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 3
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He did not care for the position, but accepted it as a matter of principle. It involved leaving his beautiful home in Morrisania and renting a farm near Trenton. His administration was very successful and was marked by a deep interest in the welfare of the agricultural and industrial conditions of the commonwealth. He was one of the creators of the Council of Colonial Governors, which devised plans of offence and defence against the French and Indians, and kept a courier service between his State, Pennsyl- vania, New York, and Connecticut. New Jersey was poor, com- pared with New York, and to prevent increasing the burden of the taxpayers, the big-hearted Governor defrayed all these extra ex- penses, a series of actions in full keeping with what he had done in preceding years, when he served as Chief Justice without salary. He was Governor for eight years when he died at the ripe age of seventy-five.
Almost fifty-five years of his life were passed in public affairs. The records of the time are filled with odd incidents illustrating his many-sided character. When they were building Trinity Church he donated the timber and sent the best logs which he could secure, many of them being massive enough for a building three times the size of the church. He did this, according to tradition, because the logs were not for man's service, but for the
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Lord's. The trustees were so pleased with his generous gift that they voted a square pew to him and his family, which, in the social code of those days, was the highest compliment that could be paid to a citizen.
The directions he left as to his funeral were worthy of a Norse Viking. He desired to be buried at Morrisania in a plain coffin, without ostentation, and with no funeral sermon; but " neverthe- less, if any clergyman, no matter the denomination, desired to make a few remarks over the grave, the privilege should be ac- corded as he had no objection." Neither, he declared, "did he wish that any mourning rings or mourning scarfs should be given, or that any mourning should be worn for him," saying in his will, "1 die when I shall die, and no one ought to mourn because I do so."
He was an excellent husband and father, and in his wife had an invaluable partner and helpmeet. There were eight children by the marriage, two sons and six daughters. The oldest son was Lewis II1., and the other Robert Hunter. The former succeeded to the great New York estate of Morrisania, and the latter to the mansion and lands at Tinton, Monmouth County, N. J. Both of these estates had been managed with admirable business ability by the Governor, so that the sons began life much richer than did their distinguished father.
The third generation continued the achievements of the second, the two sons proving talented men of affairs. Lewis III., or Lewis, Jr. [1698], entered public life at the age of Judge Lewis twenty-four, when he became a member of Governor Burnet's Council. In 1737, he was chosen Speaker of the New York Provincial Assembly, and was returned to the Twenty- · second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Provin- cial Assemblies, closing his service in 1750. A good speaker and parliamentarian, with an unusual talent for repartee and humor, he was a commanding personality in the Assembly. He was im- pulsive, like his father, but, unlike the latter, had rare suavity and tact. His fame, however, rests upon his judicial rather than upon his legislative career. He was Judge of the Court of Admiralty,
Mrs. Lewis Morris III. (Katrintje Staats)
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which at that time had jurisdiction over New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. To the bench he brought great learning and remarkable dignity. His decisions were sound, and his adminis- tration of justice reflected credit upon both himself and his court. There was a grim kind of merriment in his nature, which ex- pressed itself often in fantastic forms.
At one time he astonished people by an extraordinary head- dress. Instead of the hat and the bag-wig of the period, he wore a loon-skin with all its feathers. The bird was of goodly size, and the massive plumage covered the Judge's head in a way that aroused attention wherever he went. He wore this queer con- trivance for a long time, displaying it at social functions as well as in his office and the chambers of his court. Whether it was in- tended as a practical satire upon the elaborate hair-dressing of the fashionables of that age, or whether it was a piece of nonsensical humor, is undetermined. The Judge was twice married, his first wife being Katrintje Staats, daughter of Dr. Samuel Staats, by whom he had three sons : Lewis IV. [1726], the signer of the Declaration of Independence, Staats Long [1728], and Richard [1730]. His second wife was Sarah Gouverneur, daughter of Nicholas Gouverneur, by whom he had one son, Gouverneur [1752].
