Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 21

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 21

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

(4) William, eldest child of James (2) Penniman, was born in 1706, died before 1780. In 1729 he married Ruth Thayer, born 1707, died 1776, daughter of Ebenezer and Ruth (Neale) Thayer. They had fifteen children : Ruth, William, Ebenezer, Abigail (died young), Peletiah, Joseph, Ezra, Mesheck, Abi- gail (died young), Susanna, Mesheck (died young), Abigail, Mesheck, Elihu and Bethuel, (5) William (2), eldest son of William ( I) and Ruth (Thayer) Penniman, was born in 1732, died in 1813. He married, in 1755, Sarah Wild, born 1738, died 1806, daughter of Will- jam and Ruth (Hersey) Wild. Twelve chil- dren were born to them: William, James, Ezra, Sarah, Amosa, Barzillai, Elijah, Josiah, Susanna, Rachel, Anna and Prudence.

(6) Ezra, third son of William (2) and Sarah (Wild) Penniman, was born in Brain- tree, April 27, 1760, died May 21, 1823. He moved to Gardner, and was a resident there, in 1815, where he and his wife conveyed their right in his mother's property to his brother Elijah. He married, probably in Gardner, Lovisa Eager, and they had born in Gardner : Lovisa, Abigail, Benjamin, Sarah and Mary (twins), Betsey, Susan and Tabitha.

(VIII) Christopher Columbus, son of Cap- tain Increase Sumner and Susan ( Penniman) Merritt, was born in Gardner, September 29, 1830. At the age of eight years he was appren- ticed to Asa Fessenden, of Templeton Center, to learn carriage making. After mastering that trade he also learned the machinist trade with Mr. Fessenden. In 1856 he went to Boston and worked at No. 69 Commercial street, con- structing machines to cut corks. He next worked for Grover and Baker, making sewing

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machines, in 1857. He worked in Ottawa, Canada, and then returned to Templeton where he was employed two years by Walter Green- wood & Company, chair makers. He was with Baxter Whitney at Winchendon when the civil war broke out and then he went to Springfield, July, 1861, and was tool maker in the United States armory till the close of the war, being inspector and foreman. From 1866 till 1905 he was engaged in the retail drug business near the corner of State and Walnut streets. Mr. Merritt is a man who is sincere and earnest in his convictions, always following what he thinks is the right course. He cast his first presidential vote for John P. Hale, the Free Soil Democrat. In 1856 he voted for John C. Fremont, the first Republican candidate for president, and next for Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator, and so on down to the present time. In 1872 he was elected to the legislature from ward 5, Springfield, and was re-elected in 1876-80-81. In 1881 he was appointed by Governor Butler as trustee of the Northamp- ton Asylum, and served in that office five years. For eight years he was one of the overseers of the poor of Springfield, and served in each case without pay. In 1892 he was elected to the senate. Mr. Merritt's official service has been of such a character as to reflect credit on him and please his constituency. He is fond of literary composition, especially of metrical composition, and has written hundreds of poems, which have been eagerly accepted by newspaper publishers, and his poetry is very familiar to the readers of Springfield papers for forty years past. From a financial point of view he has been successful, and among other holdings he has a farm on the Bay road where the Forty-sixth Massachusetts Infantry camped in the time of the civil war, being called at that time Camp Banks. There he spends a part of each summer and fall. Chris- topher C. Merritt married, October 13, 1860, Elvira Parker Brooks, born in Gardner, No- vember 26, 1837, died December 26, 1883, daughter of Oscar and Sophrona ( Jackson) Parker. Four children were born of this mar- riage: Josephine M., May 3, 1861, in Winchendon ; Harriet S., November 11, 1863; Henry Romeo, December 24, 1869; Charles Junius, February 21, 1874, died May 12, 1905. The last three were born in Springfickl.

The following may be taken as examples of Mr. Merritt's verse :

NOW!

O thou eternal now! All infinite

To-day! Thee full and preclous hour to serve!

Forever present,-quenchless to survive! Behind thee death! Before thee nothing is! Great multiple in problem of an age,- Each new-born moment crowding to fulfil The true and pressing destinies of life, Where all companionships, by time revealed, Unite the present in magnetic ties To perished ages in the calendar.

O man! bethink thee,-for this day is thine! What of the Past? Dead as a mummy's dust! Who from her moldy sepulcher of deeds Can roll the massive closing stone away? The Sphinx-like sentry of infinitude Sits by her portals with the mysteries. But thou, O living Opportunity! Clothed in the shining panoply of life, Nerved to the quick by essence of fruition, Outliving all in deeds and mightiness !- Thy vigorous hand, relaxing not its hold, Strives for the prize of being's own ambition!

