Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 102

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650

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It was from Norfolk and the Eastern counties that the principal stream of the Puritan immigration to America flowed, and in its roll of fame is found the name of John Witherby, who, in 1630-32, came to Sudbury and Marlboro, Mass., and became the ancestor of the American branch of the family. The spelling of the patronymic has, however, assumed in the course of time various forms and its bearers, while tracing their descent to the same original source, are to-day found in all parts of the United States under such slight transformations as Weatherbee, Witherby, Wetherby, Witherbye, Witherbee and Witherbe. In whatever form it has assumed, its possessors have ever borne a distinguished part in the creation and upbuilding of America, descendants of the family having figured, in the country's earliest days, as members of the Colonial councils and legislative bodies of Massachusetts, Vermont and other New England States, or earned distinction in the clerical and learned professions, while the name had other representatives who fought gallantly in the early wars on this continent; and in the later history of our country they have in many instances been prominent in every walk of life.

Mr. Weatherbee's father, Henry Micajah Weatherbee, was a worthy representative of the sterling, energetic New England blood which he inherited. As a lawyer, he won reputation, and was also prominent in business life and politics, in which he attained distinction and held many important offices, while he took a successful and useful part in the creation of a number of the earlier railroad enterprises in the West. His wife, the mother of the present Mr. Weatherbee, was Mary Angell, a member of one of the most ancient families of Providence, R. l., in which city their standing is locally commemorated in many ways. Her father, John Angell, of Chatham, N. Y., was a direct descendant of Dr. Thomas Angell, who accompanied Roger Williams from England on the ship Lion, and took part with him in the establishment of Rhode Island. Repre- sentatives of the family from that time forward were distinguished in the history of the Colony, and that of New England in general, during the Colonial and Revolutionary epoch, the great- grandfather of the subject of this article having been Colonel Joshua Angell, who commanded a regiment of the Continental troops under General Sullivan on Long Island. John Angell, Mr. Weatherbee's maternal grandfather, was one of a large family, the other members of which were noted in professional life or as eminent merchants. He, however, became a large landowner in the neighborhood of Chatham, N. Y., as he preferred a quiet country life. The Methodist Episcopal Church at Chatham, one of the handsomest in the country, was mainly erected by the Angell family, its beautiful chancel and windows having been contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Weatherbee as memorials. Through the intermarriage of his ancestors, Mr. Weatherbee is also related to many old and prominent New England families, among whom may be mentioned the names of Drake,

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Gillett, Manton, Marsh, Olney, Butler, Sprague, Tuttle, Whipple and Williams. Born at Chatham, N. Y., Mr. Weatherbee received his earlier education at the Hudson River Institute, Clavarack, N. Y .; Amenia Seminary, and the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, class of 1871, being an honor man at the latter place. He entered Yale College, graduating in the class of 1875. After pursuing post-graduate studies for a time, he entered, in 1877, upon the study of law at Boston, in the University School of Law, and afterwards in the law department of Columbia College, in this city, graduating from the latter in 1879. He was for some years associated in the practice of his profession with General Stewart L. Woodford, then United States District Attorney, but abandoned the law to engage in the business career which now engrosses his energies.

In 1881, Mr. Weatherbee married Amy Henrietta Constable, daughter of James M. Constable, of New York. Mrs. Weatherbee's maternal grandfather, Aaron Arnold, came from the Isle of Wight, England, where his family had lived on one property for over two hundred years- Waytes Court, Brixton, at which place many generations of his ancestors were interred. He established the famous New York business house of Arnold & Constable, which was started early in this century in Canal Street. Her father, James M. Constable, a native of Storington, Surrey, England, married Henrietta, daughter of Aaron Arnold. Mrs. Weatherbee, with her father, her brother, Frederick A. Constable, and her sister, Mrs. Hicks Arnold, built, in 1887, the beautiful Episcopal Church at Mamaroneck, N. Y., as a memorial to her late mother. Mr. and Mrs. Weatherbee have three children, Henrietta Constable Weatherbee, Hicks Arnold Weatherbee and Mary Angell Weatherbee.

The Weatherbee arms are: Vert, a chevron ermine between rams, or. Those of the Angell family were granted to Roger Angell, a Captain under Henry VII., in 1485, who distinguished himself at Bosworth Field. They are described as : Or. three fusils azure. Crest, a demi-Pegasus argent, crined gules. Motto, Fortitude and Courage.

