USA > New York > Famous families of New York; historical and biographical sketches of families which in successive generations have been identified with the development of the nation, Vol. II > Part 10
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Viewed as a unit, the Schuyler family has had a great influ- ence upon the Empire State. In the colonial days it was in the front rank of the progressive patroons, and aided the conversion of the northern and eastern districts of the commonwealth from savagery to civilization. It was always liberal, generous, and tolerant. These virtues it brought from the Netherlands, and with them the love of learning, of comfort, and refinement. The Schuyler homes for two hundred years were noted for hospitality, and were crowded by the leading men and women of the time. Of the great Revolutionary characters, more than one half were guests at some time of the Schuyler mansion in Albany. They devoted their activity to matters of general welfare, such as the extension of the colonies into Canada, the construction of the Erie Canal system, the establishment of a national bank, and the upholding of the national honor no matter at what cost. In quiet seasons they took little interest, and seldom engaged, in the game of politics. They made good soldiers and landed proprietors, and were gentlemen of culture. Where they had power over ten- ants they never abused it, and never were arbitrary or tyrannical. During the Revolution, tradition says, they incurred the displeas- ure of some of the patroon class by waiving all rents from tenants. They did this from pure philanthropy, and probably did not realize that in so doing they were making the stepping-stone from the then existing conditions to the anti-rent and anti-quarter sale agitation, which was to revolutionize the rural system of New York.
Smith
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William Smith Justice of the Supreme Court From a miniature
XXXIII
SMITH
IVE generations of college men, where- of each has supplied distinguished lawyers to the community, is the sim- ple but magnificent record of the Smith family of New York. Through profes- sional ability, it has enjoyed the ad- vantages of wealth; through marriage, it has become connected with many of the old Knickerbocker bloods, and through legal, literary, and medical services, it has stamped itself upon the chronicles of the State.
Its most prominent ancestor was William, a stalwart soldier in the army of Oliver Cromwell. He was one of the praying and pious soldiers of that period, who taught the world the impressive lesson that a religious devotee William the Soldier was more than a match in the tented field for the and Puritan conscienceless free-lance or the roystering swashbuckler. His was the type which, after the Restoration, supplied the New World with so much of its best material. The emigrants brought with them across the seas the high moral purposes and the indomitable patience which had marked them in the civil struggles at home. That nearly all were narrow-minded and intolerant, is often charged against them as a heinous fault. Such criticisms, however, over- look the fact that the conquest of the New World demanded the
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iron virtues, and not the pleasing courtesies of a refined civiliza- tion. The great colonies of the world have been founded by heroes and zealots.
William the soldier was born in the Isle of Ely, Cambridge- shire, England, but removed and settled at Newport Pagnell, Buck- inghamshire, where he died about 1682. He married Elizabeth Hartley of Lancashire, by whom he had six children-five sons and one daughter: William II., James, John, Samuel, Thomas (from whom the New York branch descends), and Christiana. Of this generation, two left home for America. William II., the oldest, emigrated to Jamaica, W. I., and settled at Port Royal, from which he is known as " Port Royal " Smith. He married "Port Royal " Frances Peartree, daughter of Colonel William Peartree,
Smith who was Mayor of New York in 1703. From him are descended the Peartree-Smiths, who played an important part in the Empire State in the eighteenth century.
Thomas, the fifth and youngest son of William I., was born in 1675 at Newport Pagnell, married Susanna Odell, and came to
Thomas the New World with his three sons in 1715. He had
the Merchant scarcely more than landed when he started a move- ment looking toward the establishment of a Presbyterian Church, there being none in the city at that time. Success crowned his efforts, and in 1716 the denomination in which he was an enthu- siastic worker had its own place of worship. He died in 1745. He was a merchant and a man of large means.
Of the children of Thomas, Judge William was one of the great men of his period. When he arrived with his father in New
Judge York he was eighteen years of age. The same year William (1715) he entered Yale, where he was graduated in 1719, and took the degree of A.M. in 1722. For the next two years he served as professor at that institution of learning, during which period he showed so much ability that in 1724, when but twenty-seven years old, he was asked to become the President of the college. He declined, as he had already taken up the study of law, and had pursued it with such assiduity in his leisure hours that he was admitted to the bar the same year. Two months
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afterwards he opened a law office in New York, and was shortly in the enjoyment of a good practice.