JANUARY.

The icicles hang by the wall, John, The icicles hang by the wall; They never were longer at all, John, They never were longer at all;

But they'll melt and they'll fall in the sun, John,

But they'll melt and they'll fall in the sun;

Then ragged and broken and all, John,

They'll melt and they'll fall in the sun.

A type of our life now is here, John, Like icicles cling we and fall; As brief in our growth and decay, John, As brief in our growth and decay; So we live in our prime but a day, John, So we live in our prime but a day; Then broken and wasted away, John, We live in our prime but a day.

The origin of this honorable

FORBES patronymic appears to be sur- rounded with mystery and may have been derived from one of a variety of sources, just as it is found variously written in the records in Scotland and England as well as in this country. It is said in Burke's "Heraldry" that the surname Forbes was assumed from lands of Forbes in Aberdeen, Scotland, for it is a Scottish name and of Scottish origin. The lands of Forbes were granted by Alexander II ( 1249) to the progenitor of this noble family. John de Forbes, the first of his surname of whom there is any record, was a personage of rank and distinction during the reign of King William the Lion (1214). Following him is the long line of descendants of whom William Forbes, of Tullickerne, Scotland, wrote in 1580: "In all ages since our first aryse, we myght compair with neighbors, for greater loyalty and valor for pietie (which we think truely ennobleth a families) ; witness the many bishops and doctors att home and renownd divines abroad. Like as the root has ever done

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so the several branches of the house thought their greatest honour to honour God in their generations. As to their loyaltie, it was never stained."

It is of this ancient and noble Scotch house whence comes the family of whom this narra- tive proposes to treat. John Forbes, of Deskrie, Scotland, died in 1739, and was buried at Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. His son Archibald died at Newmill of Leith, December 3, 1793, aged eighty years, and also was buried at Strathdon. One hundred and thirty years after the death of John Forbes, the father, his great-great-grandson, the late Robert Bennet Forbes, of Boston, caused a tablet to be erected within the walls of Strathdon Church, in com- memoration of his ancestor, Archibald, son of John Forbes. This tablet contains a copy of the inscription on the gravestone outside the walls, and which reads: "Underneath this stone lies interred the body of Archibald Forbes, of Deskrie, who died at Newmill of Leith, the 3d day of December, 1793, in the 80th year of his age."

In his autobiography Mr. Robert Bennett Forbes gives us other interesting information concerning his ancestry, and says "the family memoranda show that we originated from the family called of 'Dauch.' William Forbes of that ilk lived in 1800, was brother of Alexander of Pitslago; and these were of the family of Newe and Edinglassie, brought down to my ancestor, John of Strathdon. My great-grand- mother on my father's side was Dorothy Coll- ingwood, aunt to the celebrated Lord Colling- wood.'

(I) Rev. John Forbes, immigrant ancestor of the family here under consideration, appears in American history as rector of St. Augustine, Florida, for he was a Scotch clergyman of distinction. He married, at Brush Hill, Milton, Massachusetts, February 2, 1767, Dorothy Murray, then twenty-four years old and also of a noted Scotch family. Mr. Forbes sub- sequently returned to England and died there September 17, 1793. He had three children : 1. Colonel James Grant, born November 22, 1769. served under General Andrew Jackson and held a commission as colonel in the service ; was once commander at Staten Island, and was first marshal or governor of St. Augustine when Florida was ceded to the United States. 2. John Murray, born at St. Augustine, August 13, 1771, was fitted for college under the instruction of Dr. Samuel Kendall, of Weston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1787; studied law with John Sprague, of

Lancaster, and Pliny Merrick, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, and in 1791 was engaged in practice in the town last mentioned. He then removed to Boston and associated profession- ally with C. P. Phelps during the years 1794-95, but after 1796 he lived chiefly abroad. He was a man of splendid character and attain- ments and one of the ornaments of society in his time. After leaving America he was consul general to the North of Europe, and made his residence at Hamburg and Copenhagen. In 1820 he went to Buenos Ayres as secretary of the legation to Caesar Rodney, minister to the Argentine Republic, and at the time of his death, in 1831, Mr. Forbes himself was charge d'affaires at Buenos Ayres. In speaking of him the "History of Milton," Massachusetts, says "He was troubled with gout; his crest was composed of a gouty foot couchant, crossed by two crutches rampant; and the motto was 'Toujours souffrant jamais triste.'" John Murray Forbes never married. 3. Ralph Ben- nett, born June II, 1773 (see post ).

