USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 24
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Queen Anne began her reign in 1702 and May 3, 1705 she sent instructions to Governor Joseph Dudley as follows :
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With this you will receive a Seale prepared by our order for the use of the Government of New Hampshire; which Seale is engraven with the Arms, Garter, Supporter, Motto and Crown, with this Inscription Round the Same, SIG: PROVINCIAE: NOSTRAE: NOVAE: HAMPTONIAE: IN : AMERIC. * * Former Seals are not to be further made use off or affixed to any publick Acts or Instruments whatsoever, but to be defaced and Broken .- Laws of N. H. Province Period, II., 31.
The broken parts were given to the Secretary to melt down, but on subsequent orders from the Queen, the parts were re- covered and sent back to the Queen in Council, as Governor Dudley wrote to the Lords of Trade and Plantations,-No. 1362 of MSS.
This seal was nearly one fourth of an inch broader than former ones. The earliest impression preserved is upon a paper dated December 18, 1705. The special feature of this seal is the substitution of the motto, SEMPER EADEM for the motto, DIEU ET MON DROIT. The new motto adopted by Queen Anne was that of Queen Elizabeth, and Swift said that it meant "Worse and Worse," in Queen Anne's case.
There is a record of the Council at Portsmouth, dated August 14, 1710, as follows :
Her Majesties orders of the 29th October, 1709, relating to the former seal of this province to be Broke in Council and then to transmit the Same Soe Broken to the Commissioners [Commissioners for Trade and Planta- tion] was read at the Board, and the said Seal was accordingly Soe Broken in Council .- N. H. Prov. Papers, II., 610.
Then follows the order of Queen Anne, wherein it is said that the new seal is "Engraven with our Arms, Supporters, Mottoes and Crown, with this Inscription round the same: SIG. PROVINCIAE NOSTRAE NOVAE HAMPTONIAE IN AMERICA." The only difference between this and the former seal is that it adds the letter A to the final word, AMERICA, and a singular thing it is that such a seal is never used, but down to the end of Queen Anne's reign a seal such as she ordered in 1705 is used, without the final A. Indeed it is used till 1718. Why she should order a new one at that time is puzzling, except it were to add that final letter, and then it is more puzzling to tell why the new seal was precisely like the former one. It was not made according to order. The engraver miscalculated and did not have room to put on the last letter in
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the inscription. The old seal may have become worn or defaced.
At a meeting of the Council in Portsmouth, June 26, 1718, the following record was made :
His Honor the Lieut. Governor produced and laid before this board a new Seal for this Prov: of New Hampshire with orders & instructions from his Majesty King George for using the same and for breaking the old seal in p'sence of the Councill, which was accordingly broken into two pieces at the same time .- N. H. Prov. Papers, II., 717.
This seal of George I, restored the motto, DIEU ET MON DROIT, and left out the SEMPER EADEM of Queen Anne. The rest remained the same, even to the AMERIC for America. Instead of pellets between the words of the outer inscription there is another device, somewhat like a rose.
On the accession of George II to the throne, in 1727, a new seal was ordered. The Council at Portsmouth recorded, under date of April 23, 1729, the following :
His Excellency [William Burnet] laid before the Board a New Seal with his Majesty's instruction for using the same & sending home the old one: ye Instruction bears the date of ye 29th Sept. 1728 & is on file .- N. H. Prov. Papers, IV., 535.
The seal then ordered appears on a paper dated April 15, 1729. It is two and three sixteenths inches in diameter. The A is added to form SIG. PROVINCIAE. NOVAE HAMP- TONIAE. IN. AMERICA, and an outer circle is added with the following inscription, GEORGIUS. II. D. G. M. B. FR. ET. HIB. REX. F. D. BRUN. ET. LUN. DUX. SA. RO. IM. AR: THES. ET. ELECT, which means, in expanded Latin, Georgius II Dei Gratia Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, et Hiberniae Rex, Fidei Defensor, Brunswick et Luneburg Dux, Sacri Romani Imperii Arbiter Thesauri et Elector, and translated is George II by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and Lune- burg, of the Holy Roman Empire Lord of the Treasury and Elector. Concerning the last part of the title it is said, on good authority, that "in A. D. 1692 the Emperor Leopold I conferred a ninth electorate on the house of Brunswick-Luneburg, which was then in possession of the duchy of Hanover, and succeeded to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, and in A. D. 1708 the assent of the Diet thereto was obtained. It was in this way
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that English kings came to vote at the election of a Roman Emperor."-The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce, D.C.L.