Robert Hunter, the second son of Lewis II., the Chief Justice, enjoyed an equally brilliant career. In early manhood he was a member of the Council, thereafter Chief Justice of New
Governor Jersey, and in 1754 Governor of Pennsylvania. Thus Robert Hunter in two generations the family had filled two guberna- torial chairs and three high places upon the bench. This is a record of which they may well be proud. To Robert Hunter, Franklin refers in friendly terms in his autobiography, throwing a pleasant side-light upon the Morris character :
"In my journey to Boston this year (1754) I met at New York our new Governor, Mr. Morris, just arrived from England, with whom I had been before intimately acquainted. Mr. Morris asked me if I thought he 'must expect as uncomfortable an
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administration as Governor Hamilton, his predecessor, had had.' I said, 'No; you may on the contrary have a very comfortable one, if you will only take care not to enter into any dispute with the Assembly.' 'My dear friend,' said he, pleasantly, 'how can you advise my avoiding disputes ? You know I love disputing. It is one of my greatest pleasures. However, to show the regard I have for your counsels, I promise you I will if possible avoid them.' He had some reason for loving to dispute, being eloquent and an acute sophist, and therefore generally successful in argu- mentative conversation. He had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as I have heard, accustoming his children to dis- pute with one another for his diversion while talking at the table after dinner."
Later on, when Franklin returned to his seat in the Assembly, he was put on every committee for answering the Governor's speeches and messages. The communications "on both sides," he says, "were sometimes very abusive. I might imagine that, as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, should we meet, we could hardly avoid cutting throats; but he was so good-natured a man that no personal difference between us was occasioned by the contest, and we often dined together.
"One afternoon in the height of this public quarrel we met in the street. 'Franklin,' said he, 'you must go home with me and spend the evening. I am to have some company that you will like,' and taking me by the arm led me to his house. In gay con- versation after supper he told us jokingly that he much admired the idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it was proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a government of blacks, as then, if he could not agree with his people, he might sell them."
Robert Hunter died in 1764 when dancing at a village party. The Governor led the dance with the wife of the village clergy- man, and while bowing to his partner expired without a word or groan. He never married, and his estate went to his brother.
His code of living was quaintly expressed in a pleasant jingle which is treasured by the family.
1
Richard Morris Chief Justice under the Crown
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I am neither high church, nor low church, tory or whig; No flattering young coxcomb, no formal old prig; Not eternally talking or silently quaint; No profligate sinner, no pragmatical saint. I think freely, I own, yet I firmly believe, I'm not vain of my judgment or pinned on a sleeve. To lift truth from all rubbish, I'll do what I can,- God knows if I err I'm a fallible man. Any faults of my friends, I would scorn to expose And detest private scandal, tho' cast on my foes. When merit appears, though in rags, I'll respect it; Will plead virtue's cause should the whole world reject it. Cool reason I bow to, wherever 't is found, Rejoice in sound learning with modesty crowned. To no party I'm slave; in no squabble I'll join; Nor damn the opinion opposing my own. Length of days I desire, yet at my last breath I hope to betray no mean terrors of death; While as to the way after death to be trod I submit to the will of a merciful God.
Lewis IV., or the Signer [1726], was graduated from Yale in 1764, and utilized his education by taking up what we would call scientific farming. In this field he did much commend- Gen. Lewis able work, applying the latest ideas in European agri- the Signer culture and modifying them to suit American conditions. In 1775, he was sent from New York to the Continental Congress, and, in 1776, he was one of the immortal fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was after the great debate upon the Declara- tion, and just before the signing, that he received a letter from his brother, Staats Morris, who was a general in the British Army, begging him not to take so rash a step, and to think of the conse- quences. "Damn the consequences; give me the pen," was the reply of the impetuous Morris.
He was one of the party when Franklin enunciated a famous bon mot. A delegate remarked: "Gentlemen, now that we have signed this document, we must all hang together." Franklin replied quickly: "Most certainly! if we do not, we shall all hang separately."
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Lewis served in the field and afterwards was a valued and industrious member of the New York Legislature, holding office in 1777 and 1778. He was deeply interested in the National Guard, and rose to the rank of a major-general. He married Mary, daugh- ter of Jacob Walton. Of his children, five sons served in the army, three of them making such brilliant records as to receive the thanks of Congress, and one son served commendably in the navy.
