USA > New York > New York City > 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 54
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John Riley, ancestor of Mary H. Riley, came to Connecticut in 1645; his descendant and namesake, John Riley, father of Appleton Riley, was a wealthy land owner in New Jersey. During the War of the Revolution, several of the family were in command of privateers which were fitted out at Connecticut ports. The mother of Mary Hannah (Riley) Jesup was a member of the cele- brated Griswold family and directly descended from Edward Griswold, who came with his brother, Matthew Griswold, from England in 1639 and settled in Windsor, Conn .; the line of descent from Edward Griswold to Mary (Griswold) Riley was through George Griswold, who was born in England, and settled in Windsor, Conn .; George Griswold, born in 1671; Zaccheus Griswold, who was born in 1705 and married, for his second wife, his cousin, Mary Griswold, daughter of Frances Griswold and Giles Griswold, who married Mary Stanley in 1762.
James Riley Jesup, Sr., the father of the subject of this sketch and the son of William Henry Jesup and Mary Hannah Riley, was born in Saugatuck, Conn., in 1819. Prepared for college in the academy at Wilton, he entered Yale College and was graduated from that institution with the degree of A. B. in 1840. Beginning the study of law in the office of the Honorable Eliphalet Swift, of Westport, he was admitted to the bar in Fairfield County in 1843. Soon after he moved to New York, where he made his home for the rest of his life and became a leading member of the bar. In 1848, he married Mary Black, daughter of William and Phœbe C. (Heyer) Black.
Mr. James Riley Jesup, Jr., the eldest child in his father's family, was born in Brooklyn in 1849. He has been occupied in financial affairs throughout his business career, has been for many years senior member of the firm of Jesup & Lamont, stock brokers, and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1877, he married Mary E. Lamont, daughter of Charles A. Lamont, of New York. His city residence is at 555 Fifth Avenue, and he is a member of the Tuxedo Club. He is also a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.
324
MORRIS KETCHUM JESUP
W ESTERN Connecticut was the residence of the successive generations of the Jesup family from Edward Jesup, the emigrant of the seventeenth century, down to the last generation. On the preceding page of this volume the family line is traced from Edward to Ebenezer Jesup, of Fairfield, 1767-1851, the second of that name, who was the grandfather of the eminent banker and citizen of New York, referred to in this article.
Charles Jesup, 1796-1837, son of Ebenezer and Sarah (Wright) Jesup, was the father of Mr. Morris K. Jesup. He was born in Saugatuck, Conn., and after graduating from Yale College in 1814, traveled in Europe and engaged successfully in business, while he was also deeply interested in religious matters. In 1821, he married Abigail Sherwood, daughter of the Honorable Samuel B. Sherwood, 1767-1833, a leading lawyer of Fairfield County, Conn., and a Member of Congress in the session of 1817-1819. His father was the Reverend Samuel Sherwood and his grandfather, who was also named Samuel Sherwood, married Jane Burr, sister of the Reverend Aaron Burr, the first president of Princeton College.
Mr. Morris Ketchum Jesup was born at Westport, Conn., June 21st, 1830. In 1842, his widowed mother removed with her family of children to New York, and her son, Morris K., entered the office of Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor, of the Paterson Locomotive Works, where he received his preparatory business training. In 1852, he formed the firm of Clark & Jesup, and in 1856 founded the banking house of M. K. Jesup & Co. The latter firm has been in continuous and successful existence from that time to the present day, although its name has been varied. It became successively Jesup, Paton & Co., and John Paton & Co., and more recently was changed to Cuyler, Morgan & Co., Mr. Jesup being a special partner. During his business career, Mr. Jesup has been a director of many large corporations, and through his connections abroad, has done much to secure the investment of European capital in the United States. During the Civil War he warmly supported the Union cause and was treasurer of the Christian Commission. Since 1863, he has been a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is now its first vice-president.
Much of Mr. Jesup's attention has been devoted to religion and charity. He was a founder of the Young Men's Christian Association, was its president in 1872 and is at the present time one of its trustees. He is president of the New York Mission and Tract Society, of the American Sunday School Union and the Five Points House of Industry, vice-president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and of the Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, treasurer of the Slater Fund for the education of freedmen and a trustee of the Half Orphan Asylum. He presented Jesup Hall to the Union Theological Seminary.