This seal, with the proper change for George III, remained in use till the time of the American Revolution. There is no record of its having been destroyed, and perhaps Governor John Wentworth carried it away with him.
When the Procincial Congress convened at Exeter, Janu- ary 5, 1776, it voted to assume the "name, power and authority of a House of Representatives or Assembly for the Colony of New Hampshire." A new seal was shortly afterward adopted. It was simple and expressive. In the middle of the field was a bundle of five arrows, representing the five counties of the colony. On the right of the bundle was a pine tree and on the left was a cod-fish, these representing the leading industries, lumbering and fishing. Encircling these was a Latin motto and a name in English. The motto was VIS UNITA FORTIOR, power united (is) stronger. The circle was completed with the words, COLONY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. The die was made of copper. It is a pity that the device and motto were not re- tained on the present seal.
This colony seal remained in use but a short time, for on the eleventh of September, 1776, the Council and Assembly assumed the "Name and Stile of the STATE OF NEW HAMP- SHIRE." The seal thereafter adopted retained the device of the former but was enlarged to two inches in diameter, and the words on the collar were SIGILL : REI-PUB : NEOHANTONI. This seal remained in use till 1784. It is in the possession of the New Hampshire Historical Society.
The House of Representatives voted, June 12, 1784, that Hon. George Atkinson, John Pickering and George Gaines, together with a committee appointed by the Senate, should prepare a device and inscription for a seal of the State. Their report was adopted November 8, 1784, "that the device be a field encompassed with laurel, round the field in capital letters, SIGILLUM REIPUBLICAE NEO HANTONIENSIS, on the field a rising sun, and a ship on the stocks, with American ban- ners displayed, and that said seal be two inches in diameter." The Senate concurred in this action.
In this report nothing is said about the date, 1784, that
SEAL USED BY GOV. CRANFIELD
SEAL OF GEORGE II
SIG : FR
OS INOHK
AON : NI
F
UNUSED SEAL OF WIL- LIAM AND MARY
ES
SEAL NOW IN USE
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appears on impressions of the seal in 1785 and ever after. The date was originally a little to the left of the top of the seal, between the beginning and the end of the encircling inscription. Now it is at the bottom of the seal, with the inscription moved around to accommodate this change. When the change was made and by what authority has not been learned.
It is noticeable that the word HANTONIENSIS is the proper adjective from the old Latin name, found in the Domes- day Book of William the Conqueror, Hantesshire. Several conventional forms of the present State seal are in use by printers, with variations of the rising sun, and some having a ship of a different form, with workers employed in a shipyard. The conventional form appears on printed Proclamations of Thanks- giving, etc.1 A statute which shall definitely fix every character and device on the seal is under consideration.
1 In the preparation of this sketch of the seals of New Hampshire the author has been greatly helped by Miss Etha L. Sargent, assistant in the office of the Secretary of State, who has made a careful study of the impres- sions made on Colony and State papers preserved in that office.
Chapter XI SOME FOUNDERS OF THE STATE
Chapter XI
SOME FOUNDERS OF THE STATE.
The Lives of Saints and Heroes Should Be Idealized-To Know Their Faults Is neither Interesting nor Profitable-Governor John Langdon- Judge Woodbury Langdon-Judge Samuel Livermore-Governor John Taylor Gilman-Senator Nicholas Gilman-General Nathaniel Peabody -Colonel Tobias Lear-Hon. John Samuel Sherburne-General Ben- jamin Bellows-Senator Simeon Olcott-Hon. Christopher Toppan- Hon. Amos Shepard-General Joseph Badger-Governor William Plumer.
I T is the asserted purpose of some biographical writers to pre- sent portraits of men as they were, in light and dark shades, to set forth their defects and foibles, and even their sins, as well as their attractive and excellent traits of characters. This harmonizes with that school of art that copies nature, with all its deformities. A better school of art idealizes nature and pictures the real as it would be under perfect conditions. Thus a purified and exalted imagination adds much to beauty wherever it is found.
