USA > New York > Dutchess County > Pine Plains > History of Little Nine Partners of North East precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Duchess county, Vol. I > Part 31
USA > New York > Dutchess County > North East > History of Little Nine Partners of North East precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Duchess county, Vol. I > Part 31
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
Of the other children of Hugh Gamble above, Betsey married Solomon D. Weaver, Sally married William D. Lucas, Harriet married William A. Weed, Laura married Daniel S. Lee and moved to Michigan; James H. married Elisabeth French, and was at one time engaged with John H. Lapham in the drug business in Penn Yan, and later went to Branchport. Seth moved to Steuben County and settled there. Hugh Gamble the first was town clerk of old North East Town in 1799, and his name on the record as he wrote it was "Gamble," which his descendants in Yates Coun- ty have corrupted into Gamby. Daniel S. Lee, the husband of Laura Gam- ble above, was the son of James Lee, born in 1780, and in 1803 married Sarah, the only daughter of Richard Smith, of Groton, Conn., and Elisa- beth Allen, a descendent of a family on the Mayflower. Richard Smith was a Quaker, and became early identified with the Friends Society of which Jemima Wilkinson, the "Universal Friend," was the leader. This
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS.
society made a "New Jerusalem " township in Yates County and hither went Richard Smith and others with their families from Connecticut of like faith about 1789. He built the first grist mill in the new settlement. of which he made a record in his family bible in this manner: "4th of July 1790, I have this day completed my grist mill and have ground ten bush- els of rve. July 5th, I have this day ground ten bushels of wheat, the same having been raised in the immediate neighborhood last year." (1789.) He left his wife and children in Connecticut when he went to Yates County, the friendly women keeping house for him in the early years of his settlement. His children in Connecticut were Russell, David and Jonathan, twins; Avery and Sarah. Russell deceased in Con- necticut, Jonathan Drowned in a tan vat. Avery when about fourteen left the Connecticut homestead, found his way to his father, applied for work and his father hired him not knowing who he was. By his influence the family was later reunited in Yates County, the father and mother spend- ing their last days with their son Avery, where the father deceased in 1836 aged 90, and his wife in 1838, aged 84. David the other son, born in 1778, went with the family to Yates County, where he deceased in 1805. Avery, the youngest son, was a very prominent man, had the rank of Colonel in 1812, and was elected to the Assembly from Yates County 1826. He married a daughter of David Wagener and they had twelve children, through whom he has many descendents.
Betsey Gamble, above, married Solomon D. Weaver in 1820. She was born in 1800. He was born near Saratoga Springs in 1797, and emigrated when a young man to Penn Yan, and worked at cloth dressing in the "Factory Mill," then owned by a company syndicate. Later he moved to the outlet of Keuka Lake, built a saw mill and grist mill in company with George Shearman and manufactured lumber and flour. The grist mill had three run of stone. Later this firm added two distilleries, and soon after was nearly bankrupt. Later in 1832 he, Weaver, bought a lot of timber land near by, and engaged largely in the timber and lumber business, and accumulated a competency for his old age after a life of hard labor and anxious care. His wife Betsey deceased in 1862, leaving four sons and one daughter. He married, 2d, Mrs. Julia L. Righter, of Lakeville, Conn, who deceased in 1870.
Gray, Ambrose T., son of Richard, a well-known resident, lived on the west side of Winchell Mountain, about two miles south of Pulver's Corners. He was of English lineage, born January 24, 1788, deceased May 23, 1859. Married Almira, daughter of Caleb and Deborah Finch, Oct. 28, 1818. She deceased Oct. 18, 1864. They had five girls and three boys, who have descendents.
Graham-Marquis of Montrose. It is not among the common inci- dents in the divinity which shapes the end of the world's civilization and
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LINEAGE.
government, that the small inland town of Pine Plains, in Duchess County, N. Y., had among its earliest settlers the descendents of Montrose* of Scot- land, "The Great Marquis." The Grahams were the founders of our beau- tiful village, and this it is that gives a peculiar and special historic interest to the name and family as part of our town history.
According to historians and antiquaries, the Grahams are lineally de- scended from the ancient kings of the Britons, who in the third century attempted to free themselves from the Romans, then the rulers of England. Fulgentius, the leader against the Romans. and his followers were impris- oned and fled to Donald, King of the Scots, and subsequently, after the battle of Dun in 404, to Denmark. Among these refugees was a descend- ant of Fulgentius, named Græme, whose daughter, born in Denmark, in course of time married King Fergus second, of Scotland. After the death of the King, Græme was regent of the kingdom during the minority of his grandson, and greatly harrassed the Britons, and it is said, broke over the walls of Abercorn, which was thereafter called "Graham's Dyke." Many notable events followed in the history of the name until 1030, when Con- stantine Græme-modern Graham-married Avila, daughter to Kenneth, one of the ancestors of the house of Stewarts.