Education and science have also been objects of Mr. Jesup's labors, which have been recog- nized by Yale and Williams Colleges, both of these institutions having conferred the degree of M. A. upon him. He is a trustee of the American Geographical Society, and in 1881 was elected president of the American Museum of Natural History, having been one of its founders. To it he presented the superb Jesup collection illustrating the woods of the United States, while he took a leading part in securing the enactment of laws in this State for the preservation of its forests, having through his efforts enlisted the support of the Chamber of Commerce in the movement. Mr. Jesup is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, University, New York Yacht and other leading clubs, the Sons of the Revolution and the New England Society.
In 1851, Mr. Jesup married Maria Van Antwerp De Witt, daughter of the Reverend Thomas De Witt, the distinguished minister of the Collegiate Dutch Church and a member of one of the oldest Colonial families. Mrs. Jesup, like her husband, takes a warm interest in religious and philanthropic work. Their city residence is in Madison Avenue and their country home, Belvoir Terrace, Lenox, Mass.
325
HUGH JUDGE JEWETT
N EAR Glenville, Md., is an estate known as Lansdowne with a venerable stone homestead which for several generations has been in the possession of the Jewett family. The bearers of that name are descended from Joseph Jewett, who, belonging to a good family in the West Riding of Yorkshire, came to America in 1639 and was one of the first settlers of Rowley, Mass. In 1650, and the ten succeeding years, he represented that town in the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
One branch of the family became established in Maryland over a hundred years ago, and to it the subject of this article belongs. His father, John Jewett, of Glenville, Md., married Susanna Judge, daughter of Hugh Judge, of Philadelphia. She belonged to an old Quaker family and was herself distinguished as a preacher in the Society of Friends. Several of the sons of this marriage became men of great prominence. The eldest son, the Honorable Thomas L. Jewett, was a leading lawyer and Judge in Ohio, and became president of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad and vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. His brother, Isaac W. Jewett, was a prominent business man in Baltimore, Md., and president of the Potomac Fire Insurance Company. A third brother, the Honorable Joshua H. Jewett, settled in Kentucky, and was a Member of Congress for several terms immediately before the Civil War.
The Honorable Hugh Judge Jewett is another of these remarkable brothers. Born in Glen- ville, Md., July 1st, 1817, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1838. Removing to Ohio, he practiced for ten years in St. Clairsville and then established himself in Zanesville. He attained high political distinction in Ohio, being elected to the State Senate in 1853 and was appointed United States District Attorney by President Pierce. In 1861 and 1863, he was nominated for Governor and was a candidate for the United States Senatorship. In 1872, he was elected Member of Congress for the Columbus, Ohio, district.
About 1852, he became interested in the financial and railroad affairs to which much of his life has been devoted. In that year he became president of the Muskingum branch of the Ohio State Bank and later was the founder of and partner in a banking firm in Zanesville. Made a director of the Ohio Central Railroad in 1853, he became its president in 1857. In 1868, he was elected president of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis, the Little Miami and the Columbus & Xenia railroads, and was interested in the construction of the Kansas Pacific and other Western lines. In 1874, he removed to New York City, and became president of the Erie Railway, was appointed its receiver in 1875, and when the property was reorganized as the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad was president of that company until 1884. He was also a director of the Western Union Telegraph Company and other large corporations. Since 1884, he has practically retired from active business and spends much of his time at Glenville, Hartford County, Md., on his ancestral estate. In early life, he married Sarah J. Ellis, daughter of Judge Ellis, of St. Clairsville, two sons of this marriage, John Ellis and George Monypenny Jewett, living to maturity. In 1853, he mar- ried, for his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Guthrie. She was the daughter of Julius Chappell Guthrie and descended from the Colonial Governor, Thomas Welles, from the Reverend Abraham Pierson, first president of Yale College, and from the Bradley, Buckingham, Hawley, Huntington and Sturgis families. Mr. Jewett is a member of the Union, Metropolitan and City clubs.
Mr. Jewett's only son by his second marriage is William Kennon Jewett. His two daugh- ters are Helen Pamelia and Sarah Guthrie Jewett. William Kennon Jewett was graduated from Williams College in 1879. In October, 1881, he married Patty Kyle Stuart, daughter of George Hay Stuart, of Philadelphia, a prominent merchant and philanthropist in that city. Among her ancestors are the Dennison, Stanton and Spaulding families of New England. William Kennon Jewett resides at New Brighton, Staten Island, and is president of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. He belongs to the Ohio Society, the University, University Athletic and E + clubs, and the Williams College Alumni Association.
