USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 50
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did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy, so that he was enabled to maintain amicable terms with Capt. Elliot and served under him.5
For his gallant services in the battle of Lake Erie Mr. Hambleton was the recipient of one of the medals ordered by Congress to be pre- sented to the most deserving participants in that action. He was appointed the agent to distribute the large fund produced by the sale of the captured vessels among the officers and sailors of the fleet, and his journal gives a most graphic account of his journey with the money in his possession from Washington to Erie by stages and upon horse- back. Subsequently, when Captain Perry had been assigned to the command of the Java, then building at Baltimore, his old commander secured his appointment to that ship as Purser, and while waiting her completion, Capt. Perry, or as he should be called, Commodore Perry, was ordered with the aid of sailors and marines from the ships to pro- ceed to the Potomac to intercept the enemy in his descent of that river after the destruction of the public buildings at Washington. Hamble- ton accompanied him as Commissary of the force, which was under Commodore Rogers acting as Brigadier-General, and Porter and Perry as Colonels. Nothing effectual was done. Mr. Hambleton returned to Baltimore and was in the city at the time of the battle of North Point in September, 1814, but took no part in that affair. For the first time since the commencement of the war he was able soon after to pay a visit to his friends in Talbot county. Before the Java was able to get to sea, the enemy's fleet occupying the Chesapeake, he was detached from that ship and sent on other service.
The friendly union of Perry and Hambleton, welded in the fires of battle, continued unsevered until the death of the former in 1819. When personal intercourse was not possible, communication was main- tained through the medium of a correspondence which was of a most confidential character. The love and admiration of Mr. Hambleton for his friend and commander were attested and memorialized by his naming an estate which he bought in 1812, near the town of St. Michaels,
5 This journal, which was in the hands of the writer in 1871 and returned to a member of the Hambleton family is believed to be still in existence, though search for it has been made unsuccessfully. A copy, however, is in the possession of Mrs. M. M. Dawson, a niece of Purser Hambleton. After a few memoranda respecting his early life, the journal commences with his appointment to the navy and covers, with some hiatuses, a period of more than twenty-five years. It is written with great precision and prudence. It is thoroughly characteristic.
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"Perry Cabin." Of his residence here something will be said in the sequel.
After his service upon the lakes and the close of the war with Great Britain he was assigned to duty upon many ships and stations both at home and abroad.6 He enjoyed throughout his life, and in a very especial manner, the confidence of the navy department under whatso- ever administration. This was indicated by his being placed in posi- tions of great responsibility and from the frequent exactions of extra official duty. His record is absolutely spotless. Malignity never breathed an insinuation against his perfect integrity. His character lifted him above suspicion. His official position was one which particu- larly at the time he filled it, was said to offer opportunities that many did not neglect of improving their fortunes by indirection, malversation and by imposition: but both the government and the service felt that in him they had a man faithful to his trust, honorable and just in his dealings. Captains and commanders of all grades sought his appoint- ment to their ships or their fleets when going upon a cruise, as being one of the best of officers and one of the most companionable of men. His precision in accounts and the completeness of his management of all the details of the pay-master's department, not less than his thorough honesty, gave the superior officer assurance of entire correctness in its administration; while the personal dignity and intelligence of the sub- ordinate broke down those barriers of rank that usually separate naval officers holding widely different grades. Mr. Hambleton enjoyed the friendly companionship of the commander where others would have shared only his official courtesy. He was hardly less acceptable to
6 He was with Commodore Bainbridge upon the Columbus 74 from October, 1819, cruising in the Mediterranean and visiting France, Italy, Spain, and the Barbary States. In 1822, he was assigned to the frigate Congress, Com. Biddle, and cruised among the West India Islands. After returning home the ship was refitted, and he made a second cruise in 1823 under the same commander, visiting Gibraltar and then crossing the ocean to Rio Janeiro. Some time after his return from sea he was appointed to the navy yard at Pensacola where he remained until 1829. In 1831 he sailed upon the sloop of war Fairfield, Capt. Elliott, and cruised among the French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch and English West India Islands, includ- ing Hayti; and after returning home, for a short time, he made a second cruise in 1832 upon the same ship, and under the same commander, in the Gulf of Mexico. His accounts of these cruises in his journal possess not a little interest. His com- ments upon the conduct of Com. Elliott are anything but flattering. His relations with Commodores Bainbridge and Biddle were most cordial. The journal gives no account of other services, but it is known that he was rarely unemployed except when he had a right to claim exemption from duty.
