USA > California > A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, Volume II > Part 14
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It resulted finally in a fifth battalion or regiment of the Continental Line for the state of New York being authorized and Col. Lewis Du Bois appointed colonel thereof with the "rank of fourth colonel of the New York forces." In this regiment Thomas Lee was commissioned captain of the Eighth Company of date November 21, 1776, and following this participated in the battles of Forts Montgom- ery and Clinton, White Plains and other en- gagements along the Hudson. The muster roll of his company is preserved in the New York archives at Albany, N. Y., and is published in Vol. I. New York in the Revolution, Albany, 1887. He was a member of a general court martial held by order of General Washington near White Plains. This court was composed of Brigadier-General MeDugall, president, a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, a major and ten captains. Col. Morris Graham was tried be- fore this court on the charge of cowardice at the Battle of White Plains, preferred against him by Col. Joseph Reed, General Washing- ton's secretary, and was acquitted, the evi- dence showing that his movement of troops from which the charge arose was directed by his superior officer. Captain Lee was also a member of a general court martial held at Fort Montgomery, April 30, 1777, by order of Gen. George Clinton, composed of Col. Lewis Du Bois, president, fifteen captains and two lieutenants. Nine men were tried before this court, charged with treason, convicted and sen- tenced to death. This court again met May 2, 1777, and proceeded to try sixteen additional men charged with treason, convicted them, and sentenced them to death, but recom- mended seven of them for mercy. Gen. George Clinton, however, disapproved the recommen- dation, urging a severe example to deter oth- ers from like crime. His recommendation was followed, and the prisoners ordered executed.
The weekly returns of forces at Fort Mont- gomery for the months of May, June and July, 1777, show the presence there of Captain Lee and his company, and he continued at this post and participated in the battles of Fort Montgomery and Clinton. After this latter engagement the regiment went into camp at the Heights of New Windsor. On October
14. 1777, at this place, Captain Lee served as a member of a general court martial ap- pointed by Gen. George Clinton. The court was composed of Colonel Du Bois, president, two majors and ten captains. Daniel Taylor, charged with being a spy, was tried before the court, convicted and sentenced to death. This sentence was approved and ordered car- ried into execution. In a letter dated Novem- ber 24, 1777, from Gen. George Clinton to Gen. Israel Putnam, from New Windsor, state- ment is made that "Captain Lee was per- mitted to return with his Family & Effects to New York agreeable to your first letter." On March I, 1778, returns of the regiment show Captain Lee at New Windsor. On. May 19, 1778, Captain Lee resigned. On Febru- ary 18, 1779, at Fort Ranger, Capt. Thomas Lee served as president of a court martial of inquiry for the purpose of trying Melkiah Grout, a justice of the peace, who had at- tempted to exercise jurisdiction within New York in the disputed territory known as the New Hampshire grants, when he had been appointed to office in New Hampshire. He was found innocent and set at liberty. On the 19th of October, 1779, Captain Lee was transferred to Col. Zephania Platt's regiment, New York Militia, Dutchess County Associ- ated Exempts, in which command he served for some time. The returns from the regiment November 9, 10, 14 and 17, of the year 1779, show Captain Lee and company at Camp Fishkill. Subsequently he was commis- sioned and served as captain in Col. Lewis Du Bois' Regiment, New York Militia Levies of the State to re-inforce the Armies of the United States, July 1, 1780.