326
EDWARD RODOLPH JOHNES
U NTIL the year 1891, there stood in the town of Southampton, Long Island, an historic dwelling built in 1650 by Edward Johnes, one of the first settlers of that place, the house having been occupied continuously by his descendants up to 1835. The family from which he sprang was established in the counties of Berks, Salop and Somerset, as well as in London, Sir Francis Johnes, who was Lord Mayor of that city in 1620, being of the Johnes of Claverly, Salop. The coat of arms borne by the American branch of the family is that confirmed by the Heralds College in 1610, and is a golden lion passant, between three gold crosses, formee fitchee, on a blue shield, with a gold chief; the crest being a golden lion rampant, supporting a blue anchor with gold flukes, and the motto, Vince Malum Bono. Edward Johnes sailed to America with Winthrop, in 1629, and settled in Charlestown, Mass. He was an office-holder and land owner in Charlestown, and is described in the early town records with the prefix " Mr.", which in those days implied social importance. In 1640, he married Annie, daughter of George Griggs, who in 1635 came from Landen, Bucks County, in the Hopewell ; in 1644 he sold his land in Charlestown and removed to Southampton, where he built the old home and died in 1659.
The Reverend Timothy Johnes, D. D., grandson of the pioneer, was the son of Samuel Johnes, of Southampton, who entertained Governor Lovelace in 1669 when he made a tour through Long Island. Timothy Johnes was born in 1717 and graduated from Yale College, which in 1782 conferred upon him the degree of D. D. He became minister of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, N. J. He died in 1794, leaving by his second wife, Kesiah Ludlow Johnes, a son, William Johnes, 1755-1836, who was a Captain in the Continental Army, fought at the battle of Springfield, and married Charlotte Pierson, a descendant of the Reverend Abram Pierson, who landed at Boston in 1639. Charles Alexander Johnes, son of William Johnes, was born in 1796 and became a merchant in New York and Newburgh, and Mayor of the latter place. He married Sarah Middlebrook Pettit, a descendant of a Huguenot family which migrated to Long Island in 1683. Their son, William Pierson Johnes, married Anna Louisa Gold, of Whitesboro, N. Y., whose grandfather, Thomas R. Gold, was distinguished in State politics and as a Member of Congress for twenty years, being also the agent of the United States for the Six Nations. He was the legal adviser, in America, of Louis Philippe.
Mr. Edward Rodolph Johnes, the son of this marriage, was born in Whitesboro, N. Y., in 1852. His father dying in 1853, his mother married the Reverend J. S. Shipman, D. D., rector of Christ Church, New York City, and his early days were spent in Mobile, Ala., and Lexington, Ky. He entered Yale College, being graduated in 1873, and was a member of the Skull and Bones Society and the class poet. After a year spent in foreign travel, he entered the Columbia Law School, and was called to the bar in 1876. Mr. Johnes married Winifred Wallace Tinker, of Erie, Pa., a lady of literary taste and ability. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnes have written many poems, stories and essays which have appeared in the leading periodicals. They have two children, Edward Gold and Raymond Middlebrook Johnes.
Among Mr. Johnes' artistic treasures are many old family portraits and two pictures presented to his great-grandfather, Thomas R. Gold, by Louis Philippe. He has, in addition, a choice collection of paintings, and is a connoisseur of art. During his travels abroad, he enjoyed the distinction of being presented at three foreign courts, those of France, Greece and Egypt. A short time since, the Government of Venezuela decorated him with the Order of the Liberator Bolivar, of the grade bestowed on foreign ambassadors. This honor was in recognition of his services to that Republic through a pamphlet, in which he pointed out the applicability of the Monroe Doctrine to the boundary dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain, and which was published some years in advance of the enunciation of similar views by President Cleveland and Secretary of State Olney. Mr. Johnes is a member of the University, St. Nicholas, Colonial and other clubs.
327
BRADISH JOHNSON
F OR three generations the family represented by the gentleman whom we are now considering has held a prominent position in both New York and Louisiana. William M. Johnson, grandfather of Mr. Bradish Johnson, was a native of Nova Scotia, who came to the United States at an early age and became an eminent merchant and manufacturer in this city, being respected for his wealth, influence and high personal integrity. In addition to his possessions here, he acquired large property and commercial interests in the South, owning several plantations near New Orleans, La.