While residing at 240 Madison Avenue, in the Murray Hill district of New York, the Weatherbees own a country place, Waytes Court, at Orienta Point, Mamaroneck, N. Y., comprising some thirty acres, which was originally the property of the DeLancey family and was part of a grant to them made by Queen Anne. The estate has a decided historic interest, having been the residence of Bishop DeLancey, while Fenimore Cooper made it the scene of some of his most celebrated novels. The house, which was built by its present occupants, is of stone in old Eng- lish style, while the interior is remarkable for the rich woodwork, nearly every room being finished, in appropriate style, with material from some foreign land. One room is thus entirely decorated with woods from Japan, others represent the productions of natural wood and carvings from Spain, Holland and India, while in other cases they are the reproductions of Old English work, following in their details photographic reproductions of leading manorial residences and castles of England and Spain, which were made especially for the purpose. The furniture and decorations bear the same marks of selection and are the fruit of many years' experience in travel, Mr. and Mrs. Weatherbee having visited all parts of the world, while almost every year they make a European trip. Mr. Weatherbee has a decided inclination for sport of all kinds, as well as for athletics. He is devoted to yachting, to riding and driving, and has been a successful exhibitor of horses at various horse shows. At the same time, his taste for literature is a discriminating one, and he is an art amateur and a collector of antiques. Mr. Weatherbee is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and, among other clubs, belongs to the Metropolitan, Union League, University, Reform, City, Riding, Michaux Bicycle, Westchester County, Knollwood, Suburban Riding and Driving, Jockey, New York Yacht, American Yacht and Larchmont Yacht clubs. He is also a member of the Sons of the Revolution, the Yale Alumni, the New England Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Historical Society and the Westchester Horse Show Association, as well as of many other bodies of a social, literary or artistic character. He devotes no little interest and attention to religious work, being a director of the Young Men's Christian Association, besides being a liberal supporter of various religious and charitable bodies.

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WILLIAM HENRY WEBB

M ANY distinguished and useful men have been given to the country by the family of which Mr. William Henry Webb, the renowned shipbuilder and founder of Webb's Academy and Home for Shipbuilders, is a representative. Richard Webb, the first of the name in America, came to Massachusetts and was a freeman in Cambridge in 1622. When Governor Haynes and the Reverend Thomas Hooker led the great emigration from Massachusetts to Connecticut, Richard Webb was one of the company and settled in Hartford, Conn., where he was a member of the grand jury in 1643. He moved afterwards to Norwalk, Conn., of which place he was one of the first settlers, owning the first mill ever built in Norwalk. When he died, in 1665, his estate was one of the largest owned by any of the inhabitants of the town.

Richard Webb had five sons, Joseph, Richard, Joshua, Caleb and Samuel. One or more of these brothers were among the first settlers of Stamford, Conn. There Joseph died in 1684, and from him Mr. William H. Webb is descended. Richard Webb, the second son of the pioneer, was a man of large estate and represented Stamford in the Connecticut General Court as early as 1667. Members of the Webb family bore a conspicuous part in the military annals of the Colony during the Indian, French and Revolutionary Wars. Benjamin Webb, the great-grandson of Richard Webb, and the ancestor in the fifth generation of the subject of this sketch, was an officer in a Colonial regiment, in the war with the French, and took part under Wolfe in the capture of Quebec in 1759,

Colonel Charles Webb, a son of Charles and May Smith Webb, was born at Stamford in 1724. He was elected a selectman nineteen times, and represented the town in the State Legis- lature twenty-three times. In 1760, he was Captain in the Militia and in 1775 was sent by the Continental Congress on a tour of military investigations to Ticonderoga. In the same year, he was put in command of the Seventh Regiment of the State Militia. At the battle of Long Island. in 1776, he commanded the Nineteenth Connecticut Regiment, and afterwards distinguished himself at the battle of White Plains and at the battle of White Marsh, in December, 1777. His son Charles served in the same regiment with his father, being a Lieutenant in 1775, and Adjutant in 1776. He was a prisoner in New York during the British occupation, and was finally killed on a gunboat in Long Island Sound. Colonel Webb, besides being an able and energetic officer, also gave liberally of his means to the patriotic cause.