(II) Ralph Bennett, son of Rev. John and Dorothy ( Murray) Forbes, was born at Brush Hill, Milton, Massachusetts, June II, 1773, and died there October 5, 1824. He lived with his mother at Brush Hill until 1783, when she removed with her children to Cambridge, Mass- achusetts. At the age of eight years Ralph was sent to Dr. Parker's school in Hingham, and his young life was spent chiefly at Brush Hill, Hingham and in Cambridge. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to John B. Murray, in Alexandria, Virginia, and remained with his master until he reached his nineteenth year, in December, 1791, when he joined his brother, James Grant Forbes, at Port-au- Prince, St. Domingo, where he continued to live until 1794 and then returned to his mother's home in Cambridge. In the winter of 1795 he sailed from Portland, Maine, in the ship "Ris- ing States," ( she was owned by John McLean, William Stephenson, and the firm of Loring and Curtis ) bound south to Charleston, South Carolina, and other southern coast ports, and thence sailed in March for Bordeaux, France, arriving at that port in April with a cargo of rice and tobacco. From Bordeaux he set sail for Hamburg, Germany, having on board a cargo of brandy, and reached port there in August of the same year. He finally left the ship at Dover and went to England, arriving in London in September. There he met Col- onel Perkins, and in December following he returned to Bordeaux and from thence sailed for America. October 13, 1799. Ralph Bennett

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Forbes married Margaret Perkins, of Boston, and by her had seven children: I. Emma Perkins, born May 18, 1801. 2. Thomas Tunno, April 11, 1803. 3. Robert Bennet, September 18, 1804 (see post). 4. Margaret Perkins, April 10, 1806. 5. John Murray, February 23, 1813 (see post). 6. Mary Abbot, September 4, 1814. 7. Cornelia Frances, still living.

(III) Captain Robert Bennett, son of Ralph Bennett and Margaret ( Perkins) Forbes, was born at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Septem- ber 18, 1804, and soon afterward was taken by his parents to Boston and for several years lived in Federal street in that city. As a child he was sent to a private school kept by a Miss Doubleday, in Purchase street, where he con- tinued to attend until 1811, when on January 17 his mother took her sons and embarked in the schooner "Midas," Captain William Ropes, of Salem, master, and sailed to join her hus- band at Marseilles, France. When off that port the schooner was captured by the British frigate "Resistance," whose captain sent her to Port Mahon, and it was only after consider- able delay and much anxiety that Mrs. Forbes reached France. In his interesting narrative Captain Forbes in speaking of this event says "It was at that time the custom of our cousin John to detain American vessels bound to an enemy's port. We were ordered to Port Mahon in the Island of Minorca, to await the decision of Sir Charles Cotton. All my mother's energies were aroused, to try to induce the captain of the 'Resistance' to let us go. She went to his ship in a long gig, in a tumbling sea, without success. He said he must obey orders."

In Marseilles the boys were sent to a French school where the master was as ignorant of English as they were of French, but by the use of a French and English dictionary they soon acquired a sufficient knowledge of elementary French to enable them to continue their studies. However, in 1813, on May 13, Mr. Forbes and his family embarked at Bordeaux in the Amer- ican schooner "Orders in Council" bound for New York. The "Orders in Council," says Captain Forbes autobiography, "was a letter of marque commanded by Captain Josiah Ingersoll." War having been declared between the United States and Great Britain, she was armed with six small guns, probably nine pounders, and had a crew of about twenty, all told. She was one of a large fleet of Balti- more and New York clippers, built to carry silks, wines, and other valuable goods, and to fight when attacked ; hence the letter of marque.

Soon after leaving port the schooner was attacked by the British cutter "Wellington," which was beaten off after a fight of from one to two hours, but only to fall into the hands of the "Surveillante," Captain Sir George Collier, who treated his prisoners with much consid- eration and sent them to Coruna, in Spain. There they were released and soon afterward found passage with Captain Lovell in the "Caroline" bound for Boston, but on the eighth day out the old brig was boarded by the British frigate "Pomone," examined, taken in tow, and pulled by the nose into the Tagus. After remaining a day or two on the "Caro- line" Mr. Forbes and his family escaped on a fishing boat and went to Lisbon, remained there about one month and finally embarked in the "Leda," of Baltimore, and in the course of thirty-six days arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, some time in the month of August.

