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 74

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

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The sons and daughters of Colonel Thomas Barclay and his wife, and their descendants, have figured notably in the history of New York. Thomas E. Barclay was a Post Captain in the Royal Navy; Anthony Barclay, 1792-1877, was British Consul in New York; Elizabeth Barclay, 1776-1817, married Schuyler Livingston; Susan Barclay married Peter G. Stuyvesant; Henry Barclay married Catherine Watts; de Lancey Barclay, 1780-1826, was a Captain in the English Army and married Mrs. Gurney Barclay, née Freshfield, of Norfolk. Ann Barclay, 1788-1869, married in 1815, William Burrington Parsons, an officer in the British Navy, who was saved from the wreck of H. M. S. Sylph, on the coast of Long Island, January 17th, 1815. Their son, William Barclay Parsons, 1828-1887, married in 1851 Eliza Glass Livingston, daughter of Schuyler Livingston by his first marriage with Ann Hosie, a descendant from the Munroe family of Scotland, who were identified with the founding of the University at Edinburgh.

Schuyler Livingston was the great-grandson of Robert Livingston, the third and last Lord of the Manor, and of Mary Thong, his wife, the granddaughter of Governor Rip Van Dam. This Robert Livingston was the grandson of Robert, first Lord of the Manor of Livingston, who emigrated to America between 1674 and 1676. He married Alida Schuyler, widow of Nicolaus Van Rensselaer and daughter of Philipse Pieterse Van Schuyler. There are few families more intimately connected with the early development of this country than the Livingstons. By inter- marriage, the family is linked with many well known names, such as Schuyler, Barclay, de Lancey, Rutgers, Van Brugh, Van Cortlandt, Van Rensselaer, as well as that of the historic Anneke Jans. William Barclay Parsons' children, Schuyler Livingston, William Barclay, Harry De Berkeley and George Burrington Parsons, are among those of the name most prominent in this generation.

Mr. Schuyler Livingston Parsons, the eldest son, was born in New York, October 12th, 1852, and married in 1877, Helena Johnson, daughter of Bradish Johnson, and has three children, Helena Johnson, Evelyn Knapp and Schuyler Livingston, Jr. Mrs. Parsons died August 26th, 1897. Mr. Parsons has a country residence at Islip, Long Island. He is a merchant, and member of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Union, Metropolitan, Players and other clubs.

442

WILLIAM HENRY PARSONS

O N the paternal side the subject of this article comes of an old family that has been sub- stantially planted in Warwickshire, England, for many generations back. His father, Edward Lamb Parsons, came to this country when he was a young man of twenty-one years of age, and became a respected merchant in New York. His wife, the mother of Mr. William Henry Parsons, was Maltilda Clark, a New England woman of Colonial lineage on the paternal side, and descended from a New York Dutch family on her mother's side.

Mr. William Henry Parsons was born on Staten Island, July 7th, 1831. He was educated in a private school at Rye, N. Y., where he was prepared for college. Ill health prevented him from pursuing a collegiate course, and he eventually turned his attention toward business, going into the office of an English shipping house when he was twenty-four years old. Two years later, as clerk, he entered the employ of a firm of paper manufacturers and dealers, and after a single year of experience in that business, was admitted to a partnership in the establishment, which continued for about two years, when the firm dissolved. He then embarked in business for himself, and was successful, even although, with limited experience, he had to face the commercial depression of 1857. For more than twenty-five years he sold paper on commission, but since that time has been largely interested in paper manufacturing. His firm has been one of the most substantial and prominent houses in its line. In 1891, after more than thirty years of existence, it was incorporated under the name of W. H. Parsons & Co., which title it had borne from the time Mr. Parsons established it.

The business interests of Mr. Parsons are numerous, and for the most part connected with the industry with which he has been identified throughout his life. He is president of the Lisbon Falls Fibre Company, Lisbon Falls, Me .; of the Bowdoin Paper Manufacturing Company, Brunswick, Me .; of the corporation of W. H. Parsons & Co., Maine and New York, and is also a director of the Pejepscot Paper Company, Pejepscot, Me. His activities in enterprises incidental to his business calling have given him prominence in general business circles and organizations designed to benefit commercial interests. He is president of the National League for the Protec- tion of American Institutions, first vice-president of the Board of Trade and Transportation, a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, a trustee of the Bowery Savings Bank, of New York City, and one of the vice-presidents of the Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Museums. A member of the Presbyterian Church, he is a generous supporter of the institutions of that denomination, and gives much of his time to the direction of their affairs. He is president of the Westchester County Bible Society, and one of the managers of the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, of Philadelphia. He is also a manager of the Westchester Temporary Home for Destitute Children, one of the executive committee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a fellow of the American Geographical Society.