Isaac Webb, the youngest son of Colonel Charles Webb, was born in 1766, and his grand- son, Isaac Webb, son of Wilsey Webb, who was born in 1794, was the father of Mr. William Henry Webb. The parents of Isaac Webb removed from Stamford, Conn., to New York City. He was apprenticed to the famous Henry Eckford, who had made a national reputation as a shipbuilder during the War of 1812. Isaac Webb worked on the vessels built on the lakes for the Government of that time. Afterwards, with two fellow apprentices, he organized the firm of Webb, Smith & Dimon. This firm built, under contract with Henry Eckford, the Chancellor Livingston, the Robert Fulton, in 1819, and the steamship Robert Fulton, the second ocean steamship ever built. Mr. Webb designed and built, in association with Henry Eckford, the famous line-of-battleship, Ohio, and also constructed several of the famous packets whose performances still remain one of the glories of the American merchant marine. In 1825, he joined Eckford, under the firm name of Henry Eckford & Co., and built four frigates for South American Republics. After Mr. Eckford retired from business, the firm became Isaac Webb & Co., and Webb & Allen, in which form it remained until the death of the senior partner.

Mr. William Henry Webb was born in New York City, June 19th, 1816. His mother was a member of a Huguenot family. It was not intended that he should become a shipbuilder, but his education under private tutors and in the Columbia College Grammar School revealed the bent of his mind. He was a born mathematician, and at an early age was proficient in algebra and geometry. At the age of twelve he built a skiff row boat, and before he was fifteen he had built

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several other small craft. Soon after he began the study of marine architecture, and before he was twenty-three built three packet ships under sub-contract in his father's shipyard. His health becoming impaired by a too close application to his labors, he made a voyage to Europe for rest and recreation. He sailed on the packet ship New York, one of his own creations, in 1839, and while abroad, the news of his father's death reached him and caused his immediate return to the United States. For the ensuing three years he remained in partnership, which he conducted under a new firm name, in association with his father's former partner, but in 1843 succeeded to the entire business.

From that time, and for nearly thirty years, Mr. Webb was one of the most prominent ship- builders in this country. When he retired, in 1872, he had to his credit more than one hundred and fifty vessels of all sizes, of an aggregate tonnage much greater than that of any other shipbuilder in this or any other country during that period. He was then one of the largest owners of tonnage in the United States, his interests covering in part or in whole about fifty vessels, most of them of his own construction.

A record of Mr. Webb's achievements would include much of the best part of the history of American shipping. Some of the most famous American clipper sailing ships of the first half of the present century came from his yard. He built the steamship Cherokee, in 1848, the first steamship to run between New York and Savannah, the first steamship for the New Orleans trade in 1847, as well as the first steamship for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. He also designed and constructed the General Admiral of the Russian Navy, in 1858, a ship that revolutionized the construction of war vessels. Subsequently he built ironclads for the United States, Italy and France. The steam ram Dunderberg, which he built during our Civil War, and which was purchased by the French Government and renamed Rochambeau, was the fastest vessel of war up to that time and the most formidable war ship afloat. The ironclad men-of-war which Mr. Webb constructed were the first vessels of that kind that crossed the Atlantic. The Long Island Sound steam- ships, Bristol and Providence, the largest and finest vessels built up to that time for such service, were the product of his genius.

Other business enterprises also engaged the attention of Mr. Webb. He was an original shareholder of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and one of its first directors. He was one of the original subscribers to the building of the Panama Railroad and contributed as much money as any other person to that enterprise. From 1868-70, he was largely interested in the line of steamships engaged in the European trade, sent the first American passenger steamship into the Baltic, and established the first line of mail steamships between San Francisco and various ports of Australia.

