-31; A. J. Raboteau, Slave Religion (1978), 139-42; Writers' Program, Ga., Savannah River Plantations (1947 repr. 1972), 394-95, 399, 400-04; C. C. Jones, Jr., Hist, of Savannah, Ga. (1890), 320; M. F. LaFar & C. P. Wilson, Abstracts of WiUs, Chatham Cnty., Ga., 1773-1817 (1933), 10, 99; Jour, of Negro Hist., 4 (1919), 120; 7 (1922), 172-75, 182-83. RLW

514

Ezekiel Pickens EZEKIEL PICKENS, A.B., lawyer, planter, and public official, the second of twelve children of Gen. Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Colhoun Pickens, was born March 30, 1768 near the present town of Abbeville, South Carolina. Andrew Pickens had served in the 1760 campaign against the Cherokees, and during the Revolution he attained the rank of brigadier general. Congress presented him with a sword to commemorate his bravery at the Battle of Cowpens. In 1782 he commanded an expedition against the Cherokees for which he was voted the thanks of the South Carolina legislature and presented with a gold medal. He served in both houses of the state legislature and in the Third United States Congress, and he also held many lesser public offices. He was an elder and founder of the Old Presbyterian Church in Pendleton. Pickens County was created in 1826 and named in his memory. His younger son Andrew Pickens, Jr., governor of South Carolina from 1816 to 1818, may have attended the College before transferring to Brown where he received his A.B. in 1801, but no corroborating evidence has been found. John Noble (A.B. 1791) and Patrick Noble (A.B. 1806) were nephews, sons of Rebecca Colhoun Pickens's sister Catharine. Ezekiel, as the eldest son, spent much of his early boyhood helping his mother manage the family plantation. After the war the family moved to Hopewell, near the North Carolina border, settling into their new home by 1785. Andrew Pickens hired James Alexander Douglas, a Scot who had been educated by Jesuits, to prepare his son for college. The date of Ezekiel's matriculation is unknown, but he joined the Cliosophic Society on December 10, 1788. For society use he adopted the name of Wayne, presumably for Gen. Anthony Wayne, the father of Isaac Wayne (Class of 1791). Douglas must have prepared Pickens well, for at his graduation he ranked third in his class and won the honor of delivering the valedictory address. Pickens returned to South Carolina to study law, was admitted to the bar in 1793, and opened an office at 100 Meeting Street, Charleston. On February 4 he married Elizabeth Bonneau, daughter of Samuel Bonneau and Mary Frances de Longuemare of Charleston, whose elder daughter Floride was the wife of John Ε wing Colhoun (A.B. 1774). Even before completing his legal studies, Pickens won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he sat for Pendleton District from 1791 to 1794. In 1801 and 1802 he rep­ resented St. Thomas and St. Dennis parishes. Around 1800 Pickens joined his father and about one hundred other subscribers in financ­ ing a Bible printed in Philadelphia, which is said to have been the

EZEKIEL PICKENS

515

first family Bible printed in America. On August 15, 1801 Andrew Pickens wrote his friend Col. Marinus Willett that Ezekiel was not enjoying the practice of law. He asked Willett to intercede on his son's behalf by requesting Vice President Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772) to speak to the president about a government position, "if there were a vacancy in the state worthy of his consideration." Pickens's apologies for asking a favor suggest that Ezekiel must have been quite discontented for his father to have put his parental concern before his pride. Nothing in the surviving correspondence between Willett and Burr indicates that Willett passed on this request for an appointment. However, Ezekiel Pickens was lieutenant governor of the state from 1802 to 1804 in the Democratic-Republican administration of Governor James Burchill Richardson. During these years all state laws against the slave trade were repealed. Pickens's office made him an ex officio member of the board of trustees of the College of South Carolina. While he was lieutenant governor, his wife Elizabeth died. The couple's two small sons Ezekiel and Samuel were placed in the temporary care of their paternal grandparents, and their daughter Elizabeth Bonneau Pickens was probably sent to live with her aunt Floride Colhoun. Pickens again represented St. Thomas and St. Dennis parishes in the South Carolina house from 1804 to 1806, and then in the state senate from 1806 to 1810. He quit politics in 1810 and thereafter divided his time between St. Thomas and his plantation near Pendleton. On January 5, 1807 he married Elizabeth Barksdale at the Independent (Circular) Church in Charleston. At this time he moved to a plantation located on the east branch of the Cooper River, "The Brickyard," which consisted of 2,476 acres of the original "Silk Hope" plantation that Pickens had acquired from Andrew Howell. One of three children of this marriage, Thomas Jones Pickens, later sat in the South Carolina house and senate. Elizabeth Bonneau Pickens, daughter of Pickens's first marriage, married his cousin Patrick Noble, who served as speaker of the South Carolina assembly, president of the state senate, and governor of South Carolina from 1838 to 1840. Pickens had been a member of the St. Thomas Hunting Club since 1795. He also joined the Charleston Library Society and held membership in both the Old Stone Presbyterian Church in Pendleton and the Independent (Circular) Church in Charleston. After several years of failing health he died on May 19, 1813 and was buried in the churchyard of the Old Stone Church. His will expressed his desire that his sons "have a regular collegiate education, at any college most approved of by my Executors."

516

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

SOURCES: Biog. DW. S.C. House Rep., II, 87; in, 554; A. N. Waring, The Fighting Elder: Andrew Pickens (1739-1817) (1962), 37, 119, 127, 189, 191, 201, 203-05; Hist. Cat. of Brown Univ. 1764-1934 (1936), 104,- Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789, 8 July 1790; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; alumni file. PUA; O'Neall, Bench & Bar S.C, n, 390, 603; SCHGM, 18 (1917), 13-14; 21 (1920), 154; 33 (1932), 46; 46 (1945), 126, 210; 55 (1954), 103; E. B. Reynolds & J. R. Faunt, Biog. DW. of the Senate of the State of S.C. (1964), 289-90; R. Sobel 8c J. Raimo, Biog. Dir. of the Governors of the U.S., 1789-1978 (1978), rv, 1391; B. A. Klosky, The Pendleton Legacy (1971), 25-26; Charleston city directories, 1794-1809; will of EP, Vol. I, Book Α., 16470, ScCoAH. RLW

John Hyndman Purdie JOHN HYNDMAN PURDIE, A.B., M.D. Glasgow University 1793, physi­

cian and public official, was born October 20, 1770, at Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. His parents were George and Mary Robinson Purdie, daughter of Maj. Anthony Robinson of York County. George Purdie emigrated from Kilmarnock, Scotland, to York County, Virginia, became a successful merchant, and then moved to Isle of Wight County. On July 27, 1775 Purdie, who did not support the patriot cause, was summoned to appear before the local committee of safety. The Continental Association charged him with selling pins, needles, and yard goods at exorbitant prices. He was also accused of declaring that "everybody who signed the association would be sent to England to be hanged." Purdie agreed to appear but stated that he had already been informed that he was to be tarred and feathered, guilty or not. The outcome of this case is unknown. However, Purdie must have exonerated himself or apologized, since the Virginia militia later rented a "Waggon and sundries" from him and also purchased a supply of sulphur. In 1780 he was a member of a committee authorized to arrange the repair of the Smithfield courthouse damaged by the British, and in 1782 he was appointed a district "collector of tithables." In Smithfield a Scottish tutor named Gordon supervised John Purdie's early education. It is not certain when he came to the College, but he became a senior with the rest of his classmates on Novem­ ber 10, 1789 and was almost certainly the "John Parda" of Virginia included as a junior on the April 10, 1789 list of Nassau Hall students that is preserved in the state archives. For at least part of his time at the College he resided off campus. On February 19, 1790 Purdie and five other seniors boarding outside the College were ordered to move into the College immediately or else produce certificates of indisposition qualifying them to live off campus. There is no indica-

J O H N RUAN

517

tion whether any of the six was able to produce a certificate. When the faculty met on July 8, 1790 to assign the commencement orations and disputations, Purdie was the only member of the graduating class given no part. A newspaper account of the commencement lists him among three members of the class who were "necessarily absent." He attended the University of Edinburgh from 1790 to 1792, and he may have found it necessary to leave Princeton for Scotland before the end of the term in order to reach Edinburgh in time for the opening of the fall session. In 1792 he transferred to Glasgow University where he received his M.D. on June 5, 1793. Purdie returned to Smithfield to practice medicine and resided there for the rest of his life. He represented Isle of Wight County in the state legislature from 1804 to 1807 and again in 1823-24. On December 27, 1794 he married Anne Merritt Moore of Charles Parish, York County, daughter of Merritt Moore. Five daughters and two sons were born of the marriage. John Robinson Purdie became a physician and may have joined his father in the local practice. Purdie died on May 29, 1845. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb. 1790; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct 1790; WMQ, 1st ser., 6 (1898), 205-06; 14 (1906), 275; VMHB, 3 (1896), 194; 11 (1904), 87, 187; 12 (1905), 183; 25 (1917), 301; 26 (1918), 61; E. G. Swem & J. H. Williams, Reg. of the Gen. Assembly ofVa. 1776-1918 ... (1918),420. RLW

John Ruan A.B., A.M. 1805, physician, was born on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies, on June 19, 1771, the second son of John Ruan, a successful gentleman planter. James Ruan (A.B. 1792) was a younger brother. Their mother died during their early childhood, and the death of their father in 1782 left them completely orphaned. The guardians of the Ruan children sent John and his elder brother to the United States to be educated. They were placed under the care of Isaac Barnes of Trenton, New Jersey, where they attended the Trenton Academy, at that time run by the Reverend James Armstrong (A.B. 1773), who was also pastor of the Trenton Presbyterian Church. Nothing has been found to indicate that Barnes had any previous connection with the Ruan family. However, Thomas Barnes's will, executed in 1778, shows that the elder Barnes held a note against his son Isaac and Joseph Smith of St. Croix. Isaac may have had other contacts on the island and been asked to look after the Ruan boys purely as a business arrangement. Barnes was JOHN RUAN,

518

CLASS OF 1790

at one time a partner in a company manufacturing linseed oil and paints. A prominent citizen, he became a member of the Trenton city council when the city was incorporated in 1792 and later served as financial officer of the city. After four years at the Trenton Academy, Ruan entered the College as a junior in 1788. He joined the Whig Society as an undergraduate and at his commencement ceremonies argued the opposition on the question, "Can sensual pleasures when pursued to a criminal degree ever compensate the pains they create?" He spent the winter following his graduation in Philadelphia attending medical lectures. In the spring of 1791 he left for Europe and continued his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh until 1793, when he returned to the United States. In 1798 he became a naturalized citizen. Ruan soon set up practice in Frankford, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia, and on October 10, 1793 he married Elizabeth Gibbs, daughter of Richard Gibbs and Margery Harrison Gibbs. A daughter was born in 1796 and a son in 1798. Elizabeth Ruan had died by February 12, 1805, when Ruan remarried. His new bride was Rachel Mcllvaine, daughter of Dr. William Mcllvaine and Margaret Rodman Mcllvaine of Burlington, New Jersey. Rachel Mcllvaine Ruan's uncle Gilbert Rodman of Bristol, Pennsylvania, married Sarah Gibbs, a sister of Elizabeth Gibbs Ruan. The several children of Ruan's second marriage all died young. Ruan continued to practice in Frankford until 1811, living in the community all but the last three years, when he purchased a farm a few miles outside of the town. In 1805 he was made an honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society. Ruan must have found rural life agreeable, for in 1811 he decided to retire to a plantation in Maryland and live the life of a planter. Rachel Mcllvaine Ruan died there on November 16, 1820. During the winter of 1821 Ruan visited St. Croix, where he had two brothers who were planters. However, he apparently suffered some economic losses which made the resumption of his medical practice necessary. He returned to Pennsylvania and settled in Newportville, Bucks County. On February 9, 1822 he married Susan Rodman, a first cousin of his second wife and the daughter of William Rodman and Esther West Rodman of Flushing, in Bensalem Township, Bucks County. Of six children of this marriage, three died in childhood and none married. Ruan soon found his country practice fatiguing. Encouraged by several of his colleagues, he moved his office to Philadelphia in the fall of 1822. He did not set up a general practice in the city but specialized in obstetrics and soon acquired a reputation in this field. Board of Health records show that during the twenty-two years that

JACOB SMITH

519

he practiced in Philadelphia he attended 2,922 obstetrical cases, delivering 400 more babies during that period than any other physician in the city. In the decade between his sixtieth and seventieth birthdays his deliveries ranged from 161 to 214 annually. In April 1823 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and he served on its committee on midwifery in 1834-35. Weakened by a severe attack of pneumonia in the spring of 1843, Ruan never completely recovered and was unable to resume his full practice. He gave up medicine altogether in the summer of 1844 and in the fall moved to a small farm in Bucks County, where he died on July 2, 1845. An Episcopal communicant most of his life, he was buried in the Episcopal graveyard in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Ruan has been described as a gentleman who combined impeccable manners with simplicity and courtesy. Rigid in his professional etiquette, he inspired confidence in his patients. He had a reputation for never refusing the poor who called on him for professional services. He read voraciously, tried to avoid large social gatherings, and preferred to enjoy the tranquility of his domestic circle. Susan Rodman Ruan, the companion of his last years, died in 1849. SOURCES: Alumni Hie, PUA; Alexander, Princeton, 250; J. A. Raum, Hist, of the City of Trenton (1871), 82, 235, 394; Trenton Hist. Soc., Hist, of the City of Trenton (1929), i, 354; N.J. Witts, vi, 33-34; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac., 10 Nov. 1789, 8 July 1790; Pa. Packet, 6f Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1790; Trenton Federalist, 30 Sept. 1805; Collection of Papers Read Before Bucks Cnty. Hist. Soc, 3 (1909), 223; G. MacReynolds, Place Names in Bucks Cnty., Pa. (1942), 158-59; 7>eiis. of College of Physicians cfPhtla., 1st ser., 1 (1841-46), 262 (incorrectly credits JR with an Edinburgh M.D.), 326-29 (memorial of JR by Henry Bond M.D., including matriculation at CNJ as a junior); C. H. Jones, Gen. of the Rodman Family (1886), 49-50, 52, 88; W. S. W. Ruschenberger, Account of the Inst. & Progress of the College of Physicians ofPhila. (1887), 199. RLW

Jacob Smith of Maryland is recorded as a freshman on a College class list compiled during the 1786-87 academic year. He was a sophomore on December 23, 1787, when the faculty admonished him and two other students for "damaging the buildings about the college" and ordered them to pay for repairs. Less than a year later Smith was before the faculty again, one of six students charged with frequenting "a house of ill fame in the neighborhood." He was one of three "adjudged most guilty" but still received only a warning and a lecture. In March 1789 he was one of three students the faculty suspected of having assaulted Isaac Crane (A.B. 1789) but this time

JACOB SMITH

520

C L A S S OF 1 7 9 0

the real culprits confessed and Smith was exonerated. Smith's career at the College came to a sudden end in the last half of his senior year. He was one of several students convicted of eating and drink­ ing to excess at David Hamilton's tavern on the evening of June 26, 1790. They then returned to the College where they placed a calf in the pulpit of the prayer hall in Nassau Hall and "overset the College Necessary." On July 2 Smith was one of four students ordered to "leave the College immediately." Three others were suspended later. Some of the wayward seven were readmitted after confessing and listening to a scolding, but Smith was not among them. No information on Smith's background or subsequent career has been found. Smith is a common name in Maryland. The 1800 census lists eight Jacob Smiths in Frederick County and one in adjoining Washington County. Four Jacob Smiths were married in Baltimore between 1797 and 1810. None achieved such fame as to make a positive identification possible, even assuming that Smith was still alive and residing in Maryland by then. SOURCES: Hancock House MSS; Min. Fac, 23 Dec. 1787, 10 Sept. 1788, 3-10 March 1789, 2 July 1790 (all quotes); R. Barnes, Marriages & Deaths from Bait. Newspapers 1796-1816 (1978), 296; W. H. Ridgway, Community Leadership inMd. 1790-1840 (1979), 268 (for a Jacob Smith serving on the Second Branch of the Baltimore City Council ca. 1830). The politically eminent brothers Robert (A.B. 1781) and Samuel Smith of Baltimore had no brother Jacob (Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., n, 746; letters from J. S. Pancake, 4 May 1985, and F. A. Cassell, 21 May 1985, PUA). One of the Frederick County Jacob Smiths lived from 22 Jan. 1770 to 15 Jan. 1845, making him the right age to be the Princetonian. See J. M. Holdcraft, Names m Stone (1966, 2 vols.), π, 1055. JJL

Isaac Steele ISAAC STEELE may have been the public official of that name who was born on November 9, 1769, the fifth of six sons of Henry and Anne Billings Steele of "Weston," near Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland. Henry Steele was a merchant and colonial legislator who traded in Vienna in partnership with John Henry, his wife's uncle. By the time he died in 1782 Steele had built an estate comprising almost 6,500 acres of land in Dorchester County, plus another 2,227 held in trust for his eldest son James, and substantial personal property as well, including eighty-six slaves. His wife was the daughter of James and Anne Rider Billings of Oxford, Talbot County, Maryland. Henry Steele (Class of 1792) was probably Isaac's younger brother. Steele left little trace at the College. Even the class to which he belonged is not definitely known. He must have arrived after an

JOHN

TAYLOR

521

undated class list was made during the 1786-87 academic year, and departed before compilation of the list of April 10, 1789. He is only mentioned in College records on June 4, 1788, when he joined the Cliosophic Society, taking the pseudonym Brennus, after a chief of the Celtic Gauls who in 390 B.C. sacked Rome. Henry Steele joined the society a week after Isaac. Steele subsequently returned to Dorchester County. The exact dis­ position of his father's estate has not been discovered. While the bulk of it went to James, the eldest son, Isaac's share very likely was large enough to set him up as a planter. He may have purchased a farm called "Hambrooks." In 1798, 1800, 1801, and 1802, he represented Dorchester County in the general assembly as a Federalist. Steele died on November 7, 1806. SOURCES: Biog. Diet. Md. Leg., H, 769-70; E. Jones, New Rev. Hist, ofDorchester Cnty. Md. (1966), 158, 458-60; Colonial Dames of Amer., Chapter 1, Bait., Ancestral Records £sf Portraits (1910), il, 676-77; C. W. Mowbray & M. I. Mowbray, Early Settlers of Dorchester Cnty. &f their Lands (1981), I, 79; Clio, lists; letter from Md. Leg. Hist. Proj., 29 Jan. 1982, PUA. Steele's identification is based on bis age and the probable link with Henry Steele (Class of 1792). It remains uncertain because the Cliosophic Society's records do not give his home state. Steele could also have been one of the Stelles of Piscataway Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. Steele was one of the many commonly used variant spellings of Stelle which plague historians of that family, and Isaac is a frequently recurring name among the Stelles. The most likely candidate is Isaac Stelle, the son of Abel and Sarah Dunham Stelle, who was born in 1772. Isaac was a nephew of Benjamin Stelle (A.B. 1766) and a second cousin of James T. Stelle (A.B. 1793). He married Mary Crow, by whom he had ten children. See Ο. B. Leonard, Outline Sketches of the Pioneer Progenitors of the Piscataway Planters (1890), 14, 16-18; N.J. Wills, viii, 340; ix, 292; x, 380, 421; XI, 226. JJL

John Taylor JOHN TAYLOR, A.B., lawyer, planter, and public official, was the son

of Thomas and Ann Wyche Taylor of what later became Richland County, South Carolina. Born May 4, 1770, he was the oldest son and the second of their twelve children. Thomas Taylor (A.B. 1798) and Jesse P. Taylor and Benjamin Franklin Taylor, both nongraduate members of the Class of 1810, were younger brothers. His older sister Sarah later married James Green Hunt (A.B. 1783). Thomas Taylor, along with his brother James, owned the land on which the city of Columbia was built; he was one of the commissioners elected to lay out the capital city and is frequendy referred to as the father or patriarch of Columbia. During the Revolution he served under Gen. Thomas Sumter, was wounded at Fishing Creek, was captured, and escaped. A member of the state convention which adopted the

522

CLASS OF 1790

John Taylor, A.B. 1790 BY CHARLES B. J. FEVRET DE SAINT MEMIN

Federal Constitution, he voted against ratification. He served in the state senate, held a number of other public offices, and helped to found the Columbia Presbyterian Church. His home, "Taylor's Hill," was surrounded by his plantation, "Plains." John Taylor first attended school in Camden, South Carolina, and began his study of Latin grammar at Capt. John Reid's academy there in 1785. The following year he and several cousins, probably including John Taylor (A.B. 1795), transferred to Mount Sion College at Winnsboro, South Carolina. Taylor studied there until June 1788, when he, along with his cousin Jesse Taylor (A.B. 1791) and James Chesnut (A.B. 1792), embarked from Charleston for Philadelphia, and ultimately Princeton. He entered the College, apparendy as a sophomore, for he joined the Cliosophic Society on September 10, before the summer semester ended. He took the name of Raleigh. Evidendy he later left that organization and joined the American Whig Society. At his commencement he stood second in his class and delivered the English salutatory address. In later years Chesnut, reminiscing about his friend, said "His conduct was correct at all the schools, and during his collegiate term he was uniformly studious, diligent, and lived without reproach."

J O H N TAYLOR

523

Returning to South Carolina, Taylor entered the law office of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney in January 1791 and was admitted to the Charleston bar on June 1,1793. Although he practiced for several years, he was much more interested in the management of his plantation, in which he was very successful, and he also became immersed in public affairs. However, he did gain the title of "The Timon of the Backwoods Bar and Pulpit," with a reputation for obtaining freedom for pretty girls who had been forced to shoot their overzealous lovers. On March 17, 1793 Taylor married Sarah (Sallie) Cantey Chesnut, daughter of Capt. John Chesnut and sister of James Chesnut, whom he had known at both Mount Sion and Nassau Hall. They settled in Columbia at "Taylor's Hill," a handsome house built on a high eminence. They had sixteen children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1828 the Taylors entertained Capt. and Mrs. Basil Hall of England, who were traveling through the southern states. Mrs. Hall's diary lists the first course served at dinner at "Taylor's Hill" as "Ham, turkeys (roast and boiled), chicken, roast duck, corned beef, and fish, together with various dishes of sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbage, rice and beets." As a large landholder Taylor was automatically immersed in politics. He served in the state house of representatives, representing Saxe Gotha in 1793-94, Richland from 1794 to 1802, and Saxe Gotha again in 1804-05. Edward Hooker of New England, visiting the South Carolina legislature in 1805, pronounced Taylor one of the ablest and most active members of the house. Hooker, in his early twenties, may not have been the most qualified judge, but he did not hesitate to name those members whom he thought the most ineffectual. He heard Taylor argue against the propriety of allowing the governor to communicate information to a committee of the house, rather than the house at large, because this practice left little distinction between executive and legislative powers. Others have said that Taylor spoke well but with no pretense to eloquence. On December 2, 1805 Taylor was commissioned a solicitor of the western circuit, where he served for a year. From 1806 to 1807 he was the intendant (mayor) of Columbia. Taylor was next elected to the United States Congress, where his term began on March 4, 1807. As a representative of the South Carolina back country, he had little sympathy for the Charleston merchants who suffered from the 1807 Embargo Act, suggesting that in their zeal for profit they "might either be called the votaries of Mammon, or by a worse name." On December 30, 1810 Taylor resigned to fill a seat in the Senate left vacant by the resignation of Thomas Sumter. Reelected, he served until his resignation in December 1816.

524

CLASS OF 1790

Taylor seems to have done his part to uphold the tradition that many southern members of Congress were particularly addicted to long nights of oratory. Over the years his political opinions became more and more radical as he became more actively involved with states' rights and nullification. Early in 1809 he expressed the opinion that it was dangerous to postpone defense measures and that the United States should redress her grievances against Britain by taking Canada. He thought this conquest would be fairly easy to accomplish and that controlling the coast of Halifax was necessary for national security. Extremely hostile to the navy, he protested that he did not want to pour the entire revenue of the country into its rotten hulks. He repeatedly criticized the Non-Intercourse Act. He thought it not only useless but particularly injurious to southern tobacco and cotton growers, and he was willing to accept almost any modification in order to have the act changed. "Why will gendemen, under the pretense of resistance, wish to tax my constituents and the people of the Southern states, by way of giving a bounty on the industry of the northern and eastern sections of the Union?" he asked. During his last year in the House he spoke against a bill to increase congressional salaries. He suggested instead that congressmen be paid only for the days that they actually attended, thereby deterring them from rushing through business and even leaving some of it unfinished. Taylor served in the South Carolina senate from 1818 to 1826, when he unsuccessfully sought reelection. On December 9, 1826 he was elected governor of the state by a secret vote of the legislature. During his administration the question of the protective federal tariff was the most important issue in the state. Mass meetings were held to petition Congress against protectionism. Although South Carolinians were united in their hatred of the tariff, they were sharply divided between the Unionists, who favored caution through appeals to the electorate and the courts, and those advocating the more drastic steps of nullification or secession. The state legislature in December 1827 adopted strong resolutions against federally funded internal improvements and appointed a committee to report on what they considered the unconstitutional system of protection. Taylor's administration also saw the birth of the Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, chartered to construct railways, roads, and canals in the state. After his term expired on December 10, 1828, he served at various times as commissioner for the inspection of bread and flour at Columbia, commissioner for the opening of the Broad River, and commissioner of the streets of Columbia. In the spring term of 1829 he set an example by waiving his exemption as a lawyer and served as foreman of one of the juries of Richland District.

J O H N TAYLOR

525

In the summer of 1830 Taylor was a member of a committee set up to arrange a meeting at Columbia to "discuss important political topics." The "Tariff of Abominations" was the all-important issue, and the planners of the meeting intended to defend South Carolina against the "reckless and usurping majority" in Congress. Taylor, the English salutatorian of the Class of 1790, invited the Latin salutatorian, Supreme Court Justice William Johnson, Jr. (A.B. 1790), to participate in the proceedings. Though Johnson was the Court's leading champion of states' rights, he loathed nullification. However, he agreed to attend the meeting if his views would receive a hearing. He then set down his ideas for Taylor. He did not think the tariff unconstitutional, and he also believed that the protection it gave to industry would eventually expand national production, thereby benefiting all parts of the nation, even South Carolina. Furthermore, he regarded the nullification movement as a deliberate conspiracy against the republic. He warned Taylor, "My friend, you have much at stake, and you are not the man whom I would think to frighten or wish or hope to deceive." Annoyed by Johnson's tone, Taylor did not answer immediately, and four days before the meeting Johnson sent a formal note to the committee, declining the invitation. He promised to send his reasons in writing. The next day a letter from Taylor reached him. Taylor said that he personally believed that no invitations should have gone to federal judges, since it would be improper for them to be involved in discussions of subjects that they might later be called to adjudicate. He added that although he had left public life, he was still interested in the welfare of his state, and that it would be better to dissolve the Union than to submit to a government of unlimited powers. He closed by echoing Patrick Henry's 1765 speech, "If this be Conspiracy, make the most of it." Johnson's conciliatory answer said that he too would not be willing to live under a government of unlimited powers. However, an umpire already existed in the Senate, where all states were equally represented, rather than in the Supreme Court. State legislators, he suggested, should insist upon the Senate making a final decision on the validity of state laws. He agreed to resume their dispute in the press after the October elections, but preferred not to. Above all, he said he did not want to weaken his lifelong friendship with Taylor. The Columbia Telescope and Niles' Weekly Register later printed the correspondence amid some public speculation that Dr. Thomas Cooper had actually drafted Taylor's letter. Along with his political activities Taylor served for a number of years as a trustee of the College of South Carolina. He was also a director of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary connected with

526

CLASS OF 1 7 9 0

that institution, although he did not join the Columbia Presbyterian Church, the church of his father, until 1829 or 1830. His mother belonged to the Columbia Baptist Church, and until this time he may have been a member, or at least attended services, at her church. He died in 1832, with normally reliable sources giving differing dates— February 23 and April 16. He was buried in the family cemetery in Columbia. SOURCES: Alumni file, PUA; Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., in, 702-04; BDUSC, 1916; PrinceUmians, 1776-1783, 422-25; Clio, lists; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; Hancock House MSS; Mia. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789, 8 July 1790; Pa. Packet, & Daily Advt., 7 Oct. 1790; O'Neall, BenchfcfBar S.C, π, 168-70, 604; J. F. Jameson, ed., "Diary of Edward Hooker, 1805-08," AHA Rept. for 1896 (1897), I, 865-67; J. H. Wolfe, Jeffersonian Democracy in S.C. (1940), 234; G. C. Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812) (1962), 369; AJC; SCHGM, 8 (1907), 96; 46 (1945), 149; 56 (1955), 139-40; D. G. Morgan, Justice William Johnson, The First Dissenter (1954), 254, 261-68 (quotes re nullification meeting); Writers' Program, S.C, S.C: A Guide to the Palmetto State (1941), 235; £. B. Reynolds & J. R. Faunt, Biog. Dir. of the Senate of the State of S.C. (1964), 319 (where JT is incorrectly listed as a 1796 presidential elector, a position actually held by Thomas Taylor); R. Sobel & J. Raimo, Biog. Dir. of Ae Governors of the U.S., 1789-1978 (1978), rv, 1398. MANUSCRIPTS: South Caroliniana lib., ScU; NHi RLW

Benjamin Franklin Timothy BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TIMOTHY, printer, editor, educator, and

the

son of Peter and Ann Donovan Timothy, was born in Charleston, South Carolina on November 21, 1771. The family's connections with Benjamin Franklin began soon after Peter Timothy and his French Huguenot parents, Elizabeth and Lewis Timothy (Louis Timothee), arrived in Philadelphia from Holland and Lewis was employed in Franklin's printing plant. Franklin apparently had some interest in The South-Carolina Gazette published by Thomas Whitmarsh. When Whitmarsh died in 1733 Lewis Timothy and Franklin entered into a partnership agreement whereby Timothy ran the printing business in Charleston for Franklin; at the end of the six-year contract the Timothys, father and son, would be allowed to purchase and operate the business for themselves. Lewis Timothy revived the newspaper on February 2, 1734 and ran the printing business successfully until his accidental death in December 1738. His wife then took over the enterprise and fulfilled the terms of the contract, which expired in 1739, at which time she bought the printing business for her son. In 1740 Peter Timothy assumed the position of editor and manager. In the first issue of the Gazette after her husband's death, Elizabeth

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN T I M O T H Y

527

Timothy asked for the goodwill of the subscribers toward an afflicted widow with six small children and another expected hourly. One of the six was Catherine, who married Theodore Trezevant and became the mother of John Timothy Trezevant (A.B. 1775). After the termination of the partnership agreement, the Timothys continued to purchase paper, books, and other supplies from Franklin, and Peter Timothy kept up a fairly regular correspondence with him. The paper prospered, with Timothy printing inflammatory essays in support of liberty. It was said to be "the conduit Pipe of Political matters on one side." As a protest against the Stamp Act, the paper ceased publication until the act's repeal. In a letter of August 24, 1772 Peter Timothy gave Franklin news of his namesake: "My son Benjamin Franklin has just happily got thro' the Measles, and a fine promising Boy; but as I have lost eight Sons in Teething, my apprehensions for him will not be over till he has all his Teeth." After his son survived that hazardous ordeal, the proud father wrote to Franklin on June 12, 1777, enclosing for Franklin's perusal and comments a "Plan of Education" for the boy. "Little Ben" added his salutations at the close of the epistle. Unfortunately, the plan has not survived with the letter, nor has Franklin's reply to it. In this 1777 communication Timothy apologized for the four-year lapse in their correspondence by pleading his involvement in public affairs. His office served as Charleston's distribution center for mail, and he was both postmaster of the city and acting deputy postmaster general for the southern district. He sat in the first and second provincial congresses, serving as secretary, and also sat in the first general assembly. He was chairman of the local committee of observation and inspection and secretary to the councils of safety which, he claimed, sat day and night during their existence without missing a single date. The newspaper had suffered as well as his correspondence, and publishing had become intermittent. He revived the paper on April 9, 1777 under the name of The Gazette of the State of South Carolina but suspended it with the issue of February 9, 1780 when the British forces were nearing Charleston. Peter Timothy is credited with climbing St. Michael's church steeple during the siege of the city and acting as observer for the American forces. When he was exiled to St. Augustine, his family traveled to Philadelphia and waited there for his exchange and release. The Timothys remained in Philadelphia until the fall of 1782, and Benjamin probably did not return to Charleston with them but instead was enrolled in the grammar school at Nassau Hall. Peter Timothy did not return either but embarked for Antigua with a grandson and two daughters, one of whom was the widowed Frances Claudia Marchant, who had inherited land on

528

CLASS OF 1790

the island from her husband. Their ship overturned during a storm, killing everyone on board. Ann Timothy followed her mother-in-law's example and took over the printing business and the publication of the paper for her son. Changing the name to State Gazette of South-Carolina she first published it semiweekly and then triweekly. The son, meanwhile, graduated from the grammar school and was admitted to the freshman class of the College in the fall of 1786. The following year he was joined at Nassau Hall by his orphaned nephew Peter Timothy Marchant (Class of 1791). As a sophomore Timothy placed first in English orations in the competition for undergraduate prizemen. He was one of six seniors called before the faculty on February 19, 1790 for boarding out of College without a certificate. They were ordered to come into the College immediately or show certificates of their indisposition. On March 10 the steward's list of delinquent students included the name of Timothy, in debt to him for £11.4.0 for "diet." These various records list Timothy as B. F. Timothy, F. Timothy, and Franklin Timothy. He appears to have dropped his first name and been known as Franklin during this period. Timothy may have objected to paying the steward's bill for a time when he had actually been Uving off campus, and he may have disliked the idea of moving back into Nassau Hall. Either could have been a reason for his leaving the College that spring, only one session short of graduation, but it is more likely that he left because his mother was unwell. She did not die until September 11, 1792, but on May 25, 1790 she prepared her will, often a sign that the testator was gravely ill. The will urged her son Benjamin Franklin to continue the printing business. The September 20, 1792 issue of the paper, the first after her death, was printed by Benjamin F. Timothy for the representatives of the late Mrs. Ann Timothy. Not until April 1793 did his name appear alone on the imprint. The following month, with the issue of May 27, 179S, the paper appeared under the partnership name of Timothy & Mason. William Mason (A.B. Harvard 1787) was Timothy's brother-in-law, a native of Massachusetts who had come to Charleston five years earlier to teach at the College of Charleston and the Parsonage Academy which was associated with it. He resigned his position as professor of the English language and belles lettres to go into business with Timothy. On January 1, 1794 the paper became a daily, with its name changed to South-Carolina State-Gazette & Timothy & Mason's Daily Advertiser. This arrangement continued for the next four years with frequent changes in the punctuation and arrangement of the tide. It was a DemocraticRepublican publication which warmly discussed political issues. Peter

GEORGE SPAFFORD WOODHULL

529

Marchant also worked for the family paper, although he was never included in the partnership. Mason retired from the printing business in 1798 to found an English school, and with the issue of January 1, 1798 Timothy published the paper alone. During 1800 he was also a partner in the weekly Federal Carolina Gazette, which lasted only for the calendar year. Issued from the same office, the Federal Gazette was first published by Timothy and Thomas Sheppard. When Sheppard retired in September, Timothy took Andrew McFarlan into partnership until the last issue of the paper on December 25, 1800. Meanwhile, with other papers being published in Charleston, the once profitable South-Carolina Gazette was experiencing more and more financial difficulty, and the last issue appeared on September 20, 1802. After the demise of his printing business, Timothy became principal of the South Carolina Society's school in Charleston. His grandfather had been the first senior warden of the society, his father had been a member, and he had joined the society in 1794. He held this position until his death on October 20, 1807. On June 14, 1793 he had married Ann Telfair of Philadelphia at Christ Protestant Episcopal Church in that city. Their son Peter Timothy (A.B. 1813) became a Charleston attorney. SOURCES: Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., II, 672-75; R. Molloy, Charleston: A Gracious Heritage (1947), 53; SCHGM, 3 (1902), 38; 31 (1930), 264; 35 (1934), 123-29 ("My Son"); 55 (1954), 160, 162; 75 (1974), 156; als, P. Timothy to B. Franklin, 12 June 1777, Amer. Phil. Soc.; G. W. Williams, Si. Michael's Church, Charleston (1951), 356-57; Princeton Packet, 5 Oct. 1786; Hancock House MSS; Trenton Federal Post, 7 Oct. 1788; Min. Fac, 10 Nov. 1789, 19 Feb., 10 & 21 Mar. 1790; C. T. Moore, Abstracts of Wills of Charleston District, S.C, 1783-1800 (1974), 279-80; I. Thomas, Hist, of Printing in Amer. (1874), i, 341-42; II, 171; alumni ffles, PUA; J. H. Easterby, Hist, of the Cottege of Charleston (1935), 37-38, 44; C. K. Bolton, Marriage Notices 1785-94 for the Whole U.S. (1965), 123; Harvard Univ. Quinquennial Cat. ... 1636-1925 (1925), 176; C. S. Brigham, Hist. &f Bibl. of Amer. Newspapers 1690-1820 (1947), n, 1032-33, 1037-38, 1040, 1044. RLW

George Spafford Woodhull A.B., A.M. 1794, Presbyterian clergyman, was born in Leacock, Pennsylvania on March 31, 1773, the eldest child of the Reverend John Woodhull (A.B. 1766) and Sarah Spafford Woodhull. His mother was the daughter of George Spafford of Philadelphia and the stepdaughter of the Reverend Gilbert Tennent, a trustee of the College from 1746 to 1764. Woodhull's father was a trustee from 1780 to 1824 and also served as a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1813 to 1824. During GEORGE SPAFFORD WOODHULL,

530

CLASS OF 1790

George Spafford WoodhuU, A.B. 1790

the Revolution John Woodhull was chaplain of the Fifth Lancaster Battalion that included men from his Leacock congregation. When his military service ended in 1779, he accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Freehold, New Jersey, which had been vacant since the death of William Tennent, Jr., two years earlier. Said to be shrewd and careful in business dealings, Woodhull acquired wealth from land investments which purportedly amounted to about 50,000 acres in New Jersey, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Maryland. Other family connections with the College included William Woodhull (A.B. 1764), brother of John Woodhull; Nathaniel Woodhull Howell (A.B. 1788), son of John Woodhull's cousin Juliana Woodhull Howell; John Tennent Woodhull and Gilbert Smith Woodhull, brothers of George Woodhull who received honorary degrees from the College in 1812 and 1823 respectively; and William Gordon Forman (A.B. 1786), who married Sarah Woodhull, sister of George. As soon as the Woodhulls moved to Freehold the father established a classical academy, where his son studied until the fall of 1788 when he entered the junior class of the College as a fifteen-year-old. He

GEORGE SPAFFORD WOODHULL

531

must have been invited to join the Cliosophic Society almost immediately, since he became a member sometime during December of that year, using the pseudonym Euclid, the ancient Greek mathematician. During his college years he was said to be "remarkable for his blameless order, dignity, and punctual attention to every duty." At commencement he delivered one of the intermediate orations. He had also been chosen to participate in a subsequently canceled disputation with Robert G. Johnson and Thomas Young. After graduation Woodhull studied law for nearly two years under an attorney who has been identified only as a distinguished member of the New Jersey bar who lived in the Freehold neighborhood. Perceiving that the "collisions and conflicts" of the law would not suit his noncombative nature, Woodhull turned next to the study of medicine. He moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he studied under Dr. Moses Scott, father of Joseph Warren Scott (A.B. 1795) and father-in-law of Charles Smith (A.B. 1786), and he also attended a series of medical lectures in New York City. Sometime during the summer of 1794 while visiting his parents, he was inspired by a sermon of his father's to abandon his medical studies and begin training for the ministry. He studied under his father who, until the opening of Princeton Theological Seminary, trained a number of young men for the ministry. On November 14, 1797 the Presbytery of New Brunswick licensed Woodhull, and on June 6, 1798 he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Cranbury Presbyterian Church, where the three previous ministers had also been connected with the College. On April 6,1798 David English (A.B. 1789), writing to John H. Hobart (A.B. 1793), remarked, "Mr. George S. Woodhull has, I understand received a call from the Cranberry congregation which I expect he will accept. He has made the whole circle of the learned professions & may be useful to his parishioners in each of them." Although Woodhull served the Cranbury church for over twenty years, not much information survives about his local ministry beyond the statement that it was "faithful, noiseless, and dignified." "Noiseless" could mean that Woodhull was not given to loud and dramatic exhortations, or that no serious congregational quarrels developed during his tenure. Both seem to have been true. While he was at Cranbury the parsonage was repaired and a south wing was added to the church, indicating that the congregation had probably grown considerably. Meanwhile, Woodhull was busy with the affairs of the church at large. In April 1811 he was a member of the group of what has been described as "patriotic and pious gendemen," who gathered in Princeton to form the New Jersey Bible Society, which was mod-

532

CLASS OF 1790

eled on his own plan. On October 4, 1809 the New Brunswick presbytery had agreed to print and distribute this plan in an effort to obtain subscribers for the proposed society. Active in the society for the rest of his life, Woodhull was one of the members of the convention that met in New York in May 1816 to organize the American Bible Society. With Isaac V. Brown (A.B. 1802) he coedited The NewJersey Preacher: or Sermons on Plain and Practical Subjects, published July 24, 1813. It contained what were, in the editors'judgment, outstanding sermons of New Jersey ministers, with the stated purpose of spreading the knowledge of divine truth and impeding the progress of iniquity. They modestly included none of their own sermons but promised that if the book was warmly received they would publish similar volumes in the future. None was forthcoming. In 1815, experimenting with the youth of the Cranbury church, Woodhull initiated a plan of Bible class instruction which President Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) had introduced at the College. Convinced of its value, Woodhull next recommended it to the presbytery. He then labored indefatigably to have this system accepted by the Synod of New York and New Jersey. This body then presented it to the general assembly, which eventually recommended the plan to all of the churches under its care. At the same time, years before the advent of the American Temperance Society, Woodhull, who abstained from all types of alcohol, began his batde against the use of "ardent spirits." Some of his parishioners signed pledge cards as early as 1815. He carried the temperance cause to the New Brunswick presbytery and, as a result of his urgings, the presbytery presented the subject to the general assembly in 1818, where an act was passed recommending "to all ministers, elders and deacons of the Presbyterian church, to refrain from offering ardent spirits to those who might visit them at their respective houses, except in extraordinary cases." Around 1818 Woodhull experienced what he considered a miraculous healing as a direct answer to prayer. Considered mortally ill with a fever, he requested some of his friends in Princeton to pray together for his recovery. A group consisting mainly of clergy from the College and the theological seminary faculty, as well as some local church elders, gathered in one of the college rooms and spent an hour in intercessory prayer. The fever soon broke and Woodhull not only recovered but was strongly confirmed in his faith by this event. He had received a call from the Princeton Presbyterian Church in 1808 but declined on the advice of the presbytery. Invited again in 1820, he accepted and moved to Princeton at a salary of $600 a year and the use of the parsonage, which was located about two blocks from the church on what is now Wiggins Street. He was installed in his new charge on July 5, 1820 with his father presiding at the