Staats [1728] was educated at Yale, entered the British Army, and through his powerful family influence attained the rank of Staats, Maj .- major when he was thirty. He married the Duchess
General and
Governor of Gordon, who accompanied him to India, where he
distinguished himself at the siege of Pondicherry. When ordered to repair to America at the breaking out of the Revolution, he resigned his commission. The British Govern- ment, respecting his feelings, appointed him major-general, and detailed him to garrison duty. In 1796, he became a general, and in the following year was appointed Governor of Quebec. He died in 1800, without issue.
Richard, the third son of Lewis III., was graduated from Yale in 1748 and took up the study of law. He was admitted to the Richard the bar, where he became known for his wide legal read- Chief Justice ing. In 1762, he was made a Judge of the Vice-Admi- ralty, which position he resigned in 1775 to take up the cause of the people against the Crown. Governor Tryon, on receiving the resignation, requested Richard to remain in office until quieter times. He answered that "he could never sacrifice his principles to his interests, and that his office was at the Governor's disposal."
In 1776, he was made Judge of the High Court of Admiralty of New York, but declined the office. Two years afterwards, he was made Senator from the Southern District, and in the following year Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court. In 1788, he was a member of the State Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. In 1790, having reached the age of sixty, he resigned all his offices and retired to his estate at Scarsdale, Westchester County, where he passed the remaining twenty years of his life. He married Sarah Ludlow,
Frances Ludlum Wife of Robert Morris
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daughter of Henry Ludlow, by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
Gouverneur [1752], the fourth son of Lewis III., was graduated at King's College (1768), studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1771. Here he made a brilliant success. In Gouverneur 1775, he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress and the Statesman signed the Articles of Confederation. During the Revolution he was employed in many capacities, and in all displayed signal ability and zeal. He was an active member of the Convention which framed the Constitution, and was a Commissioner to Eng- land in 1789. Three years later, he was Minister to France, and after the expiration of his term spent several years abroad in study and travel. He became United States Senator in 1800, but served only three years of the six. In literature, he was almost as suc- cessful as in law and diplomacy. His writings were numerous and highly esteemed, if not popular. Taine, the French critic, said that of all our early statesmen he had the keenest sense of humor, and Hamilton summed him up: "He was by birth a native of this country, but by genius an exotic."
Congress paid him the high compliment of assigning to him the task of delivering the funeral orations over Washington and Hamilton. The addresses produced a profound impression upon the American people, and are even to-day placed among the best examples of American eloquence. He was the second President of the New York Historical Society, and during the latter part of his life was a commanding figure in New York society. He mar- ried Annie Cary Randolph, daughter of Thomas Randolph of Virginia, a descendant of Pocahontas, by whom he had one son, Gouverneur Il.
The fifth generation reached manhood about the time of the Revolution, and, as might be expected, was noted for its military record and prowess. Of its members, probably the
most celebrated was General Jacob, son of Lewis the General Jacob Signer. He served through the war, and distinguished himself in many battles. When peace came, in 1783, he retired to private life, but took a strong part in public affairs. The energy which VOL. II .- 3
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he had displayed as a soldier was now turned into pacific chan- nels. The State of New York, recognizing the losses sustained by Lewis and Richard Morris during the Revolution, in which their Morrisania property had been well-nigh destroyed, granted the brothers a tract of land, consisting of three thousand acres, in Montgomery County, as an indemnity as well as a compliment. The General was the pioneer of this patent, and established his home in the very heart of what was then a wilderness. The hard- ships of pioneering seemed to exert a beneficial influence upon the stout-hearted General and his wife. They changed the forest land into magnificent farms, and at the close of long lives they saw happy towns and villages where before there had been naught but the Indian and the wild beast. Their union was fruit- ful, his wife, Mary Cox, bearing him twelve children, nearly all of whom lived to a ripe old age. When he was over seventy he married a second time, and was blessed with one child, a son, A. P. Morris.