There were, doubtless, defects and imperfections of charac- ter in the lives of all the great men who inspire us. History has rightly omitted to record them. We do not wish to look upon and contemplate the faulty and vicious. When the faults of a good man are paraded, they are as likely to be copied as his virtues. Few have any interest in "The Real George Washington," and prefer not to know his defects. Patriotic love and gratitude idealize the heroes and benefactors of the past, and anything said against them, however true, sounds like insult offered to a relative or friend. Therefore it is best to speak only good of the dead, unless moral condemnation is needed to caution the living.
In defense of defective realism it is often said that the characters of our Bible are painted with their many faults and sins. That is not true of all, and the deeds of some patriarchs and kings, that we now consider sinful, were not thought to be
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such by the writers of their times. Some affect to be pleased with the portrayal of the ungodly conduct of the saints, as proofs that they, too, were "human," just like ourselves,-as though anybody could ever doubt it. Are we loth to acknowledge that some have been much better than we are? Do we want the saints and heroes brought down to our level?
Many biographical sketches are found in the manuscripts of Governor William Plumer, some of which have been printed. Sometimes he tells too much, and sometimes we are led to suspect that personal and political prejudices distorted the mental vision of the writer. He is niggardly in the bestowal of praise in some cases and neutralizes the good he has said by some words or narration of an incident, the truth or interpreta- tion of which is open to doubt. Adverse criticism of public deeds is of great value, but to expose the disagreeable and reprehensible traits of private character yields no pleasure nor profit.
In the condensed sketches that follow the salient facts in certain lives are stated, so far as they affected the history of New Hampshire. Any excellencies of character are held up for imitation, that "we may make our lives sublime." Not all the good and great of the past are here mentioned. There are a host of the unrecorded, flowers "born to blush unseen," crowded out of history by unavoidable limitations.
JOHN LANGDON
From the beginning of the Revolution to the end of the eighteenth century no man in New Hampshire was more pop- ular and influential than John Langdon. He was born June 26, 1741, in Portsmouth, in a house called a garrison house, near the head of Sagamore Creek. He was of the fourth generation from Tobias Langdon, who settled there before 1660, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Rebecca (Gibbons) Sherburne. This ancestor probably came from Cornwall, Eng- land. Through his mother, Mary Hall of Exeter, the descent of Governor Langdon is traced to Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts and so back to William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great, but to be possessed of a royal spirit is far better than to prove royal descent, and Langdon had that, as all admit. His education was in the public grammar school, taught by
JOHN LANGDON. ARTIST, EDWARD SAVAGE. OWNED BY REV. ALFRED LANGDON ELWYN, GREAT GRANDSON, PHILADELPHIA. :
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Major Samuel Hale. From school he passed to the counting room of Daniel Rindge, where he was fitted for a mercantile career. Early he went to sea and was soon master of a vessel. Then he owned and built ships of his own and had become wealthy through ship-building and trade before the Revolution. He read but little and acquired much practical knowledge by association with men. During the latter part of his life he was not fond of reading, but he could declaim Pope's Homer to the delight of children. As sea-captain he visited London repeatedly and formed acquaintances there. At the opening of the Revo- lution he was not intimately associated with the governing coterie in Portsmouth, and this may have led him to espouse the popular cause. Certain' it is that there was no tory blood in his veins. Tradition uncontradicted makes him the leader of the party that captured the powder and military stores at fort William and Mary, in December 1774, thus exposing himself to capital punishment for armed rebellion.
On the tenth of May, 1771, he took his seat as a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia and was reappointed as a delegate the following January. He was Speaker in the House of Representatives of his State the same year and was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas, which office he resigned within a year. He was Speaker of the House again in 1777, and from 1778 to 1782. During the Revolution he was continental agent for building ships and collecting money to carry on the war. On the island then called by his name he built the Raleigh, the Ranger and the America, heretofore men- tioned. In this way and as a banker and merchant he grew richer by the war, while many others were growing poorer. It is probable that all he ever loaned to the government in patriotic enthusiasm he got back with interest. An inde- pendent company of cadets in Portsmouth had him for colonel, and when General Gates called for reinforcements he marched to Bennington and was at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered. He afterwards led his rergiment to the assistance of General Sullivan in Rhode Island.
