USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 42
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This alone of the old Newport residences (the homes of the Malbones, the Overings, and the Bannisters, the gentry of the time, whose walls echoed by turns the loud laughter of English officers, the fervent enthusiasm of Colonial patriots, and the sprightly merriment of the gay companions of DeGrasse and Rochambeau, and down whose long halls, high dignitaries, victorious generals, and courtly parlor knights led graceful dames in stately minuet or gayer dance), still bears some traces of its ancient grandeur.
Here MR. ELAM maintained a noble hospitality, of which the fame spread far and wide. One day of each week, throughout the season when Newport was most frequented, Vaucluse was thrown open for the entertainment of strangers : every luxury in food which taste could command, or unbounded means supply, was spread upon his board, and the choicest wines flowed fast and free. An amusing incident is related of him which well accords with his general disposition and hospitality. A member of the Society of Friends of the Orthodox School, and subject to the discipline of the church, the gayety of his mansion, which was doubtless, after the manner of the day, not always subdued, was at times a subject of remark among his religious peers. Hearing, on one occasion, that it had been resolved upon to discipline him at an early day, he invited the scandalized companion and the threatened judges to a dinner at Vaucluse, where, under the mixed influences of kind- ness and good cheer, it is said that they were compelled to confess, before they bade him adieu, that they were but fellow sinners, and none cared to throw the first stone.
But it must not be inferred that conviviality was the measure of the heart or habit of MR. ELAM. In his elegant leisure he drew about him many of the most celebrated of the literary men and artists of the time, and many a work of charity was planned within his walls. Even in the cultivation of his lands he sought rather the public benefit by the example he set at his own cost than any profit to himself. He was constantly importing the new- est varieties in seeds and roots, and distributing them broadcast over the whole country with a bounteous hand.
Here, in the loveliest season of the year, when the October sun had warned the fogs to sea and was touching with magic pencil the foliage of each shrub and tree,-far from his native home, but amid troops of friends, full of years and at peace with God and man,-this lovely, generous nature passed to his rest, and was laid beneath the broad branches of the tall elms his own hands had planted and his own watchful care had nursed. MR. ELAM having never married, "Vaucluse " soon felt the loss of its master's tender care.
" But O, the heavy change, now thou art gone ! Now thou art gone and never must return ! Thee shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes mourn."-
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Vaucluse has long since passed into the hands of the stranger, but some- thing of the old spirit yet haunts its pictured grounds. The gate stands ever open and the latch hangs outside the door to any that would evoke the shade of its whilom master, and but the shade. A small, unpretending tombstone, about one foot square, stands in the south-west corner of the Friends' Burying Ground, in the town of Newport (on either side the stones of John Slocum and Benjamin Haven), and tells the visitor that there now lies-
SAMUEL ELAM, DIED 1813, AGED 63 YEARS.
But the name and the fame of Vaucluse will be a household story when this too shall have passed away, and even its own glories be but a tradition of the past.
An obituary notice of MR. ELAM, in the Newport Mercury of October 30, 1813, gives the date of his death as the 25th October, 1813.
FAIRHOLME JOHNSTON .- At the breaking out of the War he with- drew to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. In July, 1776, he was arrested by Ma- jor Duyckinck, and sent to General Livingston at Elizabethtown. He was subsequently sent to the Provincial Congress, which directed him to remain on parole at Trenton. He was later allowed to live at Bordentown.
FOLLIOT GEORGE .- An extensive importer. In 1775 he was elect- ed to the Committee of One Hundred, but refused to serve. He was also chosen member of the Provincial Congress for the City and County of New York in 1775, but declined to act. His estate of twenty-one acres was con- fiscated and sold in 1784. A record of his marriage to Jane Harison ap- pears in the Book of New York marriages November 16, 1758. He an- nounced his intention to go to Europe by the first conveyance, and called in his outstanding accounts Nov. 5, 1781, by an advertisement in the New York Gazette.
FORTEATH ALEXANDER .- The house of ALEXANDER FOR- TEATH was at 52 Burling Slip in 1781, in the West India trade. Nothing more is known of MR. FORTEATH.