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those of his shipmates who ranged below him in years and rank, for though great gravity was one of his most marked characteristics, he was not only tolerant of gaiety in others but pleased with the com- panionship of the young and joyous.
Nowhere better than here, for it will show the cordial relations sub- sisting between Mr. Hambleton and the highest officers of the service, may be mentioned a most interesting incident in his life and one of the most notable and painful in the history of the navy of our country. When the quarrel between Decatur and Barron had culminated in 1820 in the sending and in the acceptance of a challenge to a duel, Mr. Ham- bleton who was an intimate friend of the former, was invited by Com. Bainbridge the chosen second of Com. Decatur, to attend him to the field of combat as an interested and impartial spectator. He accepted the invitation, accompanied the party of Decatur to Bladensburg, was a personal witness of the circumstances attending the duel and saw Decatur fall mortally wounded. All the details of this most unfor- tunate affair he has recorded in his journal and what he wrote has been frequently used by historians and biographers when they have been required to rehearse the painful story of the death of one of the most capable of our naval officers.
Martingham, the original seat of the family had come into his pos- session partly by inheritance and partly by the purchase of the rights of his brothers and sisters to their respective shares in the paternal acres. This, however, soon became his home. In 1812 as has been noted, he purchased an estate adjoining the town of St. Michaels, to which he gave the name in compliment to and commemoration of his commander and friend, Com. Perry. This place he made his home in 1820 and such it continued to be to the end of his life. Around its hearth stone clustered his domestic affections as is shown by his letters and many casual entries in his Journal. During such intervals of duty as were allowed to one of whom so much was expected and exacted, because of his great capability and fidelity, he resorted thither to in- dulge himself in the seclusion and the quiet of country life and in those pursuits which were his ever increasing delight. The estate to which he made subsequent large additions consisted of about five hundred acres of good land in two farms, bordering upon the waters of St. Michaels river. The mansion house at the Cabin was without architectural pretentions, being a long low range of wooden structures, the several parts of which had been erected at different times by Mr. Hambleton and those that had preceded him as there was need of additional accom-
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modations. The rooms were mostly large and airy, plainly furnished, and devoid of ornament except such as was given by the curious objects of nature and art brought from foreign parts.7 Simplicity itself character- ized all the appointments-not that simplicity which is sordid, nor that which is meretricious,-but that which like a picture of Gerard Douw charms the eye with the homely, and gives the impression of refinement by the familiar and plain. Great comfort and exceeding neatness everywhere prevailed. In winter capacious fire-places fed by logs from the neighboring forests made all things glow with cheerful heat and light, while ample shade gave delicious coolness to the summer air that came salt-laden across the lawn that slooped to the waters edge. Nearby in the rear of the house were the servants' quarters and such other buildings as are required for domestic uses. In front, off to the right of the grounds and stretching far were the numerous farm buildings for the care of the crops and stock-spacious, plain and picturesque from their great variety and complicated arrangement. All around these were evidences that economy furnished the rule of conduct on the farm. Nothing was made or done for mere show- all for use; but yet a kind of beauty was secured-the beauty of fit- ness of adaptation. Even the homely virtue of economy thus ac- quired a charm. 8
7 This ought to be qualified by saying there may have been some engravings of naval scenes and perchance of Perry's victory upon the walls. There certainly were some portraits of celebrated race horses adorning or disfiguring the walls of the room appropriated to the use of the gentlemen of the family.