These were rather trying experiences to a boy of hardly more than a dozen years, yet after all they served a useful purpose and made a man of him in experience, although only a child in years. Returning at length to Milton young Forbes and his brother were for a time put out to boarding school, but in 1816 he was employed in a minor clerical capacity with the house of S. Cabot, and James and Thomas H. Perkins Jr., of Boston, merchant importers and exporters. On October 19, 1817, then aged thirteen years, he shipped before the mast in the "Canton Packet" and made his first voyage to China, arriving at Canton in March of the following year, the vessel having sailed by the eastern passage. "Here," says the captain in his narrative, began an epoch in my life which was of great importance : a connection which led directly to fortune and which never ended but with the life of my cousin (John P. Cushing, then head of the house of Perkins & Co., Canton), in April, 1861. In June, 1818, he returned to Boston, and thus ended his first voyage to China and return. In 1819 he made a second voyage to the Orient in the "Canton Packet" and on the passage made a thorough study of navigation ; and on his next voyage to the far cast it was as third mate of the ship. From this rank he became second mate in 1821, and in 1825 as master of the "Nile" he sailed for Manila, Philippine Islands. Previous to this time he had been for a short time master of the "Levant," and thus was captain of a deep sea vessel before he had attained the age of twenty years. From Manila the "Nile" went to China. thence to California, and from there

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to Buenos Ayres, South America ; and thence to Boston at the end of a long and successful trading voyage. In 1828 he sailed the "Danube" for Sturgis & Perkins on a trading voyage to Smyrna, Turkey, and other European ports, and afterward he commanded the "Niantic." About 1832 he made his last voyage to China and in 1840 became head of Russell & Com- pany, the largest American commercial house in China. Of his large means he made gener- ous provision for his mother and younger brother. He visited China several times and at one time was American vice consul at Can- ton. He traded between the United States, China, Europe, California and South America and was almost invariably successful in his voyages. In 1847 he commanded the United States sloop-of-war "Jamestown" laden with provisions for the starving poor of Ireland and made the voyage from Boston to Cork and return in forty-nine days. As a matter of fact Captain Forbes chartered the vessel for this voyage at his own expense, furnished her cargo and paid all of the charges without awaiting government action, although he was afterward reimbursed for all his expenses under an act of congress ; but he had no assur- ance of being compensated by the government when he took such prompt measures for relief of the suffering people of Ireland. Still later he helped to load the frigate "Macedonian" on the same voyage of mercy. During the civil war he was employed as a volunteer by the government to inspect the building of nine gunboats and at the same time built for him- self and others the "Meteor," of 1500 tons. She was built to cruise for vessels which were preying upon American shipping and destroy- ing American commerce.

And besides being a famous mariner and deep sea sailor, and afterward an extensive foreign trader, Captain Forbes enjoyed equal celebrity as a ship builder, and during the course of his active life was concerned with the construction of as many as seventy vessels of all classes. His first ship was the bark "Lintin," built in 1830, and was owned exclu- sively by him until 1832, when she sailed into Chinese waters and remained there. In this connection it is interesting to note the name, class, approximate tonnage, and year of con- struction of each of the many vessels built under his order or supervision, or in which he had an interest : bark "Lintin," 390 tons, 1830; brig "Swan," 150 tons, 1831-32; schooner yacht "Sylph," 70 tons, 1833 ; ship "Hooghly," 350 tons, 1834; schooner yacht "Fawn," 30

tons, 1835 ; brig "Henry Clay," 250 tons, 1835 ; schooner yacht "Dream," 30 tons, 1835; ship "Levant," 400 tons, 1836; brig "Rose," 150 tons, 1836; brig "Isidore," 300 tons, 1836; ship "Luconia," 450 tons, 1836; bark "Canton Packet," 350 tons, 1836; schooner yacht "Breeze," 30 tons, 1837; steam schooner "Midas," 180 tons, 1841 ; schooner "Anglona," 90 tons, 1841 ; schooner "Zephyr," 150 tons, 1842; schooner "Mazeppa," 175 tons, 1842; ship "Narragansett," 500 tons, 1842; schooner "Ariel," 100 tons, 1842 ; ship "Paul Jones," 750 tons, 1842; bark "Paulina," 300 tons, 1843; schooner "Don Juan," 175 tons, 1843; ship "Farwell," 700 or 800 tons, 1843 ; brig "Ante- lope," 370 tons, 1843; bark "Coquette," 420 tons, 1844; steam bark "Edith," 400 tons, 1844; steam tug (iron) "R. B. Forbes," 300 tons, 1845; steamship "Massachusetts," 750 tons, 1845; bark "Sappho," 350 tons, 1845; iron propeller "Firefly," 20 tons, 1846; ship "Samoset," 800 tons, 1847; ship "Raduga," 500 tons, 1848; iron paddle steamer "Mint," 40 tons, 1848; iron paddle steamer "Jacob Bell," 250 tons, 1849; ship "Akbar," 700 or 800 tons, 1849; paddle steamer "Spark," 200 tons, 1849; schooner "Minna," 300 tons, 1852; schooner "Brenda," 300 tons, 1852; propeller steamer "Antelope," 450 tons, 1855; schooner yacht "Halcyon," 90 tons, 1855; ship "Flor- ence," 1000 tons, 1856 ; iron paddle steamer no name, 75 tons, 1856; iron yacht "Edith," 43 tons, 1856; wood yacht "Azalea," 43 tons, 1856; iron herm. brig "Nankin," 260 tons, 1858; iron paddle steamer "Argentina," 100 tons, 1858; iron paddle steamer "Alpha," 22 tons, 1858 ; schooner "Calliope," 300 tons, 1861 ; iron paddle, no name, 70 tons, 1861 ; three iron barges, no name, 1861 ; iron propeller steamer "Pembroke," 300 tons, 1861; schooner "Madge," 125 tons, 1863; yacht "Lillie," 20 tons, 1865; propeller steamer "Niphon," 300 tons, 1865 (sold to the government and was very useful) ; propeller ship "Meteor," 1500 tons, 1865; herm. brob "Jeannie," 300 .tons, 1865 ; small propellers "Samson," "Hercules" and "Leviathan," 15 tons each, 1865 ; schooner "Syren," 75 tons, 1866; iron propeller "Chero- kee," 350 tons, 1866; gunboats "Sagamore," "Huron," "Chocorua," "Kineo," "Katahdin," "Kennebec," "Penobscot," "Aroostook" and "Marblehead," built for the government under the inspection of Captain Forbes in 1861 and afterward.