After the close of his services in the army Captain Lee removed to Hudson, Columbia county, N. Y. In the spring of 1790, with his large family, together with a few of his friends, he emigrated to western New York, settling upon the western shore of Seneca lake, in the then county of Ontario, in what is now the town of Milo, near the present village of Penn Yan, now in Yates county. He pur- chased a tract of three hundred acres of land, erecting thereon a log house and a flour mill, near the falls of the outlet of Crooked lake,
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or Lake Keuka. The following spring he built a large residence of Colonial architecture upon another portion of his farm, in which he resided until his death, when it passed to his son, Dr. Joshua Lee, who later rebuilt it and lived there until his death, and it continued for many years a prominent landmark. It was destroyed by fire a few years since. Captain Lee was one of the most prominent of the early settlers of western New York, and his name is frequently mentioned in the history of Yates county. He served as supervisor of the town of Jerusalem in 1792, being its first one. He died January 22, 1814, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife on October 14, 1833, at the age of ninety. Their last rest- ing place is in the cemetery at Penn Yan, N. Y. They had reared a family of six daugh- ters and four sons, namely: Abigail, Nancy, Mary, Patience, Elizabeth, Thomas, Jr., Watey, James, Joshua and Sherman. All of these children attained years of maturity, mar- ried and reared large families, and resided in Yates county, N. Y., in the vicinity of Penn Yan, and the sons of Captain Lee became prominent in the early civil and military his- tory of their state, and all acquired comfort- able competences. Abigail married Joseph
Ross and while a widow removed, with her family, to' Illinois, where her sons, Joseph, Ossian M., Nathan, and Thomas, became prominent among the early pioneers of that state. Her grandsons, Hon. Lewis W. Ross and Gen. Leonard Fulton Ross, attained dis- tinction and prominence in the political and military history of Illinois. Among others of her descendants who have attained distinction are Commander William Kilburn, of the navy, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annap- olis; his son, Capt. Dana Willis Kilburn, of the Army, a graduate of the West Point Mili- tary Academy; Gen. Charles L. Kilburn, also a graduate of West Point, now deceased; and Hon. Paris Kilburn, formerly Surveyor of Cus- toms, Port of San Francisco, and president of the State Board of Harbor Commissioners. Hon. John Wesley Ross, LL. D., was formerly postmaster of Washington, D. C., and presi- dent of the Board of Commissioners of the Dis- trict of Columbia, and lecturer in the law de-
partment of Georgetown University. Nancy married Hezekiah Keeler. Mary married Joshua Andrews, and her grandson, Charles Asa Bab- cock, was educated at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, holding the rank of commander in the Navy at his death. Patience married Lewis Birdsall, a son of Col. Benjamin Birdsall, prominent in the Revolutionary and early po- litical history of New York. Her grand- daughter, Sophia Birdsall, daughter of Dr. Lewis A., formerly director of the mint in San Francisco, became the first wife of Hon. Milton S. Latham, formerly governor of Cali- fornia and United States Senator therefrom. Elizabeth married Lambert Van Alstyne. Dr. Joshua became a distinguished phy- sician and surgeon, and was one of the popular men of his day in Yates county. He was surgeon of the One Hundred and Third New York Regiment in the war of 1812, was at the battle of Queenstown, and was one of the first who crossed the river on that occasion in the discharge of his duties. He was a member of the New York Assembly for 1816, 1817, 1833, and a member of the Twenty-fourth United States Congress in 1835-1837. He was elected to the assembly in 1817, defeating his brother, Thomas, Jr., who was the opposing candidate. Thomas Lee, Jr., was a man of great force of charac- ter and engaged in large business enterprises. He was a colonel in the war of 1812, and after- wards served as a colonel in the New York militia. He also held many town and county offices, and served in the New York Assembly in 1816, finally emigrating in 1822 to Detroit, in the territory of Michigan, where he was a member of its first Constitutional Convention. He afterwards resided at Dexter, Mich. Sher- man Lee was a major in the war of 1812, and afterwards colonel of the One Hundred and Third New York Militia Regiment. James Lee was commissioned by Governor Morgan Lewis as an ensign in the New York Militia
in 1805. This commission is now in the pos- session of his grandson, Bradner Wells Lee, of Los Angeles, Cal. Many of the descend- ants of Captain Lee and his children have served with distinction in the civil and mili- tary departments of the government, adding
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honor to the name bequeathed to them by the Revolutionary hero.
James Lee, the second son of Captain Thomas Lee, was born January 15, 1780, and in young manhood married Sarah Smith, who was born August 3. 1784, daughter of Richard Smith, of Groton, Conn., who re- moved to Penn Yan, N. Y., in 1790. He was one of a committee of three sent out from Connecticut in 1787 who purchased a large tract of land near Penn Yan for a Society of Friends. He became one of the most promi- nent of the early settlers of that county, and was a man of large property interests. His son, Col. Avery Smith, was colonel of the One Hundred and Third New York Regiment in the War of 1812, and also served in the New York Assembly several terms. James Lee died in Milo, N. Y., in 1868, his wife having passed away January II, 1858, in her seventy-fourth year. They reared a family of ten children, viz. : Elizabeth A., Daniel S., Mary, Avery Smith, Sarah Jane, David Richard, Susanna Wag- ner, James Barker, Russell Joshua and Sophia P., all of whom married and reared large fam- ilies. Their sixth child, David Richard Lee. was born at Milo, N. Y., January 27, 1815, and in young manhood became a farmer and mer- chant. He settled at East Groveland, Liv- ingston county, N. Y., in 1849, and made that place his home until his death, which oc- curred March II, 1886. By marriage, June 14. 1849, he allied himself with an old and prominent family of America, Elizabeth Northrum Wells becoming his wife. She was a daughter of Isaac Titchenor and Charity (Kenyon) Wells, and her paternal ancestry can be traced back to the time of William the Conqueror.