From this point on until his death, in 1769, he was a leading figure in colonial life. He appeared in nearly every litigation of importance, and was a leader in each political issue. In politics, he was a Whig; in his ideas, an advocate of the people against the Crown. When the British officials undertook the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, editor of the New York Weekly Journal (1735), William Smith and James Alexander defended the accused, and so offended the magistrates that their names were stricken from the roll of attorneys. In spite of the power of the Crown, Zenger was acquitted, and the liberties of the press preserved. Although his disbarment lasted two years, it only served to in- crease his power and influence in the colony. In 1736, he was made Recorder; in 1748, he was one of the incorporators of Prince- ton College, and is said by the historian of that institution to have drawn up the first charter and the draft of the second. To the end of his life " he was the earnest friend of the college, and one of the most honored and influential members of the Board."
The cause of higher education was neglected in New York in those years. Among the chief men of that period, only Judge Smith and Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey were college grad- uates. The first step toward a better condition was taken by Judge Smith, William Alexander, and three members of the Morris family, who in 1732 petitioned the Assembly to establish a free school for teaching Latin, Greek, and mathematics. This was done the same year, and proved a success. The experiment was so popular that the same men now, aided by other leading citizens, determined to have a college in their own city. Funds were col- lected by lotteries, and an annual grant promised by the Legis- lature. In 1751, trustees were appointed, and in 1754, the charter of the College of the Province of New York, known as King's College, was granted. Owing largely to Judge Smith's efforts, the new school started upon a liberal and almost non-sectarian basis. In the Board of Governors were the rector of Trinity Church, the senior minister of the Reformed Protestant Dutch
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Church, the minister of the Ancient Lutheran Church, the minister of the French Church, and the minister of the Presbyterian con- gregation. In 1754, the Judge, with a number of distinguished friends, arranged plans for a public library, obtained the charter, and started what is now the New York Society Library.
The year 1751 saw the Judge appointed Attorney-General and Advocate-General. Two years later, he was made a member of the Council. The following year, he was chosen to be one of the four representatives from New York to the General Congress at Albany. In 1760, the office of Chief Justice was offered to him by Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden, but declined. Three years afterwards, he accepted the appointment of Judge of the Supreme Court of the Province, and held it with singular ability up to the time of his death. He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Hett, by whom he had fifteen children; his second, Mrs. Elizabeth Scott Williams, by whom he had no issue. He applied his educational ideas to the training of his children. All were good French and Dutch scholars, and thoroughly versed in English literature. The sons were familiar with Greek and Latin, and had a fair knowledge of Hebrew.
Thomas [1700 ?], the second son of Thomas and Susanna, was a merchant and real-estate owner of considerable wealth. He
Thomas II., was one of the first to develop Orange County, where
Merchant he had a great tract of land. He lived at Smith's Clove, now Monroe. John, the third son [1702], was a popular Rev. John clergyman, who spent the larger part of his life at
White Plains. He married Mehetabel Hooker, by whom he had four sons and eight daughters.
In the fourth generation, William Peartree [1723] was a public-spirited citizen and patriot, who was very active in civic affairs.
Chief Justice William [1728], son of Judge William, was the great man of the generation. He inherited his father's character, Chief Justice and was a brilliant student. He was graduated from William Yale in 1745, when but seventeen years of age. So great was his precocity that he was an honor man in the classics,
William Smith Chief Justice of New York and of Canada. From a steel engraving
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mathematics, Hebrew, and medicine- a wonderful record for a mere youth. He entered his father's law office, where he had as a fellow-student William Livingston, the future war-Governor of New Jersey. He was admitted to the bar in 1760, and formed a partnership with Livingston, the firm immediately building up a lucrative practice.