FRANKLIN WALTER .- Born in England of a highly respectable Quaker family. Of his early life little is known until, with his brother, he emigrated to America and fixed his home in the City of New York. The name "Walter & Samuel Franklin " was for a long period well and honorably known among New York merchants. In 1761 they were actively engaged in the importation of dry goods from Liverpool and other English ports. In 1768 MR. WALTER FRANKLIN appears to have been alone. At this time he joined with a few of the leading merchants of the day in the organization of the Chamber of Commerce. On the 12th May, 1774, he married Mary, daughter of Daniel Bowne, of Flushing, a lady of great beauty and many estimable qualities. He was one of the Committee of One Hundred chosen to look to the safety of the city in May, 1775. Both he and his brother Samuel remained in the city during the War, and were signers of the loyal address to Lord and General Howe in October of 1776.
The city residence of WALTER FRANKLIN was in Pearl Street, near Cherry, in the building later known as the Franklin Bank. He had besides a country place at Maspeth, which was for a long time a Quaker commu- nity. This beautiful seat was afterwards the residence of Hon. De Witt Clinton.
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MR. FRANKLIN did not survive the War. His death is recorded in Rivington's Royal Gazette, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 1780. "Last Sunday (6th) died of an apoplexy, MR. WALTER FRANKLIN, an old inhabitant and for- merly an eminent merchant and underwriter of this City."
By his wife, Mary Bowne, he had three children, all daughters-Sarah, who married John Norton, a gentleman of wealth from Georgia ; Mary, the wife of De Witt Clinton ; and Hannah, of George Clinton, brother of the last named.
MR. FRANKLIN acquired a large fortune in trade and was much loved and respected, as the tender affection in which his memory is still cherished, particularly among Quakers of all sects, abundantly shows .- Communicated by Walter Franklin Jones, Esq.
GLOVER JOHN I .- The son of John and Alice Glover, of Leeds, Yorkshire, England, was born in that town in the year 1749. He came to America in the year 1768 in charge of the business of Emanuel Elam, of Leeds, who was at that period and for many years after extensively engaged in the woollen trade with this country. MR. GLOVER, although but nineteen years of age when he established himself in New York, managed his agency with such a happy mixture of caution and enterprise, that in the course of six years he doubled the amount of his principal's business with the Colo- nies, without incurring a single bad debt.
His chief characteristics as a merchant were industry, punctuality, directness, and good faith. It is related of him that he won the entire con- fidence of those to whom he was introduced by strict silence with regard to such information as was entrusted to him, and that the mutual confidence thus engendered invariably grew into strong and lasting friendships.
So young and so lately from the old country, with which his relations were yet warm, and bound to great caution by consideration for the inter- ests of his patron, he could not be expected to take part in the discussion of the great political questions which were agitating men's minds and de- ranging the regular course of trade.
MR. GLOVER was in the city during the British occupation ; at least he was elected to the Chamber of Commerce on the 4th March, 1783, and must have been then engaged in business here : it was not until the fol- lowing December that the British withdrew from the city. His friend and companion, Samuel Elam, his junior by a year only and the nephew of his principal, was chosen member of the Chamber the same day. The re- organization of the Chamber under a Charter from the State the next year involved the necessity of a re-election, and he was again chosen, June, 1784.
After closing his agency for Emanuel Elam, MR. GLOVER entered into co- partnership with Thomas Pearsall, under the style of PEARSALL & GLOVER, in the dry goods business, in the course of which he removed to New Haven, Connecticut, and opened a dry goods house in that town. Many of the customers of this as well as of other New York importing houses were in the New England States.
This movement of an important business house,-doubtless one of many similarly situated,-presents a striking instance of the difficulties under which commerce labored at the period which immediately followed the Revolution, and which were a natural continuance of those which had caused so much bitterness and bad feeling between the different Colonies during the voluntary "non-importation agreements " which immediately preceded the appeal to arms. Each State, claiming to be sovereign, had such navi- gation and revenue laws as it thought best suited to foster its own trade
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and attract that of its neighbors, in total disregard of the general interest,- a state of things which, if it had lasted, would have required the establish- ment of internal custom houses and revenue guards on the frontier lines of each State-have led to a general system of smuggling from State to State, and in the end to civil war ; for it is not to be supposed that the larger States, whose taxes were in proportion to their population and heavier ex- penditure, would have consented quietly to the flooding of their markets with goods brought in from other States at a lower rate of duty than they exacted from their own citizens. Thus in Connecticut the duties on foreign goods were five per cent. less than those levied by the State of New York.