GEORGE SPAFFORD WOODHULL

533

service. Woodhull had been acting as a trustee of the College since 1807 and held the position until his death. Always working devotedly for the good of the College, his move to the community increased both his influence and his responsibilities as a trustee. In 1821 he was appointed to work with College librarian Philip Lindsly (A.B. 1804) to prepare a manuscript catalogue of the library. Just as his father had been the trustee selected to convey the board's thanks to the retiring President Samuel Stanhope Smith (A.B. 1769), Woodhull was one of two trustees selected in 1823 to convey official thanks to Lindsly for serving as acting president between the administrations of Ashbel Green (A.B. 1783) and James Carnahan (A.B. 1800). Appointed clerk of the board of trustees in 1823, Woodhull served in this capacity until his death and also took over the duties of treasurer from 1828 to 1829. From 1822 on he also served as a trustee of Princeton Theological Seminary. Another interest was the New-Jersey Missionary Society, organized to raise funds to support missionaries and establish schools in destitute parts of the state. With Woodhull as its secretary, the executive committee met in Princeton, where major responsibilities usually rested with the members who were local residents. Woodhull edited A Statement of What Has Been Recently Done to Supply the Destitute in the State of New Jersey with the Sacred Scriptures, published in 1828. In 1830 he printed over his own signature A Statement of the Proceedings of the Princeton Corresponding Executive Committee of the New-Jersey Missionary Society. In his local pastoral work Woodhull was less well received. During this age of revivalism a group of young religious enthusiasts criticized the "coldness and deadness" of the church, some irreverently referring to their minister as "Woodendull." The Princeton congregation had enjoyed the privilege of having professors of the theological seminary rotate in presenting Sunday evening lectures. In 1825 the seminary faculty resolved to discontinue these talks, and pew rents dropped sharply in the following year. A special committee appointed to find the cause reported that the professors' lectures were greatly missed and urged that they be asked to preach on Sunday mornings in rotation with Woodhull, who firmly opposed this plan. It was not adopted, but Woodhull's refusal to cooperate apparently split the congregation, and all five trustees resigned. The church meanwhile was sponsoring a Sunday school at Queenstown (now a part of Princeton), where afternoon lectures by faculty and students of the seminary were very popular. The greater freedom of expression and diminished ecclesiastical restraint of these meetings attracted the group that was dissatisfied with the formal church services. The church's finances were becoming precarious as more members

534

CLASS OF 1790

surrendered their pews. In 1831 it was again proposed that seminary professors alternate with Woodhull, and it was also suggested that seminary students worship in the church in order to improve both the quality of the music and the behavior of those seated in the gallery. Approved by a vote of three to one, this plan did not meet with the approval of the presbytery, which declared that it was contrary to order and discipline. As the congregation became more restive, the session invited Flavell Scott Mines (B.D. Princeton Theological Seminary 1831) to accept a short-term appointment to assist in promoting the congregation's spiritual interests. Mines succeeded in dividing the congregation even more by introducing such new revivalist measures as the "anxious seat," which Woodhull did not approve. In 1832 twenty-three members of the church signed a petition requesting the session to aid them in forming a Second Presbyterian Church for the purported reason that the church building was too small. On August 1, 1832 Woodhull resigned, expressing no bitterness, but stating that he had been advised to do so by members of the presbytery and that he hoped that his action would discourage division in the church. The resignation did delay until 1847 the formation of the Second Presbyterian Church of Princeton. In spite of Woodhull's apparent unpopularity with part of the congregation, more members were added during his twelve-year ministry than during any preceding period of twelve years, and authorities agree that he labored with steadiness, prudence, diligence, dignity, and punctuality in the service of the church. From Princeton Woodhull went to Middletown Point (Matawan), New Jersey, to serve a much smaller congregation. His death came on Christmas Day, 1834. Ill for several weeks with influenza, he was barely recovering and still weak when he contracted scarlet fever, from which he died. His eldest son William became infected while visiting his father and died ten days later. On June 4, 1799 Woodhull had married Gertrude Neilson, the eldest daughter of Col. John and Catharine Voorhees Neilson of New Brunswick and a sister of John Neilson (A.B. 1793). Gertrude Neilson Woodhull was educated at the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She was considered to be a model minister's wife, pious, zealous, influential, useful, and beloved in the community. During her husband's Princeton pastorate she was active in the Female Benevolent Society of Princeton. The couple had one daughter and three sons: William Henry Woodhull (A.B. 1822), who also attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1822 to 1824; John Neilson Woodhull (A.B. 1828, M.D. University of Pennsylvania 1832); and Alfred Alexander Woodhull (A.B. 1828, M.D. University of Penn-

GEORGE SPAFFORD WOODHULL

535

sylvania 1831). Alfred's son was Alfred Alexander Woodhull (A.B. 1856, M.D. University of Pennsylvania 1859) who, after his retirement as a medical officer in the United States Army, lectured at Princeton University on hygiene and general sanitation between 1902 and 1907. John Neilson Woodhull, who died unmarried, left his estate to the College to found "The John N. Woodhull Professorship of Modern Languages," which was established in 1870. By all accounts Woodhull was a gentle, pious, and dedicated Christian. His father once remarked that he could not remember ever finding it necessary to reprove his eldest son for any purpose. In a eulogy delivered at the Princeton Presbyterian Church on January 18, 1835, the Reverend Samuel Miller (A.M. 1792) highly praised Woodhull's many virtues but did suggest that he perhaps carried gentleness and meekness too far, letting it interfere with his firmness and energy, and that his forbearance and dread of controversy had sometimes let him yield to judgments inferior to his own. A letter written by Woodhull to his son Alfred on February 1, 1832 contains the only hint of levity found in his career. Writing on stationery containing an engraving of Nassau Hall, Woodhull said, "I send you the College of New Jersey, together with $5." He then went on to admonish the twenty-two-year-old to remember that, as a graduate of the College, he was under an obligation to lead a useful life. He also urged him to remember his obligations to his Redeemer. Woodhull himself seems never to have forgotten either. SOURCES: S. Miller, The Good Man: A Sermon in Memory of the Rev. George S. Woodhull (1835), passim ("remarkable for his," 15; "collisions & conflicts," 16); M. G. Woodhull & F. B. Stevens, Woodhull Genealogy (1904), 86, 114, 158, 350-52; F. R. Symmes, Hist, of Old Tennent Church (1904), 111-16, 359, 408; alumni file, PUA; Hageman, History, i, 235, 263; II, 117-19, 120-26, 129-33 (matriculation at CNJ as junior, 129-30; "to all ministers," 131), 144, 200, 412; Clio, lists; Hancock House MSS; Pa. Packet, £sf DaUy Advt., 7 Oct. 1790; Dunlap Sf Claypoole's Amer. DaUy Advt., 7 OcL 1794; Hobart, Cones., II, 36-37 (D. English letter); D. D. Egbert, Princeton Portraits (1947), 186, 19395 ("faithful"); Sprague, Annab, ill, 306; Princetonians, 1748-1768, 600-02; will of John Woodhull, Nj; R. B. Walsh, Cranbury Past &f Present (1975), 147; Amer. Bible Soc. Manual (1865), 4-5; R. R. Cawley, Brief Hist, of First Pres. Church of Princeton (1954), n.p.; A. S. Link, First Pres. Church of Princeton (1967), 30, 40-42; als, W. H. Woodhull to GSW, 2 Nov. 1797, GSW to D. Benedict, 21 May 1823, GSW to A. A. Woodhull, 1 Feb. 1832 ("I send"), NjP. PUBLICATIONS: A Plan for the Establishment of a Bible Soc. in the State of N.J. (1809, not in Sh-Sh but available at NjHi & NjP); Sh-Sh # 29318; Sh-C # 34462; C-R # 2761 MANUSCRIPTS: NjP

RLW

536

Thomas Young A.B., planter and public official, was the younger of the two sons of Benjamin and Martha Allston Young, of Georgetown, South Carolina, and "Youngville" plantation on the Waccamaw River. The father served in the first and second provincial congresses and the first and third general assemblies of South Carolina. In June 1779 he was willing to lend the state government £7,500, but when Charleston fell the following year he accepted British protection. His wife was a niece of Gen. Francis Marion. The Youngs' eldest daughter Elizabeth married James Bond Read (Class of 1787). Young was sent to the grammar school at Nassau Hall where, in September 1785, as a member of the third class, he placed first in a comparative trial of Latin grammar and syntax. He must have been moved ahead, for the following year he graduated from the grammar school and was admitted to the freshman class of the College. Here he placed third in English orations at the end of his freshman year and second in the Latin competition at the end of his sophomore year. He joined the American Whig Society. When the faculty met on July 8, 1790 to plan the forthcoming commencement, Young was scheduled to deliver an intermediate oration and to dispute the question, "Is form in business or formality in conduct ever of real benefit in any cases or in any characters?" However, a newspaper account of the commencement lists Young as one of three seniors "necessarily absent" from the ceremonies. Young has been referred to as a planter and, since both his father and his older brother died before his return to South Carolina, he undoubtedly took over the management of the family plantation. Whether or not he also trained for a professional career is impossible to determine. He usually had an "Esq." attached to his name, probably because he served as a justice of the peace and not because he trained as a lawyer. On April 4, 1794 he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Maria Haig, daughter of Dr. George Haig. Mary (Polly) Allston of Georgetown, the child of William Allston, Jr., became his second wife on April 24, 1800. On January 31, 1799 he was one of a group of citizens who met to establish a library society in Georgetown. Elected to the state senate in 1802, he represented All Saints' Parish. He died at Georgetown on March 27, 1804 while still in office and was buried in Prince George's Episcopal Churchyard, Winyah, Georgetown. No record of any children has been found. When his widow married William Algernon Alston (A.B. 1799) in 1806, Alston, referred to as the "foremost grandee on Waccamaw Neck," gained control of "Youngville." THOMAS YOUNG,

THOMAS

YOUNG

537

Alston's brothers were Joseph (Class of 1797), son-in-law of Aaron Burr (A.B. 1772), and John Ashe Alston (A.B. 1799). Samuel Alston (Class of 1790) was a distant cousin. SOURCES: Biog. Dir. S.C. House Rep., ll, 741-42 (sketch of father); Ε. B. Reynolds & J. R. Faunt, Biog. Dir. of the Senate of the State of S.C. (1964), 340; N.J. Gazette, 10 Oct. 1785; Princeton Packet, 5 Oct 1786; Hancock House MSS; Amer. Whig Soc, Cat. (1840), 6; N.J. Jour.,fifPolU. Intelligencer, 10 Oct. 1787; Trenton Federal Post, 7 OcL 1788; MS Annual Hist, of Amer. Whig Soc., PUA; Pa. Packet,fcfDaily Advt., 7 OcL 1790; Min. Fac, 8 July 1790; D. E. H. Smith & A. S. Salley, Jr., Reg. of St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, S.C. (1971), 256; alumni file, PUA; SCHGM, 25 (1924), 95; 26 (1925), 132, 156; G. C. Rogers, Hist, of Georgetown Cnty., S.C. (1970), 267, 521. RLW

APPENDIX GEOGRAPHICAL AND OCCUPATIONAL LISTINGS

PLACE OF ORIGIN

Bermuda Augustus William Harvey '90 Delaware Thomas Hanson Bellach '88 Matthias Cazier '85 George Crow '87 Thomas Duff, Jr. '87

Cantwell Jones '87 John Read '87 Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. '88

Georgia Joseph Clay '84 Barach Gibbons '90

Joseph Gibbons '90 Bryan Morell '90

Maryland John Collins '89 Thomas Donaldson '89 John Hollingsworth '90 Robert Hughes '87 William Pitt Hunt '86 Thomas Pitt Irving '89 Edward Johnson '86

William Perry '89 Jacob Smith '90 Isaac Steele '90 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Samuel Wilson '88 Tumor Wootton '88

Massachusetts Nathaniel Cabot Higginson '87

Nathaniel Howe '86

New Jersey William Anderson '89 John Baldwin '84 Mathew Baldwin '84 Isaac Blanchard '87 Jabez Camp '87 William Campfield '84 Robert Hett Chapman '89 Aaron Condict '88 Ira Condict '84 Henry Cook '89 Isaac Watts Crane '89 Mahlon Dickerson '89 David English '89 Robert Finley '87 Gabriel H. Ford '84 William Gordon Forman '86

James Freeman '89 Agur T. Furman '84 Charles Dickinson Green '87 John Wickliffe Green '88 William R. Hanna '90 Israel Harris '90 William King Hugg '86 Ralph Hunt '86 James Henderson Imlay '86 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90 Abel Johnston '84 William Kirkpatrick '88 Ralph Phillips Lott '90 Alexander Cumming McWhorter '84 John G. McWhorter '90 John Morgan '89

540 Isaac Ogden '84 Isaac Pierson '89 George Pollock '87 Thomas Pollock '86 John Ramsay '87 Elijah Dunham Rattoone '87 Leonard D. Shaw '84 Henry Smalley '86 Daniel Smith "87

APPENDIX John Eaton Spencer '84 Zadoc Squier '84 Samuel Robert Stewart '86 Lucius Horatio Stockton '87 Abraham Tenbrook '84 John Wright Vancleve '86 Abner Woodruff '84 Jeremiah Woolsey '87

New York John Nelson Abeel '87 Samuel Piatt Broome '86 David Gardiner '89 John Lyon Gardiner '89 Edward Graham '86 Thomas Grant '86 John Vernor Henry '85 David Hosack '89 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell "88 Oliver Livermore Ker '85 Maturin Livingston '86 Peter Robert Livingston '84 Peter Schuyler Livingston '88

Peter William Livingston '86 James Morris '84 Abimael Youngs Nicoll '86 William Radcliff'84 Charles Smith '86 Timothy Treadwell Smith '88 Daniel Thew '87 Smith Thompson '88 John C. Vergereau '86 John Wells '88 Hercules Whaley '85 James Whitney Wilkin '85 Silas Wood '89

North Carolina Evan Shelby Alexander '87 Samuel Alston '90 William Blackledge '89 Willie Blount '89 Samuel Harris '87

William Tryon Howe '90 Richard Hugg King '86 James McCoy '85 David Stone '88 John Tennant '88

Pennsylvania James Ashton Bayard '84 Samuel Bayard '84 Daniel Bell '90 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 William Maxwell Brown '86 George Clarkson '88 Gerard Clarkson '90 Henry Clymer '86 Meredith Clymer '87 Edmund Drury '88 Samuel Blair Foster '88 James Gibson '87 Thomas R. Harris '88 Matthew Henderson '88 James Hopkins '84

Thomas Hutchins '89 John Irwin '87 George McClenachan '89 Ephraim McMillan '88 John Murray '88 John Rhea Smith '87 Charles Jeffry Snowden '89 Isaac Snowden, Jr. '85 Nathaniel Randolph Snowden '87 Samuel Finley Snowden '86 William Wallace '86 (A) George Morgan White Eyes '89 David Wiley '88 George Spafford Woodhull '90

South Carolina Charles Jones Colcock '90 Edward Darrell '89 David Deas '89

Henry Deas '89 Alexander Edwards '84 John Gibbes '84

APPENDIX Lewis Ladson Gibbes '90 Thomas Stanyame Gibbes '90 J o h n Ouldfield Heriot '89 Daniel Lionel Huger '89 William Dobeian James '87 William Johnson, Jr. '90 William Mathewes '90 Ezekiel Pickens '90

James Bond Read '87 William Stevens Smith '89 O'Neal Gough Stevens '89 J o h n Taylor '90 J o h n Thompson '89 Benjamin Franklin T i m o t h y ' Anthony Toomer '86 Thomas Young '90

Vermont Amos Marsh '86 Virginia Armistead Churchill '90 Henry Embry Coleman '86 Richard Eppes '88 Robert Goodloe Harper '85 Allen S. Holmes '88 William J. Lewis '88

William Marshall '88 David Meade '87 Richard Mosby '86 J o h n Hyndman Purdie '90 Richard Randolph '88 J o h n Taliaferro '88

West Indies Christian DeWint '89 Henry Joseph Hutchins '90

J o h n Ruan '90

Unknown Brooks '87 Thomas Cooper '84 Henry Jennings '89 Lawrence '89 J o h n Parker '84 James Perm '84

St. C. '85 Richard Smith '85 J o h n Tappan '85 James Thompson '85 William Wallace '86 (B) James Weir '87

PLACE OF PRIMARY RESIDENCE A F T E R COLLEGE

Bermuda Augustus William Harvey '90 Delaware James Ashton Bayard '84 Thomas Hanson Bellach '88 J o h n Collins '89

Thomas Duff, Jr. '87 Cantwell Jones '87 Nicholas Van Dyke, J r . '88

District of Columbia David English '89 France Samuel Piatt Broome '86

David Wiley '88

542

APPENDIX

Georgia Joseph Clay '84 Barach Gibbons '90 Joseph Gibbons '90

Bryan Morell '90 Abimael Youngs Nicoll '86 James Bond Read '87

Kentucky David Meade '87 Maryland Thomas Donaldson '89 Robert Goodloe Harper '85 Robert Hughes '87 Edward Johnson '86

William Ferry '89 Isaac Steele '90 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Tumor Wootton '88

Massachusetts Nathaniel Howe '86 Mississippi William Gordon Forman '86

Thomas Hutchins '89

New Jersey Samuel Bayard '84 William Campfield '84 Armistead Churchill '90 Aaron Conflict '88 Ira Condict '84 Isaac Watts Crane '89 Christian DeWint '89 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Robert Finley '87 Gabriel H. Ford '84 Agur T. Furman *84 Thomas Grant '86 Charles Dickinson Green '87 John Wickliffe Green '88 Israel Harris '90 Samuel Harris '87 William King Hugg '86

Ralph Hunt '86 James Henderson Imlay '86 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90 Ralph Phillips Lott '90 Alexander Cumming McWhorter '84 John G. McWhorter '90 Isaac Ogden '84 Isaac Pierson '89 Henry Smalley '86 Charles Smith '86 John Eaton Spencer '84 Samuel Robert Stewart '86 Lucius Horatio Stockton '87 John Wright Vandeve '86 George Spafford Woodhull *90 Abner Woodruff '84 Jeremiah Woolsey '87

New York John Nelson Abeel '87 William Anderson '89 John Baldwin '84 Matthias Cazier '85 Thomas Cooper '84 David Gardiner '89 John Lyon Gardiner '89 John Vernor Henry '85 David Hosack '89 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell '88

Oliver Livermore Ker '85 William Kirkpatrick '88 Maturin Livingston '86 Peter Robert Livingston '84 Peter Schuyler Livingston '88 Peter William Livingston '86 James Morris '84 William Raddiff '84 Timothy Treadwell Smith '88 Charles Jeffry Snowden '89

APPENDIX Samuel Finley Snowden '86 Daniel Thew '87 Smith Thompson '88

John Wells '88 James Whitney Wilkin '85 Silas Wood '89

North Carolina Evan Shelby Alexander '87 Samuel Alston '90 William Blackledge '89 Isaac Blanchard '87 Edward Graham '86

Thomas Pitt Irving '89 Richard Hugg King '86 George Pollock '87 Zadoc Squier '84 David Stone '88

Ohio George Morgan White Eyes '89 Pennsylvania Daniel Bell '90 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 William Maxwell Brown '86 George Clarkson '88 Henry Clymer '86 Meredith Clymer '87 Edmund Drury '88 Samuel Blair Foster '88 James Gibson '87 Matthew Henderson '88 Nathaniel Cabot Higginson '87 James Hopkins '84

Henry Joseph Hutchins '90 George McClenachan '89 John Morgan '89 John Read '87 John Ruan '90 Daniel Smith '87 John Rhea Smith '87 Isaac Snowden, Jr. '85 Nathaniel Randolph Snowden '87 Abraham Tenbrook '84 William Wallace '86 (A)

South Carolina Charles Jones Colcock '90 Edward Darrell '89 David Deas '89 Henry Deas '89 Alexander Edwards '84 John Gibbes '84 Lewis Ladson Gibbes '90 Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes '90 John Ouldfield Heriot '89 Daniel Lionel Huger '89 William Dobeian James '87

William Johnson, Jr. '90 William Mathewes '90 Ezekiel Pickens '90 John Ramsay '87 Elijah Dunham Rattoone '87 William Stevens Smith '89 O'Neal Gough Stevens '89 John Taylor '90 Benjamin Franklin Timothy '90 Anthony Toomer '86 Thomas Young '90

Tennessee Willie Blount "89

Leonard D. Shaw '84

Vermont Amos Marsh '86 Virginia Robert Hett Chapman '89 Henry Embry Coleman '86 Richard Eppes '88

William Pitt Hunt '86 William J. Lewis '88 William Marshall '88

543

544

APPENDIX

Richard Mosby '86 John Hyndman Purdie '90

Richard Randolph '88 John Taliaferro '88

West Indies Gerard Clarkson '90 Unknown Ephraim McMillan '88 John Murray '88 John Parker '84 James Penn '84 Thomas Pollock '86 S t C. '85 Jacob Smith '90 Richard Smith '85 John Tappan '85 John Tennant '88 James Thompson '85 John Thompson '89 William Wallace '86 (B) James Weir '87 Hercules Whaley '85 Samuel Wilson '88

Mathew Baldwin '84 Brooks '87 Jabez Camp '87 Henry Cook '89 George Crow '87 James Freeman '89 William R. Hanna "90 Thomas R. Harris '88 John Hollingsworth '90 Allen S. Holmes '88 William Tryon Howe '90 John Irwin '87 Henry Jennings '89 Abel Johnston '84 Lawrence '89 James McCoy '85

O C C U P A T I O N O R PROFESSION

(Some men are listed under more than one category) Business (Banking, Mining, Commerce, Land Development, etc.) John Irwin '87 Daniel Bell '90 Edward Johnson '86 William Blackledge '89 William Kirkpatrick '88 Samuel Piatt Broome '86 Peter William Livingston '86 Gerard Clarkson '90 William Raddiff'84 Henry Deas '89 Charles Jeffry Snowden '89 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Isaac Snowden, Jr. '85 David English '89 Anthony Toomer '86 Samuel Blair Foster '88 William Wallace '86 (A) Israel Harris '90 Abner Woodruff '84 Ralph Hunt '86 Henry Joseph Hutchins '90 Education Matthias Cazier '85 Robert Hett Chapman '89 John Collins '89 Ira Condict '84 Isaac Watts Crane '89 George Crow '87 David English '89 Robert Finley '87 Charles Dickinson Green '87 Samuel Harris '87 Nathaniel Howe '86

Nathaniel Woodhull HoweU '88 Thomas Pitt Irving '89 Oliver Livermore Ker '85 James McCoy '85 Elijah Dunham Rattoone '87 Charles Smith '86 Timothy Treadwell Smith '88 Zadoc Squier '84 Benjamin Franklin Timothy '90 David Wiley '88 Silas Wood '89

APPENDIX

545

Law Evan Shelby Alexander '87 John Baldwin '84 James Ashton Bayard '84 Samuel Bayard '84 Thomas Hanson Bellach '88 William Blackledge '89 Willie Blount '89 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 William Maxwell Brown '86 George Clarkson '88 Joseph Clay '84 Meredith Clymer '87 Charles Jones Colcock '90 Thomas Cooper '84 Isaac Watts Crane '89 Edward Dan-ell '89 David Deas '89 Henry Deas '89 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Edmund Drury '88 Thomas Duff, Jr. '87 Alexander Edwards '84 Richard Eppes '88 Gabriel H. Ford '84 William Gordon Forman '86 Samuel Blair Foster '88 David Gardiner '89 Joseph Gibbons '90 James Gibson '87 Edward Graham '86 Robert Goodloe Harper '85 Israel Harris '90 John Vernor Henry '85 Nathaniel Cabot Higginson '87 James Hopkins '84 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell '88 William King Hugg '86 Ralph Hunt '86 William Pitt Hunt *86

James Henderson Imlay '86 William Dobeian James '87 William Johnson, Jr. '90 Oliver Livermore Ker '85 Richard Hugg King '86 Maturin Livingston '86 Peter Robert Livingston '84 Peter William Livingston '86 William Marshall '88 Amos Marsh '86 Alexander d i m m i n g McWhorter '84 John G. McWhorter '90 James Morris '84 Ezekiel Pickens '90 Thomas Pollock '86* Richard Randolph '88* John Read '87 Daniel Smith '87 John Rhea Smith '87 William Stevens Smith '89 John Eaton Spencer '84 O'Neal Gough Stevens '89 Samuel Robert Stewart '86 Lucius Horatio Stockton '87 David Stone '88 John Taliaferro '88 John Taylor '90 Abraham Tenbrook '84 Daniel Thew '87 Smith Thompson '88 John Wright Vancleve '86 Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. '88 William Wallace '86 (A) John Wells '88 James Whitney Wilkin '85 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Silas Wood '89 George Spafford Woodhull '90* Turner Wootton '88

Medicine William Anderson '89 William Campfield '84 Thomas R. Harris '88 Augustus William Harvey '90 Matthew Henderson '88 David Hosack '89 Edward Johnson '86 William Kirkpatrick '88 Ralph Phillips Lott '90 George McClenachan '89

Isaac Ogden '84 Isaac Pierson '89 John Hyndman Purdie '90 John Ramsay '87 James Bond Read '87 John Ruan '90 Charles Smith '86 George Spafford Woodhull '90* Jeremiah Woolsey '87

The symbol * indicates that the Princetonian named studied for the profession in question but seems never to have practiced.

546

APPENDIX

Ministry, Baptist Joseph Clay '84

Henry Smalley '86

Ministry, Congregational Matthias Cazier '85

Nathaniel Howe '86

Ministry, Dutch Reformed John Nelson Abeel '87

Ira Condict '84

Ministry, Episcopalian Thomas Pitt Irving '89

Elijah Dunham Rattoone '87

Ministry, Methodist Richard Hugg King '86 Ministry, Presbyterian John Nelson Abeel '87 Matthias Cazier '85 Robert Hett Chapman '89 John Collins '89 Aaron Condict '88 Ira Condict '84 Robert Finley '87 Thomas Grant '86

Samuel Harris '87* Richard Hugg King '86 James McCoy '85 Charles Jeffry Snowden '89* Nathaniel Randolph Snowden '87 Samuel Finley Snowden '86 David Wiley '88 George Spafford Woodhull '90

Planters and Farmers Samuel Alston '90 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 Henry Clymer '86 Henry Embry Coleman '86 David Gardiner '89 John Lyon Gardiner '89 John Gibbes '84 Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes '90 Barach Gibbons '90 John Ouldfield Heriot '89 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90

David Meade '87 John Morgan '89 Ezekiel Pickens '90 George Pollock '87 Thomas Pollock '86 John Ramsay '87 Richard Randolph '88 John Taylor "90 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Turner Wootton '88 Thomas Young '90

Professional Military and Naval Officers John Morgan '89 Abimael Youngs Nicoll '86

Abner Woodruff'84

Publishing David English '89 Charles Dickinson Green '87 Charles Jefiry Snowden '89

Benjamin Franklin Timothy '90 David Wiley '88

APPENDIX

547

U.S. Government Agent Nathaniel Cabot Higginson '87 Unknown Mathew Baldwin '84 Isaac Blanchard '87 Brooks '87 Jabez Camp '87 Armistead Churchill '90 Henry Cook '89 Christian DeWint '89 Thomas Donaldson '89 James Freeman '89 Agur T. Furman '84 Lewis Ladson Gibbes '90 John Wickliffe Green '88 William R. Hanna '90 John Hollingsworth '90 Allen S. Holmes '88 William Tryon Howe '90 Daniel Lionel Huger '89 Robert Hughes '87 Thomas Hutchins '89 Henry Jennings '89 Abel Johnston '84 Cantwell Jones '87 Lawrence '89

William J. Lewis '88 Peter Schuyler Livingston '88 William Mathewes '90 Bryan Morell '90 Richard Mosby '86 John Murray '88 John Parker '84 James Penn '84 William Perry '89 St. C. '85 Jacob Smith '90 Richard Smith '85 Isaac Steele '90 John Tappan '85 John Tennant '88 James Thompson '85 John Thompson '89 William Wallace '86 (B) James Weir '87 Hercules Whaley '85 George Morgan White Eyes '89 Samuel Wilson '88

HOLDERS OF MAJOR PUBLIC OFFICES

Important City and County Offices Samuel Bayard '84 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 William Campfield '84 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Alexander Edwards '84 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell '88 Edward Johnson '86 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90

Maturin Livingston '86 Alexander Cumming McWhorter '84 James Morris '84 Isaac Pierson '89 John Read '87 William Wallace '86 (A) James Whitney Wilkin '85

Members of State Constitutional Conventions Mahlon Dickerson '89 Peter Robert Livingston '84

David Stone '88 John Taliaferro '88

Members of State Legislatures Evan Shelby Alexander '87 William Blackledge '89 Willie Blount '89 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 Charles Jones Colcock '90 Henry Embry Coleman '86

David Deas '89 Henry Deas *89 Mahlon Dickerson '89 William Gordon Forman '86 Edward Graham '86 Robert Goodloe Harper '85

548

APPENDIX

Matthew Henderson '88 John Vernor Henry '85 James Hopkins '84 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell '88 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90 William Johnson, Jr. '90 William J. Lewis '88 Peter Robert Livingston '84 Amos Marsh '86 Ezekiel Pickens '90 John Hyndman Purdie '90 John Ramsay '87

John Read '87 Isaac Steele '90 David Stone '88 John Taliaferro '88 John Taylor "90 Smith Thompson '88 Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. '88 James Whitney Wilkin '85 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Silas Wood '89 Tumor Wootton '88 Thomas Young '90

State Governors Willie Blount '89 Mahlon Dickerson '89

John Taylor '90

State Judges Willie Blount '89 Charles Jones Colcock '90 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Gabriel H. Ford '84

William Johnson, Jr.' 90 David Stone '88 Smith Thompson '88

Other High State Offices William Blackledge '89 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89

Ezekiel Pickens '90

Members of U.S. House of Representatives Evan Shelby Alexander '87 James Ashton Bayard '84 William Blackledge '89 Robert Goodloe Harper '85 Nathaniel Woodhull Howell '88 James Henderson Imlay '86 William Kirkpatrick '88 William J. Lewis '88

Isaac Pierson '89 David Stone '88 John Taliaferro '88 John Taylor '90 Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. '88 James Whitney Wilkin '85 Ephraim King Wilson '89 Silas Wood '89

Members of U.S. Senate James Ashton Bayard '84 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Robert Goodloe Harper '85

David Stone '88 Nicholas Van Dyke, Jr. '88

U.S. Secretaries of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson '89

Smith Thompson '88

U.S. Diplomatic Service James Ashton Bayard '84 Samuel Bayard '84

William Raddiff '84

APPENDIX U.S. Marshal Daniel Lionel Huger '89 U.S. District Judges Joseph Clay '84 Mahlon Dickerson '89

William Dobeian James '87 William Marshall '88

Members of U.S. Supreme Court William Johnson, Jr. "90

Smith Thompson '88

Presidential Electors Edward Johnson '86 John Taliaferro '88

Ephraim King Wilson '89

U.S. Government Agents Nathaniel Cabot Higginson '87

John Read '87

U.S. Indian Agent Leonard D. Shaw '84

THOSE PERFORMING SOME FORM OF MILITARY SERVICE DURING:

Revolutionary War Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89 William Dobeian James '87

William J. Lewis '88 James Whitney Wilkin '85

Indian Wars of Old Northwest Territory John Morgan '89 Whiskey Rebellion William Campfield '84 Meredith Clymer '87 Mahlon Dickerson '89 Quasi-War with France John Wells '88 War of 1812 Nathaniel Britton Boileau '89

Matthew Henderson '88 Robert Gibbon Johnson '90 Charles Smith '86

549

INDEX BY J. JEFFERSON LOONEY, JOHN M. MURRIN, AND RUTH L. WOODWARD

This index is alphabetized by letter, not by word. All women are cross-referenced by maiden name and by all married names included within an individual biography. A single date within parentheses following a male name indicates a Princetonian and the class to which he belonged. The name of every matriculate for whom a biography appears in this volume is listed in italic type, as is the location of the sketch, which follows immediately after the class identification. In the case of identical family names the relationship to the College of New Jersey student is indicated in parentheses as, for example, father or son. Non-family members with identical names are identified by profession or place of residence. Place names are made specific by including the colony or state, and occasionally the county. Abbreviations for states follow standard postal usage. Abbeville, SC, 514 Abeel, Gertrude Neilson, 167 Abeel, James, 167 A M , John Nelson (Neilson) (1787), 167-70, 174, 175, 420 Abeel, Mary StiUe, 170 Aberdeen, University of, Scotland, xxvii Abington, PA, 348, 510; Presbyterian church, 347, 348 abolition. 5«« slavery, opponents academies: Albany Academy, NY, 84; Albany Female Academy, NY, 84; Allentown, NJ, 130; Amwell, NJ, 270; Basking Ridge Academy, NJ, 387; Basking Ridge, NJ (Finley, Robert), 184, 387; Basking Ridge, NJ (Kennedy, Samuel), 387; Bennington, VT (Clio Hall), 142; Bethesda, MD (Tusculum Academy), 128; Bethlehem, PA (Moravian school), 534; Bladensburg, MD (James Hunt), 127; Brookhaven, NY (Benjamin Tallmadge), 455; Byfield, MA (Dummer Academy), 123; Camden, SC (John Reid), 522; Chapel HOI, NC (University of North Carolina grammar school), 266n; Charleston, SC (Baldwin, Mr.), 474; Charleston, SC (Citadel Military Academy), 474; Charleston, SC (Mason, William), 529; Charleston, SC (Parsonage Academy), 528; Charleston, SC (Smith, Robert), 475, 476, 496; Charleston, SC (South Carolina Society school), 529; Charleston, SC (Thomson, James Hamden), 24, 70; Charlotte, NC (Liberty Hall Academy), 135, 171, 205; East Hampton, NY (Clinton Acade-

my), 285, 395, 397; Esopus, NY, 457; Fairfield, CT, 455; Fishkill Academy, NY, 87; Fredericksburg Academy, VA, 293; Freehold, NJ (John WoodhuU), 19, 192, 193, 386, 388, 530; Georgetown, DC (Columbian Academy), 314; Georgetown, DC (Lydia S. English Seminary for Young Ladies), 393; Georgetown Female Academy, DC, 393; Goshen, NY, 267; Goshen, NY (Farmers' Hall Academy), 86; Goshen, NY (Noah Webster), 101; Granville Academy, NC, 67; Hackensack, NJ (Peter Wilson), 402; Hagerstown Academy, MD, 203, 421-22; Hanover, NJ (Bradford, Ebenezer, and Ashbel Green), 253; Hanover, NJ (Green, Jacob), 262, 370; Harrisburg, PA (Nathaniel Randolph Snowden), 236; Hatboro, PA (Loller Academy), 347; Hempstead, NY (Leonard Cutting), 309; Hillsborough Academy, NC, 5556; Ipswich, MA (George Leslie), 123; Kingston Academy, NY, 57, 97, 28687; Lancaster, PA (Moravian school), 391; Lancaster, PA (Nathaniel Randolph Snowden), 235; Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, NJ, 196; Lawrenceville School, NJ, 195, 196, 355; Little Britain, NY (John Moffatt), 144; Maidenhead, NJ (Academy of Maidenhead), 195; Maidenhead, NJ (Union School), 195; Montgomery, NY, 267; Morristown, NJ (Campfield, William), 180, 370; Morristown, NJ (Crow, George), xl-xli, 179; Morristown, NJ (Ives, Isaac), 370; Morristown, NJ (Morris Academy), 14,

552

INDEX

28; Morristown, NJ (Russell, Caleb), 179, 369; Morristown, NJ (Woodhull, William), 179; Newark Academy, DE, 306, 488, 492; Newark Academy, NJ, 40, 54-55, 510; Newark, NJ (Alexander MacWhorter), 19, 40, 253-54, 309, 402, 510; New Bern Academy, NC, 330, 420, 421; New Brunswick, NJ (Queen's College grammar school), 21, 148; New Castle Academy, DE, 303, 305; New Castle, DE (grammar school), 208, 222; Norfolk, CT (Ammi R. Robbins), 277; Norristown Academy, PA, 347; Orange Academy, NJ, 254; Orange Co., VA (Walker Maury), 282; Orange-Dale Academy, NJ, 65, 88, 178-79, 198, 350, 432; Orange, NJ (Jedediah Chapman), 19; Paramus, NJ, 364; Pequea, PA (Robert Smith), 4, 264; Philadelphia, PA (Protestant Episcopal Academy), 252; Philadelphia, PA (University of the State of Pennsylvania grammar school), 187, 228; Pineville Academy, SC, 440; Pittsgrove, NJ (William Schenck), 488; Poplar Tent Academy, NC, 197; Poughkeepsie, NY, 297; Prince Edward Academy, VA, 15, 211; Princess Anne, MD (Washington Academy), 317, 35354, 353, 385-86, 419, 452; Princeton, NJ (See College of New Jersey grammar school); Rowley, MA (Ebenezer Bradford), 123; Roxbury, NJ (William Woodhull), 370; Salem Academy, NJ, 492; Salem, SC (Thomas Reese), 205; Salisbury Academy, NC, 171; Savannah, GA (Joseph and William Gibbons), 219; Schenectady Academy, NY, 286-87, 324; Schenectady, NY, 308-09; Snow Creek, NC (Clio's Nursery), 135; Spring Hill Seminary of Learning, NC, 326; Sunneytown, PA (English school), 347; Trenton Academy, NJ, 55, 517, 518; Upper Octarora, PA (William Foster), 259; Warrenton, VA (Hezekiah Balch), 442n; Warrenton, VA (Warren Academy), 442n; Williamsburg, VA (College of William and Mary grammar school), 282; Wilmington Academy, DE, 182; Windsor Academy, NC, 288; Woodbury, NJ (Andrew Hunter), 179, 233 Academy of Fine Arts of New York, 410 Academy of Maidenhead, NJ, 195 Accomack Co., VA, 317 Achmet: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 394 Adams, Alice. See Marshall, Alice Adams

Adams, Elizabeth Griffin, 279 Adams, John: appointments by sought, 10-11; Defense of the American Constitutions, 373; election of 1800, 77; as Federalist leader, 75; letters to, 240, 241; political opponents, 239, 337; political supporters, 6, 131, 155, 457; presidential appointments, 7-8, 17, 92, 224, 239, 498; presidential inauguration, 373; relatives, 310; writings discussed, 373, 387 Adams, John Quincy: election of 1824, 300; election of 1828, 295, 301; as Harvard undergraduate, xxv, xliv; political opponents, 379; political supporters, 120, 241, 307, 460; quoted, xxv, xliv, 6, 500; as secretary of state, 300, 502-03 Adams, Myron, 274 Adams, Richard, 279 Adams, Samuel Hopkins, 274 Adams Co., PA, 108 Adams Republicans: membership in, 120, 241, 307, 460 Addison Co., VT, 142 JLmilius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 233 Aeneas, 355 Aeschylus, 87; works owned by alumnus, 450 Africa: attempt to create American settlement of free blacks in, 185 Agamemnon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 87 Agesilaus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 326 Agricultural Museum, DC, 315-16 agricultural reformers, 315-16, 491-92 agricultural societies, 14, 315-16, 397 Airey, Milcah Hill Gale, 317 Albany, NY, 21, 57-58, 83-85, 272, 312, 351; First Presbyterian Church, 83, 84 Albany, Presbytery of, 154, 254 Albany Academy, NY, 84 Albany Co., NY, 323 Albany Female Academy, NY, 84 Albemarle, George Monck, Duke of: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 385 Alberti, Anna Maria. See Crane, Anna Maria Alberti Alberti, George Frederick, 357 Albion, IL, 487 Aldbiades: dted in CNJ orations, 167; Cliosophic Sodety pseudonym, 175 alcoholism. See intemperance Alexander the Great, xxxiv, 353; CNJ play about, 55 Alexander, Adam, 171

INDEX Alexander, Evan Shelby (1787), 171-72 Alexander, Mary Shelby, 171 Alexander, Nathaniel (1776), 171 Alexander, Samuel D. (1838), 147 Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling, 396 Alexandria, Egypt, 331 Alexandria, NJ, 479; Presbyterian church, 479 Alexandria, VA, 404 algebra, xxiv, 101 Algiers, 59 Alien Act (1798), 6, 76-77, 239, 337, 373 Alien Enemies Act (1798), 76 Allegany Co., MD, 453 Allegheny, Presbytery of, 236 Allegheny Co., PA, 160, 260, 265n Allen, Dr., 132 Allen, Benjamin, 287 Allen, Elizabeth. See Deas, Elizabeth Allen Allen, Maria Wheelock, 368 Allen, Samuel, 69 Allen family of VT, 142 AUentown, NJ, 130, 131, 183, 247, 248; Presbyterian church, 130, 131, 183 Allison, Samuel, 145 All Saints Parish, SC, 399, 536 Allston, Martha. See Young, Martha Allston Allston, Mary (Polly). See Alston, Mary (Polly) Allston Young almanacs, 45 Alonzo: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 130 Alphonzo: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 256 Alston, Elizabeth Faulcon, 466 Alston, John, 465 Alston, John Ashe (1799), 466n, 537 Alston, Joseph (1797), 466n, 537 Alston, Mary (Polly) Allston Young, 536 Alston, Philip (cousin of Samuel), 466n Alston, Phillip (father of Samuel), 465, 466n Alston, Samuel (1790), 465-66, 537 Alston, William Algernon (1799), 466n, 536-37 Abton, Willis, 466n Alston, Winifred Whitmel, 465 Alumni Association of Nassau Hall, 410 Amenia, NY, 296 American Bible Society, 12, 300, 532 American Bible Society of New York, 131 American Citizen, New York, NY, 310 American Colonization Society, 81, 18486, 187, 391, 393; Baltimore auxiliary, 81; New Jersey auxiliary, 186, 377.