In 1125 William DeGraham is witness to the foundation charter of Holy-Rood-House, in the reign of David first, and David his son got char- ters of land in Forfarshire, in the reign of King William of Scotland, and the family subsequently got further charters of lands in the reigns of Kings Alexander Second and Third. In all these charters the surname of Gra- ham is inserted. The lands of Abercorn descended to Margaret Graham, who married James, brother to the Earl of Douglass in the reign of James the First.
For several centuries there were two distinguished branches of the family, respectively in John De Graham and David De Graham, which finally became united, and Sir Patrick De Graham, of Kincardine, in the reign of King Robert Third, married the only daughter and heiress of Da- vid, Earl of Strathearn, by which marriage he obtained to that earldom. Of this his son Malise was deposed by King James the First, who, in 1328, gave him in lieu the earldom of Monteith. This the family held for nine generations, when William Graham, the ninth Earl of Monteith, having no issue, the earldom descended to the Marquis of Montrose, another branch of the family, whose ancestor was created Baron Graham in 1445, and Earl of Montrose in 1505, and Marquis of Montrose in 1644.
James Graham-known and called the "Great Marquis"-was the first
*Mr. George Coventry, of Utica, N. Y., a descendant of the Grahams formerly living in this town, has a family tree of the Grahams which traces the Pine Plains branch from the present living members, in a direct line to the eleventh century. He has also many family relics and papers, among which is the seal of "The Great Marquis"-Montrose-now nearly two hundred and fifty years old. To him I am indebted for the perusal of many pa- pers in manuscript, pertaining to the family during their settlement in this town, and to his " tree " for many facts in regard to the genealogy of the family.
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS.
Marquis of Montrose, and occupies the most conspicuous place in the his tory of the Grahams. He was born in 1612, in the town of Montrose, mar- ried at seventeen, Magdalene, daughter of Lord Carnegie of Kinnaird, on which occasion he had his portrait painted by Jameson, the pupil of Van Dyck. (A fine photograph, enlarged from a small copy, said to have been taken from this portrait, I now have. It was taken from a copy of the one in Warwick Castle, said to be a copy of the original Van Dyck por- trait, or perhaps the original. He had curly, reddish auburn hair. See cut p. 18.) In 1638, at the age of twenty-four, he espoused the cause of the Scotch Covenanters, and was one of the four noblemen who drew up the "National covenant " in the spring of that year, and took arms against the royalists or high church party.
The struggle in the north terminating, he with other Scottish Cove- nantry noblemen, by invitation, met King Charles at Berwick, where and when, it is said, the Great Marquis became disaffected toward the Cov- enanters, and became the object of obloquy. Upon his door was posted a paper with the words. " Invictus armis, vorbis vincitur." (Invincible with arms, conquered with words.) This was in 1639. In the wars following he was charged with being at times with loyalists and covenanters, and in 1641 abandoned the covenanters and joined the King. In 1644, Charles. having conferred upon him the title of Marquis, he left Oxford, where he had been living with the King, and went to Scotland to raise the royalists of the north. Argyle in behalf of the covenanters endeavored in vain to capture him, Montrose meantime greatly harrassing the covenanters, and even driving Argyle from his castle at Inverary. Success attended the arms of Montrose against the covenanters, and Charles was triumphant. But it was for a moment. Desertion-probably the result of religious be- lief or opinion -- reduced the army of Montrose, and disaster and defeat fol- lowed. Montrose fled to Paris, then to Germany, then to Holland, and meanwhile Charles I was beheaded. Montrose then made favor with Charles II, and in his behalf began a fresh invasion. He was defeated by Col. Strachan at the pass of Invercaron, and wandered up the river Kyle, the whole ensuing night, and the following second and third days without food. The Earl of Kinnoul was with him, and not able to travel further was left in the mountain, and it is supposed perished. Montrose came to the country of Assynt and gave himself up to one McLeod, a former ad- herent, from whom he expected assistance. But "the Argyle faction had sold the King, so this Highlander rendered his own name infamous by sell- ing the hero to the Covenanters, for which 'duty to the public' he was re_ warded with four hundred bolls of meal."
