Yale University W Library 5 3900200255056o ml Homesteads '¦** i#r>. And Their Stones "I give thtfe Books for the founding of. a. College in this Colonyi • iLiraaAiKy ¦ J 9 Ob- BY MARION HARLAND Some Colonial Homesteads, and Their Stories. With 86 illustrations. 8°, gilt top $3.00 More Colonial Homesteads, and Their Stories. With 81 illustrations. 8°, gilt top . . . $3.00 Where Ghosts Walk. The Haunts of Fa miliar Characters in History and Literature. With 33 illustrations. 8°, gilt top . . $2.50 Literary Hearthstones. Studies of the Home Life of Certain Writers and Thinkers. Fully illustrated, 160, gilt top, each $1.50 The first issues are : Charlotte Bronte, j William Cowper. John Knox. | Hannah More. {For Contents, see advts. at end) G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London. Hall in Jumel Mansion. SOME COLONIAL HOMESTEADS * $ AND THEIR STORIES By Marion Harland *H$S«, NEW YORK HND LONDON 0. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1900 Copyright, 1897 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Set up and electrotyped Oct. 1897. Reprinted Nov. 1897. Reprinted Aug. 1899. Reprinted Jan. 1900. Vbc fmicfccrborhcr (press, flew jfforf To THE HONORABLE WILLIAM WIRT HENRY MY FAITHFUL AND HELPFUL FRIEND THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED PREFACE. THE stories that make romantic the Colo nial Homesteads described in this work, were collected during visits paid by myself to those historical shrines. The task was a labor of love throughout, and made yet more de lightful by the generous kindness of those to whom I applied for assistance in gathering, classifying, and sifting materials for my book. Family records, rare old histories, manuscript letters, valuable pictures, and personal remi niscences, were placed at my disposal with gracious readiness that almost deluded me, the recipient, into the belief that mine was the choicer blessing of the giver. The pilgrimage to each storied home was fraught with pleasures which I may not share with the public. I have conscientiously studied accuracy in the historical outlines that frame my sketches, vi Preface. giving to Tradition, "the elder sister of His tory," only such credit as is rightfully hers. Thanks are due to Harper & Brothers for permission to reprint from Harper s Weekly the chapter entitled "Jamestown and Williams burg." That upon Varina was published in part and under another title in 1892 in The Cosmopolitan Magazine. Marion Harland. New York, 1897. ^aiw'Mwji^ ^^%^^ «-^^Q^^^^^^^^D ?w&^*^5iS9V ^^^^^^^^S>3^^> "Zr -?teA iPllEftl^yts erfHraSi ¥^^^^^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. — Brandon — Lower and Upper . . T II. — Westover ..... 33 III. — Shirley . 63 IV. — The Marshall House . 84 V. — Cliveden . . 104 VI. — The Morris House, Germantown, (Philadelphia) 131 VII. — The Schuyler and Colfax Houses, Pompton, New Jersey . 141 VIII. — The Van Cortlandt Manor-House . 171 IX.— Oak Hill upon the Livingston Manor 201 X. — Oak Hill upon the Livingston Manor (Concluded) . . . 221 XI. — The Philipse Manor-House . . 239 XII. — The Jumel Mansion. On Washington Heights, New York City . . 276 vii viii Contents. CHAPTER PAGE XIII. — The Jumel Mansion. On Washington Heights, New York City. (Con cluded) . . . . 306 XIV. — The Smith House at Sharon, Conn. 327 XV. — -The Pierce House in Dorchester, Massachusetts .... 346 XVI. — The " Parson Williams " House in Deerfield, Massachusetts . 375 XVII. — The " Parson Williams " House in Deerfield, Massachusetts. (Con cluded) .... 403 XVIII. — Varina. The Home of Pocahontas, 432 XIX. — Jamestown and Williamsburg . .471 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Hall in Jumel Mansion Frontispiece Lower Brandon . . • • ¦ 3 Harrison Coat-of-Arms . 6 Portrait of Colonel Daniel Parke . 17 " From Tarnished Frames Impassive Faces Looked down on Us" . 21 Upper Brandon . . 29 Byrd Coat-of-Arms . • 34 Westover . . • 35 Portrait of Colonel William Evelyn Byrd of Westover .... • 39 Portrait of " The Fair Evelyn " . 45 Colonel Byrd's Tomb in the Garden at West- over .... • 51 "A Curious Iron Gate" 59 Berkeley . 6l Carter Coat-of-Arms . . 66 Portrait of "King Carter" 67 Portrait of Judith Armistead (Wife of King Carter). . • • 71 Shirley ... • • -74 Portrait of Elizabeth Hill Carter ("Betty") .... . . 81 99 ID5109117 Illustrations Marshall House, Richmond, Va. 85 Portrait of Chief-Justice Marshall . . 89 William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., of which John Marshall was a Graduate .... Chew Coat-of-Arms Portrait of Chief-Justice Benjamin Chew from the original painting in the National Museum Philadelphia. Portrait of " Peggy " Chew Reproduced with permission of the Century Company from the Century Magazine. Portrait of Colonel John Eager Howard . 123 From a painting by Chester Harding. Cliveden ... . 127 Chew Coach .... . 130 The Morris House, Germantown (Phila delphia). . . . 133 " The Coziest of the Suite " . 138 Washington's Headquarters in Pompton, N. J. 143 "The Pleasant Camping-Ground " . . . 147 Schuyler Coat-of-Arms . . . 152 The Schuyler Homestead, Pompton, N. J. . 159 " The Long, Low, Hip-Roofed House " . . 167 Van Cortlandt Coat-of-Arms . . . .171 Van Cortlandt Manor-House . 185 Loop-Hole and Brant's Portrait in Dining- Room . . Fireplace in Library . The " Ghost-Room " . . Livingston Coat-of-Arms Portrait of Robert Livingston, First Lord of Livingston Manor i»9 193197 201 205 Illustrations xi Portrait of Gertrude Schuyler (Second Wife of Robert Livingston) . . 209 Robert Livingston's Crest .... 215 Portrait of Philip Livingston (Second Lord of the Manor) . . . 217 Portrait of John Livingston (Last Lord of the Manor) . . . 223 Oak Hill (on the Livingston Manor) . 231 The " Old Kaus " . . . . 235 Philipse Coat-of-Arms . 243 Philipse Manor-House (Yonkers, N. Y.) . .251 Fireplace in the " Washington Chamber " of Philipse Manor-House .... 259 Mantel and Section of Ceiling in Drawing- Room of Philipse Manor-House . . 263 Mantel and Mirror of Second-Story-Front Room im Philipse Manor-House . . 269 Memorial Tablet in Philipse Manor-House 273 Roger Morris Coat-of-Arms . . 276 Portrait of Roger Morris . . 280 Portrait of Henry Gage Morris, Rear- Admiral in the British Navy (Son of Roger and Mary Morris) . . . 283 Portrait of Mary (Philipse) Morris (at the Age of 95) . . . . 285 Portrait of Aaron Burr . 297 The Jumel Mansion 309 Portrait of Madame Jumel . . 324 From the original painting by Alcide Ercole. Smith Crest .... . . 327 Portrait of John Cotton Smith . . 333 Smith Homestead at Sharon, Connecticut 337 xii Illustrations Corner of Library in Smith Homestead . 34' Pierce Crest . . ... 346 Pierce Homestead, Dorchester, Mass. (Buil. in 1640) 349 Nine-Doored Parlor in Pierce Homestead . 359 "The Middle Parlor" 363 " The Ripest Bread in America " 367 " The Queen of the Evening " 371 Williams Crest ... . . 376 Door from Sheldon House, Hacked by Indians 389 Graves of Parson Williams and Eunice, his Wife. (The Tomb on the Right is that of Mrs. Williams) . . . 399 Old Williams Church and Parsonage . 405 Cedar China-Closet from "Parson Williams" House . . . . . . . . 411 "Parson Williams" House in Deerfield, Mass. 423 Champney House and Studio . 4:7 John Smith's Coat-of-Arms . 432 Portrait of Captain John Smith 437 Tower of Old Church, Jamestown, Virginia, in which Pocahontas was Married . 457 Portrait of Pocahontas ... . 463 Grave of Powhatan, on James River . 470 "Old Powder-Horn" ..... 481 Portrait of Mary Cary, Washington's First Love . . . ... 487 Interior of Bruton Parish Church, Williams burg, Va. ... . . 491 Portrait of John Randolph of Roanoke (at the Age of 30) . . . 495 From original portrait by Gilbert Stuart. SOME COLONIAL HOMESTEADS Some Colonial Homesteads and their Stories BRANDON— LOWER AND UPPER ENGLISH civilization, of which the first shoot was set in Virginia at Jamestown in 1607, followed the course of the James, — formerly the Powhatan River — to the head of navio-ation at Richmond with marvellous ra- pidity when one considers the age and the ob stacles encountered by the settlers. So fondly did it cling to the banks of the goodly stream that grants of estates with this water-front, and including the fertile meadows and prim eval forests rolling back for miles inland, were in eager request until there were none left in the gift of the Crown. The local attachments 2 Some Colonial Homesteads of the colonists in this favored region, who called their lands after their own names, would seem to have been transmitted with homes and plantations. Generation has succeeded gene ration of what is known in the mother-coun try as " landed gentry," estates passing from father to son, or — failing male issue — to daughters and nieces, until the names and styles of the Randolphs of Tuckahoe and Presque Isle, the Byrds of Westover, the Har risons of Berkeley and Brandon, the Carters of Shirley, came to have the significance of baronial titles, and were woven inextricably into the checquered romance we call The His tory of Virginia. Lower Brandon — named in affectionate memory of Brandon, England — is situated on the left bank of the James as one sails up the river from Norfolk, and is distant about ninety miles from Richmond. The original grant was made to John Martin. " Martin's Bran don " is still the title of the old church in which are used chalice and paten presented by Major John Westhrope. The tomb of Elizabeth Westhrope, near by, bears the date of 1649. The font is lettered, " Martin's Brandon Parish, 1 73 1." o Brandon — Lower and Upper 5 The Brandon plantation passed from John Martin's possession to the estate of Lady Frances Ingleby, and a deed from her con veyed it in turn to Nathaniel Harrison of Sur rey Co., Virginia. His name appears in the Westover MSS. (to which we shall presently refer further) in conjunction with those of. " His Excellency Alexr. Spotswood, Governor of Virga" and "Colo. WTilliam Robinson, a Member of the House of Burgs of Virga." The three were deputed to conduct negotia tions with the Five Nations, September 1722. Colonel Harrison is therein styled, " a Member of His Majestie's Council of Virga." The southeast and older wing of the manor- house was built by him about 171 2; a few years later he erected the northwest wing. These, with the main dwelling, are of dark red brick, imported from England. Benjamin Harrison, his son and heir, was a room-mate of Thomas Jefferson at William and Mary College, Williamsburg. The intimacy was continued in later years, and after Mr. Jeffer son's return from France he planned the square central building of his friend's resi dence. One suspects that the proprietor's taste may have modified his accomplished 6 Some Colonial Homesteads associate's designs, when we compare the in convenient incongruities of Monticello with the solid, sensible structure before us. The one ec centricity is the orna ment on the peak of the roof — a white coni cal cap, set about with drooping pennate leaves. It may be a pine-apple or a pointed variety of Dutch cabbage. The house was com paratively modern when Benedict Arnold entered the mouth of the James, striking right and left with the mad zeal of a newly fledged pervert. He landed at Brandon, destroyed crops, stock, poultry, and fences, allowed his men to use cows as targets, and was guilty of other fantastic atro cities, the traditions of which are preserved by those who had them from the lips of eyewit nesses. At a subsequent date of the Revolu tion a body of English troops under General Phillips bivouacked here en route for Peters burg, at which place he died. His remains lie in Blandford Cemetery. HARRISON COAT-OF-ARMS. Brandon — Lower and Upper 7 Various modest freeholds purchased from small farmers in the neighborhood, were added by Nathaniel Harrison to the original Martin grant, until the plantation was one of the larg est and most valuable on the James. Yellow jasmine, periwinkle, and the hardy bulbs known to our grandmothers as " butter-and- eggs," are still found in places where no house has stood for a century, brave leal mementoes of cottage and farmstead levelled to make way for the growth of the mighty estate. Children were born, grew up, and died in the shadow of the spreading roofs ; accomplished men of the race stood before counsellors and kings, served State and nation, and left the legacy of an unsullied name to those who came after them. Women, fair and virtuous, presided over a home the hospitality of which was noteworthy in a State renowned for good cheer and social graces. Presidents and their cabinets ; eminent statesmen of this country ; men and women of rank from abroad ; neigh bors, friends, and strangers found a royal wel come in the fine old Virginia house. The rich lands, tilled by laborers whose grand fathers had occupied the comfortable " quar ters " for which Brandon was celebrated, 8 Some Colonial Homesteads produced harvests that added yearly to the master's wealth. A neat hospital for the sick and infirm, the services of a regular physician, the ministry of a salaried chaplain and, most of all, the parental care of the owners, made of the family and farm-servants a contented and happy peasantry. It was a golden age of feudalism upon which the cyclone of an other war swooped with deadlier effects than when Arnold directed the destructive forces. In 1863, Mrs. Isabella Harrison, the widow of Mr. George Evelyn Harrison, late propri etor of Brandon, was warned by sagacious ad visers that it would be prudent to remove her family, with such valuables as were portable, to Richmond. Reluctant to leave home and dependants, she delayed until danger of inva sion was imminent before she took a house in town and filled it with furniture, pictures and other effects sent up the river from the planta tion. There were left behind her brother, Dr. Ritchie, — a son of the famous " Nestor of the Virginia Press," Thomas Ritchie of The En quirer, — two white managers, and 1 50 negroes, — field-hands and their families, — the house- servants having accompanied the ladies to Richmond. Brandon — Lower and Upper 9 At one o'clock, one January morning in 1864, Dr. Ritchie was awakened by a knock ing at the door, and answering from a win dow was told that the visitors were Federal officers. Hastily arraying himself in an old pair of hunting-trousers, the first he could lay his hands upon, with dressing-gown and slip pers, he admitted the unseasonable arrivals. They were respectful, but peremptory in their assertion that he must go with them immedi ately to the gunboat moored at the wharf. That he was a non-combatant, and simply act ing here as the custodian of his widowed sis ter's property ; that he was far from well and not in suitable garb to meet strangers, availed nothing to men acting under orders. He and the two managers were hurried down to the vessel, and from the deck saw the flames of burning " quarters," barns, hayricks, out houses, 2500 barrels of corn and 30,000 lbs. of bacon, rolling up against the black heav ens. The negroes were routed from their cabins, the women wailing, the men paralyzed with terror — all alike persuaded that the Day of Judgment had come — and forced on board the transports. In the raw cold of the winter morning they were taken down to Taylor's 10 Some Colonial Homesteads Farm, near Norfolk. The younger men were enlisted in the army, the older men and women were set to work on the farm. Most of them returned to Brandon at the close of the war. Dr. Ritchie and his companions were con fined in a cell at Fort Monroe with several negroes, until the news of his arrest reached General Butler, who gave him pleasanter quarters and offered him many civilities. " I ask only for a sheet of paper and an en velope, that I may write to my sister," was Dr. Ritchie's reply to these overtures. A Baltimore paper printed next day a sen sational account of the Attack upon Brandon, heading it A Bloodless Victory. It was the intention of the officer in charge of the expe dition, the report further stated, to return and complete the work of demolition. This article was read that morning by Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Harrison's sister, in Washington, whose husband, a distinguished physician, was Mr. Lincoln's medical adviser and friend. Newspaper in hand, Dr. Stone hastened to the President, and laid the case before him. The name and fame of Thomas Ritchie, the wheel-horse of the Old Democratic Party, were known to Mr. Lincoln, with whom Brandon — Lower and Upper 1 1 humanity always stood ready to temper justice. "That, at least, they shall not do?" he said, on reading the threat of a return to Brandon, and instantly telegraphed orders to Fort Monroe to that effect. Mrs. Harrison and her sister, Miss Ritchie, had been deterred by the unfavorable aspect of the weather from coming down the river on the very night of the attack, as they had planned to do, and thus escaped the worst terrors of the scene. Arriving two days later, they found that the troops had been with drawn, pursuant to the President's command. They had made the most of their brief season of occupation. Not a habitable building was left standing except the manor-house, and that had been rifled of all the mistress left in it. The few pictures which were too bulky to be removed to town, had been cut from the frames and carried off. Some family portraits are still missing — the sadly significant note, Taken by the enemy in 1864, recording their loss in the catalogue of the Brandon Gallery. Every window pane was shattered. Those inscribed with the autographs of J. K. Pauld ing, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore and his 12 Some Colonial Homesteads Cabinet secretaries, Edward Everett, etc., etc., were not spared. The wainscoting was ripped from the inner walls ; the outer shut ters were riddled and hacked and, in aiming at the quaint, nondescript ornament on the roof, the marksmen had battered bricks and cement into holes that remain until this day. Comment is superfluous on this, the darkest page in the annals of a house that should be the pride of intelligent civilization. " War is war, " says our own brave Sher man, " and we cannot define it. War is cruel, and we cannot refine it." Upon those whose political rancor and greed brought on the frat ricidal strife, let the odium rest of these and other calamities which a united people is anx ious to forget. With a sigh of grateful relief I turn to Bran don as I saw it on a mid-May day when the story of the invasion was thirty years old. Lawn and garden separated the mansion from the river. Trees, lopped and shivered by bul lets and scorched by fire, were swathed with ivy ; honeysuckles rioted in tropical luxuri ance over bole and bough, and were pruned daily lest they should strangle rose-trees that were full of buds. The yellow jasmine, most Brandon — Lower and Upper 13 odorous of its tribe, leaped to the top of the tallest trees and cast abroad streamers laden with bloom ; faint purple clusters of wistaria hung from wall and trellis and branch ; a golden chain of cowslips bordered the walks ; glowing patches of tulips nodded saucy heads in the river breeze that drank the dew from their cups. A great pecan-tree, the planting of which, almost a hundred years ago, was for mally recorded in the Plantation Year-book, towered on one side of the lawn, and in its shadow bloomed a bed of royal purple iris, the roots of which were brought from Washing ton's birthplace. Every square has its story ; alley and plot, tree and shrub, are beaded with hallowed asso ciations as the lush grasses were strung with dew-pearls on that sweet-scented May morning. Standing on the river-bank facing the house, the double-leaved doors of which were open, front and back, we saw it framed in a vista of verdure, and looking through and beyond the central hall caught glimpses of sward that was a field of cloth-of-gold with buttercups ; masses of spring foliage, tenderly green, mingled with wide white-tented dogwood, transplanted into a " pleasaunce," which is cleft by the same 14 Some Colonial Homesteads vista running on unbroken for three miles until the lines, converging with distance, are lost in the forest. There are seven thousand acres in the estate as at present bounded, eighteen hundred of which are in admirable cultivation, under the skilful management of Major Mann Page, Mrs. Harrison's near relative, who has been a member of her household for thirty years. Except for the dents of bullets in the stanch walls, the exterior tells nothing of the fiery blast and rain that nearly wrought ruin to the whole edifice. Out-buildings and en closures have been renewed, peace and prom ise of plenty rejoice on every side. The house has a frontage of 210 feet, the wings being joined by covered corridors to the main building, projected by the architec tural President. The corridors are a sinp-le O story in height, the rest of the structure is two-storied. Broad porches, back and front, give entrance to the hall, which is large and lightsome, well furnished with bookshelves, tables and chairs, and hung with pictures, a favorite lounging-place, winter and summer, with inmates and guests. Like all the old mansions on the James, Brandon is double- fronted. The carriage-drive leads up to what Brandon — Lower and Upper 15 would be called the backdoor ; the other main entrance faces the river. To the right, as we enter the hall from the " pleasaunce " and drive, is the dining-room. Buffets, filled with old family-plate, handsome and curious, stand on either side ; the vases on the mantel were used at the Lafayette banquet at Rich mond in 1824; on the wall are valuable portraits. Conspicuous among these last is one of Daniel Parke, who in the campaign in Flan ders, 1 704, was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough. He is named in the Duke's des patch to Queen Anne announcing the victory of Blenheim, as " the bearer, Col. Parke, who will give her an account of what has passed." After receiving gracious audience from the Queen, he made so bold as to ask that her portrait might be given to him instead of the customary bonus of five hundred pounds. It was sent to him set in diamonds. He was appointed Governor-General of the Leeward Islands (W. I.) in 1706, and was received with marked favor by the inhabitants on his arrival at Antigua. His popularity was, however, short-lived. In 1710, a mob, excited to frenzy by irregularities in his administration, and his 1 6 Some Colonial Homesteads cruel, arrogant temper, surrounded the Govern ment House, and he was killed in the tumult. His daughter was the first wife' of Colonel William Evelyn Byrd of Westover, and the an cestress of a long line of prominent Virginians, whose employment of the patronymic " Parke " as a Christian name, indicates their descent. The painting, a fine one, gives us a three- quarter length likeness of a man in superb court costume, standing, hand on hip, by a table on which are heaped several rich medals and chains. He wears the Queen's miniature, surrounded with brilliants ; the figure is sol dierly, the face is haughty, and would be hand some but for a lurking, sinister devil in the dark eyes that partially exculpates the popu lace in his violent taking off. The door of the drawing-room is opposite that of the dining-parlor, the hall lying be tween. Both apartments have the full depth of the house, and are peopled to the thought ful guests with visions from a Past beside which our busy To-day seems tame and jejune enough. General William Henry Harrison, President, for one little month, of these United States, spent his Sundays at Brandon while a school- COLONEL DANIEL PARKE. FROM A PAINTINS BY 8IR GODFREY KNELLER. Brandon — Lower and Upper 19 boy in the neighborhood. Fillmore laughed with his Cabinet here over the memorial of his farmer-boyhood set up that day in the harvest- field, a wheat-sheaf bound dexterously by the hands of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, and long preserved on the plantation. Another incident connected with Mr. Fill more's visit to Brandon pleasingly illustrates the oneness of interest that existed between employers and family servants. George, the Brandon cook, was a fine specimen of his class. A master of his craft, stately in manner and speech, he suffered no undue humility to cloud his consciousness of his abilities. A family festival in honor of a clan anniversary had filled the old house with guests for several days, and tested the abundant larder to what seemed to be its utmost possibilities. On the very day that saw the departure of the com pany, a communication was received by Mrs. Harrison informing her that the Presidential party might be expected on the morrow. She summoned George and imparted the startling news. He met it like an ebony Gibraltar, " Very well, madam, your orders shall be obeyed." 20 Some Colonial Homesteads " But, George ! can we be ready for them ? There will be about thirty persons, including the President of the United States and his Cabinet." Gibraltar relaxed measurably. The lady's apprehensions appealed to his chivalric heart. It was his duty to allay' them. " Very true, madam. But we must bear in mind that we are greatly blessed in our cook." The dignity, conceit, and periphrastic mod esty of the rejoinder put it upon the family records at once. It is hardly worth our while to add that he nobly sustained the sublime vaunt. Aladdin's banquet was not more deftly produced, and could not have given greater satisfaction to the partakers thereof. The present chef at Brandon is a grandson of this Napoleon. Hither, William Foushee Ritchie, his father's successor in the proprietorship and conduct of The Enquirer, brought the beautiful woman known to the public as Anna Cora Mowatt, who left the profession in which she had won laurels in two hemispheres, for the love of this honorable gentleman and a happy life in their Richmond cottage. Brandon was a loved re sort with his wife. A portrait, which, although FROM TARNISHED FRAMES IMPASSIVE FACES LOOKED DOWN ON US." Brandon — Lower and Upper 23 a tolerable likeness, conveys to one who never saw her an inadequate idea of her pure, ele vated loveliness, is here ; an exquisite statuette of Resignation, that once adorned her cottage parlor, is on the mantel. She has passed out of sight, and her noble husband, and the gallant procession of such as the world delighted to honor that talked, and thought, and lived in this stately chamber. From tarnished frames impassive faces looked down on us as once on them, changing not for their mirth or for our sighing. The silver mirror is brought out and turned for us, that once flashed a sheet of light for this vanished company upon portrait after portrait. Upon the sweet, pensive face of Elizabeth Claypole, registered in the catalogue as " Lady Betty Cromwell," — only daughter of the Pro tector. Her sitting attitude is languidly grace ful ; her head is supported by a slim hand, her arm on a table. Her gown is of a dim blue, with flowing sleeves, and modestly decollete". Upon Jeanie Deans's Duke of Argyle, whose mailed corslet, partially visible under his coat, hints of the troublous times in which he lived. Upon the courtly form and regular features of the second Colonel Byrd of Westover, hang- 24 Some Colonial Homesteads ing next to his daughter, " The Fair Evelyn," whose dramatic story has place in the chronicles of Westover. Upon the owl-like eyes, long locks and be nign expression of Benjamin Franklin, benig nity so premeditate and measured that the irreverent beholder is reminded of the patri archal Casby of Little Dorrit. The portrait was taken while he was envoy to France and presented by him to the then master of Brandon. Upon Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, date of 1 66 1, and Sir Robert Southwell of the same year, boon-companions of Colonel Byrd during his sojourn in England. Upon Benjamin West's portrait of Colonel Alston of South Carolina. Upon the dark intellectual face of Benjamin Harrison, who married Miss Evelyn Byrd of Westover, niece of the Fair Evelyn ; and a half-score of other pictured notabilia, at the hearing of whose names we look suddenly and keenly at their presentments. Mister Walthoe, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, was painted in his broad-brimmed hat. " Set me among your dukes and earls with my hat on my head, to signify that I am a Brandon — Lower and Upper 25 true Republican who will uncover to none of them, and I will give you the finest diamond ring to be bought in America," he proposed to Colonel Byrd. " Agreed ! " said the witty landholder, " and I will hang it over the door to show that you are taking leave of them." The stubborn, rubicund face, surmounted by the Republican chapeau, hangs yet above a door in the dining-room. The central diamond of the cluster that paid for the privilege of the protest, was worn until her death by Miss Harrison, only daughter of the venerated chatelaine who shines with chastened lustre, the very pearl of gracious womanhood, in the antique setting of Brandon. The W'estover MS. is a large folio bound in parchment, copied in a clear, clerkly hand from the notes of Colonel Byrd of Westover, the chiefest of the three who bore the name and title. The first part is entitled : History of the Dividing Line, and Other Tracts. From