Up to the time of the Revolution, no man stood higher in the affections of the Colonials. His culture, eloquence, probity, gen- tleness, and breeding made him a universal favorite. He was conscientious to a fault, doing things that to the great world seemed ultra-chivalrous and even quixotic. He would not defend a cause which he knew to be wrong, and when he served as ar- bitrator, he refused any remuneration, on the ground that a judge should never have any fee. He declined speculative cases, and would not permit a man to come into his law office unless it was with " clean hands." He was a copious writer, wielding a pleas- ant and powerful pen. His chief work, A History of the Province of New York, is an eighteenth-century classic. From this work he takes the sobriquet of "William the Historian."
Yet his very conscientiousness plunged him into a sea of trouble. When the Revolutionary War broke out, his sympathies were with the people, and yet he believed the crime of rebellion to be unpardonable. He was bitterly opposed to the tyranny of the British Government, but he thought redress should be sought along peaceful channels. He had the courage of his convictions, refusing to take part in the rebellion, on the one side, or to fight against his countrymen on the other. As a result, he was named in the Act of Attainder, and his estates confiscated. When mod- erate counsels prevailed, the act was cancelled, and the Chief Justice invited to return to New York. In the meantime, he, with his son William, had gone to England on the evacuation of New York in 1783. In 1785, he was appointed Chief Justice of Canada, where he exercised the functions of that high office with honor to himself until his death, in 1793. He married Jennet Livingston, daughter of James Livingston of New York, by whom he had ten children.
VOL. 11-10.
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Thomas [1734], the second son of Judge William, was gradu- ated from Princeton (1754) and admitted to the bar in 1756. He
Thomas was a patriot, and, unlike his brother, a Revolutionist. the Lawyer He was a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Provincial Congress. His law practice was lucrative, and made him a wealthy man, outside of the property which he inherited. He married Elizabeth Lynsen, by whom he had a large family.
Dr. James [1738], the third son of Judge William, was gradu- ated from Princeton (1757), and received the best medical education of the time in Europe, and especially at Leyden, Hol- Dr. James land. He was instrumental in the organization of the medical department of Columbia College, and in 1768 was ap- pointed to the chair of chemistry and materia medica. He was an active Whig, and both in this country and abroad argued manfully for the colonies. He was not alone a great physician, but so far ahead of his time as to be pronounced too theoretical and fanciful. What galled the practitioners of the period was that Dr. James would write his theses in Latin or else employ so much of that language in his medical papers as to render them unintelligible to the average practitioner. He married Mrs. Atkinson, a wealthy widow of Kingston, Jamaica, by whom he had issue.
Joshua Hett [1749], the youngest son of Judge William, was admitted to the bar in 1772. He was a successful practitioner, Joshua Hett and during the Revolution pursued the same course as the Lawyer his oldest brother, the Chief Justice. He was involved in the Arnold episode, but appears to have been innocent of all complicity in that treachery.
In the fifth generation, William [1769], the son of the his- torian, was educated in New York and England. He accompanied
William the his father to Canada, where he was made Clerk of
Historian the Provincial Parliament. In 1814, he was placed in of Canada the Executive Council. He was lieutenant-colonel in the Quebec militia and a successful lawyer and writer. His chief work was A History of the Province of Canada, similar to his father's A History of the Province of New York. He married Susan Webber, by whom he had five children. His grandson,
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Lieutenant-Colonel William C. Smith of the British Army, is the present head of that branch of the family.
Of the children of Thomas of Haverstraw, second son of Judge William, the most important was Thomas, Jr. [1760?]. He was a lawyer of wealth, who devoted most of his time Thomas, Jr., to the management of his estate. He married Mary the Lawyer Taylor, daughter of John Taylor, a merchant prince of the metrop- olis, by whom he had five children.
In the sixth generation, the children of Thomas, Jr., deserve special mention. The oldest, John Taylor, was graduated from Columbia University in 1805, and admitted to the bar John Taylor, in 1810. He became District Attorney of Rockland District County, and for many years was active in State affairs. Attorney He was a stanch supporter of De Witt Clinton and the canal policy, as well as of all the liberal movements of his period. He married Willimina Stodart, by whom he had six children-three sons and three daughters.