Captain Forbes always took an earnest inter- est in everything connected with and concern- ing the seamen, so much so indeed that he

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came to be called the "Howard of the sea." He did much and wrote much about the best means of saving life in case of disaster, and several benevolent institutions for seamen found in him a very generous supporter. "In his long and varied career his feet were ever in the straight and narrow path of virtue, and it may be truly said of him that he never lost a friend, nor had an enemy whom he did not endeavor to conciliate. He was almost wor- shipped by the boys at Milton, and he made for them with his own hands more than one

hundred models of sail and row boats. For many years he was one of the most efficient members and active officers of the Massachu- setts Humane Society ; and he was awarded the gold medal of that society and the medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society for his gallant conduct in 1849, when the Cunard steamship "Europa" ran down and sank the emigrant ship "Charles Bartlett" in mid-ocean. Captain Forbes jumped from the towering bulwarks of the "Europa" to save a woman and child and afterwards a man. He was president of the Boston Marine Society, trustee and president of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, one of the Boston pilot commissioners, member of the government of the Board of Trade, one of the vestry of King's Chapel, member of the Boston Port Society, and at one time and another a director of various railroad and insurance companies. The Mass- achusetts Historical Society concludes its memoir of Captain Forbes with these words: "Of no one can it be more truly said that he tried to do his duty ;" and such was the motto he wished to be placed on his gravestonc. In 1834 Captain Forbes married Rosc Greenc Smith, who dicd September 18, 1885, having borne her husband three children: I. Robert Bennet, born 1837, died June 30, 1891. 2.

Edith, married Charles Eliot Perkins. 3.

James Murray, born July 17, 1845 (scc post ).

(IV) James Murray, son of Robert Bennet and Rose Greenc (Smith) Forbes, was born in Boston, July 17, 1845, acquired his carlier education in Mr. Dixwell's school, and entered Harvard in the class of 1866, but left before the completion of his course to go to Canton, China, to cuter the old house of Russell & Company, of which his father had been the head. He became a partner and in charge of the business at Canton and afterward at Hong Kong, and was vice consul for Sweden and Norway at Canton. He returned from China at the time of his marriage in 1871 and after- ward for several years represented Russell &

Company as agent in Boston. Later on he became president of the Chicago, Burlington & Northern railroad and served in that capacity for several years. He is now a vice-president of the Suffolk Savings Bank. He holds mem- bership in the Somerset Club, Eastern Yacht Club, New Riding Club, the Porcellian Club and the Country Club, as well as in other social organizations. In 1882 Mr. Forbes was the prime mover in establishing the Country Club at Brookline, Massachusetts, which was the first club of its kind in the whole country, and of which he served as chairman of the board of governors for twelve years. He seems to have inherited much of his father's love of yachting and horses, and is regularly to be seen in the saddle at all seasons of the year; and he is a strong lover of all animals, and formerly for many years was prominently connected with and a director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1871 Mr. Forbes married Alice Frances, daugh- ter of Nathaniel I. and Elizabeth (Brown) Bowditch, and by whom he had three children : Allan, Mary Bowditch and Dorothy Forbes.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 21

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 986

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986