the papers of William Byrd of Westover in Virginia, Esq. It is the report of an expedition of survey ors and gentlemen who ran the Dividing Line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728- 26 Some Colonial Homesteads 29, and is full of delightful reading, not only because of the pictures it gives of men and times in the author's day, but in the racy humor of the narrative. The second part has the caption : A Journey to the Land of Eden, and other Tracts, Anno 1733. A third paper, A Progress to the Mines, In the Year 1732, is perhaps the most entertaining of all. It begins, Sept. 18, 1732, after this wise : " For the Pleasure of the good Company of Mrs. Byrd, and her little Governor my Son, I went about half-way to the Falls in the Chariot. There we halted, not far from a purling Stream, and upon the Stump of a propagate Oak, picket the Bones of a piece of Roast Beef. By the Spirit which that gave me, I was the better able to part with the dear Com panions of my Travels, and to perform the rest of my Journey on Horseback by myself. I reached Shaccoa's before 2 o'clock and crost the River to the Mills. I had the Grief to find them both stand as still for the want of Water, as a dead Woman's Tongue for want of Breath." These manuscripts were presented by the author's daughter-in-law to " George Evelyn Brandon — Lower and Upper 27 Harrison, the son of her daughter, Eztglyn Byrd, who had married Mr. Benjamin Harrow, of Brandon." They were in the hands of Thomas Wynne, a Richmond printer, at the time of the evacuation of that city. For some time after the fire which burned up the print ing offices, Mrs. Harrison feared they had been destroyed. They were found in Mr. Wynne's safe, unharmed, when it was cool enough to be opened. Upper Brandon, originally included in the Brandon tract, now adjoins that which is called in contradistinction, " Lower Brandon," the road thither winding through teeming fields and belts of forest-lands, and often along the river-edge. The house, a fine brick building, was erected about sixty years ago by William Byrd Harrison, and after his death was bought by Mr. George L. Byrd of New York city. It was cruelly damaged by Federal troops during the Civil War, and has never been re stored to its former condition. Major Charles Shirley Harrison, who has the general manage ment of the estate, occupies bachelors' quarters in the central building. The rest of the spacious mansion echoes mournfully to the 28 Some Colonial Homesteads footsteps of the chance guest ; the bits of antique furniture left here and there in the de serted rooms make the eyes of the would-be collector glisten with greed and regret. The situation is commanding ; the grounds still re tain traces of former beauty. A covered sub terranean passage connects the kitchen in the right wing with the empty wine-cellar and the dinina-room above. A secret staircase formerly wound from the vaulted passage to the upper chambers, but it was torn out by the soldiers, leaving a gaping well. The other wing was in the old times fitted up as bache lors' chambers. In the thought of the high bred, bearded faces that once looked from the windows, the laughter and jest thrown back by the walls now broken, discolored, and dumb, the stillness and desolation of the closed rooms bring dreariness and heartache to the stranger- visitor ; wring from the soul of the native- born Virginian a lament as bitter as the pro phet's moan that the hurt of the daughter of his people was not healed. Beyond the ruined gardens lie woods so pic turesque in glade and greenery, that one blesses anew the beneficent ministration of Nature and the loving haste with which, in Brandon — Lower and Upper 31 this climate, she repairs the waste made in these and other " pleasant places." In the dining-room hang several good pic tures, — one a portrait of Colonel Byrd, another, by Vandyke, of Pope's Martha Blount. She led the crook-backed poet a dance with her tempers and caprices, but she does not look the termagant, as she queens it in this dismantled room, a spaniel at her feet, a roll of music in her hand, a harpsichord in the background. Less out of place here than the imperious beauty is a lacquered Chinese cabinet, black- and-gilt, that once belonged to Anne Boleyn. Syphers would barter a section of his immor tal soul for it. It was while we waited in the porch for our carriage, hearkening to the " sweet jargoning" of the bird-vespers, that the pretty anecdote was told of Mrs. William Harrison's rejoinder to an English guest who asked to see the aviary from which came the warbling that poured into his windows from dawn to sunrise. Leading him to the backdoor, she opened it, and pointed to the grove beyond. " It is there ! " she answered, merrily. Parting at the gate with the courtly cavalier who had guided us through the lovely bit of 32 Some Colonial Homesteads woodland outlying the grounds, we drove in the sunset calm, back to Lower Brandon, ar riving just in season to dress for dinner. Of the tranquil beauty of the domestic life within the ancient walls, I may not speak here. But the story of house and estate belongs to a country that should cherish jealously the record of the few families and residences which have withstood the wash of Time and Change, agen cies that relegate the fair fashion of growing old gracefully to a place among the lost arts. II WESTOVER T HE Plantation of Westover finds place in the annals of Colonial History as early as 1622. The original grant was made to Sir John Paulet. Theodorick Bland was the next owner. An Englishman by birth, he was a Spanish merchant before he emigrated to Vir ginia in 1654. He was one of the King's Coun cil in Virginia, established himself at Westover, gave ten acres of land, a court-house and a prison to Charles City County, and built a church for the parish which occupied a portion of the graveyard on his plantation. He was buried in the chancel. A sunken horizontal slab, bearing his name, marks the site of the sacred edifice. The estate came into prominence under the regime of the Byrds. Hening. in his Statutes 33 34 Some Colonial Homesteads at Large, spells the name, Bird. Family tra dition claims descent for them from a Le BricL who entered England in the train of William the Conqueror, and it trans mits an ancient ballad, be ginning, " My father from the Norman shore, byrd coat-of-arms With Royal William came." The first American Byrd — William — was born in London in 1653, and settled in Vir ginia as merchant and planter in 1674. He bought Westover from the Blands, and died there in 1704. He held the office of Receiver- General of the Royal Revenues at the time of his death. His son, William Evelyn Byrd, succeeded to the proprietorship when thirty years of age, having been born March 28, 1674. Two years later he married a daughter of Daniel Parke (see Lower Brandon). She died in England of smallpox in 1 716, leaving two daughters, Evelyn, who never married, and Wilhelmina, who became the wife of Mr. Wil liam Chamberlayne, of Virginia. WESTOVER. Westover 37 Colonel Byrd's second wife was Maria Taylor, an English heiress, and with her he returned to his native land after a sojourn of some years abroad. His father had built a house at West- over in 1690. The son proceeded now to build a greater, choosing the finest natural location on James River. The dwelling of English brick consisted of one large central house, con nected by corridors with smaller wings, and was underrun by cellars that are models of solidity and spaciousness. The sloping lawn was defended against the wash of the current by a river-wall of massive masonry. At regu lar intervals buttresses, capped with stone, sup ported statues of life size. Gardens, fences, out-houses, and conservatories were evidences of the owner's taste and means. His estate is said to have been " a Principality," and was augmented by his second wife's large fortune, which included valuable landed property in the neighborhood of London. Within his palatial abode were collected the treasures brought from England and the Continent. Among the pictures were the portraits now preserved at Lower and at Upper Brandon. They were removed to these houses when Westover passed out of the Byrd family. 38 Some Colonial Homesteads A partial list, (taken from a Westover MS.) is herewith given : " Portrait of Sir Wilfred Lawson, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. One of a progenitor of the Byrd family by Vandyke. Duke of Argyle (Jeanie Deans's frievH Lord Orrery and Sir Charles Wager, an English Ad miral ; Miss Blount, celebrated by Pope. Mary, Duch ess of Montague, daughter of the Earl of Marlboro' and wife of John, fourth Duke of Montague. Governor Daniel Parke. Mrs. Lucy Parke Byrd and her daugh ter Evelyn. Col. Byrd and his second wife, Miss Taylor. The daughters of the second Col. Byrd." William Evelyn, second of the " Byrd of Westover" name and title, was the most emi nent of the line. One historian says of him : " A vast fortune enabled him to live in a style of hospitable splendor before unknown in Virginia. His extensive learning was improved by a keen observation, and refined by an acquaintance and correspondence with the wits and noblemen of his day in England. His writings are amongst the most valuable that have descended from his era." Another : " He was one ot the brightest stars in the social skies of Colonial Virginia. All desirable traits seemed to com bine in him ; personal beauty, elegant manners, literary culture and the greatest gayety of disposition. Never COLONEL WILLIAM EVELYN BYRD OF WESTOVER, FROM A PAINTING BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER. Westover 41 was there a livelier companion, and his wit and humor seemed to flow in an unfailing stream. It is a species of jovial grand seigneur and easy master of all the graces we see in the person of this author-planter on the banks of James River." Of the Westover MSS. described in our " Brandon " paper, the same writer says : " We may .fancy the worthy planter in ruffles and pow der, leaning back in his arm-chair at Westover, and dictat ing, with a smile on his lips, the gay pages to his secretary. The smile may be seen to-day on the face of his portrait : a face of remarkable personal beauty, framed in the curls of a flowing peruke of the time of Queen Anne. . . " His path through life was a path of roses. He had wealth, culture, the best private library in America, social consideration, and hosts of friends, and when he went to sleep under his monument in the garden at Westover, he left behind him not only the reputation of a good citizen, but that of the great Virginia wit and author of the century." The testimony of the monument is prolix and exhaustive, forestalling, one might suppose, the necessity of any other post-mortem me morial. " Here lieth the honorable William Byrd, Esq. Being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country, he was sent early to England for his education, where, under the care of Sir Robert Southwell, and ever favored with his 42 Some Colonial Homesteads particular instructions, he made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning. By the means of the same noble friend, he was introduced to the acquaintance of many of the first persons of that age for knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or high station, and particularly contracted a most intimate and bosom friendship with the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery. He was called to the bar in the Middle Temple : studied for some time in the Low Countries ; visited the Court of France, and was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society. Thus emi nently fitted for the service and ornament of his country, he was made receiver-general of his majesty's revenues here ; was thrice appointed public agent to the court and ministry of England ; and being thirty-seven years a member, at last became president of the council of this colony. To all this were added a great elegance of taste and life, the well-bred gentleman and polite com panion, the splendid economist, and prudent father of a family ; withal, the constant enemy of all exorbitant power, and hearty friend to the liberties of his country. Nat. Mar. 28, 1674. Mort. Aug. 26, 1744. An setat. 70." A catalogue of his books is in the Franklin Library, Philadelphia. He also advertised in The Virginia Gazette of April 1737, " that on the North Side of James River, near the upper most Landing and a little below the Falls, is lately laid off by Major Mayo, a town called Richmond, with Streets sixty feet wide, in a Pleasant and Healthy Situa- Westover 43 tion and well supplied with Springs of Good Water. It lieth near the Public Warehouse at Shoccoe's," etc. In his journal of 1733, he says : " We laid the Foundation of Two large Cities, one at Shoccoe's to be called Richmond, and the Other at the Point of Appomattox, to be called Petersburg." Truly the good this man did was not " in terred with his bones." And yet — and yet — ! The portrait of his daughter, known in family tradition as " The Fair Evelyn " (pronounced as if spelt " Eevelyn "), hangs next to that of her superb parent. The painter represents Evelyn Byrd as a beautiful young woman, with ex quisite complexion and hands, the latter busied in binding wild flowers about a shepherdess-hat. The fashion of her satin gown is simple, and becoming to a slender figure ; a rose is set among the dark curls on the left temple ; a scarlet bird is perched in the shrubbery at her right. The features are regular ; the forehead broad, the hair arching prettily above it ; the nose is straight ; the lips are rosy, ripe, and lightly closed. The round of cheek and chin is exquisite. The great brown eyes are sweet 44 Some Colonial Homesteads and serious. It is a lovely face — gentle, amia ble and winning, but not strong — except in capacity for suffering. Her father took his children abroad to be educated, accompanying them on the voyage and paying them several visits during their pupilage. In due time, Evelyn was presented at Court. One of the Brandon relics is the fan used by her on that momentous occasion. The sticks are of carved ivory, creamy with age. On kid, once white, now yellow, is painted a pastoral scene — shepherdess and swain, pet spaniel, white sheep, green bank, and nodding cowslips under a rose-pink sky. They delighted in these violent contrasts with the gilded artificiality of court-life in Queen Anne's day. We hold the fragile toy with reverent fingers ; can almost discern faint, lingering thrills along the delicately wrought ivory of the joyous tumult of pulses beating high with love and ambition. One of the many traditions that lead the imagination on easily to the reconstruction of the romantic biography of William the Great of Westover, is that, when he presented his wife, Lucy Parke, at the court of his Han overian Majesty George I., her charms so far 45 THE FAIR EVELYN." FROM A PAINTING BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER. Westover 47 melted the Dutch phlegm of the monarch that he asked the proud husband if " there were many other as beautiful birds in the forests of America ? " Another version of the anecdote puts the speech into the mouth of George IL, and makes the occasion that of the Fair Evelyn's presentation. All family annalists agree in say ing that the daughter's London sojourn in the year starred by her appearance at Court, was also made memorable by her meeting with Charles Mordaunt, the grandson of Lord Peterborough. The vounp- man fell in love with her, and was loved in return as absolutely and passionately as if the fan-pastoral were a sketch from nature, and the pair Chloe and Strephon. Lord Peterborough, the grandfather, was a shining figure in the diplomatic, military, and social world of his day, which was a long one. He outlived his son and was succeeded in his title and estates by his grandson in 1735. Those of William Evelyn Byrd's biographers who have discredited the love story on the ground of the disparity of age between the friend of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, and Gay, and the lovely American debutante, have been led 48 Some Colonial Homesteads into the doubt by overlooking the genealogical facts I have given. The hapless pair might have known better if lovers ever know anything better, than to fol low blindly whither love leads. Whatever the cynical Earl of Peterborough thought of the pretty entanglement, the potentate of West- over had reasons weighty, if not many, for taking part in the drama. The Peterboroughs were leading Roman Catholics. The " jovial grand seigneur and easy master of all the graces " was the stanchest of Protestant Church men. The polished courtier, smiling at us from the drawing-room wall of Brandon wore quite another aspect when he enacted Cymbe- line to the plighted twain, and, " Like the tyrannous breathing of the North, Shook all their buds from blowing." The Fair Evelyn was brought back to West- over, with her secret buried so deep in her heart that it ate it out. Ennui may have had something to do with the low, nervous state into which she fell. Unconsciously, she may have pined for London gayeties in the un eventful routine of colonial plantation-life. The story asserts that the brown, deep eyes Westover 49 grew wistful with thoughts of the lover they were never more to see ; her soul sick unto death with longing to be with him. " Refusing all offers from other gentlemen, she died of a broken heart," is the simple record. We learn, furthermore, that the author- planter bore himself remorselessly while the cruel decline went on. If he did not — to quote again from the play that must be among his catalogued books — bid her, " Languish A drop of blood a day, and, being aged, Die of this folly," . . he stuck fast by his purpose not to let her wed the Popish nobleman. He gave no other reason for his tyranny than this to the public, whatever his daughter and the young peer who, some say, followed her to America, may have known of other and yet weightier objections to the alliance. There are rumors that can neither be verified, nor denied, at this distance from the tragedy in real life, of early feuds between the Mordaunts and the haughty First Gentleman of Virginia, whose stout ad herence to principle or prejudice cost his favorite child her life. 50 Some Colonial Homesteads In this connection occurs another family anecdote. It was the habit of the Berkeley Harrisons and the Westover Byrds often to take tea together in the summer weather in a grove on the dividing-line of the two planta tions. Butlers and footmen carried table equipage and provisions to the trysting-place, set them in order, and waited on the party. One afternoon, some weeks before Evelyn's death, as she and her dearest friend and con fidante, sweet Anne Harrison, the wife of the then owner of Berkeley, were slowly climb ing the slight ascent to the rendezvous, the girl promised to meet her companion some times on the way, when she had passed out of others' sight. Accordingly on a certain lovely evening in the next spring, as Mrs. Harrison walked lonely and sadly down the hill, she saw her lost friend, dressed in white and dazzling in ethereal loveliness, standing beside her own tombstone. She fluttered forward a few steps, kissed her hand to the beholder, smiling joyously and tenderly, and vanished. The inscription on this same tombstone is assuredly not the composition of the author of the Westover MSS. I give it, verbatim et literatim, et punctuatim : Westover 5i " Here, in the sleep of Peace, Reposes the Body : of Mrs. Evelyn Byrd : Daughter, of the Honorable Byrd, Esq: The various & excellent Endowments of Nature : Improved and perfected, By an, accomplished Educa tion : Formed her, For the Happyness of her Friends For an ornament of her Country. Alas, Reader ! We can detain nothing however Valued From unrelenting Death : Beauty, Fortune or exalted Honour. See here a Proof. And be reminded by this awful Tomb : That every worldly Comfort fleets away : Excepting only what arises, From imitating the Virtues of our Friends ; And the contemplation of their Happyness. To which God was pleased to call this Lady On the 13th Day of Novem ber 1737— In the 29th Year of Her Age." COLONEL BYRD'S TOMB IN THE GARDEN WESTOVER. 52 Some Colonial Homesteads On the right of Evelyn Byrd's tomb is one of like size and shape which guards the remains of her grandmother. An oddly arranged in scription, running sometimes quite around the flat top, sometimes across it, records that she was " Mary Byrd, Late Wife of William Byrd, Esq." (They never left the " Esq." off, however cramped for room.) "Daughter of Wareham Horsemander, Esq., who dyed the gth Day of November i6gg In the ^.fth Year of her Age." Her husband lies beside her, a Latin epitaph registering the provincial offices held from the Crown, and his demise — " 4th Die Decembris 1704 post quam vicisset 52 Annos." His more distinguished son was buried under the more ambitious monument in the middle of the garden. The Westover Church was removed from the burying-ground to a portion of the estate called Evelynton, about two miles away as the crow flies. There is an ugly story of an in cumbent, Rev. John Dunbar, who married a daughter of the third Col. Byrd. He " openly renounced the ministry, and with it the Chris tian faith, and became a notorious gambler." On the occasion of some misunderstanding be- Westover 53 tween Benjamin Harrison of Brandon and Ben jamin Harrison of Berkeley, the whilome rector offered to bear a challenge from the latter, and himself fought a duel resulting from a race-course quarrel, in sight of Old Westover Church where he had formerly officiated. The third and last Col. William Byrd was born in 1728, succeeded to title and estate at his father's death in 1 744, and served as Colonel in the French and Indian War. On August 3, 1758, the Virginia troops at Fort Cumber land were two thousand in number, under the command of Col. George Washington and Col. William Byrd of Westover, and the regiment of Col. Byrd was 859 strong. His first wife was Elizabeth Hill Carter, of whom we shall hear more in the paper on Shir ley. His second was Miss Mary Willing, of Philadelphia, who bore him eight children. Three of them married into the Harrison family ; one married a Page of Pagebrook ; one a Nelson ; a sixth a Meade, — all noted Virginia names. William the Third of Westover, Virginia, Esq., " involved himself in debt while under age and abroad. He kept company with the nobility and gamed." 54 Some Colonial Homesteads He laments in his will that " the estate is still greatly encumbered with debts which em bitter every moment of my life." But several incidents that have come down to us give us pleasing views of his character. One is his bravery in rescuing his wife's brothers from the third-story chamber during a fire that par tially destroyed Westover in 1 749. No one else dared rush up the blazing staircase. Had the young men perished then and there, the daily embitterment of debt would have been removed, their sister being their next of kin. Another anecdote describes Colonel Byrd's habit of taking a walk in the Westover grounds every evening " about dark," without Shis hat. " Whatever company might be in the house did not prevent his doing so. His family knew this to be the time he passed in devotion." He died in January, 1777. His wife's grief was excessive. She obstinately refused to have him buried for several days, finally yield ing to the necessity at the persuasion of her neighbor, Colonel Harrison of Berkeley. She was a woman of remarkable ability, highly cultivated mind, and excellent business talents. Benjamin Franklin was her god-father and Westover 55 friend. She sold her husband's library and silver to assist in the payment of his debts, and was her own plantation manager. When Benedict Arnold landed at Westover, he is said to have made her a prisoner in an upper chamber ; grazed his horses in her har vest-fields and shot her cattle. He ravaged the place twice, Lord Cornwalhs once. Never theless, suspicions of her loyalty were so strong that she was twice summoned to Rich- mond to be tried as a Tory. Arthur Les writes in 1 780, that Arnold car ried on a regular correspondence with Mrs. Byrd, until one of his vessels happening to run aground, her treason was discovered. " I have reason," he adds, " to think she will not be tried at all, means having been taken to keep the witnesses out of the way." She died in 18 14, and Westover was sold, passing through many hands in the next half- century, remaining longest in the Selden fam ily, who occupied it for thirty years. During the Civil War it suffered severely in common with most James River plantations. General Pope and other Federal officers used it in turn as headquarters and as a store-house for the Commissary department. At the conclusion 56 Some Colonial Homesteads of the war it was bought by Major A. H. Drewry, the hero of Drewry's Bluff. He mar ried Miss Harrison, a member of a collateral branch of the ancient race. There is genuine satisfaction in knowing that it is again "back in the family." The Major, an able financier and intelligent agriculturist, has restored man sion and farming-lands to a condition so nearly approximating that of the "genial seigneur's" times as to deserve the gratitude of all who survey the noble building and smiling acres. Leaving the burying-ground at our back, we pass by cottage "quarters " and the exten sive stables, where the score of mules are a marvel in themselves for size, strength and comeliness, through the west gate, erected by the Colonel Byrd, into a broad sweep of clean gravel curving up to the house. The lawn is incomparable for beauty among the river homesteads, rolling gently down to the wall rebuilt by Major Drewry on the foundation of Colonel Byrd's, which was demolished to furnish material for Federal barrack-chimneys. The sward is smooth and luxuriant, dotted with grand trees, standing singly and in clumps. The tulip-poplar on the left of the front-door is a monarch, carrying his crown Westover 57 aloft with the pride of a lusty octogenarian who has outlived his generation. The view from the squared stone steps, stained with time, was especially beautiful one showery day in April, when up-river floods had dyed the waters a dull-red. The warm color deluded the eye with the effect of a sunset re flection that seemed to light up the rain-swept lawn and the gray boundary-lines blurred by mists. And all the while, the birds were sing ing ! Red-winged blackbirds, wrens, cat-birds, mocking-birds, robins, American sparrows, red-birds, — these last dropping like sudden flame from the wet trees, — thrushes, — every little throat and heart swelling with the gospel, " Behind the clouds is the sun still shining!" Truly, bright days have come to Westover. Every arable foot of the large estate is under cultivation, and a marsh of 300 acres over which duck-hunters and fishermen used to sail, has been reclaimed by steam-dredge and pump. A great hall cuts the house in two ; the twisted balustrades of the stairs at the back are of solid mahogany ; all the lofty rooms are wainscoted up to the ceiling. Over the draw ing-room mantel Colonel Byrd had a mirror 58 Some Colonial Homesteads built into the wall, and framed in white Italian marble wrought into grapes, leaves, and ten drils. The cost was five hundred pounds. The troops in occupation during the war shivered the mirror and beat the sides of the frame to pieces, leaving the plainer setting at bottom and top comparatively unharmed. Through the open back-door (which is the carriage-front) is visible a curious iron gate, surmounted by the monogram, " W. E. B." The soldiers levelled it also, with the two leaden eagles perched on stone globes, "with a rak ish, degagde air positively disgraceful at their age ! " declares the sweet-faced, sunny-hearted mistress of the home. The visitors dislodged the stone balls and pineapples that alternate upon the posts of the fence dividing the yard from the level richness of the fields. Major Drewry sought and gathered up each fragment and restored all to their original places, ex pending at least $20,000 in the work of rep aration of buildings and enclosures. The left corridor and wing pulled down by the soldiers, have not been rebuilt. A tool- house stands above a dry well once covered by this wing. The cemented sides slope inward toward the bottom. At a depth of fifteen feet Westover 59 are two lateral chambers eight feet square. The walls are of smooth cement, the floors paved with brick. In one of these formerly stood a -,A CURIOUS IRON GATE." round stone table with a central shaft and spreading feet. Again, tradition comes to our 60 Some Colonial Homesteads aid with tales of a hiding-place from the In dians, connected with a subterranean passage, long ago closed, that led to the river. Lean ing over the mouth of the shaft, while two gallant young men descended a ladder with lamps which revealed the arched entrances of the mysterious recesses, we three practical women scouted Major Drewry's suggestions of meat and wine cellars, and when we had drawn from him the account of a tunnel, the mouth of which was unearthed by his laborers but a few weeks before, we remained in possession of the field. Nothing was clearer to our apprehen sion than that this tunnel — opening upon the river — five feet in height and as many wide, and paved with flagstones, formerly connected directly with our vaults, and was constructed in the near memory of the Indian Massacre of 1622, when in the list of the "killed" we read " At Westover about a mile from Berkeley Hun dred, jj." Had not Cooper described in his Wept-of- Wish-ton- Wish, just such a well, in which a whole colony took refuge while the blockhouse was burned over their heads ? Berkeley, the "Berkeley Hundred" of the chronicle, is still in excellent preservation, the English brick of which it was built promising to Westover 61 last two centuries longer. The owner of the plantation at the date of the Massacre was Mr. George Thorpe, one of the principal men of the colony who had befriended Opechanca- nough — the uncle of Pocahontas — in every possible manner, and treated all the Indians BERKELEY. with marked kindness. " He had been warned of his danger by a servant, but, making no effort to escape, fell a victim to his misplaced confidence." 