553

See also colonization movement for free blacks American Institute of the City of New York, 383 American Medical and Philosophical Register, NY, 411 The American Museum ..., Philadelphia, PA, 252-53 American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA: father's membership in, 470; membership in, 18n, 191, 213, 232, 252, 381, 410, 499 American Revolution: impact on CNJ, xvii-xxii, xxvm-xxix, lvii-lviii American Temperance Society, 532 American Whig Society, College of New Jersey: address mocked by members of Clio, 257; competitive orations at commencements, 5; expulsion, possible, 112; flourishes during John Witherspoon's presidency, xxv; gift to, 371; importance of, described, 371; involvement after graduation, 288, 371; July Fourth orations, 138; library, xxv, 288; member, probable, 400; members dismissed, 36, 109, 175; membership in, 4-5, 19, 32, 36, 38, 40, 42, 51, 69, 83, 86, 97, 99, 101, 109, 112, 113, 118, 125, 126, 127, 130, 135, 138, 141, 145, 150, 155, 157, 160, 162, 167, 171, 175, 177, 183, 197, 200, 206, 225, 238, 243, 244, 246, 247, 254, 259, 263, 277, 288, 296, 309, 323, 355, 358, 359, 361, 365, 371, 395, 397, 403, 417, 422, 423, 432, 436,466, 468, 475, 488, 496, 511, 518, 522, 536; mentioned, 84; orations, authorship, 200; paper wars, 51, 230, 371; quarters, 288; revival (1782), 38, 263; transfers to and from Clio, 130, 175, 200, 225, 257, 259, 358, 467, 522 American Whig Society, HampdenSidney College, VA, 313 Americus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 467 Amherst, Jeffrey, 89 Amherst Co., VA, 16 Amicus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 141 Amory, Sarah Nightingale. See Johnson, Sarah Nightingale Amory AmweU, NJ, 122, 269 Amwell Township, NJ: First Presbyterian Church, 121, 269; Second Presbyterian Church, 121 anarchism, 266n Anderson, Mr. (of Chestertown, MD), 91 Anderson, Eliza (sister of William), 324

554

INDEX

Anderson, Elizabeth (Eliza) Sanders (wife of William), 324 Anderson, Isaac, 323, 324, 325n Anderson, Isabella. See Scudder, Isabella Anderson Anderson, James, 323-24 Anderson, Sophia, 323, 324 Anderson, Sophia, Jr., 324 Anderson, Thomas, 324 Anderson, William (1789), 323-25 Anderson, William Α., 325n Anderson Co., SC: First Presbyterian Church, 441 Andersontown, NJ, 323 Angres, Miss . See Finley, Mrs. Angres Anson Co., NC, 197 Antarctic Expedition, 380-81 Anticonstitutionalist Party (Pa.): father's membership in, 89 Antietam Hundred, Upper, MD, 203 Antietam Valley, MD, 202 antifederalists: fathers' membership in, 296, 522 Antigua, West Indies, 200, 527, 528 antimasonry, 347-48; Anti-Masonic Par­ ty, opponent of, 35 antislavery activities. See slavery, oppo­ nents Antrim (county), Ireland, 160 Antrim Parish, VA, 112 "anxious seat," 534 Appian of Alexandria, 484 Appius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 484 Appius Claudius Caecus, 484 Appleton, Lucy. See Howe, Lucy Appleton archeology, 137 Arden, Francis, 402 Arden, Jane. See Hosack, Jane Arden Aristides the Just: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 478 arithmetic, xxiv Armistead family, 468 Armitage, Ann. See Van Leuvenigh, Ann Armitage Arms, Clifford Smith, 117 Arms, Sarah Woodhull Forman, 116-17 Armstrong, Mrs. Elizabeth. See Smalley, Elizabeth Armstrong Armstrong, James Francis (1773), 38, 4344, 55, 122, 137, 184, 438, 517 Armstrong, John, Jr. (1776), 500 Armstrong, Robert Livingston (1802), 38, 137 Armstrong, Sarah Milnor Stockton, 243

Armstrong, Susannah Livingston, 38, 137 Armstrong, William Jessup (1816), 243 Armstrong Co., PA, 236 Arnett, Elizabeth Blanchard, 172, 174n Arnett, Hannah. See Chapman, Hannah Arnett Arnett, Hannah White, 351 Arnett, Isaac, 172, 351 Arnett, James, 172, 174n Arnett, Mehitabel. See Blanchard, Mebitabel Arnett Arnett, Silas White, 174 Arnett, Susan. See Kollock, Susan Arnett Arnett and Hodge (mercantile firm), 173 Arnold, Ann. See Johnson, Ann Arnold Arnold, Benedict, 281, 470 Arnold, Rebecca Boyce Cockshutt Young, 132 Artillery Society, Charleston, SC, 156 Asbury, Francis, 136, 137n Astley, Sarah (Sally) Rhea Higginson, 200, 201 Astor, Charlotte Augusta Gibbes, 477 Astor, John Jacob, 477 astronomy, 45, 175 Asylum Company, 190 Asylum for Lying-in Women, New York, NY, 410 atheism, 266n Athens, GA, 186 Athens, Greece, 441 athletics, 138, 143 atrocity, British (1778), xxi, 335-36, 344 Auburn Theological Seminary, NY, 269 Augusta, GA, 29 Augusta Co., VA, 204n, 275; Presbyte­ rian church, 275 Aurelian: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 147 Aurora, Philadelphia, PA, 339, 341, 34243, 345, 376 Austin, Ann Maria. See Woodruff, Ann Maria Austin Austin, David, 375 Austin, Harriet, 60 Austin, Harriet, Jr. See Woodruff, Har­ riet Austin Austin, Stephen, 60 Back Creek School. See Washington Academy, MD Badger, George E., 420 Bahama Islands, 114 Bainbridge, Absalom (1762), 59 Bainbridge, William, 59 Baker, Ann Norfleet, 333

INDEX

555

tioned, 374; Philadelphia office, 271 Baker, Elizabeth Thompson. See Harris, Bank of the United States (second): charElizabeth Thompson Baker ter expires, 393; clerk for, 487; oppoBaker, Hannah Salter. See Blount, Hannent, 378; replaced by subtreasuries, nah Salter Baker 382; supporters, 435, 499, 501 Baker, John, 333 bankruptcy laws (state), 501 Baker, Luanda. See Blount, Lucinda bankruptcy policy (national), 501 Baker banks and banking Baker, William, 330 by location: in DC, 390-93; in MD, Bakerdon (estate), TN, 334 453; national bank, 343, 374, 382, 393, Balch, Hezekiah (1766), 442n 487; national bank, opponent, 378; Balch, Stephen Bloomer (1774), 185, national bank, supporters, 435, 499, 314, 391 501; in NJ, 151, 379; in NY, 102-03, Baldwin, Mr. (of Charleston, SC), 474 271; in PA, 161, 224, 271, 343-44; in Baldwin, Abraham, 17 SC, 362, 436, 473 Baldwin, John (1784), 3 officers and investors: cashiers, 390-93, Baldwin, Jonathan (1755), 3, 4, 425 436; clerk, 487; directors, 102-03, 161, Baldwin, Jonathan (NY attorney), 3 362, 453; presidents, 151, 161, 224, Baldwin, Mathew (Mathius) (1784), 3-4, 3, 473; stockholders, 390, 392-93, 453 9-10 Baptist Church, U.S.A.: and CNJ alumBaldwin, Sarah Sergeant, 3 ni, xxxv, 546; Triennial Convention, Ball, William L., 295 149. See also individual congregations balls. See dancing by place name Ballston Springs (or Spa), NY, 323-24 Barbados, island of: born at, 487; emiBaltimore, MD: almshouse, 132; alumgrants from, 31, 474; U.S. agent, 200, nus returns for commencement from, 201 456; brewers, 132; city council, 133; city court, 133; Dancing Assembly, 78; Barbary Wars, 59-60 Barber, Francis (1767), 27 defense of in 1814, 80, 134; DemoBarceau (French naval vessel), 327 cratic National Convention (1844), Barclay, David (1791), lvi 383; died or buried at, 81-82, 134; Barclay, Eliza. See Livingston, Eliza BarFirst Presbyterian Church, 386; flour clay millers, 485; House of Refuge, 134; Library Company, 386; mayors, 133Barclay, Susan DeLancey, 277 34; merchants, 485; ministry at, 218; Barclay, Thomas, 277 mother from, 202; notary public at, Bard, Samuel, 404-05, 409 386; orphan's court, 133; practiced law Barksdale, Elizabeth. See Pickens, Elizaat, 77, 78; practiced medicine at, 132, beth Barksdale 134; residents, 77-82, 132-34, 305, 386, Barnes, Isaac, 517 485; riot (1812), 133-34; St. Paul's Epis- Barnes, Thomas, 517 copal Church, 218; St. Peter's EpisBarnet, Elizabeth Ogden, 44, 45 copal Church, 218; trade with, 499; Barnet, Oliver, 45 Trinity Episcopal Church, 218-19; wife Barnwell District, SC, 217 from, 134, 203, 520 Barret, Elizabeth. See Shaw, Elizabeth Barret Baltimore, Presbytery of, 314 Barret, William, 51 Baltimore Co., MD, 132, 133 Barton, Hannah Maria Condict, 255 Baltimore Exchange, MD, 78 Baltimore Light Dragoons, third brigade, Barton, William B. (1817), 255 MD, 133 Basking Ridge, NJ, 44, 184, 387; PresbyBaltimore Water Company, MD, 78 terian church, 184, 194, 387 Basking Ridge Academy, NJ, 387 Bank Act of 1814 (PA), 343-44 Bank Bill of 1813 (PA), 343 Bassett, Ann. See Bayard, Ann Bassett Bassett, Richard, 6, 7-8 Bank of Columbia, DC, 390, 393 Bank of Orange County, NY, 102-03 "baste ball,'' xix Bank of the State of South Carolina, 473 Bastille Day: celebrated at CNJ, xviii-xix Bank of the United States (First): Albany Batchelor, Elizabeth. See Graham, Elizabeth Batchelor Branch, 271; Charleston branch, SC, 436; charter not renewed, 343; menBateman, Ephraim, 377

556

INDEX

battledores, xix Bavarian IUuminati, 375 Bayard, Agnes Hodge, 4 Bayard, Andrew (1779), 4, 8-9, 9, 11, 338 Bayard, Ann Bassett, 6, 9 Bayard, Caroline. See Dod, Caroline Bayard Bayard, James Ashton (1777), 4, 9 Bayard, James Ashton (1784), 4-9, 9, 10-11, 17, 75, 76, 78, 131, 305 Bayard, James Ashton (father of James Ashton [1784]), 4 Bayard, John, 4, 12, 25, 209, 231 Bayard, Lewis Pintard (1809), 12 Bayard, Margaret. See Smith, Margaret Bayard Bayard, Margaret Hodge, 4, 9 Bayard, Martha (Fatty) Pintard, 10, 11 Bayard, Nicholas (1792), 4, 9, 221 Bayard, Phoebe. See St. Clair, Phoebe Bayard Bayard, Richard H. (1814), 9 Bayard, Samuel (1784), 9-13, 4, 8, 47, 439 Bayard, Samuel J. (1820), 12 Bayard, Susannah. See Smith, Susannah Bayard Bayard, William Marsden (1821), 12 Bayard family, 201 Bayley, Richard, 402-03 Beach, Abraham, 218 Beach, Hannah. See Dunham, Hannah Beach Beach, Samuel (1783), 32 Beaufort, NC, 325 Beaufort District, SC, 472 Beaverwick, NJ. See Beverwyck (Beaverwick), (estate), NJ Beaver Woolen Factory, NJ, 247 Beckwith, Robert R., 382 Bedford, Gunning (1771), 7 Bedford, NY, 123 Bedford Co., PA, 95n Beecher, Lyman, 398 Beekman, Elizabeth. See Livingston, Elizabeth Beekman Beekman, George Crawford (1859), 58 Beekman, Gerard W., 141 Beekman, Margaret. See Lewis, Margaret Beekman beet culture (France), 504 Belfast, Ireland, 167 Belknap, Jeremy, 252 Bell, Daniel (1790), 466-68, xliii, 365 Bell, William, 466, 467 BeUach, Ann, 251 Bellach, Elizabeth, 251 BeUach, James, 251

Bellach, John, 251 BeUach, Thomas Hanson (1788), 257, 303 Bellerophon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 419 belles-lettres, 287, 371, 528 Bellevue Hospital, New York, NY, 410 Bettew, Nathaniel Britton. See Boileau (Billew), Nathaniel Britton (1789) Belt, Rachel. See Sprigg, Rachel Belt Bend, Joseph G. J., 218 Bennett, Sarah. See Johnson, Sarah Bennett Bennett, Thomas, 497 Bennett, Thomas, Jr., 497, 502-03, 504 Bensalem Township, PA, 518 Benson, Charity. See Cazier, Charity Benson McCoy Benton, Thomas Hart, 333 Bergen Co., NJ, 28 Berkeley, John, Lord, 488 Berkeley Co., SC, 219 Berks Co., PA, 204, 439 Bermuda, island of: alumnus serves as puisne judge of supreme court, 482; alumnus serves on council, 482; emigrants from, 281, 357; resident, 48284; visit to, 282 Berrien, John M. (1796), 17 Bertie Co., NC, 288-91 Bethany Presbyterian Church, NC, 135 Bethel, VA: Presbyterian church, 352 Bethesda, MD, 128 Bethlehem, NJ: Presbyterian church, 479 Bethlehem, PA, 534 Beverhoudt. See von Beverhoudt Beverley, England, 15 Beverwyck (Beaverwick), (estate), NJ, 364-67 Bibb, George Minos (1792), xlii bibles: Eliot's Indian, 398; Geneva, 398; Greek new testament, 208, 222; owned by alumni, 22, 398, 460-61; publication of, 514-15 bible societies, 12, 34, 103, 131, 300, 347, 531-32 bible study, 184, 398, 460-61, 532 Biddle, Christine W., 54n Biddle, Nicholas (1801), 224 Billeu, Nathaniel Britton. See Boileau (Billew), Nathaniel Britton (1789) Billew, Ann, 335 Billew, Isaac, 335 Billew, Jacob, 335 Billew, Nathaniel Britton. See Boileau (Billew), Nathaniel Britton (1789) Billew, Rachel Brittan, 335 Billings, Anne. See Steele, Anne Billings

INDEX Billings, Anne Rider, 520 Billings, James, 520 Binns, John, 341, 345 Bird, Elizabeth Van Leuvenigh, 306 Bird, John, 306 Bird, Robert Montgomery, 306 Bizarre (estate), VA, 281, 283, 284, 285 Blackledge, Ann, 325 Blackledge, Louisa Blount, 326 Blackledge, Richard, 326 Blackledge, Richard, Sr., 325, 326 Blackledge, William (1789), 325-30, 330, 331 Blackledge, William Salter, 329 Blackledge, Winifred, 329 blacks (free): admissibility of evidence by, 472-73; at CNJ, 1ϋ; condition of, 185; educated by John Witherspoon, 1li; franchise for opposed, 39, 433; in NJ, 433; rights denied, 502-03 blacksmith: father's occupation, 494 The Black Snake (vessel), 142-43 Blackstone, Sir William, 109 Blackwell, Elizabeth. See Churchill, Eliza­ beth Blackwell Blackwell family, 468 Bladensburg, MD, 127 Blair, Hannah. 5«« Foster, Hannah Blair Blair, Samuel, Sr., 258 Blair, Samuel (1760), 40, 258, 510 Blanchard, Abigail Joline. See Johnes, Abigail Joline Blanchard Blanchard, Andrew, 172, 173-74 Blanchard, Elizabeth. See Arnett, Eliza­ beth Blanchard Blanchard, Isaac (1787), 172-74 Blanchard, John, Jr., 172 Blanchard, John (brother of Andrew), 172, 173 Blanchard, Mary Joline, 172 Blanchard, Mehitabel Arnett, 172, 174n Blanchard, Quomono., 172-73 Bland, Anna. See Dudley, Anna Bland Bland, Frances. See Tucker, Frances Bland Randolph Bland family, 281 Blenheim (estate), KY, 468 Bloomfield, Joseph, 240, 490 Bloomfield, NJ. See Wardesson (Bloomfield), NJ Blooming-Grove, NY, 267; Congrega­ tional church, 267 Blount, Eliza Ann, 333 Blount, Hannah Salter Baker, 330 Blount, Jacob, 325-26, 330, 331 Blount, John Gray, 326, 327, 329, 330, 332

557

Blount, Louisa. See Blackledge, Louisa Blount Blount, Luanda, 333 Blount, Lucinda Baker, 333 Blount, Mary, 329 Blount, Mary White, 334 Blount, Reading, 330 Blount, Thomas, 326, 327, 329, 330 Blount, William, 51, 52, 53, 56, 120, 326, 330, 331, 332; impeachment trial, 6, 53, 131, 330, 332 Blount, Mrs. William, 332 Blount, Willie (1789), 330-35, 6, 51, 56, 131, 325, 326 Blount College, TN, 332 Blount Co., TN, 137 Blount Hall (estate), NC, 330 Blunt, Thomas, 120 Boerhaave, Hermann, 408 Boileau, Ann Leech, 337 Boileau, Hester Leech, 337 Boileau (Billew), Nathaniel Britton (1789), 335-49, xxi, xxxv, xlii, 376 Boileau, Thomas Leech (1815), 337, 345, 346,348 Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount: works read by alumnus, 371 Bolivar, Simon, 50 Bollmann, Justus Erich, 79. See also Ex parte Bollmann and Swartwout (1807) Bonaparte, Napoleon, emperor of the French, 80 Bond, Jacob, 219 Bond, Rebecca. See Read, Rebecca Bond Bond, Sarah. See Lemprier, Sarah Bond Bonneau, Elizabeth. See Pickens, Eliza­ beth Bonneau Bonneau, Floride. See Colhoun, Floride Bonneau Bonneau, Mary Frances de Longuemare, 514 Bonneau, Samuel, 514 Boonton, NJ: First Reformed Dutch church, 364 Bordentown, NJ, 209, 223 Bordley, Elizabeth. See Gibson, Elizabeth Bordley Bordley, John Beale, 191 Bordley, Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin, 191 Bossuet, Bishop Jacques Benisne: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 387 Boston, MA, 53, 89, 199, 306, 400, 427; First Baptist Church, 18; Old South Church, 85-86 botany, 404, 408-09 Boude, Mary. See Clarkson, Mary Boude Boudinot, Adriana von Beverhoudt, 363-68

558

INDEX

British Isles. See Great Britain Boudinot, Annis. See Stockton, Annis British protection: accepted by father, Boudinot Boudinot, Elias, xx, 10, 30, 158, 184, 237, 359, 536 Brittan, Rachel. See Billew, Rachel Brit241-42, 363 tan Boudinot, Elisha, 40, 237, 241-42, 363 Brittania (vessel), 361 Boudinot, Hannah Stockton, 10 Broadhurst's (tavern), Philadelphia, PA, Boudinot, Susan. See Bradford, Susan 373 Boudinot Brooke, Sarah Frances. See Taliaferro, Boudinot, Susanne (Susannah). See VerSarah Frances Brooke gereau, Susanne (Susannah) Boudinot Brookhaven, NY, 455 Boudinot, Tobias, 363 Brookline, MA: Congregational church, Bound Brook, NJ, 118 85 Bowas, Mr. (of Washington, DC), 381-82 Brooklyn, NY, 50, 118, 505; St. Ann's Bowdoin, James, 89 Episcopal Church, 218 Bowen, Jabez, Jr., 478 Brooklyn Heights, NY, 505 Bowie, James John (1807), 319 Brooks, (1787), 174-75 Bowie, Mary Mackall Bowie Wootton, Broom, James Madison (1794), 305 319 Broome, Phebe Piatt, 107 Bowie, Priscilla Mackall, 319 Bowie, Robert, 319 Broome, Samuel, 107 Bowie, Thomas Contee (1791), 319 Broome, Samuel Piatt (1786), 107-08, xxx, Bowman, Ebenezer, 226 xliii, lv Boyce, Rebecca. See Arnold, Rebecca Broome and Piatt (mercantile firm), 107 Brown, Erastus, 483 Boyce Cockshutt Young Brown, Hadasseh (Hetty) Chambers, 108 Boyne, Battle of the, Ireland, 155 Boynton, Mary. See Morgan, Mary Boyn- Brown, Isaac Vanarsdale (1802), 195, 532 Brown, John (1749), 109n ton Brown, Mrs. Ketchum (of BermuBoynton, Wharton, and Morgan (merda), 483 cantile Hrm), 415, 425, 443 Brown, William Maxwell, Jr., 108 Brackenridge, Hugh Henry (1771), 317, Brown, William Maxwell (1786), 108-09 338 Brown College, RI: degree awarded to Braddock, Edward, 275 CNJ alumnus, 14; trustee, 18. See Bradford, Ebenezer (1773), 123, 124, also Brown University, RI; College of 253, 262 Bradford, Elizabeth Green, 262 Rhode Island Bradford, Susan Boudinot, 231, 242 Browne, Peter, 290 Bradford, Thomas, 152, 242 Browne, William (1786), 202 Bradford, William, Jr. (1772), 10, 17, Brownfield, Robert, 401 Brownfield, Susanna Mann Heriot, 401 109n, 231, 242 Brownsville, NY, 154 Brampton (estate), GA, 512, 513 Brown University, RI, xxvL See also Branchburg, NJ, 45 Brown College, RI; College of Rhode Brant, Joseph, 308, 309 Bray, Susannah. See Smalley, Susannah Island Bruen, Caleb, 41 Bray Bruen, Phebe. See McWhorter, Phebe Breckinridge, Mary Hopkins Cabell, 276 Breese, Susan Bayard. See Snowden, Bruen Brunswick Co., VA, 111, 258n Susan Bayard Breese Bryan, Andrew, 513 Brennus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, Bryan, John, 122 521 Bryan, Jonathan, 512-13 Brevard, Ephraim (1768), 317 Bryan, Mary. See Wylly, Mary Bryan brewers, 132 Morell bricklaying business: father's occupation, Bryan, Mary Elizabeth. See Grant, Mary 156 Elizabeth Bryan The Brickyard (estate), SC, 515 Bryan, Rachel. See Maxwell, Rachel Bridgeton, NJ, 356 Bristol, England, 24 Bryan Bristol, PA, 518; Episcopal church, 519 Bryant, William Cullen, 410

INDEX Buchanan, James, 34 Buckingham Co., VA, 276 Bucks Co., PA, 181n, 200, 281n, 336, 374, 444, 518, 519 Buell, Jerusha. See Gardiner, Jerusha Buell Buell, Jesse, 98 BueU, Samuel, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398 Bullitt, Mary Churchill Prather, 470n Bunyan, James, 429 Bunyan, Juliana DeKay, 429 Bunyan, Margaret. See Morgan, Mar­ garet Bunyan Burd, Edward, 259 Burgh, James: works read by alumnus, 371 Burlington, NJ, 93, 94η, 242, 518 Burlington Co., NJ, 93, 94n, 131 Burlington County Washington Benevo­ lent Society, NJ, 131 Burnet, Elizabeth. 5 « Thew, Elizabeth Burnet Burnet, George Whitefield (1792), 246 Burnet, Ichabod (1775), 246 Burnet, Jacob (1791), 246 Burnet, William (1749), 246 Burr, Aaron (1772): conspiracy, 79, 42930, 498-99; conspiracy trials, 79, 112, 279, 430, 498-99; duel with Alexander Hamilton, 411; and election of 1800, 7, 77-78, 289, 374; financial entangle­ ments, 214; land speculations, 190; law practice, 73, 311; law students, 147, 213; lenders to, 411; physician of, 405; relatives, 212, 466n, 537; as vice presi­ dent, 324, 515 Bush, Ruth. See Wood, Ruth Bush Bute Co., NC, 465 Buder, Richard, 427 Buder, Mrs. Richard, 427 Buder Co., OH, 248 Byfield, MA, 123 Byrd, William, 210 Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron: works read by alumnus, 497 Cabarrus Co., NC, 197 Cabell, Elizabeth. See Lewis, Elizabeth Cabell Cabell, Joseph, 276 Cabell, Mary Hopkins. See Breckinridge, Mary Hopkins Cabell Cady, Daniel, 458 Cady, Elizabeth. See Stanton, Elizabeth Cady Caesar: translation of, 444; works read at CNJ, xxiv

559

Cahusac, Ann. See Palmer, Ann Cahusac Caithress Co., Scotland, 89 Caldwell, Andrew (1794), xliii Caldwell, Elias Boudinot (1796), 81, 185, 186, 391 Caldwell, Esther Flynt. See Finley, Esther Flynt Caldwell Caldwell, Hannah Ogden, 184 Caldwell, James (1759), 184 Caldwell, Joseph (1791), xx, xxxvii, 266n, 267n, 351, 352, 371, 388, 389 Caldwell, NJ, 433 Calhoun, John Caldwell, 81, 328, 379, 500, 503 Callaway (Calloway), Henry Tate (1791), xlii Callaway (Calloway), Robert J. (1791), xlii Callender, James T., 279 Calvert Co., MD, 133, 194, 387 Calvin, Benjamin Scott (Shawuskukhkung [Wflted Grass]) (1776), 1 Cambridge, NY: First Presbyterian Church, 351 Cambridge, SC, 71, 77, 472 Camden, NJ, 356, 357 Camden, SC, 135, 522 Camden, SC, Batde of, 171 Camden Co., NC, 291 Camden district, SC, 206 Camillus, Marcus Furius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 178 Camp,Jabez (1787), 175-76, 182 Camp, John, 176n Camp, Stephen (1756), 176n Campbell, Alexander, 284 Campbell, George Washington (1794), xli Campbell, Judge, 52 Campbell Co., VA, 276 Camp Blount, T N , 334 Campfield, Hannah Tuthill (Tuttle), 14 Campfield, Jabez (1759), 13, 14, 368 Campfield, Sarah Ward, 13 Campfield (Canfield), William (1784), 1314, 180, 368, 370 Camptown, NJ, 175 Canada: proposed conquest of, 328, 524; refugees, 272; trade with, 142; travel in, 86; and War of 1812, 334. See also Quebec; Nova Scotia canals: Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, SC, 524; Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 8, 307; Delaware and Raritan Canal, NJ, 377; Erie Canal, NY, 272-73, 298, 411; North­ ern (Champlain), 272-73; in PA, 439; supported, 411; Susquehannah to Lancaster, 35; Western Inland Lock

560

INDEX

Navigation Company, NY, 269, 395 Canandaigua, NY, 268, 269; West Avenue Cemetery, 269 Candid Society, Albany, NY, 84 Canfield, David S., 384 Canfield, Frederick, 384 Canfield, Mary Dickerson, 374 Canfield, William. See Campfield (Canfield), William (1784) Cantey, Sarah (Sallie). See Chesnut, Sarah (SaUie) Cantey Cantwell, Mary. See Jones, Mary Cantwell Cantwell, Richard, 208, 209 Cantwell, Mrs. Richard, 209 Cantwell Jones Home, DE, 209 CantwelTs Bridge, DE, 208, 209 Cape Breton Island, Acadia (Nova Scotia), 402 Cape Fear District, NC, 486 Cape Fear region, NC, 206 Cape Henlopen, DE, 159 capital punishment, xlix card playing, accused of cheating at, 38, 139-40 Carle, John J., 19 Carle, Lydia Perrine, 19 Carlisle, PA, 234, 313, 346, 372 Carlisle, Presbytery of, 234, 235, 313 Carlos: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 225 Carnahan, James (1800), 371, 533 Carney, Hannah. See Johnson, Hannah Carney Carney, Mary H., 490 Carney, Thomas, 490 Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, SC, 524 Carolina Coffee-House, London, 216 Caroline Co., MD, 431 Caroline Co., VA, 296 Carpenter, Mary. See Phillips, Mary Carpenter Carpenter, William, Jr., 450 Carpenter, William, Sr., 450 carriage maker: fathers' trade, 323 Carroll, Catherine. See Harper, Catherine Carroll Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 78 Carroll, John, 78 Carrollton (estate), MD, 78 Carter, George, 281 Carter, Lelia Skipwith. See Tucker, Lelia Skipwith Carter Carter, Martha. See Condict, Martha Carter Wilcox Carter, Robert, 468 Carteret, Sir George, 488

Carteret, John, Earl Granville, 290 Carteret Co., NC, 325, 326 cartography, 414 Cary, Anne. See Randolph, Anne Cary Cary, Mary. See Marshall, Mary Cary Macon The Case of Georgia Sales on the Mississippi Considered (Robert Goodloe Harper), 72 Cass, Lewis, 381, 383, 384 Castalio: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 209 Castleton, VT, 65, 66; medical school, 66 Caswell, Richard, 67, 172 Catechetical Exposition of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee (Willie Blount), 333 Cato, NY, 274 Cato the elder, 336 caucus system (PA), 344 Cawsons (estate), VA, 281 Cayuga Co., NY, 274 Cazier, Charity Benson McCoy, 88 Cazier, Jacob, 88 Cazier, John, 65 Cazier, John La Conte, 65, 66 Cazier, Lydia Crane, 65 Cazier, Matthias (1785), 65-67, lvi, 88, 432 Cazier, Rebecca Van Bibber, 65 Cecil Co., MD, 65, 127, 222, 485 Cedar Creek, PA: Presbyterian church, 313, 314 The Centinel and Country Gazette, Georgetown, MD (later DC), 194, 389 Centinel of Liberty, Georgetown, MD (later DC), 390 The Centinel of Liberty and Georgetown Advertiser, MD (later DC), 194-95, 389 Centre Co., PA, 313 Chalfant, J. D., ix Chalmers, Elizabeth. See Huger, Elizabeth Chalmers Chamberlaine, Robins (1793), 202 Chambers, Benjamin, 108 Chambers, Hadasseh. See Brown, Hadasseh (Hetty) Chambers Chambersburg, PA, 108 Champlain Canal, NY, 272-73 Champlin, Christopher, 6 Chapel Hill, NC, 351; Presbyterian church, 352 Chapin, Israel, 268 Chapin, Sally. See Howell, Sally Chapin Chapman, Blanche Smith, 349, 350 Chapman, Hannah Arnett, 172, 351 Chapman, Jedediah, 19, 178, 198, 254, 349, 350 Chapman, Margaret (Margaretta)

INDEX LeConte, 350 Chapman, Peter LeConte. See LeConte, Peter (1797) Chapman, Robert Hett (1789), 349-53, xxxvii, 172, 178, 198, 254, 255 Chapman, Robert Hett, Jr. (1855), 351 Chapman, Robert I., 130 Charlemagne: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 350 Charles Parish, VA, 517 Charleston, SC: alumnus returns for commencement from, 456; bar, 26, 505, 529; born at, 24, 31, 33n, 156, 412, 436, 471, 474, 476, 526; British capture of, 205, 215, 399, 536; circus, 475; Citadel Military Academy, 474; city recorder, 25; considered studying law at, 83; defense of in Revolutionary War, 413; died at, 219, 467-68; doctors, 215, 216; educated at, 16, 70, 474, 475, 476, 479, 496; embarkation point, 522; family exiled from, 156, 215, 357-58, 436, 471, 495, 527; family from, 357, 358, 359; father accepts British protection, 359, 536; fire insurance company, 497; Independent Congregational (Circular) Church, 24, 26, 156, 158, 358, 436, 467-68, 515; Literary and Philosophical Society, 505; married at, 358; mentioned, 511; merchants, 467; newspaper publishing in, 526; orphanage, 362, 497; postmasters, 527; practiced law at, 25, 46n, 71-72, 358, 359, 360, 361, 436, 472, 514-15, 523; Presbyterian church, 497; residents, 16, 43, 70, 362, 423, 441, 473-74, 494-507; sickly season, 71; slave imports, 219; Sons of Liberty, 471; South Carolina Society, 362, 497, 499, 529; St. Cecelia Society, 362; St. Michael's Episcopal church, 217, 362, 527; St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 473; St. Philip's Episcopal Church, 358, 475, 476, 499, 506; St. Philip's Parish, 412; studied law at, 25, 70, 359, 361, 440, 472, 496, 512, 523; taught at, 70, 183, 528, 529; visits to, 159, 429, 46768; visit to considered, 87; Washington Race Course, 216; water company, 497; wife from, 18, 311 Charleston SC, 156 Charleston SC, 221 Charleston Charleston 358

Ancient Battalion of Artillery, Anti-Duelling Association, Battalion of Artillery, SC, 495 Chamber of Commerce, SC,

561

Charleston College, SC. See College of Charleston, SC Charleston Courier, SC, 499, 502 Charleston District, SC, 219 Charleston library Society, SC, 515 Charleston Neck, SC, 504 Charleston Sons of Liberty, SC, 494 Charles Town, VA (now WV), 393 Charlotte, NC, 510; Presbyterian church, 135 Charlotte Co., VA, 128 Chase, Samuel, 373; impeachment, 79, 279, 338, 339 Chatham Co., GA, 146, 477, 478, 479 Chaumiere du Prairie (estate), KY, 211 Chauncy, Charles, 1 Chavis, John (1795?), lii Cheeseborough, Charlotte. See Toomer, Charlotte Cheeseborough Cheeseborough, John, 157 Cheetham, James, 38, 139-40, 310 Cherokee Nation, 302, 333; agent to, 51-53 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 302 Cherokee War (1759-61), 399, 413, 514 Cherow district, SC, 206 Cherry Grove (estate), NJ, 191, 192, 193, 195 Cherry Valley, NY, 308 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 8, 307 Chesapeake-Leopard crisis, 34 Chesnut, James (1792), xlii, lv, 522, 523 Chesnut, John, 523 Chesnut, Sarah (Sallie) Cantey, 523 Chester, PA, 235 Chester Co., PA, 35-36n, 258 Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of, 32 Chestertown, MD, xliii, 91, 94 Chestertown, PA, 259 Chicago, IL, 383 Chickasaw Nation, 333 Chillisquaqua Presbyterian Church, PA, 227 cholera, 274, 404 Christ Church Parish, SC, 219 Christ Church Parish, VA, 468 The Christian's Magazine, NY, 121 Christmas (observed), 375, 381, 388, 483 chronology, 287; John Witherspoon's lectures on, xxiv Churchill, Armistead, Sr., 468 Churchill, Armistead (1790), 468-70, 486 Churchill, Armistead (brother), 468 Churchill, Armistead (kinsman), 470n Churchill, Elizabeth Blackwell, 468 Churchill, Jane Henry. See Short, Jane Henry Churchill

562

INDEX

Churchill, John, Duke of Marlborough, 468 Churchill, Mary. See Bullitt, Mary Churchill Prather Churchill Downs, K.Y, 468 Cibber, Colley, 202 Cicero: Orations not read by incoming students, 208, 222; works read at CNJ, xxiv Cincinnati, OH, 248, 469 Cincinnati, Society of the, 14 Cincinnatus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 440 circuses, 475 Citadel Military Academy, SC, 474 City Gazette, Charleston, SC, 476 City Point, VA, 256 City Point (estate), VA, 257 Claiborne, Ferdinand, 116 Claiborne, William C. C , 115, 116 Clarendon, VT, 141 Clark, John, 416, 446 Clark, Joseph (1781), 130, 153, 183, 184 Clark, Margaret Imlay, 130 Clark Co., OH, 127 Clarkson, Ann. See Finley, Ann Clarkson Clarkson, Catherine. See Hazard, Catherine Clarkson Clarkson, Cornelia. 5« Snowden, Cornelia Clarkson Clarkson, David, 471 Clarkson, George (1788), 251-53, xliii, 96, 470 Clarkson, Gerard (Gerardus) (1790), 47071, xliii, 96, 252 Clarkson, Gerardus, 96, 251, 252 Clarkson, Jerod. See Clarkson, Gerard (Gerardus) (1790) Clarkson, Joseph, 252 Clarkson, Mary Boude, 470, 471 Clarkson, Mary Flower, 251 Clarkson, Matthew, 470-71 Clarksville, TN, 335 Clay, Ann. See dimming, Ann Clay Clay, Ann Legardere, 14 Clay, Henry, 48, 49, 185, 300, 379, 505 Clay, Joseph (1784), 14-18, xlii, 220 Clay, Joseph (father), 14-15 Clay, Joseph (of Philadelphia, PA), 18n Clay, Mary Savage, 18 Clay, Ralph (1797), 15 Clayton, Thomas, 308 Clear Creek, NC: Presbyterian church, 171 Clements, James, 487 Clemson, Sarah. See Hopkins, Sarah Clemson Cleveland, OH, 445

Cleveland, Susan. See Higginson, Susan Cleveland Clinton, DeWitt, 80, 102, 269, 301, 405, 411,458-59 Clinton, George, 37, 38, 39, 84, 97, 138, 293 Clinton, NJ, 126 Clinton Academy, NY, 285, 395, 397 Clintonian-Republican Party (NY): membership in, 102, 457 Clinton Township, NJ, 175 Clio Hall (academy), VT, 142 CUophel: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 218 Clio's Nursery (school), NC, 135 Cliosophic Society, College of New Jersey: diploma extant, 455; flourishes during John Witherspoon's presidency, xxv; involvement after graduation, 17, 25, 59, 130, 132, 147, 153, 195, 203, 230, 233, 253, 313, 336, 350, 355, 437, 455-56, 467; library, xxv, 169, 184, 456; meeting dates, 230; membership in, 10, 13, 17, 23, 24, 27, 30, 34, 44, 46, 46-47, 48, 57, 59, 65, 87, 95, 100, 107, 108, 119, 121, 130, 132, 141, 143, 147, 152, 156, 173, 175, 178, 187-88, 192, 199, 202, 203, 209, 211, 213, 215, 218, 219n, 223, 225, 230, 233, 251, 252, 256, 257, 259, 264, 264, 266, 267, 275, 278, 279, 280, 282, 285, 293, 295, 303, 313, 316, 326, 330, 336, 350, 353, 355, 358, 385, 387, 394, 413, 419,431,437, 440, 441, 452, 455, 467, 470,471,478, 479, 484, 486, 487, 508, 513, 514, 521, 522, 531; members mock Whig address, 257; paper wars, 51, 230; records, xliv; transfers to and from Whig, 130, 175, 200, 225, 257, 259, 358, 467, 522 orations and public speakers: commencements, competitive orations at, 5, 17; extemporary discourse at meeting, 192; July Fourth orations, public, representative at, 175; June Eighth oration on society's institution, 143-44 pseudonyms: —nnoeus, 215; Achmet, 394; iEmilius, 233; Agamemnon, 87; Agesilaus, 326; Albemarle, 385; Alcibiades, 175; Alonzo, 130; Alphonzo, 256; Americus, 467; Amicus, 141; Appius, 484; Aristides, 478; Aurelian, 147; Bellerophon, 419; Bossuet, 387; Brennus, 521; Camillus, 178; Carlos, 225; Castalio, 209; Charlemagne, 350; Cincinnatus, 440; CUophel, 218; Cloanthus, 355; Codrus, 358; Columbus, 282; Corydon, 202;

INDEX Dedus, 187-88; Dion, 108; Epiphanius, 121; Euclid, 531; Eumenes, 437; Fay­ ette, 264; Fielding, 487; Flaccus, 336; Fox, 199; Francis, 264; Franklin, 295; Germanicus, 455; Hallam, 152; Hanni­ bal, 285; Herodotus, 266; Homer, 100; Horace, 252; Hostilius, 303; Leonidas, 257; Lorenzo, 251; Lysander, 441; Martial, 313; Milton, 59; Nestor, 275; Norval, 316; Orlando, 279; Ossian, 211, 278; Parmenio, 353; Pelopidas, 293; Philander, 46; Philemon, 267; Philetas, 331; Philos, 143; Phoaon, 156; Phodides, 192; Pitt, 95; Poly­ phemus, 452; Polypus, 173; Pythago­ ras, 17; Raleigh, 522; Salmon, 25; Shandy, 479; Sheridan, 203; Sid­ ney, 10; Simonides, 65; Sophocles, 508; Steele, 259; Sterne, 230; Syphax, 223; Telemachus, 280; Ulysses, 431; Wayne, 514; Xenophon, 470 Cliosophic Society, Hampden-Sidney College, VA, 313 Cloanthus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 355 "Clodhopper" Party, (PA), 339 Clover, VA, 111 clubs. See societies and clubs Clymer, Daniel (1766), 109, 176 Clymer, Elizabeth Meredith, 109, 176 Clymer, George, 109, 110, 176, 177, 190 Clymer, George, Jr., 110 Clymer, George (1823), 111 Clymer, Henry (1786), 109-11, xxi, 70, 176, 178, 190, 223 Clymer, John Meredith. See Clymer, Meredith (1787) Clymer, Mary Willing, 110-11 Clymer, Meredith (1787), 176-78, xxi, 70, 109, 190, 223 Clymer, Thomas (1822), 111 Clymer, William (1821), 111 coal mines, 439 Coates, Elizabeth. See Vancleve, Elizabeth Coates Coates, Isaac, 158 Cocke, Benjamin, 258n Cocke, Mary Eppes, 258n Cocke, Richard. See Eppes, Richard (Cocke) Cocks, Robert. See Cox (Cocks), Robert Cockshutt, Rebecca Boyce. 5 « Arnold, Rebecca Boyce Cockshutt Young Cockspur Island, GA, 145 Codrus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 358 Coe, Mary. See Dickerson, Mary Coe

563

Coe, Thomas, 369 Coffal, Maria. See Johnson, Maria Coffal Cogswell, Mason Fitch, 107 Cohansey, NJ: Baptist church, 148 Cohens v. Virginia, 501 Cokesbury College, MD: possible transfer from to CNJ, xlii Colcock, Charles Jones (1790), 471-74, 356 Colcock, Eliza. See Ferguson, Eliza Colcock Colcock, John, 471 Colcock, Mary Woodward Hutson, 472 Colcock, Millicent Jones, 471 Colcock, Richard Woodward, 474 Colcock, William Ferguson, 473 Cole, Thomas, 410 Coleman, Ann Gordon, 112 Coleman, Charles, 112 Coleman, Fanny. See Howell, Fanny Coleman Coleman, Henry Embry (1786), 111-13, 141 Coleman, Jane, 112 Coleman, John, 111, 113n Coleman, Mary Embry, H I , 113n Coleman, Sarah Embry, U 3 n Coleman, Seth, 268 Coleman, William, 310 Coles, Walter (1793), xlii Colhoun, Catharine. See Noble, Catharine Colhoun Colhoun, Floride Bonneau, 514, 515 Colhoun, John Ewing (1774), 514 Colhoun, Rebecca. See Pickens, Rebecca Colhoun College of Charleston, SC: degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 217; fac­ ulty, 528; headmastership declined, 219; principals, 219, 475, 476; seldom grants degrees, xlvfii; transfers from to CNJ, possible, xlii; trustee, 219 College of New Jersey: academic calen­ dar, xlin; admissions standards, 179, 303; age of alumni at death, lv; alumni association, 410; alumni estrangement, lvi; alumni nostalgia, 496; A.M. degree requirements, 215-16, 317; attacked in verse, lvii; Bachelor of Science certifi­ cate (1800), xliv-xlv; "campus," xix; Chancellor Green Library, 192; clas­ sical training of incoming students, 208, 222; class size and recruitment, xxxix-xliii; complaints from towns­ people, 429; considers merger with Queen's College, NJ, xxvii; degrees awarded, number of, xxviii; Dickin­ son medal and essay, 16-17, 69, 176, 199-200, 231; diplomas extant, 100η, 455; donations and bequests, 78-79,

564

INDEX

192, 410, 535; drama, 55; endowment, 12; examinations, xix, 119, 174, 182, 188, 229, 244-45; examinations (entrance), xxviii, 303; "exhibitions,'' 55; faculty minutes begin being kept, 158n; finances, xxv-xxvii, xlv-xlviii; honorary degrees awarded, 46, 317; John C. Green School of Science, 192; John N. Woodhull Professorship of Modern Languages, 535; Laws of the College (1794), xxiv, xlv; lecture notes from, xiv-xv, xxiv, linn; Lesley (Leslie) charitable fund, lii; library, xxii; library, MS catalogue of, 533; lottery to aid, xxvi; matriculation register, 169; McConky scholarship fund, 386; medical school proposed, 406; ministry, percentage of graduates entering, xxxiv, 546; Minto essay and medal, xlix; Nassau Hall fire of 1802, 78-79, 325n; orations (importance of), liii; orations (April, by seniors), 143, 508; orations (February), 113; orations (July Fourth), xvii, 138, 175, 200, 238, 331, 336, 361; orations (preparation for), 229-30; pasturage of cattle, 429; prayers, absence from evening, 88; prayers, absence from morning, 238; prayers, intercessory, 532; prayers, not alway held in morning, 101; prayers, speakers at, 167, 174, 203, 244, 293, 318, 326, 358, 416, 422, 437, 446; President's House, 182, 220, 223, 444, 488; public speaking, importance of, 168; Queen's College, NJ, proposed union with, 21; religious revivals at, Ivui, 350; residence requirement, 179; Rittenhouse orrery, xxiixxiii, 175; scholarship students, 179; scientific collections, xxiii, 410; students matriculating as seniors, xl-xli, 46, 179, 211, 254, 277, 278, 387-88, 403; students matriculating as seniors, conjectural, 111, 171, 178, 246, 432; students skipping a grade, 10, 69, 28283, 288; study habits, 229; third literary society proposed, 230; transfers from other colleges, xlii-xlui, 118, 148, 210-11, 277, 282, 403, 522; transfers from other colleges, possible, H I , 187, 279; transfers from unknown colleges, xlii-xliii, 254, 278, 336, 353, 355, 385, 419, 452, 475, 476, 484; transfers to other colleges, xxx, xliii, 107, 123, 277, 326, 331, 470; transfers to other colleges, possible, 279, 283; Union College, NY, ties to, 287; Washington's

Birthday observed, 188, 202. See also Princeton University, NJ commencements: alumni returning for, 59, 383, 391-92, 455-56; attended by George Washington (1783), xx; crowd size, 55; disputation canceled, 531; graduates declining to participate, 16768, 177, 197-98, 202, 206, 231, 490, 517, 536; held last Wednesday in September, xlin; honors in mathematics, 435n; rebellion against faculty control, 167-68, 177, 197-98, 202, 206, 231; sermon on Sunday preceding, xxxiv commencements—orations: authorship, 118-19, 213, 252-53; English salutatorians, 5, 304, 437, 522, 525; French oration, 431; Greek salutatorian, 171; intermediate oration canceled, 536; intermediate oration, topic unknown, 531; Latin salutatorians, 5, 16, 87, 152, 200, 288, 455, 496, 525; oration by A.M. recipient, 438; second Latin salutatory, 132; valedictorians, 10, 87, 138, 238, 252, 263, 359, 514 commencements—topics of disputations and orations: agriculture, 83; American Revolution, causes of, 57; Barber, Col. Francis, panegyrick, 27; bigotry v. zeal, 200; character, abuse of, 54; civil establishment, advantages of, 141; civil society, advantages of, 130; classical languages, importance of, 171, 225, 278, 304, 316; college diet, 145; commerce, evils of, 38; constitution (federal), 417; courage v. temerity, 55; credulity, 209, 251; delicacy of sentiment, 59; denominational pluralism and religion, 350, 386, 387; discord, domestic and political, 155; dullness, 419; duty v. interest, 254, 280; education, female, 101; eloquence, 94, 438, 455; emulation, 100; equality of women, 318; "et ceteras" 42; fame, 223; female education, xlix, 101; formality of conduct, 489-90, 536, 536; freedom, 100; frugality, 371, 432, 452; government, 353; Greek language, 171; happiness, 323, 358, 371, 403, 432, 452; happiness v. virtue, 254, 280; heroism, 119; improvement of the mind, 160, 162; independence, abuses of, 233; independence of spirit, 5; instability of human affairs, 121; interest v. duty, 252, 280; knowledge, progress of, 264, 296, 318; language study, importance of, 171, 225, 278, 304, 316; legisla-