On the thirteenth of June, 1783, he was appointted a dele- gate to the Congress of the United States, and the two following years he was a member of the New Hampshire senate.
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In 1785 he was a candidate for the presidency of his state. The people made no choice, and Langdon was second on the list of candidates. The legislature elected him to the office. The next year he failed of election, though he received eleven hundred more votes than the year before. He was appointed one of the commissioners for the regulation of commerce. That year he built a bridge over the dock in Portsmouth and pre- sented it to the town.
In 1787 he again failed of an election to the presidency of the state. The legislature appointed him a delegate to the convention that formed the Federal Constitution, and in Septem- ber he became a member of the United States Congress.
In 1788 he was a member of the convention in New Hamp- shire that ratified the Constitution of the United States. The same year he was chosen Speaker of the House, in New Hamp- shire, but held that office only a few days, since it was found that by a majority of five votes he had been chosen President of the State. In November the legislature elected him Senator in the United States Congress.
In 1789 he resigned his office as chief executive of his state and took his seat in the United States Senate, where he was chosen the first president pro tempore. He served as senator until March 1801.
In 1794 he became disaffected with President Washington and thereafter was a zealous partisan of Thomas Jefferson. In his state he was at the head of the party first known as Anti- Federalists, and then Republicans. He strongly opposed the ratification of Jay's treaty with Great Britain, for which the citizens of Portsmouth approved him and gave him a public dinner, though the majority of the state censured his conduct. A careful study of the politics of that time would be necessary, in order to justify his opposition to Washington, whom he wished to be removed from office. The "Jeffersonian Demo- crat," that we sometimes meet today, would, doubtless, approve his attitude. He was equally opposed to the election of John Adams.
In 1793 he was again candidate for the governorship of his state, but was not elected. From 1801 to 1805 he represented Portsmouth in the State Legislature, the last two years being
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Speaker of the House. As a presiding officer he was at his best, being courteous, prompt and impartial.
From 1802 to 1805 he was candidate for governor and suc- ceeded in getting elected the last year. Then Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. About this time he made a profession of religion and united with the church. Ever after he was fond of conversing with religious men of all denominations.
He was elected governor in 1806, 1807 and 1808 by large majorities. In 1809 he failed of election by a few votes, but was again chosen to that office in 1810, though such was the opposition that the Federalists of Claremont burnt him in effigy. His mental powers began to fail him, but the party to which he belonged had no other candidate that was likely to win, and so he consented to run again as candidate for governor and was elected in 18II.
The next year he retired to private life, yet eighty-two of the republican members of Congress met, and sixty-four of them nominated him as candidate for Vice President of the United States. This honor he was obliged to decline because of infirm- ities of advancing age. Some thought that he was opposed to Mr. Madison, but a letter of his refutes that charge. He was a friend to Madison and a zealous supporter of the war of 1812.
His mental faculties steadily declined in vigor. He became forgetful, and though still cautious his judgment was impaired. He died on the eighteenth of September, 1819, aged seventy-nine, leaving only a daughter.
Governor Langdon is said to have been fond of money and he had a positive genius for getting it. He used it in making friends, being very hospitable to all the great who visited Ports- mouth. He was courteous by nature, affable, good-natured, and could say no without giving offense. He seems to have had without cultivation the arts of the attractive politician and won his way to political preferment by his social qualities, added to the influence of his comparative wealth, rather than by a mind strong and well furnished. He was neither a scholar nor a statesman; he was rather a man of affairs and a good political manager. To be just we must allow that he was patriotic, sincere, trustworthy and liberal, an honor to the state he served
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in so many offices, without ever a suspicion of dishonesty.1
WOODBURY LANGDON.