"A traitor sold him to his foes."
McLeod delivered him to General Leslie, who brought him to Edin- burgh, where he was condemned as a traitor to the Covenanters.
THE EXECUTION.
Montrose in Edinburgh, " a traitor" in the hands of the stern and ex-
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asperated Covenanters, had little chance for defence, and less hope of es- cape. His execution was the inevitable consequence of his capture. It was the character of the times. Neither party was disposed to lenity. On Friday, May 17, 1650, the Scotch Parliament passed the "Act ordaining James Grahame to be brought from the Watergate on a cart bareheaded, the hangman in his livery, covered, riding on the horse that draws the cart-the prisoner to be bound to the cart with a rope-to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and from thence to be brought to the Parliament House, and there in the place of delinquents on his knees to receive his sentence, viz. : to be hanged on a gibbett at the cross of Edinburgh, with his book and dec- laration tied about his neck, and there to hang for the space of three hours until he be dead, and thereafter to be cut down by the hangman, his head, hands, and legs to be cut off and distributed as follows, viz. : his head to be affixed on an iron pin, and set on the pinnacle of the west gavel of the new prison of Edinburgh, one hand to be set on the port of Perth, the other on the port of Stirling, one leg and foot on the port of Aberdeen, the other on the port of Glasgow. If at his death penitent and relaxed from excommu- nication, then the trunk of his body to be interred by pioneers in the Grey- friars, otherwise to be interred in the Boroughmuir by the hangman's men under the gallows. (Note-This sentence was executed to the letter.)
Montrose was in prison, and when informed of his sentence said "that he was prouder to have his head placed upon the top of the prison, than if they had decreed a golden statue to be erected to him in the market place, or that his picture should be hung in the King's bedchamber. He thanked them for their care to preserve the remembrance of his loyalty by trans- mitting such monuments to the different parts of the kingdom; and only wished that he had flesh enough to have sent a piece to every city in Chris- tendom as a token of his unshaken love and fidelity to his king and country."
On the window of his prison, the night before his execution, he in- scribed these lines with a diamond:
" Let them bestow on every airth a limb, Then open all my veins, that I may swim
To Thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake;
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake- Scatter my ashes-strew them in the air:
Lord, since thou knowest where all these atoms are,
I am hopeful Thou'lt recover once my dust,
And confident Thou'it raise me with the just."*
May 21, 1650 came, the fourth day after the passage of the act for his execution, and thousands lined the street of Edinburgh through which he was to pass. In the center of the cart was a high chair, having holes be- hind, through which the ropes that fastened him were drawn.
*After the restoration the ' dust' of Montrose was recovered. the scattered remains collected, and the bones of the hero conveyed to their final resting place by a numerous assemblage of gentlemen of his family and name .- Aytoun.
1
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS
He was "pale and wan," and seemed to have a courage and modesty more than natural. "He was very richly clad in fine scarlet, laid over with rich silver lace, his hat in his hand, his hands and cuffs exceedingly rich, his delicate white gloves on his hands, his stockings of incarnate silk, and his shoes with their ribbons on his feet, and sarks provided for him with pearling about, above ten pounds the elne. All these were provided for him by his friends, and a pretty cassock put on him upon the scaffold."
His mien and bearing on his way to the scaffold, it is said, changed the curses of many to tears. The "infamous " Lady Jean Gordon, Countess of Haddington and niece of Argyle, laughed at, and insulted him, and the cart was stopped in front of the balcony where were Lord Lorn (Argyle) and his "new lady," and Archibold Johnston (Warristoun), all the invet- erate enemies of Montrose. This was done to give them opportunity to jeer and insult him. Montrose, divining the object, turned towards them, and, "bareheaded " according to his sentence-fixed his eye of fire and courage square upon them, "whereupon they crept in at the windows."
Arriving at the scaffold he asked to keep on his hat, which request was denied; he then asked the privilege to keep on his cloak; this also was not granted. "Then with a most undaunted courage, in his red scarlet cassock, in a very stately manner he went up the ladder to the top (thirty feet) of that prodigious gibbet. The whole people gave a general groan, and those who, at his first appearance, had bitterly inveighed against him, could not abstain from tears."
Such is a brief synopsis of the life and death of James Graham, "the Great Marquis." His life as a whole-only thirty-eight years-is filled with fact and incident, in reality as picturesque as a bright vision of the imagi- nation. In character there is none nobler in Scottish history.
