Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. II, Part 73

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1500

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JOIIN VINING, son of Chief Justice Vin- ing, was born at Dover, December 23, 1758.

Mr. Vining studied law with George Read, of New Castle, and was admitted to practice in New Castle county, February 21, 1782. He at once became prominent at the bar of the state, not so much by his solid legal acquire- ment as by his brilliant intellectual faculties. Ile was elected to the House of Representa- tives of the United States soon after he reached the required age, and in January, 1795, was elected to the United States Sen- ate. Robert G. Johnson, of Salem, New Jer- sey, writing of him, says he "was considered a very acute advocate at the bar, a very able de- bater in Congress, and a highly creditable rep- resentative of his native state." He died at Dover in 1802.

SAMUEL SYLVESTER, of Kent county, Del., son of William and T. Eunice (Hall)

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Sylvester, was born on a farm near the Mary- land line, December 2, 1825.

Samuel Sylvester was twelve or fifteen years old when his parents removed to their home in Delaware. Until he attained his ma- jority, he attended the public schools of Kent county, spending his vacations on the farm assisting with the regular farm labor. When he was seventeen his father died, but as his mother continued to manage the farm, he re- mained at home, working for her until the time of her death. For twenty years Mr. Sylvester and his brother, Benjamin Sylvester, cultivated the home farm. He then purchased his present home known as the Sugar Loaf farm. IIe is a Democrat.

On September 25, 1858, Samuel Sylvester was married to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Williams) Reed, who was born near Hollandville, Del., October 30, 1838. Their children are: I. William Walter, of Philadelphia, Pa., married Laura Belle Fetter, of Newark, N. J .; II. Eunice (Mrs. Chris- topher Martin); III. Rosalie; IV. Carrie; V. O. Frederick, of Philadelphia, Pa .; VI. Laura. Mrs. Sylvester attended the Baptist church. She died December 8, 1891, and is buried in the cemetery adjoining that church.

DANIEL MOORE BATES was born at Laurel, Del., January 28, 1821.

Ilis father, the Rev. Jacob Moore, was dis- tinguished in the early days of Methodism for piety, intellectual force and untiring zeal; while his mother, and indeed her family through three generations, were remarkable for similar traits. Their only child, Daniel Elzey Moore, was an infant at the time of his mother's death, was but eight years old when his father was stricked down at the house of the Hon. Martin W. Bates, in Dover. Mr. and Mrs. Bates, having no children, adopted the son, who afterwards bore their name, (his own being changed by Act of Assembly,) and no relation, by birth, was ever deeper, strong- er or more tender than this became. Hav- ing been prepared by the Rev. John Patton, D. D., he entered Dickinson College at four- teen, and was graduated in 1839. He always retained a lively interest in his Alma Mater, and received from it, in due course, his degree

of A. M., and in 1869, that of LL. D. Ile studied law in Dover, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and entered at once upon the ac- tive duties of his profession as the partner of his adopted father.

In November, 1814, Daniel M. Bates was married to Margaret Handy, daughter of the late Isaac P. Smith, of Snow Hill, Md., and adopted daughter of her unele, the late George Ilandy, of Philadelphia. Mrs. Bates died October 2, 1870. In January, 1847, Mr. Bates was appointed secretary of state for four years. In May, 1849, he removed to Wil- mington, where he continued the active duties of his profession. For sixteen years his close attention to his legal practice was scarcely in- terrupted except by a short trip to Europe, for his health, in 1855. Despite the draw- back of physical weakness, his thorough legal training, well balanced judgment and method- ical business habits enabled him to accomplish more than most men of good physical powers. He was distinguished as a lawyer for thorough- ness of preparation. IIe possessed to a nota- ble degree the confidence of the courts, of his professional brethren and of the people at large, and during a considerable period of his active practice was engaged in almost every important case tried in the courts of his own county or before the Court of Errors and Ap- peals.