62 Some Colonial Homesteads The place passed out of the Harrison fam ily, a quarter-century ago, after eight genera tions of the name and blood had owned it and lived there. Gen. W. H. Harrison was born at Berkeley, and came to Virginia, after his elec tion to the Presidency, expressly to write his inaugural " in his mother's room." Ill SHIRLEY THE old homesteads of James River are linked together by ties of consanguinity and affection, interesting and sometimes amus ing to the outside spectator, yet exceedingly pretty in the natural acceptation of relation ships on the part of those involved in them. The ramifications of blood and family con nections exist elsewhere of course, but it is seldom that a locality — such as a village or township — in Northern and Western States, is settled entirely by cousins from generation to generation. Still rarer is the custom of re cognizing the kinship to the fifth and sixth remove, which makes the Old Virginia neigh borhood a standing illustration of the text — " He hath made of one blood all nations " (read " conditions " ) " of men." 63 64 Some Colonial Homesteads The utterance of the names of a generation is like the whispering together of many branches of a genealogical tree. Nelson Page and Page Nelson ; Carter Page and Page Carter ; Mann Page ; William Byrd Page ; Carter Harrison and Harrison Carter; Shirley Harrison; Byrd Harrison ; Shirley Carter ; Carter Berkeley ; Carter Braxton — and a hundred other inter changes and unions of surnames and baptismal prsenomens tell the tale of intermarriage, and of affection for the line " in linked appellation long drawn out." One versed in State history, on hearing one of these compounded titles, can arrive, forthwith, at a fair apprehension of who were the owner's forbears, and in what county he was born. Hill Carter of Shirley, than whom no Vir ginia planter of this century was better and more favorably known, thus proclaimed his lineage and birthplace with unmistakable distinctness. In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of the Colony of Virginia and chiefly renowned for the part he took in forwarding the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas, laid out and gave title to the plantation of West Shirley, named, it is said, in honor of Sir Thomas Shirley, of Whis- Shirley 65 ton, England. It is set down in the history of the Indian Massacre of 1622 as one of the " five or six well-fortified places " into which the survivors gathered for defence, leaving homes, cattle, and furniture to destruction. There is no record of " killed " at this place. The estate comes into historical prominence as the seat of the Honorable — sometimes called " Sir " — Edward Hill, " a member of His Majesty's Council in Virginia, Colonel and Commander-in-Chief of the Counties of Charles City and Surry, Judge of his Majesty's High Court of Admiralty, and Treasurer of Vir ginia." He was Speaker of the Assembly of Burgesses convened in November, 1654, at which time " William Hatcher, being convicted of having stigmatized Colonel Edward Hill, Speaker of the House, as an atheist and blas phemer, was compelled to make acknowledg ment of his offense upon his knees before Colonel Hill and the Assembly." The scene in the Assembly-Room when the sentence was carried into execution was, says tradition, exceedingly impressive. The stifled choler and sullen submission of the offender ; the dignity maintained by the most Christian Speaker, whose innocence of the " stigma- 66 Some Colonial Homesteads tizing " charges was thus publicly disproved ; the awed solemnity of the honorable Burgesses in Council assembled — were a sight to make the Albany of two hundred years later stare in dumb amaze, and the Houses of Congress as sembled at Washington shake with " inextin guishable laughter." In 1698-99, the name of Robert Carter is given as Speaker of the House and Treasurer of Virginia. His father, John Carter, emi grated from England in 1649 and settled, first in upper Norfolk, now Nanse- mond County, afterward in Lancaster. We hear of him in 1658 as chairman of a committee in the House of Burgesses that drew up a declaration of popular sovereignty. At the next session, Col. Edward Hill was elected Speaker. " Col. Moore Fauntleroy, of Rappahannock County, not being present at the election, moved against him as if clandestinely elected, and taxed the House with unwarrantable proceedings therein. He was suspended until next day, when, ac knowledging his error, he was readmitted." CARTER COAT-OF-ARMS. 67 KING CARTER." Shirley 69 In the list of members of this Assembly, we note " Colonel John Carter," also " Mr. War- ham Horsemander," the father of the first Colonel Byrd's wife. It is probable that an intimacy between the two leading spirits, Car ter and Hill, had already begun which extended to their families. Robert Carter became one of the largest landholders in Virginia, holding so much real estate in Lancaster County and elsewhere as to be popularly known as " King Carter." He held semi-regal sway at his homestead, Coroto- man, on the Rappahannock, built a church, which is still standing, and brought up to man's and woman's estate one dozen children to keep alive his name in his native state. His tomb, sadly mutilated by the relic-fiend, is at Corotoman. His son, John, married Col. Edward Hill's daughter, Elizabeth, and became, by virtue of her succession to her father's estate, master of Shirley. Benjamin Harrison, of Berkeley, married one of King Carter's daughters. Mr. Har rison and two of his daughters were killed by a flash of lightning at Berkeley some years later. Another daughter married Mann Page of Tim- 70 Some Colonial Homesteads berneck. Without following farther bough and twig of the genealogical tree aforesaid, enough has been told to account for the plentiful har vest of Carters in Eastern and Central Virginia. Annie Carter Lee, wife of " Light Horse Harry" Lee, and mother of Robert E. Lee, was a descendant of King Carter, and was born at Shirley. The shores of the watery highway from Norfolk to Richmond are strikingly beautiful, especially in autumn and early spring. At the latter season, the winter wheat in rich luxuri ance rolls back to the hills outlying the low lands ; orchards are in full bloom ; snowy dog wood and rosy red-bud and the lovely fringe- tree, seldom seen except in Virginia, alternate with the pale-green of birch and willow. Wide spaces of the steeper banks are whitened by wild lilies and reddened by columbine. Every bend of the stream is historic. Bermuda Hun dred, City Point, Turkey Island, Malvern Hills, Powhatan, — one of the royal residences of the stout-hearted Indian king, — a fascinating melange of legendary lore and exciting inci dents of what every patriot prays may stand forever on the page of national history at " the last war," — keeps sense and thought on the JUDITH ARMISTEAD (wife of king carter). Shirley 73 alert, and reconciles the passenger to the many " landings " and slow progress of the steamer up the river. The situation of Shirley on a bluff affords the eye an extensive sweep of land and water in every direction. We can not but commend the judgment of Captain John Smith and his contemporaries in select ing this as one of the first forts built by the Virginia colonists. As we have seen, it was one of the strongest. The present manor-house was erected in the 17th century — it is said about 1650. It is more compact in structure than Upper and Lower Brandon, Westover, and Berkeley. The corridor extensions and flanking wings of the first three seem to have met with no favor in the eyes of builder and owner. In form and proportions the mansion reminds us rather of a French chateau than of an English country-seat such as was the model of most colonial proprietors. It suffered less from the civil war than the others, and has been kept in perfect order, such restorations as were needful being made in keeping with the original design. The pillared porch of the water front looks out upon an elbow of the river. The lawn is enclosed by a superb box-tree hedge ; trees of 74 Some Colonial Homesteads flowering box attract the earliest bees of the season by the sweet pungency of their odor ; the garden squares, laid out and stocked in the dear old English style, are edged with the An ivied tree here, a wide- branching poplar there, and, nearer the water, a clump of forest oaks, allow very unsatisfac tory glimpses of the grand old homestead from steamboats and other river craft. Shirley 75 The death of the late master of Shirley, Mr. Robert Randolph Carter, which occurred in the spring of 1888, cast a gloom over the en tire neighborhood. He was a Virginia gentle man of the noblest stamp, one whose loss is irreparable, not only to his family, but to com munity and State. We see the traces of his wise administration everywhere in the magnifi cent plantation — in wheat-fields hundreds of acres in extent ; luxuriant corn-lands ; well- kept stock and commodious cottage " quarters," to each of which belongs a garden of fair ex tent, neatly tilled. The central hall and the staircase are re markably fine. Hatchments of great age are set over two doors. The drawing-room of noble proportions is wainscoted and elegantly furnished. In this, as in the hall and dining- room, are the likenesses of numerous Hills and Carters. A full-length, life-size picture of Washington by Peale, hangs in the dining- parlor which adjoins the drawing-room. One of the portraits in the latter apartment is of a beautiful Welsh heiress, Miss Williams, who married Colonel (or Sir) Edward Hill and came with him to America. The portrait of John Carter, the lucky winner of Miss Hill's 76 Some Colonial Homesteads heart and hand, is a three-quarter-length like ness of a gallant gentleman in flowing peruke and lace cravat. His velvet coat is trimmed with silver lace and buttons ; puffed cambric undersleeves enhance the slim elegance of his hands. Beautiful hands were hereditary with the race if limners told the truth. His daughter Elizabeth, has the same, and is apparently aware of the fact. Her eyes are almond-shaped, like her father's ; her face is plump and complacent, with more than a dis position to a double-chin. A coquettish hat is tied lightly on the crown of the round dark head ; her pale-blue gown is emphatically decollete ; her elbow-sleeves are edged with priceless lace. She bears a strong resemblance to her squire brother, Charles Carter, who hangs near by. He was an exemplary citizen and earnest Churchman. His name is among those of the lay delegates to the Episcopal Convention held in Richmond in 1793. Had Elizabeth Hill Carter been a dairymaid we would call her buxom, and the set agree- ableness of her smile a smirk. She married at seventeen the third Colonel Byrd of West- over, and bore him five children. The young parents did not live happily together, we are Shirley 77 told. Both were the spoiled children of for tune, and pulled in so many different ways that their misunderstandings were neighbor hood gossip. It was surmised that it was rather a shock than a woe to Colonel Byrd, when, as he sat at the whist-table in a friend's house, a messenger rode over in hot haste from Westover to tell him that Mrs. Byrd had pulled a wardrobe over on herself and been instantly killed. It may have been the infalli ble instinct of good blood and breeding that made him rise from the table and bow apolo getically to his partner with a courteous regret that the game could not go on. This partner, gossip hints furthermore, was the pretty " Molly Willing," whom he afterward married. Mrs. Byrd's accidental death occurred eleven years after her marriage, when she was but twenty-eight. The date was 1760. The chronicle adds dryly: "There is no record preserved of his second marriage. It is sup posed to have been in 1760." To round off the gossipy tale, the story has come down of the nickname "Willing Molly" applied to the fair Philadelphian who won the " catch " of the county from Virginia belles. Without casting discredit upon local and 78 Some Colonial Homesteads traditional authorities, oral and documentary, we may surely reserve to ourselves the right, in view of what we have learned elsewhere of Mrs. Byrd's character as a woman, wife, and mother, of hinting at a possible cause for the tale and nickname. The Byrds were princes in their own right even as late as 1 760, and the beautiful visitor to the hospitable neighborhood may have shared the fate of other poachers. She loved her lord passionately, faithfully, and always, we learn in the history of West- over. She made him happier, and adminis tered the affairs of the realm far more judi ciously than his first wife ever could, had her desire been never so good. But did this happy husband and pious gen tleman ever bethink himself in the devotional promenade under his ancestral trees " about dark," mentioned in our Westover paper, of the child he had first wedded, and give a sigh at her untimely and tragic death ? He may have been sorely tried by her caprices and flurries, but we are heartily sorry for her when we learn that she grieved bitterly for the little boys whom their father insisted upon sending to England to be educated, as was the custom of the Byrds and that she never saw them again. Shirley 79 In a curious and now rare book entitled, Travels in North America in 1 780-1 781 and 1782. by the Marquis dc Chastcllcux, we have a glimpse of one of these motherless boys. The noble tourist passed several days at West- over and is enthusiastic in his praise of poor Betty's successor : " She is about two-and-forty, with an agree able countenance and great sense," — is a sentence that, against our will, provokes com parison with the spoiled, passionate child. " Betty " left four children ; the second Mrs. Byrd had eight. The Frenchman lauds her excellent management of the encumbered estate, and sympathizes in her various misfor tunes. " Three times have the English landed at Westover under Arnold and Cornwalhs, and, 'though these visits cost her dear, her husband's former attachment to England, where his eldest son is now serving in the army, her relationship with Arnold, whose cousin-german she is, and perhaps, too, the jealousy of her neighbors, have given birth to suspicions that war alone was not the object which induced the English always to make their descents at her habita tion. She has been accused even of conniv- 80 Some Colonial Homesteads ance with them, and the government have once set their seal upon her papers, but she has braved the tempest and defended herself with firmness." We confess, — again and reluctantly — for our hearts cling irrationally to the naughty pickle whom the paragon displaced in her husband's, and probably in her children's, hearts — that Betty would never have steered a laden barque thus safely through seas that wrecked many a fair American fortune. It was well for all whose fates were linked with hers that the stormy chapter was short and the end abrupt. In addition to disagreement with husband and separation from children, she had, as we are informed upon the authority of family MSS., the trial of a severely captious mother- in-law. The stepmother who pitied the fair Evelyn, dying slowly of a broken heart, ruled her son's girl-wife sharply. There is extant a letter in which she complains of " Betty's " frivolous taste and extravagance, and that the silly creature would think herself ruined for time and eternity " if. she could not have two new lutestring gowns every year." It is a matter of traditional report that the mother- in-law hid some of Betty's belongings, or 8i ELIZABETH HILL CARTER (BETTY"). Shirley S3 something the wilful wife longed to possess, on the top of the tall wardrobe. Others say she suspected the existence of letters that would justify her jealous misgivings as to her lord's fidelity, and was looking for them when the big press careened and crushed her. The wraith of the apple-cheeked, careless- eyed girl, whose fixed smile grows tiresome as we gaze, may not walk at Shirley, as Evelyn Byrd is said to glide along halls and staircases at Westover, but we remember her and her fate more vividly than any other face and his tory committed to sight and memory at the ancient manor-house. IV THE MARSHALL HOUSE THE house built by John Marshall, — United States Envoy to France 1797-98; Mem ber of Congress from Virginia 1 799-1800; Secretary of State, 1 800-1 801, and Chief-Jus tice of the U. S. Supreme Court 1801-35, — and in which he resided until his death, except when the duties of his office called him to Washington, is still standing in Richmond, Virginia, on the corner of Marshall and Ninth Streets. The ownership has remained in the family for almost a century, although the dwelling has had other tenants, among them the late Henry A. Wise. The whole block was covered by a famous fruit and vegetable garden when the house was erected. The exterior has never been re modelled, and there have been few changes The Marshall House S5 within. By an odd, and what seems to us an inexplicable, mischance, the architect, in Judge Marshall's prolonged absence, built the whole mansion "hind-side before." A handsome en- MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VA. trance-hall and staircase, the balusters of which are of carved cherry, dark with age, are at the back, opening toward the garden and domestic offices. Directly in front of this is the dining- room, looking upon Marshall Street. What 86 Some Colonial Homesteads was meant in the plan to be the back-door, in the wall opposite the fireplace, gives upon a porch on the same thoroughfare. The general entrance for visitors is by a smaller door on the side street. Turning to the right from this through another door which is a modern affair, one finds himself in what was, at first, a second hall, lighted by two windows and warmed by an open fireplace. This was the family sitting- room in olden times, although open on two sides to the view of all who might enter by front or back door. Altogether, the architectural and domestic arrangements of the interior are refreshingly novel to one used to the jealous privacies and labor-saving conveniences of the modern home. We reflect at once that every dish of the great dinners, which were the salient feat ure of hospitality then, must have been brought by hand across the kitchen-yard, up the back steps through the misplaced hall, and put upon the table which, we are told, was set diagonally across the room to accommodate the guests at Judge Marshall's celebrated " lawyers' dinners." The Marshall House is now the property of Mr. F. G. Ruffin, whose wife is a grand daughter of the Chief-Justice, his only daugh- The Marshall House 87 ter having married the late Gen. Jaquelin Burwell Harvie. Mrs. Ruffin gives a graphic description of these feasts, as beheld by her, then a child, peeping surreptitiously through the door left ajar by the passing servants. The Chief- Justice sat at the head of the long board near est the fireplace, his son-in-law, Mr. Harvie, at the foot. Between them were never less than thirty members of the Virginia Bar, and the sons of such as had grown, or nearly grown lads. The damask cloth was covered with good things ; big barons of beef, joints of mutton ; poultry of all kinds ; vegetables, pickles, etc., and the second course was as profuse. The witty things said, the roars of laughter that applauded them, the succession of humorous and wise talk, having, for the centre of all, the distinguished master of the feast, have no written record, but were never forgotten by the participants in the mighty banquets. Besides his daughter, the Chief-Justice had five sons ; Thomas, for whom his father built the house opposite his own, which is still standing; Jaquelin, the namesake of his Hu guenot ancestor ; John, James, and Edward. The last-named died in Washington a few 88 Some Colonial Homesteads years ago, at the age of eighty, a clerk in one of the government offices. Judge Marshall lived so near our day, and bore so conspicuous a part in the history of a country which cherishes his fame, that every tolerably well-educated person is familiar with his name and public services. Old residents of the Virginian capital like to tell stories of the well-beloved eccentric who made the modest building on Marshall Street historical. The quarter was aristocratic then. The stately residences of Amblers, Wickhams, and Leighs claimed and made ex- clusiveness, which in her later march Fashion laughs to scorn. Nothing could make Judge Marshall fashionable. His disregard of pre vailing styles, or even neatness in apparel, was so well known that these peculiarities attracted no attention from his fellow-citi zens. He was a law unto himself in dress and habits. His cravat — white by courtesy — was twisted into a creased wisp by his nervous fingers, and the knot was usually under his ear. He wore his coat threadbare without having it brushed, his shoes were untied and the lacings trailed in the dust, and his hat was pushed to the back of his head. CHIEF-JUSTICE MARSHALL. The Marshall House 91 In action he was no less independent of others' example and criticism. It was the custom then, in the easy-going, hospitable city, for gentlemen who were heads of fami lies to do their own marketing. The Old Market on lower Main Street witnessed many friendly meetings each morning of "solid men," and echoed to much wise and witty talk. Behind each gentleman, stood and walked a negro footman, bearing a big basket in which the morning purchases were depos ited and taken home. About the market place also hung men and boys, eager to turn an honest shilling by assisting in this burden- bearing if need offered. Judge Marshall shook hands and chatted cheerily with acquaintances, who were all friends and admirers, and when his purchases were made, shouldered his own basket or, if as often happened, he had forgotten to bring it, loaded himself up with the provisions as best suited his humor. His invariable prac tice was to carry home whatever he bought at stall or shop. My childish recollection is vivid of a scene described in my hearing by a distinguished Richmond lawyer, now dead, of a meeting 92 Some Colonial Homesteads with the great jurist on the most public part of Main Street one morning in Christmas- week. A huge turkey, with the legs tied together, hung, head downward, from one of the Judge's arms, a pair of ducks dangled from the other. A brown-paper bundle, rud died by the beefsteak it enveloped, had been forced into a coat-tail pocket, and festoons of " chitterlings " — a homely dish of which he was as fond as George the Third of boiled mutton — overflowed another, and bobbed against his lean calves. Another story is of a young man who had lately removed to Richmond, who accosted a rusty stranger standing at the entrance to the Markethouse as " old man," and asked if he " would not like to make a ninepence by carry ing a turkey home for him ? " The rusty stranger took the gobbler without a word, and walked behind the young householder to the latter's gate. "Catch!" said the "fresh" youth, chuck ing ninepence at his hireling. The coin was deftly caught, and pocketed, and as the old man turned away, a well- known citizen, in passing, raised his hat so deferentially, that the turkey-buyer was sur- The Marshall House 93 prised into asking, " Who is that shabby old fellow ? " "The Chief-Justice of the United States." " Impossible ! " stammered the horrified blunderer, — " Why did he bring my turkey home, and— take — my ninepence ? " " Probably to teach you a lesson in good breeding and independence. He will give the money away before he gets home. You can't get rid of the lesson. And he would carry ten turkeys and walk twice as far for the joke you have given him." We can easily imagine that the incident may have been related in the host's raciest style at the next lawyers' dinner under which the di agonal table creaked in the, then, modern homestead. And we wonder who got the his toric ninepence. It would be a priceless coin, were identification possible. To admirers of the statesman-patriot, the writer and jurist, a glimpse of the man, as his family saw him, when the front and back doors of his reversed habitation were closed to the world, will be acceptable. As at Westover and Shirley, the most inter esting of the procession of visionary shapes that glide past the muser in the chambers of 94 Some Colonial Homesteads the weather-beaten and gray old house, is a woman. Mary Willis Ambler was a descendant of Edward Jaquelin, an Englishman of French- Huguenot extraction, who arrived in America in 1697, and settling at Jamestown, became eventually the owner of the island plantation. His daughter Elizabeth married Richard Am bler, and a grandson, Edward Ambler, espoused Mary Cary, George Washington's first love. Another grandson, Jaquelin Ambler, married Rebecca Burwell, of whom Thomas Jefferson was, when young, passionately enamoured, and Mary Willis was the second daughter of the union. It would appear from the account given of the circumstances attending her first meeting with Mr. (then Captain) John Mar shall, that the talent for supplanting rivals in the court of hearts, which brought two em bryo Presidents to grief, was hereditary, and most innocently improved by herself. The Amblers were living in York in 1781- '82, when a ball was held in the neighborhood, to which Captain Marshall, already reputed to be a young man of genius and bravery was bidden. The fair damsels of the district were greatly excited at the prospect of meeting The Marshall House 95 him, and began, forthwith, sportive projects for captivating him. The graceful pen of Mary Ambler's sister, Mrs. Edward Carrington, narrates what en sued : " It is remarkable that my sister, then only fourteen, and diffident beyond all others, de clared that we were giving ourselves useless trouble, for that she (for the first time) had made up her mind to go to the ball — 'though she had never been to dancing-school — and was ' resolved to set her cap at him and eclipse us all.' This, in the end, was singularly verified. At the first introduction, he became devoted to her. For my part I felt not the slightest wish to contest the prize with her. "In this, as in every .other instance, my sis ter's superior discernment and solidity of char acter have been impressed upon me. She at a glance discerned his character, and understood how to appreciate it, while I, expecting to see an Adonis, lost all desire of becoming agree able in his eyes when I beheld his awkward figure, unpolished manners and negligent dress." John Marshall and Mary Willis Ambler were married April 3, 1783, the bride being 96 Some Colonial Homesteads under seventeen, the groom twenty-eight years of age. No fairer idyl of wedded bliss was ever penned by poet than the every-day story lived by this husband and wife for fifty years save two. However negligent in attire and un couth in appearance John Marshall might be as young man and old ; however stern in de bate and uncompromising in judgment, as a public servant, — to the child-wife who, after the premature birth of her first infant, never had a day of perfect health, he was the ten- derest, most chivalric of lovers. As her chronic invalidism became more apparent, he redoubled his assiduity of attention. There are those yet living who recall how, on each recurring 22d of February and 4th of July, the Marshall chariot was brought around to the door in the early morning, and the Judge, after lifting the fragile woman into it, would step into it himself and accompany her to the house of a country friend, there to pass the day, her nerves being too weak to endure the shock of the cannonading. They had been married forty-one years when he wrote her the letter of which the fol lowing extract is now published for the first The Marshall House 97 time. He was at that date, February 23, 1824, on official duty in Washington, and Mrs. Marshall was in Richmond. The Chief-Justice had had a fall which injured his knee, and had kept the news from his wife. Finding from her letters that the papers had exaggerated the accident, he writes to his " dearest Polly," making light of the hurt, and assuring her that he will be out in a few days. Then he continues : " All the ladies of Secretaries have been to see me, some more than once, and have brought me more jelly than I can eat, and offered me a great many good things. I thank them and stick to my barley broth. " Still I have plenty of time on my hands. How do you think I beguile it ? I am almost tempted to leave you to guess until I write again. . . . " You must know I begin with the ball at York and with the dinner on the fish at your house the next day. I then return to my visit to York ; our splendid assem bly at the Palace in Williamsburg ; my visit to Rich mond, where I acted 'Pa' for a fortnight; my return to the field and the very welcome reception you gave me on my arrival from Dover; our little tiffs and makings tip ; my feelings when Major Dick ' was courting you ; my trip to ' The Cottage,' [the Ambler's home in Han over, where the marriage took place] and the thousand 1 Major Richard Anderson, father of Gen. Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter renown. 7 98 Some Colonial Homesteads little incidents deeply affecting in turn — [here the paper is torn] coolness which contrib . . . for a time to the happiness or misery of my life." We turn the yellow, cracked sheet over, to read again, with the emotion of one who finds hid treasure in an unpromising field, the prose- poem of the lover who was almost a septua genarian when he wrote it. The grace, tenderness, and playful gallantry of that which was meant only for his wife's eyes are inimita ble, and preach a lesson to world-worn, love- sated hearts that no commentary can deepen. Another hitherto unpublished letter, dated March 9, 1825, tells his faithful Polly of Mr. Adams's (John Quincy) inauguration. " I administered the oath to the President in the presence of an immense concourse of people, in my new suit of domestic manufac ture. He, too, was dressed in the same man ner, 'though his cloth was made at a different establishment. The cloth is very fine and smooth." The day before she died, Mrs. Marshall tied about her husband's neck a ribbon to which was attached a locket containing some of her hair. He wore it always afterward by day and night, never allowing another hand to touch it. 99 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, WILLIAMSBURG, VA, OF WHICH JOHN MARSHALL WAS A GRADUATE. The Marshall House 101 By his directions, it was the last thing taken from his body after his death, which took place in July, 1835. An extract from a paper found folded up with his will, a written tribute to his wife, solemn, sweet, and infinitely touching, may fitly close a romance of real life that tempts us to cavil at what sounds like the faint praise of the resolutions of the Virginia Bar, offered by Benjamin Watkins Leigh, in announcing the death of the Chief-Justice. Therein are eulogized his " unaffected sim plicity of manner ; the spotless purity of his morals ; his social, gentle, cheerful disposition ; his habitual self-denial and boundless p-eneros- ity." He is declared to have been " exemplary in the relations of son, brother, husband, and father." " Exemplary " is hardly the adjective we would employ after reading what was written in his locked study on the first anniversary of his " Polly's " departure. "December 25, 1832. " This day of joy and festivity to the whole Christian world is, to my sad heart, the anni versary of the keenest affliction which human- 102 Some Colonial Homesteads ity can sustain. While all around is gladness, my mind dwells on the silent tomb, and cher ishes the remembrance of the beloved object it contains. " On the 25th of December, 1831, it was the will of Heaven to take to itself the companion who had sweetened the choicest part of my life, had rendered toil a pleasure, had par taken of all my feelings, and was enthroned in the inmost recesses of my heart. Never can I cease to feel the loss and deplore it. Grief for her is too sacred ever to be profaned on this day, which shall be, during my existence, devoted to her memory. " I saw her the week she had attained the age of fourteen, and was greatly pleased with her. Girls then came into company much earlier than at present. As my attentions, 'though without any avowed purpose, nor so open or direct as to alarm, soon became evi dent and assiduous, her heart received an impression which could never be effaced. Having felt no prior attachment, she became, at sixteen, a most devoted wife. All my faults, and they were too many, could never weaken this sentiment. It formed a part of her exist ence. Her judgment was so sound and so The Marshall House 103 deep that I have often relied upon it in situa tions of some perplexity. I do not recollect once to have regretted the adoption of her opinion. I have sometimes regretted its rejection." V CLIVEDEN THE New World of the American Colonies was as blessed a godsend to the cadets of noble English houses two hundred and fifty years ago as are Australia, India, and Canada to-day. Nearly everyone of our " old families " that has preserved a genealogical tree, may discern the beginning of its line in a twig that grew well toward the terminal tip of the bough. Already, careers that led to fortune and renown were becoming scarce in the mother country. The rich unclaimed spaciousness of the El Dorado across the sea attracted, in equal measure, the prudent and the ambitious. John Chew, merchant, the younger son of a Somersetshire family of the same name, sailed from England with Sarah, his wife, in 104 CHEW COAT OF ARMS. Cliveden 105 the Seaflower in 1622, and was received with open arms by those of his own name and blood, who had, a year earlier, settled in Virginia. Hogg Island (now " Homewood") a little be low Jamestown, in the widening James River, is said to have been the place of landing. His name oc curs in several grants of land by, and memorials addressed to, the parent government in 1642-4, and as a member of the Honorable House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia, yearly, from 1623-43, a protracted period of service, which is silent testimony to personal probity and official ability. His term of office embraced the latter part of the reign of James I. whose death his loving colonists mourned in 1625, and almost the whole of that of his unhappy successor. Strafford and Laud had perished on the scaffold, and Charles I. had departed from London upon the seven years of conflict and captivity that were to end in the shadow of Whitehall, January 30, 1649, when the thriving merchant, against the will of Governor Berke- 106 Some Colonial Homesteads ley, removed to Maryland. The earliest date of the exodus given is 1643. John Chew was, therefore, one of the body that listened to the comfortable words conveyed in the king's letter, "Given at our Court of York the $th of fuly, 1642." In this instrument, drawn up by the king's secretary, on the eve of the grand rebellion, the sovereign engages not to restore the de tested Virginia Company to their rule over the colony, and expresses the royal approval of "your acknowledgments of our great bounty and favors toward you, and your so earnest desire to continue under our immediate pro tection." When the head of his royal master rolled on the scaffold, John Chew, who appears, from the hints transmitted to us of his individual traits, to have been of a provident and pacific turn of mind, was living upon the extensive estate deeded to him in the province of Mary land, the original bulk of which was swollen by five hundred acres, paid for in tobacco, at the rate of ten pounds of the Virginia weed per acre. His eldest son, Samuel Chew, made a will before his death in 1676, bequeathing most of Cliveden 107 the " Town of Herrington," with other prop erties, including " Negroes, able-bodied Eng lishmen, and hogsheads of tobacco," to his heirs. His Quaker wife, Anne Chew, ne'e Ayres, was his executrix. Her son, Dr. Sam uel Chew, removed, in mature manhood, to Dover, then included in the Province of Penn sylvania. Anne Ayres had brought the whole family over to her peaceful faith, and Dr. Samuel (also known as Judge) Chew remained a member of the Society of Friends until the celebrated battle in the Assembly of Pennsyl vania over the Governor's recommendation of a Militia Law. When this was passed, the Quaker members of the legislative body ap pealed to the court over which Samuel Chew presided as Chief-Justice. With promptness that smacks of un-Friend-like indignation, they proceeded to expel him " from meeting" upon his decision that " self-defense was not only lawful, but obligatory upon God's citizens." He may not have regretted the act of ex cision, so far as it affected himself. His pub lished commentary upon the temper it evinced is spirited to raciness. In it he declares the " Bulls of Excommunication " of his late 108 Some Colonial Homesteads brethren to be " as full-fraught with fire and brimstone and other church artillery, as even those of the Pope of Rome." In a charge to the Grand Jury, delivered shortly after the publication of this philippic, he says of his belief that, in his public acts he was " accountable to His Majesty alone, and subject to no other control than the laws of the land," " I am mistaken, it seems, and am account able for what I shall transact in the King's Courts to a paltry ecclesiastical jurisdiction that calls itself a ' Monthly Meeting.' ' Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in Askelon ' ! " Benjamin Chew, the eldest son of the pugna cious and deposed Quaker, was born in November, 1722. His profession was the law, and he rose rapidly to eminence. Prior to his removal to Philadelphia in 1 754, at the age of thirty-two, he was Speaker of the House of Delegates at Dover, Delaware. In 1755 he became Attorney-General of the State of Pennsylvania; in 1756, Recorder of the City of Philadelphia; in 1774, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. His diplomatic yet decisive reply to one who, seeking to convict him of Toryism, CHIEF-JUSTICE BENJAMIN CHEW. FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, PHILA. Cliveden 1 1 1 pushed him for a definition of high treason, is historic : " Opposition by force of arms, to the lawful authority of the King or his Ministers, is High Treason. But" — [turning an unblenching front to those who tried to entangle him in his talk] — " in the moment when the King or his Ministers shall exceed the Constitutional authority vested in them by the Constitution — submis sion to their mandate becomes Treason ! " Despite this doughty deliverance, his judi cial qualms as to expediency of overt rebellion cost him his liberty in 1777. Fourteen years earlier he had bought land on what is known as the Old Germantown Road, erected upon a commanding site a fine stone mansion, and given to the estate the name of Cliveden. Up to the date of the erection of this dwell ing- he resided winter and summer on Third Street, below Walnut, in the City of Phila delphia. Washington and John Adams dined together with him there while Congress sat in Philadelphia, in 1774. Mr. Adams's letter relative to the " turtle, flummery, and Ma deira " of the banquet is well known. Neither congressional nor military influence availed against the sentence that sent the 112 Some Colonial Homesteads stately host and his friend, John Penn, under arrest to Fredericksburg, Virginia, for recu sancy, in that they refused to sign a parole not to interfere with, or impede in any manner, the course of the new Government. Subse quently, the exile was rendered more toler able by permission to sojourn during the remaining term of banishment at the Union Iron Works, owned by Mr. Chew, in the vicinity of Burlington, N. J. In 1778 came an imperative order from Congress for the rehabilitation of the two eminent, and, it was . believed, unjustly suspected, citizens. A " biographical memoir " of Benjamin Chew published in 181 1, thus defines and justifies the position he maintained through out the contest between the Colonies and the Parent Country. " His object was reform, rather than revolution — redress of grievances, rather than independence. Ac cordingly, when the question of an entire separation of the colonies from the British empire began to be first agitated in private meetings, he was opposed to the measure, and when, at length, independence was de clared, he thought the step precipitate and rash. Nor could any consideration of interest, policy, or ambition induce him, after that epoch, to aid by his counsels proceedings which were contrary to the decisions of his Cliveden 113 judgment, and, perhaps, I may add, to the affections of his heart. . . . " As an apology for Mr. Chew's opposition to the pol icy of independence when first declared, we might adduce the example of some of the most distinguished orators and statesmen of the day, whose dislike of the measure was no less strong and notorious than his. The only difference which marked their conduct on the occasion was that he perseveringly retained his original impressions, while they, more pliable, and per haps more prudent, changed with the current of public opinion." In the absence of the master, Cliveden had seen strange things. Early on the morning of October 4, 1777, the American troops in pursuit of the retreating enemy, who had aban doned tents and baggage at Wayne's impetu ous charge, were surprised as they pressed down the Germantown Road, by a brisk fire of musketry from the windows of Cliveden. A hurried council of war, collected about the Commander-in-chief, acting upon General Knox's dictum that " it was unmilitary to leave a garrisoned castle in their rear," sent an officer with a flag of truce to demand a sur render. He was fired upon and killed. Can non were planted in the road, and a steady fire with six-pounders opened upon the thick 114 Some Colonial Homesteads walls. The balls rebounded like pebbles. The lower windows were closed and barred. The six companies of British soldiers that had occupied the building sent volley after volley from the gratings of the cellars and from the second story. The gallant Chevalier de Maudit, scarcely twenty-one years of age, and Colonel Laurens, also in the prime of early manhood, forced a window at the back and, ordering their men to pile straw and hay against the door and fire it, leaped into a room on the ground floor. They were re ceived by a pistol-shot that wounded Laurens in the shoulder, while a second, aimed at de Maudit, killed the English officer who had rushed forward to arrest him. Finding them selves alone among foes, the command to fire and force the door not having been obeyed, the intrepid youths retreated backward to the window by which they had entered, dropped to the ground, and made their way to their comrades, under a hot hail of bullets. To the delay occasioned by the short, unsuc cessful siege of Cliveden is generally attrib uted the loss of the battle of Germantown to the Americans. But at least one historian is disposed to regard it Cliveden 115 " as another manifestation of the Divine interposition in behalf of these States. If General Washington had met with no obstacle,, he would, under the thickness of the fog, have closed with the main body of the enemy before he could have been apprised of its prox imity, and thus his centre and a part of his left wing would have been committed to a general action with the whole British army." A descendant of the house of Chew puts a different face upon this affair i1 '' General Washington was an intimate friend of the family, and, at the battle of Germantown, when Cliveden was occupied by a detachment of British troops, insist ing that he was familiar with every part of the house, he mistook for English intrenchments an addition which had been put up since his last visit and ordered his men to fire into the house, shattering the doors and windows." The judicial reader can select what appears to him the more probable and consistent version of the .incident. The old doors are exhibited as a proof that there was an attack from without. They were so battered by bullets that new ones had to be put into the ancient frames. Another and more precious relic of that stormy period is a small pamphlet containing an 1 Mrs. Sophia Howard Ward in The Century Magazine for March, 1894. 116 Some Colonial Homesteads account of the " Mischianza," a pageant " com bining the modern parade with the mediaeval tournament," given as a farewell entertain ment on May 18, 1778, in honor of Sir Wil liam Howe, then commanding the British troops in America. The narrative was written by Major Andre, a favored guest at Cliveden. The four daughters of Judge Chew were celebrated for their beauty. Margaret, popu larly known as " pretty Peggy," was the especial object of the young officer's admira tion. Her great-granddaughter sets the souvenir vividly before us, with the picture of the writer who was Peggy's knight in the combination "show." " Faded and yellow with age, the little parchment vividly calls up before us the gallant young English of ficer, eager and full of keen interest, throwing himself with youthful ardor, with light-hearted seriousness, into this bit of superb frivolity. On the cover he has outlined a wreath of leaves around the initials ' P. C.,' and he has made a water-color sketch to show the design and colors of his costume as a knight of the ' Blended Rose,' and that of his brother, Lieutenant William Lewis Andre, who acted as his esquire and bore his shield with its quaint motto, ' No rival.' The device, ' Two game cocks fighting,' must have proved too difficult to draw, Cliveden 117 for he uses in his picture that of Captain Watson — a heart and a wreath of laurel, ' Love and Glory.' " A part in the "Mischianza" was allotted to Margaret Shippen, the betrothed, and shortly PEGGY" CHEW. afterward the wife of Benedict Arnold. At the last moment her father, Chief- Justice Shippen, forbade her appearance. 118 Some Colonial Homesteads Among the mementoes of Andre's memor able sojourn at Cliveden are several poems (by courtesy), addressed by him to his fair friend. Chancing to see her walking in the orchard, " under green apple boughs," he dashed off this impromptu : " The Hebrews write and those who can Believe an apple tempted man To touch the tree exempt ; Tho' tasted at a vast expense, 'T was too delicious to the sense, Not mortally to tempt. But had the tree of knowledge bloomed, Its branches by much fruit perfumed, As here enchants my view — What mortal Adam's taste could blame, Who would not die to eat the same, When gods might wish a Chew ? " From Andre's brochure we learn in what guise " Miss P. Chew," — opposite whose name on the programme stand those of " Captin Andre 26th" and "Esq. Mr. Andre 7th"— captivated the eyes of the spectators on that day : " The ladies selected from the foremost in youth, beauty and fashion, were habited in fancy dresses. They wore gauze Turbans spangled and edged with gold or Cliveden 119 Silver, on the right side a veil of the same kind hung as low as the waist, and the left side of the Turban was enriched with pearl and tassels of gold or Silver & crested with a feather. The dress was of the polonaise Kind and of white Silk with long sleeves, the Sashes which were worn round the waist and were tied with a large bow on the left side hung very low and were trimmed spangled and fringed according to the Colours of the Knight. The Ladies of the black Champions were on the right, those of the white on the left." He wrote to her at parting : " If at the close of war and strife, My destiny once more Should in the various paths of life, Conduct me to this shore ; Should British banners guard the land, And faction be restrained ; And Cliveden's peaceful mansion stand No more with blood bestained ; Say, wilt thou then receive again And welcome to thy sight, The youth who bids with stifled pain His sad farewell to-night ? " Major Andre was a brave man, and as un fortunate as brave ; but in perusing this senti mental jingle, and hearing of the drawing in the possession of the Baltimore Howards, in which his own portrait in water-colors is 120 Some Colonial Homesteads sketched in the character of Miss Peggy Chew's knight, and " humbly-inscribed " to her, " by her most devoted Knight and Ser vant, J. A. Knt, Bd. Re., Philadelphia, June 2, 1778," we may be permitted a sighful thought of Honora Sneyd keeping the vestal fires of love and memory alight in her heart for her absent, and soon-to-be-dead lover. The fair Peggy did not pine in virgin love liness for the handsome youth whose "sad farewell " acquires dignity not of itself, in the recollection of the brief path of life that re mained to him after this was penned. With the buoyancy of a happy temperament, and hopefulness engendered by past triumphs, our belle thus moralizes in the letter expressive of her regret for the evacuation of Philadelphia by the gay and chivalric officers : " What is life, in short, but one continued scene of pain and pleasure, varied and chec- quered with black spots like the chess-board, only to set the fair ones in a purer light ? " What a mixture of people have I lately seen ! " she writes further. " I like to have something to say to all." She evidently especially liked to say a good many somethings to the pink of chivalry Cliveden 121 whose untimely taking-off was mourned by two continents. Combining our knowledge of the catholicity of the accomplished Major's admiration for beauty, wherever found, with Miss Peggy's willingness to be amused and adored, and her " high relish for pleasure," we may reasonably assume that in the pretty routine of ball, tournament and masque which made the winter of 1778 memorable to the " upper ten " of the city of genealogies, it was diamond cut diamond between them. There was a brilliant wedding in the town- house on South Third Street in 1787. Mis tress Margaret had queened it bravely for ten years in the foremost rank of fashionable society before she bestowed her hand upon the accomplished gentleman and warrior, Colonel John Eager Howard of Baltimore. Distinguished among the high-born company assembled to grace the nuptials was General Washington, then President of the Conven tion that formed the Constitution of these United States. The host, Chief-Justice Chew, was, as has been said, a warm personal friend of the Commander-in-Chief and President, mutual regard that continued as long as they both lived. 122 Some Colonial Homesteads We do not wonder — the wonder would be if the reverse were true — that pretty Peggy always kept a sure place on the sunny side of her heart for the ill-starred knight who wore her colors in the " Mischianza " and beguiled so many hours of possible ennui. The docu ment descriptive of the merry-making was sacredly cherished by her while she lived, and formally bequeathed to her daughter, Mrs. William Read of Baltimore. It was quite as natural that her husband, loyal to the back bone to the National cause, should, now and then, grow restive under her sentimental remin iscences. To borrow again from the sprightly narrative of her great-granddaughter : " Nine years after the ' Mischianza,' when she had married Colonel John Eager Howard, the hero of Cowpens, she still loved to dwell upon Major Andre's charms, which frequently irritated her patriotic husband. Once, sitting at the head of her table at Belvidere, her home in Baltimore, entertaining some distinguished foreigners, she said, ' Major Andr£ was a most witty and cultivated gentleman ' ; whereupon Colonel Howard interrupted sternly, ' He was a spy, sir ; nothing but a spy ! ' " Cliveden, battered and scorched by the short, sharp siege of that October morning, COLONEL JOHN EAGER HOWARD. FROM A PAINTING BV CHESTER HARDING. Cliveden 125 was sold by Mr. Chew in 1779 to Blair McClenachan. In 1 797, ten years after pretty Peggy's wedding, her father bought back his country-seat. It was in little better con dition than when Mr. McClenachan purchased it, yet, in his desire to regain possession, Mr. Chew nearly trebled the amount he had received for it. Benjamin Chew died at the age of eighty- seven, Jan. 20, 1 8 10. The last public office held by him was that of President-Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals ; a trust retained for fifteen years, and resigned when he was eighty-three. His only son, Benjamin Chew, Jr., had but a twelfth part of the princely estate left by the father, there being eleven daughters. Coming of a race of lawyers, he studied his profession, first in Philadelphia, then in Eng land. In 1825, during Lafayette's visit to America, he held a grand reception at the Germantown residence of the eminent jurist, who had then retired from the active duties of professional life. Mr. Chew died April 30, 1844, at the ad vanced age of eighty-five. In a hale old age Cliveden stands, unmoved 126 Some Colonial Homesteads by the fast-changing scenes about her. The walls are of rough gray stone ; the entrance is guarded by marble lions, blinded and defaced by age. To the right and left of the pillars dividing the stately hall from the staircase, hang full-length family portraits, older than the house. The iron hail that scarred the facade of the mansion, left traces, like the writing of doom, upon the inner walls. The day of our visit to the ancient home stead was bleak with wintry storm. The fine trees on the lawn bent and dripped with the heavy weight of rain. The four windows of the great drawing-room showed little with out except the gray pall wavering between us and the nearest houses. In the chimney burned a fire, the welcoming glow of which prepared us for the reception accorded to the stranger within her gates by the gracious gentlewoman who arose from the sofa at our entrance. In a ripe old age that had not benumbed heart or mind, Miss Anne Penn Chew, the then owner of Cliveden, was a pict uresque figure of whom I would fain say more than the restrictions of this chapter warrant. Over the mantel is the portrait of her father, of whom it is written that " he led a blameless CLIVEDEN. Cliveden 129 life of princely hospitality and benevolence, doing good. . . . He was a firm friend, an indulgent father and an elegant gentleman of polished manners, singular symmetry of form and feature, and great strength." Antique mirrors, in carved frames, that once belonged to William Penn, hang between the windows and in a recess by the mantel. The dining-room across the hall has a cav ernous fireplace which recalls the generous hos pitality of former years. Miss Chew related, as we lingered to admire it, that the collation served at the Lafayette reception was laid in the drawing-room, and that the painter of the scene sacrificed historical verity to artistic effect in setting the principal actors between the pillars of the hall with the staircase as a background. The old Chew coach occupies the farthest corner of the carriage-house. It is roomy be yond the compass of the modern imagination, and is swung so high from the ground that one is helped to a comprehension of the upsettings and overturnings that enter so frequently and naturally into the stories of that time. In the back wall of the kitchen, built into a niche of solid masonry, is an old well. This part of the house was standing on the ground ?o Some Colonial Homesteads bought by Judge Chew in 1763. Tradition has it that the well was dug in the recess, which could, at short notice, be enclosed with heavy doors, in order to secure a supply of water within the dwelling if it were attacked by In dians. Mr. Beverly Chew, the scholarly President of the Grolier Club of New York City, and eminent as a book-lover and collector of rare prints and priceless " first editions," is de scended from the ancient stock through Joseph Chew, a younger brother of the immigrant, John. Every vestige of the dwelling built by the latter upon the fertile island in the James River has disappeared, but the site is still pointed out to the curious visitor. ',Mm^x^ CHEW COACH. VI THE MORRIS HOUSE, GERMANTOWN, (PHILADELPHIA) HISTORIAN, painter, and poet have made familiar to us the story of the imprisoned Huguenot, condemned to die from starvation, who was kept alive by the seeming accident that a hen laid an egg daily on the sill of his prated window. From this French Perot descended Elliston Perot Morris, the present proprietor of the old house on the Germantown Road, which is the subject of this sketch. It was built in 1772 by a German, David Deshler, long and honorably known as a Phila delphia merchant. A pleasant story goes that the facade of the solid stone mansion would have been broader by some feet had the sylvan tastes of the owner allowed him to fell a fine plum-tree that grew to the left of the proposed 131 132 Some Colonial Homesteads site. The garden was the marvel of the region during his occupancy of the country-seat, and was flanked by thrifty orchards and vineyards. At Deshler's death in 1 792, the Germantown estate passed into the hands of Colonel Isaac Franks, an officer who had served in the Rev olutionary War. He had owned it but a year, when the yellow fever broke out in Philadel phia, then the seat of the National Govern ment. Colonel Franks with his family retreated hurriedly to the higher ground and protecting mountain-barrier of