Next in importance to General Jacob was Commodore Richard Valentine, son of Lewis the Signer, an able, energetic, and pro-
Commodore gressive officer of the American Navy. He was the
Richard head of a cadet branch, which had many representa- Valentine tives in the next three generations. A third son of Lewis the Signer was Colonel Lewis, aide-de-camp to General Colonel Sullivan and General Greene. A fourth was James,
Lewis who was a captain in the Revolution, and who married Helen Van Cortlandt, daughter of Augustus Van Cortlandt.
Of the children of Richard the Chief Justice, the third son of Lewis III., the best known was Robert of Fordham. He devoted
Robert of his life to the care of his estate in Westchester County,
Fordham and was instrumental in effecting many reforms and improvements in that shire. Two of his children played active parts in the middle of the nineteenth century, Robert Hunter and Lewis Gouverneur.
Gouverneur 11. [1813], son of Gouverneur, Minister to France, was noted for his activity in the development of the internal re- sources of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth
Lewis Gouverneur Morris From a steel engraving by Samuel Sartain
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century. He was twice married: first to his cousin, Martha Jefferson Cary, of Virginia, and, second, to his cousin,
Anna Morris. He left two sons, Gouverneur III. the Gouverneur II. journalist, and Randolph. Gouverneur Il1. is represented in the seventh generation by Gouverneur IV.
In the sixth generation, the Signer was represented by the three sons of Commodore Richard Valentine: Gerard Walton, who was graduated from Columbia in 1818, and was for Gerard many years a leading lawyer in New York; Henry, who Walton was graduated from Columbia in 1826, and was also a barrister; and Richard Valentine 11.
Robert Hunter 11., son of Robert of Fordham, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1848, Recorder and Mayor Robert Mayor of the city of New York for three terms, and Hunter Justice of the Supreme Court.
Lewis Gouverneur [1808], son of Robert of Fordham, took up his father's work, and devoted himself to the development of the southern port of Westchester County. As early as Lewis 1838, he began the movement for the deepening and Gouverneur rectification of the Harlem River, and for the drainage
the Patriot of the marshes in its neighborhood. He encountered consider- able opposition from the conservative elements of the district, but by sheer pluck and indomitable patience carried his plans through to a triumphant end. His greatest victory has its memorial in that noble structure, the High Bridge. When it was determined to bring the Croton water through to New York, the first proposi- tion was to build a solid structure, which would have rendered the Harlem unnavigable. Lewis fought the project with all his strength, and urged an aqueduct along the lines of the present structure. His plans excited an outburst of protestations upon the ground of extravagance, corruption, and folly. He even went so far as to employ force.
When the contractors began driving strong piles which threatened to close the stream, he studied the laws and found some precedents whereby he could legally sail a heavily laden craft through the navigable stream even when this was impeded
1153972
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by trespassers. He chartered an unwieldy craft, loaded it in Phila- delphia with coal, sailed it up the Harlem at flood-tide, and as he approached the piling refused to drop anchor. The tide made the vessel an enormous battering ram, which swept away the works like reeds. He anchored a quarter of a mile above, and upon the ebb raised the anchors and swept back, demolishing, it is said, the little of the structure that remained. This was too much for the contractors. They gave up their attempt, and the Harlem River was preserved in its integrity. In the fifties, he wrote a monograph in favor of a ship canal at Spuyten Duyvil. The project was regarded as visionary at the time, but was adopted by the United States Government, and made a fact in the nineties. He was active in the breeding of fine stock, and was one of the earliest importers of Devonshires, Shorthorns, and Southdowns. He prospered so well in this enterprise that, after a few years, he became an exporter, and sent valuable cargoes to Cuba, Canada, the Western States, and the Sandwich Islands. He married Emily Lorillard, daughter of Jacob Lorillard, by whom he had two sons, Fordham Morris, now
Fordham living, and Commander Francis, U. S. N., who died before him.