He married Sarah Rice, a member of the leading Boston family of that name. Their son, Bradish Johnson, Sr., was born, in 1811, at Woodlawn Plantation, a beautiful place on the Mississippi River some distance below the City of New Orleans, and which was renowned as one of the finest places of its kind in the State, or, indeed, in the entire Southwestern section of the United States. Bradish Johnson, Sr., was for many years a prominent figure in the business and social worlds, both in New York and New Orleans, spending portions of each year in either city. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was residing on his plantation in Louisiana, and in the early days of the great struggle, considerably before President Lincoln had issued the proclamation of emancipation, he voluntarily freed his many slaves.
It is also related of him that when the United States fleet engaged in the capture of New Orleans came up the Mississippi to where his plantation was, he at once raised the national flag and kept it flying as long as the war lasted. His New York residence was the dignified mansion at Twenty-first Street and Fifth Avenue long occupied as a club house by the Lotos Club prior to its removal up-town. He retired from active business cares of all kinds some years before his death, which occurred in 1892, at Bayshore, Long Island.
His wife, born Louisa A. Lawrence, was a member of the distinguished and ancient New York family of that name, which has been identified with the Province and State from the earliest days of its settlement. She was a granddaughter of Jonathan Lawrence, one of the most active supporters of the patriotic cause in New York during the American Revolution. He was not only a member of the New York Provincial Congress in 1775-7, but became Major of the Queens County Militia in 1775, Lieutenant-Colonel of the New York State forces in 1780, and Captain of Sappers and Miners in 1792. Through his mother, the subject of this article is thus connected by blood or intermarriage with many of the most prominent and respected old New York and Long Island families, while his Lawrence ancestry also extends back to European progenitors who were numbered among the nobility and gentry of England.
Mr. Bradish Johnson is the son of the late Bradish Johnson, Sr., and his wife, Louisa (Lawrence) Johnson, and was born in New York in 1851. He was educated in Europe, which he has revisited on several occasions, making extended journeys in all its various countries. Mr. Johnson has not adopted any profession, but finds ample scope for his ability in the care and management of the large property interests left by his father in this and other portions of the United States, his duties in this connection indeed occupying the major portion of his attention. In 1877, he married Aimee Elizabeth Gaillard, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two sons, Bradish Gaillard Johnson and Aymar Johnson, and a daughter, Aimee Gaillard Johnson. Their town residence is 102 Fifth Avenue, with a country seat at East Islip, Long Island, and they have also passed a considerable portion of their time in travel, not only in Europe, but in the United States as well.
Mr. Johnson has taken an active, though not a conspicuous, part in social and club life in the city of his birth. He was a member of the Patriarchs, and belongs to the Union and Metropolitan clubs, and to the South Side Club of Long Island. He is a member of the St. Nicholas Society and of the Sons of the American Revolution, being very active in the latter patriotic body, of which he is a trustee.
328
EASTMAN JOHNSON
O NE of the foremost American genre and portrait painters in this generation, Mr. Eastman Johnson, was born, in 1824, in Lovell, near Fryeburg, Me. His father, Philip C. Johnson, was for many years Secretary of State of Maine. In 1845, he removed to Washington to accept a place in the navy department and held that position until his death. His first wife was Mary Kimball Chandler and his second wife, Mrs. Mary (Washington) James, a sister of Richard Washington and among the nearest of kin of the surviving relatives of George Washington.
As a young man, Mr. Eastman Johnson began the practice of his profession by the execution of portraits in black and white in Maine. While residing with his parents in Washington, he drew portraits of Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams and other statesmen of that period and also of Mrs. Dolly Madison, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton and other ladies. From 1846 to 1849 he was in Boston, where he made portraits of Emerson, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Sumner and other celeb- rities. Going abroad in 1849, he entered the Royal Academy of Dusseldorf, then studied with Leutze and afterwards spent four years at The Hague. Then he sent home his first important pictures, The Savoyard, The Card Players and others. He finished his European experience in Paris, and then returned home in 1856, residing in Washington in the winter, but passing the summers of two years among the Northwestern Indians, of whom he made many important studies. After establishing himself in New York he painted pictures of American life, and his Old Kentucky Home, in 1858, fully established his reputation. In recent years, he has devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture. Among his most important works have been portraits of President Grover Cleveland, President Chester A. Arthur, President Benjamin Harrison, the Reverend Dr. James McCosh and the Honorable William M. Evarts. Some of his most important genre works have been The Old Stage Coach, Milton Dictating to his Daughters, and The Wandering Fiddler.