He was the only brother of Governor John Langdon and was born at Portsmouth in 1739. His education was like that of his brother, in Major Hale's grammar school, in the counting rooms of merchants and in voyages at sea. Having property in London he was kept in that city during the first two years of the revolutionary war. On his return in a British frigate he was confined for a while in New York. During the remainder of the Revolution he was most of the time an active representative in the state legislature and several times after the adoption of the state constitution he held that office. In 1779 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress and was reappointed the following year but declined the trust. Twice afterwards he received the honor of such an appointment but refused to serve. During the latter half of the year 1782 he served as judge of the superior court, but refused to serve longer, though requested to do so by the General Court. He refused the office of brigadier-general in 1784.
In 1785 he was appointed judge of the superior court of New Hampshire and held that office for a number of years. Although he never studied law professionally, yet he was well informed in legal principles and possessed the judicial temper. His de- cisions were unprejudiced and generally acceptable. He was impeached by the House of Representatives for not holding court in some of the counties as the law required. In turn he accused the legislature of having improperly interfered with the business of court by passing laws to nullify their judgment and refusing to the judges a permanent and honorable salary. The trial by the senate was postponed through some legal technical- ity and the case never came to trial. His appointment by President Washington as one of the three commissioners to set- tle the revolutionary accounts between the United States and the several states led to his resignation as judge in a letter to the President of the State, which some interpreted as inpertinent
1 See Plumer's Biography in N. H. State Papers, XXI., 804-812, and Some Account of John Langdon, by his grandson, John Langdon Elwyn, in N. H. State Papers, XX., 850-880. The latter contains much that is not closely connected with John Langdon, but it is useful as an interpretation of the times in which he lived.
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and unbecoming his office. In 1796 and 1797 he was a candidate for representative to congress, but was defeated both times. The vote for him was small because of the smallness of the Anti-Federalist party, to which he belonged.
He was a man of unusual ability and independence, remark- able for rapid despatch of business. He was bold, keen and sarcastic, speaking his mind of men and measures with perhaps too much freedom. Hence he never had the popularity of his brother. Sincerity and frankness, expressed in a bluff manner, are easily interpreted as haughtiness and marks of an over- bearing disposition. A sense of justice kept him from doing intentional wrong even to his political enemies, while to his friends he was attentive and helpful. It was his maxim never to quarrel at the halves. He died January 13th, 1805, aged sixty-six years.
SAMUEL LIVERMORE
This remarkable man was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, May 15, 1732, of the fifth generation from John Livermore, who came from Ipswich, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1634. Samuel Livermore was educated at Nassau Hall, now known as Princeton University, where he was graduated in 1752. After teaching a short time and studying law he settled in the practice of his profession at Portsmouth in 1757. After seven years he removed to Londonderry and represented that town in the General Court in 1768. For several years he was Judge Advocate of the Admiralty Court and was appointed Attorney General for New Hampshire by Governor John Wentworth in 1769.
He began the settlement of New Holderness, now Holder- ness, in 1765, of which he was one of the original grantees in 1761. He acquired by purchase nearly half of that town, own- ing ten or twelve thousand acres in Holderness, Campton and Plymouth. His farm was on the bank of the Pemigewasset river, opposite the village of Plymouth. Here he fixed his residence about the beginning of the Revolution, because, as some think, he did not wish to take an active part in the approaching struggle. Yet he had the confidence of all parties and retained his office as attorney general, rarely leaving home to attend to its duties. He had enjoyed an extensive law
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practice at Portsmouth, yet for two years he tended his own flouring-mill at New Holderness. His legal abilities were soon again in demand, and he was employed by the State to care for its interests in the celebrated Vermont Controversy. For this purpose he appeared as a delegate to the Continental Con- gress in 1779, where he remained till 1782. He was then appointed Chief Justice of New Hampshire. Again he was elected to Congress in 1785, without resigning his office as Chief Justice. He was very active and influential in the convention that ratified the national constitution, and under that constitu- tion he was New Hampshire's representative in Congress from 1779 to 1792. The following year he succeeded Paine Wingate in the United States Senate and after serving a full term of six years was reelected to that office. Twice he was chosen president pro tempore of the Senate, and as such signed an address to the President on the death of George Washington. He resigned his seat in the Senate, June 12, 1801, on account of impaired health and died at his home, May 18, 1803. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. Arthur Brown, rector of the Episco- pal church at Portsmouth. Two of their five children became well known in the history of New Hampshire.
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