Bethlehem, although Ger mantown was considered a safe refuge by the citizens of Philadelphia. Shortly after the Franks's flitting, the Colonel received a visit from President Washington's man of affairs, a Germantown citizen. He was charged with an offer to rent the commodious residence on the Old Road for the use of the President and his family. The patriotic cordiality with which the retired officer granted the request did not carry him beyond the bounds of careful frugal ity. He made minute mention in his expense- book of the cost of sweeping and garnishing the house for the reception of the distinguished guests, also of " cash paid for cleaning my house and putting it in the same condition the o o5 The Morris House 135 President received it in." This last bill was two dollars and thirty cents. From this account-book we learn what were the expenses of transportation of Colonel Franks and family, back and forth to Bethle hem, and what was paid for the hired furnished lodgings in the mountain village. There were lost during the summer of exile (presumably under Lady Washington's administration), " one flat-iron, value is., one large fork, four plates, three ducks, four fowls," and consumed or wasted by the temporary tenants, " one bushel potatoes and one cwt. of hay." Those items swelled the sum expended for removals and hire of Bethlehem quarters and the rent received for Germantown premises to $131.56. The President, his wife, and their adopted children, George Washington Parke Custis and Nelly Custis, lived in health and peace in sub urban quarters during the summer of the pesti lence. The boy went to school at the Old Academy. The grounds of the school ad joined those of what was still known as the Deshler Place. A few days after the transfer of the Executive party from town to country, a group of boys playing on the pavement in 136 Some Colonial Homesteads front of the Academy parted to left and right, cap in hand, before a majestic figure that paused at the foot of the steps. " Where is George Washington Parke Cus tis ? " demanded the General. Charles Wister, a Germantown boy, plucked up courage and voice, and told where the great man's ward might be found. Another pupil in the Academy, Jesse Wain, whose home was in Frankford, accompanied Parke Custis from school one afternoon, and played with him in the garden, until General Washington came out of the back door, and bade his adopted son " come in to tea, and bring his young friend with him." Nearly three quarters of a century afterward, an old man asked permission, upon revisiting Ger mantown, to go into the tea- or breakfast-room, back of the parlors in the Morris house, and sitting down there recalled each incident of the never-to-be-forgotten " afternoon out." The grave kindness of the head of the house hold, the sweet placidity of the mistress, and the merry school-fellow whose liking had won for him this distinguished honor, — this is the picture for which we are indebted to Mr. Wain's reminiscences. The Morris House 137 The hegira from Philadelphia must have taken place early in the spring, for Lady Washington pleased herself and interested her neighbors, by raising hyacinths under globes of cut glass. There were six of these, and upon her return to Philadelphia, she gave them to the young daughter of the deceased David Deshler, to whom she had taken an especial liking. A fragment of the glass is still treas ured by a descendant of Catherine Deshler. The occupation of the Morris House by the President and his family is the incident in the history of the homestead which abides most vividly with us as we pass from one to another of rooms which are scarcely altered from what they were in his day. The walls are wain scoted up to the ceiling ; the central hall ; the fine staircase at the right ; the hinges mortised into the massive front-door ; the wrought-iron latch, eighteen inches long, that falls into a stout hasp ; the partitions and low ceilings of the spacious chambers, — are the same as when the floors echoed to the tread of -the Com mander-in-Chief, and ministers of state and finance discussed the weal of the infant nation with him who will never cease to be the Na tion's Hero. 138 Some Colonial Homesteads We linger longest in the tea-room, which is the coziest of the suite. The wide-throated chimney is built diagonally across one corner ; the fireplace is surrounded by tiles of exceed ing beauty and great age. In another corner, THE COZIEST OF THE SUITE. on the same side of the room, with a garden- ward window between it and the chimney, is a cupboard which was also here in 1 793. Behind the glass doors of this cabinet are the cup and saucer and plate of old India blue china, which The Morris House 139 were used on the evening of Jesse Wain's visit, with other choice bits of bric-a-brac. The rear window, opening now upon a small conservatory, then gave upon a long grape- arbor, running far down the garden. Between the drawing-room door and this window — the fair, extensive pleasure-grounds, sleeping in the afternoon sunshine, visible to all at the table — the Washingtons took their "dish of tea" in security, shadowed only by thoughts of the plague-stricken city, lying so near as to sug gest sadder topics than the sweet-hearted host ess would willingly introduce. It is an idyllic domestic scene, and the lovelier for the cloudy background. The "pitcher-portrait" of Washington in the possession of Mr. Morris was presented to his great-grandfather, Governor Samuel Mor ris, captain, during the War of the Revolution, of the First City Troop. These pitchers were made in France, and were tokens of the dis tinguished esteem of the General for those honored as the recipients. The likeness was considered so far superior to any other extant at that time, that an order for duplicates was sent to Paris when the first supply was given away. Unfortunately, the model had been de- i4° Some Colonial Homesteads stroyed after the original requisition was filled, and the attempt to reproduce the design was unsatisfactory as to likeness and execution, a circumstance which enhances the value of the originals. Mr. Morris justly reckons as scarcely second in worth to this beautiful relic, an autograph letter from Washington to his great-grand father, Governor Morris, thanking him for the gallant service rendered in the War of Inde pendence by the First City Troop. VII THE SCHUYLER AND COLFAX HOUSES, POMPTON, NEW JERSEY SIX hundred feet above the sea level; screened by two mountain ranges from sea-fogs and shore rawness ; watered as the garden of the Lord by brooks, brown and brisk, racing down from the hills — Pompton is the bonniest nook in New Jersey. Henry Ward Beecher said of the plucky little State, that the trailing arbutus, fabled to spring from the blood of heroes, grows more luxuriantly within her bounds than anywhere else. Were the fantasy aught but a fable, Pompton and its environs would be overrun with the brave daintiness of the patriot's flower. It was situated on the King's Highway, be tween New York and Morristown, and the tide of war ebbed and flowed over it many 141 142 Some Colonial Homesteads times during the fateful years of the Revolu tion. In a small yellow house that stood, within the last ten years, upon a corner-lot equidistant from the Pompton station of the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railway, and that of the New York, Susquehanna and West ern, Washington had his headquarters during his progresses to and from Morristown. I have talked with old people who recollected seeing him stand in the rude porch, reviewing the dusty lines of troops as they filed by. Hooks, that once supported muskets, were in the ceiling of the " stoop," and the floor of the largest room was indented by much ground ing of arms. The beetling brow of the loftiest of the lines of hills interlocking the cup-like valley, was the observatory of the Commander-in-Chief on sev eral occasions, and bears, in memory of the ma jestic Presence, the name of " Federal Rock." In Lord Stirling's forge, the foundations of which are yet stanch in the adjacent Wanaque Valley, was welded the mighty chain stretched by Washington across the Hudson to prevent the passage of the British ships, some links of which are still to be seen on the parade-ground at West Point. WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS IN POMPTON, N. J. Schuyler and Colfax Houses 145 Upon another of the heights forming the amphitheatre in which are the villages of Pomp ton and Ramapo Lake, several companies of Federal soldiers mutinied in the winter of 1 778-9. They had had no pay for months ; the weather was severe ; rations were poor in qual ity and scanty, and their hearts were wrung by tidings of almost starving families in their distant homes. It was resolved to desert the bleak fastness, disband, and return to their wives and children. News of the revolt was sent to Washington at Morristown. He dis patched the American General Howe, with a body of troops, to quell it. The insurgents were surprised and surrounded, and yielded without bloodshed to the superior force. A court-martial was held — " standing on the snow," says the chronicle with unconscious pathos — and two of the ring-leaders were sen tenced to be shot by their comrades and fellow- offenders. The squad detailed for the purpose vainly protested, with tears, against the cruel office. The blindfolded leaders were buried where they fell. Their graves are pointed out to the visitor who climbs to the site of the forest-camp. Cellars lined with stone, shelv ing rocks blackened and seamed on the under 146 Some Colonial Homesteads side by smoke and fire, and the outlines of huts that were built up with loose stones, — are vestiges of that bitter winter and the tragic culmination of the woes of the des perate soldiery. Another encampment was in Pompton town ship, within sight of that on the mountain-side, and so much more kindly planned as to con venience and comfort that the contrast may have augmented the discontent of the mutinous band. For two winters, part of a regiment of American troops occupied a gentle slope with a southern exposure, on the bank of the Ramapo River. A virgin forest kept off north and east winds, and the camp was within less than half a mile of the main road. Soon after peace was declared, a great rock in the middle of the river was used as a foundation for a dam that widened the stream into a lake. A fall of thirty feet supplies a picturesque feature to the landscape, and valuable water-power for the- Pompton Steel and Iron Works at the foot of the hill. Sunnybank, the summer cot tage of Rev. Dr. Terhune, is built upon the pleasant camping-ground aforesaid. In clear ing the wooded slope, remains of stockaded huts were unearthed, with bullets, flints, gunlocks, CD I O H < x 'v 4 ' '., ' i ¦% ' s Schuyler and Colfax Houses 149 and, in a bed of charcoal left by a camp-fire, a sword of British workmanship, in perfect pres ervation. The royal arms of England are etched upon the blade ; on the hilt, scratched rudely as with a nail, or knife-point, are the initials "E.L." The steel is encrusted with rust-gouts that will not out. Who, of the miserably equipped rebel soldiery, could afford to lose from his living hand a weapon so good and true ? The steeper hill across the lake, on the lower slopes and at the base of which nestle the villas and cottages of " summer folk" from the metropolis, took the name of " Barrack Hill" from the officers' quarters overlooking the camp. The Marquis de Chastelleux, from whose Travels in North America quotation has al ready been made in these pages, writes of this region in 1 780 : " Approaching Pompton I was astonished at the degree of perfection to which agriculture is carried." He mentions as especially well- cultivated and fertile the lands of " the Mande ville brothers,1 whose father was a Dutchman and cleared the farms his sons now till." 1 A daughter of one of the Mandeville brothers married Dr. William Washington Colfax. 150 Some Colonial Homesteads " Being very dark, it was not without diffi culty that I passed two or three rivulets, on very small bridges," establishes the trend of the road that landed him that night at Court- heath's Tavern (on the site of which a time- battered hostelry still stands). The landlord, a young fellow of four-and-twenty, complained bitterly that he was obliged to live in this out- of-the-way place. "He has two handsome sisters, well-dressed girls who wait on travel lers with grace and coquetry," is a sly touch worthy of the writer's nationality. He atones for it by honest surprise at seeing upon a great table in the parlor Milton, Addison, Richard- :son, and other authors of note. " The cellar was not so well stocked as the library." He (could "get nothing but vile cider-brandy of which he must make grog." The bill for a night's lodging and food for himself, his ser vants, and horses, was sixteen dollars. From this showing, we infer that Dutch intelligence and integrity were distanced by Dutch enterprise even in the wilderness. He recounts, as we might tell of a casual encounter with a neighbor, that, two days later, he met General and Lady Washington on the Morris town road, travelling in their post-chaise, in Schuyler and Colfax Houses 151 which roomy conveyance they insisted he should take a seat. There were skirmishes, many and bloody, upon these beautiful hills. An encounter in the Morristown Road on Pompton Plains at tained the dignity of a battle, and the slain were buried in the graveyard of the wayside •church. In the garden behind Washington's headquarters, was dug up in 1889, a solid silver spur that may have clamped the august heel of the Nation's hero. The flat at the left of the Sunnybank orchard was paved with thou sands of flat stones for the convenience of tak ing horses and wagons to the water's edge. These were removed a few years ago. Among the matted roots beneath them was found, at one spot, a bed of partially fashioned arrow heads, and, nearer the woods, a grave, with roughly hewn stones at head and foot — per haps the last resting-place of a sachem of the once powerful tribe of Pompiton Indians, — perhaps of " E. L." Who knows ? Both the camping-grounds I have mentioned, and five thousand five hundred acres besides of mountain and plain, were deeded by royal letters of patent to Arent Schuyler in 1695. The homestead founded by him stands diago- i52 Some Colonial Homesteads nally across the lake from Sunnybank, in full sight, although three quarters of a mile away. A rampart of mountains defends it from the blasts which rush down the northern gorge, through which, from the crest of Barrack Hill, the naked eye can trace on a clear day the outline of Old Cro' Nest, opposite West Point. Philip Petersen Schuyler, the founder of the large and influ ential family in America bearing the name, emi grated from Am sterdam, Holland, in 1650, and settled in Albany (then Beverwyck). This is his entry in the family Bible of an event which occurred the same year. "In the year of our Lord 1650, the 12 de- cember, Have I, Philip Peterse Schuyler from Amsterdam, old about 2 " (illegible) " years married for my wife Margritta van Slichten- horst, born at Nykerck old 22 years may the SCHUYLER COAT-OF-ARMS. Schuyler and Colfax Houses 153 good god grant us a long and peaceful life to our salvation Amen." His life was neither long nor peaceful. His decease, jotted down in the same Bible by the hand of his wife, took place when he was less than sixty years old. The services rendered cit}r, State, and church in his thirty years' resi dence in the land of his adoption, his courage, steadfastness and energy, make his a marked name in those early annals. He bore the title of " Captain " at his death, and is mentioned in contemporary documents as " Commissioner of Justice in Albany." From the eisfht children who survived him sprang such noble branches as the Van Cort- landts, Van Rensselaers, Verplancks, and Liv ingstons. His eldest son, Peter, was the first Mayor of Albany, and in 1689, Commandant of Fort Orange in that city. Johannes, another son, we learn from a fam ily MS. embrowned and blotched by time, "Was Captain at 22, and in 1690 led a Company of 29 Christians and 120 Savages, as far as La Praise, in Canada, near Montreal, where he took 19 Prisoners and destroyed for the enemies 150 head of cattle, and subse quently, after an absence of 17 days, returned in safety to Albany. He is said to have had great influence 154 Some Colonial Homesteads with the Indians and was the grandfather of Genera] Philip Schuyler, one of the noted chieftains of the Revo lution." The birth of Arent Schuyler is duly entered in the Bible thus : " 1662, the 25 June is born our fourth son named Arent van Schuyler may the Lord God let him grow up in virtues to his Salvation Amen." The father interpolated the " van " in the names of his children until 1666. Philip, Jo hannes, and Margritta are written down simply, " Schuyler." The wife of the first Philip and for twenty- eight years his loyal relict, was one of the fa mous women of the day. She had sole control of her husband's large estate and managed it ably. An amusing bit of testimony to her maternal devotion is given in a letter written by the ob noxious Leisler to the three commissioners sent by him to Albany to assume control of municipal and colonial affairs there. Peter Schuyler was then Mayor. The usurper of the Lieutenant-Governorship writes to his agents of a tale " that ye Widow Schuyler beat Captain Milborne, and that you all three Schuyler and Colfax Houses 155 were forced to fly out of ye towne and were gone to Esopus, and Peter Schuyler was in ye fort." " It was mere rumor," comments a family record, "but it proved she was a woman of spirit and resolution, more, that her influence was a power which her enemies feared." This was in 1690. Six years earlier, her son Arent (signifying "eagle") bought a house from his thrift-loving mother, to be paid for in peltry, in two instalments of a hundred beavers each, hung a live eagle in a cage on the outer wall in lieu of a door-plate, married, and went to housekeeping with Jenneke Teller. In imitation of the will made by Philip and Margritta Schuyler — the provisions of which were conscientiously carried out by the widow, — Arent and his wife, soon after their marriage, united in a testament which left the survivor sole legatee of "all the estate and personal property ... all and everything which they now possess (may he or she re marry or not) without being held to pay over to the parents or friends or anybody else, even a stiver's worth." In 1690, Arent Schuyler joined a party sent under Captain Abraham Schuyler to watch 156 Some Colonial Homesteads the French near Crown Point. While on this duty, Arent volunteered to lead into Canada a company of eight Indian scouts, himself being the only white man. The expedition returned in safety, having made thorough re- connoissances, killed two French pickets and captured one. The enterprise gained for him much credit and a captaincy. His familiarity with Indian dialects caused him to be chosen as ambassador, on divers occasions, to hostile and friendly tribes. His proven courage and his diplomacy were not more notable than the detailed exactness of his monetary accounts with the government. Not an item of horse- hire ; of Holland shirts furnished to chiefs ; of crackers, peas and ferriage, was omitted from the bills rendered by shrewd Widow Schuyler's fourth son. Arent Schuyler removed to what one kins man biographer calls " the wilds of New Jer sey " between 1 701 and 1 706. The joint will of himself and bride was, of course, a reciprocal affair, with equal risks on both sides, but the innings remained with the always lucky hus band. He fell heir to every stiver and stitch of Jenneke Teller's share of the property in 1 700, and married Swantie Dyckhuyse in 1 702. Schuyler and Colfax Houses 157 In 1 710, he bought a plantation on the Passaic River near Newark. Just as he was beginning to fear that the lands were unproductive, and to meditate a speedy sale, a negro slave dis covered a copper mine which established his master's fortune beyond the reach of a turn of fate. Philip, the eldest son of Arent the Lucky, was left upon the patrimonial acres at Pomp ton when his father transferred his residence to Belleville, New Jersey. He was a man of note among his neighbors, possessing much of the thrift and industry belonging to the blood. He represented Passaic County in the Legis lature for several years. His son, Arent (2), added to the estate the farm bought in 1739 from Hendrick Garritse Van Wagenen, on which the homestead stands. This Arent, with his son Adoniah, occupied it during the Revolution, and in a peaceful old age related many and strange tales of that troublous era. A French soldier, ill with fever, was brought to Mr. Schuyler's hospitable door from the camp across the river, taken in and nursed by the family and servants. His disease proved to be smallpox of which he died. A low 158 Some Colonial Homesteads mound in the orchard shows where he was buried. The family influence with the Indians, of whom there were many in the nearest mountains, was transmitted from generation to generation. Adoniah, when a boy, talked with them in their own language, employed, when grown, Indian men on the farm, and squaws in the house. Indian boys and girls played freely about the doors with the children of the second Arent. While the conflicting armies were surging back and forth over the Debatable Ground of the Ramapo Valley, Arent Schuyler called in cattle and horses every night, and sent them into the friendly mountains at the rear of his house, under the care of trustworthy laborers. Provisions were secreted ingeniously, and crops put into the ground with agonizing misgivings as to who would reap and consume them, The dwelling has been twice remodelled in this century. It is a substantial stone struc ture, with outlying barns larger than itself. The walls are very thick and an air of restful comfort pervades the premises. Peacocks strut, and guinea-fowls clack noisily where Indian children played with Philip Schuyler's '59 THE SCHUYLER HOMESTEAD, POMPTON, N. J. Schuyler and Colfax Houses 161 grandsons. Plough and hoe still bring up arrowheads in the long-cultivated fields. The ground would seem to have been sown with them as with grain. Mr. Cornelius Schuyler, an honored citizen of Pompton, and the last in the direct male line represented by Arent (i), Philip, Arent (2) and Adoniah, died Sept. 14, 1868, in his seventy-fifth year. Mrs. Williams, his married daughter, and her husband, Dr. Williams, dwell in the quiet spaciousness of the old house. Of the many thousand Pompton acres owned by the race that knew so well how to fight and to traffic, only the extensive home-tract remains to those of the blood and lineage. Of the homes inherited and made for themselves by the children of the second Philip Schuyler, all but two have passed into other hands. Major Anthony Brockholls, sometime Gov ernor of the Province of New York, and at a later day Mayor of New York City, was the friend of Arent (1) Schuyler and a copartner in speculation in New Jersey lands. " These gentlemen bought of the Indians nearly all the land now comprised in Wayne Township, and ac quired the title from some New Jersey proprietaries on November nth, 1695. In the same year they erected 162 Some Colonial Homesteads homesteads within a few hundred yards of one another. The house built by Schuyler stands yet and is occupied by William Colfax, one of his descendants. That built by BrockhoUs has disappeared and on the site is one more modern, occupied by the family of the late Major W. W. Colfax, another offshoot of the Schuyler-Colfax stock." This extract is from a paper kindly given to me by Dr. William Schuyler Colfax of Pomp ton, who is himself a lineal descendant of Arent (i) Schuyler. From the same source we learn that the " second settlement in what is now Passaic County was made by Arent Schuyler and Anthony BrockhoUs in 1694— 1695." The old house was, then, Schuyler's home between 1 700 and the date of his removal to Belleville, and has been in the family quite as long as the larger building nearly a mile away and on the other side of the lake. Philip Schuyler, the son of the first Arent, had eleven children besides the namesake son who inherited the Van Wagenen farm along with others. Of the dozen, nine grew to man's and woman's estate. Especial good fortune seems to have followed Arent's name and line, for we find from Dr. Colfax's MS. that Arent's Schuyler and Colfax Houses 163 son Caspar — or Casparus, as another record has it — inherited a large estate at his father's death. Furthermore, that Caspar " had in some manner acquired the adjoining BrockhoUs lands." He had but one child, — " One fair daughter and no more, The which he loved passing well," — if unstinted indulgence while he lived, and the bequest to her, in dying, of all his worldly goods, were proofs of parental affection. The beautiful Ester — or Hester — familiarly known to kindred and neighbor as " Miss Hetty," was in the fifth generation from " ye Widow Schuyler " who beat and chased the three Royal Commissioners sent to eject her son Peter from the Mayoralty. The family " spirit and resolution " dryly commended by the chronicler of the affair, had not lost strength with the passage of years. If the Widow Schuyler's spirit were a home-brew of sparkling cider, her very-great-granddaughter's was the same beverage grown "hard" with the keeping. Her beauty and her fortune attracted a swarm of beaux, and her successes probably kept her in a good humor in her 164 Some Colonial Homesteads visitors' sight. While Washington was en camped at Towowa, seven miles away, he was on several occasions her most honored guest. We may be sure that the bravest of the silks and satins — that, her neighbors said, made it unnecessary for them to look around to see who was rustling up the aisle of the old colonial church (still standing) — were donned when the General and staff were expected to dinner, and that the youthful hostess made a bonny picture as she courtesied in the Dutch door way in acknowledgment of his magnificent salutation. In the train of the Commander-in-Chief was a handsome youth who, although but nineteen years of age, was second-lieutenant of Wash ington's Life-Guard. He came of a French family that had settled in Wethersfield, Conn., in 165 1. It may have been the dash and vivacity which went with his blood that com mended him to Miss Hetty's favor. His rivals included others of the General's staff. When the home-brew was the sharper for ten or twelve years of married life, she used to bemoan herself that " she had had her pick of nine, and had chosen the worst of the lot." " After a brief and vigorous wooing, Lieu- Schuyler and Colfax Houses 165 tenant Colfax became engaged to Ester, and married her at the close of the war." He was Captain of the Life-Guard by now, and had a reputation for bravery that should have tempered with justice the tart training to which the spoiled beauty subjected him from an early period of their joint, but never united, lives. Even after he became General Colfax, and had won new laurels in the War of 1 81 2, we hear of her driving in an open ba rouche over the short mile separating her homestead from the Reformed Dutch Church, the General riding alongside, and on the foot board behind two colored pages, the one to carry after her to the Schuyler pew footstool and fan in summer, or a warming-pan in win ter, the other to bear her train up the aisle. Her husband was an adjunct to the state she kept up to the day of her demise, making her boast, within a few weeks of that desirable event, that she had never combed her own hair or put on her own shoes and stockings. Dutch father and French husband seem to have been on a par in the worse than folly of humoring caprices which waxed with indul gence into absurdities that are among the most amusing of village tales. She would 1 66 Some Colonial Homesteads drink no water except such as was brought fresh from a well five hundred yards distant from the house, and burned none except hick ory wood. If this were not forthcoming at her call she would toss into the fire whatever lay nearest her hand, were it gown, or shawl, or silken scarf. She would not allow a black beast or fowl to live upon the place, and one of the fiercest quarrels between the ill-mated pair was because her husband had suffered her to eat beef bought of a neighbor who had slaughtered a black cow. When he offended her beyond the possibility of forgiveness by selling a tract of land without her permission, she retired loftily to her chamber, and did not emerge from the seclusion for ten years. When the time she had set for herself and to him was up, she came forth, richly dressed, ordered her carriage, and drove to church as if nothing had happened. With all her intolerable whims, she retained to the last her shrewd intelligence and ready wit, and, when she willed to be pleasing, her captivating manner. The six children born to her loved her in spite of the flurries and tempests of a temper they and their father understood, if nobody else entered into the Schuyler and Colfax Houses 169 comprehension thereof. She was one of the " characters " of the times and region, and her story gives a flavor of peppery romance to the long, low, hip-roofed house. Each of the three sons who attained manhood was a citi zen of more than ordinary intelligence and prominence Schuyler, the eldest, became the father of a Vice-President of the United States : William Washington, named for his father and his father's beloved Chief, was an able and successful physician, and one of the celebrities of the township. His bon mots are still retailed by his old acquaintances and neighbors. Throughout his life he was a stubborn Democrat, and a friend, one day in the summer of 1868, showed him with mis chievous satisfaction the newspaper announce ment of the nomination of Grant and Colfax. The doctor read the article through without the change of a muscle. " That ticket," he said then, quietly, " is like a kangaroo. All the strength is in the hind legs." George, the third son, built a homestead upon the foundation of the BrockhoUs house. It is still occupied by his descendants. The "old place" is tenanted by the only son of Dr. William Washington Colfax. 