A brief review of the subject will not be without interest. The articles of " Confederation and Perpetual Union" submitted by the Congress sitting at Yorktown, in a Circular Letter to the several States on the 17th Novem- ber, 1777, were after long struggle and many delays finally adopted by all the States in March, 1781, and the confederacy styled THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was formally established. The State of New Jersey, in an able memorial of its Legislature laid before Congress in reply to the Circular Letter of that body on the 25th June, 1781, called attention to the insufficient nature of the powers vested in Congress over the foreign trade of the country. "By the sixth and ninth articles the regulation of trade seems to be committed to the several States within their separate jurisdic- tions in such a degree as may involve many difficulties and embarrassments, and be attended with injustice to some States in the Union. We are of opinion that the sole and exclusive power of regulating the trade of the United States with foreign nations ought to be clearly vested in the Con- gress ; and that the revenue arising from all duties and customs imposed thereon ought to be appropriated to the building, equipping and manning a navy for the protection and defence of the coasts, and to such other public and general purposes as to the Congress shall seem proper and for the common benefit of the States. This principle appears to us to be just, and it may be added, that a great security will by this means be derived to the Union from the establishment of a common and mutual interest."
This wise suggestion was unheeded by the Congress, the great subject of difference between the States as to the proposed confederation being the claims of the larger States to the vast vacant territory comprised within the boundaries fixed by their Colonial Charters from the Crown. It is worthy of notice that each of the thirteen original Colonies, now States, had a sea- port of its own-a fact which partially accounts for their indifference on the subject of a general revenue system. Had there been a single State without such facility, as a majority of all are to-day, there can be no doubt that the disadvantage under which it would labor would have been at once seen. Such State could never have voluntarily made part of a Union which placed it at the mercy of its neighbors. The State of New York closed the great dispute and removed the last bar to the confederation by the noble example of a voluntary surrender of her vast territorial claims. But of what real avail were the waste lands to those States which did not lie con- tiguous to them, if the States which had this advantage could impose on the population, soon to enter upon them, a revenue tax on all the foreign arti- cles it should consume ?
The working of the new government soon developed its weakness and brought home to the minds of men the stern fact that a confederation of sovereignties, without more central power, especially that of regulating intercourse with foreign nations, was not a proper system for this country. With this strong conviction, and under the lead and direction of men of
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unequalled wisdom, foresight, statesmanship and patriotism, the American people resolved to re-form their Government and "establish a more perfect Union." The Constitution of the United States (an instrument in which the words "Sovereign States " and "Federal Government" are nowhere to be found), was finally adopted, and Congress held its first session under it in New York, April 1, 1789.
It is a curious fact, and one to which Mr. Webster called attention, that the first petition to this Congress was from "certain tradesmen, manufactur- ers and others of Maryland, praying an imposition of such duties on all for- eign articles which can be made in America, as will give a just and decided preference to the labors of the petitioners ; " and the second " a petition of the shipwrights of the city of Charlestown, in the State of South Carolina, praying that the wisdom and policy of the national legislature may be directed to such measures, in a general regulation of trade and the estab- lishment of a proper navigation act, as will tend to relieve the particular distresses of the petitioners, and in common with them that of their fel- low-shipwrights throughout the United States."
It is difficult, at this distance of time, to estimate the extent of suffering caused by the depression of commerce during the interval from the ratifica- tion of peace in 1783 to the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. The mem- ory of them fortunately remained, and in no small degree served to strength- en the solemn resolve of the American people, in its late great struggle, to preserve a government obtained through such trials and at such cost.
To return from this digression, the adoption of the Constitution was the signal for the breaking up of the New Haven establishment, and the return of MR. GLOVER to New York. He had been married in 1786 to Miss Sarah Cornell, of Success, Long Island.