It is hazardous always to take arms agamst the powers that be, and was never more so than in the exciting times of Cromwell and the two Charles. His action as Covenanter and Loyalist has been criticised and de- fended by the historians of each. The late rebellion in the United States is fruitful in parallel cases. Montrose, a Covenanter, was as firm and decisive as afterward a Loyalist. In the change he lost none of his valor, courage or conscience, judged by the facts and events given by the chroniclers of his time. Surely the Covenanters were as obstinate and severe in the punish- ment of their enemies as the Loyalists, and therefore he gained nothing by the change in this regard. Indeed as a matter of Government the Loyal- ists had the right of it by a long established precedent. But whatever his motives, Montrose joined them, and perished "in the cause of the King, his master," writes Cardinal De Retz, "with a greatness of soul that has not found its equal in our age."
Macauley, in his history of England, gives us the English side, and sees no good in the Grahams, James Graham, of Montrose, and John Gra- ham, of Claverhouse, Lord Viscount Dundee, and relative of Montrose.
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LINEAGE.
He erroneously calls the latter "James Graham, of Claverhouse," which leads to confusion with James Graham, of Montrose. John Graham, of Claverhouse, was killed at the battle of Killecrankie, July 27, 1689, nearly forty years after the death of Montrose. Professor Aytoun, of the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, in his latest edition of "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers" -from which a few of the facts in this paper are taken-criticises many statements of Macanley, in regard to Claverhouse, proving them fallacious.
But we leave these disputants. Divinity or fate swings the hinges of revolution, and shame, or glory, crowns its failure or success. Who know- eth the which in the struggle ? The proverbial "prejudices" of the histo- rians in their recitals are counted for naught by an impartial and enlight- ened jury, who believe in a just and charitable philosophy in history. Towards such a verdict the intelligence of the age is moving.
In 1887, by permission of Queen Victoria, a statue of the Marquis was placed over his grave in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, made by the cele- brated sculptor, Rhind, his son, J. Massey Rhind, doing most of the de- signing and work. It is said to be a fine work of art. Soon after, Rhind, the son, immigrated to America, and besides other work designed the King Memorial Fountain at Albany. The Graham Coat of Arms is thus de- scribed :
"Quarterly, first and fourth gold, on a chief black, three escollops of the field for Graham. Second and third quarters silver, three roses, red, barbed and seeded proper for the title of Graham of Montrose.
CREST.
" An eagle wings hovering gold, perched upon a heron lying upon its back proper, beaked and membered, red.
SUPPORTERS.
"Two storks proper, beaked and membered. red. "MOTTO-' N'oubliez.'
The whole meaning-Graham of Montrose, a noble family."
The seal of the "Great Marquis" is in the possession of George Cov- entry referred to in the footnote on page first of this lineage. He describes it in a letter in this wise: "It has descended to me from my great grand- father, Augustine Graham, and was once the property of The Great Mar- quis himself. It was brought to America by James Graham, Attorney General, the first of his deccendants who emigrated hither. The seal is of brass, the handle about four inches in length. The device upon it is a shield bearing the three roses of his title same as on the family arms, and that is surmounted by the coronet of a Marquis. The whole is surmounted by the emblem of some order to which he belonged. After the restora- tion of the Stuarts the title was raised to a dukedom, April 24, 1707, and all who bore that rank, it being higher, used a ducal coronet upon their seals, in lieu of that belonging to a Marquis. Thus in addition to family tradition, the testimony of the seal itself attests its genuineness."
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, left two sons, James and John. James succeeded to his father's estate, and John, it is said, married Isabella
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS.