The head of the seventh generation, and of the house, so far as America is concerned, is Charles Bainbridge, a prominent member of the New York bar. He is a son of John Taylor and Willimina, and was born in 1822. He Charles Bainbridge, studied law in the office of William Curtis Noyes, Lawyer and was admitted to the bar in 1846. He has been an active and successful practitioner up to the present time. He married twice, his first wife being Miss Keteltas, by whom he had issue.
In the eighth generation is Eugene Keteltas, son of Charles Bainbridge. He was educated in this country and in Eugene
France, and resides in Vermont. He is represented Keteltas in the ninth generation by two sons.
Female descendants of William and Elizabeth Smith married into the following families: Bostwick, Budd, Delafield, Denning, Doyle, Gordon, Hay, Herbert, Keteltas, Livingston, Mackie, Mallet, Maturin, Roberts, Rose, Ross, Sewall, Stewart, Tallmadge, Temple, and Torrans.
To-day, when all are agreed upon the value of education, especially in its relations to professional and social life, it is difficult
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to appreciate the conditions which prevailed in the first century of the life of New York. Schools were few and poorly patronized, and such of the citizens as desired to give their children the bene- fits of the best mental training were compelled to send them to New England or to the old country. The change which the colony underwent during these one hundred years was largely due to the influence and activity of the descendants of William and Elizabeth Smith. They had big hearts, and endeavored not only to give their own children the best education which could be procured, but also to place educational opportunities within the grasp of the community. Their work in respect to Yale, Prince- ton, and Columbia, and, above all, the example which they them- selves set for their neighbors, were two forces potent for good. That the family has sustained its own traditions, was to have been expected.
Stuyvesant
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Peter Stuyvesant After an engraving of the picture owned by the N. Y. Historical Society
XXXIV
STUYVESANT
N the early history of the New Nether- lands, one man towers high over all the rest. A soldier, statesman, patriot, and philanthropist, he seems to have embodied the virtues of his age. Petrus, or Peter, Stuyvesant, the great Dutch Governor of New Petrus the York, was born in 1602, in Governor
Friesland. His father was a clergy- man, who gave the boy an excellent education, and developed the schol- arly instincts which were to mark his subsequent career, but neither study nor the quiet life of Holland suited a youth whose vitality, physical and mental, was of heroic proportions. At an early age he had shown a love for military life, and to gratify it entered the service of the West India Com- pany. This corporation represented the inordinate ambition of the Dutch leaders of that period. Upon it was conferred more power than had been bestowed by England upon the East India Company.
It had plenary rights to all the lands it might discover, occupy, or conquer. It had the right to make war and peace, enter into alliances, raise armies, build navies, construct fortresses, adminis- ter justice, impose tariffs and other forms of taxation, and its generals and admirals enjoyed an independence unlike anything
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known to either national or international jurisprudence. In return for these mighty prerogatives it was obliged to report its trans- actions from time to time to the States-General of Holland, and to apply to them for commissions for its chief officials. The object of the corporation was to build up a trade monopoly and a landed empire in the West, as had been done in the East, Indies.
The capital of the West India Company was about $2,500,000, which, in purchasing power, would equal about $25,000,000 to-day. These powers and wealth made it a quasi-political entity, stronger and better organized than many of the European nations of that period. Conducted by business-men, merit was the criterion of selection and advancement-more than in the administration of public affairs by the governments of the time. From the em- ployees of the company were graduated many of the best soldiers and sailors of that century. Its service was the Mecca of adven- turers from many lands. In the rosters which have come down to the present day may be found names of English, French, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, German, and even Russian officials.
Among its myriad servitors, Peter Stuyvesant was prominent within a few years after he had entered its employ. Of his ex- ploits at this time, but little has come down from the past. Yet that little shows him to have been a fearless and even reckless fighter, a bold strategist, a powerful executive, and a stern dis- ciplinarian, and by a seeming contradiction, a man of great kind- liness and rare generosity. This combination of attributes made him popular if not beloved among the fighting men, who prepon- derated in the Company's service. He took part in the brilliant campaign against Spain which resulted in the conquest of several Spanish territories in the Antilles, and was thereafter made Gover- nor of the island of Curaçoa.