8 At the risk of repetition and prolixity the following copied from the American Farmer of 1839 may be inserted as interesting in itself and confirmatory of what is said in the text. The writer said, arriving at the home of Mr. Samuel Hamble- ton, "the first thing that struck me was the beauty of the situation-the severe simplicity of the 'Cabin' and all its substantial and well arranged appendagus of barn yards, out-houses, fields and fences. Without any parade or ostentatious display, but exactly the reverse, it soon becomes obvious that constant, unwaver- ing solicitude and careful provision for the comfort, health, well being and happi- ness of every dependent creature about him, whether man or beast, constitutes the morate of the Perry Cabin system. The slave that drives the ox and the ox that is driven are strangers alike to violence and want. They know they will have justice and kind treatment as they feel that they enjoy abundance. No more is kept of flesh or fowl than can be mantained and pushed forward always with unchecked growth in high condition. The calf goes for three months at the foot of the mother, unrobbed of the stores provided for its infant growth, until it can take care of itself. Hence it attains without check or stint its full develop- ment and gets to be of the largest size. So careful is my training to give no unnec- essary pain to any living thing that nothing neither horse nor sheep nor hog is docked of its tail or mutilated with ear marks."
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Of the inmates of this home at "the Cabin," as it was and is familiarly called, something must be said. The head of the family was the sub- ject of this memoir. With him resided, when his duties allowed him, Mr. John Needles Hambleton, his brother, and the youngest of the children of his father. Born Feb. 22d, 1798, and receiving such in- struction in the elements of learning as was commonly given at the time in this county to youths not destined for one of the professions, so-called, he early entered the navy as Purser, and served in this capacity for many years most acceptably and honorably until by reason of age he was entitled to retirement.9 While in the service he employed the long hours of leisure which tedious cruises and protracted delays at different stations left upon his hands in the cultivation of polite letters, and particularly in the acquisition of some of the modern languages, Spanish and Italian especially, in which he became proficient; and probably of French. These were of great use to him and indeed to the service, when he was upon duty among the West India Islands, and along the coasts of Mexico and of South America, as well as in the Mediterranean. This course of reading and study, united with an admirable faculty of observation which his many cruises enabled him to exercise, made him a most agreeable companion whenever his interlocutor could over- come that almost invincible shyness that always embarrassed him in social intercourse. The same care, accuracy and probity in pecuniary matters that characterized his brother were displayed by him and he thus enjoyed the same confidence of the Naval Department and of his superior officers that was given to the elder Purser. In truth, they were men of such like mental traits and such similar manners, that a character portrait of the one would be hardly unlike the other. There were in both the same scrupulous honesty, the same rigid justness, the same inflexible uprightness, the same gravity of deportment, the same diffi- dence and reserve, and though the younger was less social in his inclina- tion and habits, there was the same kindliness of feeling and benevolence in conduct in him as in the elder brother. It would be an injustice to him, as well as a wrong done to the virtues of loyalty and patriotism, if there should be no mention made in this brief account of his life of a most interesting incident which occurred in the year 1861 after his return from a cruise. At the beginning of the war and for some months
9 There is a tradition that he entered the navy as Chaplain but it is probable this story arose from the fact that Pursers were sometimes called upon to perform religious service on shipboard-an imposed duty for which his sobriety of man- ners may have been thought to qualify him.