Mr. Parsons has his country residence at Rye, N. Y., in the old family home, and is a member of the Apawamis Club of that place. He is also a member of the Metropolitan, Union League and City clubs, and of the Atlantic Yacht Club, and a trustee and chairman of the house committee of the American Yacht Club.

In October, 1857, Mr. Parsons married Laura C. Palmer, daughter of John Palmer, whose father was Judge Palmer, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Parsons, who died in 1893, was a lineal descendant from Miles Standish, the Puritan Captain of Plymouth, and from William Bradford, the second Governor of the Plymouth Colony and author of the Mayflower log. They had five children, three of whom are now living. The sons are William H. Parsons, Jr., and Marselis Clarke Parsons, who, with David S. Cowles, who married Mr. Parsons' daughter, Matilda, are connected with him in business as paper manufacturers. One son, John Palmer Par- sons, a graduate of Yale, died in 1892, and a daughter, Margaret Rainsford Parsons, in 1882.

443

EDWARD LASELL PARTRIDGE, M. D.

W HEN William Partridge, who was a native of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, emigrated to this country, about 1640, he landed in Massachusetts, and subse- quently was one of the first settlers of Hartford, and was one of the company which planted Hadley, Mass. He died in 1688. In the records, his name was often spelled Partrigg.

Samuel Partridge, the son of William Partridge and of his wife, Mary Smith, was born in Hartford, in 1645. Taken to Hadley by his parents, he became one of the most distinguished citizens of Western Massachusetts, living until 1740. Educated as a lawyer, he was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Chief Justice and a Probate Judge. Other responsible positions held by him were, Colonel of the militia, one of his majesty's council, and one of three leaders who controlled the affairs of Western Massachusetts, through its first century of existence.

The wife of Colonel Samuel Partridge was married to him in 1668. She was Mehitable Crow, daughter of John Crow, one of the founders of Hartford, Conn., and of his wife, Elizabeth Goodwin, the only child of Elder William Goodwin, one of the first settlers of Hartford, from Essex, England. Samuel Partridge, the son of Colonel Samuel Partridge, was born in Hatfield, in 1672, and died in the same place, in 1736. His wife was Maria Atwater, daughter of the Reverend Seaborn Cotton, granddaughter of the Reverend John Cotton, and great-granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley, who came over as Deputy-Governor with Winthrop, in 1630, and was the second Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, succeeding Governor Winthrop.

Cotton Partridge, of Hatfield, Mass., son of Samuel Partridge, was born in 1705, and died in Hatfield, his native place, in 1753. His son was Lieutenant Samuel Partridge, of Hatfield, 1730-1809, who was a Lieutenant in the French War, and who married Abigail Dwight, a descendant of Captain Henry Dwight and of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. The next in descent was Cotton Partridge, of Hatfield, 1765-1846, whose wife was Hannah Huntington Lyman, daughter of the Reverend Joseph Lyman, D. D., of Hatfield, who was an important man during the Revolutionary period, and trustee of Williams College.

The next in descent, and father of Dr. Edward Lasell Partridge, was Joseph Lyman Partridge, who was born in Hatfield, Mass., in 1804, and who graduated from Williams College, in 1828, and is now (1897) its oldest living graduate. He entered the profession of teaching, being principal of the Leicester Academy, of Leicester, Mass. For many years he was United States Collector of Internal Revenue, at Lawrence, Mass. His wife was Zibiah N. Willson, daughter of the Reverend Luther Willson, of Petersham, Mass., and sister of the Reverend Edmund B. Willson, a distinguished Unitarian minister. He was president of the Essex Institute of Salem, Mass. His later years have been spent in Brooklyn.

Born in Newton, Mass., September 27th, 1853, Dr. Edward L. Partridge early turned his attention to the study of medicine. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and was graduated therefrom, in 1875. Williams College bestowed the honorary degree of A. M. upon him in 1880. He has been engaged in general practice in New York for more than twenty years, and has also been a professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, medical department of Columbia College, and visiting physician, later consulting physician, in the New York Hospital, visiting physician to the Nursery and Child's Hospital, the Sloane Maternity Hospital, and consulting physician to the New York Infant Asylum.

