USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 21
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Lloyd Saxbury, b. June 12, 1812; was graduated from Columbia College, New York City, in 1831, and d., New York City, 1832, during his novitiate for the ministry.
WILLIAM COVENTRY H. WADDELL, was born at 53 Wall street, New York City, May 28, 1802, baptized June 30, 1802 (Trinity Church Records). Mentioned by name in his father's will except that the latter omits "Henry," which may have been assumed later in life. A child's letter by W. C. H. W. containing the statement that it was the first one he ever wrote, and addressed to "My dear Aunt Charlotte (his mother's sister), is signed "Wm. Coventry Waddell,"
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which seems to support this view. He was educated for a mercantile life, the consummation of his father's plans which were doubtless interfered with by the latter's death in his son's eighteenth year. In accordance with the customs of the day his first occupation was to carry the keys and sweep out the place of business of his employer. Later he progressed to the keeping of the books, until in 1827 his qualifications doubtless assisted at least in his securing the secretaryship of the Pacific Insurance Company (Marine) of 49 Wall street, of which Jonathan H. Lawrence was president, and Isaac Wright, assistant president, a corporation of $200,000 capital incorporated in 1815 and commencing business in 1817 (Long- worth's N. Y. Register 1828 and 9, p. 56). The discontinuance of the business co- incident with Andrew Jackson's appointment of Martin Van Buren as Secretary of State, and the close personal relation between the latter and Lucas Elmendorf, conspired to materially affect his later career, for in 1829, on the installation of Martin Van Buren as Secretary of State, the latter appointed him to a position in the State Department, which though not conspicuous was confidential, and was as he then thought munificently remunerated at $1,650.00 per year; the only greater salaries in the department being that of the Secretary himself at $6,000.00 and that of his Chief Clerk, Daniel Brent, at $2,000.00. Of the fourteen offices occupied then by the Department of State No. I was assigned to the Secretary, No. 2 to the Chief Clerk and No. 3 to the financial agent, W. C. H. Waddell. Here he had charge of the finances of the Department, including the disburse- ment of a portion of the secret service funds ; he was also the confidential messen- ger from the Secretary of State to the President, and later in charge of the taking of the census which was then under the direction of the Department of State. While constantly studious to win the personal regard and friendship of his super- ior, Secretary Van Buren, the great natural reserve and forbidding dignity of the latter seemed to have prevented more than the most formal relations. With President Jackson, it was markedly different, where whatever the further cause, doubtless his youth and frank disingenuousness and direct address had much to do with making him, as events openly manifested, a great favorite and protege in a distinctly personal rather than in a political sense. In the weariness and strife of the political life of those times even so strenuous an old fighter as Andrew Jack- son must have craved a respite from the self-interested attentions of a patronage- seeking populace, and naturally have found rest and relaxation in the warm- hearted and cordial relations which he markedly manifested toward the young State Department Clerk of twenty-eight, once satisfied, as he came to be, that the latter's cup of satisfaction was already full to overflowing, and that he had no favors to ask for himself or others. The entire confidence which the President seemed to give to his young friend led to many long informal talks, and laid the basis for the continuing friendship which never failed to manifest itself when- ever opportunity occurred. It also led, however, to some amusing complications with the Secretary of State, as when the President insisted that the former's subordinate, and for the latter's personal benefit, should pass informal personal judgment on some of the state papers of the Secretary.
The President's friendship was not long in being put to a practical test, owing to an unexpected change which left vacant the office of United States Marshal for the Southern District of the State of New York, then on account of the fees which had been fixed when the city was a small town, one of the most lucrative positions
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within the gift of the government. Through chance, Coventry Waddell had learn- ed of the vacancy, one mail before any one else in Washington. Desiring the office and accustomed to deal directly and personally with the president, he went straightway to the later's office and addressed him in words like these (See Par- ton's "Life of Andrew Jackson," vol. iii. chap. xix) :
"General, the United States Marshalship of New York is vacant. You will be notified of the fact tomorrow morning. It was long ago understood between you and me that the straightforward way of doing business was the best, and I will proceed in that way to ask you two questions. Do you consider me competent to discharge the duties of that office?" "I do," said the President. "Will you give me the appointment?" "I will," was his instan- taneous reply; and he did. My name was sent to the Senate immediately, the nomination was confirmed, and I was soon at my new post, to the great astonishment of several worthy gentlemen, who were striving with might and main by night and day to secure the place for themselves. At the expiration of my term of four years, I went to Washington and asked a re-appointment in precisely the same manner, and received for answer the same emphatic and instantaneous "I will" as before. On this occasion the Private Secretary being busy he requested me to write my own nomination. I did so, but as it was decided best that the document should go to the Senate in the usual handwriting, Major Donaldson copied it and sent it to the Capitol. Mr. Forsythe was then Secretary of State. I called upon him and informed him of my reappointment, and that my name was then before the Senate. "Have you called upon your Senators," he asked, "I have not" was my innocent reply. "I did not suppose it was necessary," "O no," said he, "It is not necessary. If General Jackson says so, that's enough. There's no Secretary of State, no Senate, no anybody-if General Jack- son has made up his mind."