The Roll of Battle Abbey contains the name of this ancestor of the Wells family. "R. de Euille" or Welles. Enille or Welles bore the same arms with slight variation. The name ramifies in many directions, and among many different families, Vallibus, Welles, Lee, Millburn, Molbeck, Mollincaux (or Miller), D'Everaux, Wassa, Washbourn (afterwards Washington). Burn, Hurtburn. Hleburn, etc. The ancestor was named Euille (a spring or
water) in Normandy, and originated also the root of Vernon.
The origin of the de Welles family of Lin- colnshire, Barons by summons to parliament, was in the Vaux (or Baux, or Bayeux, or de Vallibus) family of France, one of the illus- trious families known to history. The deri- vation is traced to the year 794, from which period they held the highest rank, personally and by royal inter-marriages. It was founded in England after the Conquest, by Harold de Vaux (a near relation of William the Con- queror) and his three sons, Barons Hubert, Ranulph and Robert, all surnamed de Valli- bus. The descent is through the younger son, Robert, whose grandson, William, had four sons. Robert de Dalston, Baron; Adam and William de Welles, of Lincolnshire, 1194, and Oliver de Vallibus, prior of Pentney Abbey. Adam de Welles died without issue and his brother, William, thus became founder of that long line of noblemen of Lincolnshire. The family of Vaux derived its surname from a district in Normandy, where it was originally seated. In 794 of the Christian era a branch is found in Provence.
The English branch of the Wells family from which Mrs. Elizabeth N. Lee is descend- ed, contains among its progenitors Bishop Hugo de Welles. He became one of the most important men in England, being advanced to the See of Lincoln as archdeacon and Lord Chancellor of England, was chief of the ba- rons, instrumental in obtaining from King Jolin, in 1215, the great Magna Charta, pre- pared by his own hand in 1207, and being Lord Chancellor, was the most confidential advisor to the king. His very numerous and important official acts and history are given in Rymers' "Foedera," "Parliamentary Rolls," Hume's and other English histories. The progenitor of the Wells family in America, from whom Mrs. Lee is a direct de- scendant, was Hugh Welles (as the name was then spelled), born in Essex coun- ty, England, in 1590. He emigrated from Essex county to America in 1635, with his brothers Richard, Joseph, George and William, coming in the ship Globe, which sailed from Gravesend August 6, 1635, and
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landed at Boston the same season. Thence himself with Judge Brunson and Col. G. Wiley he removed in 1636 to Hartford, Conn., where Wells in the law firm known as Brunson, Wells & Lee, having been admitted April 30, 1879, in the Supreme Court, to practice in all the courts of the state of California. The old business then organized is still in existence, the firm name having been successively changed to Wells, Van Dyke & Lee; Wells, Guthrie & Lee; Wells, Monroe & Lee ; Wells & Lee; Wells, Works & Lee; Works & Lee ; and Works, Lee & Works, who now have their offices in suite 820 in the H. W. Hellman building. The old firm had their offices in the Baker block for eighteen years, then in the Henne building for eight years, and then re- moved to their present location in one of the finest office buildings in the city of Los An- geles. Here they have one of the largest pri- vate law libraries in the state, collected by Col. G. Wiley Wells. he was one of its first settlers. Soon after the autumn of 1636 he removed to Wethersfield, Conn., being one of its first settlers and the first of the name of Welles there. He lived there the residue of his life, dying in 1645. He was appointed and served as an ensign in the Colonial service, and was a kinsman and contemporary of Thomas Welles, the first governor of Connecticut. Three descendants of Hugh Welles served in King Philip's War, one of these, Capt. Thomas Welles, serving in the Falls fight. The line of descent is traced from Hugh Welles to Thomas, Noah, Jona- than, Jonathan 2nd, Colonel Daniel, Ira, and Isaac Titchenor, who was born in Vermont. Jonathan Wells 2nd served in the Revolu- tionary war as lieutenant-colonel of the Nine- teenth Connecticut Regiment, while various other members of the family were associated with the affairs of the colonies, serving in colonial wars as commissioned officers.
Mrs. Lee survives her husband and still re- sides on the old homestead at East Groveland, where her family was reared. They were the parents of four children, namely: Bradner Wells, born May 4, 1850; Franklin Scott, born February 2, 1852; James Avery, born July 31, 1860; and Charles Bedell, born November 7, 1854, the latter dying January 14, 1862.