From his work Mr. Webb won both fame and fortune. The Russian Grand Duke Constan- tine sent him a letter of commendation and valuable presents. King Victor Emmanuel conferred decorations upon him, and the French Government promised him the Order of the Legion of Honor. Three times he was offered the nomination of Mayor of the city, but politics never attracted him, although for fourteen years he was president of the Council of Political Reform and was instru- mental in defeating the Aqueduct Commissioners in their plans for a dam at the mouth of the Croton River. The crowning act of Mr. Webb's long and useful career has been the establishment of the Webb Academy and Home for Shipbuilders, a free educational institution for instruction in shipbuilding and marine architecture, and a home for old and decrepit shipbuilders. The Academy and Home on Fordham Heights overlooking the Harlem River, is a handsome building, finely appointed, and a splendid monument to the generous public spirit of its projector. Mr. Webb has a city residence at 415 Fifth Avenue. He owns a country place on the Heights of Tarrytown, called Waldheim, an estate of about one hundred acres, in one of the most sightly and picturesque situations on the Hudson River. He married, in 1843, Henrietta A. Hidden, daughter of Enoch Hidden. His children are William E. and Marshall Webb. He belongs to the Union, Union League, Republican, Century and City clubs, and has been connected with many prominent bodies of a business or social character.

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WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB

A MONG the earliest settlers in New England was Richard Webb, of Gloucestershire, England, who was made a freeman of the city of Boston in 1632. He accompanied the Reverend Thomas Hooker in the settlement of Hartford, Conn., in 1635, when the Dutch, who were then living on the spot subsequently known, locally, as Webb's Point, were driven away. The sixth in direct descent from Richard Webb was Samuel Blatchley Webb, who was born in Wethersfield, Conn., December 15th, 1753. His mother married Silas Deane for her second hus- band, and Samuel B. Webb became the private secretary of his stepfather. At an early age, he took an active part in the movements that led up to the Revolution, and when the war broke out he led a company of light infantry from Wethersfield to participation in the battle of Bunker Hill. He was appointed aide to General Israel Putnam, became private secretary and aide-de-camp to Washington, was wounded at White Plains and Trenton, was captured on the expedition to Long Island in 1777, became a Brigadier-General of infantry on his release, and after the war was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati.

James Watson Webb, journalist, diplomat and soldier, a son of Samuel B. Webb, was not less distinguished than his father. He served in the army from 1819 to 1827, and from that time until 1861 owned and edited the famous Courier and Enquirer, of New York. At the beginning of the Civil War he was offered a Brigadier-Generalship, which he declined. He refused appointment as Minister to Turkey in 1861, but accepted a similar appointment to Brazil, and held that position until 1869. General Webb's first wife was Helen L. Stewart, granddaughter of Lispenard Stewart. His second wife was Laura Virginia Cram, daughter of Jacob L. Cram, a leading New York mer- chant before the Civil War.

Dr. William Seward Webb, son of General James Watson Webb and Laura V. Cram, was born in New York, January 31st, 1851, and when only nine years old went to Brazil with his father. He was sent back to the United States in 1864, and for five years attended Colonel Churchill's Military School at Sing Sing, N. Y. He spent two years in Columbia College, and then went abroad to study medicine in Vienna, Paris and London. Returning home, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, and graduated therefrom in 1875. For several years he engaged in practice, but attention to financial interests gradually interfered with his professional work, and finally compelled him to relinquish it altogether.

In 1881, he married Lila Osgood Vanderbilt, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, and soon after became connected with the Vanderbilt railroad system. He was made president of the Wagner Palace Car Company, and became connected with the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Rail- road, a line that runs through the Adirondack region from Herkimer, N. Y., to the St. Lawrence River, a distance of two hundred and thirty-three miles. He is the president of this company, and is also a director in other business corporations.

Socially, Dr. Webb is a notable figure in New York. He is a member of nearly all the leading clubs, including the Metropolitan, Union League, Republican, University, Manhattan, Players, Church, Country, Jockey, Racquet, New York Yacht, Coaching, Riding, Tuxedo, West- minster Kennel and Downtown. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and for three years was president-general of the National Society. He is vice-president of the Vermont branch of that society, and is also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars. His interest in sporting matters is shown in the large preserve that he has established in the Adirondacks and has called Ne-ha-sa-ne Park. He is also a prominent member, and secretary and treasurer of the American Hackney Horse Society. He owns a large farm at Shelburne, Vt., and there gives much attention to horse breeding, his stud having an international reputation. Through his farm and summer country seat at Shelburne, Dr. Webb holds citizenship in the State of Vermont. In 1896, he was elected a member of the Vermont Legislature, and since 1891, he has held a com- mission, as inspector of rifle practice, on the staff of the Governor of Vermont.