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after, there was a doubt of the attitude of many naval officers of southern birth who were on distant stations with regard to the government. Nothing was known at home of the position of Mr. John N. Hambleton, but when upon his arrival at Perry Cabin, he announced his unqualified determination of adhering to the Union of the States and his approval of all measures for the maintenance of that Union, his neighbors and fellow citizens of St. Michaels and vicinity went in procession to his home, and after receiving from his own lips an avowal of his fidelity to the flag under which he had served so long, and his devotion to his coun- try one and indivisible, they wrapped him in the folds of the national ensign they had brought with them and saluted him with such acclama- tions of delight and approval that a composure which had appeared to be almost stoical, was quite overcome with emotion. Mr. Hambleton was employed during the war of the rebellion in duties upon the shore to which his long service entitled him. He subsequently was honorably retired, and after a few years of ease, quiet domestic comfort and honor- ing consideration of neighbors and friends he died Dec. 5th, 1870, and was buried with every token of respect and veneration at the home of his ancestors at Martingham.
Another member of this family at the Cabin deserving of commemora- tion for her domestic virtues, her religious devotion and her innumerable charities, was Miss Lydia, the maiden sister of the Messieurs Hamble- ton, and the recognized mistress of the house, born Sept. 24th, 1790. She was an unsurpassed housekeeper, scrupulously neat, indefatigably industrious, thoroughly systematic, authoritative in command, but gentle in her rule within her domain, hesitant in the acceptance, ready in the extension of hospitality, a keeper at home, whose steps rarely led far from her door except upon missions of mercy to the poor or pil- grimages of piety to her church.
The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength and skill, A perfect woman nobly planned, To warm, to comfort and command.
The scale of living adopted by the brothers Hambleton was most liberal, and if the mistress of the Cabin was provident it was from a sense of duty to those who placed all in her keeping; but after hospitality to kindred and friends had made its largest and last demands there was always something left in store for the poor and afflicted. In fact she was the Lady Bountiful of the neighborhood, with all that character's
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benevolence but without her follies. Though a member of a religious society that encourages demonstrativeness in its devotions, from having a strong infusion of Quaker blood in her veins, her piety partook of the quietism of the Friends rather than of the enthusiasm of the Methodists: that it was sincere a long life filled with gentle words and kindly deeds is attestation. Miss Lydia never married, and it is hard to determine whether the world gained or lost by her celibate life. She was a nun without the cloister and free from vows. What charms she may have possessed in youth there are none to show or tell, for no child of hers perpetuates them in living feature or traditional story; but those who saw her in her ripe maturity or declining years seated in her well ordered family room, with her plain cap shading her firm and placid face, with her simple kerchief of fine muslin folded over her maiden bosom, and with her gown of grave color and ancient mode enveloping her slender form, while her hands plied their busy tasks, though they may have experienced no other emotion than respectful admiration, will never forget a picture as charming as any that glows with the warmest tints, or that throbs with passion. Miss Lydia Hambleton continued to reside at the Cabin until her death which occurred the twentieth of June, 1870, and she was buried at Martingham. Her life and death were referred to one of those unctuous obituary notices with which minis- ters of religion dishonor the memory of the pious dead.
Another inmate of the Cabin must not be forgotten, though, were she alive, any public mention of her name would be quite appalling, so much she shrank from notice. This was Miss Louisa Hambleton, born Oct. 30th, 1795. It is not probable her opportunities for early education were superior to those of the other children of her parents; but in after years being unmarried and exempt from the family cares of the household of which she made a part, by the assumption of them by her elder sister Lydia; and being provided with all the comforts of a pleasant home through the liberality of her brothers, she had opportunity to supply any deficiencies that absence of competent in- structors and well appointed schools may have occasioned. She diversi- fied the life of light tasks upon easy or useless work-a life of laborious idleness-which maiden ladies of condition in the country lead, by in- dulging those tastes for literature which she shared with other members of her family; and she was fortunate in having a well selected library at hand, when books were not so plentiful and inexpensive as now. As the books of this library were chiefly those that do not usually com- mend themselves to the female mind, Miss Louisa's reading was neces-
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sarily of the masculine kind. The absence of books of fiction conformed with a religious prejudice, afterwards dispelled, that she had imbibed from the teaching of the Methodist society of which she early became a member. Poetry was her "ever new delight," and with this she disported until far beyond the age when the mind demands a more sober companionship. This may have led to that singular intimacy with the daughter of a very dear friend, Mrs. Amelia B. Welby, who born in St. Michaels, long lived in Kentucky, where she acquired con- siderable reputation as a writer of graceful and tuneful verses, which were much praised by Geo. D. Prentice, the famous editor of the Louisville Journal. To this lady Miss Louisa Hambleton gave her affectionate patronage, and she repaid the kindness by some lines of melody and feeling, which she claimed were inspired by her friend. They were entitled " The Old Maid," but the character is so idealized as not to be recognizable. These two ladies, differing so widely in character, main- tained their singular intercourse, personal and epistolary, until the death of the bright young poetess; and there is no doubt it was of reciprocal benefit, the dull and secluded life of the elder being enlivened by the gaiety of her protegee, while the exuberant vivacity of the younger was curbed by the sobriety of her patroness; though it must be confessed that Mrs. Welby had a wonderful facility of adapting her moods to her companions, and of charming them all.