Bradner Wells Lee is now one of the most prominent lawyers of Los Angeles, where he has been located since 1879. In his birthplace, East Groveland, Livingston county, N. Y., he received his early education, and later took up a private course of study. In 1871 he went to Holly Springs, Miss., where under the in- struction of his uncle, Col. G. Wiley Wells, he prepared for the legal profession. His uncle at this time was United States district attor- ney of the Northern District of Mississippi, and was subsequently a member of congress from that state, and later United States con- sul-general to Shanghai, China. Mr. Lee was admitted to the bar in Mississippi in 1872, after which he held the position of assistant United States attorney until 1879, resigning therefrom in the last named year in order to come to Los Angeles. He here associated
During almost the entire period of his resi- dence in Los Angeles Mr. Lee has participated in its prominent legal contests and has been connected with some of the most noted liti- gations in the history of the state. A stanch Republican, he has served continuously since 1896 as chairman of the Republican county central committee, and still holds that posi- tion ; and from 1902 to 1904, inclusive, served as a member of the executive committee of the Republican state central committee. In 1898 he was elected trustee of the state li- brary at a joint session of the senate and as- sembly and was re-appointed by Governor Gage in 1902, and again by Governor Pardee in 1906. He is a charter member of a number of societies, among them the California So- ciety of Colonial Wars, serving as its first historian and present chancellor; the Califor- nia Commandery of Foreign Wars, of which he is vice-commander, the late General Shafter being commander ; and has been a member of the Los Angeles Bar Association since its or- ganization ; and in the Chamber of Commerce has served on the law committee and is now a member of the Harbor committee. Since 1894 he has served as a director and treas- urer of the California Society Sons of the Revolution. Fraternally he is a member of Southern California Lodge, No. 278, F. & A.
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M .; Signet Chapter, No. 57, R. A. M .; Los in England, which he did immediately after Angeles Commandery, No. 9, K. T., and Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. His public honors have been equal to the success he has achieved in his chosen profession, but he has not cared for official recognition. He has served frequently as a delegate in the various state, county and city conventions of his party, and was chairman of the Repub- lican county convention of 1906. Governor Pardee tendered him the appointment of su- perior judge when the legislature increased the number for Los Angeles, in 1905, but he declined. He has also been urged by his friends to be a candidate for the office of su- perior judge, but has steadfastly refused, how- ever, never shirking the duty or using his in- fluence and working faithfully for the success of the Republican party. Socially he enjoys the esteem of his fellow citizens, and as a charter member of the Jonathan Club since its organization has been active for two terms as a director, and is a member of the Union League Club. He gives his support to the charities of the Emanuel Presbyterian Church, of which he is a member.
The marriage of Mr. Lee occurred in Phila- delphia, Pa., October 16, 1883, and united him with Miss Helena Farrar, who was born in that city and reared in Washington, D. C., receiving her education in Notre Dame, Mary- land, and at Mount De Sales Academy, in Bal- timore. Born of this union were three sons, Bradner Wells, Jr., who was born January 20, 1886: Kenyon Farrar, born February 28, 1888; and Guilford Richard, born October 20, 1890, and died August 5. 1891. Both sur- viving sons are being educated in the Harvard Military School at Los Angeles, and preparing to enter Leland Stanford, Jr., University. The ancestry of the Farrar fam- ily is traced back to Gualkeline or Walkeline de Ferrariis, a Norman of distinction attached to William, Duke of Normandy, before the Invasion of 1066. From him the English and American branches of the family are de- scended. Henry de Ferrars, his son, is on the roll of Battle Abbey (a list of the principal commanders and companions in arms of Will- iam the Conqueror), and was the first to settle
the Conquest, and became a citizen of much eminency for both knowledge and integrity. Among the noted Farrars in New England were Stephen Farrar, who was delegate to the proposed Congress at Exeter; Timothy Farrar, justice of the peace of Hillsboro, and later a member of the convention to frame a constitution for New Hampshire, was also a member of the committee to petition the pres- ident for the repeal of the Embargo Act, and with Stephen Farrar and others was a founder of the New Ipswich Academy. Deacon Sam- uel Farrar was chairman of the first commit- tee of correspondence in November, 1773, and was afterward a member of the great Middle- sex Convention of August 30, 1774, which led off in the Revolution, and a member of the first Provincial Congress which met October II, 1774, and at sixty-six years took part ir the battle of Concord; Major John Farrar, whose