In the seventh generation, the main line from Lewis the Signer is well represented by Henry Lewis, son of Henry of Morrisania. He married Anna R. Russell, daughter of Henry Lewis Archibald Russell and Helen Rutherford Watts. He is a lawyer, a member of many clubs and scientific societies, and a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the American Museum of Natural History. Lewis the Signer is represented in the eighth generation by Lewis Spencer and Eleanor R.
The Morris family resembles the old landed gentry of England. For more than two centuries they have been identified with great estates on the one side and public affairs on the other. Few of their long roll have ever touched trade, and only a minority have cared for the professions. Where they have taken up the latter, it has almost invariably been the law, and in this they have attained the highest success. They make magnificent soldiers,
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and can look back upon an illustrious record in the three great wars of American history. From the first they have been marked by studious habits, broad culture, philanthropy, and patriotism. By marriage, they have become connected with most of the old families of the State, but, unlike many others, they have not been swallowed up, but have on the contrary impressed themselves upon the other bloods. Starting with a single ancestor in Cap- tain Richard, they have increased in numbers, generation after generation, until to-day they can point to more than two hundred living representatives of their name.
@sgood
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БобДО Гонять?
Samuel Osgood From the painting by J. Trumbull
XXIV
OSGOOD
AMILIES have characters, like indi- viduals. Some are stationary, others move from place to place, and a third type separates and sends its frag- ments in various directions. Thus, the famous King family is identified with many States. Somewhat simi- lar to it is the Osgood family, which for two centuries has been a power in both Massachusetts and New York. The founder was Captain John [1595], who came to New England about 1635, and settled in the Bay State. In 1639, he was admitted a freeman of the town of Newbury. Subsequently, he joined the pioneer party which settled in the virgin forest, cleared Capt. John the land, and established the celebrated town of An- the Founder dover. He was a religious enthusiast, and devoted all his leisure time "to the glory of God," to use the quaint language of the Puritan days. His was the second house to be erected in the little settlement, and it had hardly been completed before it was utilized as the church or "meeting-house " of the neighborhood. The original homestead remained in the possession of the family for more than two hundred years.
According to his contemporaries, he feared neither the theo- logical devil nor the red ones who prowled in the neighborhood,
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He went to church with a musket, and whenever Indian condi- tions looked threatening, he and his sons went about their busi- ness armed to the teeth. No better type of the God-fearing and stout-hearted pioneer can be found in the early pages of New England.
For a century, the family remained in the neighborhood of its first home. It grew in numbers, wealth, and influence. The records show them to have been prominent in commercial, agri- cultural, political, and ecclesiastical affairs. They were farmers, merchants, and traders, grand-jurymen, town clerks, assessors, highway commissioners, selectmen, and chairmen and secretaries of town meetings, deacons, elders, trustees, moderators, and clergymen. They had high ideals as to public virtue, and were honest and patriotic to a fault. From the beginning, they set store upon public education, and gave their children the best instruction which could be obtained. The sons were sent to Boston, and afterwards to Cambridge, when Harvard was established; while the daughters were carefully brought up in the woman's curric- ulum of New England. To this period belong such characters as Colonel Isaac, Dr. Henry, Colonel John, the Rev. Thaddeus, the Rev. Daniel, Captain Isaac, the Rev. David, Dr. Kendall, Captain Samuel, and Colonel John.
When the agitation began throughout the colonies in favor of greater liberty and in opposition to the tyrannical features of the colonial government, it found the Osgoods among the strongest supporters of popular rights. They were not agitators, but zealots. They were not to be bribed nor corrupted, because their wealth rendered them independent and above temptation, and their high social position made them superior in many respects to the officials who were sent across the sea from Westminster to govern the Crown possessions.
Between 1760 and 1776, their name dots the record of the cam- paign for freedom. In 1765, Captain Peter and Colonel John were Capt. Peter members of a committee which drew up resolutions
against the Stamp Act and other inequitable imposts. In 1768, Captain Peter was the leading member of the committee
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formed to encourage home manufactures in defiance of the policy of the Crown and to discourage the importation of all superfluities from Great Britain. When Captain Peter was asked what were superfluities, he responded with grim Yankee humor: "Everything imported from England."
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