Miss Louisa Hambleton was an admirable correspondent and, though her letters were never written with a view to publication, such was their excellence that her friends felt justified in violating privacy, as well as her wishes, by giving publicity to some. With a desire and a capacity to confer and to receive pleasure through friendly intercourse with others, such was her unconquerable timidity or diffidence-a trait of every mem- ber of her family-that full gratification of her social instincts or im- pulses was never secured, nor a free exercise of her social capabilities displayed. There was embarrassment in the company of her most intimate associates and a positive pain in the presence of strangers. Nevertheless she was a most intelligent and agreeable companion when she could be made to escape from this self-consciousness. If she ever possessed any beauty of form or feature, there was no remnant, in her age, of that vanity which often survives personal charms. That she was pious it is unnecessary to say, for a woman who is not is unnatural. She early in life connected herself with that body which was then drawing to itself about all of the religiously impressionable of her neigh- borhood, the Methodist Episcopal Church: but she separated from it
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at the time of the schism, to join the new communion of the Methodist Protestants. Of this she was a member, useful and exemplary, at the time of her death. Religion with her, however, was not chiefly a matter of doctrine nor discipline; nor was it merely an emotional indulgence; but also an impulse to active benevolence. It is said that she, in con- nection with another of her sex, organized in 1820 the first Sunday school of the town of St. Michaels. It is well known that long before their avowal ceased to be odious she entertained opinions favorable to the emancipation of the slaves. This may have been a moral heritage from a Quaker ancestry, or the result of the teaching of early Methodism, but it should be mentioned to her honor from whatever source it came. One of the results of these opinions was her cooperation with the Rev. John D. Long, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the establishment of a Sunday school for the instruction of colored people in morals and letters. This school was soon abandoned in compliance with a public sentiment which yet lingers, powerless in the recesses of some minds, but which was then imperative and prevalent. Miss Louisa Hamble- ton survived all her brothers and sisters, living as long as life was pleas- ing and dying before death was wished for as a relief from pain or sorrow at Easton, where she resided after her sister Lydia had passed away, on the 3rd of October, 1875. She was buried in ground hallowed to her by the ashes of her ancestors of many generations, and of her nearest kin, beside her sister, at Martingham.
The repose and happiness of the almost elysian life of the inmates of the Cabin was disturbed in the most painful manner in the year 1860, by the death of a niece, the daughter of Mr. William Allen Needles, of Philadelphia, who was enjoying a visit to her kinsfolk of Talbot, to whom she was endeared by many charming traits. She was then in early womanhood, full of cheerfulness and vivacity; but afflicted with somnambulism. During an attack of this affection she walked at night into the creek at the rear of the house before her absence from her cham- ber was discovered. Becoming bewildered, as it is supposed, after she had been aroused by the shock caused by the cold water, she waded deeper and deeper until she was unfortunately drowned. The affliction caused by this sad event would be dishonored by words.
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