Mr. Van Buren who was sitting near laughed, I laughed; we performed a laughing trio; in the midst of which I took my leave well assured in my own mind that I had the best of the joke.
Four years later, however, Mr. Van Buren being President, I took a slightly different view of the matter; as the expiration of my second term drew near I employed all of the usual arts and some of the unusual ones to secure a re-appointment, and entertained confident hopes of success. Indeed I felt assured of it and had reason to do so, though from the President, himself I had heard nothing. My second term expired and still I heard nothing of the fate of my application. The next morning at 10 precisely a gentleman entered my office and, presenting his commission informed me with the utmost politeness that I saw before me that dread being-terror of all office holders-a successor."
His commissions as United States Marshal ran from November 7, 1831, to De- cember 10, 1839. During this period his residence was No. 27 Bond street, New York, until his mother's death in 1835, soon after which he removed his family to Parsippany, New Jersey, the former home of his wife, Julia Anna Cobb. There he occupied a residence then standing on the opposite side of the street from the residence he shortly later erected, the latter afterwards known as Ailanthus Hall, and at present the "Childrens Home" of Morris county, New Jersey.
During his marshalship he had a unique experience in connection with the Crown Jewels of the Prince of Orange, heir to the throne of the Netherlands, which had been stolen from the Royal Palace at Laaken, near Brussels, at a time and under conditions which greatly magnified the political importance of their dis- covery and return. The theft occurred September 25, 1829, when were stolen imperial insignia, jewels and personal ornaments of the Princess of Orange, con- sisting of 2,091 carats of diamonds and about 13,462 other pieces of a very rare and peculiar description, many being the gifts from her family of the Imperial Court of Russia and having historic keepsake value in excess of their appraised valuation, placed upon them at the time variously from several hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars. International courtesies were invoked by the Dutch government for the apprehension of the felon and return of the jewels, but with- out avail, and for nearly two years no trace of either were to be found. Mean- while the Belgium Revolution which resulted in the separation of what are now the Netherlands and Belgium was approaching, and the popular feeling and pre-
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judices were hostile to the royal family. The remissness of the Prince in his pecuniary engagements was notorious and a general incredulity began to prevail that a theft of such magnitude as reported could have gone so long without con- firming evidence. Distrust and suspicion pointed to the possibility that the jewels had been appropriated to his private use, and their theft reported as a ruse to ex- plain their disappearance. The discovery and return of the jewels became there- fore a matter of the gravest moment to the House of Orange, and a reward of 50,000 florins was later offered for their return. The facts of the matter are that the thief had buried his plunder entire, a few miles from Brussels, the night of the theft, and had returned the next day to his ordinary residence and work in Brussels as a mechanic. No part of the property had been retained for his own use. About two years later he dug up the jewels, rudely forced from their settings, such as he thought least susceptible of identification, to an aggregate valuation of about $400,000, reinterred the remainder, and with the former concealed in a hollow walking stick, a hollow umbrella stick, and a hollow toy for his child, and on the person and apparel of his wife, passed out of Belgium on foot, through France, where disposing of enough for their personal expenses to New York City reached the latter place, July 20, 1831, eluded the vigilance of the custom officers at that port. Betrayed by his wife to a man who had ingratiated himself with her, and by the latter, in the hope of a double reward, betrayed coincidently to the United States Customs authorities, as well as to the Dutch Minister, Baron Von Huygens, a considerable portion of the jewels was soon in the custody of the United States Marshal's office as smuggled goods. The claims of those participat- ing in the seizure, the royal ownership of the jewels, the turning over the criminals to the Dutch authorities and the successful resistance of the attempt of the col- lector of the port to have the jewels turned over to his custody, presented many interesting complications, the avoidance of which was admittedly a difficult accom- plishment, and which the United States Marshal (in consultation with President Jackson), was primarily instrumental in bringing about. Official recognition of his services by the government of the Netherlands is expressed in the following communication under date of August 15, 1832, from R. Bangeman Huygens, Count de Louvendal, Charge des Affaires of the Dutch government :
"My dear Sir :
"New York, August 15, 1832.
I have the honor to inform you that I have been instructed to present to you in the name of H. I. R. Highness, the Princess of Orange, a token of the high sense she entertains of your praiseworthy conduct in January last in the recovery of that part of the Jewels stolen from the Palace at Brussels by Carrara and seized by the Custom House of this Port, after their introduction into the Country by the felon.
Permit me on this occasion to reiterate to you my personal acknowledgment of gratitude for your kind and able assistance toward the successful issue of this affair; and as for the performance of the gratifying duty that devolves upon me, I am left entirely to my own discretion, it is my sincere desire to meet your views on the subject. I therefore request you to state to me the manner in which it would be most agreeable to you to receive this token of regard.
Wm. Coventry H. Waddell U. S. Marshal, New York.
I remain respectfully, Your obedient servant, R. B. Huygens."