17° Some Colonial Homesteads The fourth William, to whom I am in debted for much interesting information respecting the family, has in his possession a miniature of General — then Lieutenant — Colfax, which the enamored young officer caused to be painted for the fair and spicy Hetty during their engagement ; also a pair of beautifully mounted pistols made by Thone of Amsterdam. They were given to his favor ite lieutenant by Washington at the close of the war. A great-granddaughter treasures as an odd but precious relic, a man's night cap made by Lady Washington and presented to Captain Colfax with her own hands. The house contains tables, chairs, and other ancient furniture antedating the stirring Revolution ary days that brought the boy-warrior to the arms — and tongue — of his imperious bride. VIII THE VAN CORTLANDT MANOR-HOUSE OLAF Steve xse Van Cortlandt, a soldier in the Dutch West Indian serv ice, accompanied William Kieft to America in 1638. He came of a noble French family (Cour- land) long -resident in Holland. In 1648, he left the service of the com pany, and a year later his signature appeared among those of the " Nine Men " who pre sented to the West In dian Co. a protest against VANC0RTLANDTC0AT.0F.ARMS. the maladministration of motto, "virtus sibi munus.- Kieft and Stuyvesant. In 1654, he was a Commissioner from New Amsterdam to settle 171 172 Some Colonial Homesteads difficulties with the Indians after the Esopus massacre. He was, also, an Elder in the Reformed Dutch Church of which " Everardus Bogardus, Dominie of New Amsterdam," was the spirit ual leader. The worthy pastor had wedded, in 1638, the "Widow Ians," otherwise Anneke Jansen, who brought with her to her new hus band's abode the five children she had borne to her first husband. It was considered that the clergyman had made an ineligible match, the bride having no dowry save " a few acres of wild land." The undesirable estate, regis tered after her second marriage, as " The Dominie's Bouwerie," is now the property of Trinity Church Corporation in New York City. Pastor and Elder maintained amicable rela tions toward one another throughout the Reverend Everardus's incumbency, except on one occasion when the minister was hurried, in the heat of debate, into the utterance of a remark that reflected upon his parishioner's integrity. He was compelled, in a meeting of Consistory, to retract his words, whereupon Olaf Van Cortlandt — whom a contemporary describes as " without mistake a noble man " — Van Cortlandt Manor-House 173 frankly forgave the offender, and their friend ship was fully restored. The pastor was drowned in Bristol Channel in 1647, and the doubly widowed Anneke re sumed the management of the " Bouwerie." " Old Burgomaster Van Cortlandt" was one of the six chief townsmen who advised and conducted a peaceful capitulation to the Eng lish squadron that summoned the settlement on " the Island of Manhattoes " to surrender. In the political see-saw of the ensuing decade, the wise Hollander kept his seat on the safe end of the plank. We find him in England, lading governmental ships under commission of Charles II. ; investigating Lovelace's un settled accounts when the latter was deposed by the reinstated Dutch masters, and he was one of Andros's council after the international episode was settled by the treaty of Westmin ster. In all this, he so cleverly improved cloudy as well as shining hours that he had by 1674 amassed a fortune of 45,000 guilders and much real estate. He was by now the happy husband of Annetje Loockermans, who, like himself, was born in Holland. He died in 1683. " A worthy citizen, and most liberal in his charities," says an old chronicle. 174 Some Colonial Homesteads His widow survived him but a twelvemonth. Her epitaph, penned by the pastor of the venerable couple, asserts that she "... after Cortlandt's death no rest possessed, And sought no other rest than soon to rest beside him. He died. She lived and died. Both now in Abram rest." — tautological testimony which, if trustworthy, implies wifely devotion and a common Chris tian faith. Thus runs in brief the opening chapter in the American history of a family than which none has borne a more conspicuous and hon orable part in the history of New York. Compelled by the stringency of space (or the lack of it) to restrict myself to the barest out line of an eventful history, I pass on to the threshold of the picturesque Manor-House, built in 1 68 1 upon the Croton River then " Kightewank Creek." The Manor of Van Cortlandt was " erected " in 1697, with especial privileges pertaining thereto besides the usual rights of " Court- Baron, Court-Leet, etc." Under this title were collected lands accumulated during nearly thirty years by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, eldest son of the emigrant Olaf. At thirty- Van Cortlandt Manor-House 175 four he was the first American Mayor of New York, and appointed First Judge in Admiralty by Sir Edmund Andros. So trusted was he by the English governors that English-born merchants uttered a formal complaint against patronage bestowed upon " a Dutchman while the English had no chance." Office was heaped upon office until in num ber and importance they surpassed those held by his doughty brother-in-law, Robert Living ston. The two Manorial Lords married sis ters, the daughters of Philip Petersen Schuyler of Albany. The cares of political life, business cares and responsibilities, perhaps the chafe of the high-strung ambitious spirit within a not-robust body, made his days briefer than those of his parents. He survived the creation of his Manor less than four years, dying in 1 700, at the comparatively early age of fifty- seven. Eleven, out of fourteen, children outlived him. Verplanck, Bayard, de Lancey, Van Schuyler, — are some of the notable names joined in marriage with those of his sons and daughters. His son Philip (1) married Catherine de 176 Some Colonial Homesteads Peyster, " was an eminent merchant in posses sion of good estate," and one of His Majesty's Council in 1 731. Dying in 1747, his estate was divided among his four sons. To Pierre (1) although the youngest, was devised the Manor-House. His wife was his second cousin, Joanna Livingston, a grandchild of Robert. " With their eldest born, Philip Van Cort landt, they left New York for Croton River, and here all the succeeding children were born. For a time all passed peacefully ; Pierre pur suing the avocations of a country gentleman of that day, busying himself with his farm and his mills." The Manor-House, built as a fort station by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, contained, origi nally, but eight rooms, and was forty feet long by thirty-three wide. It was of Nyack red freestone, and the solid masonry of the walls was pierced with loopholes for de fense against savage visitors. Within a few rods was the Ferry-house, constructed of brick and wood. As the dangers from savage ma rauders lessened, the young members of the Van Cortlandt clan fell into the habit of using the fort for a hunting-lodge. Van Cortlandt Manor-House 177 The five sons of Philip (1) — Stephen, Abram, Philip, John, and Pierre, — came and went at their pleasure, finding at their country home constant occupation. Fish were abundant, and deer were still to be found in the forest. Abram, Philip, and John died unmarried, Stephen and Pierre dividing the estate between them. It was but natural that the last-named should gladly embrace the opportunity of bring ing up his young family in scenes endeared by his early associations. The brief, blessed calm was terminated by the outbreak of the Revolution. " In 1774," — says the careful paper prepared by the widow of the late Pierre Van Cortlandt, and to which I am indebted for the framework of this article, — " Governor Tryon came to Croton, ostensibly on a visit of courtesy, bring ing with him his wife, a daughter of the Hon. John Watts [a kinsman of the Van Cort- landts]. . . . The next morning Governor Tryon proposed a walk. They all proceeded to one of the highest points on the estate, and, pausing, Tryon announced to the listening Van Cortlandt the great favors that would be granted to him if he would espouse the royal cause, and give his adherence to king and par- 178 Some Colonial Homesteads liament. Large grants of land would be added to his estates, and Tryon hinted that a title might be bestowed. Van Cortlandt answered that ' he was chosen representative [to the Colonial Assembly] by unanimous approba tion of a people who placed confidence in his integrity, to use all his ability for the benefit and the good of his country as a true patriot, which line of conduct he was determined to pursue.' (Pierre's nephew, Philip [Stephen's son], entered the Royal army, served throughout the war, and died in England in 1814. The present Lord Elphinstone is his great-grand- son.) The discomfited Tryon returned to New York, and Van Cortlandt was elected to the Second Provincial Congress in 1775. He was also a delegate to the Third and Fourth, and President of the Council of Safety. Franklin, Rochambeau, LaFayette, Steu ben, de Lauzun — and a greater than they — - Washington — were honored guests within the stout walls of the Manor-House during the war. " The new bridge of the Croton, about nine miles from Peekskills," mentioned by the Commander-in-Chief in his diary of July 2, 1 78 1, superseded the ferry, and the brick-and- Van Cortlandt Manor-House 1 79 timber Ferry-house served as temporary bar racks for the soldiers on their passage up and down the river. Continued residence in the turbulent heart of military operations was impossible. Mrs. Van Cortlandt and the children finally sought an asylum upon one of the Livingston farms at Rhinebeck. The Manor-House was left in charge of faithful slaves, and was visited by the family by stealth and at long intervals. Pierre Van Cortlandt was acting-marshal of the famous Equestrian Provincial Congress, which halted in mid-march when overtaken by despatches from Washington calling upon them for appropriations, etc. Wheeling their horses into a hollow square, they would pass laws and legislate bills and provisions as re quired, then, at the bugle-call, form into line and proceed on their way. The brave father writes to his son Philip — who had thrown himself with the enthusiasm of early and vigorous manhood into the Patriot cause, and was now in the camp — of his pray erful hope " that the Lord will be with you all, and that you may quit yourselves like men in your country's cause." Pierre Van Cortlandt served as Lieutenant- 180 Some Colonial Homesteads Governor from 1777 to 1795, and was Presi dent of the Convention that framed the new Constitution. The echoes of the war had muttered them selves into silence, when he recalled his house hold to the Manor-House and resumed the peaceful occupations he loved. The wife of his youth was spared to him until 1808. She was eighty-seven years of age. They had lived together for over sixty years. " A model wife," says her biographer ; " A model mother and a model Christian. She made the Manor House an earthly Paradise." Her husband outlived her six years, dying in 1 8 14, at the ripe age of ninety-four. " The simplicity of his life was that of an ancient Patriarch. He descended to the grave full of years, covered with honor and grateful for his country's happiness. He retained his recollection to the last, calling upon his Saviour to take him to Himself." The hero-son Philip (2) succeeded to the estate. He had fulfilled in letter and in spirit his pious father's hope, having won renown and rank by his gallantry, and universal re spect by his talents and character. In 1783 he received the rank of Brigadier-General for Van Cortlandt Manor-House 181 his conduct at Yorktown. For sixteen years he represented his district in Congress. In 1824 he accompanied his old comrade and dear friend, LaFayette, in his tour through the country they had helped to save. He died in 1 83 1, in his eighty-second year. Pierre (2) Van Cortlandt (Philip's brother and successor) was born in 1762. He was a student of Rutgers College in New Brunswick at the outbreak of the war, and one of the party of lads who joined the citizens in repel ling an attack made by the British upon the town. He studied law under Alexander Ham ilton, a kinsman by marriage, Mrs. Hamilton being a daughter of General Philip Schuyler. In 1801 Mr. Van Cortlandt married " Caty," the eldest child of Governor George Clinton, and after her death in 181 1, Anne, daughter of John Stevenson, of Albany. His only child, Pierre (3) entered upon his inheritance in 1848. Superb in physique, and courtly in bearing, he is remembered with af fectionate esteem by the community in which he spent forty-eight years and " in which he had not one enemy." He passed away peace fully July 11, 1884. His widow, the daughter of T. Romeyn 1 82 Some Colonial Homesteads Beck, M.D., of Albany, the eminent scholar and writer on medical jurisprudence, lived for ten years longer in the beautiful old home stead with her son and her daughter, Miss Anne Stevenson Van Cortlandt. Endowed by nature with unusual beauty of person and intelligence, Mrs. Van Cortlandt added to these gifts scholarly attainments, vivacity and grace of manner that made her the pride and joy of those who loved her, and the chief attraction of her home to the hosts of friends who sought her there. The charm of her conversation and society was irresistible. She gave of her intellectual, as of her heart, treas ures royally. Her fund of anecdote was ex- haustless, her descriptions were graphic, and the sunny humor that withstood griefs under which a weaker spirit would have sunk into pessimistic despondency never deserted her. Her contri butions to historical periodicals were always trustworthy and full of interest, her letters were models of easy and sparkling composi tion, the only substitute which absent friends were willing to accept for her radiant and gracious presence. Out of the fulness of a loving heart I offer this humble tribute to one of the noblest of Van Cortlandt Manor-House 183 the Order of Colonial Dames, whom the places she glorified now know no more. It is a bit of fadeless rosemary, and it is laid upon a shrine. The son, Captain James Stevenson Van Cortlandt, followed the example of his ances tors in answering promptly to his country's call in her day of need. H e entered the army at eighteen, and served with distinction through out the civil war, first as Aid-de-Camp to Gen eral Corcoran ; then with the New York 155th, and, upon promotion, in the New York 22nd Cavalry, being with that regiment during Sheridan's brilliant campaigns. A married daughter, the wife of Rev. John Rutherford Matthews, Chaplain in the U. S. Navy, occupies the quaint old Ferry-house, now converted into a comfortable residence. The Manor-House is long and low, and draped with historic romance, legend, and poetry, as with the vines that cling to the deep veranda. Above the main entrance, with its Knicker bocker half-door and brass knocker, are the horns of an immense moose. In the outer wall to the left is cut the date of erection, "A.D. r 68 1." In the hall hang the portraits 1 84 Some Colonial Homesteads of John and Pierre, sons of Philip (i) Van Cortlandt, taken in boyhood. Pierre is ac companied by his dog ; John has his hand on the head of a fawn tamed by himself. The antlers of the favorite, grown to full deerhood, and — let us hope — dying a natural death in the fulness of years, — are over the opposite door. One of the T-shaped loopholes, left uncov ered as a curious memento of the warlike in fancy of the homestead, gapes in the wall of the dining-room. Beneath it, and in striking congruity with the silent telltale, is the por trait of Joseph Brant, the college-bred Indian, who " with all his native ferocity, was a polished gentleman." Aaron Burr's daughter, Theodosia, who should have been a competent critic in matters of deportment and etiquette, bears testimony to the high breeding of the Mohawk chieftain in a letter written to her father when she was a precocious and accomplished girl of fourteen. Burr, who was in Philadelphia, had given Brant a letter of introduction to Theodosia in New York, and the young lady proceeded to arrange a dinner-party for the distinguished stranger. Among her guests were Bishop Moore and Dr. Bard, an eminent physician who was after- ¦ 85 VAN CORTLANDT MANOR-HOUSE. Van Cortlandt Manor-House 187 ward President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. The hostess was, she says, sadly puzzled in making up a suitable bill of fare. " I had a mind to lay the hospital under con tribution for a human head to be served up like a boar's head in ancient hall historic. After all, he (Brant) was a most Christian and civilized guest in his manners." In 1779, Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt led his men in a skirmish against Brant and his Indians, and while standing under a tree and marshalling his men, was observed by the " polished " savage. He promptly ordered a marksman to " pick off " the white officer. The dancing foliage about Colonel Van Cortlandt's head misled the rifleman, and the ball missed the mark by three inches. " Had I fired, myself," said Brant in a friendly talk with General Van Cortlandt in after years, " I should not have the pleasure of meeting you to-day. And " — with a bow and a smile — " I am extremely happy that I did not." The portrait, painted at the request of the late Mrs. Van Cortlandt's grandfather, James Caldwell, of Albany, is fine. The expression 1 38 Some Colonial Homesteads is complacent, even benevolent, although the physiognomy is all Indian. There is not a gleam of native ferocity in the sleek visage, not a shadow of remorse for wanton carnage in the smiling eyes. A large stone corn-mortar used by the Indians, is built, for better preser vation, into the wall of the lawn. Mrs. Van Cortlandt once related to me this anecdote, apropos of Indian neighbors : "One evening, as the Lieutenant-Governor and his wife were seated by their fireside, several Indians came in. They were made welcome, and a pitcher of cider was brought to them. After all had drunk, the Chief returned his bowl to Mrs. Van Cortlandt, who threw the few drops that remained into the fire. The Chief, with flashing eyes and clenched fists advanced to strike her. Governor Van Cortlandt sternly interposed, demanding the cause of such violence. Explanations ensued, and it appeared that even the apparent attempt to quench the fire on the hearth was an insult, according to Indian usage. Amity was restored by an apology." Better-mannered and more welcome guests sat about the superb old dining-table, which is the richer in color and more valuable for each of the 250 years that have passed since it was made over the sea. Washington and his aids, and other world-renowned men, ate from the generous board. LOOPHOLE AND BRANT'S PORTRAIT IN DININQ-ROOM. Van Cortlandt Manor-House 191 In the library is an antique chair taken from a captured Spanish privateer. The fireplace is surrounded by tiles, each bearing the arms of some branch, direct or collateral, of the Van Cortlandt family, painted by Mrs. Matthews, who is an accomplished and diligent genealo gist and antiquarian. The Van Cortlandt crest is the central ornament. Twenty-four tiles are to the right and left of it. It is almost miraculous that such wealth of silver, glass, and china survived the early colo nial wars, and the frequent removals these rendered necessary, as one sees upon the buf fets and in the closets of the Manor-House. To the relic-lover, historian, and romancist, every step is a surpriseful delight. Before a profile-portrait, in a small chamber on the first floor, we pause in silent reverence. It shows a woman past the prime of life, but still beautiful. Her features are strong, yet refined, the eyes are clear and solemn. Within the locked door of this apartment, Joanna Livingston, wife of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt, knelt and prayed and fasted from morning until night, on the day of the battle of White Plains. To the devout imagi nation, there is a brooding hush in the atmos- 192 Some Colonial Homesteads phere of the secluded room consecrated for all time by agonized supplication for husband, son, and country. The wedding gown of Joanna Livingston is preserved here, and we regard with almost equal interest a bit of pink silk kept in Mrs. Matthews's reliquary. I give the story as nearly as possible in Mrs. Van Cortlandt's words : " Gilbert* Van Cortlandt wrote to his father : ' Nancy has got a bright pink silk — beautiful ! She will appear as well as the best of them.' " ' Nancy ' was the daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt and Joanna Livingston. She married Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer, long Mayor of Albany, and a brother of the Patroon. ' Nancy,' on one occasion when going to dine with the Patroon, wore this dress, and just as she was setting out, a party of Methodist preachers drove to the door. As usual, they expected entertainment and lodging. While she was receiving them, one of the party turned to her and said : ' Madame ! do you expect to go to Heaven in that gown ? ' She was shocked at his rudeness, and never wore the dress again, on account of the unpleasant association connected with it." Another, and a sadder family story is of the untimely death of Catherine, only daughter of Philip (i) Van Cortlandt and his wife Cath- * Son of Lieutenant-Governor Van Cortlandt. FIREPLACE IN LIBRARY. Van Cortlandt Manor-House 195 erine de Peyster. Having gone with her nurse to the then fashionable promenade, the Battery, on June 4, 1738, to witness the cele bration of the King's birthday, the little girl was killed by the bursting of a cannon used in firing salutes. She was but twelve years of age. Her body was laid in a vault in Trinity Church, New York. Several years later the tomb was opened, and the devoted nurse who had insisted upon being present, saw the pretty child lying asleep as in life. The woman stooped to kiss her. At the touch of her lips, the body crumbled to dust. There was left, where the face had been, but a moment before, only the small cap with its crimped border, and the " minnikin " pins that had fastened it to the hair. In the "ghost-room" of the Manor-House are the portraits of the first and second wives of General Pierre (2) Van Cortlandt. The dark, clearly cut face in profile opposite the door is that of "Caty" Clinton. Wilfulness speaks in every lineament, but the piquante face is wistful, rather than petulant. She married, clandestinely, Captain John Taylor, a British officer, on the eve of his departure for England. It may have been three months i96 Some Colonial Homesteads thereafter when her father looked up from a newspaper to observe : " I see that Captain Taylor died at Fal mouth, soon after reaching port." His daughter interrupted him by falling in a faint at his feet. While looking at her pict ured presentment we can believe that she car ried the traces of the early love affair and the shock of the tragedy that ended it, throughout the few years of her married life with the gallant gentleman who had this portrait of her finished after her death. His second wife, it is said, sat for the figure. He always spoke of Caty as " bright and beautiful." The fam ily annals describe her as " energetic and viva cious." Of Anne Stevenson, the mother of his only child (poor Caty had none ! ) he said, '" She was an angel." And yet we turn from her lovely, high-bred face for another and longer look at the child-widow, whose soldier- love never came back to give her courage to confess the ill-starred marriage to her father. The ghost-lore of the ancient homestead is rich and authentic. This is one of the stories told me while I loitered in the chamber fur nished with belongings one and two centuries old. fg^Sfc THE " GHOST-ROOM." Van Cortlandt Manor-House 199 The narrator was the noble mistress of the Manor-House : " A young lady visiting us in September, 1863, was asked if she minded sleeping in the Ghost-Room, as it was a long while since any mysterious sounds had been heard there. She was told that if she was nervous a ser vant would occupy the adjoining apartment. She laughed at the query, and ' had no belief in or fear of ap paritions.' In the morning she came to the breakfast- table, pale and ill-at-ease. After breakfast, she confessed to having awakened, suddenly, feeling that some one was in the room near her bed. Presently, it took the definite shape of a woman, dressed in a brown gown, with a white handkerchief crossed over her breast. A large apron, a bunch of keys at her side, a mob cap and long ear-rings completed the figure. It remained for what seemed a long time, and twitched the bed-clothes off, disappear ing as the whistle of the two o'clock train was heard. " As soon as we heard this story, my daughter and I exclaimed, ' That is the exact description of R — ! ' an old housekeeper who lived at General Van Cortlandt's house at Peekskill and had died some time before. Every de tail was exact, although the guest had never seen or heard of her. " The sound of a carriage driven up the gravelled drive to the front-door, has been heard by every mem ber of the family. An old servant, a former slave and most excellent creature, used to declare that she had seen, in days past, the coach and pair with liveried ser vants and old Lady Van Cortlandt alighting at the door. I never did, but I have heard it many times ; the tramp- 200 Some Colonial Homesteads ling hoofs, the roll and grating of the wheels, the sudden check at the foot of the steps, and, looking out, saw nothing." A plate let into a pillar of the veranda re cords that George Whitefield stood here while he preached to an immense audience upon the lawn. Bishop Asbury also preached from the improvised pulpit. Sorrows have multiplied and thickened above the venerable homestead in later years, but the cordial hospitality characteristic of the Van Cortlandts in every generation is still ex tended to stranger and to friend. Love and good-will sit with clasped hands before the ancient hearthstone ; the spirit of charity, generous and graceful, abides within the walls like a visible benediction upon inmates and guests. IX OAK HILL, UPON THE LIVINGSTON MANOR FAIR Alida (van) Schuyler, daughter of Philip Petersen Schuyler of Albany, mar ried, first, Rev. Nicholas van Rensselaer, and, as his widow, espoused, in 1683, Robert Living ston, one of the most remarkable men of his century. H is family sprang from a Hungarian root. " Liven- gus " is among the names of the knights who fol lowed William of Nor mandy across the Channel. A Livingston, George, of Linlithgow, lost title and estate through his devoted partisanship of the losing side in 1645. LIVINGSTON COAT-OF-ARMS. MOTTO, " 81 JE PUIS." 201 202 Some Colonial Homesteads Robert, his grandson, was the son of John Livingston, a Scottish clergyman resident in Linlithgow until his removal to Holland after the sequestration of the family estates. Cal- lender House, in the neighborhood of this town, was one of the residences of the family. The name occurs frequently upon the grave stones in the burial-ground of the parish church. John — otherwise " Messer John," otherwise, " Dominie " Livingston — visited America to "prospect" for the foundation of a family estate in the New World, a scheme foiled by his death soon after his return to Scotland, about the year 1672. Robert sailed for this country in 1674, and settled in the Dutch Col ony of Beverwyck (Albany). In 1675, he was Town Clerk and Secretary of Indian affairs. In 1680, he presented to " his Excellency, Sir Edmund Andross knt, Governor Gen'l. under his Royall Highness of New Yorke and Dependences in America," an " humble peticou " for the grant of a " Cer tain tract of Land Lying upon Rolef Jansen's kill or Creeke, upon the East side of Hudson's River near Cats kill belonging to the Indian Proprietors not purchased by anybody hitherto and your humble Petioner being Informed Oak Hill 203 that the owners are willing to dispose of the same with the runn of Water or Creeke," etc., etc., The " peticou " is superscribed : " Granted to be Purchased according to Law And upon A Survey thereof Duly re turned a Pattent to be granted him for a Bowery or farme there as desired. New Yorke the 1 2th of Novemb'r 1680, E. Andross." This modest demand, promptly granted, was the tip of the camel's nose thrust into the wigwam window of the Mohican Indians own ing "3 Flatts with some small Flatts," to gether with sundry "Woodland, Kills, Creeks," and the like, extending " Northwards, South wards and further Eastward, keeping the same breadth as on the River bank." The land was paid for in guilders, " Blankets and Child's Blankets," shirts, cloth, ten kettles, powder, guns, twenty little looking-glasses, fish-hooks, awls and nails, tobacco, knives, strong beer. " Four stroud coats, two duffel coats and four tin kettles," rum and pipes, ten pairs of large stockings and ten pairs of small, not to men tion adzes, paint, bottles, and twenty little scissors. 