Under a resolution of the General Assem- bly, passed February 28, 1849, Mr. Bates was associated with the late Chancellor Harring- ton and the present Chief Justice Comegys in the revising and codifying the public laws of the state; their fidelity and ability were ae- knowledged by a resolution of the General Assembly. In 1852 Mr. Bates was appointed, by President Pierce, U. S. District Attorney for Dlaware, ro-appointed by President Bu- chanan, and held that office until the close of President Buchanan's administration. In 1861 he served as one of five commissioners from Delaware to the Peace Convention at Washı- ington, and was a member of the committee of nine, which prepared the plan of adjust- ment reported to Congress. Mr. Bates con- tinned to practice his profession until the death of Chancellor Harrington, in November, 1865, when, upon the carnest recommenda- tion of the entire bar of the state, Governor Saul-bury appointed him to the high place

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made vacant by death. His appointment called forth a general expression of approval from the press and people, as well as from the bar. Ile received his commission as Chancellor, De- cember 12, 1865, and at once entered on the duties of his office, immediately revising the rules and practice of the court, and preparing a manual of the rules of practice and statutes relating to his court, with practical forms, which not only proved of great assistance to lawyers engaged in chancery practice, but gave uniformity and technical accuracy to the business of the court. In January, 1868, Chancellor Bates removed to Dover, but re- turned to Wilmington in May, 1870.

Chancellor Bates brought a judicial temper, an instructed mind and conscientious care and attention to the hearing of causes and the preparation of opinions in all matters, great or small; his term of office was marked by a large increase of the business of the court, making his labors constant and severe. Fail- ing health obliged Chancellor Bates to resign October 15, 1873. That he had personally the confidence of suitors in the court, and of the members of the bar wa, amply shown by the expression of popular regret through the press, and by the resolutions of the bar spread on the minutes of the court in each county in the state.

On November 1, 1873, Mr. Bates, accom- panied by his family sailed for Europe and spent nearly two years abroad, returning in September, 1875, his health being greatly im- proved. Before his resignation he had been engaged in collecting and publishing the unre- ported decisions of his predecessors. This work he resumed and had published two volumes (1st and 2d Delaware Chancery Reports), bringing the cases up to his own time, when the work was interrupted by his death. This was his last service to the state. Its statute law was shaped in practical, convenient and permanent form largely by his hand. The re- ports of the courts of law are witness of his unremitting contributions for over twenty years to the administration of justice, and the practice of its court of chancery, only ex- isting before in the records of distinct cases and in the traditions of the court and bar, were by him wrought into a consistent and intelli- gible system. Ile rescued the decisions of the same court from mouldering manuscripts

and handed them down in enduring form, and in his own judicial opinions he added to them a large body of equity law, thorough in the treatment and extended in the scope of the questions involved. At the beginning of the year 1877, his health having improved, impa- tient of illness and almost of leisure, Mr. Bates returned in some degree to the practice of his profession, but did not engage to any extent in business in the court. Hle also increased his interest in all useful activities, in which he had borne such a part as his delicate health and busy life would permit.

Mr. Bates was from childhood a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1782 he represented Wilmington Conference in the General Conference at Brooklyn. For many years he was an active member of the Delaware State Bible Society and of the Delaware His- torical Society, and succeeded the venerable Judge Hall in the presidency of these societies. While in active practice his office was much sought by young men preparing for the bar, and many who became leading members of the Delaware bar pursued their studies under his direction.

HIe was a Democrat, thoroughly believing in the cardinal doctrines of Jefferson, though indisposed by mental and physical conditions, to enter active political life. In March, 1879, Mr. Bates was professionally called to Rich- mond, Va., where, having been in apparently his usual health for nearly two weeks, he was

taken suddenly and severely ill, growing rap- idly worse, he died on Friday, March 28, in his fifty-ninth year. This event called forth uni- versal and unfeigned expressions of sorrow throughout the state from the bench and bar, the press, and the people at large. The sense of loss and the popular estimate of his charac- ter was expressed, and perhaps nowhere more tersely, by a leading journal of the state: "IFere was a man who impressed all who came near him with a sense of both strength and sweetness; who walked uprightly without scorning those who had fallen; who hated sin and loved sinners; who had strong convictions, and yet gave, in his large mind, hospitable re- ception and courteous consideration to the thoughts of those who differed with him; who had consejous ability without the pride of intellect, and who lived an active, useful and, to a great extent, public life, doing his duty

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without wavering or yielding one jut or title of principle or conviction, and yet, incurring no man's hatred, and dying, we verily believe, without an enemy-a Christian gentleman whose life was a revelation of the practicabil- ity of that Christianity which the people of the world are apt to regard as an enthusiast's dream of the impossible."

SAMUEL SMITH, who founded the Wil- mington Boarding School for Boys, was born November 24, 1794, in Bucks county, Penn- sylvania.