three sons were Minute Men in the Revolutionary war ; Jonathan Farrar, who was lieutenant and commander of the Guard at the North Bridge, Concord, at the time of the British attack on Concord, April 19, 1775; and Hon. Timothy Farrar, of New Ipswich, N. H., who served as a judge of the courts in New Hampshire from 1775 to 1816, in- clusive, in the course of which time he occupied every seat from that of junior jus- tice of the county court in 1775, to that of chief justice of the Supreme Court, to which he was appointed February 22, 1802. Over twenty by the name of Farrar were graduates of Harvard University. A complete genealog- ical record of the family is contained in Vol. VI of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of October, 1852. Mrs. Lee's direct ancestor was Jacob Farrar, who was born in England, there reared and married, and with his wife and four children emigrated to America about 1640. He located in Lancaster, Mass., and became a prominent citizen, and after the burning of the town by the Indians, during King Philip's war, he removed to Wo- burn, Mass., where his death occurred in Au- gust, 1677. The town of Lancaster was in- corporated May 18, 1653, and among the original proprietors were John and Jacob
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Farrar. A son of Jacob Farrar, also called Jacob, was born in England about 1642, came to Lancaster with his parents, here attained manhood and married Hannah, daughter of George Hayward. He was killed by the In- dians during King Philip's war, August 22, 1675, and soon after his death the widow re- moved with her children to Concord, N. H. Their son, George Farrar, was born in Lan- caster, Mass., August 16, 1670, and was taken by his mother to Concord when about five years old. He was reared in the town now known as Lincoln and tradition relates that when he was twenty-one he had twenty-five cents in money, which he gave away in order to start with absolutely nothing. He became very successful in business, and before his death in Lincoln, May 15, 1760, owned large tracts of valuable land. His wife was, in maidenhood, Miss Mary Howe. They had a son, also called George, who was born in Lin- coln, N. H., February 16, 1704, married Mary Barrett, of Concord, and engaged as a farmer until his death in 1777. His son, Humphrey Farrar, was born February 23, 1741, and in manhood married Lucy Far- rar, later removed to Hanover, and finally to Colebook, N. H., where he died. His son, William Farrar, was born in Hanover, N. H., September 13, 1780, graduated from Dart- mouth College in 1801, and settled in Lancas- ter, N. H., where he died in March, 1850. His son, Col. William Humphrey Farrar, was born in Lancaster, N. H., in 1828, educated in Dart- mouth College, after which he took up the study of law in the office of the distinguished statesman, Hon. Daniel Webster, then with Hon. Caleb Cushing, who became attorney general of the United States. Under President Pierce's administration he was appointed United States district attorney for Oregon, be- coming then a practitioner in Portland, and standing high in his profession. He served as mayor of Portland and was also in the Oregon state legislature. He was also a member of the first Constitutional Convention of Oregon. Later he returned east and resided, practicing law in Washington, D. C., where he married Miss Cora Stansbury, of Baltimore, and Mrs. Lee is the only child of this marriage. While
in Oregon, Mr. Farrar served as a colonel in the Indian war, and justly earned, by his irre- proachable citizenship, the high esteem in which he was held. His death occurred in Washington, D. C., in 1873.
DON JUAN BANDINI, who was one of the most able men of early California, was the son of Capt. Jose Bandini and his wife, Ysi- dora Blanca y Rivera. Don Jose Bandini, founder of the family in America, was a native of Andalucia, Spain. At an early age he en- tered the navy, and as lieutenant on the Span- ish vessel Nymphia he was present at the battle of Trafalgar. He afterward became captain and acting commander, with title of almirante, over a squadron in South American waters. In his flag ship La Reina he twice visited California. The ship's lantern, some silver curtain-rings, and a rare old painting called the "Madonna of the Moors," taken from the cabin of La Reina, are still in pos- session of the family. Capt. Jose Bandini made several voyages from Spain to the new world. For a time his home was at Lima, Peru. He was married in 1796 to Ysidora Blanca y Rivera, a Spanish lady of good fam- ily. He had seven children, only one of whom ever came to North America. Having left the navy on account of ill health, being a sufferer from gout, Captain Bandini, now a widower, accompanied by his youngest son, Juan, came, in 1822, to San Diego, Cal., where he took up his residence. Later he moved to his son's home on the Jurupa rancho, where he died in April, 1841. He was buried under the flag stones in the church of the San Gabriel Mis- sion. Among the Spanish manuscripts, now the property of the University of California, are several from the pen of Captain Bandini, which, when they are made public, will no doubt throw further light upon the history of this brave officer.
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