204 Some Colonial Homesteads The deed was signed July 12, 1683, in Al bany, by Robert Livingston, a Dutch inter preter, two Dutch witnesses and — each by his mark — four Indians. Tamaranachquse, an Indian woman, stipu lated, before signing, for the right to plant and sow for four years on a certain " little hook of Land." This first grant was for 2000 acres of land on Hudson's River. Letters patent for another tract of 600 acres were issued to Robert Livingston, Aug. 27, 1685. In 1686, the tracts were erected into a Lordship of Manor, giving a " Court- leet, Court-Baron, and other dignities and privileges." The Attorney-General for the Crown in dorsed the " pattent " to the effect that it had been " duly perused and found to contain nothing prejudiciall to His Majestye's interest." There was a good deal to be perused. Be sides the usual legal verbiage and iteration, there is mention of " black Oake " and "white Oake Trees marked L," of " Timberwoods, Underwoods, Swamps, Moors, Marshes, Mead ows, Rivoletts, Hawking, Hunting, fishing, fowling " (with never a comma between, in the 2os ROBERT LIVINGSTON, FIRST LORD OF LIVINGSTON MANOR. Oak Hill 207 original) of a " Marsh lyeing neare unto the said kills of the said Heapes of Stones upon which the Indians throw upon another as they Passe by from an Ancient Custom among them," of " Mines Mineralls (Silver and Gold Mines only excepted) " and so on through about three thousand " words, words, words ! " winding up with statement of the obligation on the part of the said Robert Livingston, "his Heires and assigns for ever," to pay a yearly rent or tax of " Eight and twenty Shillings Currant mony of this Country," to the Crown. Thus far the world and his adopted land had dealt generously by the son of the Scotch Dominie. The first discord in the chant of praise to him who had clone so well for himself comes to us in a note from the Earl of Bellomont, resident Governor of the Colony, of whom we shall hear more in other chapters — addressed to the London Board of Trade. " 2nd Jan y ijoi. " Mr Livingston has on his great grant of 16 miles long and 24 broad, but 4 or 5 cot tages as I am told, men that live in vassalage under him and are too poor to be farmers not 208 Some Colonial Homesteads having wherewithall to buy cattle to stock a farm." The sequitur to this note was the removal by Lord Bellomont of Robert Livingston from the office of collector of excise in Albany, and the statement, also accredited to the Earl- Governor, that the collector deserved, on account of " great frauds " practised in and out of office, to be suspended from His Majesty's Council. Lieutenant-Governor Nanfran took up the accusation upon Lord Bellomont's death in 1701. In his indictment he declares that the story of the ex-collector's connection with " Capt. Kidd the pyrate " had never been disproved ; that Livingston was guilty of fraud ulent and contumelious conduct, and desertion of His Majestye's service and province. For these causes, singly and combined, he was suspended " from being one of his Maj'ty's Council of this province until his Maj'ty's pleasure be further known therein." The next blow was a demand from the Assembly that he be deprived of all his offices, five in number, and his estate be confiscate. In 1705, arrived Queen Anne's warrant rein stating him in every office. The Council, thereupon, declared his position of Secretary 209 GERTRUDE SCHUYLER (SECOND WIFE OF ROBERT LIVIN3STON.). Oak Hill 211 of Indian affairs a sinecure, and refused to pay his salary. Rob't Livingston's petition to Lord Lovelace, " Governor-in-Chief of the Province in New Yorke East and West Jer- says &c," for payment of moneys due him for services rendered as Indian Agent, contains the mention of the prudent neutrality of his wife's brother when Livingston's petition for the " arrears of his said salary " was laid before the Council. He thus quotes the entry on the Council-Book, Sept, 15, 1708. " It is ye opinion of his Excellency & all ye Council (Except Coll. Schuyler who gave no opinion therein) that ye Petition be disal lowed," etc., etc. The indefatigable Lord of the " Mannor " next offered himself as representative to the Albany Assembly and was elected in 1 709, — a position he held for five years. In that time, he secured the repeal of every act injurious to himself, and triumphed completely over de tractors and persecutors. In 1 710, the parent government transported a colony of three thousand Palatines ( Hes sians) to a tract of land lying on Hudson River. The Queen, no longer needing them as mercenary troops, lent willing ear to the 212 Some Colonial Homesteads proposition that they should be settled near the Canadian frontier, as a passive safeguard against French and Indians, and to make " Tur pentine, Rozin, Tarr and Pitch " for commerce and the British navy. It is an interesting and somewhat diverting story, that of this trouble some colony, many of whose names are per petuated in the denizens of East and West Camps and Germantown, New York. Robert Livingston sold to Governor Hunter as Repre sentative of the Crown, for four hundred pounds sterling, enough land to furnish a plot of ground and a cabin-site to each immigrant family, and obtained the contract to feed them at sixpence a head, per diem. Liberal rights of way were reserved in the ponderous deed recording the transfer, also, hunting and fish ing privileges, and liberty of digging, taking, and carrying away stones from the river beach. Stipulation was further made that no pines should be felled within six English miles of the Livingston saw-mills. Notwithstanding the minute provisions of the contract made with Livingston for vict ualling the Palatines, he so far managed to get the best of the bargain that Lord Clarendon wrote to Lord Darmouth, in 1711, his convic- Oak Hill 213 tion that " Livingston and some others will get estates. The Palatines will not be the richer." It would be tedious, and it is needless to go into the particulars of the further connec tion of Robert Livingston with the Hessian settlement. If he made money out of the Crown and the Palatines, they were a fret ting thorn in his side until the day of his death. In 1 72 1, he moved, as "Sole Proprietor of the Manor of Livingston," for the establish ment and building of a church upon his estate, and for calling " some able and pious Dutch Reformed Protestant Minister from Holland " to officiate therein. The chapel now standing at Staatje ( Little Village) about a mile and a half below the site of the Manor- House, is built over the vault of the ancient church. The chapel — a new structure — took the place of the " Livingston Reformed Church of Linlithgow," erected in 1780. Generations of dead Livingstons rest within the vault, which was bricked over for all time, within a few years, by Mr. Herman Livingston of Oak Hill. The original Manor-House stood at the 214 Some Colonial Homesteads mouth of what was at the time of the grant known as " Roelef Jansen's Kill," and after wards received the name of Livingston Creek. It was low-ceiled and thick-walled, a colonial farm-house with outbuildings for negro slaves and other laborers. An odd and yet authentic tradition is that Robert Livingston kept his wealth of ready money on the floor in one corner of his bedroom. There was no lock on the door, through which, when open, chil dren, servants, and visitors could see the piles of Spanish coins heaped up in apparent care lessness. The story goes so far as to give $30,000 as the amount of the deposits on one occasion in this primitive bank, and to add the astounding information that the pro prietor, who was at once Board of Direction, President and Cashier, never lost doubloon or dollar by the dishonesty of those who could easily have made drafts upon his "pile." Robert Livingston died in 1722. In listen ing to the story of his life, the wonder arises that he yielded finally to any foe, even the King of Terrors. His was a crafty, far- reaching intellect ; in will-power he was sub lime. He grasped audaciously, and held what he gained with a grip which councillors Oak Hill 215 and nobles could not relax. When deprived at home of offices and titles, he went abroad in one of his own vessels, to sue for justice at the foot of the throne, and brought home in his pocket the papers reinstating him in position and fortune. Upon the return voy age he was in imminent danger of shipwreck. In recognition of his signal •deliverance, he set aside the family crest, — a demi- sauvage, with the motto, " Si jc puis" — and assumed a device of his own, — a ship in distress, with the legend " Spero meliora." To hardi hood, enterprise, and keen intelligence, he must have joined a magnetic per sonality of which history, written and oral, gives no hint except by recording his mag nificent successes. Buccaneers, Indian savages, phlegmatic Dutchmen, peers and princes, seem to have been powerless to resist his influence when confronted by him, however they might plot for his ruin in his absence. Yet it is not a comely, or in any sense an attractive, visage that gazes at us from the ROBERT LIVINGSTON'S CREST. 2i6 Some Colonial Homesteads Oak Hill portrait of the first Lord of the Manor. In full-bottomed wig and official scarlet robes, he looks the astute sardonic rugged-featured Scotchman, born to drive and domineer when he could, and to outwit where force was futile. At the death of this extraordinary man, his will bestowed the lower section of the Manor (Clermont) upon his son, Robert, the Manor proper descending to the oldest son, Philip. Philip Livingston's will (dated July 15, 1748) left the Manor to his son Robert, known in the family as Robert Livingston, Jun'r. Rob ert's estate, by a will bearing date of May 31, 1784, was, at his death, divided among his sons, Walter, Robert C, John, and Henry. Robert Livingston, Jr., inherited with the Manor and name his grandfather's pluck and persecutions. The immense estate, great now in value as in extent, was the subject of con troversy between Massachusetts and New York. The correspondence carried on by lawyers and governors is voluminous and entertaining. In 1795, about 260 descendants of the emi grant Palatines — " Inhabitants of the Town of Livingston, in the County of Columbia," de- 217 PHILIP LIVINGSTON (SECOND LORD OF THE MANOR). Oak Hill 219 manded from the New York Legislature an investigation into the title by which the Liv ingstons held their famous Manor. Much of the petition is taken up with the recapitulation of the terms and limitations of the original grants which, it alleged, were for but 2600 acres, whereas the descendants of the said Robert Livingston claim under these letters- patent, 1 75,000 acres. About one third of the petitioners signed the instrument with their marks, instead of writing their names. At the foot of the document is the briefly significant note : "... On the 19 March, 1795, the committee of the Assembly reported adversely on the. above petition, and the House con curred in the report on the 23d of the same month." Judge Sutherland prefaces his able " De duction of Title to the Manor of Livingston," by a note to the, then, proprietor (in 1850) Mr. Herman Livingston, in which he gives the number of acres originally contained in the estate as 160,000. "All of which," he adds, " have been sold and conveyed in fee simple, but about 35,000 acres." This "deduction" was consequent upon a 220 Some Colonial Homesteads celebrated Manorial suit contesting the valid ity of the Livingston title, in which Judge Sutherland was counsel for the proprietors. A MS. note upon the fly-leaf of the pamphlet before me informs the reader that " John Van Buren's fee from the Anti-Renters was $2500, and $20 per day from the state during the trial." X OAK HILL ON THE LIVINGSTON MANOR ( Concluded. ) THE original Manor-House, built by the first Robert Livingston, was demolished over one hundred years ago. The site is now occupied by the dwelling of Mr. Alexander Crafts, a grandson of Robert Tong Livingston. Not one stone of the old house is left upon another, but now and then the plough brings up a corroded coin, as if to mark the location of the primeval Banking- house established by the canny Scot. His wealth, portioned among his descendants, was held and increased by them to an extent un usual in American families. Stately home steads arose upon desirable points of the vast plantation, until nearly every commanding eminence for a dozen miles up and down the river was owned by one of the blood or name. 221 222 Some Colonial Homesteads Clermont, the home of Chancellor Robert Livingston at Tivoli, was, and is one of the finest and most interesting of these. It stands upon the lower division of the estate, and is a noble edifice, built in the form of an H, and gray with honorable old age. Paintings, fur niture, and other heirlooms are preserved with pious care. Mr. Clermont Livingston, the present pro prietor, is a grandson of Chancellor Living ston. The adjoining estate is owned by Mr. John Henry Livingston, a grandson of Her man Livingston (i) of Oak Hill. The last-named mansion — Oak Hill — was built by John Livingston in 1798, as the im mediate successor of the heavy-raftered farm stead dignified by Royal Charter into a Baronial Hall. The modern Manor-House is about one and a half miles from the aban doned site. The omnipotence of affluence, conjoined with education and continued through four generations, wrought out in John Livingston a finer type of manhood than his well-born ancestor developed in the New World. A descendant thus describes the master of Oak Hill in his old age : JOHN LIVINGSTON. (THE LAST LORD OF THE MANOR.) Oak Hill 225 " His style of dress was that worn by all courtly gentle men of the olden time, — a black dress-coat, with knee- breeches fastened over his black silk stockings with silver buckles ; similar buckles of a larger size were in his shoes. He had a high forehead, beautiful blue eyes, a straight nose, and a very determined mouth. His hair was carefully dressed every morning, the long queue was rewound, the whole head plentifully besprinkled with powder, and the small curls, that had remained in papers during breakfast-time, adjusted on each side of his neck." He was thought by many to bear a strong resemblance to General Washington ; but, as a beautiful miniature on ivory shows, was a much handsomer man, his features being cast in a nobler mould, and chiselled into refine ment of beauty by a life that varied widely from the severe discipline which was the first President's from his childhood. As was to be expected, the last of his line to hold the title of " laird " in this republic was a man of mark by reason of position and personal accomplishments. Opulence and ease had not enfeebled the bound of the Linlithgow blood, and the passion for adding field to field that had made Livingston Manor, lived in old Robert's great-grand children. John Living ston and his brother bought immense tracts of land in New York, until they called forth a 226 Some Colonial Homesteads legislative remonstrance. It was hardly conso nant with the genius of democracy, it was rep resented, that one family should own the entire State. The brothers then cast covetous eyes upon Western lands, miles of which they purchased, including the territory upon which the town of New Connecticut, Ohio, was built. They had saw-mills, flour-mills, and, at Ancram, New York, valuable iron works. The taste for iron — in the ore — was common to several branches, direct and collateral, of the race. Sarah, daughter of Philip Livingston, married Alexander, titular Earl of Stirling, whose mines in the mountains of New Jersey are mentioned in our chapter upon the Schuy ler Homestead. Her portrait at Oak Hill is that of a stately dame in whose haughty face one traces a decided resemblance to her grand father, Robert, of the ponderous peruke and scarlet robes. The story of Oak Hill life under the last laird reads like an English holiday romance, rather than the early annals of a war-beaten young nation. John Livingston delighted, at seventy-five, to tell his grandchildren tales of the social gayeties of that epoch, of the family dinner-parties ; the evening gatherings in the Oak Hill 227 summer, when, from one and another of the handsome residences dotting the rising ground back of the river, came chariot and cavalcade, with scores of kinspeople to laugh, talk and dance away the hours ; of sleighing-parties to Clermont and Oak Hill, when revelry ran yet higher. On one memorable occasion, every sleigh, in turning from the Oak Hill door, upset in a particularly incommodious snowdrift at the corner of the house. " Water picnics " occurred several times during the summer. The Livingstons, from Robert down, were ship-owners. They estab lished a line of " fast packets " for coast and ocean voyages, and their sloops plied regularly to and from New York. Merry parties of cousins took passage in the June weather on the laden sloops and ran down to the city and back, for the fun of it. " Our two voyages " — /. e., up and down to New York — " occupied nine days and seven hours," says a participant in one of these "runs," — "and we were received at Oak Hill with as hearty a welcome as if we had per formed the journey around the world." The Manor servants were all negro slaves, removed by so few years from African pro- 228 Some Colonial Homesteads genitors, that the older among them resorted, by stealth, at night, to a cave in the hills not far away, for the practice of Voudoo worship, until the custom was discovered by their mas ter and promptly broken up. A newspaper letter, printed on paper now falling to pieces with age, thus recalls " times " that were " old " when it was issued : " At Oak Hill, John Livingston resided and owned a whole flock of niggers, the fattest, and the laziest, and the sauciest set of darkies that ever lay in the sunshine. They worked little and ate much, and whenever there was a horse-race or a pig-shave at ' the Stauchy ' (Staatje) the negroes must have the horses, even if their master should be obliged to go about his business on foot. When they visited Catskill in tasseled boots .and ruffled shirts, they were sure to create a sensation, :and it was not unusual for the ' poor whites ' to sigh for the sumptuous happiness of John Livingston's slaves." From the simple, touching story of John Livingston's last days, given by his grand daughter, I make an extract : ¦" When the logs lay piled high on the shining brass andirons, and the blaze began to stream up the capacious chimney, emitting its cheerful crackling sound, Grand papa would arouse himself, and, with brightened eye, and almost his own pleasant smile would listen to the stories of our day's adventures. Sometimes he would Oak Hill 229 tell us incidents of his boyhood, stirring events of our glorious Revolution, some of whose heroes he had known, and remind us, with pardonable pride, that our family name was inscribed among those of the fearless signers of our great Declaration. Then he would seem to have his own children around him, and talk to, and admonish us, as if the fathers sat in the places of their sons. But the mind was wearing away, and soon relapsed into in action. He daily grew weaker, and I had rather leave a blank here for the few sad weeks that preceded the first day of October, 1822." The majestic relic of a picturesque age known to us only by tradition, lay dead for three days in the homestead he had built, while the solemn concourse of kinspeople and distant friends was collecting to attend his funeral. In dining- room, upper and lower halls were set tables " covered with fair white linen on which were displayed treasures of old family silver — large bowls, tankards and mugs, bearing the family coat-of-arms" — writes the grand daughter. " Every superfluous ornament was removed from the parlor and reception-room, and the family-por traits were draped in black. . . . About twelve o'clock the company began to arrive . . . the gentry from all the neighboring country-seats in their state carriages. These were ushered into the drawing-rooms. Then came the substantial farmers, many from a long distance with wives and daughters ; last of all, the tenantry and poorer neighbors gathered. There was room for all ; none were overlooked, and one and all looked sad. . . 230 Some Colonial Homesteads At one o'clock the first tables were served, and the others immediately after. It was a motley assemblage. Delicacies of every kind had been provided for ' the great folk,' as the servants styled our aristocratic guests, and they sat down ceremoniously as to a large dinner party. In the halls there was more conviviality. . . . " One room only was quiet. The stillness of death was there. Each new-comer had visited it, and many had stood, with bowed heads and grave countenances, looking on the features of the dead. "I shall always remember my grandfather lying, dressed as in life, with punctillious neatness, and looking as if about to rise and speak lovingly as he always did to us in life." It was a man, and a master among men, whom " multitudes of vehicles " followed to the vault beneath the " Livingston Reformed Church of Linlithgow " that October day, when hickories and maples were burning bright with color, and the grand oaks that gave name to the Mansion-house were red, brown and dusky- purple. The American laird was no petit maitre, incongruous with true dignity and republican simplicity as seem the curl-papers worn dur ing breakfast-time, and the valet-barber vho brought curling-tongs, powder and pomatum- boxes for Mr. Livingston's daily toilette when he was in the city. OAK HILL. ON THE LIVINGSTON MANOR. Oak Hill 233 The quotation given just now records graph ically and tenderly a child's impressions of the funeral ceremonies of that date, and affords us a glimpse of the feudal state in which this grand old gentleman lived and died. He was succeeded at Oak Hill by his son, Mr. Herman Livingston, who died in 1872. The pretty boy, who met me on the piazza, and seconded his mother's cordial welcome as I alighted at the hospitable door, is the fourth of the name, in direct line of descent, three of whom are still living. The house stands on the summit of the hill, overlooking the river and the back-country, white and faint-pink with orchard blossoms in the spring-time. Upon the horizon roll and tower the beautiful Catskills ; century-old oaks enclose the dwelling and out-buildings ; the well kept lawn slopes into teeming fields. The exterior of the homestead has been re modelled within a quarter-century, at the ex pense of picturesqueness, the mansard roof having taken the place of steeper gables. Until this alteration, the servants' quarters re mained where John Livingston established them — in the basement. There they worked, lived and slept. To the modern sanitarian, 234 Some Colonial Homesteads the gain in healthfulness and comfort almost compensates for the loss in artistic effect. The walls are very thick and built of brick manufactured on the Manor. The wood used in the structure was hewed from the Living ston woods. Several neighboring farm-houses were made of bricks imported from Holland, but our landed proprietor prided himself upon meeting domestic demands by home- products. Within-doors, the arrangement of the stairs and rooms on the first and second floors has undergone no change. Deeply set windows, tall mantels with the curious putty decorations our great-grandmothers delighted in ; broad staircases with leisurely landings, please the eye of the antiquarian when he can spare atten tion for anything besides the magnificent old " kaus " (" kaas " or " cos ") which stands in the front hall. There are whispers of a sacrilegious period ; a brief reign of modern irreverence that came even to Oak Hill, during which profane youths used certain uncomely portraits as targets ; when novelty-loving women bartered bureaux, deep-colored with age, for fashionable furniture, and presumptuous cooks seasoned sauces with -!35 THE OLD KAUS. Oak Hill 237 wine mellowed by a half-century's keeping and a three years' voyage. The "kaus," a huge press, or wardrobe, or armoire, splendid with carving, and towering to the hall ceiling, has held its place since the house was finished. It was already ancient when John Livingston brought it with other household goods to his new mansion. A noted connoisseur in antiques pronounces the mate rial " Swiss rosewood," the workmanship of a period of at least two hundred and fifty years old. Other interesting pieces of furniture are here, such as pier-glasses and tables of ebony and gilt, a pair of folding card-tables which are undoubtedly Chippendales, massive high-post curtain bedsteads, etc., — but none compare in venerableness and beauty with the kaus. The Livingston treasures in china and sil ver are notable. Much of the plate is a direct inheritance from Robert the First, and is stamped with the family crest. One tiny porcelain pitcher has and deserves a place of its own. It is a Chinese "sacrificial cup," 500 years old, and is said to have come over from Holland with the first Robert Livingston. There are, so assert experts in 238 Some Colonial Homesteads china, but four others known to museums and art-collectors. In the upper hall hangs the portrait of Philip Stanhope, the son of Lord Chesterfield, the one to whom the famous Letters were addressed. Robert Fulton was the painter. It is perhaps not generally known that Fulton was by profession an artist. The speculations and experiments upon Watt's theories respect ing the use of steam which led to the construc tion of the first steamboat, introduced him to Stanhope and led to a lasting friendship. Robert Fulton's home was at Staatje, less than three miles below Oak Hill. In the cellar is a huge stone, believed by the super stitious neighbors to be enchanted. No one can lift it and live. The neighborhood has greatly changed within seventy years. The junketings and feastings and brilliant progresses from home stead to homestead, irrespective of season or weather, belong to an irrevocable Past. But the routine of daily being and doing at Oak Hill has still in it striking (and the best) feat ures of the country life of the English gentry. XI THE PHILIPSE MANOR-HOUSE AMONG the last grants of land in the New World to which were affixed the joint signatures of William and Mary, was one made in 1693 to Frederick Philipse of their Majes ties' Province of New York. This grant, which was virtually a barony under the management and sway of the mas terful proprietor, contained many thousand acres of woodland, mountain, hillsides and fertile meadows. The land now occupied by the city of Yonkers was but a tithe of the mag nificent estate. The rights ceded to Philipse in perpetuity by the royal grant included the liberty, should he elect so to do, to construct a ferry or a bridge at what was known as " Spikendevil Ferry," and to collect toll from passengers. He gave the name of " King's Bridge " to this thoroughfare. 239 240 Some Colonial Homestead As he increased in riches, he built for his own use and that of his family two notable residences, the Philipse Manor-House at Yonkers, and Castle Philipse at Sleepy Hol low in Tarrytown. Considerations of con venience unknown to us must have dictated the choice of two sites that were not far enough apart, the one from the other, to offer a decided change of air, winter or summer. The annual, or semi-annual flittings from Manor-House to Castle were regulated by other causes than those that now close New York houses in June, and send the occupants across the ocean, or to mountain-tops hundreds of feet above the sea-level. Both of the Philipse homesteads were large and handsome. The parks were stocked with tame deer, as in Old England. The extensive gardens were laid out and planted in accord ance with formal ideas brought from his native Holland by the founder of the American family. From England and from the Conti nent were imported, besides bulbs, seeds, and shrubs, ornamental shade-trees that, taking kindly to the hospitable soil, transformed the wildterness into plantations which were the wonder of the simple neighbors. The Philipse Manor-House 241 None but negro servants were employed in the house and about the grounds, but the retainers and tenants of the successful planter and trader, whom men styled " the Dutch millionaire," were many and, in one way and another, brought him great gain. From the records of a prosperous life that have come down to us, we gather that he did his duty by kindred and community, not forgetting his highly-respectable self, and took a cool, gentle manly interest in public affairs. He sat as magistrate in his barony at stated times and seasons, hearing evidence and dispensing jus tice as seemed right in his and in his brother- magistrates' eyes, and upholding the dominies and regular services of the Reformed Dutch Church in America.1 His nest of ease was rudely stirred at length, and trouble came from an unexpected quarter. Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont (or BehV mont, as American chronicles spell it), was appointed Governor of New England and New York in 1695. He filled his brief term of office (ended by his death in 1701) with 1 The list of church-members and their residences, kept by Rev. Henricus Selyus of the Dutch Reformed Church in Brauwers Straat (now part of Stone St.), included in 16S6, " De Heer Frederick Philipse." 16 242 Some Colonial Homesteads clamorings against the landed proprietors whose " great grants " gave them the state and wealth of feudal lords in a country which it was to the interest of London emigrant and trading companies to have settled by farmers, lumbermen, and miners. The men who lived " in vassalage " under Livingstons and Philipses, Schuylers and Van Cortlandts, might bring wealth to their landlords and employers. They did not enrich the Mother Country. In pursuance of a policy that was, in the settlers' eyes, rank agrarianism, he shaped and sent to England for approval a bill restrict ing any one person from holding more than one thousand acres of land. When his confidential friend, James Gra- hame, Attorney-General of the Province, sug gested that, in addition to the proposed bill, one be prepared advising the partition of grants already existing, naming two " as an essay to see how the rest should be borne,'' honest Bellomont wrote home that he would not advise the measure unless the rule should be made general and " others share the same fate." Among the " others " were grants made to both the Philipses, father and son. Although the personal relations of Bello- The Philipse Manor-House 24J mont and Frederick Philipse remained out wardly unchanged, the sting left in the mind of the Lord of the Manor by the attempt to disintegrate his estate, rankled and burned. The open rupture came when Bellomont inti mated that Philipse had profited by the noto rious William Kidd's piratical enterprises. Frederick Philipse, Robert Livingston and others sent liquors, gun powder and arms in their own ships through what then corresponded with the clearance house in New York, to Mada gascar, and the same vessels returned in good time laden with East Indian goods. "Arab ian gold and East India goods were everywhere common." Rum that cost two shillino-s a gallon in New York was so vastly improved in flavor by the sea-voyage that, when it reached Madagascar, it sold for three pounds a gallon. The pipe of Madeira that could be bought in New York for nineteen pounds, brought in Madagascar, presumably because of the mellowing wrought by the same IhEDERIK-PHTLTPSEES It PHILIPSE COAT OF ARMS. 244 Some Colonial Homesteads sea-air and much rolling, three hundred pounds. These were tempting profits even to Dutch millionaires and Reformed Dutch church-mem bers. Since the island of Madagascar was neither the Indies nor El Dorado, people who were not ship-owners or millionaires began to make inconvenient inquiries. Talk of reform troubled the air, and nobody talked more loudly than the slow-witted, honest Governor. His final demand of those he believed to be as upright as himself, was reasonable — or seemed to be. Philipse, Van Cortlandt, Liv ingston, Nicholas Bayard, et als, were to give their personal guarantee that their ships should not trade with the pirates with whom the seas about Madagascar were a popular resort. Disinterested travellers brought home wild tales of the island itself. It was a nest of buccaneers, they said, who had married, from generation to generation, the dark-skinned daughters of the natives, and their descend ants plied no trade but that of freebooters. Their vessels hovered like sharks about the watery highway binding the West to the East, and preyed indiscriminately upon merchant men of whatever nationality. Yet, five out of every ten ships that sailed from the harbor of The Philipse Manor-House 245 New York were bound for this sea-girt Ex- change, if the reports of the Governor's agents were to be relied upon. Said the ingenuous Earl, confident that the thought had never occurred to his astute Holland friends : . . . " Such trading is not piracy, perhaps, but it is to be feared that much of the merchandise brought to New York may have been obtained from pirates." Had not the gentle suggestion touched the pocket-nerves of those to whom it was ad dressed, it must have appealed to their sense of the absurd. It was notorious that, as one historian puts it, "the whole coast of America from Rhode Island to the Carolinas was honeycombed " with places of stowage for smuggled and stolen cargoes. Sometimes,, and not seldom, the freebooters who made use of these, visited New York in person, without waiting to be summoned by the solid men who carried the collection-plates on Sunday up and down the aisles of churches presided over by Dominies Selyus and Everardus Bogardus. One of the most notable of the predatory guild, Thomas Tew by name, was a particular friend of Governor Fletcher. He -was re ceived at the Governor's house, was taken on 246 Some Colonial Homesteads an airing in the official coach — perhaps on the fashionable "fourteen miles around" — and was the recipient from the great man's hands of a tract upon " The Vile Habit of Swearing." Which incident would go to prove that the distinction and respectability of his companion in the drive were not sufficient to restrain the knight of the black flag from indulgence in the seamanlike habit. Bellomont's mild intimation was hotly re sented by his colleagues. He was accused ol " vilely slandering eminent and respectable persons," and his reputation, thus branded, might have been transmitted to us but for the fiasco of the Kidd trial and sentence. The story of Captain Kidd has a humorous side to the historian who sees it down a vista two hundred and one years in depth. It was sufficiently serious to separate the chief men of the New Colony and to drive the Gov ernor frantic. Robert Livingston had introduced Kidd to Bellomont as "a bold and honest man, who, he believed, was fitter than any other to be employed in such service " as the zealous Governor demanded — namely the suppression of piracy on the high seas. Livingston had The Philipse Manor-House 247 known the sea-captain for years ; in fact, Kidd had sailed the trader's vessels for him more than once or twice, and acquitted himself most satisfactorily. Accordingly, Kidd was put in charge of an armed privateer to hunt down and punish the freebooters under a Royal Commission. Such men as Shrewsbury, Somers, Romney, Orford, and Bellomont, paid the expenses of the expe dition and were to share two thirds of the spoils taken from captured pirate vessels. The remaining; third was to go to the Kino- Kidd, in a " good sailer of about thirty guns and 150 men," sailed from London to New York in May 1696, and in due time from New York to Madagascar. The privateersman had unusual intelligence and breeding for one in his rank of life, and when the news reached England and America that, seduced by the attractions of a lawless life, he had turned pirate himself, taken unarmed merchantmen, murdered crews, and seized upon cargoes, his backers were for a while incredulous, then confounded. His defence, when he was arrested upon his return to Boston, was that he had been forced by a mutinous crew into piracy, and 248 Some Colonial Homesteads had not profited personally by his evil ways. He was executed, without confessing his guilt, or implicating any of the gentlemen who fitted out his vessel and indorsed his character. In spite of his magnanimous silence, more than one colonial magnate was openly accused of having been cognizant of Kidd's purposes and having enriched himself by his iniquity. The names of Robert Livingston, the Philipses, and, oddly enough, Bellomont himself, did not escape the smirch. Scotch Robert seems to have borne the aspersion with characteristic phlegm until Bellomont's Lieutenant pushed the conviction after his chief's death in 1701, and actually suspended Livingston from divers and remunerative offices. The story of Oak Hill tells the sequel. There is no evidence to show that regular proceedings were ever instituted against Fred erick (1) Philipse or that Bellomont's suspi cions were more than hinted, — perhaps in the heat of his indignation at the preposterous connection of his own name with that of the criminal whom he had innocently aided and abetted. He made no secret of his animosity against Livingston who had got him into the ugly scrape. Even when Robert Livingston The Philipse Manor-House 249 appeared boldly before the Governor and Council and acquitted himself of all and every unlawful and treacherous design, Bellomont did not withdraw the charges. He went so far as to declare his intention of removing the false friend from the Council, a design frustrated by his own sudden death. Bellomont's allusion to the possibility that Frederick Philipse's coffers were the fuller for the booty never accounted for by Kidd, was unpardonable in the eyes of the Lord of the Manor. " With characteristic reticence and cold resentment Philipse retired from any further part in public affairs," writes the historian of the quarrel. The sentence is tersely significant. He could do better without the government than the government could do without his counsels and his millions. An opulent Cincinnatus, he lived, henceforward, upon his estates, enjoyed his family and directed his foresters, millers, and husbandmen to their content and his own emolument until his death on December 23, 1 702. Robert Livingston outlived him twenty years. Philip, the son of Frederick (1) Philipse 250 Some Colonial Homesteads had died in 1700, and the Manor-House be came, at the demise of the late Lord, the property of his grandson namesake, Fred erick Philipse the Second. Bellomont's craze for the subversion of manorial rights and for humbling the arro gance of largely landed proprietors, died with him. The River — always spoken of as if there were no other in North America — saw brave days for the next half-century. The Livingstons at Oak Hill and Clermont, and the Van Cortlandts in their Manor-House at Croton, were suzerains, each in his own princi pality. Eva Philipse, the daughter of Fred erick (1) had married a Van Cortlandt, thus cementing the bond of interest and friend ship already existing between the households. The De Peysters lived in ducal splendor in their Queen Street Mansion, the finest in New York City. It had a frontage of eighty feet upon the street, was sixty feet deep, and three lofty stories in height. There were nine thousand dollars' worth of silverware, and a wealth of cut-glass and china that cost quite as much, in use in the hospitable abode, so we read in the family annals ; and a De Peyster who was made Mayor of New r PHILIPSE MANOR-HOUSE, YONKERS, N. Y. The Philipse Manor-House 253 York was reckoned the handsomest man in that city. The Philipse Manor-House kept fully abreast of its contemporaries in the march of luxury. Frederick Second had come to a ready-made fortune and assured position, with nothing to do but to enjoy both. Warned, perhaps, by his father's experience not to mix himself up in politics, or indifferent to the statecraft of what was hardly more than the adopted country of one whose mother was an Englishwoman, and who had been educated in England himself, he took no public office and devoted his abundant energies to the improve ment of his property. The mansion, con sidered palatial in his grandfather's day, was trebled in size. Sixteen Grecian columns sup ported the eaves of the porticoed wings, and the roof of the central building was capped by a massive balustrade forming a spacious obser vatory. Workmen were brought from abroad to decorate the interior. The walls were panelled in rare woods, and the ceilings were fretted into arabesque patterns. The marble inner mantels were sculptured to order in Italy, we are told, and imported through an English firm. The main entrance-hall was 254 Some Colonial Homesteads fourteen feet wide and ran the whole depth of the house. From this a broad staircase with mahogany balusters swept upward to noble chambers that were filled for the greater part of the year to their fullest capacity. In the attics there were accommodations for more than fifty servants. The terraced lawn, studded with imported trees and clumps of ornamental shrubbery, sloped down to and beyond the post-road from New York to Albany. The family and guests of the Manor-House, seated in portico and grove, saw rolling along under the trees lining the thoroughfare, round-bodied chariots, each drawn by four horses, belonging to the neigh boring gentry, and government post-chaises and coaches with uniformed guards on top and gayly-jacketed postillions upon the leaders. Conspicuous among the fine equipages was the splendid four-in-hand of my Lady Philipse, ncc Joanna BrockhoUs, whose father (an Eng lishman) was at onetime Lieutenant-Governor of New York. She drove her four jet-black stallions with her own strong, supple hands, winning and maintaining the reputation of being the most dashing whip of the Province, until she was pitched headlong from the box, The Philipse Manor-House 255 one day early in the seventies, and killed instantly. In 1745, George Clinton, second son of the Earl of Clinton, formerly Admiral in the Brit ish Navy, then Governor of New Foundland, and from 1741-1751, Governor of the Prov ince of New York, held a conference in Albany with sixteen sachems of the Six Nations. The whilom Admiral had a busy bee in his bonnet in the question of invading French Canada with the help of his Indian allies. The conference came to nothing, and the harassed official, on his way down the river, spent several days at Philipse Manor. A pleasanter method of getting rid of care and chagrin could hardly be devised. His host was a Knickerbocker edition of William Evelyn Byrd in wealth, social influence, courtliness of manner, and hospitality, albeit Byrd's inferior in scholarly attainments and political prestige. His English education and family associa tions bore fruit in his preference for the Epis copal, above the Dutch Reformed Church of which his forefathers had been zealous sup porters. His last will and testament provided for the erection of St. John's Episcopal Church upon a suitable site of his estate. He donated, 256 Some Colonial Homesteads also, two hundred and fifty acres for a glebe farm, and a handsome sum of money where with to build a parsonage upon the same. His son and successor Frederick (3) was a graduate of King's College, New York, now Columbia University. Like his father, he was " a distinguished ornament to polite society," with no political aspirations, and was well con tent to keep up in feudal state the hereditary estates and to spend the money his great grandfather had made. In politics he would have liked to be a trimmer, and to avoid with graceful diplomacy the necessity of telling the truth as to his (perfectly natural) royalist pro clivities. The way of the neutralist became harder and harder as the stir of the times waxed in tumult. The Lord of Philipse Manor, nevertheless, played his part so well that when Washington and his staff were his guests for seven or eight days just before the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776, no suspicions of his loyalty to the popular cause marred the comfort of the visit. The south-west chamber of the mansion was occupied by Washington during this visit. The sight-seer of to-day looks upon the unchanged shell of the room. The four deeply embra- The Philipse Manor-House 257 sured windows are filled with the small-paned sashes through which the Chief looked out upon the Hudson and the Palisades. The fire-place, sunken fully three feet into the chimney, is lined with old Dutch tiles, blue- and-white, that tell now, as they told then, the story of Zaccheus' tree and Moses' broken tables of the law, varied by Holland wind-mills. At the very back a movable panel of sheet- iron is embossed with Elijah and the ravens. It bears the date 1760. The grave eyes of the Colonial Moses must often have rested upon it while he mused upon the darkening fortunes of the Infant Republic. Did a som bre picture of possible abandonment and exile for himself, and a Cherith unvisited by miracu lous winged sutlers, arise between him and the rude bas-relief in the October midnights when the river winds moaned without to the drifting leaves ? A secret passage led from this room — some think through the movable chimney-back — to an underground retreat and a tunnelled pas sage to the river. Frederick (3) Philipse had three charming sisters one of whom (Susan) married Colonel Beverley Robinson, a son of the Robinson .258 Some Colonial Homesteads who succeeded Gooch as Governor of Virginia. Colonel Robinson had fought under Wolfe at Quebec, and holding, as he did, a commission in the Royal Army, sympathized heartily with the parent Government. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he so far sanctioned rebellion as to insist practically upon the en couragement of home industries by clothing his household in homespun, and repudiated taxed tea and other foreign luxuries. When pushed hard for a declaration of his principles, he could not add to this outward conformity to colonial usages the assertion that he be lieved in the open separation of the provinces from the crown. The time for half-way meas ures had passed, and "trimming" was so far out of fashion that he was, early in the war, obliged to leave his beautiful country-seat, " Beverley " — a present to his wife from her father, the second Frederick Philipse — and remove, first, to the city of New York, then to England. His son, Frederick Robinson, was knighted for gallant service in the British army, and sent back to America as Governor of Upper Canada in 181 5. There is a pretty story of a visit paid by him to his birth-place, Beverley, FIRE-PLACE IN THE WASHINGTON CHAMBER" OF PHILIPSE MANOR-HOUSE. 259 The Philipse Manor-House 261 and how the stout heart of the soldier melted into tears at sight of the remembered beauties of his boyhood's home. A second son of Beverley Robinson, — Wil liam Henry, — was likewise knighted. His wife was an American beauty, the daughter of Cortlandt Skinner of New Jersey. Mary Philipse is better known in romantic history than her sisters by reason of the romance connecting her name with that of George Washington. In 1756, the young Virginia Colonel, then commanding on the frontier of the British provinces in America, made a journey from his native state to Boston on military business. While in New York City he was the guest of his compatriot, Colonel Beverley Robinson, at the town house of the latter. Mary Philipse was staying with her sister Susan at the time. Her bright eyes are said to have wrought such mischief upon the affections of the distinguished visitor as had another Mary's eight years before, when, as a raw-boned Westmoreland lad, Washington met the beautiful sister of Sally (Cary) Fair fax at the Fairfax homestead of Belvoir, in Virginia. Some say that the Maries were alike in their non-appreciation of the love-lorn 262 Some Colonial Homesteads wooer. Others are of opinion that, in Miss Philipses case, the affair never came to a head, and that in the encounter of girlish coquetry and Southern gallantry, "nobody was hurt." She knew her own mind and acted upon it when Roger Morris — who had borne arms under Braddock and fought side by side with Washington at the fateful battle of Mononga- hela, on the ninth clay of July, 1755 — sued for her hand. It is quite within the range of probability, and the coincidence that makes up the most dramatic situations of human life, that the two. young men may have fought the battle over again in Beverley Robinson's New York house. The marriage of Mary Philipse and Roger Morris was celebrated with great splendor at Philipse Manor in 1758. Shortly afterward, the bridegroom set about building upon Har lem Heights what was afterward known as Fort Washington, and later, as the Jumel House. In 1776, the Morrises, being Roy alists, were driven from their elegant home by the advance of the American forces under General Washington. The military encamp ment on Harlem Heights followed hard upon the flight of the owners of the mansion to MANTEL AND SECTION OF CEILING IN DRAWING-ROOM OF PHILIPSE MANOR-HOUSE. 263 The Philipse Manor-House 265 Beverley which was still occupied by the Robinsons. Washington's headquarters were in the deserted Harlem house. Another irony of fate, at which the grim beldam herself must have smiled, came about near the same date. Mrs. Roger Morris had inherited from a bachelor uncle an extensive tract of New York lands, including Lake Mahopac. It was her custom to spend a month or six weeks of each summer there, before and after her marriage, living and working among her humble tenants. Her home was in a log-hut built as a hunting-lodge by her uncle, and she attended church in the loft of the " Red Mill " belonging to the Philipses. The spirit and conduct of these vacations foreshadowed the College Settle ments and Rivington Street Homes of to day. This same Red Mill became a store-house for the commissary supplies of the American army, and Washington passed more than one night in the lodge that had so often sheltered the fair head of his putative Dulcinea. In 1779, Frederick (3) Mary Morris's brother, was formally attainted of treason and his manorial estates were confiscated. The 266 Some Colonial Homesteads same catastrophe befell Beverley and other of the Robinsons' possessions. I cannot refrain from relating in connection with Beverley an incident of the Revolutionary War, the im portance and dramatic intensity of which have had but a passing comment from historians. When Arnold, then in command of West Point, met Washington, Hamilton, and Lafay ette in conference at King's Ferry, down the river, April i 7, 1 780, he had in his pocket, or so he alleged, a letter from "Colonel Beverley Robinson's agent," relative to the confiscation of his client's country-seat, and begging that he might have an interview with General Ar nold on the subject, under the protection of a flag-of-truce. Hamilton's clear legal mind had the answer ready by the time Arnold ceased speaking. The question was one for a civil court, and not for a military commission, he said, con cisely, and put an end to the discussion. Lafayette, moved perhaps by the discom fiture which Arnold could not wholly conceal, tried to turn the matter off with a jest. " Since you are in correspondence with the enemy, General Arnold," — in his French accent and in his most debonaire manner — "will you The Philipse Manor-House 267 have the kindness to inquire of them what has become of the French squadron we have been looking for since many clays ? " Had the petition of Colonel Robinson's " agent " as presented by Arnold, been granted, the interview with Andre would have been held under a flag-of-truce and by permission of the Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. Washington sent word a few hours in advance of his arrival, that he would breakfast with General and Mrs. Arnold at Beverley on the very day secretly appointed by Arnold for the passage of General Clinton's ship up the river and the surrender of West Point. Before Washington reached the house, word of Andre's capture was brought to the traitor and he made his escape. Andre was taken as a prisoner, first to Beverley — then to Tappan where he was executed. In 1785, the confiscated Philipse Manor- House tract was cut up into lots and sold by the State of New York. The mansion and grounds were bought by Cornelius P. Low, a wealthy citizen of the fast-growing town on Manhattan Island. He never occupied it. The purchase was either a freak of fancy or a speculation. The place was sold over and 268 Some Colonial Homesteads over again in the next fifty years. The longest tenancy by any one family was twenty-nine years. It was at last bought by the town of Yonkers and converted into a City Hall. A tablet in the front hall states that the house was built in 1682 ; was created Manor of Philipseburg in 1693 ; confiscated to the U. S. Government in 1779, and sold by the same in 1 785 ; that it was occupied as a private residence until the town of Yonkers bought it in 1868, became the City Hall in 1872, and that a Bi-centennial Celebration was held here in 1882. The inscription outlines the history of the venerable structure which is still in ex cellent preservation. The immense front-door — cut in two, half-way up, after the Dutch fash ion revived by the architects of modern subur ban villas — swings upon the same hinges as when the clumsy wrought iron latch, a foot long, was lifted by the hand of the second Frederick in his goings-out and comings-in, and the wide stairs, with the twisted mahogany balusters, echoed to the high-heeled shoes of pretty Mary Philipse as she paced slowly down to her bridal. She married Roger Morris in the drawing- room to the left of the wide Dutch door with MANTEL AND MIRROR OF SECOND-STORY-FRONT ROOM !N PHILIPSE MANOR-HOUSE. 269 The Philipse Manor-House 271 the fan-light on top. The ceiling is elabo rately decorated in the much-esteemed " putty- work " of those times, which is also a popular fad of ours. The four medallion bas-reliefs are said to be portraits, but nobody knows of what members of the family. Figures of graces playing upon musical instruments, strut ting roosters, and divers sorts of flowers and fruits, make up a pleasing collection of sub jects, albeit incongruous. The wooden mantel is hand-carved and supported by a fluted pillar at each end. Across the hall is the dining-- room. The oak wainscoting has been re moved from the sides and from one end. At the upper end it has been retained and is orna mented by a medallion portrait of Washington. However wild may have been the dreams of the original as he sat at meat in the long room with his courtly host, they certainly did not comprise the possibility that the manorial ban quet-hall would ever boast of his likeness as the chief adornment. Above the dining-room is the Common Council Chamber of the city of Yonkers. The partitions of five bedrooms were removed to give the required length to the official quarters. The oaken beams taken out in the alteration 272 Some Colonial Homesteads were converted into desks and seats for the use of the councilmen. " And many a saw and plane were broken on the seasoned wood," says the intelligent janitor who shows the building. " It was al most as hard as iron." In a corner lies an unexploded shell, fired from an English vessel and dug up in the grounds of the Manor-House several years ago. Above the fine mantel of the large front-room in the second story are carved the three feath ers that have been the coat-of-arms of the Prince of Wales since the blind old King of Bohemia left his crest with his dead body upon the field of Crecy. On both sides of the man tel-mirror run exquisite carvings in wood of vines, grapes, pomegranates, flowers, and birds. The cornice of the room, like that of the draw ing-room, is of wood and cunningly carved into a toothed border. Back of this chamber is the southwestern room already described in which Washington slept while a guest here. A curious inscription, framed and hung at the end nearest the door, is copied from a tab let in Chester Cathedral, England, where Frederick Philipse is buried. derUk FIiiHp-cEfqDir©;!***. of tli.- Province of N«w York ; A Gcirtli-uiau mHlom ihe Vailous foci a] donxoitic *hJ Belirfoirs Vtriv«fl «-*ra oraiu-nflj I'uitcd.Theliuifnrm If .¦¦¦... .1 of Hie cbnJuci commanded ihe £fie«ia of oJWb ; WLrHt fie Benwuenc*) of Hix He.irT, jad i..- „.(.¦ „,-, 0f Hi» Mauuturx facvred +Ii«ir Love , ficudy aftachedtu Ehs Nuvereif'u jul fhe B - i / t I. CvaiiilvlumJIe opposed ^at file H.iz,ii of Hi tt Life , the hi t<> Rebellion, hi North. America-, aud for ihis Faithful diachap/e oi His Du ty -lo Fir. Kin g a mi Comtrj He' wis V roi'crihed, and Hi« Eftate ou* oilheLirtfextin VawYork , cunfif cate by iJw pfrrpet) Lejj'rflatiou. ut tk.it Province. When tbe British Troouswre iritMr awn from New "York iu 1783 Be unified A Produce io which He li--l.4i.-r Wen JLU Oruampiii ;tu.d Benef net or, aad caiue> to E nfjaiul, IfMmg .iD Iii' r. ¦( . . ¦ . » ;- I. Liu, I Hiui , ¦-. Iii - I. wu£g of Fortrue He lioro *rrik i b.j ( ¦ :a Juturl>, Fox liti.le jilJ JJii»uify vr |j i i It ii j J diHinylvihhe d Bint, throrp'k every formei nt&y'e oi Life. j He war. bora at Now Yurki te 12 -\Uj oi ¦Ki-i**UI in HwY.AX 1720; oaJ Diedm ikisi'Jaee