INDEX don, principles of, 30; liberty (religious), 218; love, follies of, 25; love of country, 108; luxury, 356, 371, 432, 452; man, nature of, 267; mathematics, absurdity of, 113; Montgomery, Gen. Richard, panegyrick, 33; morals, severity of, 371, 432, 452; music, 397; natural law (nature, law of), 288; panegyricks, 19, 27, 33; passions, government of, 99; patriot, a perfect, 48; peace, 336; penal laws, reform of (punishment, public v. private), 126, 19293; piety and learning, union of, 87; piety and virtue, 17; pleasure, 469, 482, 518; poetry in America, 125; polished v. savage state, 323, 358, 403; politeness v. sincerity and truth, 356, 395, 455; politics, 437; prejudice, 147, 213; progress, 98, 264, 285, 296, 318; quackery, 419; religion and denominational pluralism, 350, 386, 387; religious liberty, 218; republicanism, 238; ridicule, 150; savage v. polished state, 323, 358, 403; science, encouragement of, 16; servile imitation, 251; sincerity, 356, 395, 455; society, advantages of, 353; society, love of, 40; solitude, 36; Spartan government, 313; superstition, 304; swearing, 480, 481, 512; truth v. politeness, 356, 395, 455; truth, whether lawful to violate, 256, 257, 309; vanity, 419; virtue, 17, 254, 264, 280, 296, 318, 359; wealth, 371, 432; women, equality of, xlix, 318; zeal v. bigotry, 200 commencements—undergraduate competitions preceding: award winners, English, 4, 9-10, 100, 118, 125, 147, 152, 252, 282, 336, 358, 359, 437; award winners, "English and Latin versions," 68; award winners, English orations, 100, 152, 157, 238, 252, 282, 355, 359, 361, 528, 536; award winners, Latin grammar, 157, 238, 359, 455, 478, 536; other speakers, 167, 199, 230-31, 359, 400 curriculum: algebra, 101; attack on, 342-43; bible instruction, 532; chronology, xxiv; content and reform, xxiii-xxv, xxxvii-xxxix; criticism, xxiv; English grammar and composition, xxiv; geography, xxiv; geometry, 88, 97, 101, 174; Greek, xxiv, 309, 450; Latin, xxiv; logic, xxiv, 208, 222; mathematics, xix, xxiv, 55, 209, 222, 309, 435n; moral philosophy, xiv-xv, xxi, xxiv, 208, 222; natural history, 188;

565 natural philosophy and science, xxiv; Roman antiquities, xxiv; rote memorization, xxv, 177, 229-30, 343 disciplinary proceedings against students: admonition, 88, 167-68, 177, 197-98, 202, 206, 231, 323, 358, 365, 40001, 446, 452, 467, 472, 479, 482, 488, 519; admonition, probable, 182; apology, 167-68, 177, 197-98, 202, 206, 231, 437, 452, 468, 486; confession, 323, 356, 365, 371, 466, 479, 480, 482, 489; expulsion, 361, 466, 520; expulsion and readmission, 489; repair of damages, 488, 519; role of faculty minutes in, 158n; suspension, 88, 98, 365; suspension and readmission, 466-67; warning, 519 expenses: arrearages for board, 46869, 475, 476, 528; board, xlv-xlvi, 325n, 490; cost of room and board outside college, 364; diploma fee, 490; entry fees, xlv, 426; finances of students, xlv-xlvi, 223; miscellaneous expenses, xlv, 416, 446, 490; room rent, xlv, 416, 426, 490; tuition, xlv, 179, 325n, 416, 426, 449, 490 non-commencement oration topics: America, past and future of, xvii; cause of freedom, xvii; enthusiasm, xvii, xlix; women's right to political participation, xlix officers: clerks of the faculty, 157, 158n, 169, 183, 388, 456; faculty, xxvii; inspector of the rooms, 456; librarians, 12, 169, 183, 388, 533; presidents, 183, 212, 245, 251-52, 262, 355, 369, 370, 470, 485, 492, 533; professors, 11, 12, 55, 143, 177, 182, 192, 199, 211, 263; stewards, xlv, 3, 58, 465, 469, 475, 476, 490, 528; treasurers, 3, 12, 36n, 96, 151, 179, 191, 237, 388, 533; trustees, xxvi, xxvii, xtiv, xlix, lvi, 4, 9, 10, 12, 21, 22, 25, 26, 36n, 39, 40, 46, 53, 79, 95, 96, 138, 151, 152, 158, 160, 16768, 177, 179, 184, 192, 197-98, 202, 206, 209, 228, 231, 233, 237, 245, 252, 252, 262, 264, 269-70, 350, 363, 370, 386-87, 388, 437, 470, 480, 510, 529, 533; trustees, clerk of the board of, 533; tutors, 40, 56, 87, 130, 152-53, 157, 158n, 169, 179, 183, 192, 194, 198, 263, 365, 388-89, 426, 437, 446, 456-57, 471 student infractions: absence from classes, 361; abusing a stranger, 437; assault, 88, 97-98, 468, 486; bad conduct, 358; calf in pulpit, lvii, 465-66,

566

INDEX

College of Philadelphia, PA: age of 479, 482, 489, 511-12, 520; contempt alumni at death, lv; charter abrogated, of authority, 452; damaging buildings, 94; curriculum, xliii; degree received 488-89, 519; dining room misconduct, by CNJ alumnus, 487; donation to, 437; disobedience, 361, 467; disorder 95n; English school, xliii; faculty, 91, and assault in room in Nassau Hall, 94; Latin school, xliii; medical school, 355-56, 371, 437, 452, 472, 479, 480, 425; medical student at, 404; merger 519; house of ill fame, lvii, 471-72, 519; with University of the State of Pennsylinsolence, 365, 400, 471; intempervania (1791), 404; philosophy school, ance, lvii, 465, 479, 482, 489, 511-12, xliii; tinged with loyalism, xxiii; trans520; noisy return from tavern celebrafers from to CNJ, xlii; transfer to from tion, 182; outhouse overturned, 466, CNJ, 487; trustee, 252. See abo Univer479, 482, 489, 511-12, 520; rebellion sity of Pennsylvania; University of the against faculty control of commenceState of Pennsylvania ment, 167-68, 177, 197-98, 202, 206, 231; revolt (1807), 79; revolt (1817), College of Physicians and Surgeons, NY: 348; riots, 323, 365, 466-67; slander, faculty, 405-06; fellow, 151; founded 468, 486; swearing, 486 (1807), 145, 405; president, 407; trustees, 406. See also Columbia Colstudent life: April Fool's jokes, 99; lege, NY arguments, 220; athletics, 138, 143; College of Physicians of Philadelphia, bans, xviii-xix; "baste ball,'* xix; batPA, 519 tledores, xix; boarding out of College, College of Rhode Island, 148; fundrais238, 365, 465, 475, 476, 516, 528; ing efforts abroad, xxvi. See also Brown dancing, 202; diet, 40, 113, 167, 209, College, RI; Brown University, RI 220, 229, 361, 465; erotic dreams, 189; College of South Carolina: library, exercise, 188; eyeing local belles, 508; 497; Presbyterian Theological Semifencing, 400; fights, 111-12, 141, 175, nary, 525-26; president, 504; trustees, 182, 209; horseplay, 177, 182; literary 362, 497, 515, 525 society, third, proposed, 175; music, College of William and Mary, VA: age 202, 295; playing hoop, 167; poetry of alumni at death, lv; curriculum writers, 145; quoits, 199, 257; room reform, xxiii; faculty, 284; grammar furnishings, 244; studying, 182; swimschool, 282; prewar income, xlvi; selming, xx; tavern celebrations, 182; dom grants degrees, xlviii; tinged with walking, 57, 113, 176, 199, 205, 229; loyalism, xxiii; transfers to and from wrestling, 199 CNJ, xlii, xliii, 279, 282 College of New Jersey grammar school: Africans possibly attend, li; award win- Collegiate School of Connecticut. See Yale ners, 9, 212-13, 256-57, 326, 422, 437, College, CT 445; award winners, English, 3, 126; Colleton Co., SC, 31, 33n, 440 award winners, English orations, 3, Colleton County Regiment of Foot, SC, 126, 152, 238, 359, 361, 424, 426; 440 award winners, extemporary Latin, 3Collins, John (1789), 353-54, xlii, 385,455 4; award winners, Latin and Greek, Collins, Margaret Ker, 353 3, 126; award winners, Latin-English Collins, Stephen (1818), 353, 354 translation, 496; award winners, Latin Collins, Varnum Lansing (1892), 477 grammar, 126, 150, 326, 359, 361, 455, Collins, William Handy (1822), 353 466, 513, 536; curriculum, 445; Latin Colombia, South America, 48-50, 50 orations, 126, 150; master, 183; procolonization movement for free blacks, posal to eliminate, 21; students at, xliii, 81, 184-86, 187, 377, 391, 393, 454 3-4, 9, 36, 59, 95, 126, 138, 149-50, Colonization Society of Worcester, MD, 152, 157, 159, 183, 212, 233, 238, 256454 57, 282, 323, 326, 330, 359, 361, 364, Columbia, SC, 71, 497, 503, 521-26; Bap365, 400, 416, 422, 423,424, 426, 437, tist church, 526; mayor of, 523; Pres441, 445, 455, 466, 4 7 0 , 4 7 1 , 477, 486, byterian church, 522, 526 508, 511, 513, 527, 528, 536; students, Columbia Co., NY, 277 possible, 37, 42, 147, 176; tuition payColumbia College, NY: degree awarded ments, 416, 426, 445; tutors, xxvii, 56, to CNJ alumnus, 277; endowment, 69, 83, 86, 101, 183, 400, 416, 444 409; faculty, 218; fundraising efforts

INDEX abroad, xxvi; medical school, 145,405, 406, 409; medical student at, 432; tinged with loyalism, xxiii; transfers from to CNJ, xlii, 402-03; transfers to from CNJ, xxx, xliii, 283, 326, 331; trustee, 170. See also King's College, NY Columbia Herald, NJ, 357 Columbian Academy, DC, 314 Columbiana Co., OH, 450 Columbian Agricultural Society for the Promotion of Rural and Domestic Economy, DC, 315-16 The Columbian Chronicle, MD (now DC), 194, 389 Columbian Library, DC, 314 Columbia Telescope, SC, 525 Columbus, Christopher: Cliosophic Soci­ ety pseudonym, 282 common law, English, opposition to, 338, 339-40, 342 Conaconara (estate), NC, 214 Concord Presbytery, NC, 136 concurrent jurisdiction (federal-state), 498 concurring opinions (judicial), 498 Condict, Aaron (1788), 253-55, 22, 351 Condict, Daniel, 19 Condict, Daniel Harrison (1807), 21, 22 Condict, Hannah Maria. See Barton, Hannah Maria Condict Condict, Ira (1784), 19-23, χχχνϋ, 253, 254 Condict, John, 254 Condict, John Howell (1831), 254 Condict, Jonathan Bailey (1827), 254-55 Condict, Joseph Dayton (1826), 254 Condict, Martha Carter Wilcox, 253 Condict, Mary (Polly) Dayton, 254, 255 Condict, Robert Woodruff (1814), 254 Condict, Ruth Harrison, 19 Condict, Sarah Conkling, 255 Condict, Sarah Perrine, 19, 22 Condit, Mary Smith, 253 Condit, Samuel, Jr., 253 Condit, Silas (1795), 435 Confederate States of America: descen­ dants' service in army, 29, 454 Confederation Congress: father serves in, 89; presidents, 89; at Princeton, NJ, xix-xx; supports Indians at CNJ, li, 443-47. See also Continental Congress Congregational Church, U.S.A.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 546. See also indi­ vidual congregations by place name conic sections, xxiv Conkling, Sarah. See Condict, Sarah Conkling

567

Connecticut: land claims in PA, 226 Connicanary (estate), NC, 214 Conrad, Frederick, 338 conservatism, 382 Constitution, U.S. See United States, Con­ stitution Constitutional Republican Party (PA), 338, 339 Continental Army: chaplains, 39, 43-44, 510, 530; commissary generals, 155; discipline in, 88-89; Lancaster Battal­ ion, 5th, 530; medical director, 425; mutiny (1781), 90; mutiny of PA Line (1783), 91; NY, 1st, 159; PA Battalion, 2nd, 90; PA Regiment, 2nd, 90; PA Regiment, 3rd, 90; PA Regiment, 9th, 265n; PA Regiment, 11th, 90; South­ ern Department, 15; Southern District, 486; surgeons, 13, 150, 215, 234, 480 Continental Association, VA, 516 Continental Congress: brother served in, 330; CNJ faculty serve in, xxi; fathers served in, 15, 155, 199, 228, 303, 511; meets at Princeton, NJ, 508. See also Confederation Congress conversion crisis, 375-76 Cook, Eleanor, 354-55 Cook, Henry, Sr., 354-55 Cook (Cooke), Henry (1789), 354-55 Cooley, James, 48-50, 50 Cooper, Caleb (1769), 23n, 350 Cooper, James Fenimore, 58 Cooper, Judith Harvey, 24n Cooper, Mary, 23n Cooper, Robert (1763), 265n Cooper, Dr. Thomas, 375, 378, 504, 525 Cooper, Thomas (1784), 23-24 Cooper, Thomas (of NY), 23n, 24n Cooper, Thomas, Jr. (of NY), 23-24n Cooper, Thomas, Jr. (of VA), 24n Cooper, William, 94n Cooperstown, NY, 58, 94n Corinth, Greece, 419 Cornwall, NY, 267 CornwalHs, Charles, Earl, 67, 135, 171, 336, 399 corruption, political (PA), 342-43, 345-46 Corydon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 202 Coster, Henry Α., 411 Coster, Magdalena. See Hosack, Mag­ dalena Coster court martial (John Morgan), 427-28 Covington, TN, 352 Cowenhoven, John, 237-38 Cowpens, Battle of, 514 Cox, Joseph W., 73

568

INDEX

Cox (Cocks), Robert, 446 Coxe, Tench, 204, 400, 401 Coyatee (Cherokee setdement), 52 Craig, John, 429 Cranbury, NJ, 439, 508-09, 532; Presby­ terian church, 184, 509, 531 Crane, Aaron, 432 Crane, Anna Maria Alberti, 357 Crane, Elihu, 355 Crane, Hannah Mix, 355 Crane, Isaac Watts (1789), 355-57, xlii, 371, 437, 452, 472, 479, 480, 519 Crane, John Α., 357 Crane, Lydia. See Cazier, Lydia Crane Crane, Martha (Patty). See Croes, Martha (Patty) Crane Crane, Mary. See Dickinson, Mary Crane Crane, Nancy. See Pierson, Nancy Crane Crane's Corners (Newark), NJ: Presbyte­ rian church, 65 Cranetown, NJ, 355, 356, 432 Craven Co., NC, 119, 120, 172, 214, 325, 326, 330, 420 Crawford, William Harris, 186, 271, 301, 378, 500 Crawford Co., PA, 160, 260 Creek Nation, 334 Cresap, James (1794), xlii The Crisis (Nathaniel Britton Boileau), 344-45 criticism: John Witherspoon's lectures on, xxiv Croes, John, 54, 55, 357 Croes, John, Jr. (1806), 357 Croes, Martha (Patty) Crane, 357 Cromno (black servant). See Blanchard, Quomono. Crow, George (1787), 178-81, xl-xli, 198, 432 Crow, George (of St. Georges Hundred, DE), 180 Crow, George (Philadelphia, PA, brass founder), 180 Crow, George (Wilmington, DE, dockmaker), 180 Crow, George W. (physician), 180 Crow, John, 180 Crow, Joseph. See Crow, George (1787), 178 Crow, Mary. See Stelle, Mary Crow, 180 Crow, Mary Gandouct, 180 Crow, Robert, 180 Crow, Samuel, 180 Crow, Thomas, 180 Crowninshield, Benjamin W., 299 Cruger, Henry, 38 Culbertson, Ann McNair, 160

Culbertson, Elizabeth. See Wallace, Eliza­ beth Culbertson Culbertson, John, 160 Cumberland Co., NC, 466n Cumberland Co., NJ, 51, 148, 215, 356, 480 Cumberland Co., PA, 35-36n, 108, 26566n Cumberland Co., VA, 143, 284 Cumberland County Committee of Public Safety, VA, 143 dimming, Alexander, 40, 510 dimming, Ann Clay, 15 dimming, Emma Forman, 116, 117 dimming, Mary. See MacWhorter, Mary Ciimming dimming, Robert, 40, 510 Ciimming, William Clay (1805), 15 Curtis, William, 404 Cussawago, PA, 260 Custis, Anne Kendall, 317 Custis, John, V, 317 Custis, Peggy. See Wilson, Peggy Custis Cutting, Leonard, 309 Cypress Barony (estate), SC, 440 Daily Advertiser, New York, NY, 11, 439 Dallas, Alexander James, 338 Dallas, George Mifflin (1810), 338 Damon and Phillida (Colley Cibber), 202 dancing, xviii-xix, 32, 55, 78, 139, 202, 225, 372, 426, 509 Danish Virgin Islands. See Danish West Indies Danish West Indies, 363, 517. See also St. Croix Dann, Lydia. See Gardiner, Lydia Dann Darbe, Hester White Huntting, 367 Darbe, John, 366, 367, 368 Darbe, Luanda. See DeWint, Luanda Darbe Darragh (Darrach), Ann. See McClenachan, Ann Darragh (Darrach) Darrell, Ann Smith, 357 Darrell, Edward, ST., 357, 436 Darrell, Edward (1789), 357-58, 245, 436 Darrell, George Smith, 358 Darrell, Sarah White, 358 Dartmouth College, N H : degrees award­ ed, number of, xxviii; degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 65, 141, 142, 363, 365; fundraising efforts abroad, xxvi; and Indian education, 1; tinged with loyalism, xxiii Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), 501 Dashiell, George, 218 Dashiell, Sarah. See Stone, Sarah Dashiell

INDEX Dauphin Co., PA, 160, 265 Davie, William Richardson (1776), 28889 Davies, Samuel, 262 Davis, David, 347 Day's Hill, NJ, 433 Dayton, Daniel, 254 Dayton, Mary (Polly). See Condict, Mary (Polly) Dayton deafness, 440 Dean, Charles, 243n Dean, Cyrus B., 142-43 Deare (Deere), Jonathan, 30 Deas, Mr. (CNJ student in 1786), 400 Deas, Mr. (of Charleston, SC), 32 Deas, David (1789), 359-60, 216, 361 Deas, David (brother of David), 359 Deas, David (uncle), 359, 361 Deas, Elias Horry, 362 Deas, Elizabeth Allen, 359, 360 Deas, Henry (1789), 360-63, 216, 359 Deas, John, 359, 360, 361 Deas, Margaret Horry, 362, 363 Deas, Maria Smith. See Ramsay, Maria Smith Deas Deas, Mary Somers, 360 Deas, Robert (1792), 216, 359, 361 Deas, Seaman, 360 Deas, William Allen, 359-60 debating societies. See literary and debating societies and clubs debtor relief laws, 307-08, 501 Decius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 187-88 Decker, William, 467 Declaration of Independence: father-inlaw refused to sign, 111; Signers, xxi, 34, 42, 55, 109, 176, 222, 223, 237, 243n, 247 Deep Gully (estate), NC, 173 Deere, Jonathan. See Deare (Deere), Jonathan Deerfield, NJ, 480 Defense of the American Constitutions (John Adams), 373 deists, 7, 14 DeKay, Juliana. See Bunyan, Juliana DeKay DeLancey, Susan. See Barclay, Susan DeLancey Delaware: attorney general of, alumnus serves as, 305; chancellor, 305; federal constitution ratifying convention, father serves in, 181; House of Representatives, speaker of, 181; legislature, alumnus serves in, 305, 307; legislature, fathers serve in, 181, 303; mili-

569

tia, Second Regiment, First Brigade, 306; militia, Seventh Company, Third Regiment, 209-10; president of, father serves as, 303; supreme court, chief justice of, 305 Delaware, University of, 492 Delaware and Raritan Canal, NJ, 377 Delaware College, 306 Delaware Nation, 1, li, 416, 442-52 Delaware Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 6 Democratic National Convention (1844), 383 Democratic Press, Philadelphia, PA, 341 Democratic-Republican Party: father member of, 424; membership in, 39, 98, 133, 139, 172, 206, 271, 276, 289, 293, 296-97, 319, 324, 326, 333, 337, 356, 373, 433, 472, 485, 496, 511, 515, 523, 528; pattern of support among alumni, liv Democratic Society of New York, 39 Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy, 362, 502, 504, 506 Dennis, John (1791), 131 Derry, PA: Presbyterian church, 234 DeSaussure, Daniel, 25, 357, 436 DeSaussure, Elizabeth Ford, 25-26 DeSaussure, Henry A. (1806), 26 DeSaussure, Henry William, 25-26, 472 DeSaussure, Mary McPherson. See Edwards, Mary McPherson DeSaussure Detroit, MI, 442 Devil: at CNJ, jrix, lvii DeWint, Anna Maria Suhm, 363 DeWint, Christian (1789), 363-69, xliii, 446 DeWint, Mrs. Christian (first wife), 366 DeWint, Garret S., 369n DeWint, Joseph, 363, 364, 366 DeWint, Lucas, 364, 366, 369n DeWint, Mrs. Lucas, 366 DeWint, Luanda, Jr. See Ross, Luanda DeWint DeWint, Luanda Darbe, 367, 368 DeWitt, John (1861), 162 DeWitt, Mary Eleanor Wallace, 162 Dewitt, William Raddiffe (1816), 47, 162 D'Hart, John, 371, 375-76 Dickerson, Aaron (1804), 376 Dickerson, John, 376 Dickerson, Jonathan, 369, 376 Dickerson, Jonathan Elmer, 371 Dickerson, Julia Ford, 372 Dickerson, Mahlon (1789), 369-85, xlix, 356, 432, 435 Dickerson, Mahlon (nephew), 372

570

INDEX

Dkkerson, Mary. See Canfield, Mary Dickerson Dickerson, Mary Coe, 369, 375 Dickerson, Peter, 369 Dickerson, Philemon, 376, 383 Dickerson, Silas, 372, 373, 374, 376 Dickinson, John, 16, 17, 223 Dickinson, John (1791), liiin Dickinson, Jonathan, 54, 355, 369 Dickinson, Mary Crane, 355 Dickinson, Samuel Sharp (1791), liiin, 371 Dickinson College, PA: degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 233-34; faculty, 234; fundraising efforts abroad, xxvi; oneyear A.B. program, xhv; postgraduate study at, 233-34; Princetonians possibly attending, 162n, 442n; transfer to and from CNJ, zlii; transfer to from CNJ, possible, xliii; trustee, 234 Dickinson medal and essay, College of New Jersey, 16-17, 69, 176, 199-200, 231 Dinwiddie Co., VA, 258n Diodote, Sarah. See Griswold, Sarah Diodote Dion: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 108 Dirleton, Scotland, 399 dissenting opinions (judicial), 498 Dissertatio medica inaugurate, de scarlatina (Augustus William Harvey), 482 Dissoway, Jutegh (Judith). See Ryerss, Jutegh (Judith) Dissoway distillers, 58 District Medical Society for the County of Hunterdon, NJ, 45 divorces and separations, 86, 384 Doctor's Riot, New York, NY (1788), 403 Dod, Albert B. (1822), 12 Dod, Caroline Bayard, 12 Dod, Daniel, 240 Dodd, Silas, 253 dogs: in Indian diet, 450 Dominica, island of, 200, 201 Donaldson, John Johnston, 386n Donaldson, Thomas, 386n Donaldson, Thomas (1789), 385-86, xlii Donnell, Elizabeth. 5«« Foster, Elizabeth Donnell Donovan, Ann. See Timothy, Ann Donovan Dorchester Co., MD, 431, 453, 520, 521 Douglas, James Alexander, 514 Douglas (play by John Home), 316 Dover, DE, 251, 303 Dover, England, xxvi Dowell, M. See McDougall (McDowell), F. William

Downe Township, NJ, 51 draft, national, 500 Drayton, Marie (Maria) Henrietta. See Gibbes, Marie (Maria) Henrietta Drayton drowned undergraduate, 159 drunkenness. See intemperance Drury, Edmund (1788), 256 Dryden, John: works read by alumnus, 371 Duane, William, 339, 340, 341, 376 Dudley, Anna Bland, 283 duels, 6, 120, 139, 175, 182, 221, 407, 411; alumnus killed in, 467; son killed in, 509 Duff, Jane Williams, 181 Duff, Thomas, Sr., 181 Duff, Thomas, Jr. (1787), 181-83, 175 Duffield, George (1752), 233 Dulany, Daniel, 224 Dummer Academy, MA, 123 Duncan and Schaw (mercantile firm), 486 Dunham, Elijah, 218 Dunham, Hannah Beach, 218 Dunham, Isabella. See Rattoone, Isabella Dunham Dunham, Mary, 218 Dunham, Sally (Sarah). See Wallace, Sally (Sarah) Dunham Dunham, Sarah. See Stelle, Sarah Dunham Dunlap, John, 177 Dunlop, Jane. See Wells, Jane Dunlop Dunlop, Samuel, 308 Dunmore, John Murray, Earl of, 442 du Pont, Charles Irenee, 306 du Pont, Dorcas Montgomery Van Dyke, 306 du Pont, Eleuthere Irenee, 306 Dutchess Co., NY, 38, 47, 48, 140, 296, 297, 300, 302, 409; Sixth Regiment of Militia, 47 Dutch Reformed Church in the U.S.A.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 546; general synod, 21. See also individual congregations by place name Duxbury, MA, 26 Dwight, Hannah, 510 Dwight, Martha. See McWhorter, Martha Dwight Dwight, Stephen, 510 Eagle, Mr. (of NJ), 510 Eagle Nest Neck (estate), NY, 395 Eakin, Mary Purviance, 203 Eakin, Samuel (1763), 203 East Hampton, NY, 285, 394, 395, 397; Presbyterian church, 394, 396, 398

INDEX Easton Bank of Maryland, 453 East Tennessee, University of, 332 Eaton (Eatton), Joanna. See Spencer, Joanna Eaton (Eatton) Eaton, Valeria. See LeConte, Valeria Eaton Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, TN, 136 Eddy, Caspar, 409 Eddy, Mary. See Hosack, Mary Eddy Edenton, NC, 56, 174 Edict of Nantes, revocation, 158 Edinburgh, Scotland: born at, 359, 361; father attacked at, 238; father studied medicine at, 89; studied medicine at, 404, 482, 517, 518; Walter Minto stud­ ies at, xxvii Edinburgh, University of. See University of Edinburgh, Scotland Edisto, SC, 512 Edmondson's Difficulty (estate), MD, 431 education: national system of, 460; pro­ fession of, xxxv-xxxvii, 544; thoughts on by alumnus, 120 Edwards, Alexander (1784), 24-26 Edwards, Eunice. See Pollock, Eunice Edwards Edwards, John (father of Alexander), 2425 Edwards, John (son of Alexander), 26 Edwards, Jonathan, 1, 146, 212, 262, 370; writings studied by alumnus, 461 Edwards, Jonathan, Jr. (1765), 287 Edwards, Margaret Feronneau, 24 Edwards, Mary McPherson DeSaussure, 25-26 Edwards, Pierpont (1768), 212 Edwards, Timothy (1757), 146, 212 "Edward's Geography'' (book), 114 Egypt. 7 Eichholtz, Jacob, 35n Elder, John, 234 elections, federal: (1796), 75; (1800), 7, 77-78, 239, 289, 373-74, 376; (1804), 453; (1808), 340; (1812), 80, 102, 29091; (1824), 81, 241, 300, 356, 378; (1828), 241, 295, 301,460; (1832), 379; (1840), 356; (1844), 383 Elgin, Scotland, 402 Elgin Botanic Garden, New York, NY, 408-09 Eliot, John, 398 Elizabethtown, NJ: alderman, 173; born at, 58, 146, 212; born near, 172; family possibly from, 422-23; married at, 254, 351; merchants, 173; mother from, 159; practiced law at, 54; Presbyte­ rian church, 53-54, 61, 173, 254, 356, 423; residents, 54, 60; in Revolution­

571

ary War, 27; sectional politics, 433; stepmother from, 253; travel to, 379; turnpike, 28; wife from, 184 Elkison, Henry, 503 Elk Landing, MD, 485 Elkton, MD, 485 Elliott, Sabina. See Huger, Sabina Elliott embargo (1807-09), 290, 327, 328, 341, 499, 523 Embry, Henry, Sr., I l l Embry, Mary. See Coleman, Mary Embry Embry, Sarah. See Coleman, Sarah Embry Emilia: pseudonym of Annis Boudinot Stockton, 237 Emmet, Thomas Addis, 311 Emmons, Nathaniel, 123 Enfield (estate), SC, 401 England: ancestors return to, 455; book trade, 32; educated in, 31, 46n, 210; emigrants from, 15, 31, 97, 144, 414, 455, 468, 488; envoys to, 10; family losses in, 417; travel in, 10, 86, 108, 113, 404; visitors from to SC, 523. See also Great Britain English, Charles Green, 392 English, David (1789), 386-94, 179, 186, 192-95, 531 English, Jane, 391 English, Jonathan, 386 English, Lydia Ridgely Henderson, 390, 392, 393 English, Lydia Scudder, 389, 390 English, Lydia Scudder, Jr., 390-93 English, Martha Elizabeth Laird, 386 English, Robert Magruder, 392 English, Sarah Threlkeld, 390, 391 Englishtown, NJ, 386 Enlightenment, Scottish, xxv, xxxiv "Enthusiasm" (student oration), xvii, xlix Epiphanius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 121 Episcopal Church in the U.S.Α.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 546; minister deposed, lvi. See also individual parishes and dio­ ceses by place name Eppes, Archibald, 258 Eppes, Christian Robertson, 256, 257, 258 Eppes, Francis, 256 Eppes, John Wayles, 258n Eppes, Maria (Polly) Jefferson, 258n Eppes, Mary. See Cocke, Mary Eppes Eppes, Dr. Richard, 258n Eppes, Richard, Sr., 256, 257, 258 Eppes, Richard (1788), 256-58, 293 Eppes, Richard (Cocke), 258n Eppes, Robertson, 258

572

INDEX

Eppes, William, 258 Eppes family, 256 Erie, PA, 160, 161; library, 161 Erie Canal, NY, 272-73, 298, 411 Erie Co., PA, 160 Erwin, Benjamin, 204n Erwin, Benjamin (1776), 204n Esopus, NY: academy, 457 Essex, U.S.S., 59 Essex Co., NJ, 19, 28, 41, 54, 65, 88, 172, 173, 175, 198, 212, 253, 355, 394, 422, 432, 433 Essex County Manufacturing Company, NJ, 247 Essex District Medical Society, NJ, 434 Essington (estate), MD, 318 ethnic societies, 439 Euclid: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 531; studied at CNJ, xix, 88, 97, 101 Eumenes: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 437 Evans, Margaret Kirkpatrick, 485 Evans, Mary. See Hollingsworth, Mary Evans Evans, Robert, 485 Everard, Susannah. See Meade, Susannah Everard Ewart, George, 286 Ewing, Thomas, 450 Ewing, William Belford (1794), lv Ewing Township, NJ, 60 Ex parte Bollmann and Swartwout (1807), 498-99 Experiment (estate), SC, 472 Experiment (vessel), 357 Eyre, Juliet Phillips, 508 Eyre, Lydia. See Hunt, Lydia Eyre Eyre, Manuel, Sr., 127 Eyre, Manuel (1793), 127, 508 Eyre, Mary Wright, 127 Fagg's Manor, PA, 258 Fairfield, CT, 455 Fairfield, NJ, 215; Presbyterian church, 215 Fanning, David, 465 Farmers Bank of Maryland: Eastern Shore branch, 453 Farmers' Hall Academy, NY, 86 fast, public (1798), 373 Faulcon, Elizabeth. See Alston, Elizabeth Faulcon Faulcon, Lucy Wyatt, 466 Faulcon, Nicholas, 466 Fauquier Co., VA, 278, 441-42n, 468; Second Battalion of militia, 468 Fayette Co., PA, 345

Fayetteville, NC, 289 Fayetteville, TN, 334 Federal Carolina Gazette, SC, 529 Federal Constitution. See United States, Constitution federal elections. See elections, federal Federalist Party: abandons for Democratic-Republican party, 289; father member of, 89, 199, 413, 431; membership in, 17, 21, 25, 59, 73, 84, 92, 115, 116, 120, 130-31, 142, 155, 161, 194, 224, 239-41, 269, 289, 305, 309-10, 352, 359, 361, 3 9 5 , 4 3 1 , 4 5 3 , 4 5 7 , 4 6 7 , 4 8 1 , 492, 521; pattern of support among alumni, liv Federal Republican, MD, 133 Female Benevolent Society, Princeton, NJ.534 Female Benevolent Society of Trenton, 242 female education, xlix, 84, 101, 369, 393 fencing, 32, 55, 400 Fenwick, John, 488, 493 Ferguson, Eliza Colcock, 474 Ferguson, William (1791), 474 Ferromonte (estate), NJ, 376, 382, 384 fertilizer, use of marl as, 492 Field, Abigail Stockton, 237 Field, Mary Peale. See Read, Mary Peale Field Field, Robert (1793), 223, 237 Fielding, Henry: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 487; play produced by alumnus, 421 Fillmore, Millard, 384 Findlay, William, 342, 343, 344-46 Finley, Mrs. Angres, 183 Finley, Ann Clarkson, 252, 470 Finley, Esther Flynt Caldwell, 184 Finley, James, 183, 485 Finley, James Caldwell (1820), 184, 187 Finley, John Caldwell (1827), 184 Finley, Josiah F. C. (1828), 184, 187 Finley, Robert (1787), 183-87, 387, 388, 391 Finley, Robert Smith (1821), 184, 187 Finley, Samuel, 152, 187n, 251-52,470, 485 fire companies, 14, 34, 96, 305 First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, PA, 177, 191, 424 Fish, Elizabeth. See Lawrence, Elizabeth Fish Fishbourne, Sarah. See Bordley, Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin fishing, 511 Fishing Creek, Battle of, 521 Fishkill Academy, NY, 87 Fitch, Eliza. See Green, Eliza Fitch

INDEX Fitch, John, 336 Flaccus, Valerius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 336 Flemington, NJ, 45, 154, 155; Presbyte­ rian church, 121, 155 Fletcher v. Peck, 72 floating batteries, 380 Flora Londmensis (William Curtis), 404 Florida, West, 414, 417 Flower, Mary. See Clarkson, Mary Flower Flushing, NY, 395; St. George's Episcopal Church, 395, 396 Flushing, PA, 518 Flushing and Newtown Bridge and Road Company, NY, 395 flutes, 511 Font Hill (estate), VA, 143 Foot, Luanda, xlix Foote, William H., 137 Force, James Gildersleeve (1794), xxii Force Act (1833), 505 Ford, David, 151 Ford, Elizabeth. See DeSaussure, Eliza­ beth Ford Ford, Frances Gualdo, 29 Ford, Gabriel H. (1784),26-30, 173 Ford, Henry Α., 29 Ford, Henry W. DeSaussure, 29 Ford, Jacob, Jr., 26, 27 Ford, Jacob, Sr., 26, 27 Ford, Jacob (1792), 26, 173 Ford, Julia. See Dickerson, Julia Ford Ford, Lewis DeSaussure, 29 Ford, Theodosia Johnes, 26, 27 Ford, Timothy (1783), 26, 27, 173, 456 Ford Mansion, Morristown, NJ, 27 Fonnan, Agur T. See Furman (Forman), Agur T. (1784) Forman, Amelia Gale, 113 Forman, David, 113, 114, 115, 117 Forman, Emma. See dimming, Emma Fonnan Forman, Ezekiel, 113, 114, 117 Forman, Joseph, 113, 114-15, 117 Forman, Joshua, 273 Forman, Malvina, 116, 117 Forman, Margaret, 114, 117 Forman, Rivine. See Neilson, Rivine For­ man Forman, Samuel S., 114 Forman, Sarah Marsh, 113, 114 Forman, Sarah Woodhull, 116, 530 Forman, Sarah Woodhull, Jr. See Arms, Sarah Woodhull Forman Forman, William Gordon (1786), 113-17, 530 Forrest, Andrew, 161

573

Forrest, Rachel. See Wallace, Rachel For­ rest Forster, Thomas, 161 Fort Amsterdam, NY, 85 Fort Chartres, IL, 414, 415 Fort Johnson, NY, 85 Fort Mims massacre, MS, 334 Fort Moultrie, SC, 399 Fort Pitt, PA, 414-17, 443 Fort Pulaski, GA, 145 Fort Recovery, OH, 427 "Fort Rittenhouse," PA, 342 Fort Ticonderoga, NY, 89 Fortune (slave), 247 Fort Washington, NY, 160 Foster, Alexander W., 259, 260, 261 Foster, Elizabeth Donnell, 261 Foster, Hannah Blair, 258, 259 Foster, Henry Donnell, 261 Foster, James, 260 Foster, Samuel Blair (1788), 258-61, 161 Foster, Thomas, 259 Foster, William, 260 Foster, William (1764), 258, 259 Fourth of July orations. See July Fourth orations Fox, Charles James: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 199 Fox, Hannah. See Smalley, Hannah Fox Frampton, Jonathan, 512 Frampton, Mary. See Lawton, Mary Frampton Mathewes France: American ministers to, 500; beet and grape culture of, 504; emigrants from, 65, 335; envoys to, 7-8; maps, Sin; threat of war with U.S. (1830s), 380; travel in, 107-08, 414. See also French language; French Revolution; Huguenot ancestry Francis: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 264 Francis, John Wakefield, 407 Francistown, NH, 123 Frankford, PA, 518 Frankfurter, Felix, 506 Franklin, Benjamin, xxvi, 411, 414, 427, 526, 527; Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 295 Franklin, Jesse, 291 Franklin, MA, 123, 124 Franklin and Marshall College, PA, 487 Franklin Co., PA, 108, 265n, 266n Franklin College, PA, 487 Fraunces, Andrew G., 449 Frederick, Joseph, 470n lv, Frederick (Frederick Town), MD, 391, 442n

574

INDEX

Frederick Co., MD, 202, 520 Frederick Co., VA, 266n Fredericksburg, VA, 67, 129, 292, 29394 Fredericksburg Academy, VA, 293 free blacks. See blacks (free) Freehold, NJ, 19, 113, 131, 192, 193, 530, 531; Old Tennent (Presbyterian) Church, 19, 113, 116, 192, 386, 530 Freehold, Upper, NJ, 129-30 Freeman, James (1789), 394 Freeman, Jonathan, 394 Freeman's Banner, NJ, 493 Freeport, PA: Presbyterian church, 236 Frelinghuysen, Frederick (1770), 481 Frelinghuysen, Frederick (1806), 481 Frelinghuysen, Gertrude (Gitty) Schenck, 481 Frelinghuysen, Theodore (1804), 481 French and Indian War, 275 French language, 56, 395, 401, 431, 474. See also France French Revolution, 73, 337,401; reaction against, lviii; support for at CNJ, xviixix, xlix Frenchtown, NJ, 479 Freneau, Philip (1771), 317 Friendly Club, New York, NY, 309 Fries, John, 92, 373 Fries Rebellion, 92 Fulton, Robert, 140, 240, 298, 405 Furman (Forman), Agur T. (1784), 30-31, 225 Furman, Josiah, 30 Furman, Josiah, Jr., 30 Furman, Mary. See Smith, Mary Furman Furman, Mary, Jr., 30 Furman, Richard, 30 Furman, Sarah. See Johnson, Sarah Furman Furman, William Gordon. See Forman, William Gordon (1786) Furman family (NJ), 355 fur trading: family business, 425 Gage, Thomas, 415 Gaillard, Ann Palmer Stevens, 440 Gaillard, Peter, 440 Gale, Amelia. See Forman, Amelia Gale Gale, George (1774), 317 Gale, John, 317 Gale, Mary. See Wilson, Mary Gale Gale, Milcah Hill. See Airey, Milcah Hill Gale Gale, Robert (1791), 317 Gallatin, Albert, 291, 329, 339

gambling: attacked, 484; card playing, accused of cheating at, 38, 139-40 Gandouct, Mary. See Crow, Mary Gandouct Ganges, U.S.S., 59 Gardiner, Abraham, 394, 396, 397 Gardiner, Alexander (1837), 396 Gardiner, David, Sr., 394, 396 Gardiner, David (1789), 394-96, 383, 396 Gardiner, David Johnson, 398 Gardiner, David L. (1836), 396 Gardiner, Jerusha Buell, 394, 396 Gardiner, John Griswold, 398 Gardiner, John Lyon (1789), 396-99, 383, 394 Gardiner, Julia. See Tyler, Julia Gardiner Gardiner, Julia Havens, 396 Gardiner, lion, 396 Gardiner, Lydia Dann, 396 Gardiner, Samuel Buell, 398-99 Gardiner, Sarah Griswold, 398 Gardiner's Bay, NY, 395 Gardiner's Island, NY, 394, 396-99 Gardoqui, Diego de, 114, 418 Garnett, Betty. See Taliaferro, Betty Garnett Garnett, James, 293 Garnett, Margaret, 293 Gaston, William (1796), 327, 329, 420 Gates, Horatio, 171 Gay, John: works read by alumnus, 371 Gazette of the State of South Carolina, 527 General Assembly. See Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. General Assembly General Highway Act (NY), 458 General Suffrage Bill, SC (1809), 472 General Theological Seminary, New York, NY, 11,312 Geneva, NY, 406,407 Geneva College, NY: awards medical degrees, 406-07 The Genius of Liberty, NJ, 369 geography, nriv, 56, 114, 287, 353, 370, 414,444 geometry, xix, xxiv, 88, 97, 101, 174 George III, king of Great Britain and Ireland, 113, 344, 511 George IV, king of Great Britain and Ireland, 344, 483 Georgetown, DC (formerly MD), 185, 194-96, 314-16, 387, 389-393; mayor, 315; Presbyterian church, 314-15, 390 Georgetown, SC, 157, 221, 401, 412, 536; Prince George Winyah churchyard, 157 Georgetown district, SC, 206, 399 Georgetown Female Academy, DC, 393