The wife of Mr. Johnson, whom he married in 1869, was Elizabeth Williams Buckley. Her father was Phineas Henry Buckley, born in 1800, and her mother Phoebe McCoun, daughter of Townsend and Sarah McCoun, of Troy, N. Y. The grandfather of Mrs. Johnson was Thomas Buckley, who was born in Bristol, R. l., in 1771, and, removing to New York, engaged in mer- cantile life, being president of the Bank of North America and connected with many charitable institutions. His wife, whom he married in 1793, was Anna Lawrence, daughter of John L. and Ann (Burling) Lawrence, among whose ancestors were the wife of Sir George Carteret, who in Colonial times was Governor of Virginia, and Judge Lawrence, of Bay Side, Long Island, who married, in Revolutionary times, the sister of the Earl of Effingham.
The Buckleys in America came from the Buckleys of Lancashire, England. The earliest ancestor was John de Buckley, whose son, Geoffrey Buckley, was slain at the battle of Eversham in 1265. The Buckleys of New York had their direct origin from Phineas Buckley, a cadet of the Lancashire family and a native of London. He was a trader to the West Indies and the North American Provinces, and came to Philadelphia in 1713, where he married Sarah Hugg, daughter of Elias Hugg, of Gloucester County, N. J. William Buckley, son of Phineas Buckley, was born in Philadelphia in 1715, was educated there, made several voyages to the West Indies and then in 1741, having married Ruth Leach, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Leach, of Newport, settled there in mercantile business and died in 1759. Phineas Buckley, son of William Buckley, and great- grandfather of Mrs. Johnson, was born in Bristol, R. l., in 1742 and died in 1826. He was a prominent member of the Society of Friends. His second wife, the mother of his son, Thomas, Mrs. Johnson's grandfather, was Mary Shipley, daughter of Thomas and Mary Shipley, of Brandy- wine, N. J.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson live in West Fifty-fifth Street. They have one daughter, Ethel East- man Johnson, who married Alfred Ronald Conkling. They belong to the Tuxedo colony. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Union League, Century and Players clubs, is a patron of the Metropoli- tan Museum of Art and has been a member of the National Academy of Design since 1860.
329
SHIPLEY JONES
P ATERNAL ancestors of Mr. Shipley Jones were prominent in the foundation and early government of the Province of Pennsylvania, while the lines of his descent in England are from illustrious personages. His grandfather was Isaac C. Jones, of Philadelphia, and his father Samuel Tonkin Jones, of the same city. Isaac C. Jones married Hannah Firth, daughter of Ezra Firth, of Salem County, N. J. Her mother was Elizabeth Car- penter, daughter of Judge Preston Carpenter and granddaughter of Samuel Carpenter, Jr., of Philadelphia. Her great-grandmother was Hannah Preston, daughter of Samuel Preston, Mayor of Philadelphia in 1711 and Treasurer of Pennsylvania, 1714-43, and whose mother was Rachel Lloyd, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, the companion of Penn in the foundation of the Colony in 1683, and Deputy Governor, descended in the twenty-fifth generation from Alfred the Great, Edward the elder, King of England, and Henry I., of France, as well as from the Barons de Wake, the Princess Joan Plantagenet, "Fair Maid of Kent," and the Earls of Kent.
On the maternal side, Mr. Jones' American ancestors include the Thomas family, of Maryland, and the Ludlows of New York. His mother, the wife of Samuel Tonkin Jones, was Martha Mary Thomas, daughter of Philip Thomas, of Maryland, 1783-1848, whose wife, Frances Mary Ludlow, was the daughter of James Ludlow, of New York, and his wife, Elizabeth Harrison, of Newport, R. I. Samuel Thomas, of Anne Arundel County, Md., 1655-1743, was eighteenth in descent from Llewelen, the Great Prince of North Wales, who died in 1240, and whose second wife was the Lady Joan Plantagenet, daughter of King John. In succeeding generations the line is traced through the Lords of Gower and Barons Mowbray. Samuel Thomas married Mary Hutchins, and their son, Philip Thomas, 1694-1763, married for his second wife, in 1724, Ann Chew, the daughter of Samuel and Mary Chew. Their grandson, Philip Thomas, of Rock- land, Crest County, Md., married Sarah Margaret Weems, daughter of William and Catharine (Crumpton) Weems, of Weems Forest, great-grandparents of Mr. Shipley Jones.
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