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JOHN A. WEEKES

C OMING originally from Devonshire, England, one branch of the Weekes family has been settled on Long Island for more than two hundred and fifty years. The name and the family are alike of ancient origin. In the old records the name appears in various forms such as Weekes, Wykes, Wicks, Wickes, Wick, Wicke, Wycke, Weik, de Weik and de Wyke. It was derived originally from the Saxon, Wic, Wyc, Wich or Wiche, akin to the Latin Wicus, or the Greek Oikos, having the general signification of a dwelling place, and would seem to indicate that those who adopted it were especially home lovers. Those families known as the Wykes, of North Wyke, England, the Wykes, of Cocktree, and the Weekeses, of Honey Church, are closely allied and belong to the same stock from which the Weekeses of Long Island and New England are derived.

Francis Weekes and George Weekes, who were respectively the heads of the Long Island and New England families of their name, came from England together to this country in 1635. They belonged to a branch of the family that had been seated at North Wyke, in Tawton Hundred, about twenty miles west from Exeter, long before the latter part of the fourteenth century. On one side their ancestors were of the Wrey family and of Huguenot descent, it is said by some authorities; others assert that they were among those refugees who had fled from Holland to England to escape the persecutions of the infamous Duke of Alva.

According to Playfair's British Antiquities, the first member of the Wrey family of whom there is definite historical account, was Robert le Wrey, who was living in 1135. In the sixth generation from Robert le Wrey, a daughter of the family, Jane le Wrey, married John Wykes, of Cocktree, and their son, Roger, held a quarter part of a knight's fee, Charleigh in Broney, in Oak- hampton, in 1346. In the fourteenth century, Roger le Wrey, the head of the family, held a quar- ter part of a knight's fee in North Wyke. His son, William le Wrey, married Catharine, daughter and coheiress of John Burnell, of Cocktree, who, in the time of Richard III., 1377-99, assumed the name of Wykes. It is from this ancient family that Francis and George Weekes, the American pioneers, were descended.

Francis Weekes, of Oyster Bay, Long Island, and his brother, George, came to the Massachu- setts Bay Colony in 1635. George located in Dorchester and became the ancestor of a family well known in Eastern Massachusetts, but Francis went to Salem. The following year he removed to the Providence plantations, where he was secretary of the Colony, and where he married Elizabeth Luther. In 1641, he was among those who came to Long Island and settled. In 1648, he was residing at Gravesend, and in 1650, was one of the joint proprietors of Oyster Bay. His descendants have been numerous on Long Island and in New York.

Mr. John A. Weekes, the leading representative of this historic family at the present time, is lineally descended from Francis Weekes, the pioneer. For a generation he was one of the foremost lawyers of the bar of New York City. He married Miss Delano, and lives in East Twentieth Street, having a summer residence in Oyster Bay, the ancestral home of the family. He belongs to the Century Association, the Union League Club and the St. Nicholas Society. His four sons are also lawyers. Arthur D. Weekes is a graduate from Columbia College in the class of 1872. He lives in West Twenty-first Street, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union and other clubs. Henry De Forest Weekes is known as a man of public affairs. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Racquet, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, and New York Yacht clubs, is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is also a member of the Portland Club, of London, the Travelers' Club, of Paris, and the Chicago Club, of Chicago. He has been treasurer of the Union Club since 1889. Frederick D. Weekes was graduated from Columbia in 1877, and is a member of the Union and the Fencers clubs. John A. Weekes, Jr., married, in December, 1897, Estelle (Durant) Bowers, widow of the late Henry C. Bowers, of Cooperstown, N. Y. He is a member of the Union, Racquet, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht and other clubs.

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BENJAMIN SUMNER WELLES

O F ancient origin and high rank in Normandy and England is the Welles family. For more than seven centuries it was one of the most powerful families in those countries and frequently intermarried with royal houses and the nobility. From this English source sprang Thomas Welles, who came to this country in 1636. He was one of the most influential members of the Connecticut Colony in its early period, serving as a magistrate through- out his life, being annually reelected to that honorable position. In 1639, he was treasurer of the Colony; in 1643, Secretary of State, and in 1649, one of two commissioners to represent Connecticut in the attempted confederation of the New England Colonies. In 1654, he was Deputy-Governor, and in 1655 and several times thereafter was Governor. His death occurred in 1660.

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Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 102

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York, The Historical company Number of Pages: 650

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650