William Smith, his ancestor, a member of the Society of Friends, came from Yorkshire, England, in 1684, and settled at what is now Wrightstown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he purchased three hundred acres of land, bordering on Neshaminy. At that time he was one of the only two white men living in that locality. In 1690 he married Mary Croasdale, also a Friend, according to the good order of that religious society. The certifi- cate of their marriage is still in existence.

William Smith died in 1743, on his Wrightstown farm, where he had lived from the time he first came to the place. His son, Thomas Smith, who was married in 1727 to Elizabeth Sanders, died leaving a son also named Thomas Smith. Thomas Smith, 2, mar- ried Mary Ross in 1750, and died leaving a son Thomas Smith, 3, who was married, in 1793, to Elizabeth Linton, and died leaving a son, Samuel Smith, the subject of this sketch, who married Sarah Watson in 1817. Mrs. Smith was a direct descendant of Thomas Watson, also a member of the Society of Friends, who married Rebecca Mark in 1682, and settled in the province of Pennsylvania.

Samuel Smith, whose ancestry we have thus traced, evinced in early life a fondness for study, and acquired great proficiency in gram- mar, mathematics and astronomy. He was a student in John Gummere's famous academy at Burlington, New Jersey. His habit of thought, strength of mind and earnestness of purpose peculiarly fitted him for the profes- sion of teaching, in which he delighted, and to which he devoted his whole life. As an in- structor, he possessed the happy faculty of arousing the enthusiasm of his students, who

loved to gather around him after study hour fo hear him illustrate and explain difficult parts of the branches in his classes. In social life he was cheerful and entertaining, a fine conversationalist, a man of strong convictions who had many warm friends.

Ile conducted a successful mathematical school in Philadelphia until the year 1829, when, at the solicitation of his friends, he opened an academy in Wilmington, Del., where a full course of studies was thoroughly taught. In connection with this institution, Mr. Smith had an unusually large and excel- lent collection of mechanical, philosophical and scientific apparatus.

Ilis school was justly celebrated, and a num- ber of his students became prominent and in- fluential men.

In 1839 he removed to Poughkeepsie, New York. A large number of his pupils accom- panied and enjoyed his instruction for several years.

Ile afterwards returned to Philadelphia, where he died in 1861, closing his long life- work, respected and honored by many friends.

REV. THOMAS BUDD BRADFORD, late of Dover, was born in Philadelphia, Oc- tober 22, 1816. Ilis father, Thomas Brad- ford, a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, was born in that city, September 11, 1781, graduated from the University of Pennsylva- nia in 1798, studied law in the city of his birth, and was there admitted to the bar in 1802. In May, 1803, he married Elizabeth Loockerman, daughter of Vincent Loocker- man, and sister of the late Nicholas Loocker- man, of Dover. They had five children: Vin- cent L., Elizabeth L., Benjamin Rush, Colonel William, and Thomas Budd Bradford.

The American founder of the family, Wil- liam Bradford, a young printer of London, married Elizabeth Soules, sister of George Fox, and came with William Penn to this country, in 1682. Sometime after he went to New York, where he returned to the faith of his boyhood, and united with Trinity (Epis- copal) church. He was president of its first board of trustees, and went to England and purchased the chime of bells. He had two sons, William and Andrew; the former born

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in 1683, and the latter in 1686. They learned the printing business in New York, to which place the family removed in 1693 or '94, and established there the first printing press, and published the first newspaper in that city. In 1719, Andrew returned to Philadelphia, and established The American Mercury.

The third William Bradford, son of the sec- ond William, was born in New York in 1719, came to Philadelphia in 1738, and assisted his unele, Andrew on his paper. He married, in 1743, Rachel, daughter of Hon. Thomas Budd, governor of New Jersey. Their son, Thomas, born May 8, 1745, graduated at Princeton College in 1763. In 1768 he went into partnership with his father in the publi- cation of The Pennsylvania Journal. Both father and son were officers under Washington in the Revolutionary war, the father receiving, at the age of fifty-eight, a severe wound from which he suffered the remaining twelve years of his life.