INDEX

575

Gibbs, Sarah. See Rodman, Sarah Gibbs Georgetown Lancaster School Society, DC, 315 Gibraltar, 59 Georgetown Library Society, SC, 221, Gibson, Anna Maria, 187, 189 536 Gibson, Elizabeth Bordley, 190-91 Gibson, James (1787), 187-91, xix, xxxiv, George Washington, U.S.S., 59 xlin, 110, 161, 162η, 229, 230; diary, Georgia: constitutional conventions of xix, xxxiv, 167, 174, 175-76,176, 182, 1795 and 1798, service in, 17; deputy 188, 203, 238, 244, 247, 252, 264, 293, paymaster, 15; exiles from, 25; federal 358, 359, 365, 416, 446 district judge, 17. See also Yazoo scan­ dal Gibson, John, 187 Georgia, University of, 18n, 186 Gibson, John (1793), 187 Georgia Medical Society, 221 Gibson, John Bannister, 162n Germanicus: Cliosophic Society Gibson, Miss S., xviii pseudonym, 455 Gibson's Rock, PA, 266n Giger, George M. (1841), 147, 213-14 German language, 371 Gilchrist, Adam, 499 Germantown, Battle of, 500 Gilchrist v. Collector of Charleston (1808), Ghent, Treaty of, 8 499 Gibbes, Anne (Nancy) Morgan, 33, 426, 429, 476, 477 Giles, William Branch (1781), 73 Gibbes, Charlotte Augusta. See Astor, Gillet, Mr. (Morris Co., NJ), 366 Charlotte Augusta Gibbes Gillon, Alexander, 72 Gibbes, John (1784), 31-33, 474-77 Girty, George, 450 Gibbes, Joseph Smith (1813), 33 Girty, Simon, 450 Gibbes, Lewis Ladson (1790), 474-75, xlii, Glasgow, Scotland, 183; studied medicine 31, 476 at, 517 Glen, Deborah. See Sanders, Deborah Gibbes, Lewis Reeve, 475 Glen Gibbes, Marie (Maria) Henrietta Drayton, Gloucester Co., NJ, 125, 179, 233, 356 475 Gibbes, Mary Smith, 33 Gloucester Co., VA, 111 Gibbes, Robert (died 1715), 31 Gloucester Farmer, NJ, 357 Gloucester Township, NJ, 125 Gibbes, Robert, Jr., 33 Good Friday (observed), 375 Gibbes, Robert, Sr., 31, 474,476 Goodloe, Diana. See Harper, Diana Gibbes, Robert Morgan (1813), 33, 477 Goodloe Gibbes, Sarah Reeve, 31, 32, 33n, 474, Goose Creek, SC, 46n, 359, 360 476, 477 Gordon, Mr. (of Smithfield, VA), 516 Gibbes, Thomas Stanyarne (1790), 476-77, xlii, 31, 33, 429, 474, 475 Gordon, Ann. See Coleman, Ann Gordon Gibbes, Thomas Stanyarne (son), 477 Gordon, George. See Byron, George Gor­ Gibbes family (SC), 511 don, 6th Baron GibbesviUe (estate), NJ, 476 Gordon, Margaret Murray, 112 Gibbon, Jane. See Johnson, Jane Gibbon Gordon, Thomas, 112 Gibbons, Barach (1790), 477-78, 478-79 Goshen, NY, 86, 101, 102, 103, 144, 267; Presbyterian church, 86, 101, 144 Gibbons, Hannah. See McAllister, Han­ nah Gibbons Goshen, PA (Moravian mission), 442 Gibbons, Joseph (1790), 478-79, 478 Gough, Edward O'Neale, 440 Gibbons, Joseph (Savannah, GA, school­ Gough, John, 440 master), 219 Gough, John, Sr., 440 Gibbons, Sarah, 477, 478. See also Telfair, Grafton, MA, 123 Sarah Gibbons Graham, Alexander (1777), 118 Graham, Edward (1786), 118-21, xlii Gibbons, Thomas, 311, 477 Gibbons, William, 219, 477, 478 Graham, Edward E. (1811), 120 Gibbons, William, Jr., 479 Graham, Elizabeth Batchelor, 119, 120 Gibbons v. Ogden, 301, 311, 477, 501 Graham, Elizabeth Wilcox, 118 Gibbs, Elizabeth. See Ruan, Elizabeth Graham, Ennis, 118 Gibbs Graham, Ennis, Jr., 118 Gibbs, Margery Harrison, 518 Graham, Hamilton Claverhouse (1816), Gibbs, Richard, 518 120

576

INDEX

Green, Ashbel (1783): and American Graham, James, 118 Whig Society, 4-5, 36, 38, 40, 51, 254, Graham, John (1777), 118 263; bequest to, 263; as CNJ gramGraham, William (1773), 121n mar school tutor, 183; as CNJ presiGrandfather Stories (Samuel Hopkins dent, lviii, 492, 532, 533; as CNJ proAdams), 274 fessor (1785-87), xxvii, liii, 143, 177, Grant, Catherine Stevens, 121 182, 263; as CNJ tutor (1783-85), 40, Grant, Ebenezer, 122-23 87, 263, 426; as CNJ undergraduate, Grant, Elizabeth, 122 xxii, linn, 55, 263; conflict with Samuel Grant, John, 122 Stanhope Smith (1769), lviii; correGrant, John (1811), 122 spondence, 54; courtship, 40; father's Grant, Mary Elizabeth Bryan, 122 plans for, 262; ministry in PhiladelGrant, Theodosia Reading, 122 phia, PA, xxvii, 169; portrays AlexanGrant, Thomas (son), 122 der the Great, 55; preaches sermon, Grant, Thomas, Sr., 121 492; relatives, 255, 262-63, 370, 480; Grant, Thomas (1786), 121-23 teaches'at Hanover, NJ, 253 Granville, Earl. See Carteret, John, Earl Green, Caleb Smith, 192, 195, 196, 390Granville 93 Granville, NC, 70, 71 Green, Caleb Smith (1837), 192 Granville Academy, NC, 67 Green, Calvin, 262, 263 Granville Co., NC, 67 Green, Charles Dickinson (1787), 191-97, grape culture (France), 504 157, 386-91 Grasmere (estate), NY, 38 Green, Charles G., 196 Grassy Creek, NC: Presbyterian church, Green, Edward T. (1854), 192 67 Green, Elizabeth. See Bradford, Elizabeth Grassy Valley, TN: Ebenezer PresbyteGreen rian Church, 136 Grayson, William, 292 Green, Elizabeth (mistress of Thomas Great Awakening, xxix, xxxiv, 1, lviii Hutchins, Sr.), 415 Great Awakening, Second, lviii Green, Elizabeth Pierson, 262, 480 Great Britain: debts to, 219-20; emiGreen, Elizabeth Stockton, 40 grants from, 99, 256; prevents millenGreen, Eliza Fitch, 263 nium, 337; travel in, 359; treaty rights Green, English & Co. (mercantile firm), of black seamen, 502; U.S. ministers 194 to Court of St. James, 359-60. See also Green, Gabriel, 263 England; Scotland Green, George, 191, 192 Great Hope (estate), MD, 317 Green, George S., 192 Great Western Canal. See Erie Canal, NY Green, Henry Woodhull (1820), 192 Green, Jacob, 255, 262, 370 Greece: liberty in ancient, xxv; U.S. Green, James, 192, 196 diplomats in, 224, 459 Greek language: at academies, 235, 285, Green, John, 263n 350, 353, 402, 420; at CNJ, xxiv, xlivGreen, John C , 192 xlv; at CNJ grammar school, 3, 126, Green, John Wickliffc (1788), 262-63, 480 445; at commencements, 171, 225, 278, Green, Louisa, 196 304, 313, 316; English translations pre- Green, Matilda. See Hamill, Matilda ferred to, 497; faculty in at other colGreen leges, 218, 266, 287; fathers averse to Green, Pierson, 262 sons' learning, xxxvii-xxxix; fluency of Green, Richard Maxwell, 196 undergraduates in, 309, 450; preparaGreen, Richard Montgomery (1794), 157, tion of incoming students in, 16, 208, 192, 195, 196, 387, 390, 392 222, 282, 370, 402, 474; unpopular Green, Wickliff. See Green, John Wickat Harvard College, MA, xliv; woman liffe (1788) fluent in, xlix Green and English (mercantile firm), Greek New Testament: portions of read 194, 389, 390 by incoming students, 208, 222; transGreene, Nathanael, 43-44, 67, 143, 414, lated at CNJ, xxiv 500, 501 Green, Anna Smith. See Vancleve, Anna Greene Co., NC, 326 Smith Green Green family (NJ), 355

INDEX

577

Halifax Co., VA, 111, 112 Hall, Capt. Basil, 523 Hall, Mrs. Basil, 523 Hall, James (1774), 135, 136, 137 Hall, Martha. See Tappan, Martha Hall Hall, Ruth. See Hunt, Ruth Hall Hall, Sarah. See Ring, Sarah Hall Hallam, Robert, bishop of Salisbury: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 152 Halsey, Jeremiah (1752), 469 Halsey, Mary Henry. See Symmes, Mary Henry Halsey Hambrooks (estate), MD, 521 Hamill, Matilda Green, 196 Hamill, Samuel M., 196 Hamilton, Alexander: duel, averted, with Maturin Livingston, 139; duel with Aaron Burr, 411; and election of 1800, 7; as Federalist leader, 7, 75; and Federalist Papers, 310; industrial enterprises, 247; as inspector general, 80, 130, 145, 161, 373; law practice, 311; physician of, 405, 411; as secretary of the treasury, xlvi; supporters, 310; testifies at John Nicholson trial, 200; and Whiskey Rebellion, 372 Hamilton, David, 479, 482, 483, 489, 512, 520 Hamilton, Henry, 442 Hamilton, NY, 66 Hamilton, OH, 248 Hamilton College, NY: degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 267; trustee, 154 Hamilton Parish, VA, 468 Hampden-Sidney College, VA: A.B. recipients enter CNJ, xxx, 210-11; Habersham, James, 15 American Whig Society, 313; ClioHabersham, James, Jr., 15 sophic Society, 313; degree awarded Habersham, John, 16 to CNJ alumnus, 127, 128; lottery, Habersham, Joseph, 16 128; master, 313; presidents, 129, 313; Habersham, Richard Wylly (1805), 15 transfers from to CNJ, xlii, 15-16, 111, Habersham, Robert (1802), 15 210-11; tutors, 16, 313; Union Society, Hackensack, NJ, 402 313 Hadrian (Roman emperor), 484 Hampshire Co., MA, 65 Hageman, John F., 12 Hampton, CT, 123 Hagerstown, MD, 203, 421; St. John's Parish (Episcopal), 421 Hampton, Wade, 71-72 Hagerstown Academy, MD, 203, 421-22 Handy, Mary, 453-54 Hagley (estate), VA, 293, 294, 295 Handy, Sally. See Wilson, Sally Handy Haig, Elizabeth (Eliza) Maria. See Young, Handy, Samuel, 453-54 Elizabeth (Eliza) Maria Haig Hanna, James (1777), 479 Haig, George, 536 Hanna, John (1755), 479 Half-breed (Cherokee Indian), 52 Hanna, John Andre (1782), 479 Half-Way Covenant, 123-24 Hanna, Mary McCrea, 479 Halifax, NC, 214, 288, 289 Hanna, William R. (1790), 479-80, 356 Halifax, Nova Scotia: U.S. consul at, 278; Hannah (slave), 22 U.S. plans for conquest, 524 Hannibal: Cliosophic Society Halifax Co., NC, 288 pseudonym, 285

Greenough, Ebenezer, 227 Greensburg, PA, 261 Greenville, MI, 116 Greenville, Treaty of (1795), 450 Greenwich, Cumberland Co., NJ, 148 Greenwich, Sussex (now Warren) Co., NJ: Presbyterian church, 194 Gregg, Andrew, 339 Grenada, island of, 200 Griffin, Elizabeth. See Adams, Elizabeth Griffin Griffith, William, 190 Grimke, John Faucheraud, 472 Griswald, Edward, 309 Griswold, John, 398 Griswold, Matthew, 398 Griswold, Roger, 131, 239 Griswold, Sarah. See Gardiner, Sarah Griswold Griswold, Sarah Diodote, 398 Griswold v. Waddmglon, 311 Guadaloupe, island of, 201 Gualdo, Frances. See Ford, Frances Gualdo Gualdo, Giovanni, 29 Guayaquil (in modern Ecuador), 50 Guilford Manor (estate), NJ, 488 Gunby, Anna Drummond. See Wilson, Anna Drummond Gunby Gunby, John, 454 Gustine, Lemuel, 234 Gustine, Sarah. See Snowden, Sarah Gustine Guy Park (estate), NY, 85

578

INDEX

Hanover, NJ, 253, 262, 367, 370; Presbyterian church, 255 Hanover, VA: Presbytery of, 128 Hanover Neck, NJ, 369 Hanover Township, NJ, 262, 364 Hanover Township, PA, 160; Presbyterian church, 160 Hanson, Samuel, 194, 389 Hanson & Priestly (mercantile firm), 194 Hardenbergh, Jacob R., 21 Hardwick, NJ: Presbyterian church, 1920, 194 Hardy, Sir Thomas, 397 Harlem, Battle of, 47 Harlem, NY, 277 Harlingen, NJ, 57 Harmar, Josiah, 428, 449 Harned, Josiah, 444 Harper, Catherine Carroll, 78 Harper, Charles, 78 Harper, Diana Goodloe, 67, 69, 71 Harper, Elizabeth. See Hyde, Elizabeth Harper Harper, Emily, 78 Harper, Frances, 71 Harper, Jesse, 67-71 Harper, Robert, 78 Harper, Robert Goodloe (1785), 67-83, xxvii, 83, 86-87, 400; letters to from alumni, 40, 42, 83-84, 99; letters to from undergraduates, 86-87, 135, 24445, 288, 400, 423, 441 Harriott, John Ouldfield. See Heriot (Harriott), John Ouldfield (1789) Harris, Aletta Schenck, 481 Harris, Charles (brother of Samuel), 197 Harris, Charles (father of Samuel), 197 Harris, Charles E. (1882), 481 Harris, Charles Wilson (1792), 197, 266n Harris, Elizabeth Thompson Baker, 197 Harris, Franklin V. (1880), 481 Harris, Gertrude Freiinghuysen, 481 Harris, Henry S. (1870), 481 Harris, Henry Schenck, 481 Harris, Isaac, 480, 481 Harris, Israel (1790), 480-81, 356 Harris, Jane Mcllhenny, 197 Harris, John, 161 Harris, Margaret. See Voorhees, Margaret Harris Harris, Margaret Pierson, 480 Harris, Robert, 197 Harris, Samuel (1787), 197-98, 178-79, 432, 452 Harris, Thomas R. (1788), 264 Harrisburg, PA, 160, 161, 162, 224, 234, 236, 344, 345, 346; Presbyterian church, 234, 235-36

Harrisburg and Presque Isle Company, PA, 161 Harrisburg Bank, PA, 161 Harrison, Margery. See Gibbs, Margery Harrison Harrison, Nancy Symms, 372 Harrison, Ruth. See Condict, Ruth Harrison Harrison, William Henry, 356, 372 Harrow, Rebecca. See Southard, Rebecca Harrow Hart, John, 247 Hart, Joseph, 247 Hart, Joshua (1770), 94n Hart, Levi, 123 Hart, Mary. See Woolsey, Mary Hart Hart, Simon, 347 Hart family, 247 Hartford, CT, 107, 395 Harvard College, MA: age of alumni at death, lv; attendance at by father of CNJ alumnus, 140; classics unpopular at, xliv; degrees awarded, number of, xxviii; degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 167, 277, 296, 494, 499; ministry, percentage of graduates entering, xxxiv; rejected in favor of CNJ by MA resident, 97; and rote memorization, xxv; transfer to from CNJ, xlni, 123 Harvey, Adolphus John, 482-84 Harvey, Amelia Tucker, 482 Harvey, Anne. See Tucker, Anne Harvey Harvey, Augustus William (1790), 482-84 Harvey, Eugenhis, 484 Harvey, John, 482 Harvey, Judith. See Cooper, Judith Harvey Harvey, Samuel T., 482 Harvey, Sarah Riddell, 482 Hastings, Selina Shirley, Countess of Huntingdon, 95n Hatboro, PA, 335, 336, 346 Hatfield, Abigail. See Vergereau, Abigail Hatfield Hatfield, Abigail Price, 159 Hatfield, Cornelius, 159 Hatfield, Moses, 159 Haughton, Thomas B., 422 Havens, James, 396 Havens, Julia. See Gardiner, Julia Havens Hawkins, Benjamin (1777), 56, 70, 332 Hawkins, Joseph (1777), 56 Hayes (plantation), SC, 46n Hayne, Isaac, 471 Hays (estate), VA, 292, 293 Haywood, John, 69 Hazard, Catherine Clarkson, 252, 470 Hazard, Ebenezer (1762), 252, 470 Hazard, Samuel, 252, 470

INDEX Hebrew language, 262 Hedge, Samuel Fenwkk, 488 Hegeman, Joseph W., 323 Hempstead, NY, 159, 309 Henderson, Catherine. See Imlay, Catherine Henderson Henderson, Isaac F., 265 Henderson, James, 129, 467 Henderson, John, 390 Henderson, Joseph Washington (1776), 266n Henderson, Lydia Ridgely. See English, Lydia Ridgely Henderson Henderson, Margaret, 265 Henderson, Margaret Miller, 266n Henderson, Matthew, ST., 264 Henderson, Matthew (1788), 264-66 Henderson, Matthew (Allegheny Co., PA), 265n Henderson, Matthew (Cumberland Co., PA), 265-66n Henderson, Matthew (Philadelphia, PA), 265n Henderson, Matthew (Washington Co., PA), 265n Henderson, Rachel, 264 Henry, Charlotte Seton, 85 Henry, David, 469 Henry, E. (1796), 83 Henry, Elizabeth Vernor, 83 Henry, Eliza Wilkes, 85 Henry, James (1794), 83 Henry, James Vernor (1815), 85 Henry, Jane. See Short, Jane Henry Churchill Henry, John (1769), 83 Henry, John (of MD), 520 Henry, John (of OH), 469 Henry, John Vernor (1785), 83-85, 40, 42, 99, 312 Henry, Louis D. (1809), 120 Henry, Mary. See Symmes, Mary Henry Halsey Henry, Mary Rosbrough, 469 Henry, Patrick, 128, 284, 525 Henry, Peter Seton, 85 Henry, Robert, 469 Henry, Robert, Jr., 83 Henry, Samuel (1791), 356 Henry Co., T N , 108-09 Henry Co., VA, 24n Heriot, Janet, 399 Heriot (Harriott), John Ouldfield (1789), 399-402, 70, 83, 365, 446; undergraduate letters of, 87, 259, 400, 413n, 423, 441,466 Heriot, Martha Ann Kirkpatrick, 401 Heriot, Mary Ouldfield, 399, 400, 401

579

Heriot, Robert, 70, 399, 400, 401 Heriot, Robert (1792), 70, 399, 401 Heriot, Susanna Mann. See Brownfield, Susanna Mann Heriot Heriot, William, 399 Heriot and Tucker (mercantile firm), 399 The Hermitage (estate), DE, 305 Herodotus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 266 Hertford Co., NC, 291 Hiester, John Sylvanus (1794), 95n, 204, 346 Hiester, Joseph, 95n, 345, 346 Higbee, Sarah. See Milnor, Sarah Higbee Higginson, Francis, 198 Higginson, Nathaniel Cabot (1787), 198201, xvii, 175-76, 229-31 Higginson, Sarah (Sally) Rhea. 5 « Astley, Sarah (Sally) Rhea Higginson Higginson, Stephen, 198, 201 Higginson, Susan Cleveland, 198 Hill, Milcah. See Airey, Milcah Hiu Gale Hillsborough, NC, 55, 56 Hillsborough, NJ, 481 Hillsborough Academy, NC, 55-56 Hillyer, Asa, 351 Hindman, Elizabeth. 5«« Perry, Elizabeth Hindman Hindman, Jacob, 431 Hindman, Mary Trippe, 431 Hindman, William, 259 Historical Account of the First Settlement of Salem in West Jersey, An (Robert Gibbon Johnson), 493 historical societies, 11, 170, 410, 461, 493 Historic Hope Foundation, NC, 292n history: at academies, 353; alumni own works of, 170n; alumni write works of, 207, 334, 398, 411, 459-60, 461, 493, 500, 501; faculty in at other colleges, 287; postgraduate study of, 91-92, 193, 371 history, natural. See natural history History of Long Island (Benjamin F. Thompson), 461 "History of the Steamboat Case ..., A" (Lucius Horatio Stockton), 240 H.M.S. (vessel). See under individual vessel's name Hobart, John Henry (1793), xvii, xxi, xlii, 389, 420, 531 Hobart College, NY, 406 Hobcaw (estate), SC, 219 Hobson, Elizabeth Williamson. 5«« Stone, Elizabeth Williamson Hobson Hobson, Francis, 288 Hodgdon, Samuel, 226 Hodge, Abraham, 173

580

INDEX

Hodge, Agnes. See Bayard, Agnes Hodge Hodge, Andrew (1772), 4, 9 Hodge, Hugh (1773), 4, 9 Hodge, Margaret. See Bayard, Margaret Hodge Hodge and Blanchard (mercantile firm), 173 Hodge and Wills (mercantile firm), 174 Hoffman, Josiah O., 267 Hogarth: possible middle name of alumnus, 30n Hoge, Moses, 129 Hoge, Susannah Watkins Hunt, 128, 129 Holland. See Netherlands Holland Land Company (NY and PA), 259-61, 268 HoUingsworth, Jesse, 485 HoUingsworth, John (1790), 484-85, xlii HoUingsworth, John (of Baltimore, MD), 485 HoUingsworth, John (of Elk landing, MD), 485 HoUingsworth, John (of Queen Annes Co., MD), 485 HoUingsworth, Mary Evans, 485 HoUingsworth, Rachel Wilkins, 485 HoUingsworth, Robert (1849), 485 HoUingsworth, Sinai Ricketts, 485 HoUingsworth, William (1837), 485 HoUingsworth, Zebulon, 485 Holmes, AUen S. (1788), 266-67 Holmes, Joseph, 266n Holmes, Rebecca Hunter, 266n Holmes, Samuel AUen, 266-67n Holmes v. United States, 504-05 Holston, Treaty of (1791), 51 Home, John, 316 Homer: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 100; works not valued by alumnus, 497; works read at CNJ, xxiv homosexuality (possible), 188-89, 381-82 honey, 427 Hooe, Lucy Thornton. See Taliaferro, Lucy Thornton Hooe Hooker, Edward, 360, 362, 523 Hooker, Thomas, 234 Hooper, Robert L., 415 Hooper, William, 55-56 hoop playing, 167 Hope (estate), NC, 288, 289, 292 Hopewell, NJ, 247, 323; Presbyterian church, 227 HopeweU, SC, 514 HopeweU, Treaty of (1785), 51, 53 HopeweU, VA, 256 HopeweU Township, NJ, 126 HopeweU Township, PA, 265n

Hopkins, Ann Ross, 34, 35 Hopkins, George Ross, 35 Hopkins, George Washington, 35 Hopkins, Horatio Nelson, 35 Hopkins, James (1784), 34-36 Hopkins, James Montesquieu, 35 Hopkins, John, 34, 35n Hopkins, John, Jr., 34, 35 Hopkins, Samuel, 1-li Hopkins, Sarah Clemson, 34 Hopkinton, MA, 123-24 Horace: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 252; works read at CNJ, xxiv Horry, Elias, 362 Horry, Elias Lynch, 362 Horry, Margaret. See Deas, Margaret Horry Horry, Peter, 207 Horseshoe Bend, Battle of, 334 Horsey, Outerbridge, 307 Horticultural Society of London, 409 Horticultural Society of New York, 409 Hosack, Alexander, 402, 411 Hosack, Alexander Eddy, 411 Hosack, Catharine Warner, 411 Hosack, David (1789), 402-12, xxi, xli, xlii, 312, 371, 432 Hosack, Emily. See Rodgers, Emily Hosack Hosack, Jane Arden, 402 Hosack, Magdalena Coster, 411 Hosack, Mary Eddy, 411 Hosack, William Arden (1792), xxi, xlii, 402 hospitals, 403, 404, 410 Hostilius: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 303 House, Mary, 220 House of Refuge (Baltimore, MD), 134 Houston, William Churchill (1768), xxvii How, Thomas Yardley (1794), lvi Howe, Abraham, 123 Howe, Anne Vail. See Schaw, Anne Vail Howe Howe, Appleton, 124 Howe, Job, 486 Howe, Lucy Appleton, 123 Howe, Nathaniel (1786), 123-24, xhn, lvi Howe, OUve Jones, 124 Howe, Robert, 486 Howe, Sir William, 42 Howe, William Tryon (1790), 486 Howell, Andrew, 515 HoweU, David (1766), xx HoweU, Eliza. See Tenbrook, Eliza HoweU HoweU, Fanny Coleman, 268 HoweU, Hezekiah, Jr., 267

INDEX Howell, John Grieg (1833), 268 Howell, Juliana WoodhuU, 267, 530 Howell, Nathaniel WoodhuU (1788), 267-69, 530 Howell, Richard, 59, 490 Howell, Sally Chapin, 268 Huger, Anne. See Laight, Anne Huger Huger, Benjamin, 413 Huger, Benjamin J. (1850), 413 Huger, Daniel (first cousin), 413n Huger, Daniel (uncle), 311, 413 Huger, Daniel Elliott (1798), 311, 413 Huger, Daniel Lionel (1789), 412-13, 311, 423, 441 Huger, Elizabeth Chalmers, 412 Huger, Isaac, 412, 413 Huger, Jacob Motte (1793), 311, 413 Huger, John, 413 Huger, Sabina Elliott, 311 Huger, Sabina Elliott, Jr. See Wells, Sabina Elliott Huger Hugg, Elizabeth, 125 Hugg, John, 125 Hugg, Joseph, 125 Hugg, William King (1786), 125, 135 Hughes, Daniel, 202 Hughes, John, 202 Hughes, Rebecca Lux, 202 Hughes, Robert (1787), 202-03, 174 Hughes, Samuel, 202 Hughes, Samuel (1792), 202, 203 Hughes, Susanna Purviance, 203 Huguenot ancestry, 335, 362, 402, 413, 512, 526 Humane Society, New York, NY, 409 Humane Society, Philadelphia, PA, 96 Hume, David: Walter Minto studies with, xxvii; works read by alumnus, 371 Hungerford, John P., 294, 295 Hunt, Benjamin Van Cleve (1794), 126, 127 Hunt, Daniel, 126 Hunt, Eleanor (Elener) Van Cleve Van Lue, 126 Hunt, Eunice Edwards Pollock, 146, 212, 214n Hunt, Holloway Whitefield (1794), xxx Hunt, James, Sr., 128 Hunt, James (1759), 127, 128, 129 Hunt, James Green (1783), 521 Hunt, Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah) Phillips Lott, 507, 508 Hunt, Lydia Eyre, 126 Hunt, Nathaniel, 508 Hunt, Nathaniel (1793), 508 Hunt, Ralph (1786), 126-27 Hunt, Ruth Hall, 127

581

Hunt, Sarah Taylor, 521 Hunt, Susannah Watkins. See Hoge, Susannah Watkins Hunt Hunt, Thomas Poague, 129 Hunt, William Pitt (1786), 127-29, 127n Hunter, Andrew (1772), 179, 233, 266n Hunter, Andrew Stockton (1794), Ivi Hunter, Mary Stockton, 237, 239, 242 Hunter, Rebecca. See Holmes, Rebecca Hunter Hunter, William, 89, 403 Hunterdon Co., NJ, 30, 45, 121, 122, 126, 126, 154, 155, 157, 191, 241, 247, 269, 479, 507; medical society, 45; Second Regiment, militia, 508 hunting, 360, 515 Huntingdon, Countess of. See Hastings, Selina Shirley, Countess of Huntingdon Huntingdon, PA, 95n Huntingdon, Presbytery of, 236, 313-14 Huntingdon Co., PA, 95n Huntington, NY, xxi, 107, 455, 45861; historical society, 461; Huntington High School, 461; Old Hill Burial Ground, 461; Presbyterian church, 461 Hunt's Mills, NJ, 126 Huntting, Hester White. See Darbe, Hester White Huntting Hutchins, Anthony, 417-18 Hutchins, Benjamin (father), 487 Hutchins, Benjamin (son), 487 Hutchins, Hanna Morgan, 419n Hutchins, Henry Joseph, 487-88 Hutchins, Jane Simmons, 487 Hutchins, John (cousin), 418 Hutchins, John (grandfather), 414 Hutchins, Joseph, 487 Hutchins, Margaret, 414 Hutchins, Margaret (Magdalen) Pintard, 414 Hutchins, Mary Mission, 487 Hutchins, Priscilla Mason, 419n Hutchins, Susannah, 414-15 Hutchins, Thomas, Sr., 414-18, 425 Hutchins, Thomas (1789), 414-19, 425, 426,444 Hutchins and Clements (mercantile firm), 487 Hutchinson, Titus (1794), xxviii, xli Hutson, Esther Maine, 472 Hutson, Mary Woodward. See Colcock, Mary Woodward Hutson Hutson, Richard (1765), 24 Hutson, Thomas, 472 Huyck, Catherine. See Wood, Catherine Huyck

582

INDEX

Hyde, Elizabeth Harper, 71 Hyde, John Henry (1808), 79 Hyde, Robert, 71 Hyde Park, NY, 409 Imlay, Catherine Henderson, 129 Imlay, James, 131-32n Imlay, James Henderson (1786), 129-32 Imlay, John, 129, 132n Imlay, Margaret. See Clark, Margaret Imlay Imlaystown, NJ, 129-30 impeachments: of alumnus for intemperance (SC), 206-07; Blount, William, 6, 53, 131, 330, 332; Chase, Samuel, 79, 279, 338, 339; Findlay, William, 346; McKean, Thomas (PA), 340; Nicholson, John (PA), 200; PA judges (1805), 338-39; PA judges (1817), 346; Pickering, John, 79, 327; to remove Federalist judges, 498 Incompatibility Act (PA), 338 Independence Day orations. See July Fourth orations Indian agents, 51-53, 332, 415, 425, 44348 Indians: agricultural techniques, 460; at CNJ, 1, li-lii; efforts to "civilize," 45657. See also individual nations; White Eyes, George Morgan (1789) influenza, 534 IngersoU, Charles Jared (1799), 5, 348 Ingersoll, Jared, Jr., 5 IngersoU, Joseph Reed (1804), 5 insanity, 149, 246 Institutio Ugalis, Newark, NJ: membership in, 27-28, 40-41, 238, 356, 510 insurance companies, 412, 470, 497 intemperance: alumnus impeached for, 206-07. See also College of New Jersey, student infractions; temperance internal improvements, 377, 378, 453, 501. See abo canals; railroads; turnpikes inventions: patents for issued, 276 Ipswich, MA, 123; Linebrook Parish Church, 123 Iredell, Anne, 347 Iredell, James, 56 Iredell, Mary, 347 Iredell, Oliver, 347 Iredell, Robert, 347 Iredell Co., NC, 135 Ireland: emigrants from, 99, 100, 135, 154-55, 160, 167, 197, 210, 264, 275, 311, 424 ironmasters, 26-27, 202, 369, 376, 382 Iroquois Six Nations, 443

Irvine. See Irwin Irving, Mrs. (of NC), 422 Irving, Bridget Philburn, 422 Irving, George, 419 Irving, Grace, 419 Irving, Thomas, 419 truing, Thomas Pitt (1789), 419-22, xlii, 203, 385, 453 [rvington, NJ, 175 Irwin (Irvine), Elizabeth Muhlenberg, 204 Irwin (Irvine), Esther Mifflin, 204 Irwin, John (1787), 203-05 Irwin (Irvine), John Hiester, 204 Irwin (Irvine), John Mifflin, 204 Irwin, John W. See Irwin (Irvine), John Mifflin Irwin (Irvine), Matthias (Matthew), 204 Irwin (Erwin), Nathaniel (1770), 204n Isle of Wight Co., VA, 516, 517 Israel Hill (estate), VA, 284 Italian language, 474 Italy: travel in, 147; wife from, 29 Ives, Isaac, 370 [ackson, Andrew, 81, 120, 299-300, 301, 333-34, 356, 377, 379-82, 453, 505 [ackson, Jonathan, 199 facksonboro, SC, 471 [acksonian-Democratic Party: membership in, 356, 379, 453 famaica, island of, 200, 399, 415, 503, 513 [amaica, NY, 309; Grace Episcopal Church, 218 fames, Elizabeth, 207 fames, John, 205 James, William Dobeian (1787), 205-08, 275-76 fames Stuart, Duke of York, 459 fane (slave), 255 farvis, John Wesley, ix fassamine Co., KY, 211 fay, John, xxvi, 10, 43, 84, 119, 309 fay, Mrs. John (Sarah Livingston), 139 fay Treaty, 10, 39, 74-75, 80, 224, 231, 436 fefferson, Maria (Polly). See Eppes, Maria (Polly) Jefferson fefferson, Martha. See Randolph, Martha Jefferson fefferson, Martha Wayles, 258n fefferson, Thomas: appointments, 224, 327; and Burr conspiracy, 430; correspondence with, 501, 502; election of 1796, 75; election of 1800, 7, 77-78, 289, 373-74, 376; election of 1804, 293, 453; embargo of 1808, 142; eulogy for, 503; favors states' rights jurispru-

INDEX

583

dence, 501; friends and acquaintances, Johnson, Robert Gibbon (1790), 488-94, xxi, xlv 294, 384; and internal improvements, Johnson, Sarah Bennett, 497 273; as minister to France, 216; politJohnson, Sarah Furman, 30 ical supporters, 39, 133, 172, 333; as Johnson, Sarah Nightingale Amory, 494, president, 327, 498, 499; presidential patronage, 515; proposed third 497 term, 340; relatives, 258n, 281, 283; Johnson, Thomas P., 130 in retirement, 500, 501; as secretary of Johnson, William, 494-95, 496 state, 52, 204; visits to in retirement, Johnson, Sir William, 272 378-79; writes Notes on the State of Vir- Johnson, William, Jr. (1790), 494-507, ginia, liin xlviii, liii, 362, 525 Jefferson Co., KY, 468 Johnson Co., NC, 326 Johnson Guards, NJ, 494 Jefferson Co., MS, 116 Johnson Hall (estate), NJ, 491 Jefferson Co., VA (now WV), 392 Johnston (Johnson), Abel (1784), 36-37 Jennings, Henry (1789), 422-23 Johnston, Andres, 36n Jennings, Jacob, 423 Johnston, Edward. See Johnson Jennings, Jonathan, 423 Jennings, Zebulon, Jr., 422 (Johnston), Edward (1786) Johnston, Dr. John, 36n Jennings, Zebulon, Sr., 423 Johnston, John (1758), 36n Jerseyville, IL, 509 Johnston, Mary Oakley. See Stewart, Jerusalem, MD, 203 Johnes, Abigail Joline Blanchard, 173 Mary Oakley Johnston Johnston, Philip (1759), 155 Johnes, Alexander (1791), 466 Johnston, Samuel, 155 Johnes, Anne Stevens. See Lewis, Anne Johnstown, NY, 458 Stevens Johnes Johnes, Theodosia. See Ford, Theodosia Joline, John, 172 Joline, John (1775), 58-59, 172 Johnes Joline, Mary. See Woodruff, Mary Joline Johnes, Timothy, 26, 173 Jones, CantweU (1787), 208-10, 222-23 Johnes, William (1776), 26 Jones, Charles Colcock, 474n Johns, Ann Van Dyke, 304 Jones, John, 124, 208 Johns, Kensey, 304-05 Jones, Mary. See Patterson, Mary Jones Johns, Van Dyke, 305 Johnson, Abel. See Johnston (Johnson), Jones, Mary Cantwell, 208 Jones, Millicent. See Colcock, Millicent Abel (1784) Jones Johnson, Ana Hayes, 502 Johnson, Anna. See Scott, Anna Johnson Jones, Olive. See Howe, Olive Jones Jones, Samuel, 101, 395 Johnson, Ann Arnold, 132 Jones, Sarah, 208, 209 Johnson, Ann Ploughman, 134 Jones, Thomas, Sr., 440 Johnson, Dr. Edward, 132, 133 Johnson (Johnston), Edward (1786), 132-35,Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, 380 Jones Co., NC, 326 113,230 Jordan, John (1793), xlv, xlviii Johnson, Elizabeth McCubbin, 134 Judiciary Act (1801), 7-8 Johnson, Hannah Carney, 490 Johnson, Jane. See McCrady, Jane John- July Fourth celebrations, xx, 344, 356, 377, 499. See also College of New Jerson sey, orations (July Fourth) Johnson, Jane Gibbon, 488 jurisprudence, natural. See natural Johnson, John, 30 jurisprudence Johnson, Col. John, 504 "Juvenile Performance on the Subject of Johnson, Sir John, 272 Indian Civilization, A" (Silas Wood), 456 Johnson, John (of Somerset Co., NJ), 37n Johnson, Julianna Elizabeth ZanUdger, Kearny, Mary. See Livingston, Mary 490-91 Kearny Johnson, Margaret, 488 Keith, Mary Randolph. See Marshall, Johnson, Maria Coffal, 134 Mary Randolph Keith Johnson, Richard, 488 Kelsey, Enos (1760), 12 Johnson, Robert (father), xlv, 488, 489, Kemp, John, 331 490 Kendall, Anne. See Custis, Anne Kendall Johnson, Robert Carney, 493-94

584

INDEX

Kennedy, Samuel (1754), 387 Kent, James, 296-97, 298, 299 Kent Co., DE, 251 Kent Co., England, 31 Kentucky: surveying expedition (1783), 67 Ker, Anne Livermore, 86 Ker, Esther Wilson, 353 Ker, Hugh (1794), liv Ker, Jacob (1758), 353, 354 Ker, Margaret See Collins, Margaret Ker Ker, Nathan (1761), 85-86, 144-45 Ker, Oliver Livermore (1785), 85-87, 101, 144 Ketchum, Miss. See Brown, Mrs. Ketchum Key, Francis Scott, 185, 391 KUIbuck, John, 425, 443-45, 446, 448, 451 KUIbuck, Mrs. John, 444-45 KUIbuck, Thomas, 425, 444-45, 446, 448 KUIbuck (Delaware Chief), 444 Kilmarnock, Scotland, 516 Kinderhook, NY, 458 King, Andrew (1773), 135, 508 King, James, 135, 136 King, James (1807), 135 King, Mary Ross, 135 King, Richard, 135 King, Richard Hugg (1786), 135-37, xxxiv, lvi, 125 King, Robert, 135 King, Rufus, 102 King, Ruth Lott Snowden, 508 King, Sarah Hall, 135 King George Co., VA, 293, 294 King's College, NY: age of alumni at death, lv; medical faculty, 404; tinged with loyalism, xxiii; transfers to CNJ from, 118, 277. See also Columbia College, NY Kingston, NY, 57, 97, 98, 285, 286; Dutch Reformed church, 287 Kingston Academy, NY, 57, 97, 286-87 KJngwood, NJ: Presbyterian church, 479 Kip, Sarah. See Raddiff, Sarah Kip Kirkpatrick, Agnes, 401 Kirkpatrick, Andrew (1775), 293 Kirkpatrick, David, 274 Kirkpatrick, Hannah, 270 Kirkpatrick, Lettice, 270 Kirkpatrick, Margaret. See Evans, Margaret Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick, Margaret Piper. See Warford, Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick, Martha Ann. See Heriot, Martha Ann Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick, Robert, 401 Kirkpatrick, William, Jr., 274 Kirkpatrick, Mrs. William, 274 Kirkpatrick, William (1757), 269 Kirkpatrick, William (1788), 269-74 Kittanning, PA: Presbyterian church, 236 Kitten», John Wilkes (1776), 160, 161 Knap, Rachel. See Thew, Rachel Knap Knox, Mrs. (of Princeton, NJ), 229, 365 Knox, Henry, xxii, 51, 52, 427, 428 Knox Co., TN, 136 KnoxviUe, T N , 52, 331-34 Kollock, Henry Knox (1794), xxii, 172, 255, 351 Kollock, Shepard Kosciusko (1812), 172, 351 Kollock, Susan Arnett, 172, 351 Koquethagachton. See White Eyes (Koquethagachton) Kuhn, Adam, 404 Lacey, John, 335 Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de, 28, 134, 306; Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 264; toasted in Princeton, NJ, xviii Laight, Anne Huger, 311 Laight, Edward W., 311 Laird, Martha Elizabeth. See English, Martha Elizabeth Laird Lamington, NJ, 469 Lancaster, Joseph, 315 Lancaster, PA, 34, 235, 346, 504; bible society, 34; fire company, 34; Moravian school, 391; St. James Episcopal Church, 35 Lancaster Co., PA, 34, 35-36n, 53n, 160, 204, 215, 264, 491 Lancaster Co., VA, 294 Tanning, Jemima. See Smith, Jemima Lanning Lansing, John, Jr., 83 Lamed, S., 50 LaRoche, Anne. See Ouldfield, Anne LaRoche Latin language: at academies, 19, 187, 228, 235, 262, 285, 350, 353, 522; at CNJ, xxiv, xliv-xlv; at CNJ grammar school, 3-4, 126, 150, 326, 359, 361, 444, 455, 466, 513, 536; at commencements, 132, 225, 278, 304, 316; English translations preferred to, 497; faculty in at other colleges, 218, 287; fathers averse to sons' learning, xxxviixxxix; medical dissertations in, 221, 482; preparation of incoming students

INDEX

585

Lee, Henry, Jr., 500 in, 16, 208, 222, 262, 282, 369-70, 444, 474, 522; studied by private pupil Lee, Henry (1773), 133, 500 Lee, James, 434 of Samuel Stanhope Smith, 220; at undergraduate competitions, 68, 157, Leech, Ann. See Boileau, Ann Leech 238, 359, 455, 478, 496, 536; unpop­ Leech, Charlotte, 337 ular at Harvard College, MA, xliv; Leech, Hester. See Boileau, Hester Leech woman fluent in, xlix. See also Col­ Leeds Parish, VA, 441-42n lege of New Jersey, commencements— legal profession: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, orations, Latin salutatorians 545 Legardere, Ann. See Clay, Ann Latrobe, John Η. B., 79, 81-82 Legardere Lattimore, William, 116 Leghorn, 59 Laurens, Henry, 423, 467 Leib, Michael, 339-42 Laurens, Henry, Jr., 467 Leiden, University of. See University of Laurens, NY, 94n Leiden, the Netherlands Law of Nations (Emmerich de Vattel), 371 Leipzig, Battle of, 80 law reform: essays on at CNJ, xlix; ora­ tions on at commencements, 126, 192- Leisler, Jacob, 459 93; (in PA), 338, 339-40, 342; (in SC), Leith, Scotland, 361 Lemprier, Sarah Bond, 220 496 L'Engle, John, 497 Lawrence, (1789), 423, 413n, 441 L'Engle, Marie Madeleine, 497 Lawrence, Elizabeth (Eliza). See Wells, Lennox and Deas (mercantilefirm),361 Elizabeth (Eliza) Lawrence Lenoir Co., NC, 326, 329 Lawrence, Elizabeth Fish, 310 Leonidas: Cliosophk Society pseudonym, Lawrence, Nathaniel (1783), 310 257 Lawrence, Richard, 381 Lesley (Leslie) charitable fund, lii Lawrence, Thomas, 310 LawrencevHle, NJ, 30, 54, 157, 191, 193, Leslie, Alexander, 27 Leslie, George, 123 196, 225, 354-55, 388, 390, 438, 507; Presbyterian church, 30, 196. See also Letter from Gen. Harper..., A, 81 Letters Addressed to the Electors of Repre­ Maidenhead, NJ sentatives to Congress (Silas Wood), 457 Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial Lewes, Presbytery of, 353, 354 High School, NJ, 196 Lewis, Mr. (merchant), 189 Lawrenceville School, NJ, 195, 196, 355 Lotus of the College of New-Jersey ... (1794),Lewis, Andrew, 275 Lewis, Anne Montgomery, 275 xxiv, xlv Lawton, Mary Frampton Mathewes, 512 Lewis, Anne Stevens Johnes, 26 Lewis, Elizabeth Cabell, 276 Lawton, Winburn, 512 Lewis, Hannah Lemmon. See Woodruff, Leacock, PA, 529, 530 Hannah Lemmon Lewis Leacraft, Mr., 484 Lewis, Jacob, 61 Leake, Samuel (1774), 155 Lewis, John, 275 Leander (pseudonym of John Mifflin), Lewis, Joseph, 96, 365, 369n, 370 188 Lewis, Margaret. See Livingston, Mar­ Lear, Tobias, 449 garet Lewis Lebanon, NY, 66; Presbyterian church, Lewis, Margaret Beekman, 139 66 Lewis, Meriwether, 374 Lebanon Township, NJ, 126, 127; Sec­ Lewis, Mordecai, & Co., 401 ond Company of Militia, 126 Lewis, Morgan (1773), 139, 298 Leconte, Margaret (Margaretta). See Chapman, Margaret (Margaretta) Lewis, Stevens Johnes (1791), 26, 96, 173, 365, 370 LeConte Lewis, William, 275 LeConte, Peter, 350 LeConte, Peter (1797), 178, 198, 254, 350 Lewis, WimamJ. (1788),275-76, xxi, 205 Lexington, Battle of, xxviii LeConte, Valeria Eaton, 350 Lexington, KY, 116, 211 Ledbetter, Caroline Agnes. See Nicoll, Caroline Agnes Ledbetter libel suits, 38, 139-40, 310 Liberia, Africa, 81, 187 Ledbetter, Henry, 145 Liberty Co., GA, 479 Lee, Charles (1775), 17