Besides the dry goods establishment which he continued to direct at 222 Pearl Street, his enterprising spirit and great industry led him into other transactions and occupations. He was interested for many years in equal shares with Peter Schermerhorn, John Titus, and Thomas C. Pearsall, in ships and cargoes. He was partially engaged in the trade with Calcutta, and constantly took ventures in other enterprises as favorable opportunities offered.
He was a director in the First United States Bank, in the United Marine Insurance Company, and the Globe Fire Insurance Company. He was also a Governor of that ancient charity, the New York Hospital, from 1796 to I802.
By his wife, Sarah Cornell, MR. GLOVER had a large family of children, twelve of whom survived him. His death occurred at his house on the cor- ner of Broadway and Leonard Street, in September, 1824, at the age of 75 years.
One who knew him well says of him, "He was lovely at his death as in his life ; to the Rev. the late Dr. Milnor, of St. George's Church, he de- clared his entire belief of the atonement of his Saviour, expressed himself as ready and willing to die, adding, that had he his life to live over again he did not know one thing he should wish to alter."-The biographical details communicated by John Glover, Esq., of Fairfield, Conn.
GOODWIN THOMAS .- Nothing appears of this person. He seems to have remained in the city till the close of the War.
GOOLD EDWARD .- A large general importer in Hanover Square. He remained in the city during and after the War. In 1774 he married Sarah Child Huggins, who is said to have been a West Indian lady of some
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fortune (the date of the bond is given as March 2, 1774). After the peace he formed a connection with one of the Ludlows, and they carried on an importing business at 49 Wall Street, under the firm of LUDLOW & GOOLD.
GOUVERNEUR HERMAN .- The family of Gouverneur in America is descended from Nicholas Gouverneur, a French Huguenot who estab- lished himself as a merchant in Amsterdam, and had early connection with the trade of the New Netherlands. His son Abraham, having received an extended education, which included the speaking and writing of three languages, English, French, and Dutch, emigrated to this country. He is distinguished in the history of the time as the Secretary to Leisler during his administration of the government of the province. As such he attested his public acts, and was included in the indictment and conviction under which Leisler and Milbourne suffered on the 19th March, 1691. The Sec- retary was reprieved by Governor Slaughter, and the sentence being re- versed by Act of Parliament, his property was partially restored, and £1000 was paid to him by a vote of the Colonial Legislative Assembly in further compensation. After this restoration he became a leader of the Dutch party and was elected Speaker of the Assembly and Recorder of the City. After the execution of Milbourne, Abraham Gouverneur married his widow, who was the daughter of Leisler.
From him HERMAN GOUVERNEUR was descended. He was a merchant in general business, chiefly with the West Indies and Curacoa, on Hunter's Quay, near the Coffee House. He was also the owner of "large commo- dious Store Houses " on Gouverneur's Wharf, which stood on the corner of Front Street and Gouverneur's Alley. He was lost at sea in returning from Curacoa, where Isaac Gouverneur, his uncle, possessed a large estate. The vessel on which he embarked was never after heard from, and is supposed to have foundered. This occurred about the year 1773. In June of the next year, 1774, Mary Gouverneur, Hugh Wallace, and Nicholas Gouver- neur, his executors, advertised for sale six thousand and eighty-six acres of land in the patent of Kayaderosses, in the County of Albany. These valuable lands were near to the City, and formed part of his large estate .- Chiefly contributed by Gouverneur Kemble, Esq., of Cold Spring.
GOUVERNEUR NICHOLAS .- This gentleman, who was one of the earliest members of the Chamber of Commerce in 1768, was the brother-in- law of its first President, John Cruger, whose sister Sarah he married in 1755, the date of the bond being recorded as of the 15th August of that year. She was the daughter of John Cruger, the first mayor of the name, and Maria Cuyler. In 1764 he advertised for sale iron mines, with furnaces and forges, dwellings and coal-houses, on a good stream, 28 miles from Ac- quackanung landing, and 30 miles from New York ; application to be made to himself at New York, or to David Ogden, or Samuel Gouverneur. NICH- OLAS GOUVERNEUR appears in 1774 as one of the executors of Herman Gouverneur, then recently deceased. He was then residing at Mount Plea- sant, near Newark, New Jersey.