In 1884, Dr. Partridge married Gertrude Edwards Dwight, daughter of Professor Theodore W. Dwight, LL. D., of the Columbia College Law School. Mrs. Partridge numbers among her ancestors President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College ; the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, the Reverend John Eliot, and Governor Thomas Dudley. Dr. and Mrs. Partridge live at 19 Fifth Avenue, and their summer residence is Storm King, at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. Dr. Partridge is a member of the University, Century and Storm King clubs, and the Society of Colonial Wars. He has one child, Theodore Dwight Partridge, born in New York, December 26th, 1890.

444

CHARLES A. PEABODY

B ORN in Sandwich, N. H., July 10th, 1814, the Honorable Charles A. Peabody is the son of Samuel Peabody and Abigail Wood, who were natives of Boxford, Essex County, Mass. His grandfather, Richard Peabody, of Boxford, was an officer in the Revolution, and had a command at Ticonderoga. His mother was the daughter of Jonathan Wood, of Box- ford, and his wife, Abigail Hale, whose family claims a descent from the younger branch of that to which Sir Matthew Hale belonged. On the paternal side, Mr. Peabody is a descendant of Francis Peabody, of St, Albans, England, who came to Massachusetts in 1635, and settled in Hampton, and finally in Boxford. He was of Welch ancestry, the name Peabody signifying in that tongue, "man of the mountains." Samuel Peabody, father of the subject of this article, was a lawyer of distinction. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1803, being a college mate of Daniel Webster and Ezekial, his brother. An intimacy between him and Ezekial Webster, contracted at college, continued throughout their lives.

In 1834, Mr. Charles A. Peabody began the study of law in Baltimore, in the office of Nathaniel Williams, then United States District Attorney of Maryland. After two years, he returned to Massachusetts and pursued his studies in the Law School of Harvard College. In 1839, he removed to New York, where he entered upon the practice of his profession, and became identified socially, through domestic ties, with the most eminent families of the metropolis. He took part in the politics of the day, aiding the formation of the Republican party in New York, in 1855, and in 1856 was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court by the Governor of New York. In 1858, he was appointed a quarantine commissioner to succeed ex-Governor Horatio Seymour.

In 1862, President Lincoln appointed Judge Peabody a Judge of the United States Provisional Court of the State of Louisiana. This court was called into existence by the necessities of the Federal Government in connection with its foreign relations. After the conquest of that part of the country during the Civil War, and while it was under military occupation, Judge Peabody's court had unlimited jurisdiction over every possible subject. His appointment empowered him to appoint court officials, make rules for the court and to hear all causes of every nature, his judgment to be final and conclusive. A large part of the business of New Orleans had been conducted on foreign capital, or by subjects of other nations, and losses sustained through the operations of war were made the basis of claims by foreign governments against the United States. It was therefore determined that these cases arising in that part of Louisiana and the adjacent country, held by the Federal forces, should be heard and decided in this court, the authority of which was made unlim- ited, and its judgments conclusive of the rights of all parties. William M. Seward, at that time Secretary of State, once said that all the powers of the Supreme Court of the United States were not a circumstance to those exercised by Judge Peabody in Louisiana. Judge Peabody supported this responsibility to the satisfaction of all who came under his jurisdiction. In 1863, he was also made Chief Justice of Louisiana, but in 1865, he laid down his judicial office and returned to New York, where he has since resided and practiced. For many years, he has been a member and vice- president of the Association for the Reform of the Law of Nations, in which body he has taken an active part and has frequently visited Europe to attend its annual meetings.

Judge Peabody has been married three times. His first wife, the mother of his children, was Julia Caroline Livingston, daughter of James Duane Livingston, a grandson of Robert Liv- ingston, the last Lord of Livingston Manor. His second wife was Mariah E. Hamilton, daughter of John C. Hamilton and granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton. His third, and present wife, is Athenia Livingston, daughter of Anthony Rutgers Livingston, also a grandson of the last Lord of Livingston Manor. Judge Peabody has three sons and one daughter now living. Charles A. Peabody, Jr., is a member of the New York bar; George I. Peabody, M. D., is an eminent physician and professor; Philip Glendower Peabody is a lawyer in Boston, Mass., and Julia Liv- ingston Peabody, the only daughter, is the wife of Charles J. Nourse, Jr., of New York.