586

INDEX

Liberty Hall Academy, NC, 135, 171, 205 libraries, congressional, 378 libraries, institutional, 410 libraries, personal, 32, 95n, 114, 130, 137, 155, 170n, 227, 273, 289, 294, 325, 371, 384, 404, 445, 447, 450, 46061, 481, 483, 506, 511 libraries, public: Charleston Library Society, SC, 515; Columbian Library, DC, 314; Erie, FA, 161; Georgetown Library Society, SC, 221, 536; Library Company of Baltimore, MD, 386; Morris Library Company or Association, NJ, 14; Salem, NJ, 492; Savannah Library Society, GA, 221; Trenton Public Library Company, NJ, 242 libraries, school and college, xxv, 86, 286, 497 Library Company of Baltimore, MD, 386 Life of General Francis Marion (Mason L. Weems), 207 Ligonier Valley, PA, 89, 92 Lima, Peru: U.S. consul at, 48-50 Lincoln Co., TN, 334 Lindsly, Philip (1804), 533 Linnxus (Karl von Linne), 404, 408 Linnean Society (England), 404 literary and debating societies and clubs, collegiate, 175, 313. See also American Whig Society, College of New Jersey; Cliosophic Society, College of New Jersey literary and debating societies and clubs, non-collegiate, 84, 309, 310, 410, 505 Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, NY, 410 Little Britain, NY, 144 Little Creek Hundred, DE, 251 Livermore, Anne. See Ker, Anne Livermore Livermore, Hannah. See Potter, Hannah Livermore Livermore, Samuel (1752), 85 Liverpool, England, 311, 404 Liverpool, HM.S., 222 Liverpool, PA: Presbyterian church, 235 Livingston, Ann. See Reyburn, Ann Livingston Livingston, Brockholst. 5«« Livingston, Henry Brockholst (1774) Livingston, Cornelia Schuyler, 277 Livingston, Edward (1781), 139 Livingston, Eliza Barclay, 277 Livingston, Elizabeth Beekman, 141 Livingston, Elizabeth Davenport. See Thompson, Elizabeth Davenport Livingston

Livingston, Gilbert, 296, 297 Livingston, Henry, 302 Livingston, Henry Brockholst (1774), 298, 299, 300 Livingston, Henry Walter, 277 Livingston, Jane McLean Paterson, 302 Livingston, Joanna, 38 Livingston, John, 168 Livingston, Margaret, 37, 138, 140, 278 Livingston, Margaret Beekman, 38 Livingston, Margaret Lewis, 139, 140, 298 Livingston, Mary Kearny, 278 Livingston, Maturin (1786), 137-40, xxi, 37, 38, 140, 175, 298, 364 Livingston, Peter R. (1758), 37, 140 Livingston, Peter Robert (1784), 37-39, 13740, 140, 364 Livingston, Peter Schuyler (1788), 277-78, XXX

Livingston, Peter William (1786), 140-41, 111-12, 138 Livingston, Robert (first proprietor of Livingston Manor, NY), 37 Livingston, Robert ("the Nephew"), 37 Livingston, Robert (third proprietor), 277 Livingston, Robert James, 37, 137, 138 Livingston, Robert R., 38, 240, 298 Livingston, Sarah. See Thompson, Sarah Livingston Livingston, Schuyler. See Livingston, Peter Schuyler (1788) Livingston, Schuyler, Jr., 278 Livingston, Susannah. See Armstrong, Susannah Livingston Livingston, Susannah Smith, 37, 137, 138, 364 Livingston, Thomas Barclay, 277-78 Livingston, Walter, 277 Livingston, William, xxii, Iiin Livingston, William Smith (1772), 37, 137, 138, 140, 364 Livingston boarding house (Princeton, NJ), 37-38, 138, 364 Livingston-Fulton steamboat company, 298 Livingston Manor, NY, 37, 140, 277 Livingston v. Van Ingen, 298 Locke, John: alumnus finds works too metaphysical, 497; works read by alumnus, 371 logic, xxiv, 208, 222, 287 Loller, Robert, 347 Loller Academy, Hatboro, PA, 347 London, England: family emigrated from, 414; father arrested in, 414;

INDEX father's travel to, 414, 415, 416; father studied medicine at, 89; studied medicine at, 403-04; U.S. diplomatic agent at, 10; visits to, xxvi-xxvii, 110, 216, 361 Londonderry, NH, 123 Long Island, NY, xxi, 23n, 30, 93, 94n, 107, 144, 159, 218, 247, 267, 285, 309, 310, 335, 369, 394, 395, 396, 397, 455, 457, 460; concern over migration from, 459; histories of, 398, 458, 45960, 461; Indians, 459, 460 Longstreet, Captain, 59 Long Swamp, NY, 460 Longuemare, Mary Frances de. See Bonneau, Mary Frances de Longuemare Lorenzo: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 251; pseudonym of James Gibson (1787), 189 Lott, Abraham, 364 Lott, Angella, 509 Lott, Ann Wetherill, 509 Lott, Catherine Ann, 509 Lott, Gershom, 507-08 Lott, John Wetherill, 509 Lott, Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah) Phillips. See Hunt, Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah) Phillips Lott Lott, Ralph Phillips (1790), 507-09 Lott, Ruth. See King, Ruth Lott Snowden Lott, William Phillips, 509 lotteries, xxvi, 1 Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, 402 Louisiana: British designs on, 332 Louisville, KY, 276, 468; Cone Hill Cemetery, 468 Louw, Margaret. See Ten Broeck, Margaret Louw Low, Cornelius (1752), 163n Low, Gertrude. See Wallace, Gertrude Low Low, Isaac, 163n Low, Nicholas (1757), 163n Low, Sarah. See Wallace, Sarah Low Lower Merion Township, PA, 424 Lowndes, William, 328 loyalism (alumni families), xxi, 516 Lucca, Italian republic of, 147 Lucian: works read at CNJ, xxiv Lucius, pseudonym of Richard Stockton (1748), 237 Lutheran Church, U.S.A.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv Lux, Rebecca. See Hughes, Rebecca Lux Luzerne Co., PA, 110, 190, 226 Lyall, David, 416, 426, 446 Lycoming Co., PA, 110, 161, 190, 226

587

Lydia S. English Seminary for Young Ladies, DC, 393 Lynchburg, VA, 276 Lyon, John, 161 Lyon, Matthew, 131, 378 Lysander: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 441 McAllister, Hannah Gibbons, 477 McAllister, Matthew (1779), 477 McCall, Mary Coxe. See Snowden, Mary CoxeMcCaU McCaule, Thomas H. (1774), 135 McCay, Spruce (1775), 136 McClanigan, George. See McClenachan, George (1789) McClenachan, Ann Darragh (Darrach), 424 McClenachan, Blair, 424 McClenachan, Deborah. See Stewart, Deborah McClenachan McClenachan, George (1789), 424-25 McClenachan, Mary Morris, 424 McClenachan, Morris, 424 McConky, Samuel, 386 McCoy, Charity Benson. See Cazier, Charity Benson McCoy McCoy (McKay), James (1785), 87-88, 65, 432 McCoy, Judge. See McCay, Spruce (1775) McCrady, Edward (grandson of John), 506 McCrady, Edward (son of John), 504 McCrady, Jane Johnson, 504 McCrady, John (1791), 504 McCrea, John (1762), 479 McCrea, Mary. See Hanna, Mary McCrea McCrea, Robert (1776), 479 McCubbin, Elizabeth. See Johnson, Elizabeth McCubbin McCulloch v. Maryland, 500 McDonald, John, 254 McDougaU (McDowell), F. William, 426 Macedonian, H.M.S., 329 McEven, Thomas, 369n McFarlan, Andrew, 529 McGee, Bennington R. (1905), 481 McGee, Francis Harris (1895), 481 McHenry, James, 145 McIIhenny, Jane. See Harris, Jane McIIhenny Mcllvaine, Joseph, 28 Mcllvaine, Margaret Rodman, 518 Mcllvaine, Rachel. See Ruan, Rachel Mcllvaine Mcllvaine, William, 518 Mcintosh, Lachlan, 443

588

INDEX

Magie, David (1817), 255 Mackall, Priscilla. See Bowie, Priscilla Magnum family, lii Mackatt Maidenhead, NJ, 30, 126, 157, 191, McKay, James. See McCoy (McKay), 225, 354-55, 390, 507; Presbyterian James (1785) church, 54, 157, 225, 438. See also McKay, James Iver, 88n Lawrenceville, NJ Mackay, Mary, 415 Maine, Esther. See Hutson, Esther Maine McKean, Thomas, 338, 339, 340, 376 Makemie Memorial Presbyerian Church, McKinly, John, 222 McKown, James, 85 MD, 454 McLane, Alan, 6 malaria, 332 McLane, Louis, 307, 505 Malbone, Edward Greene, 360 Maclay, Eleanor. See Wallace, Eleanor Malcolm, Frances. See Snowden, Frances Malcolm Maclay Malcolm, William, 439 Maclay, William, 161 MaUeville, Maria de. See von Beverhoudt, Maclean House, Princeton, NJ, xxviii Maria de MaUeville Suhm McMillan, Ephraim (1788), 278, xlii Manchester, England, 201 McMillan, John (1772), 278 Mann, Rev. Α. Α., 302 McNair, Ann. See Culbertson, Ann Mannington, NJ, 488 McNair Manokin, MD: Presbyterian church, 317, Macon, Mary Cary. See Marshall, Mary 354 Cary Macon Manokin Hundred, MD, 317 Macpherson, James: students familiar manufacturing (textile): father's occupa­ with works of, 211, 278 tion, 247 McQueen, Alexander, 513 Marbois, Francois, lii McQueen, Elizabeth, 513 Marchant, Frances Claudia Timothy, McQueen, Harriet. See MoreU, Harriet 527-28 McQueen Marchant, Peter Timothy (1791), 365, MacWhorter, Alexander (1757), 19, 39528 529 40, 54-55, 135, 253-54, 309, 402, 510, Marion, Francis, 205, 206, 207, 399-400, 511 536 McWkorter, Alexander Gumming (1784), 39Marion, Robert, 207 41, 28, 42, 54, 55, 83, 510 Markoe, Peter (1791), 323 McWhorter, Alexander Cumming, Jr. Marks, John, 374 (1812), 41 marl, as fertilizer, 492 McWhorter, George H. (1812), 41 Marlborough, Duke of. See Churchill, McWhorter, John G. (1790), 510-11, 40 McWhorter, Martha Dwight, 510 John, Duke of Marlborough MacWhorter, Mary dimming, 39, 40, Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, 468 510, 511 Man-, Elam (Alem), 227 McWhorter, Phebe Bruen, 41 "Marseillaise," xviii Maddox, Mary. See Wallace, Mary MadMarsh, Abigail Sutton, 143 dox Marsh, Amos, ST., 141-42 Madison, Dolley, 315, 377 Marsh, Amos (1786), 141-43 Madison, James (1771): attends agricul­ Marsh, Ann. See Forman, Ann Marsh tural shows, 315-16; in Confederation Congress, xx; election of 1812, 80, 102, Marshall, Alice Adams, 279 291; friends, 294; and Monroe inaugu­ Marshall, Charles, 279 Marshall, Jaquelin A. (1806), 280 ration, 377; political supporters, 133, Marshall, John, 112, 278, 279, 280, 284, 293; as president, 290, 315-16, 329, 334, 500; presidential appointments, 8; 301,311,341,498-501,506 presidential policies attacked, 133; as Marshall, John J. (1806), 280 secretary of state, 206, 339, 498, 499; Marshall, Maria Winston Price, 280 and War of 1812, 291 Marshall, Mary Cary Macon, 279 Madison Co., NY, 66 Marshall, Mary Randolph Keith, 278 Madrid, Spain, 360 Marshall, Thomas, 278, 279 Magazine of Wit: copy owned by alumnus, Marshall, Thomas (1803), 280 Marshall, William (1788), 278-80 170n

INDEX Marshall's Corner, NJ, 149 Martial: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 313 Martin, Alexander (1756), 56 Martin, Luther (1766), 317 Martinique, island of, 200, 201 Marvine, Antonio, xiv-xv Maryland: district judge, appointment as declined, 453; militia, Third Company of Ninth Regiment, 453; politics, 133; secretary of state, 319 legislature: alumni serve in, 319, 453, 521; clerk of senate, 431; fathers serve in, 132, 317, 431, 485, 520; possible alumnus serves in, 485; son serves in, 319 Maryland Colonization Society, 454 Maryville, TN, 137 Mason, Priscilla. See Hutchins, Priscilla Mason Mason, Thomas, 419n Mason, William, 528, 529 Mason-Dixon Line, 414 masonic order: Anti-Masonic Party, 35, 347-48; membership in, 103, 421, 509 Massachusetts: son serves in senate of, 124 Mastic, NY, 267 Matawan, NJ, 534 mathematics: at academies, 56, 353, 370, 420; algebra, xxiv, 101; arithmetic, xxiv; at CNJ, xxiv, xxvii, 55, 88, 97, 101, 174, 209, 222, 309, 435n; at commencements, 113, 435n; conic sections, xxiv; faculty in at other colleges, 266n, 331, 475; geometry, xix, xxiv, 88, 97, 101, 174; preparation of incoming students in, 16, 282, 314, 370, 444; trigonometry, xxiv Mathewes, John, 511 Mathewes, Mary Frampton. See Lawton, Mary Frampton Mathewes Mathewes, Mary Wragg, 511 Mathewes, William (1790), 511-12 Mathewes, William, Jr., 512 Matoax (estate), VA, 281 Matthews, Albert, 124n Mattison, Aaron, 365 Maury, Walker, 282 Maxwell, George Clifford (1792), 122, 155 Maxwell, Rachel Bryan, 122 Maxwell, William, 108 May Day (observed), 393 Mead, David, 260 Mead, Martha Meredith, 224 Meade, Andrew, 210

589

Meade, David, Sr., 210 Meade, David (1787), 210-12, xlii Meade, David (lived 1710-57), 210 Meade, Everard, 210 Meade, Richard Kidder, 210 Meade, Sarah Waters, 210 Meade, Susannah Everard, 210 Meade, William (1808), 210 MeadviUe, PA, 160, 260 Mecklenburg Co., NC, 171,197, 205, 510 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 171 Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, 132 Medical Association of Georgia, 29 Medical College of South Carolina, 473 Medical Institution of the State of New York, 406 medical profession: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 545 Medical Repository, NY, 407 medical societies, 29, 45, 132, 145, 216, 221, 248, 252, 324, 405, 434, 518. See also Medical Society of New Jersey Medical Society of Baltimore, MD, 132 Medical Society of New Jersey, 13-14, 44, 45, 151, 434, 480, 509; Middlesex County branch, 509 Medical Society of South Carolina, 216 Medical Society of the County of Albany, NY, 324 Medical Society of the County of New York, NY, 405 Meminger, Christopher G., 504 Mendham, NJ: Presbyterian church, 262 Mercer, PA, 261 Mercer Co., NJ, 30, 191, 195 Mercer Co., PA, 261 Merchant, Elizabeth Spencer, 53 Merchant, George (1779), 53, 416, 444 Merchant, Peter Timothy. 5«« Marchant, Peter Timothy (1791) Meredith, Elizabeth, xviii Meredith, Martha. See Read, Martha Meredith Meredith, Reese, 109, 176 Meredith, Samuel, 223 Meredith, Thomas, 110 merino sheep, 395 Merion Township, Lower, PA, 424 Mesabi Range, MN, 376 Methodist Church, U.S.A.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 546 Middlebrook, NJ, 481 Middlebury College, VT: degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 83, 85 Middle District, NY, 102

590

INDEX

Mobile, AL, 334 Middlesex Co., NJ, 118, 148, 151, 324, 394, 480, 509, 52 In; light horse troop, The Mock Doctor (Moliere, trans. Henry 507 Fielding), 421 Moffatt, John (1749), 144 Middlesex Co., VA, 468 Moliere (Poquelin, Jean Baptiste): play "Middlesex Farmer, A," 239-40 produced by alumnus, 421 Middle Spring, PA: Presbyterian church, MoUy (vessel), 200 265-66n Monck, George. See Albemarle, George Middleton, Thomas, 399 Monck, Duke of Middletown, NJ, 350 Monmouth, Batde of, 19, 113 Middletown Point, NJ, 534 Monmouth, NJ, 149n, 387, 390, 392 "midnight judges" (1801), 17 Mifflin, Esther. See Irwin (Irvine), Esther Monmouth Co., NJ, 19, 40, 113, 130, 192, 237, 247, 350, 386, 389, 389, 414, Mifflin 510 Mifflin, John, 188-89 Monroe, James, 81, 271, 276, 293, 294, Mifflin, Sarah Fishbourne. See Bordley, 295, 299, 300, 377, 500 Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin Monroe Doctrine, 300 Mifflin, Thomas, 177, 181, 188, 204 Monrovia, Liberia, Africa, 81 millennialists, 375 Montaukett, NY, 396 Miller, Margaret. See Henderson, MarMontauk Point, NY, 394 garet Miller Montclair, NJ, 355 Miller, Samuel, 535 Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Millerstown, PA: Presbyterian church, 235, 236 Baron: alumnus names son after, 35; Milligan, Robert, 177 works quoted or read by alumni, 371, 389 milling: family business, 424, 485 Montgomery, Alexander, 247, 248 Millstone, NJ, 481; Dutch Reformed Montgomery, Anne. See Lewis, Anne church, 481 Milnor, Elizabeth. See Stockton, Elizabeth Montgomery Milnor Montgomery, Martha. See Woolsey, Milnor, Joseph, 239 Martha Montgomery Montgomery, NY: academy, 267 Milnor, Joseph Kirkbride, II (1792), 239 Montgomery, Richard, 33 Milnor, Sarah Higbee, 239 Montgomery, Thomas, 248 Milton, John, 342; Cliosophic Society Montgomery, Thomas West, 247 pseudonym, 59 Montgomery Co., MD, 127, 128, 129, 319 Milton, PA, 227 Montgomery Co., NY, 458 Milwaukee, WI, 383 Montgomery Co., PA, 91, 92, 335, 336, mineral waters, 434 Mines, Flavell Scott, 534 338, 346, 347, 424 ministry (Protestant): alumni contribute Montgomery Co., TN, 332, 333, 334 little to, xxxiv-xxxv, lv-lvi; denominaMontgomery County Bible Society, PA, tions chosen by alumni, xxxv, 546; per347 centage of graduates entering, xxxiv Montgomery County poor house, PA, 347 Montgomery County Temperance SociMinto, Walter, xxvii, xlix, 403, 452 ety, PA, 347 Minto essay and medal, xlix Montgomery Courthouse, MD, 128 miracles, 532 Montgomery Republican, NY, 458 Mission, Mary. See Hutchins, Mary MisMonticello (estate), VA, 378 sion Montreal, Canada, 86, 272, 383 missionary societies, 149, 533 Montserrat, bland of, 200 Mississippi Blues, 117n Moody, Thomas, 444 Mississippi Territory: land claims, 11417, 417-18; legislature, alumnus serves Moon, Mary, 415 Moon, Sarah, 415 in, 115; politics of, 115-16 Moore, Anne Merritt. See Purdie, Anne Missouri Compromise (1820), 34, 299, Merritt Moore 300, 307, 378, 392, 459, 501, 502 Moore, Merritt, 517 Mitchill, Samuel Latham, 405 Moore, Rebecca. See Smith, Rebecca Mix, Hannah. See Crane, Hannah Mix Mix, Timothy, 355 Moore

INDEX

591

moot courts, 128. See also Institutio legalis,Morris Co., NJ, 14, 26-29, 253, 255, 262, Newark, NJ 263n, 364, 366, 369, 376, 480 moral philosophy. See philosophy, moral Morris County Society for the Promotion Moravian missionaries, 442, 443, 444, of Agriculture and Domestic Manufac446, 451 tures, NJ, 14 Moravian schools, 391, 534 Morris Library Company or Association, Morayshire, Scotland, 402 NJ, 14 Morel, Bryan. See Morell (Morel), Bryan Morristown, NJ: born at, 13, 26; edu(1790) cated at, 167, 369-70; farm near, 364, Moreland Township, PA, 335 369; fire company, 14; historical sociNlorell (Morel), Bryan (1790), 512-13 ety meets at, 493; iron manufacture, Morell, Bryan McQueen (1821), 513 26-27; lawyers, 28, 365; newspapers, Morell, Elizabeth, 512 369, 373; Presbyterian church, 26, 184, Morell, Harriet McQueen, 513 375; Presbytery of New York meets at, Morell, Isaac, 512 254; reception for Lafayette, 28; reliMorell, John, 512 gious crisis at, 375-76; residents, 26-29, Morell, Mary Bryan. See Wylly, Mary 179, 255, 368, 369n; in Revolutionary War, 27, 167; schools, xl-xli, 179-80; Bryan Morell socializing at, 374; studied law at, 27, Morgan, Anne (Nancy). See Gibbes, Anne 371; travel to and from, 96, 372, 379; (Nancy) Morgan turnpikes, 28; wife from, 255 Morgan, Col. George, 70, 109, 176, 41517, 418, 425-30, 438, 443-49, 476, 477 Morristown National Historical Park, NJ, Morgan, George (1795), 70, 425, 476 27 Morgan, Hanna. See Hutchins, Hanna Morris Turnpike Company, NJ, 28 Morgan Morrisville, PA, 110 Morgan, Dr. John, 425, 427 Morton, George Washington (1792), xliv Morgan, John (1789), 425-30, 70, 417, Morven (estate), NJ, 237, 238 448, 449-50, 476, 477 Mosby, Elizabeth Netherland, 143 Morgan, Margaret Bunyan, 429 Mosby, Littleberry, 143 Morgan, Mary Boynton, 425,448 Mosby, Mary Vaughan (Vaughn), 144 Morgan, Thomas (1804), 70, 425, 429, Mosby, Richard (1786), 14344 430 Mott, Valentine, 408, 505 Morganza (estate), PA, 418, 429, 477 Mount Athos (estate), VA, 276 Morris, Anne (Nancy) Cary Randolph, Mount Holyoke College, MA, xlix Mrs. Gouverneur. See Randolph, Anne Mount Pleasant, SC, 215 (Nancy) Cary Mount Pleasant (estate), Bermuda, 482-84 Morris, Augustus, 43 Mount Sion (Zion) College, SC: transfers Morris, Gouverneur, 405, 500 from to CNJ, xlii, 522 Morris, Helen Van Cortlandt, 43, 44 Muhlenberg, Elizabeth. See Irwin Morris, Isaac, 424 (Irvine), Elizabeth Muhlenberg Morris, James (1784), 42-44, xxi, 69, 83, Muhlenberg, Frederick Augustus Con87 rad, 204 Morris, Lewis (1805), 42,43-44 Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel, 204 Morris, Lewis, IV (1774), 42, 43-44 Mulford, David, 394, 397 Morris, Lewis, the Signer, 42, 43, 44n Mulford, William, 494n Morris, Mary. See McClenachan, Mary Mulligan, Miss . See Whaley, Mrs. Morris Mulligan Morris, Mary Walton, 42 Mulligan, Cook, 99 Morris, Meribah, 424 Mulligan, Thomas, 99, 100 Morris, Robert, 110, 189, 190, 401, 424, murder, 470n; of alumnus, lv, 116. See 444 also duels Morris, William Elliot (1805), 42, 43-44 Murfreesboro, TN, 333 Morris Academy, NJ, 14, 28 Murray, Francis, 28 In Morris & Nicholson (mercantile firm), 71- Murray, John. See Dunmore, John Mur72 ray, Earl of, 28 In Morrisania (estate), NY, 42 Murray, John (1788), 280-81 Morris Aqueduct, NJ, 28 Murray, John Dormer, 280-81n

592

INDEX

Netherlands: emigrants from, 526; father lived in, 399; studied medicine in, 221 Neutrality Proclamation (1793), 80 Neville, Presley, 430 Newark, NJ.: academies and schools, 19, 40, 54-55, 253, 309, 402, 510; born at, 39, 510; county courthouse, 433; First Presbyterian Church, 39-40, 253, 355, 356, 433, 510; mentioned, 244; post office, 179; practiced law at, 27; press, 375; quarry near, 289; residents, 19, 41, 135, 355, 367; Second PresbyteNansemond Co., VA, 210, 211 rian Church, 433; state historical sociNapoleon. See Bonaparte, Napoleon ety headquarters, 493; studied law at, Nashville, TN, 333 27, 40, 238, 356, 510; studied medicine Nassau Hall, Alumni Association of, 410 at, 55; wife from, 246. 5«« also Crane's Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey: batCorners (Newark), NJ tle damage, xx, xxii; Congress meets at, xix-xx, 426; donation of land on which Newark Academy, DE, 306, 488, 492 built, 233; engraving of, 535; fire of Newark Academy, NJ, 40, 54-55, 510 1802, xxiii, Win, 12, 325n; illuminated Newark College, DE, 492 for Bastille Day, xviii; lack of firewood, New Bern, NC, 118, 119, 172, 173, 174, xxii; odors in, xx; outbuildings dam214, 325, 326, 327, 330, 331,420, 421, aged, 488; reconstruction after 1802 422; Christ Church (Episcopal), 420fire, 122; repairs, xxii; student encoun21; Presbyterian church, 119, 214n; St. tered in entry of, 176; as student resiJohn's Lodge No. 3 (masons), 421 dence, 416 New Bern Academy, NC, 330, 420, 421 Nassau Hall grammar school. See College Newbern District, NC, 326, 327 of New Jersey grammar school Newbern Federalist Republican, NC, 329 New Bern Gazette, NC, 420 Natchez, MS, 114-17, 417, 418 New Bern Spectator, NC, 329 National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, DC, 228 New Bern Theatrical Society, NC, 421 New Brunswick, NJ: banks, 379; died at, National Republican Party: membership 45; Dutch Reformed church, 20, 45; in, 435, 453, 460 married at, 534; merchants, 9; minnatural history, 188 istry at, 20-22; practiced medicine at, natural jurisprudence, 287 151; Presbyterian church, 151; resinatural philosophy. See philosophy, natudents, 20-22, 45, 116, 121, 366; in ral, and science Revolutionary War, 237; State Bank, Naugatuck, CT, 66 151; state medical society reorganized Neale, Mr. (of Charleston, SC), 474, 476 at, 509; studied law at, 30, 531; studied Negro Seamen's Act (SC), 362, 502-03, medicine at, 150; visited, 170, 194, 201 504 Neilson, Ann Augusta, 117 New Brunswick, Presbytery of: endorses Neilson, Catharine Voorhees, 534 Bible study plan, 184, 532; and Presbyterian church in Princeton, NJ, Neilson, Gertrude. See Abeel, Gertrude 534; and temperance, 532; trains and Neilson ordains ministers, 19, 121, 153, 168Neilson, James, 117 69, 184, 193-94, 198, 420, 437-38, 531; Neilson, Col. James, 116 transfer from, 154 Neilson, John, 167, 534 Neilson, John (1793), 116, 167, 534 New Brunswick parish (Anglican), NJ, Neilson, Rivine Forman, 116, 117 218 Newburg Borough, PA, 265n Nelson, Horatio: alumnus names son after, 35 Newburgh addresses (1783), 500 Nestor: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, Newbury, MA, 97 275 Newburyport, MA, 97; Presbyterian Netherland, Elizabeth. See Mosby, Elizachurch, 97 beth Netherland New Casde, DE, 65, 208, 219, 222, 223, Netherland, John, 143 303-06; fire company, 305; Immanuel Murray, Margaret. See Gordon, Margaret Murray The Museum and Washington and Georgetown Advertiser, DC, 195, 390 7%« Museum and Washington and Georgetown Daily Advertiser, DC, 195, 390 music, 32, 202, 295, 397, 509, 511 musical societies, 362 Muskingum Valley, OH, 442, 446 Mutual Fire Insurance Company, PA, 470

INDEX Protestant Episcopal Church, 222, 306, 308; Presbyterian church, 306 New Casde, Presbytery of, 235, 313, 354 New Casde Academy, DE, 303, 305 New Casde Blues, DE, 306 New Castle Co., DE, 54, 180, 181, 182, 208, 210, 223, 305, 306, 354 New Casde Fire Company, DE, 305 Newcomb, Silas, 480 New Divinity, 1 New Germantown, NJ, 45 New Hartford, NY, 154 New Haven, CT, 60, 107, 277, 493 New Haven, NJ, 355 Newington Township, GA, 477-78, 478 New Jersey: constitutional convention (1844), alumnus serves in, 383; Court of Admiralty, 130; district judges, 28; governor, alumnus serves as, 377; legislature, alumni serve in, 14, 130, 376, 379, 492; legislature, fathers serve in, 26, 57, 125, 157; politics, 28, 239-41; Second Regiment of Cavalry, detached militia, 372; Second Regiment of Infantry, militia, 490; Supreme Court, alumni serve on, 2829, 376-77; Supreme Court, trustee serves on, 40; U.S. district attorney, 239 New Jersey, College of. See College of New Jersey New Jersey bar: commendatory resolution by, 29; membership in, 27, 54, 113, 125, 126, 130, 155, 158, 238, 372, 481, 510 New Jersey Bible Society, 531-32 New-Jersey Gazette, 3 New Jersey Historical Society, 493 New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer, 178 New-Jersey Journal, NJ, 357 New Jersey medical society. See Medical Society of New Jersey New-Jersey Missionary Society, 533 The New-Jersey Preacher (1813), 532 New London, CT, 394, 397 New Madrid, MO, 446 New Orleans, Batde of, 334, 377 New Orleans, LA, 114, 115, 204, 324, 442 Newport, RI, 1, 33 Newportville, PA, 518 New Providence, Bahama Islands, 114, 200 New Providence, NJ, 172 New RocheUe, NY, 10 New School Republican Party (PA), 341 New Testament (Greek), 208, 222

593

Newton, Isaac: works owned by alumnus, 170n Newton, NJ: Presbyterian church, 19-20 Newton Township, NJ, 125 Newtown, NY, 310 New Town, PA, 193, 28 In New York (colony and state): constitutional convention (1821), alumnus serves in, 39; council of appointment, alumni serve on, 39, 102; federal constitution ratification convention (1788), father serves in, 296; lieutenant governor, alumnus serves as, 39; politics, 296-303 legislature: alumni serve in, 39, 84, 102, 245, 269, 297, 457; father serves in, 47; regulation of salt springs, 272; speaker, 102 Supreme Court: admitted to bar of, 23, 38, 58, 84, 87, 101, 138, 141, 309; Chief Justice, 299; member of, 298-99 New York, NY: and American Colonization Society, 185; Asylum for Lyingi n Women, 410; bar association, 299, 312; Bellevue Hospital, 410; born at, 37, 107, 118, 121, 137, 140, 158, 167, 402; botanical garden, 408-09; British Army at, 415; died at, 141; Doctor's Riot (1788), 403; father's residence, 159; fire (1835), 411-12; granddaughter married at, 477; Humane Society, 409; Indian visit to, 442, 446-48; landholding in, 118; married at, 85, 383, 411, 429; mentioned, 73, 99, 245-46, 336; parents married in, 129; pass to visit during Revolution, refused, 38, 138; refugees from, 118; Rockefeller Center, 409; social leaders, 277, 411; St. Andrew's Society, 439; temperance promoted, 409-10; Third Regiment of Militia, 369n; travel to, 324; visits to, 83, 87, 99, 352, 384, 400, 416, 505; wife's residence, 311; yellow fever epidemic (1823), 312 churches and religion: American Bible Society organized at, 532; Collegiate Reformed Church, 16970; Dutch Reformed Church, 168; French Church, 158; General Theological Seminary, 11; Grace Episcopal Church, 312; ministry in, 169-70; Presbyterian church, 107, 121; St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel, 310, 312; studied theology at, 168; Trinity Episcopal Church, 218, 310 education and schools: General Theological Seminary, 11; studied law at, 38, 42, 101, 119, 141, 267, 283, 309,

594

INDEX

395; studied medicine at, 402-03, 403, 432, 531; studied theology at, 168; taught medicine at, 405-08. 5 « abo King's College; Columbia College government and politics·, city marshall, 99; common council, 139; constable, 99; counsel for corporation, 311; Federalist meeting (1812), 80; master in chancery, 23; mayor, 298-99; recorder, 139; register of court of chancery, 38; Workingman's Party in, 460 occupations and commerce: book purchases by undergraduate at, 199; clothing purchases by undergraduates at, 231; master in chancery, 23; merchants, 37, 42, 48, 50, 107, 122, 137, 141, 163n, 402; practiced law at, 3, 11, 23, 38, 42, 87, 99, 138-39, 141, 245, 309; practiced medicine at, 40405; published newspaper in, 439 New York, Presbytery of, 254, 351 New York, University of the State of. See University of the State of New York New York (Episcopal diocese): diocesan conventions, 312 New York and New Jersey, Synod of (Presbyterian), 184, 438, 532 New York City Assembly (social club), 38 New York Coffee House, London, England, xxvi-xxvii New York Co., NY, 23, 42, 439 New-York Evening Post, 310 New-York Gazetteer, 159 New-York Historical Society, 11, 170, 410 New York Hospital, 403, 410 New York Medical College, 406 New York Star, 505 New York State Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, 397 Nicholson, James Witter (1791), xliii Nicholson, John, 200, 265n NicoU, Abimael Youngs (1786), 144-46 Nicoll, Caroline Agnes Ledbetter, 145, 146 Nicoll, Eliza Woodhull. 5 « Smith, Eliza Woodhull NicoU Nicoll, John C. (1812), 146 Noes' Weekly Register, MD, 525 Nimrod, xviii Ninety Six, SC, 472 Ninety-Six District, SC, 71, 72, 77 Nisbet, Charles, 233 Niven, David, 306 Nixon, Ann, 303 Nixon, Elizabeth. See Van Dyke, Elizabeth Nixon

Nixon, Robert, 507 Nixon, Thomas, 303 Noble, Catharine Colhoun, 514 Noble, Elizabeth Bonneau Pickens, 515 Noble, John (1791), 514 Noble, Patrick, 515 Noble, Patrick (1806), 514 Nomini Hall (estate), VA, 468 nonimportation, 289-90, 328 Non-Intercourse Act (1809), 271, 524 Norfleet, Ann. See Baker, Ann Norfleet Norfolk, CT, 277 Norristown, PA, 91, 92 Norristown Academy, PA, 347 Norristown Herald, PA, 345 Norriton Township, PA, 92 North American Review, MA, 500 Northampton Co., PA, 92, 373 North Carolina: council, alumnus serves on, 329; federal constitutional ratifying convention (1789), alumnus serves in, 289; governors, 120, 290, 420; legislature, alumni serve in, 120, 171, 289, 290-91, 326; legislature, father serves in, 288; legislature censures David Stone (1788), 291; politics, 28892, 325-30; supreme court, alumnus serves on, 289, 290; supreme court, chief justice, 420; and War of 1812, 291 North Carolina, University of. See University of North Carolina "North-Carolinian": pen name of David Stone (1788), 290-91 North East Harbor, NY, 99 Northern (Champlain) Canal, 272-73 North Point, Battle of, 80 Northumberland, Presbytery of, 236 Northumberland Co., PA, 110, 190, 225, 227; Troop of Light Horse, 226 Northumberland Co., VA, 294 Northwest Ordinance (1787), 469 Northwest Territory, 89, 427, 449 Norval: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 316 nosology, 408 "Notes and Observations of the Town of East Hampton" (John Lyon Gardiner), 398 Notes on the State of Virginia (Thomas Jefferson), liin Nottoway Co., VA, 258n Nova Scotia, 278,402, 524 Novia Scotia, 238 Noyes, Abigail Toppan, 97 Noyes, Ebenezer (1759), 97 Noyes, Joshua (1759), 97

INDEX

595

Orange Co., NY, 86, 87, 100, 101, 102, 144, 244, 267, 369n Orange County Bible Society, NY, 103 Orange County Medical Society, NY, 145 Orange Dale, NJ, 349, 350; Presbyterian church, 349. See also Orange, NJ Orange-Dale Academy, NJ, 65, 88, 17879, 198, 254, 350, 432 Orangetown, NY, 369n Oak Hill (estate), VA, 278 Orange Township, NJ, 19, 432, 433, 435 Oakland (estate), MD, 78 Ordinance of 1785 (federal lands), 414, Oaklands (estate), NJ, 60 443 "Observations from Books and Aged PerOrdinances of the City Council of Charleston sons" (John Lyon Gardiner), 398 (Alexander Edwards, comp.), 25 Observations on the Dispute between the United States and France (Robert Good- Organization of the Pennsylvania Landholders Association, 226 loe Harper), 75-76 Orient Point, NY, 394 obstetrics, 45, 337, 518-19 Orlando: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, Octarora, Upper, PA, 258; Presbyterian church, 258 279 orphanages, 134, 362, 497 Odessa, DE, 208 Ogden, Aaron (1773), 41, 240, 301, 311, orrery, xxii-xxiii, 175 Osage Nation, 451 477, 501 Osgood, Samuel, 427 Ogden, Abraham, 27 Osmun, Benjamin, 114 Ogden, Elizabeth. See Barnet, Elizabeth Ossabaw (estate), GA, 512 Ogden Ossabaw Island, GA, 512 Ogden, Elizabeth Whitaker, 44 Ossian: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, Ogden, Hannah. See Caldwell, Hannah Ogden 211, 278 Ossining, NY, 439 Ogden, Hannah Stoothoff, 44 Otis, Harrison Gray, 75, 76 Ogden, Isaac (1784), 4445 Otsego Co., NY, 58, 94n Ogden, Jonathan (1765), 44, 45 Ouldfield, Anne LaRoche, 399 Ogden, Oliver Wayne, 45 Ouldfield, John, 399 Ogden, Robert (1765), 107 Ouldfield, Mary. See Heriot, Mary Ogden, Robert (1793), 107 Ouldfield Ogden, Stephen, 44 Outerbridge, Frank Roosevelt (1896), 484 Ogden v. Saunders (1827), 501 Outerbridge, Samuel Roosevelt (1896), Olden, Charles Smith, 151 484 Old Middletown (Presbyterian) Church, Oxford, MD, 520 PA, 235 Oxford University, England, xliii "Old Queen's," building at Queen's College, NJ, 22 Old Town (estate), SC, 362 Paisley, Scotland, 183 Olmstead v. executrixes of David Rtttenhouse, Palmer, Ann. See Gaillard, Ann Palmer 341-42 Stevens OTiealL John Belton, 206 Palmer, Ann Cahusac, 440 Palmer, Elizabeth. See Richbourg, ElizaOneida Co., NY, 271 beth Palmer Oneida Nation, 271 Onondaga Salt Springs, NY, 271-74 Palmer, John, 440 Palmer, Marianne. See Porcher, MariOntario Co., NY, 268, 269 anne Palmer Orange, NJ, 19, 253, 254, 349, 350, 394, 435; Old Burying Ground, 435; PresPanama, 48 byterian church, 254, 433; Rosedale Pan-American Congress, 48 Cemetery, 435. See also Orange-Dale, Panic of 1819, 392 NJ Panic of 1837, 381, 382, 393 Paramus academy, NJ, 364 Orange Academy. See Orange-Dale Academy, NJ Parda, John. See Purdie, John Hyndman Orangeburg, SC, 71 (1790)

Noyes, Nathaniel (1759), 97 Noyes, Parker, 97 Nullification crisis (1832-33), 362, 379, 502-05, 524-25 Nutbush, NC: Presbyterian church, 67 Nuttman (Nutman), Phebe. See Pierson, Phebe Nuttman (Nutman)

596

INDEX

Paris, France, 224, 414 Paris, Peace of (1783), xx Paris, T N , 108 Parker, John, Jr., 46n Parker, John (1784), 46, xxx Parkinson's Ferry, PA, 177 Parmenio: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 353 Parsippany, NJ: Presbyterian church, 262 Parsonage Academy, Charleston, SC, 528 Passaic Manufacturing Company, NJ, 247 Passmore, Thomas, 338 Passman v. Bayard, 338 Paterson, Jane McLean. See Livingston, Jane McLean Paterson Paterson, Thomas, 163n Paterson, William (1763), liii, 118-19, 163n, 168 Patillo, Henry, 67 Patten, John, 251 Patterson, Galbraith, 160 Patterson, Mary Jones, 208 Patuxent Hundred, MD, 318 Paul (Apostle), 267 Paulding, James K., 382 Paxton (Paxtang), PA: Presbyterian church, 162, 234 Peaceful Retreat (estate), NJ, 477 Peale, Charles Willson, xx Peale, Mary. See Read, Mary Peale Field Peale, Rembrandt, ix, 403 Peapack, NJ, 122 pears, Seckel, 409 Peck, John, 72 Pegasus, 419 Pelham, MA, 66; Second Presbyterian Church, 65-66 Pelopidas: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 293 Peloponnesian War, 441 Pemahoaland, Joseph, 451 Pemahoaland, Mary White Eyes, 451 penal reform. See law reform Pendleton, SC, 515; Old Stone Presbyterian Church, 514, 515 Pendleton District, SC, 514 Penn, Abram, 46 Perm, James (1784), 46-47 Penn, William, 493 Penn family, 226 Pennington, NJ, 149 Penn's Neck, NJ, 490; Swedish Lutheran Church, 492 Pennsylvania: adjutant general, 376; Council of Censors, 89; lands within

claimed by CT, 226; legislature, alumni serve in, 34-35, 224, 265, 337-41; legislature, possible alumnus serves in, 95n; legislature, speaker of the house, 236, 341; politics, 335-49, 373-76; Supreme Court, members of, 224, 236 Pennsylvania, University of. See University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, University of the State of. See University of the State of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Land Act (1792), 259-61 Pennsylvania Population Company, 16061, 190 Pensacola, FL, 414, 415 Pequea, PA, 215, 264 Perkins, Benjamin, 56 Peronneau, Margaret. See Edwards, Margaret Peronneau Perrine, Henry, 19 Perrine, Lydia. See Carle, Lydia Perrine Perrine, Mary. See Sloan, Mary Perrine Perrine, Matthew LaRue (1797), 20 Perrine, Sarah. See Condict, Sarah Perrine Perry, Elizabeth Hindman, 431 Perry, William, Sr., 431 Perry, William (1789), 431 Perry Co., PA, 266n Perth Amboy, NJ, 36n, 60, 61, 217, 218, 238, 507; St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 218; St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 61 Peru, 48-50 Pestre, Julien de, 429 Peters, Richard, 373 Petersburg, VA, 256, 281, 442n Pharisees, lvii pharmacopoeia, American, 151 Philadelphia, NC: Presbyterian church, 171 Philadelphia, PA: alumni returning for commencement from, 456; and American Colonization Society, 185, 186; black leaders, 186; born at, 4, 9, 95, 109, 152, 176, 187, 227, 233, 252, 424, 425, 437; change of venue to in court martial rejected, 428; College of Physicians, 519; and Continental Army, 91; and Crow family, 181n; died at, 158, 180, 191; discharged from navy at, 59; family exiled to, 24-25, 42, 358, 436, 495, 527; family's residence, 222, 251, 466, 470; First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, 177, 191, 424; German population, 342; Humane Society, 96; Indian visits to, 51-52, 53, 442, 443; married at, 127, 411, 419n,