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All the Gouverneurs were strong Whigs during the war of the Revolu- tion. Isaac Gouverneur, who had been established in business by his uncle of the same name at Curacoa, St. Eustatia, and who was afterwards of New York, presented the Provincial Congress of New York with "one pair of nine pound cannon " in October, 1775, and received a vote of thanks for the timely and patriotic gift. The house of Curson & Gouverneur, of which he was a member, supplied the American army with arms and ammunition. On the capture of St. Eustatia by Admiral Rodney, in the summer of 1781,
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the partners were made prisoners and taken to England, and " Mr. Gouver- neur was committed to New Prison charged with High Treason in carrying on a correspondence with the American agent, Adams, at Amsterdam, and with furnishing the colonists with ammunition and every other species of military stores for the support of the war." They are naively stated in the account published in the Political Magazine, 1781, to have been "plainly dressed, but had the entire appearance of gentlemen, in light brown clothes and white hats. The house of which they were the heads was deemed the first in St. Eustatia, and the firm of the partnership was estimated at no less a sum than three hundred thousand pounds." He was released at the peace .- Chiefly contributed by Gouverneur Kemble, Esq., of Cold Spring.
HAKE SAMUEL .- A general importer of European and India goods, doing business in 1771 at the lower end of Wall Street, and in 1772 in Queen Street. He married Helen, daughter of Robert Gilbert Livingston, who was a distinguished merchant of New York. The date of the bond is recorded as of 4th January, 1769. He remained in New York during the War.
HASENCLIVER PETER .- He was a merchant of great considera- tion. On the 12th January, 1767, Governor Moore wrote to the Board of Trade, advising them that he had given " MR. PETER HASENCLIVER a Letter of Introduction, as he was then ready to sail for England, imagining that from his character and knowledge of the Country a more perfect Account might be obtained from him of what was required in the before mentioned Letter than I could possibly give by that opportunity. As to the Foundaries which MR. HASENCLIVER has set up in the different parts of this country, I do not mention them, as he will be able to give your Lord- ships a full account of them and of the progress he has already made ; can only say that I think this Province is under very great obligations to him for the large sums of money he has laid out here in promoting the cultiva- tion of Hemp and introducing the valuable manufacture of Iron and Pot Ash."-London Doc., XL. These were the Ringwood Iron Works in East Jersey. On the 26th June, 1766, he advertised the runaway of a number of miners who were "still engaged by contract for 3 years and 4 months, who have been brought into this country from Europe at a very great expense." They were arrested shortly after. He here signs himself PETER HASENE- CLEVER, but the name is differently spelled on the minutes of the Chamber.
HODGZARD WILLIAM .- Of the house of " Hodgzard & Graham," whose business was chiefly the sale of provisions from Cork ; Irish Beef, Pork, and Rose butter-the latter a famous commodity in that day. To these they added a stock of " Piece Goods," consisting of colored broadcloths, ribbons, &c. Their store was in 1780 at 853 Hanover Square. In 1781 it is described as No. 38 Hanover Square.
HOFFMAN NICHOLAS .- Of the house of " Hoffman & Ludlow," auctioneers. He was the son of Colonel Martinus Hoffman and Wyntie Benson, and was born in Dutchess County in the year 1736. In 1768 the firm were in business in Dock Street. At a later period the connection with Mr. Ludlow appears to have been broken off, for in 1780 MR. HOFF- MAN advertises teas for sale "purchased out of the India prize ship," from his store No. 907 Water Street. He married Sarah Ogden, of Newark, New Jersey, by whom he had children, Martin Hoffman, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and Mary, wife of James Seton. He was one of the General
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Committee of One Hundred chosen in May, 1775, when the citizens seized the Government, but he does not appear to have taken a prominent part in public affairs. He clung to the faith of his ancestors, and was a Deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1773. He is described as "a Dutchman, slow, inflexible in honesty and pure in character." He died at Redhook in 1800. His descendants are the families of the late Ogden Hoffman, Judge Murray Hoffman, and the late Lindley Murray Hoffman, the latter of whom honorably sustained the mercantile reputation of his ancestor.
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