Affick, and their son James Graham was Attorney General of the Province of New York. (Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, in her history of New York City, I think puts him down as son of the Great Marquis. According to the family tree this is an error which she and other historians have fallen into.) He was a merchant in New York in 1678, and later was proprietor of lands in Ulster County, Staten Island and New Jersey. December 10, 1685, he was appointed Attorney General of New York under Governor Thomas Dongan, who in the fall of 1686 writes in his report "that Mr. Graham is Attorney General and Supervisor of all Patents and soe made upon Mr. Rudyard's going from this place to Barbadoes, and is a person understanding in the law, it being his whole business." October 8, 1687, he became a member of the Council. and when the Governments of New England and New York were consolidated, he removed to Boston as At- torney General to Governor Andros, on whose downfall he was committed to prison. In 1691 he returned to New York, was chosen member of the Assembly and elected speaker. Slonghter was then Governor, and Thom- as Newton, his Attorney General, having left the province in April of that year, George Farwell was appointed to fill his place. He was Governor Andros' Attorney in the revolution under Andros in Boston, and was im- prisoned for some alleged illegal prosecutions. He later went to England, and returned to America, and was appointed Attorney General, successor to Newton, to prosecute Leisler and his associates. His appointment not. being satisfactory, James Graham was again appointed Attorney General in May, 1691, and is said to have been "the mortal enemy of Leisler and Milborne," during the exciting events of that time. He was speaker of the Assembly from 1691 to 1694 and from 1695 to 1698, and part of 1699-nearly nine years-when the Leisler faction being in the majority, the house voted a bill of indictment against their opponents. To avoid his signing the bill, being speaker, he was called to the Council in May 1699. This- principally closed his public life, he attending the council for the last time July 29, 1700. He was deprived of his office of Attorney General on the 21st of January, 1701, but a few days before his death, which occurred at his residence in Morrisania, Westchester county, N. Y. His will is dated January 12, 1701, and is on record in the surrogate's office in New York. He bequeathed all his property share and share alike to his children Angus- tine, Isabella, Mary, Sarah, Margaret and John. Sarah married a Mr. Chappel, emigrated to England, and was the mother of Rev. Graham Chappel, a clergyman in Nottinghamshire. Isabella married Hon. Lewis Morris, first Provincial Governor of New Jersey. Their children were Elizabeth, Margaret, Arabella, Annie, Robert Hunter, Lewis (father of Governeur and Lewis Morris, signer of Declaration of Independence) Mary, Euphemia, another daughter who married-Kearney, ancestor of Genl. Phil. Kearney, and still another daughter who married-Ashfield. Many a.te the descendants of Lewis Morris and Isabella Graham. In an obituary at her decease in 1752 this language was used : "Liberal without prodi-
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LINEAGE.
gality, frugal without parsimony, cheerful without levity, exalted with- out pride, in person amiable,, in conversation affable, in friendship faith- ful, of envoy void .. "
In Augustine Graham, son of James Graham the Attorney General, is the lineage we are tracing. He was surveyor general for many years, commissioned Major in regular militia of Westchester county by Bellomont in 1700, and a patentee in the Great and Little Nine Partner grants in Duchess county. He died in October, 1718. (See pp. 15, 17, 18, 33, 34, 35).
James Graham, his son, who became proprietor of his father's interest in the Little Nine Partners, married his cousin Arabella Morris, daughter of Lewis Morris and Isabella Graham, and they are the parents of the Pine Plains Grahams. Their marriage license bears date November 30, 1738. He has erroneously been considered the patentee in the Little Nine Part- ners, instead of his father, probably as the lands to his interest in this patent were not disposed of to any great extent until after his death, which occured at Morrisania, June 24, 1767. His will made March 13, in that year, is recorded in the office of the surrogate at Morrisania, and this a copy : "In the name of God, amen. I, James Graham, of Morrisania, in the county of Westchester, and province of New York, being of sound and perfect mind and memory, do make and publish this, my last will and testament, in manner following, viz. : First, I will that my just debts and funeral charges be paid out of my real and personal estate, and that my executors hereafter named, have power and authority to dispose of, and sell so much land as shall be sufficient for that purpose; my will further is, that all my estate, both real and personal, (except what is hereafter ex- cepted) that shall remain after my just debts and funeral charges are paid, be equally divided between all my children, share and share alike to them, their heirs and assigns forever. Further it is my intent and will, that the messuage and tract of land, with the appurtenances at Morrisania, on which I now live, together with three negro men, three negro wenches, ten cows. one pair of oxen, four horses, with the farming utensils and household furniture, be, and remain to my wife Arabella Graham, to have and to hold for and during her natural life, and after the decease of my said wife, I will, and direct my executors to sell the same, and the monies arising from the sale thereof to be equally divided among my children. I will, and order, that if any of my children should happen to die un- married before they arrive to full and lawful age, that then, and in such case, the share belonging to such child be equally divided between the surviving children. Item-I give and bequeath to my sister, Isabella Graham, the sum of one hundred pounds, New York currency, to be paid her by my executors, out of the monies arising from the sale of land devised for the payment of my debts and funeral charges. Lastly, I make and ordain my wife, Arabella Graham, executrix, my sons Augustine Graham, Lewis Graham, Morris Graham, and Charles Graham. Executors of this, my last will and testament, to see the same performed according to my true intent and meaning. In witness whereof, I, the said James Graham, have to this my last will and testament, set my hand and seal, this thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven."
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