INDEX 529; migrated from, 135; mother's residence, 529; residents, 58, 96, 213, 373, 381, 415, 417, 442n, 444,467-68, 487; visits to, 70, 326, 371-72,416, 504; wife's residence, 110, 170 churches and religion: Baptist convention, 149; Christ Episcopal Church, 127, 187, 224, 252, 265n, 529; Gloria Dei ("Old Swedes") Church, 419n; ordained at, 420; Presbyterian General Assembly meets at, 352, 354; Second Presbyterian Church, 95, 96, 169, 233; SL James's Episcopal Church, 224; SL Paul's Episcopal Church, 424; SL Peter's Episcopal Church, 191, 224, 253; studied theology at, 233; Third Presbyterian Church, 169 education and schools: attended school at, 199, 495; dancing masters, 426; studied law at, 5, 10, 34, 108, 109, 152, 177, 231, 259; studied medicine at, 271, 404, 508, 518; studied theology at, 233. See ako College of Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania; University of the State of Pennsylvania government and politics: city auctioneer, 90; city council, 224, 376; city recorder, 376; and Continental Congress, 199; local politics, 345; mayors, 187, 470-71; radical democrats, 339; SL Tammany Society, 374 occupations and commerce: Broadhurst's tavern, 373; business conditions, 110; dancing master, 426; distiller in, 58; land speculators, 71, 72, 160-61, 190; Mary House's boarding house, 220; members of bar, 5, 10, 34, 58, 73, 108, 160, 177, 189, 191, 200, 223, 225, 231, 253, 256, 259, 280, 348, 374; merchants, 4, 9, 31, 58, 94n, 109, 176, 187, 188, 204, 223, 227, 400, 401, 454, 466, 467, 470,487; practiced medicine at, 518-19; printing and publishing at, 32, 74, 75, 493, 514 yellow fever, epidemic (1793), 153, 223, 231, 471; epidemic (1795), 256; epidemic (1797), 73 Philadelphia, College of. See College of Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia, Presbytery of, 234, 492 Philadelphia, U.S.S, 59 Philadelphia and Her Merchants (Abraham Ritter), 204 Philadelphia Bank, PA, 224 Philadelphia Coffee House, London, England, xxvii Philadelphia Co., PA, 335, 336

597

Philadelphia Dispensary, PA, 96 Philadelphia Medical Society, PA, 252, 518 Philander: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 46 Philbum, Bridget. See Irving, Bridget Philbum Philemon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 267 Philetas: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 331 Phillips, John Lott (1774), 508 Phillips, Juliet. See Eyre, Juliet Phillips Phillips, Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah). See Hunt, Keziah (Kesiah, Hezekiah) Phillips Lott Phillips, Mary Carpenter, 507 Phillips, William, 507 Philos: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 143 Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society, England), 404 philosophy, moral: at CNJ, xiv-xv, xxi, xxiv, xxv, 22, 55, 208, 222; faculty in at other colleges, 21, 287; lecture notes on, xiv-xv, liiin philosophy, natural, and science: at academies, 56, 353, 421; at CNJ, xxiv, xxvii; at commencements, 16, 278, 304, 316; faculty in at other colleges, 21, 475; mentioned, 40; polar exploration, 381; preparation of incoming students in, 16; son encouraged to learn, 484 Phocion: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 156 Phoclides: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 192 Physicians and Surgeons, College of. See College of Physicians and Surgeons, NY Pickens, Andrew, 514, 515 Pickens, Andrew, Jr., 514 Pickens, Elizabeth Barksdale, 515 Pickens, Elizabeth Bonneau, 514, 515 Pickens, Elizabeth Bonneau, Jr. See Noble, Elizabeth Bonneau Pickens Pickens, Ezekiel, Jr., 515 Pickens, Ezekiel (1790), 514-16 Pickens, Rebecca Colhoun, 514, 515 Pickens, Samuel, 515 Pickens, Thomas Jones, 515 Pickens Co., SC, 514 Pickering, John, 79, 327 Pickering, Timothy, 429, 449-50 Pierson, Abraham, 262,480 Pierson, Albert (1816), 432 Pierson, Cyrus (1776), 433

598

INDEX

Pierson, Ebenezer Howell (1791), 480 Pierson, Elizabeth. 5«« Green, Elizabeth Pierson Pierson, George (1823), 432 Pierson, Isaac (1789), 432-35, 178, 198 Pierson, John, 262, 480 Pierson, Margaret. 5«« Harris, Margaret Pierson Pierson, Matthias (1764), 178, 198, 432, 433, 435n Pierson, Nancy Crane, 432 Pierson, Phebe Nuttman (Nutman), 432 Pierson, William (1816), 432, 434 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 70, 77, 239, 359, 453, 496, 523 Pinckney, Harriott, 360 Pinckney, Thomas, 75, 359-60 Pinckney, Thomas, Jr., 360 Pinckney Treaty, 360 "Pindar, Peter" (pseudonym of John Wolcot): works read by alumnus, 38788 Pineville, SC, 440 Pineville Academy, SC, 440 Pintard, John (1776), 10, 11, 12, 405, 408,410, 4 1 1 , 4 1 4 Pintard, Lewis, 10 Pintard, Lewis Searle (1792), 10, 414 Pintard, Margaret (Magdalen). See Hutchins, Margaret (Magdalen) Pin­ tard Pintard, Martha (Patty). See Bayard, Martha (Patty) Pintard Pintard, Susanna Stockton, 10 Pinto, Solomon, 56 The Pioneers (James Fenimore Cooper), 58 Piper, Margaret. See Warford, Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick Pisa, University of, xxvii Piscataway, NJ, 148, 149n Piscataway Baptist Church, NJ, 148 Piscataway Township, NJ, 480, 52 In Pitt, William: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 95 Pittsburgh, PA, 93, 260, 372, 414, 418, 429; Second Congregation (Presbyteri­ an), 234-35; Trinity Church, 177 Pittsgrove, NJ: Presbyterian church, 480, 488 Pittsgrove Township, NJ, 480 Plains (estate), SC, 522 Plato, 108 Piatt, David (1764), 107 Piatt, Jeremiah, 107 Piatt, Phebe. See Broome, Phebe Piatt Piatt, Zophar, 107

Pleasant Forest Presbyterian Church, TN, 136 Pleasant Meadows (estate), SC, 362 Plebeian, Kingston, NY, 98 Pledger, John, 488 Ploughman, Ann. See Johnson, Ann Ploughman Pocahontas, 112, 281 poetry: alumnus owns works of, 170n; in America, discussed at commencement, 125; attack in verse on CNJ, lvii; writ­ ten by alumnus, 231, 232; written by undergraduate, 145 Poinsett, Joel, 378, 381 political economy: at College of William and Mary, xxiii Polk, James Knox, 383 Pollock, Elizabeth, 147, 212 Pollock, Eunice Edwards. See Hunt, Eunice Edwards Pollock Pollock, Frances, 147, 212 Pollock, George (1787), 212-14, 146, 147, 173 Pollock, Thomas, Sr., 146, 173, 212 Pollock, Thomas (1786), 146AS, 173, 212, 213 Pollock, Thomas (lived 1654-1722), 146, 212 Polyphemus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 452 Polypus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 173 Pomfret, PA, 226 Pope, Alexander: works read by alum­ nus, 371 Poplar Tent Academy, NC, 197 Poplar Tent region, NC, 197 Poquelin, Jean Baptiste. See Moliere (Poquelin, Jean Baptiste) Porcher, Frederick Adolphus, 473 Porcher, Marianne Palmer, 440 Porter, Peter P., 269 Port Royal, VA, 296 Post, Wright, 408 Potter, Hannah Livermore, 85, 86 Potter, Nathaniel (1753), 85, 86 Fbughkeepsie, NY, 296, 297, 302; Dutch Reformed church, 302 Powhatan Co., VA, 143, 144 Prather, Mary Churchill. See Bullitt, Mary Churchill Prather Preble Co., OH, 248 Prentice, Charles, 195, 390 Presbyterian Church in the U.S.Α.: and CNJ alumni, xxxv, 546; General Assembly, 184, 254, 352, 354, 532; John Witherspoon's role in, xxviii; mis-

INDEX sionary sermon, 184; postrevolutionary needs, lv; Synod of New York and New Jersey, 184, 438, 532; Synod of Virginia, 129, 352. See also individual presbyteries and congregations by place name Presbyterian Theological Seminary, SC, 525-26 President, U.S.S., 59 presidential electors. See United States, presidential electors President's House. See College of New Jersey, President's House Preston, CT, 123 Price, Abigail. See Hatfield, Abigail Price Price, Maria Winston. See Marshall, Maria Winston Price Price, Richard, xxiii Price, William, 72 Priestley, Joseph, 375 Prime, Ebenezer Youngs (1751), 144 Prince Edward Academy, VA: founded by CNJ alumni, 211; transfer from to CNJ, 15-16. See also Hampden-Sidney College, VA Prince Edward Co., VA, 210, 313 Prince George, SC, 221 Prince George Co., VA, 210, 211, 256 Prince Georges Co., MD, 318 Princess Anne, MD, 353, 385-86 Princeton, Battle of, xxi, xxii, 138, 181 Princeton, NJ: and American Colonization Society, 185; born at, 3, 183, 237; British occupation in 1776, 23738; childhood residence, 415-16, 425, 444; Confederation Congress meets at (1783), xix-xx, 199, 425-26, 508; dancing masters (French), 55; David Hamilton's tavern, 4 7 9 , 4 8 2 , 4 8 3 , 489, 512, 520; died at, 12; died near, 263; expenses for travel to, 490; family residence in or near, 59, 95, 96, 323,42527; Female Benevolent Society, 534; fencing masters (French), 55; fire company, 96; Indians leave, 446; inhabitants characterized, 83; Iandholdings at, 43, 238, 241; Livingston boarding house, 37-38, 138, 364; married at, 411; mayor, 11; "miracle'' of, 532; missionary meetings at, 242, 533; Mrs. Knox's boarding house, 229, 365; muster of militia to quell Whiskey Rebellion, 372; Nassau Street, 324; practiced medicine at, 323; Presbyterian church, 11, 37n, 153-54, 169, 183, 323, 508, 532-34, 535; proposed as U.S. capital, xx; Reading's Tav-

599

ern, 182; residents, 11, 37, 42, 109, 138, 176, 233, 256, 429, 438, 508; revivalism, 533-34; Second Presbyterian Church, 534; state bible society formed at, 531; studied divinity at, 153, 168-69, 183, 420, 437; studied law at, 257; Sunday schools, 533; support for French Revolution, xviii-xix; town pledges support for U.S. government (1783), 426; travel to, 1, 448; uncle's residence, 113; visits to, 91, 326, 330, 350, 365, 400, 416, 439, 476; widow's residence, 477. See also College of New Jersey; Nassau Hall Princeton Fire Company, NJ, 96 Princeton Packet, NJ, 477 Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ: directors, 11-12, 184, 492, 529; faculty, 11, 162, 532; founded, lviii; students, 534; Sunday evening lectures in Princeton by faculty, 533-34; supplants individuals in training clergy, 531; trustees, 11-12, 492, 533 Princeton University, NJ: descendant lectures at, 535. See also College of New Jersey Prince William Parish, SC, 472 Prior, Samuel, 493 property, redistribution of advocated, 460 Prospect (estate), NJ, 109, 176, 415-16, 425, 426, 429, 438, 443, 444, 476 protectionism, 378, 379, 383, 384, 460, 499, 524 Protestant Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, PA, 252 Protestant Episcopal Church. See Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. Protestant Episcopal Society for the Advancement of Christianity in South Carolina, 362 Provisional Army. See United States, Army Public Meeting and Address to New Jersey Representatives m Congress ... (Lucius Horatio Stockton), 241 Pulaski, Count Casimir, 500 Purcell, Henry (1791), lvi Purdie, Anne Merritt Moore, 517 Purdie, George, 516 Purdie, John Hyndman (1790), 516-17 Purdie, John Robinson, 517 Purdie, Mary Robinson, 516 Purviance, David (1754), 203 Purviance, Mary. See Eakin, Mary Purviance Purviance, Samuel, 203

600

INDEX

Ramsay, Sarah Seeley. See Smith, Sarah Seeley Ramsay Ramsay, William (1754), 215 Ramsey, J. G. M., 136-37 Ramsey, S. G., 136 Randolph, Anne (Nancy) Cary, 283-84 Randolph, Benjamin, 29 "Quadroon" Party (PA), 341 Randolph, Edmund, 200-01, 231-32 Quamine (Quamino), John, 1-li Quasi-War with France, 6, 59, 74, 76, 92, Randolph, Frances Bland. See Tucker, Frances Bland Randolph 130, 155, 310, 329, 373 Randolph, John, Sr., 281 Quebec, Province of, 33, 137, 484 Randolph, John (1791), xxv, xliii, 281-85, Queen Anne, MD, 318 338, 378 Queen Annes Co., MD, 191, 485 Randolph, John St. George, 284 Queen's College, NJ: considers merger Randolph, Judith, 283, 284 with CNJ, xxvii; degrees awarded to Randolph, Martha Jefferson, 283 CNJ alumni, 149, 150, 349, 363, 365; grammar school, 21, 148; library, 350; Randolph, Richard (1788), 281-85, xliii medical student at, 150; revival, xxxvii, Randolph, Theodorick Bland (1791), 21-22; transfer from to CNJ, xlii, xliii, 281-84 148; transfer to from CNJ, xliii, 365; Randolph, Theodorick Tudor, 284 trustees, 21-22, 151, 170; tutors, 150, Randolph, Thomas Mann, 283, 284 350. 5 « also Rutgers College, NJ Randolph, Thomas Mann, Jr., 283 "Raritan" (newspaper essayist), 240 Queens Co., NY, 310, 460 Rattoone, Elijah Dunham (1787), 217-19 Queenstown, NJ, 533 Quids (PA political faction), 338, 339, 376 Rattoone, Isabella Dunham, 218 Rattoone, John, 218 Quincy, Josiah, 329 Rattoone, William, 219n quoits, 199, 257 Quomono (black servant). See Blanchard, Ravenel, John, 440 Rawson, Thomas, 273 Quomono. Raynal, Guillaume Thomas: works read by alumnus, 371 Radcliff, Alexander H., 49 Read, Elizabeth, 220, 221 Radcliff, Catherine Van Ness, 48 Read, Elizabeth Young, 536 Radcliff, Jacob (1783), 47, 298 Read, George, 181, 208, 220, 222, 223, Radcliff, John, 48 223, 304, 306 Radcliff, Peter, 50 Read, George (1806), 222 Radcliff, Sarah Kip, 47 Read, Gertrude Ross, 222 Radcliff, William, ST., 47, 48 Read, Henry Meredith (1820), 224 Radcliff (Radclifi, Radcliffe), William Read, Israel (1748), 118 (1784), 47-50 Read, Jacob, 219-220 Rahway, NJ, 27; Presbyterian church, Read, James, 219, 221, 223 351 Read, James Bond (1787), 219-21, 182, railroads, 334, 379, 384, 524 202, 223, 536 Raleigh, NC, 267n, 292, 505; PresbyteRead, James Harleston (1806), 221 rian church, 267n Read, John (1787), 222-25, xxi, 110, 182, Raleigh, Sir Walter: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 522 190, 202, 208, 209, 220, 22 In, 229, 230, 304 Raleigh Register, NC, 422 Ramsay, David (1765), 24, 207, 215, 216, Read, John Meredith, 110, 224 Read, John Meredith, Jr., 224 217 Read, Louisa Young, 221 Ramsay, David (1812), 215 Ramsay, Eliza S. See Reid, Eliza S. Ramsay Read, Martha Meredith, 223 Read, Mary Peale Field, 223 Ramsay, Frances Witherspoon, 215 Read, Rebecca Bond, 219, 220, 22 In Ramsay, James (1814), 215 Read, Susannah, 221 Ramsay, John (1787), 214-17 Read, Thomas, 223 Ramsay, John Witherspoon (1803), 215 Read, William Thompson (1810), 222 Ramsay, Joseph Hall, 215 Read and Mossman (mercantile firm), Ramsay, Maria Smith Deas, 216-17 219 Ramsay, Nathaniel (1767), 215 Purviance, Susanna. See Hughes, Susanna Purviance Purviance, Susanna Schleydoon, 203 Pythagoras: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 17

INDEX Reading, Daniel, 122 Reading, John, 122 Reading, PA, 372, 439; First Presbyterian Church, 439 Reading, Theodosia. See Grant, Theodosia Reading Reading's Tavern, Princeton, NJ, 182 Red l i o n Hundred, DE, 354 Redstone, Presbytery of, 234 Reed, Mr. (either John or James Bond Read, both 1787), 182, 202 Reed, Esther, 242 Reed, Joseph (1757), xxvi, 5 Reese, Thomas (1768), 205, 317 Reeve, Sarah. See Gibbes, Sarah Reeve Regulators (SC), 486 Rehobeth, MD: Presbyterian church, 354 Reid, Eliza S. Ramsay, 217 Reid, George B., 217 Reid, John, 522 religious revivals, lviii, 154, 184, 255, 350, 351, 391, 533-34 Reply to "The Crisis" (1817), 345 Republican Watch Tower, New York, NY, 38, 139-40 Resting Place (estate), NY. See Rust Plaetz (estate), NY revivals. See religious revivals Revolutionary War. See American Revo­ lution Reyburn, Ann Livingston, 278 Reyburn, James, 278 Reynolds, J. N., 380-81 Rhea, Ebenezer (1791), 200, 201, 228 Rhea, John, 200 Rhea, John (1780), 200, 228 Rhea, Mary Smith, 200, 228 Rhea, Sarah (Sally). See Asdey, Sarah (Sally) Rhea Higginson Rhea, Susanna, 201 rhetoric, liii, 287 Rhinebeck, NY, 38, 47, 48, 140; Dutch Reformed Church, 38, 48; German Reformed Church, 48 Rhode Island, College of. See College of Rhode Island Rich, Nathaniel, 482 Richardson, James Burchill, 515 Richbourg, Charles, 440 Richbourg, Elizabeth Palmer, 440 Richbourg, Miss. See Stevens, Mrs. Richbourg Richland Co., SC, 521, 523 Richland District, SC, 524 Richmond, VA, 112, 279, 283, 430; Mon­ umental (Episcopal) Church, 280; the­ atre fire (1811), 279-80 Richmond (estate), SC, 362

601

Richmond Co., VA, 294 Ricketts, Mary Sovency, 485 Ricketts, Sinai. See Hollingsworth, Sinai Ricketts Ricketts, Thomas, 485 Riddell, Sarah. See Harvey, Sarah Riddell Riddle & Bird (mercantile firm), 306 Rider, Anne. See Billings, Anne Rider Ridgely, Lydia. See English, Lydia Ridgely Henderson Rind, William Α., 195, 390 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 170 riots, 133-34, 323, 365, 381, 403, 466-67 Ritner, Joseph, 347-48 Rittenhouse, David, xxii, 175, 341-42 Rittenhouse, Elizabeth. See Sergeant, Elizabeth Rittenhouse Rittenhouse, Esther. See Waters, Esther Rittenhouse Ritter, Abraham, 204 Roane, Spencer, 501 Robbins, Ammi R., 277 Roberts, Jonathan, 343 Roberts, Samuel, 430 Robertson, Archibald, 258 Robertson, Christian. See Eppes, Chris­ tian Robertson Robertson, William, 256, 257 Robinson, Anthony, 516 Robinson, Mary. See Purdie, Mary Robin­ son Rockefeller Center, New York, NY, 409 Rockland Co., NY, 244, 245 Rockville, MD, 128 Rocky Hill, NJ, 42, 96, 238 Rodgers, Emily Hosack, 411 Rodgers, John Kearny (1811), 411 Rodman, Esther West, 518 Rodman, Gilbert, 518 Rodman, Margaret. See Mcllvaine, Mar­ garet Rodman Rodman, Sarah Gibbs, 518 Rodman, Susan. See Ruan, Susan Rodman Rodman, William, 518 Rodney, Caesar Α., 6, 7, 499 Roebuck, H.M.S., 222 Rogers, Elizabeth. 5«« Wilkin, Elizabeth Rogers Rogers, Robert, 86 Rogers, Zebulon, 459 Rogers' Rangers, 86 Rogiers, Elizabeth Suhm, 363, 366, 367 Rogiers, Johannes (John), 363, 364 Rogiers, Warner, 364, 365, 366 Rolfe.John, 112,281 Roman Catholicism: attacked, 11 Romayne, Nicholas, 406; private medical school of, 403

602

INDEX

Rome, Italy: antiquities, xxiv; liberty in ancient, xxv; sack of (390 B.C.), 521 Romeyn, Theodore (Dirck) (1765), 287 Rosbrough, Mary. See Henry, Mary Rosbrough Roseau, island of Dominica, 201 Rosenthal, Albert, ix Ross, Mr., 368 Ross, Ann. See Hopkins, Ann Ross Ross, Charles (1791), 31, 356, 365, 446, 466, 488 Ross, George, 34, 35, 222 Ross, Gertrude. See Read, Gertrude Ross Ross, James D. (1792), lv Ross, John, 31 Ross, Luanda DeWint, 367, 368 Ross, Mary. See King, Mary Ross Rossville, OH, 248 Rowan Co., NC, 135 Rowley, MA, 123 Roxbury, NJ, 370 Roxbury Township, NJ, 263n Royal Society (England), 404, 409 Ruan, Elizabeth Gibbs, 518 Ruan, James (1792), 517 Ruan, John, Sr., 517 Ruan, John (1790), 517-19 Ruan, Mrs. John, Sr., 517 Ruan, Rachel Mcllvaine, 518 Ruan, Susan Rodman, 518, 519 Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count, 455 Rush, Benjamin (1760): Bradford will litigation, 242; calls for reform, xxiii; composes obituary of Meredith Clymer, 177-78; composes oration attacking hard liquor, 252-53; death commemorated, 151; hostility to classical languages, xxxvii; letters of, 3 In, 240, 241, 252; letter to, 128; medical student of, 404; medical student of, possible, 271; medical theories, 407-08; relatives, 160, 237, 242; visits Princeton, NJ, 188; writes student orations, liii Rush, Jacob (1765), 160 Rush, James (1805), xxiii Rush, John (1794), xxiii, liv Rush, Julia Stockton, 3 In, 237, 242 Rush, Rebecca. See Wallace, Rebecca Rush Stamper Rush, Richard (1797), xxiii Russell, Caleb (1770), 28, 179, 369, 371 Russia: U.S. minister to, 379 Rust Plaetz (estate), NY, 302 Rutgers College, NJ: awards medical degrees, 406; trustee, 151. See also Queen's College, NJ

Rutgers Medical College, 406-07 Rutgers Medical Faculty of Geneva College, NY, 407 Rutland Co., VT, 65, 141 Rutledge, Edward, 70 Ryers, John Pelion (1792), xxi Ryerss, Jutegh (Judith) Dissoway, xxi Sackett's Harbor, NY, 154 Sage, Ebenezer, 395 St. Andrew's Society, New York, NY, 439 St. Augustine, FL: exiled to (1780), 24, 25, 156, 215, 219, 357-58, 436, 495, 527 SL Augustine's Manor, DE, 65 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, England, 404 SL Bartholomew's Parish, SC, 440 St. C , (1785), 88-93, xlffi, 97, 98, 427 St. Cecelia Society, Charleston, SC, 362 St Christopher, island of, 200, 471 St Clair, Arthur, 89-90, 91-92, 93, 427, 428 St Clair, Arthur, Jr., 89, 91 St Clair, Daniel (enlisted man), 93n St Clair, Daniel (son of Arthur), xHfi, 8993 St Clair, John, 92 St Clair, John Murray, 89 St Clair, Phoebe Bayard, 89 St Clair, Rachel Shannon, 92 St Croix (Santa Cruz), island of, Danish West Indies, 363, 364, 366, 367, 369n, 517, 518 St Dennis Parish, SC, 514, 515 St Domingue. See Santo Domingo, island of S t George Dorchester, SC, 436 S t George's, DE, 354; Presbyterian church, 54, 354 St George's Cemetery Company, DE, 354 St George's Hospital, London, England, 404 St Georges Hundred, DE, 180 St. Helena Parish, SC, 472 St James Goose Creek, SC, 359, 360, 361, 399, 494 St John, Danish West Indies, 363 St John, Henry. See Bolingbroke, Henry S t John, Viscount S t John's College, MD: possible transfer to from CNJ, xliii S t John's Episcopal Church (Chester and Lancaster counties, PA), 264, 265 S t John's Island, SC, 33n, 474, 476

INDEX St. John's Parish, SC, 31, 474 SL Kitts. See St. Christopher, West Indies St. Lawrence, Presbytery of, 154 St. Mary's, GA, 145 Saint Memin, Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de, ix, 5, 68, 522 St. Michael Parish, Charleston, SC, 156, 362, 436 SL Michael's Parish, MO, 431 St. Paul's Parish, NC, 214n St. Paul's Parish, SC, 217 St. Peter's Parish, MD, 431 SL Philip Parish, Charleston, SC, 156, 362, 436 SL Pierre, island of Martinique, 201 SL Stephen's (Anglican) Parish, MD, 222 SL Stephen's Parish, SC, 440 SL Tammany Society, Philadelphia, PA, 374 SL Thomas, island of, Danish West Indies, 363 SL Thomas Hunting Club, SC, 360, 515 SL Thomas Parish, SC, 514, 515 Salem, MA, 198, 369 Salem, NJ, 222, 356, 488-94; Friends' Meeting, 492; Presbyterian church, 492; St. John's Episcopal Church, 492, 493 Salem, NY, 271 Salem, SC, 205 Salem Academy, NJ, 492 Salem Co., NJ, 356, 480, 488-94 Salem Society, CT, 66 Salem Tenth, NJ, 488, 493 Salina, NY, 271-74; Presbyterian church, 274 Salisbury, MA, 97 Salisbury, NC, 135, 136; Lutheran church, 172 Salisbury Academy, NC, 171 Salisbury District, NC, 171 Salisbury Township, PA, 264, 265 Salley, Alexander Samuel, Jr., 207 Sallust: works read at CNJ, xxiv Salmon, Thomas: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 25 Salter, Hannah. See Blount, Hannah Salter Baker salt manufacturing (occupation), 271-74 Sanders, Deborah Glen, 324 Sanders, Elizabeth (Eliza). See Anderson, Elizabeth (Eliza) Sanders Sanders, John, 324 Sanders, Robert (1804), 324, 325n Sanderson, John, 243n San Domingo. See Santo Domingo, island of

603

Sandwich Islands, 156 Santa Cruz. 5 « SL Croix (Santa Cruz), Danish West Indies Santo Domingo, island of, 200, 395, 497 Saratoga Co., NY, 254 Sargent, Winthrop, 115, 373 Satan. See Devil Savage, Mary, 18 Savage, Mary, Jr. See Clay, Mary Savage Savage, Thomas, 18 Savannah, GA: alderman, 221; Baptist church, 18; born at, 14; exiles from, 15; federal circuit court at, 498; First African Baptist Church, 513; harbor defenses, 145; Independent Presbyterian Church, 477; landholdings in and near, 477-78, 478; married at, 513; mayor, 477; merchants, 15; practiced law at, 17, 60; practiced medicine at, 221; residents, 14-15, 17-18, 60, 61, 220, 221, 512-13; in Revolutionary War, 15, 16; schools, 219; Sons of Liberty, 512 Savannah Library Society, GA, 221 Saxe Gotha, SC, 523 Saxon, Ruth. See Smith, Ruth Saxon Scarborough's Castle (estate), MD, 453 scarlet fever, 482, 534 Schaw, Alexander, 486 Schaw, Anne Vail Howe, 486 Schaw, Robert, 486 Schawfield (estate), NC, 486 Schenck, Aletta. See Harris, Aletta Schenck Schenck, Gertrude (Gitty). See Frelinghuysen, Gertrude (Gitty) Schenck. Schenck, Hendrick, 481 Schenck, William (1767), 488 Schenectady, NY, 84, 255, 286, 308, 323, 324; Dutch Reformed church, 287 Schenectady Academy, NY, 286-87, 324 Schleydoon, Susanna. See Purviance, Susanna Schleydoon schools. See academies Schuyler, Cornelia. See Livingston, Cornelia Schuyler Schuyler, Gertrude, 277 Schuyler, Peter, 277 Schuyler, Philip, 277 science. See natural philosophy and science Science Hall. See Hillsborough Academy, NC scientific societies, 75, 404, 409, 410, 505. See also American Philosophical Society Scotia, NY, 324 Scotland: emigrants from, 89, 118, 146,

604

INDEX

154-55, 183, 214η, 359, 361, 39Γ, 402, 441η, 516; Enlightenment in, xxv, xxxiv; patent for Gardiner's Island, 396; travel in, 404, 482, 517, 518. See aho Great Britain Scotland, CT, 107 Scots-Irish immigrants, 99, 264, 485 Scott, Anna Johnson, 150 Scott, Joseph Warren (1795), 150, 531 Scott, Mary Dickinson. See Smith, Mary Dickinson Scott Scott, Moses, 150, 531 Scott, Sir Walter: works read by alumnus, 497 Scottish Enlightenment, xxv, xxxiv Scudder, Daniel, 227 Scudder, Grace Sarah Smith, 227 Scudder, Isabella Anderson, 389 Scudder, John Anderson (1775), 390 Scudder, Joseph (1778), 115, 390 Scudder, Lydia. See English, Lydia Scud­ der Scudder, Nathaniel (1751), 389 Scudder family (NJ), 355 Seckel pear, 409 Secondat, Charles Louis de. See Mon­ tesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron Second Creek Plantation (estate), Natchez, 115 Second Great Awakening, lviii Second Medical District of Ohio, 248 Sedition Act (1798), 6, 76-77, 239, 337, 373, 376, 378 Seeley, Sarah. See Smith, Sarah Seeley Ramsay Select Works of Robert Goodloe Harper..., 80-81 Seneca (Seneka) (Cherokee settlement), 52 Sergeant, Elizabeth Rittenhouse, 341-42 Sergeant, John (1795), 341 Sergeant, Jonathan, 3, 191 Sergeant, Jonathan Dickinson (1762), 3, 53 Sergeant, Margaret Spencer, 53 Sergeant, Sarah. See Baldwin, Sarah Sergeant Sergeant, W. See Sargent, Winthrop seriatim opinions, judicial, 498, 501 Seton, Andrew, 85 Seton, Charlotte. See Henry, Charlotte Seton Seton, Margaret, 85 "'76" (newspaper essayist), 240 Shakespeare, William: works read by alumni, 371, 387

Shandy, Tristam: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 479 Shannon, Rachel. See St. Clair, Rachel Shannon Shappenock, NJ: Presbyterian church, 19-20 Sharon (estate), GA, 478 Shaw, Elizabeth. See Whaley, Elizabeth Shaw Shaw, Elizabeth Barret, 51 Shaw, Henry, 51 Shaw, Lenard, 53n Shaw, Leonard D. (1784), 51-53 Shawnee Nation, 442 Shawuskukhkung. See Calvin, Ben­ jamin Scott (Shawuskukhkung [Wilted Grass]) (1776) Shays's Rebellion, MA, 199 sheep, merino, 395 Shelby, Evan, Jr., 171 Shelby, Isaac, 171 Shelby, Mary. See Alexander, Mary Shelby Shelter Island, NY, 396 Shenandoah Valley, VA, 352 Shepard, William B., 352 Sheppard, Thomas, 529 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 203 Shewell's boarding house, Philadelphia, PA, 374 Shippen, William, Jr. (1754), 404 Shippensburg, PA, 265n shipwrecks, 528 Shirley, Selina. See Hastings, Selina Shirley, Countess of Huntingdon Short, Jane Henry Churchill, 469 Short, Peyton, 469 Shrewsbury, NJ, 54, 113 Sidney, Algernon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 10 Sierra Leone, Africa, 185 Silk Hope (estate), SC, 515 Simmons, Jane. See Hutchins, Jane Sim­ mons Simmons, Leeson, 487 Simonides: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 65 Sinking Creek, PA: Presbyterian church, 314 Sitgreaves, John, 326, 331 Six-Mile Run, NJ, 44, 45 skating, 374 Skelton, Bathurst, 258n Sketches of North Carolina (William H. Foote), 137 Sketch of the First Settlement of Several Towns

INDEX

605

on Long Island, A (Silas Wood), 459-60, Smith, Caleb, 192 Smith, Cassandra Wallis, 227 461 Smith, Charles (1786), 149-52, 531 Sketch of the Geography of the Town of HunSmith, Daniel (1787), 225-27 tington (Silas Wood, A), 459 Smith, Edward Darrell (1795), 357, 436 Skipwith, Lelia. 5«« Tucker, Lelia SkipSmith, Elias, 285 with Carter Smith, Elizabeth. See Wood, Elizabeth slavery: antislavery essays at CNJ, xlix; Smith avoids issue, 381; opponents, 6-7, 34, Smith, Eliza Woodhull Nicoll, 94n 41, 81, 217, 241, 284, 307, 393, 459; Smith, Enoch (1793), 227 supporters, 217, 307, 473, 478, 500. See also colonization movement for free Smith, Ethan, 149 Smith, George, 357, 436 blacks Smith, George W., 279 slaves: admissibility of testimony, 284; Smith, Grace Sarah. See Scudder, Grace civil liberties of, 502; compassionate Sarah Smith treatment, 257; conversion of, 513; Smith, Hannah, 285 freed by alumni, 284-85, 509; owned Smith, Jacob (1790), 519-20, 466, 488 by alumni, 22, 31, 81, 103, 112, 114, 115, 117, 136, 147, 203, 213, 216, 245, Smith, Jacob (Frederick Co., MD), 520n 255, 257, 319, 325, 332, 454, 509, 511, Smith, James (1757), 37, 137 Smith, James Edward, 404 512; owned by faculty, lii; owned by parents of alumni, 15, 16, 31, 57, 111, Smith, Jasper, 225 132, 136, 147, 171, 212, 244, 247, 257, Smith, Jasper (1758), 225 317, 325, 330, 359, 361, 399, 431, 465, Smith, Jemima tanning, 225 Smith, John, 92 474, 495, 511, 512, 520; owned by uncle of alumnus, 210. See also blacks Smith, John Blair (1773), 215, 287, 313 (free); Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy Smith, John Rhea (1787), 227-32, xix, 199, 200, 201, 209, 361, 391, 436, 508; slave trade: Atlantic, 299; parents active diary, xix, 111-12, 113, 141, 143, 152, in, 24, 219, 359, 361; reopened (SC), 167, 174, 175-76, 176-77, 182, 188, 515; suppression of, 381, 454 199, 202, 205, 215, 220, 225, 228-31, Slemons, John Brown (1794), lvi, 452 244, 257, 259, 275-76, 293, 295, 303Siemens, Polly Wilson, 452 04, 361, 508 Sloan, John (1792), 122 Smith, Jonathan, 30 Sloan, Mary Ferrine, 19 Smith, Jonathan Bayard (1760), 227-28, Sloan, William B. (1792), 19, 122 231, 232 Slop, Guiseppe, xxvii Smith, Joseph, 517 Smalley, Rev. E., 124 Smith, Josiah, 460 Smalley, Elizabeth Armstrong, 149 Smith, Josiah, Jr., 357, 436 Smalley, Hannah Fox, 149 Smith, Juliet Lee Waring, 436 Smalley, Henry (1786), 148-49, xlii Smith, Margaret Bayard, 391 Smalley, John, 148, 149n Smith, Maria. See Ramsay, Maria Smith Smalley, Susannah Bray, 149n Deas Smith, Abraham (1777), 37, 137 Smith, Mary. See Rhea, Mary Smith Smith, Adam: works read by alumnus, Smith, Mary Ann (Polly), 201, 228, 229, 373 436 Smith, Alexander, 285 Smith, Mary Dickinson Scott, 150, 151 Smith, Ann. See Darrell, Ann Smith Smith, Mary Elizabeth Stevens, 436 Smith, Ann (mistress of Thomas Smith, Mary Furman, 30 Hutchins, Sr.), 415 Smith, Anna. See Vancleve, Anna Smith Smith, Phebe Tredwell, 285 Smith, Philander, 116 Green Smith, Philetus, 285 Smith, Ann Caroline, 232 Smith, Polly. See Smith, Mary Ann (Polly) Smith, Ann Martha. See Tennent, Ann Smith, Rachel. See Thompson, Rachel Martha Smith Smith Smith, Benjamin, 33 Smith, Rebecca Moore, 95n Smith, Blair (1773), 15 Smith, Richard (1785), 93-95 Smith, Blanche. See Chapman, Blanche Smith, Richard (father of Richard R.), 94n Smith

606

INDEX

Smith, Richard, of Philadelphia, PA, and Chestertown, MD, 94, 95n Smith, Richard, of Smithtown, NY, 93, 94n Smith, Richard R., of Burlington, NJ, 93, 94n Smith, Robert (1781), 520n Smith, Rev. Robert (Charleston, SC), 475, 476, 496 Smith, Rev. Robert (Pequea, PA), 4, 215, 264 Smith, Ruth Saxon, 149 Smith, Samuel (1766), 137 Smith, Samuel (Baltimore, MD), 520n Smith, Samuel Harrison, 201, 228, 229, 231-32 Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison. See Smith, Margaret Bayard Smith, Samuel Jasper, 227 Smith, Samuel Stanhope (1769), Vice President: and 1807 student revolt, 79; acting president (1784), xxvii; attends April orations by seniors, 143; becomes president (1794), lvii; becomes vice president (1786), xxviii; boarders in his home, 220, 223; business affairs, 365; and class placement, 192; and CNJ finances, 109, 426; and CNJ grammar school, 101; conflict with Ashbel Green, lviii; desire to study under, 55, 403; as Federalist, liv; honorary member of Union Society, Hampden-Sidney College, VA, 313; letter from, 79; letter from on CNJ curriculum, xxxvii-xxxix; officiates at marriage, 411; presentation to Congress, 426; presides at ordination, 153; and Prince Edward Academy, VA, 211; and Princeton Presbyterian church, 153; recommends alumnus, 313; relations with Hampden-Sidney College, VA, 128, 313; relatives, 15, 215; slaveowner, lii; and student discipline, 79, 88, 182; suggestions for public speaking, 199; thanked on retirement by trustees, 533; theology students, 55, 153, 169; tutor to young boys, 69 Smith, Sarah. See WoodhuU, Sarah Smith Smith, Sarah (Sally) Wynkoop, 286, 287 Smith, Sarah Seeley Ramsay, 215 Smith, Susan Bayard, 228, 232 Smith, Susannah. See Livingston, Susannah Smith Smith, Susannah Bayard, 227 Smith, Thomas (1754), 37, 137 Smith, Thomas Loughton, 216 Smith, Timothy Treadwell (TredweU) (1788), 285-87, 94n

Smith, William (1778), 37, 137 Smith, William, Jr. (of NY and Quebec), xxvi, 37, 137 Smith, William, Sr. (of NY), charter CNJ trustee, xxvi, 138 Smith, William, Provost, 91, 94, 95n Smith, William Richmond (1773), 215 Smith, William Stephens (1774), 66, 310 Smith, William Stevens (1789), 436, 357, 358 Smithfield, VA, 516, 517 Smiths, DeSaussure and Darrell (mercantile firm), 357, 358, 436 Smithtown, NY, 93, 94n Smollett, Tobias: works read by alumnus, 371 Snedeker, Sarah, 509 Snowden, Benjamin Parker (1776), 95, 152, 233, 437 Snowden, Charles Gustine, 236, 439 Snowden, Charles Jeffry (1789), 437-39, 95, 152, 169, 233, 356 Snowden, Cornelia Clarkson, 96, 252 Snowden, Ebenezer Hazard, 154 Snowden, Frances Malcolm, 439 Snowden, Gilbert Tennent (1783), 27, 95, 152-53, 230, 233, 437, 438, 508, 509; diary, 47, 220 Snowden, Isaac, Sr., lvi, 30, 95, 152, 153, 229, 233, 234, 235, 437, 439 Snowden, Isaac, Jr. (1785), 95-96, 30, 152, 153, 233, 252, 437 Snowden, Isaac (son of Nathaniel), 236 Snowden, Isaac Clarkson, 96 Snowden, James Ross, 236 Snowden, Mary. See Thompson, Mary Snowden Snowden, Mary Coxe McCall, 95, 152, 153, 233, 437 Snowden, Nathaniel Randolph (1787), 23337, xlix, lvi, 95, 152, 161, 179, 437, 438, 439 Snowden, Ruth Lott. See King, Ruth Lott Snowden Snowden, Samuel Fmley (1786), 152-54, 95, 230, 233, 437, 438 Snowden, Sarah Gustine, 234, 236 Snowden, Susan Bayard Breese, 154 Snowden, William Tennent (1794), liv, 95, 152, 233, 437, 438 Snowden family, 188 Snow Hill, MD, 453, 454; Presbyterian church, 454 snuff-taking by alumnus minister, 421 Snyder, Simon, 339, 340, 341-44, 346, 349n societies and clubs. See agricultural societies; bible societies; colonization

INDEX movement for free blacks; ethnic societies; historical societies; literary and debating societies and clubs; medical societies; missionary societies; musical societies; scientific societies; temperance Society for establishing Useful Manufactures, 247 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (England), 218 Society of Jesus, 514 Society of the Cincinnati, 14 Socrates, 175 Somers, Mary. See Deas, Mary Somers Somerset Co., MD, xlii, 317, 353, 354, 386, 419, 452, 453 Somerset Co., NJ, 11, 13n, 36, 44, 57, 163n, 184, 185, 324, 469, 481 Somerset Co., PA, 95n Somerville, NJ, 481 Sons of Liberty: Charleston, SC, 471, 494; Savannah, GA, 512 Sophocles: Cliosophk Society pseudonym, 508 South America: independence toasted, xviii Southampton, NY, 23n Southard, Henry, 293 Southard, Rebecca Harrow, 294 Southard, Samuel Lewis (1804), 28, 29394, 295, 301, 435 South Britain, CT: Congregational church, 66 Southbury, CT, 66 South Carolina: appeal court of law and equity, judges of, 206, 472, 473; federal constitution ratifying convention, fathers serve in, 495, 521-22; governor, father serves as, 511; lieutenant governor, alumnus serves as, 515; politics, 494-507, 521-26; state bank, 362 legislature: alumni serve in, 73, 217, 359, 360, 361-62, 472, 496, 514-16, 523, 536; father-in-law serves as speaker, 33; fathers serve in, 24, 156, 358, 359, 413, 436, 471, 494-95, 511, 514, 522, 527, 536; house ways and means committee, 473, 496; son-in-law serves as speaker, 515; sons serve in, 362, 515; speakers, 496 South Carolina, Medical College of. See Medical College of South Carolina South Carolina Association, 362, 503 South Carolina College. See College of South Carolina South-Carolina Gazette, 526-27, 529 South Carolina Society, 362, 497, 499 South-Carolina State-Gazette, 528