After the war the son resumed the publica- tion of his paper, the name of which he changed, in the year 1800 to The True Amer- ican, and continued its publication till 1819, at which time he had been an editor and pub- lisher for fifty-one years, and this paper had been published by the family continuously for a period of one hundred years, being the first paper published in America, and having one day the precedence of the first Boston paper. Thomas Bradford died May 8, 1838, at the age of ninety-four years. His wife was Mary Fisher, of Philadelphia. They had three sons and three daughters. The third son and fourth child was Thomas Bradford, the father of Rev. Thomas B. Bradford. Rev. Thomas B. Brad- ford was the third Thomas in the line of de- scent. He received his primary education in Philadelphia, and graduated in September, 1833, at Williams College, Massachusetts, Mark Hopkins then being president. He was only eighteen years of age when he became professor of ancient languages in the Baptist College at Haddington, Philadelphia county, Pa., and at the same time he pursued his theological studies with Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, then of Philadelphia, now of Brook- lyn, N. Y. In 1833, when twenty years of age, he received the degree of Master of Arts from Williams College.

On the completion of his studies he was

called to the charge of a Presbyterian church in Michigan. About the year 1840 he re- turned to Philadelphia and became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Germantown, where he remained till the spring of 1850, when his health being somewhat impaired, and his unele, Nicholas Loockerman, son of Vin- cent Loockerman, of Dover, having deceased, he resigned his charge and removed to that place to look after his interests in the Loock- orman estate. After this he had no pastoral charge, but devoted himself to the care of his large property.

The town of Dover had previously been bounded on the north by Loockerman street, and contained only six hundred inhabitants. Mr. Bradford at once sold off building lots and put up a large number of handsome houses; and this, called Bradford's city, is now the best part of Dover, containing many of the finest residences and public buildings. All his lands near Dover he greatly improved. Rev. Bradford married, in 1835, when only nine- teen years of age, Miss Henrietta, daughter of John Singer, Esq. She died in Dover in .the spring of 1851. In September, 1857, he mar- ried Miss Lucinda II., daughter of Dr. Rob- ert R. Porter, of Wilmington, and grand- daughter of Hon. Willard Hall, late Judge of the U. S. Circuit Court, of Delaware. By this marriage he had five children: Thomas Budd Bradford, who graduated from Prince- ton College in the class of 1881 ; Lucinda Hall, William, Robert R. Porter and William Hall Bradford. Mr. Bradford's health had for a long time declined. He died March 25, 1871, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was a man of fine presence and of pure and upright character.

JOHN HAMILTON was born in Scotland, where he resided until the invasion of Ireland by William of Orange. He joined the invad- ing army and for his meritorious conduct was given a large estate, which afterwards fell into the hands of Lord Knox. In 1771 he removed with his wife and nine children to America and settled in White Clay Creek hun- dred, New Castle county, Del., where he re- sided until his death. His children are: John, master of a Philadelphia merchantman, died in Liverpool in January, 1828; Archibald,

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practiced law successfully in Wilmington, died October, 1841; James, captain of a merchant vessel, died at sea, July, 1826; Charles, also a sea captain, and Robert, one of the young- est sons, who settled in or near Wilmington. Robert Hamilton married Ann, daughter of Archibald Little, and resided in Wilmning- ton fifty years. He served in the Revolution- ary War at the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton, and filled various official positions under the general and state governments. Late in life, Mr. Hamilton purchased a farm on the shores of the Delaware, just north of Wil- mington, to which he removed his family; there he dispensed the kind and generous hos- pitality for which he was distinguished. IIe is said to have had no enemies and to have been the peacemaker, counselor and adviser of his neighbors. IIe died July 22, 1826.

WILBUR F. SHORT, Philadelphia, Pa., son of Alfred and Margaret ( Hatton) Short, was born in Cedar Creek hundred, Sussex county, Del., December 12, 1850.

Wilbur F. Short spent the first twenty years of his life in Cedar Creek hundred, where he received his education. In 1872 he secured a position with the Second and Thir- teenth Streets Traction Company. Since 1880 Mr. Short has been engaged in manu- facturing hosiery; he is now the proprietor of the Crescent Hosiery Mills. He has always been an active worked in the Republican ranks and served for eight terms in the select coun- cil of the Twenty-fifth ward. He is a member of Polo Lodge, No. 386, F. and A. M .; Har- mony Chapter, No. 52, R. A .; Merry Com- mandery, No. 36, K. of P .; Radiant Star Lodge, No. 232, I. O. O. F .; Passayunk Tribe, No. 139, I. O. R. M .; Gratitude Council, No. 286, Jr. O. U. A. M .; and No. 1201, United Sons of America, all of Philadelphia, Pa.