Here, while occupying the gubernatorial chair, he led an ex- pedition against the island of St. Martin, which belonged to Portu- gal, where, according to an ancient wit, he lost both the battle and his leg. He returned to Europe for surgical aid, and while convalescing was so eager for either vengeance or the carrying out of his plans that he secured a promise from the directors of the
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Company to renew the attempt, which they did triumphantly four years later. In 1646, he was appointed Governor of the New Netherlands, and sailed on Christmas morning for his post. The sting of defeat must have been rankling in his bosom, because he did not proceed directly across the sea, but went to the West Indies and to Curaçoa, where he arrived early in 1647. Here he held many councils with his successor, and probably among the plans which the doughty veteran expatiated upon was the expul- sion of the Portuguese from those seas.
He reached New Amsterdam in May of that year. With him were his wife, Judith Bayard, the daughter of a distinguished Huguenot divine, and his sister Anna, who had married Nicholas Bayard, his wife's elder brother, but who had been widowed and left with three infant sons. This group, the origin of two families, may be regarded as a genealogical unit. The Bayards had in- herited the grace, intellectuality, and high moral sense of their clerical sire, while the Stuyvesants, brother and sister, seemed to have been made in the same mould of physical and mental power. The two women were to wield as potent an influence in the social sphere as the great Governor in the political. Even at home they would have been leaders of society. They were brilliant, cul- tured, and accomplished. Mrs. Stuyvesant, who was a Bayard, was beautiful, artistic, and gentle. Mrs. Bayard, who was a Stuyvesant, was massive, forceful, and proud. Each had a talent for business, and each acted as a tutor to her children, nephews, and nieces. They deserve special reference at this point because they exerted a profound influence upon the husband and brother. He consulted with them upon many, if not most, matters, and seemed to feel more confidence in their opinions than in those of his staff. To these women may be ascribed much of the moral force which prevailed during the Stuyvesant administration, and which was noticeable during that century.
The Dutch women were notably chaste and upright, but were, of course, apt to be influenced by those high in power. Mrs. Stuyvesant and Mrs. Bayard, occupying the highest official positions in the colony, set an example in both word and deed
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similar to that of the late Queen Victoria in the century just passed.
The Governor's administration may be called the golden age of the New Netherlands. He was no more than landed when he took up his work, and never wearied so long as he was in power. He organized a Council, established a court of justice, and insti- tuted representative government. His Assembly was, of course, crude, consisting of eighteen delegates, elected by the people, from whom the Governor and Council selected a board of nine to act with them as advisers. He framed laws for the better govern- ment of the Indians, improved the revenue service, and increased the treasury receipts. He was wiser than his generation in disap- proving the construction of poor and cheap houses and encourag- ing the building of those of a better type. Worthy of mention was his establishment of a town market and of an annual cattle fair intended to benefit the dairy and stock interests of the com- munity. He took a large if not a chief part in founding the first public school. With remarkable foresight for that period, he per- ceived the necessity of accurate boundaries, and for a long time carried on a spicy controversy with Connecticut upon this topic.
As may be supposed, his career was stormy. He was a born commander, and brooked no opposition. According to modern standards, he was a genial, kind-hearted tyrant, who knew no law but his own will. He quarrelled with the patroons, merchants, and his own Council. When his enemies submitted reports against his course of action to the home Government, and the States-General commanded him to appear in person in Holland, he refused to obey in a tirade of Dutch eloquence which was long remembered by his hearers. In 1665, he sailed down the coast and up the Delaware, and took forcible possession of the Swedish colony of New Sweden, which he annexed to the New Nether- lands, and called New Amstel.
In 1664, he signed the treaty of surrender to Great Britain, whereupon the town of New Amsterdam was rechristened New York. Circumstances connected with this surrender throw a clear light upon the Governor's character. The West India Com-
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