607

South Carolina Unionist Party, 502-05 Southey, Thomas: works read by alumnus, 497 Southold, NY, 144, 369, 384 South Quay, VA, 330 Southwest Territory, 51, 330, 331 Sovency, Mary. See Ricketts, Mary Sovency Spafford, George, 529 Spafford, Sarah. See Woodhull, Sarah Spafford Spaight, Richard Dobbs, Jr., 420 Spaight, Richard Dobbs, ST., 69, 120, 326 Spanish America: Federalist plans to invade (1798), 329 Spanish language, 474 Sparta, Greece, 313, 441 Spartanburg, SC, 73 Specie Circular, 381 The Spectator (Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele), 114 Speech of Robert Goodloe Harper, Esq. ... 1814, 80 Spencer, Charlotte Wright, 54 Spencer, Elihu, 53, 54 Spencer, Elizabeth. See Merchant, Elizabeth Spencer Spencer, Joanna Eaton (Eatton), 53, 54 Spencer, John Eaton (1784), 53-54 Spencer, Margaret. See Sergeant, Margaret Spencer spoliation claims, 380 Spooner, Alden J., 461 Spotsylvania Co., VA, 292 Sprigg, Osborn, 318 Sprigg, Rachel Belt, 318 Spring Creek, PA: Presbyterian church, 313, 314 Springfield, NJ, 86; Presbyterian church, 86 Springfield, OH, 127 Springfield Township, NJ, 433 Spring Hill, NC, 329 Spring Hill Seminary of Learning, NC, 326 Squier, Zadoc (1784), 54-57, 40 Staatsburgh, NY, 38, 140 Stafford Co., VA, 294 Stamford, CT, 396 Stamp Act (1765), 527 Stamper, Rebecca Rush. See Wallace, Rebecca Rush Stamper StanfordviUe, NY, 296 Stanhope, Philip Dormer. See Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Stanly, John, 120, 326, 327 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 458

608

INDEX

Staples, John (1793), xlii Stateburg, SC, 401; Holy Cross Cemetery, 402 State Gazette, & New-Jersey Advertiser, Trenton, NJ, 155 The State Gazette of North Carolina, 173 State Gazette of South-Carolina, 528 Statement of the Proceedings of the Princeton Corresponding Executive Committee ... (George Spafford WoodhuU), 533 Statement of What has Been Recently Done to Supply the Destitute ... (ed. George Spafford WoodhuU), 533 Staten Island, NY, 65, 439, 457 states' rights: supporters, 217, 301, 459, 524-25; views on of U.S. supreme court justice, 501 steamboat monopolies, 298, 311, 501 steamboats, 240, 336, 379 Steele, Anne Billings, 520 Steele, Henry, 520, 521 Steele, Henry (1792), xffii, 520, 521 Steele, Isaac (1790), 520-21 Steele, James, 520, 521 Steele, Sir Richard: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 259 Stelle, Abel, 52 In Stelle, Benjamin (1766), 52 In Stelle, Isaac, 52 In Stelle, James T. (1793), 521n Stelle, Mary Crow, 52 In Stelle, Sarah Dunham, 52 In Sterne, Laurence: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 230; hero of novel as Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 479; works read by alumnus, 371 Stevens, Ann Palmer. See Gaillard, Ann Palmer Stevens Stevens, Ann Palmer, Jr., 440 Stevens, Catherine, 440. See also Grant, Catherine Stevens Stevens, Charles, 440 Stevens, Laura, 440 Stevens, Mary, 440 Stevens, Mary Elizabeth. See Smith, Mary Elizabeth Stevens Stevens, Neal Gough, 440 Stevens, O'Neal Gough (1789), 440 Stevens, Mrs. Richbourg, 440 Stevens, William, 272 Stewart, Anna, 155 Stewart, Charles, 154-55 Stewart, Charles Samuel (1815), 155-56 Stewart, Deborah McClenachan, 424 Stewart, Martha. See Wilson, Martha Stewart Stewart, Mary Oakley Johnston, 155

Stewart, Robert, 155 Stewart, Samuel Robert (1786), 154-56 Stewart, William (1799), 424 Stiles, Ezra, xxiii, xlix, 1-li, 107 Stille, John, 170 Stille, Mary. See Abeel, Mary Stille Stillwater, NY: Presbyterian church, 254, 255 Stirling, Earl of. See Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling Stites, Dr. Hezekiah, 508 Stockton, Abigail. See Field, Abigail Stockton Stockton, Annis Boudinot, 70, 237, 238, 239 Stockton, Benjamin (1776), 237, 446 Stockton, Ebenezer (1780), 237 Stockton, Elizabeth, 243. See also Green, Elizabeth Stockton Stockton, Elizabeth Milnor, 239, 243 Stockton, Hannah. See Boudinot, Hannah Stockton Stockton, Julia. See Rush, Julia Stockton Stockton, Lucius Horatio (1787), 237^*4, xxi, 10 Stockton, Mary. See Hunter, Mary Stockton Stockton, Philip (1769), 237 Stockton, Richard (1748), 10, 237, 238, 241, 243n Stockton, Richard (1779), 10, 28, 79, 117, 130, 223, 237-42 Stockton, Richard B. (1821), 243 Stockton, Robert, 195 Stockton, Robert Field (1813), 241-42 Stockton, Samuel Witham (1767), 237, 239-40 Stockton, Sarah Milnor. See Armstrong, Sarah Milnor Stockton Stockton, Susanna. See Pintard, Susanna Stockton Stone, David (1788), 288-92 Stone, David W., 289 Stone, Elizabeth, 288 Stone, Elizabeth Williamson Hobson, 288 Stone, Hannah Turner, 289 Stone, Sarah Dashiell, 292 Stone, Zedekiah, 288, 289 stone quarrying: family business, 244, 245-46 Stoothoff, Hannah. See Ogden, Hannah Stoothoff Stoothoff, Peter, 44 Story, Joseph, 79, 499, 501, 506 strikes, 383, 491 Stuart, James, Duke of York, 459 Sturgess v. Crovmmshield, 501

INDEX submarines, 140 Subtreasury plan, 382 Suckasunny (Succasunna), NJ, 369, 376, 379; Presbyterian church, 384 Suffolk, VA, 210 Suffolk Co., NY, 144, 455, 458, 460 Suhm, Anna Maria. See DeWint, Anna Maria Suhm Suhm, Christian, 363, 367 Suhm, Elizabeth. See Rogiers, Elizabeth Suhm Suhm, Maria. See Wheelock, Maria Suhm Suhm, Maria de Malleville. See von Beverhoudt, Maria de Malleville Suhm suicide: of alumni, lv, 108 Sully, Thomas, 341 Summerseat (estate), PA, 109-10 Sumter, Thomas, 206, 207, 521, 523 Sumter Co., SC, 401 Sumter district, SC, 206 Sunbury, PA, 225, 227; German Lutheran church, 226 The Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette, PA, 226 Sunday schools, 533 Sunneytown, PA: English school, 347 surgery: practiced by alumnus, 407, 408; regarded as ungentlemanly, 408 Surrey, England, 488 Surry Co., VA, 466 surveying, 67, 227, 265n, 305, 315, 316, 414, 459 Susquehanna Company, PA, 190 Sussex Co., NJ, 19, 28, 59, 238, 325n Sussex Detached Militia, Second Company of Light Horse, NJ, 59 Sutton, Abigail. See Marsh, Abigail Sutton Swartwout, Samuel, 79. See also Ex parte Bollmann and Swartwout (1807) Sweet Springs, VA, 275 Swift, Jonathan: works read by alumnus, 371 swimming, xx, 374 Switzerland: emigrants from, 512 Sydenham, Thomas, 408 Symmes, John Cleves, 469 Symmes, Mary Henry Halsey, 469 Symms, Nancy. See Harrison, Nancy Symms Synods. See Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.; Dutch Reformed Church in the U.S.A. Syphax: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 223 Syracuse, NY, 271 Talbot Co., MD, 431, 520

609

Taliaferro, Betty Garnett, 293 Taliaferro, James Garnett, 294 Taliaferro, James Monroe (1814), 294 Taliaferro, John, Sr., 293 Taliaferro, John (1788), 292-95 Taliaferro, John S. (1817), 294 Taliaferro, Lucy, 294 Taliaferro, Lucy Thornton Hooe, 293 Taliaferro, Sarah Frances Brooke, 294 Taliaferro, William Francis (1811), 294 Taliaferro family, 292-93 "Taliho" (song), 202 Tallmadge, Benjamin, 455 Tamanens (Tammanny), Delaware chief), 442 Tammany Society. See St. Tammany Society, Philadelphia, PA Taney, Michael, 387 Taney, Roger Brooke, 387, 388, 391, 392 Tappan (Toppan, Tappen, Tophan), Abraham, 97 Tappan (Tappen), John (1785), 97-98, 88, 90,91 Tappan, John, Jr. (Newburyport, MA), 97 Tappan, John, Sr. (Newburyport, MA), 97,98 Tappan, Martha Hall, 97 Tappan, NY, 97, 244; Dutch Reformed church, 244 Tappen, Abraham. See Tappan (Toppan, Tappen, Tophan), Abraham Tappen, Christoffel, 97 Tappen, Christopher, 97 Tappen, John. See Tappan (Tappen), John (1785) Tappen, John (Kingston, NY), 97-98 Tariff Act (1833), 505 Tariff of Abominations (1828), 379, 435, 503, 525 Tarleton, Banastre, xxi, 275 Taylor, Anne Wyche, 521 Taylor, Benjamin Franklin (1810), 521 Taylor, Bennett (1793), xlii Taylor, Jesse (1791), xlii, 522 Taylor, Jesse P. (1810), 521 Taylor, John (1770), 287 Taylor, John (1790), 521-26, xlii, xlvui, 503-04 Taylor, John (1795), 522 Taylor, Sarah. See Hunt, Sarah Taylor Taylor, Thomas, 521-22, 526n Taylor, Thomas (1798), 521 Taylor, Zachary, 384 Taylor's Hill (estate), SC, 522, 523 teaching profession: See education, profession of

610

INDEX

Telemachus: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 280 Telfair, Ann. 5«« Timothy, Ann Telfair Telfair, Sarah Gibbons, 478, 479 temperance, 252-53, 347, 354, 372, 40910, 484, 532. See also intemperance Ten Broeck, Abraham. See Tenbrook (Ten Brook, Ten Broeck), Abraham (1784) Ten Broeck, Cornelius, 57 Ten Broeck, Margaret Louw, 57 Tenbrook (Ten Brook, Ten Broeck), Abraham (1784), 57-58, 94n Tenbrook, Elizabeth Catherine, 58 Tenbrook, Eliza Howell, 58 Tenbrook, Philip Howell, 58 Tenbrook, William Ellett, 58 Tennant, Gilbert, 470 Tennant, Dr. John, 296 Tennant, John (1788), 295-96 Tennent, Ann Martha Smith, 436 Tennent, Charles (1793), 158, 358, 436 Tennent, Gilbert, 252, 529 Tennent, Susanne Vergereau, 158 Tennent, William, Jr., 530 Tennent, William, III (1758), 158, 358 Tennessee: constitutional convention (1834), alumnus serves in, 334; legislature, alumnus serves in, 332; politics, 330-35; surveying expedition (1783), 67; unfinished history of, 334 Tennessee, University of, 332 Teviotdale, NY, 277 textile manufacturing. See manufacturing (textile) theatre, 55, 279-80, 347, 421 Themistocles, 478 theology: faculty in at CNJ, 55 Thew, Abraham, 244 Thew, Daniel (1787), 24446 Thew, Elizabeth Burnet, 246 Thew, Rachel Knap, 244 Thompson, Arietta Tompkins, 299 Thompson, Atcheson, 448 Thompson, Benjamin. See Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count Thompson, Benjamin F., 461 Thompson, Elizabeth, 449. See abo Harris, Elizabeth Thompson Baker Thompson, Elizabeth Davenport Livingston, 302 Thompson, Ezra, 296 Thompson, Gilbert, 299 Thompson, James (1785), 98-99, 42, 87 Thompson, James (chief justice of PA), 236 Thompson, Joel. See Thompson, John (1789)

Thompson, John (1789), 441-42, 413n, 423 Thompson, Rev. John, 197 Thompson, Maria Woodruff, 59 Thompson, Mary Snowden, 236 Thompson, Rachel Smith, 296 Thompson, Robert, 59 Thompson, Sarah Livingston, 297, 298, 302 Thompson, Smith (1788), 296-303, 312 Thompson, William, 222, 488 Thomson, Archibald M. (1830), 441n Thomson, Charles, xx Thomson, James Hamden (1761), 24, 70 Thomson, Rev. James William, 44 In Thomson, James William (1822), 441n Thomson, John, 441n Thomson, John A. (1823), 441n Thoroughgood Plantation, SC, 359, 360 Thoughts on the Colonization of Free Blacks (Robert Finley), 185 Thoughts on the State of the American Indians (Silas Wood), 456-57 Threlkeld, Joseph, 390 Threlkeld, Sarah. See English, Sarah Threlkeld Thurso, Scotland, 89 Tichenor, Isaac (1775), 142 Tilghman, Edward, 189, 190 Tilghman, William, 190, 430 Tilton, William, 201 "Timon of the Backwoods'': nickname of John Taylor (1790), 523 Timothee, Louis. See Timothy (Timothee), Lewis (Louis) Timothy, Ann Donovan, 526, 528 Timothy, Ann Telfair, 529 Timothy, Benjamin Franklin (1790), 526-29 Timothy, Catherine. See Trezevant, Catherine Timothy Timothy, Elizabeth, 526-27, 528 Timothy, Frances Claudia. See Marchant, Frances Claudia Timothy Timothy, Franklin. See Timothy, Benjamin Franklin (1790) Timothy, Peter, 526, 527 Timothy, Peter (1813), 529 Timothy (Timothee), Lewis (Louis), 526 Timothy & Mason (mercantile firm), 528 Tinsley, Jonathan, 416, 446 Tioga Co., NY, 268 Tobago, island of, 200 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 410 Toliver, John. See Taliaferro, John (1788) tomato, commercialization of, 491 Tompkins, Arietta. See Thompson, Arietta Tompkins Tompkins, Daniel D., 295, 299 Toomer, Ann (Nancy) Warham, 156

INDEX Toomer, Anthony (1786), 156-57 Toomer, Maj. Anthony, 156 Toomer, Anthony VanderHorst, 157n Toomer, Charlotte Cheeseborough, 157 Toomer, Henry W. B., 157 Tophan, Abraham. See Tappan (Toppan, Tappen, Tophan), Abraham Topographical Description of PA, VA, MD and NC (Thomas Hutchins), 414 Toppan, Abigail. See Noyes, Abigail Toppan Toppan, Abraham. See Tappan (Toppan, Tappen, Tophan), Abraham Toppan, John, Jr., 97 Toppan, John, Sr., 97 Toppan, Richard, 97 Torrey, John, 409 Townshend, Hannah. See Wilkin, Hannah Townshend Townshend, Roger, 102 Townshend Acts (1767), 513 Trajan (Roman emperor), 484 travel literature, 170n Treadwell, Phebe. See Smith, Phebe Tredwell Treaty of (place name). See under place name Tredwell, Phebe. See Smith, Phebe Tredwell Tredwell, Thomas (1764), 285 Trent, Caesar, 416, 446 Trenton, Battle of, 181 Trenton, NJ: bar examination at, 372; childhood residence, 517; dance at, 225, 372; died at, 122, 224, 243; married at, 58; masonic meetings at, 509; merchants, 239; practiced law at, 158, 239, 240; practiced medicine at, 247; Presbyterian church, 43, 54, 122, 242, 243, 438, 517; real estate, 241; residents, 60, 110, 184, 224, 355, 517; slavery opponents meet in, 241; state constitutional convention at (1844), 383; St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 224; studied law at, 155; taught school at, 55; travel to and from, 96, 225, 379, 383; War of 1812, convention at opposing, 240-41; Washington Benevolent Society, 240, 241; Washington, George, visits (1789), 239; and Whiskey Rebellion, 372 Trenton Academy, NJ, 55, 517, 518 Trenton Federalist, NJ, 239-40 Trenton Public library Company, NJ, 242 Trezevant, Catherine Timothy, 527 Trezevant, John Timothy (1775), 527 Trezevant, Lewis C , 497

611

Trezevant, Lewis Cruger, 497 Trezevant, Theodore, 527 trigonometry, sriv Tripoli, North Africa, 59 Trippe, Mary. See Hindman, Mary Trippe Troy, NY, 297 True American, Trenton, NJ, 239 Trumbull, John, 10, 410 Tryon, William, 486 Tryon Palace, New Bern, NC, 420 Tuckahoe (estate), VA, 283 Tucker, Amelia. See Harvey, Amelia Tucker Tucker, Anne Harvey, 482 Tucker, Daniel, 399 Tucker, Frances Bland Randolph, 281, 282, 283 Tucker, James, 482 Tucker, Lelia Skipwith Carter, 281 Tucker, St. George, 281-84 Tunis, North Africa, 59 Turner, Hannah. See Stone, Hannah Turner Turner, Simon, 289 turnpikes, 28, 35, 395, 511 Tuscarora Nation, 288 Tusculum (estate), MD, 128 Tusculum (estate), NJ, xxviii, 128 Tusculum Academy, MD, 128 Tuthill (Tuttle), Hannah. See Campfield, Hannah Tuthill (Tuttle) Tuthill, Samuel, 14 Tyler, John, 383, 396 Tyler, Julia Gardiner, 383, 396 typhus, 221 Tyrone Township, PA, 266n Ulster Co., NY, 58, 97, 456 Ulster Plebeian, Kingston, NY, 98 Ulysses: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 431 Ungerer, Mr. (of Washington, DC), 382 Union Bank of Georgetown, DC, 390, 392, 393 Union College, NY: curriculum, 287; degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 267, 308, 402, 406; faculty, 286-87; founding of, 324; professorship declined, 457; ties to CNJ, 287; trustees, 84, 255, 324 Union Presbytery, 136 Union School, Maidenhead, NJ, 195 Union Society, Hampden-Sidney College, VA, 313 Unitarian controversy (SC), 504 United States: Board of Treasury, 447, 449; Cabinet, number of alumni in,

612

INDEX

liii, 548; Capitol, 389; district attorney, 142; federal marshal, 413; geographer general, 414; Military Academy, NY, 378, 380; Mint, 236; presidential electors, 133, 293, 295, 453, 526n; Treasury Department librarian, 295. See also elections, federal Army: Adjutant General's Department, 145; Assistant Adjutant General, 146; First Infantry Regiment, 427; inspector general, 146; Provisional Army (1798-1800), 59, 80, 329, 373; Regiment of Artillerists, 145; Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers, 145; Twelfth NJ Volunteers (Civil War), 494. See also Continental Army Congress: chairman of House Ways and Means Committee, 77; claims presented to, 417, 448-49; contested election, 294; number of alumni in, liii, 548; Senate expels William Blount, 6, 53, 131, 330, 332; son's service in House, 261, 454. See also Confederation Congress; Continental Congress Constitution: contract clause, 501; oration on at CNJ, xvii; oration on at CNJ commencement, 417; Signer, 222. See also individual states for ratifying conventions Navy: problems of, 380-81, 382; secretaries of the navy, 379-82, 420; service in, 59-60 Supreme Court: clerk of, 10; members of, 278, 296-303, 387, 494-507; number of alumni in, liii United States, U.S.S., 329 University of Aberdeen, Scotland, xxvii University of Delaware, 492 University of East Tennessee, 332 University of Edinburgh, Scotland: father studied medicine at, 89; medical degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 482; medical students, 404, 482, 517, 518; Walter Minto studies at, xxvii University of Georgia, 18n, 186 University of Glasgow, Scotland: medical degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 516, 517 University of Leiden, the Netherlands: medical degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 219, 221 University of North Carolina: attorney of, 119-20; commencement oratory, 291; faculty, 266-67n, 351-52; grammar school, 266n; presidents, xxxvii, 351-52; trustees, 172, 266-67n, 292, 352

University of Pennsylvania: degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 348, 487; medical students at, 271, 323; trustees, 109, 228. See also College of Philadelphia, PA; University of the State of Pennsylvania University of Pisa, xxvii University of Tennessee, 332 University of the State of New York: regents, 286, 299 University of the State of Pennsylvania: degree awarded to CNJ alumnus, 470; grammar school, 187, 228; medical degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 214, 215-16, 264, 402, 404; merger with College of Philadelphia, PA (1791), 404; philosophy school, xliii, 187, 252, 466; tinged with loyalism, xxiii; transfers from to CNJ, possible, xlii, xliii, 187, 336; transfer to from CNJ, xliii, 470. See also College of Philadelphia, PA; University of Pennsylvania University of Vermont, 142 Upper Antietam Hundred, MD, 203 Upper Canada, 328 Upper Freehold, NJ, 129-30 Upper Octarora, PA, 258; Presbyterian church, 258 Upper Penn's Neck, NJ, 490 U.S.S. (vessel). See under individual vessel's name Utica, NY, 154 Uxbridge (estate), SC, 511 Vail, Anne. See Schaw, Anne Vail Howe Van Bibber, Rebecca. See Cazier, Rebecca Van Bibber Van Buren, Martin, 50, 299-302, 378, 379, 380 Vandeve, Anna Smith Green, 157, 192 Vandeve, Benjamin, 157, 192 Van Cleve, Eleanor. See Hunt, Eleanor (Elener) Van Cleve Van Lue Vandeve, Elizabeth Coates, 158 Van Cleve, John, 126 Van Cleve, John (1797), 158 Vancleve,John Wright (1786), 157-58, 192, 437 Vandeve, Mary Wright, 157 Van Cortlandt, Ann. See White, Ann Van Cortlandt Van Cortlandt, Frederick, 43 Van Cortlandt, Helen. See Morris, Helen Van Cortlandt Van der School (fictional character), 58 Van Doren, Isaac (1793), xlix

INDEX

613

Van Dyke, Ann, 306. See also Johns, Ann Virginia: constitutional convention (1829-30), alumnus serves in, 295; fedVan Dyke eral constitution ratifying convention Van Dyke, Dorcas Montgomery. See du (1788), 283; legislature, alumni serve Pont, Dorcas Montgomery Van Dyke in, 112, 276, 293, 295, 517; legislature, Van Dyke, Elizabeth Nixon, 303 father serves in, 293 Van Dyke, Kensey Johns (1816), 305, 306 Virginia, Diocese of, 112 Van Dyke, Mary Van Leuvenigh, 305 Virginia, Synod of (Presbyterian), 129, Van Dyke, Nicholas, Sr., 303-06 Van Dyke, Nicholas, Jr. (1788), 303-08, 251 352 Van Dyke, Nicholas (1812), 306 Virginia Resolutions (1798), 77 Van Leuvenigh, Ann Armitage, 305 Virgin Islands. See Danish West Indies Van Leuvenigh, Elizabeth. See Bird, Eliz- von Beverhoudt, Adriana. See Boudinot, abeth Van Leuvenigh Adriana von Beverhoudt Van Leuvenigh, Mary. See Van Dyke, von Beverhoudt, Lucas, 363-67, 369n Mary Van Leuvenigh von Beverhoudt, Maria de Malleville Van Leuvenigh, Zachariah, 305 Suhm, 363, 364, 366, 367 Van Lue, Eleanor Van Cleve. See Hunt, Voorhees, Abraham, 481 Eleanor (Elener) Van Cleve Van Lue Voorhees, Catharine. See Neilson, Van Ness, Catherine. See Raddiff, Catharine Voorhees Catherine Van Ness Voorhees, Margaret Harris, 481 Van Ness, David, 48 Voorhees, Samuel (1794), xlviii Van Vechten, Abraham, 57-58 Vattel, Emmerich de: works read by Waccamaw, SC, 221 alumnus, 371 Waccamaw Neck, SC, 536 Vaughan (Vaughn), Mary. See Mosby, Waddington brothers, 311 Mary Vaughan (Vaughn) Wadsworth, Catherine, 107 Vergennes, VT, 142 Wadsworth, David, 107 Vergereau, Abigail Hatfield, 158, 159 Wadsworth, Harriet, 107 Vergereau, Jean, 158 Wadsworth, Jeremiah, 107 Vergereau, John C. (1786), 158-59 Wake Co., NC, 292 Vergereau, Maria, 159 Wales: emigrants from, 24, 100 Vergereau, Peter, Jr., 158, 159 Wallace, Alexander, 163n Vergereau, Peter, Sr. See Vergereau, Wallace, Benjamin, 160 Pierre Louis (Peter, Sr.) Wallace, Eleanor Maclay, 161, 162 Vergereau, Pierre, 158, 159 Wallace, Elizabeth Culbertson, 160 Vergereau, Pierre Louis (Peter, Sr.), 158, Wallace, Gertrude Low, 163n 159 Wallace, Hugh, 163n Vergereau, Susanne. See Tennent, Wallace, John, 163n Susanne Vergereau Wallace, John Bradford (1794), xvii, xlix, Vergereau, Susanne (Susannah) 163n, 190 Boudinot, 158 Wallace, John Culbertson, 161 Vergraw, John C. See Vergereau, John C. Wallace, Joshua Maddox, Jr. (1793), (1786) 163n Vermont: alumnus serves in legislature, Wallace, Mary Eleanor. See DeWitt, Mary Eleanor Wallace 142 Wallace, Mary Maddox, 163n Vermont, University of, 142 Wallace, Rachel Forrest, 161 Vernor, Elizabeth. See Henry, Elizabeth Wallace, Rebecca Rush Stamper, 160 Vernor Wallace, Sally (Sarah) Dunham, 163n Vesey, Denmark. See Denmark Vesey Wallace, Sarah Low, 163n slave conspiracy Wallace, William (1786) (of PA), 160-62, Vienna, MD, 520 Vincenza, Italy, 29 113 Vindication of Mr. Randolph's Resignation Wallace, William (1786) (unidentified), (Edmund Randolph), 231-32 162-63, 113 violin, 202, 295, 509 Wallace, William (son of Alexander), Virgil: studied at CNJ grammar school, 163n 445; works read at CNJ, xxiv Wallace, William (son of John), 163n

614

INDEX

as president, 52, 372, 384, 427, 428, Wallis, Cassandra. See Smith, Cassandra 447-49; and Quasi-War with France, Wallis 59, 80; in Revolutionary War, 27, 89, Wallis, Joseph Jacob, 227 110, 167, 336, 439, 511; visits Trenton, Wallkill, NY, 100 NJ (1789), 239; and Whiskey RebelWain, Robert, Jr., 243-44n lion, 177, 372 Walton, Mary. See Morris, Mary Walton Ward, Sarah. See Campfield, Sarah Ward Washington, NC, 325 Washington Academy, MD, xlii-xliii, 317, Wardesson (Bloomfield), NJ: Presbyte353-54, 385-86, 419, 452 rian church, 351 Washington Benevolent Society, 131, Warford, John (1774), 270, 271 240, 241 Warford, Margaret Piper Kirkpatrick, Washington College, MD, xliii, 91, 94 269, 270 Warham, Ann (Nancy). See Toomer, Ann Washington Co., IN, 243 (Nancy) Warham Washington Co., MD, 202, 203, 421, 520 Washington Co., NY, 271 Waring, Juliet Lee. See Smith, Juliet Lee Waring Washington Co., PA, 35-36n, 265n Washington Federalist, DC, 195, 390 Waring, Mary, 436 Washington Gazette, MD (now DC), 389 Waring, Thomas, 436 Washington Globe, DC, 382 Warner, Catharine. See Hosack, Catharine Warner Waterbury, CT: First Congregational Church, 66 War of 1812: army commission resigned during dark moment of, 146; BalWaterford, Ireland, 163n timore riots, 133-34; British capture Waters, Esther Rittenhouse, 341-42 Washington, DC, 102, 391; chaplains, Waters, Sarah. See Meade, Sarah Waters 235; and Delaware Nation, 451; disWaters, William, 210 charged veterans, 433; and economy, Watkins, Joel, 128 343, 377; on Gardiner's Island, NY, Watkins, Susannah. See Hoge, Susannah 397; impact on agricultural reform, Watkins Hunt 316; legal ramifications, 311; and MD, Watkins, William Morton (1792), xlii, 128 453; and NC, 291, 328-29; opponents, Watts, John, 407 8, 80-81, 240-41, 291, 298, 453; and Wayles, Martha. See Jefferson, Martha PA, 344, 439; peace commission, 8, Wayles 291; supporters, 294, 328-29, 344, 499; Wayne, Col., 220 and T N , 334 Wayne, Anthony, 427; Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 514 Warren Academy, VA, 442n Wayne, Isaac (1791), xlii, 514 Warren Co., NC, 465 Wayne, James Moore (1808), 311 Warrenton, VA, 442n Wayne Co., NC, 326 Washington, Bushrod, 185, 391 Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith), 373 Washington, DC: American Colonization Society founded at, 185-86; boardWeare, Daniel, 246n ing house society, 8; British capture Weaver, Isaac, 345 (1814), 102, 391; Monroe inauguraWebster, Daniel, 241 tion, 377; race riot (1835), 381; schools, Webster, Noah, 86, 101 368; social life, 381-82; stationed at Weems, Mason L., 207 (army), 146; Trinity Church, 375; visWeir, James (1787), 246 its to, 185-86, 273, 329, 384, 498; wife Weiser, Conrad (pseudonym), 342-43 from, 292 Wells, Eleanor. See Wilson, Eleanor Wells Washington, George: address to, 130; Wells, Elizabeth (Eliza) Lawrence, 310, adulation of opposed, 131, 379; alum311 nus names son after, 35; attends CNJ Wells, Jane Dunlop, 308 commencement (1783), zx; biograWells, John (grandfather), 308 phies of, 207, 500; birthday observed, WeUs,John (1788), 308-12, nri, 299 379, 389; birthday observed at CNJ, Wells, Robert, 308 188, 202; Cherokee diplomacy, 52; Wells, Sabina Elliott Huger, 311 father's friendship with, 510; funeral Wells, Thomas Lawrence, 310, 312 orations, 226; letter of, 428; letters Wemyss, James, 399 to, 89, 92, 427, 447-49; monument to, West, Mr. (of Charleston, SC), 31, 476 134; name invoked posthumously, 131; West,Cato, 115, 116

INDEX West, Esther. See Rodman, Esther West West Cain Township, PA, 264 Westchester Co., NY, 10, 42, 123 Western Inland Lock Navigation Compa­ ny, NY, 269, 395 Westfield, NJ, 423 West Florida, 414, 417 West Hills, NY, 459 West Hills (estate), NY, 455 West Indies: emigrants from, 31; trad­ ing voyage to, 204. See also individual islands West Indies, British, 200-01 West Indies, Danish. See Danish West Indies West Jersey. See West New Jersey (colony) Westmoreland Co., PA, 92, 261 Westmoreland Co., VA, 294 West New Jersey (colony): commissary of purchase, 125; history of, 493 Weston (estate), MD, 520 Westover (estate), VA, 210 West Perm's Valley, PA: Presbyterian church, 314 West Point, NY, 102. See also United States, Military Academy, NY West Point, OH, 450 West Tennessee, Presbytery of, 352 Wetherill, Ann. See Lott, Ann Wetherill Wetherill, Vincent, 509 Whaley, Elizabeth Shaw, 100 Whaley, Hercules (1785), 99-100, 101 Whaley, Mrs. Mulligan, 99 Whaley, Thomas, 99, 100 Wheelock, Eleazar, 1 Wheelock, John, 363, 366, 367 Wheelock, Maria. 5«« Allen, Maria Whee­ lock Wheelock, Maria Suhm, 363, 364, 365, 367 wheelwright: father's occupation, 160 Whig Party: membership in, 102, 295, 356, 492 Whigs. See American Whig Society, Col­ lege of New Jersey Whippany, NJ: Presbyterian church, 262 Whiskey Rebellion, 14, 59, 92, 150, 177, 265, 372, 373, 430, 490 Whitaker, Elizabeth. See Ogden, Eliza­ beth Whitaker White, Ann Van Cortlandt, 43 White, Hannah. See Arnett, Hannah White White, Henry, 43 White, Hester. See Darbe, Hester White Huntting White, Hugh Lawson, 334 White, James, 332

615

White, Mary. See Blount, Mary White White, Sarah. See Darrell, Sarah White White, Sims, 358 White, William, 191, 411, 420 White Eyes (Koquethagachton), li, 44243, 444, 446, 449 White Eyes (Koquethagachton), wife of, 447 White Eyes, George (son), 451 White Eyes, George Morgan (1789), 442-52, li-lii, 365, 416, 425-29 White Eyes, Mrs. George Morgan, 450 White Eyes, Joseph, 451 White Eyes, Joseph, wife of, 451 White Eyes, Mary. See Pemahoaland, Mary White Eyes White Eyes Plain, OH, 442 White Eyes Town, OH, 442 Whiteneld, George, 136 Whitehill, Robert, 339 White House, NJ, 45 White House, Washington, DC, 389 White House (estate), SC, 494 White Plains, Battle of, 47 Whitestown, NY, 271 Whitmarsh, Thomas, 526 Whitmel, Winifred. See Alston, Winifred Whitmel Wickham, Thomas, 394, 397 Wicomico, MD: Presbyterian church, 354 Wiggins, Thomas, 97, 444 Wilcox, Elizabeth. See Graham, Elizabeth Wilcox Wilcox, Martha Carter. See Condict, Martha Carter Wilcox Wilcox, Stephen, 253 Wilderness Creek (estate), MS, 114 Wilderness Plantation (estate), Natchez, MS, 115 Wiley, David (1788), 313-16 Wilkes, Charles, 381 Wilkes, Eliza. See Henry, Eliza Wilkes Wilkes, John, 85 Wilkes, Mary, 85 Wilkes-Barre, PA, 110, 227 Wilkin, Elizabeth Rogers, 100 Wilkin, Hannah Townshend, 101-02 Wilkin, James Whitney (1785), 100-03, xxvii, xlix, 88, 91, 97-98, 99, 100; diary, χχϋ, 36, 57, 86, 88, 90,94,9798, 99, 101 Wilkin, John, 100 Wilkin, Samuel Jones (1812), 101, 102 Wilkin, William, 100 Wilkins, Rachel. See HoUingsworth, Rachel Wilkins Wilkinson, James, 115 Willett, Marinus, 515

616

INDEX

William and Mary, College of. See College Windsor, NC, 288 Windsor Academy, NC, 288 of William and Mary, VA Winnsboro, SC, 522 Williams, Jane. See Duff, Jane Williams Winslow, Joshua, 427 Williams, Simeon (1765), 124n Winston, Maria. See Marshall, Maria WinWilliamsburg, VA, 17, 210, 275, 281, ston Price 282, 283 Winyah, SC: Prince George's Episcopal Williams College, MA: degree awarded Church, 536 to CNJ alumnus, 349 Winyaw Parish, SC, 221 Williamson, Elizabeth. See Stone, ElizaWirt, William, 128 beth Williamson Hobson Wistar, Caspar, 404 Williamson, John G., 513 Witherspoon, Dr. David: mistaken Willing, George (1792), xxi, 111 address of letter to President John Willing, Richard (1793), 111 Witherspoon, 15 Willing, Thomas, xxi, 110-11 Witherspoon, David (1774), 16 Willing, William (1796), 111 Wills, Henry, 174 Witherspoon, Frances. See Ramsay, Frances Witherspoon Willtown, SC: Presbyterian church, 216 Witherspoon, John, President: accused Wilmington, DE, 5, 7, 8, 180, 182, 222; of avarice, 37-38, 138; addresses Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, 180 newly promoted seniors, 197; alumnus Wilmington, NC, 486 named for, 215; and American PresbyWilmington Academy, DE, 182 terian church, xxviii; approves senior Wilson, Anna Drummond Gunby, 454 examinations, 245; blindness, xxvii, Wilson, David, 318n, 452 xxviii; and CNJ curriculum, xxiii-xxiv; Wilson, Eleanor Wells, 308, 309 and CNJ discipline, 361; death, lvii, Wilson, Ephraim, 318n 388; desire to study under, 403; disWOson, Ephraim King (1789), 452-54, xlii, burses federal funds, 445; and edu317, 318n, 385, 419, 455 cation of Africans, 1-li, lii; and eduWilson, Ephraim King, Jr., 454 cation of Indians, li-lii; encourages Wilson, Esther. See Ker, Esther Wilson Scottish immigration, 183; evaluates Wilson, I., xiv abilities of students and alumni, 55Wilson, James (1770), xiv-xv 56, 209, 288, 309, 420, 489; examWilson, James (of MD), 318n ines candidates for admission, xxviii; Wilson, James (of PA), 109 and French Revolution, xix; friends Wilson, John, 317 of, 395, 397; fundraising trip to Great Wilson, Martha, 155 Britain (1783-84), xxvi-xxvii; health, Wilson, Martha Stewart, 155 xxiii-xxiv, xxviii; as important patriot, Wilson, Mary Gale, 317 xxi, liv; as landlord, 37-38, 43, 138; Wilson, Peggy Custis, 317 legacy to CNJ, lviii; letters of, 209, Wilson, Peter, 402 223, 303, 304; letters to, 15, 16, 208, Wilson, Polly. See Slemons, Polly Wilson 222-23, 426; mentioned, 331; moral Wilson, Prisdlla Winder, 452 philosophy lectures, xxiv, xxv; notes Wilson, Robert, 439 on lectures of, xiv-xv, xxiv, liii; offiWilson, Sally Handy, 453-54 ciates at marriage, 38; as preacher, Wilson, Samuel, Sr., 317, 318n, 452 xxi, 19-20; and Princeton PresbyteWilson, Samuel (1788), 316-18, 452 rian church, 153; progeny, 215; recWilson, T., xiv ommends teacher, 55-56; recruiting Wilson, Thomas Woodrow (1879), 384 for CNJ, xxix, 91, 199; relations Wilson, William Sidney (1835), 454 with Hampden-Sidney College, VA, Wilted Grass. See Calvin, Benjamin Scott 128; and repair of Nassau Hall, xxii; (Shawuskukhkung [Wilted Grass]) salary, xxvi; and Scottish Enlighten(1776) ment, xxxiv; slaveowner, lii; theology Winchester, Mrs. (of Boston, MA), 85 students of, 65, 153, 168-69, 198, 420; Winchester, VA, 352, 469; Presbyterian and Tusculum (estate), 128; will, 388; church, 352 writes student orations, liii; writings Winder, Levin, 453 studied by alumnus, 461 Winder, Prisdlla. See Wilson, Priscilla Wolcot, John. See "Pindar, Peter" Winder

INDEX women's education. See female education women's rights: defended in student orations, xlix, 318 women's suffrage, NJ (1807), 433 Wood, Catherine Huyck, 458 Wood, Elizabeth Smith, 460, 461 Wood, Joshua, 455 Wood, Ruth Bush, 455 Wood, Silas (1789), 455-62, xxi, 198, 392, 395 Wood, Silas (merchant of New York, NY), 462n Woodbridge, NJ, 394; Presbyterian church, 262 Woodbury, NJ, 179, 233, 357 "Woodenduir (nickname for Woodhull, George Spafford, 1790), 533 Woodford Co., KY, 469 Woodhull, Alfred Alexander (1828), 53435 Woodhull, Alfred Alexander (1856), 535 Woodhull, George Spafford (1790), 529-35, 116, 184, 267, 371, 455, 496 Woodhull, Gertrude Neilson, 534 Woodhull, Gilbert Smith, 116, 530 Woodhull, John (1766), 19, 116, 192, 193, 194, 386, 387, 388, 529-30, 531, 532-33 Woodhull, John Neilson (1828), 534, 535 Woodhull, John Tennent, 116, 530 Woodhull, Juliana. See Howell, Juliana Woodhull Woodhull, Mary G., I l 7 n Woodhull, Nathaniel, 267, 459 Woodhull, Nathaniel, Jr., 267 Woodhull, Sarah. See Forman, Sarah Woodhull Woodhull, Sarah Smith, 267 Woodhull, Sarah Spafford, 529 Woodhull, Waiiam (1764), 179, 370, 530 Woodhull, William Henry (1822), 534 Woodlawn (estate), VA, 111, 112 Woodruff, Aaron Dickinson (1779), 59, 60, 172 Woodruff, Abner (1784), 58-61, 172 Woodruff, Ann Maria Austin, 61 Woodruff, Elias, 58 Woodruff, Elias George, 61 Woodruff, George Whitefield (1783), 59, 60, 172 Woodruff, Hannah Lemmon Lewis, 61 Woodruff, Harriet Austin, 60, 61 Woodruff, Maria. See Thompson, Maria Woodruff Woodruff, Mary Joline, 58 Woodruff, Susan, 60 Woodruff Place, Perth Amboy, NJ, 61

617

WooUey, Jacob (1762), 1 Woolsey, Ephraim, 247, 248 Woolsey, George, 247 Woolsey, Henry Harrison (1856), 248 Woolsey, Jeremiah, Sr., 247 Woolsey, Jeremiah (1787), 2 4 7 ^ 5 Woolsey, Martha Montgomery, 247, 248 Woolsey, Mary Hart, 247 Woolsey, William, 248 Wooton, Turnor. See Wootton (Wooton), Turnor (Turner) (1788) Wootton, Anne, 318 Wootton, Mary Mackall Bowie. See Bowie, Mary Mackall Bowie Wootton Wootton, Richard, 318 Wootton, Singleton, 318 Wootton, Singleton (1811), 318 Wootton, Thomas Sprigg, 318 Wootton (Wooton), Turnor (Turner) (1788), 318-19, xlix Wootton, William Turnor, 318, 319 Worcester Co., MD, 318n, 452, 453, 454 Workmgman's Advocate, New York, NY, 460 Workingman's Party (NY), 460 Worthington, Asa, 50 Wragg, Mary. See Mathewes, Mary Wragg wrestling, 199 Wright, Charlotte. See Spencer, Charlotte Wright Wright, Fanny, 460 Wright, Mary. See Vancleve, Mary Wright Wyandanch, Sachem, 396 Wyatt, Lucy. See Faulcon, Lucy Wyatt Wyche, Anne. See Taylor, Anne Wyche Wye Island, MD, 191 Wylly, Mary Bryan Morell, 512, 513 Wylly, Richard, 513 Wynkoop, Dirck, Jr., 286 Wynkoop, Sarah (Sally). See Smith, Sarah (Sally) Wynkoop Wythe, George, 17, 282 Xenophon: Cliosophic Society pseudonym, 470; works read at CNJ, xxiv XYZ affair, 77 Yale College, CT: age of alumni at death, lv; commencement orations, 107; degrees awarded, number of, xxviii; degrees awarded to CNJ alumni, 107, 277, 296; father of CNJ alumnus attends, 53; fundraising efforts abroad, xxvi; ministry, percentage of

618

INDEX

graduates entering, xxxiv; presidents, 1; rector, 262, 480; transfer to from CNJ, xxx, xliii, 107; transfer to from CNJ considered, 447; trustee, 262 Yamacraw, GA, 513 Yamma, Bristol, 1-li Yarmouth, England, 97 Yazoo scandal, 71, 72 yellow fever: 1793 epidemic, 153, 180, 223, 231, 372, 471; 1794 epidemic, 71; 1795 epidemic, 256; 1797 epidemic, 73; 1802 epidemic, 158; 1810 epidemic, 219; 1820 epidemic, 134; 1823 epidemic, 312; alumnus authors report on, 134; deaths from, lv, 180, 201, 312, 324; deaths from, possible, 158, 219, 256; illness from, 231; letter describing 1793 outbreak in Philadelphia, PA, 231; theories on nature and treatment of, 231, 407-08 Yonkers, NY, 43 York, Duke of. See Stuart, James, Duke of York York Co., VA, 516 Yorkshire, England, 15 Yorktown, Battle of, xxii, 95, 336 Young, Benjamin, 221, 536

Young, Elizabeth. See Read, Elizabeth Young Young, Elizabeth (Eliza) Maria Haig, 536 Young, John (1799), 203 Young, Louisa. See Read, Louisa Young Young, Martha AUston, 536 Young, Mary (Polly) AUston. See Alston, Mary (Polly) Allston Young Young, Rebecca Boyce Cockshutt. See Arnold, Rebecca Boyce Cockshutt Young Young, Thomas (1790), 536-37, 221 Young George (bngantine of Boston, MA), 59 Young Men of the City of New York, NY, 310 Youngs, Abimal, 144 Youngs, Gideon, Jr., 144 Youngs, Gideon, Sr., 144 Youngs, John, 144 Youngville (estate), SC, 221, 536 Zantziger, Elizabeth, 491 Zantziger, Julianna Elizabeth. See Johnson, Julianna Elizabeth Zantziger Zantziger, Paul, 491 Zurich, Switzerland, 512