On November 12, 1890, Wilbur F. Short was married in Philadelphia, Pa., to Emma, daughter of Joseph and Emeline Powers, of Philadelphia. They have one son, Norman, born December 2, 1891. Mr. Short and his family attend the M. E. church in which he holds the office of trustce.

CAPTAIN SAMUEL LOVERING, who was a native of Boston, sailed from Wilming- ton at the age of seventeen. He entered the

army at Boston, and being taken prisoner by the English was confined for six months in the old Jersey prison ship, in which so many of the youths of our country fell victims to disease and ernel treatment. Captain Lover- ing was spared to reach his birthplace, Boston, but was so changed that even his fond mother was unable to recognize his skeleton form under the tattered garments. When he re- covered strength he preferred a life on the ocean, and Wilmington became his home. Here he was married to a daughter of Joseph Shall- cross, in whose employ he sailed. During the European war in San Domingo Captain Lov- ering and his crew were pressed by the French commander to aid in quelling the insurrection. Ile was detained six months in actual service, enduring perils and hardships. He returned to Wilmington, but died young, leaving a widow and three small children.

LEWIS THOMPSON, was born in Mill Creek hundred, June 24, 1816. His father, Daniel Thompson, married Jane Gawthrop, of the family of that name well-known in Wil- mington and Chester county, Pa. The foun- der of the family was John Thompson, who came to this country from England in 1678, and settled near Salem, in New Jersey. Ilis grandson, James Thompson, removed to Delaware in 1734, and purchased property in Mill Creek hundred. He was the great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch. The Thompson family were of that sturdy Quaker stock who have always stood undauntedly on the side of human rights and freedom of opinion, and have exerted a strong and lasting influence in the communities in which they lived. Mr. Thompson received only such edu- cation as could be obtained at the public schools, with the addition of one term at the Hoopes Academy, in West Chester. In 1841 he married Lydia Puscy, daughter of the late Jacob Pusey, of Wilmington, and the follow- ing year they obtained possession of a farm in Mill Creek hundred, a part of which belonged to the original purchase. Here he spent the greater part of his life, and by industry and economy cleared his farm from debt and ae- quired a competeney. Six children were born to them: Mary T. (Mrs. Henry Gawthrop): Annie, who married Thomas B. Hoopes, and died in 1870; TTannah M .; Emily T. (Mrs.

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Joel A. Seal); Henry Thompson; George Ron- aldson Thompson. Mr. Thompson was al- ways an uncompromising anti-slavery man, and from early life took an active interest in public affairs. Hle was originally a Whig, and was elected on that ticket, in 1844, to the State Legislature. The succeeding term he was re-elected and became speaker of the Hlouse at its session in 1847. In 1858 he was again elected to the legislature, and a fourth time in 1872. In 1849 he was appointed trustee of the poor by the Levy Court of New Castle county, and served three years. He was among the first to espouse the cause of the new Republican party, and actively as- sisted in its organization in Delaware. He was chosen a delegate to the first National Con- vention of the party held in the city of Phila- delphia, in 1856, , and was also a dele- gate to the memorable convention held in Chicago in 1860, when the lamented Lincoln was made the standard bearer, and again a delegate to the convention held in the same city, in 1868, when the soldier and statesman, U. S. Grant, was nominated by a unanimous vote for the presidency. In 1876 Mr. Thomp- son was appointed by President Grant collec- tur of customs for the District of Delaware, and re-appointed by President Hayes in 1880.

IION. GOVE SAULSBURY, M. D., late Governor of Delaware, was born in Mispillion Neck, Kent county, May, 29, 1815, and died in Dover on Sunday, July 31, 1881. His fa- ther, William Saulsbury, was a man of com- manding influence, and irreproachable con- duet, being sought after by his fellow citizens, as eminently trustworthy, for positions of honor and responsibility. His mother, Mar- garet Saulsbury, daughter of Captain Thomas Smith, and sister of Rev. James Smith, a dis- tinguished Methodist minister, and member of the Philadelphia Conference, was conspic- nous for her piety, force of character, and mental power. She was the mother of five sons and one daughter. Of the sons, Gove was the third, and with two of his brothers, be- came distinguished in public life, attaining to a national reputation. The eldest son, James, and the second, William, died, the former, in his thirty-eighth, and the latter in his twenty- fifth year.

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Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. II, Part 73

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. Number of Pages: 1500

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1500