445

WHEELER HAZARD PECKHAM

F OR two generations the Peckhams have occupied a distinguished position in the legal profession and the judiciary of the State of New York. The father of Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham was Judge Rufus W. Peckham, who was born in Rensselaerville, Albany County, N. Y., December 30th, 1809. His father was a substantial business man, and, soon after the son was born, moved to Otsego County, on the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River, not far from Cooperstown. There the boy spent his youth. He was sent to Hartwyck Seminary in Otsego County, then conducted by the Reverend Dr. Hazelius, and he remained there until 1825, when he entered Union College, being graduated with advanced standing from that institution in 1827. At the age of eighteen, Mr. Peckham settled in Utica and commenced the study of law. Three years later he was admitted to the bar and moved to Albany. After nine years of successful practice, Governor William L. Marcy, in 1839, appointed him District Attorney for the County of Albany, and this position he filled satisfactorily for two years. In 1845, he was a candidate before the State Legislature for election to the office of Attorney-General, but John Van Buren, the son of President Martin Van Buren, defeated him in the election.

In 1852, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the Thirty-third Congress. During his term of service, he was one of the strongest opponents of the Nebraska Bill. Before the expiration of his term in Congress, he returned to the practice of law in Albany, associating himself in partnership with Lyman Tremain. In 1859, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and at the close of his first term of service of eight years was reelected, and was then elected to a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals. In November, 1873, in company with his wife he was a passenger on the Ville du Havre, which was run down in mid-ocean by the British iron ship Lock Earn. Both Judge Peckham and his wife were among those who were lost in this accident.

Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham was born in 1833. After leaving Union College, he attended the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. He commenced the practice of his profession in Albany, but was obliged to relinquish it on account of ill health and traveled for some time in Europe. On his return, he went to St. Paul, Minn., but in 1864 settled permanently in New York, becoming a member of the law firm of Miller, Stoutenburgh & Peckham. He first came prominently before the public by his work in connection with the prosecution of the members of the Tweed ring, in which he was intimately associated with Charles O'Connor and Samuel J. Tilden.

By birth and convictions an earnest Democrat, Mr. Peckham has always been conspicuous in the reform element of his party. He was appointed by Governor Cleveland, in 1882, to be District Attorney of New York County, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John McKeon. Finding his health inadequate for the work, he resigned after a few days service. Recently he has been prominent in the movement for municipal reform. He was a leader in the Bar Association's action against Judge Isaac Maynard in 1891, and in the efforts to impeach that magistrate for his action in the election cases of 1890. An earnest advocate of the candidacy of Grover Cleveland for the Presidency in each of the three national campaigns, in 1894, he was nominated by President Cleveland to be Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but the opposition that was developed against him on account of the position that he had taken in the Maynard case, caused his rejection by the Senate. His brother, Rufus W. Peckham, became an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of New York State in 1886, and in 1895 was appointed to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Peckham is a member of the Bar Association of the City of New York, of which he has several times been president. He also belongs to the Metropolitan, Manhattan and Reform clubs and the Century Association, and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He lives at 685 Madison Avenue.

446

ALFRED DUANE PELL

T HE immediate ancestors of the Westchester Pells were the Reverend John Pell, Rector of Southwick, Sussex, England, who died in 1616, and his wife, Mary Holland. The Reverend John Pell was the son of another John Pell, descended from the Pells of Lincolnshire. Thomas Pell was the eldest son of the Reverend John Pell, of Southwick. Born about 1608, he was one of the first settlers of New England and among those who removed to Connecticut in 1635. He was a surgeon in the Pequot War and a deputy from Fairfield, Conn., to the General Court, and afterwards obtained the grant of land in Westchester County, that became the historic Pell Manor. He died in 1669, leaving no issue, and bequeathed his possessions to John Pell, son of his brother, the Reverend John Pell, D.D., of London, domestic chaplain to the Archbishop of Can- terbury. Sir John Pell, the second Lord of the Manor, came to this country in 1670. He was first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1688 until his death in 1702. He married Rachael Pinckney, daughter of Philip Pinckney, of East Chester. His eldest son, Thomas Pell, born about 1685, succeeded him. The fourth and last Lord of the Manor was Joseph Pell, son of Thomas Pell, but that male line is now extinct, the Pells of to-day being descended from Joshua, Thomas and Philip Pell, brothers of Joseph.

From Joshua Pell is descended Mr. Alfred Duane Pell, whose great-grandparents were Ben- jamin Pell, son of Joshua Pell, and Mary Ann Ferris, daughter of Elijah Ferris. Benjamin and Mary Ann Pell had Alfred S., William F., Maria and Ferris Pell. The eldest son, Alfred S. Pell, was the grandfather of Mr. Alfred Duane Pell. He married Adelia Duane, daughter of Colonel James Duane, 1733-1797, who was Mayor of New York. The mother of Adelia Duane was a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston, third Lord of the Livingston Manor. The parents of Mr. Pell were George W. Pell and Mary Bruen, whose family goes back in England to 1284.

Mr. Alfred Duane Pell was born in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1887. He is a member of the New York Athletic Club. In June, 1897, he married Cornelia Livingston Crosby, daughter of Robert Ralston and Jane Murray (Livingston) Crosby. Mr. and Mrs. Pell reside in the famous Pickhardt house in Fifth Avenue.

From William Ferris Pell, the second son of Benjamin and Mary Ann Pell, comes another important branch of this family now represented by Herbert Claiborne Pell. Clarence Pell, son of William Ferris Pell, married Anne Claiborne, daughter of John Francis Hamtrank Claiborne, the famous Mississippi journalist, lawyer and publicist and Member of Congress, who was the son of Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne, of Virginia, and Magdalene Hutchins, and descended from Captain William Claiborne, of Virginia, 1587-1676. The Claibornes traced their lineage to the Kings of England and of Scotland, the line being clearly marked back to Malcolm II., King of Scotland in 1034. Herbert Claiborne Pell, second son of Clarence and Anne (Claiborne) Pell, mar- ried Catharine Lorillard Kernochan, daughter of James P. and Catharine (Lorillard) Kernochan, and has two children, Herbert Claiborne and Clarence Cecil Pell. He is a member of the Metro- politan and other clubs, and a governor of the Coney Island Jockey Club. His residence is in Tuxedo Park. The eldest daughter of Clarence Pell, Clara, married Captain Thomas Gerry Town- send, U. S. A., and has several children. The second daughter, Emily Pell, became the wife of Charles H. Coster. The eldest son, James Kent Pell, died unmarried in 1885. The youngest son, Ferdinand Osmun Pell, died in 1864. Mrs. Pell resides in East Thirty-sixth Street with her youngest daughter, Charlotte Latrobe Pell.

Howland Pell is also a great-grandson of William Ferris Pell, being a grandson of Morris Pell and a son of William H. Pell. His grandmother was Mary R. Howland and his mother Adelaide Ferris, daughter of Benjamin and Anna M. Schieffelin. Benjamin Ferris was a soldier of 1812 and sheriff of New York. Mr. Pell was born in New York in 1856. He married Amy Goelet Gallatin, a descendant of Albert Gallatin and Elbridge Gerry, and lives in Madison Avenue. He has served in the Seventh and Twelfth regiments, attaining to the rank of Captain.

447

HARRISON ARCHIBALD PELL

T HE Pells, whose name has been closely connected with New York and Westchester County for nearly three hundred years, are descended from an ancient English family. Their history constitutes a prominent part of the history of the settlement and development of Connecticut and New York. They come in direct line from a younger branch of the English family of Pelham, settled at Walter Willingsley and Dymbleshyer, Lincolnshire. The arms of the family, which were granted in 1594, are: Ermine on a chevron, azure, a pelican, vulned, gules. The crest shows: on a chaplet vert, flowered, or. a pelican of the last, vulned, gules. In the sixth generation from Walter de Pelham, 1294, was William Pelham, of Walter Willingsley, who was the direct ancestor of Thomas Pell, the founder of the family line in this country.

Thomas Pell came to Boston before 1630. He was engaged in trading in Delaware and Virginia, and afterwards went to Connecticut, where he died at Fairfield in 1669. He received a large grant of land in Westchester County, and John Pell, his nephew, succeeded to the estate in 1687. The territory, which was one of the large properties of the early days of the Province, was erected into a manor by Governor Dongan, and its proprietors, under the terms of the grant, paid a yearly rental to the City of New York of twenty shillings. John Pell married Rachel Pinckney, a daughter of Philip Pinckney, lineal representative of the Pinckneys of Pinckney Manor, Norfolk, England, and one of the ten original proprietors of the town of East Chester, N. Y. Thomas Pell, the third Lord of the Manor, married the daughter of an Indian chieftain, and their son, Joseph Pell, was the fourth and last Lord of the Manor.

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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 74

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