His official position under the government was a barrier to the acceptance at that time of the proposed recognition, which eventually failed of further fulfill- ment, although more than once later, when this objection no longer existed, and once as late as 1875, it seemed on the eve of consummation. (W. H. C. W. MSS.
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in collection of P. H. W. S .; also U. S. Senate Doc. Misc. 127; 31st Congress, Ist Session. Petition of Wm. A. Seely).
As early as 1830 he became actively interested in the Board of Proprietors of East New Jersey, his wife inheriting certain proprietary interests and rights from her father, Col. Lemuel Cobb, formerly Surveyor General of the Board. Adding largely to these interests on his own account, he was one of the Proprietors prin- cipally interested in the important suit brought in 1839 in his name, before the Supreme Court of the United States, to finally determine the ultimately immensely valuable ownership of land under navigable water. This suit was decided ad- versely to the Proprietors (see Martin's vs. Waddell, 16 Peters, 367415). He was appointed in 1841 Official and General Assignee in Bankruptcy for New York, a position which he held for forty-three years and until his death in 1884.
His wife, Julia Anna (Cobb) Waddell died June 20, 1841, from a cold con- tracted in overseeing the setting out of shrubs and trees at her new residence at Parsippany ; she was buried in the Cobb Lot at Parsippany, where a gravestone marks her place of burial.
In 1842 he married (second) Charlotte Augusta Southwick, widow of William McMurray ; she survived him, dying in 1891. A few years following his second marriage he built a residence on Murray Hill, New York City, on a site now occu- pied by the Brick Church, and at a time when Fifth avenue was but a country road, without a residence nearer than the site of what was later occupied by the Fifth Avenue Hotel, northwest corner of Fifth avenue and twenty-third street. A writer comments on the residence as follows :
"His residence-known as Waddell Castle-was on the Old Murray Farm now the center of Murray Hill. The Grounds covered the area now bounded by 5th and 6th Ave- nues and 37th and 38th Streets, and were beautifully shaded with oaks and elms, many of which were a century old. Large green houses, extensive grape arbors, acres of fruit trees and well cultivated gardens made the place a favorite point for strangers to visit; and the castle with its lofty towers overlooking the Hudson, and with its heavy en-garniture of ivy and roses, was known far and wide as the most stately mansion between the Harlem and the Sea." (N. Y. Truth, June 3rd, 1884. Further described and illustrated in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, March, 1854, Booth's "History of New York," Page 620, and Lamb's "History of New York," Vol. 2, p. 756).
But this residence, while admired and famed for its beauty and environment, will be chiefly remembered, if remembered at all, for the fact that Mrs. Coventry Wad- dell there established and long maintained a unique center which has been repeated- ly characterized as the first American Salon. Here were entertained all of our own, as well as such of European celebrities as then visited our shores. No record is to be found which treats of the social history of New York City in the nineteenth century as a whole, and which does not pay its tribute to this Salon and its hostess. It is referred to at some length and considerable detail in Mrs. Ellet's "Queens of American Society," (where is also recorded a contemporary engraved portrait of Mrs. Coventry Waddell), and is frequently reverted to in current articles appear- ing from time to time. See another engraving, from drawing by Charles Martin, 1851, in Mrs. Kirkland's "The Book of Home Beauty," N. Y., 1852.
At her death, June 11, 1891, Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, perhaps best epitomizes the regard in which she was held by those of the generation among which she last lived, when he says :
"Mrs. Coventry Waddell is a tradition to the active members of fashionable society of New York of today, but those who have heard the reminescences of New Yorkers of the
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generation past have listened to most delightful reminescences of Mrs. Waddell. She was a society leader in a much broader and fuller sense than we understand it now. She was un- doubtedly the first New York lady who ever had a Salon, and it is unfortunate for the City that she has had so few successors. The one thing which New York lacks to make it a metropolis is some house with a hostess of refinement and culture, where for one evening in the week, all that is eminent in literature, journalism, the law, pulpit, medicine, science and art in its various forms of expression, with pencil, brush, chisel, voice, the instrument, or on the stage, could meet on an equal footing under her hospitable roof. Mrs. Coventry Waddell did that in her time; no one does it now. * * *
She was the beneficent ruler of the circle which she created and adorned long before my time. * * * It has been my pleasure, however, on occasions quite too infrequent in the last ten years, to be a guest of Mrs. Waddell's. A dinner at her house was a picturesque noctes ambrosiana. There were a thousand houses in New York which could excell it in the viands, the courses, the wines, the flowers, the table furnishings and decorations; there were none which could approach it in the intellectual favor which pervaded the feast. * * * She had the rare art of knowing when and how to bring out the best points of guests, whose best in their line was unsurpassed anywhere, and she could herself contribute a recitation or delineation, or reminescence worthy of the powers of the most distinguished about the board. I have been reminded at her house how little the world of New York, which rushes along in its royal, gilded, lavish and gorgeous way, knows of the supreme pleasures possible with limited opportunities under such magical guidance, delicate taste and mature experience, as were the characteristics of Mrs. Waddell. There was no refinement of ultra-fashionable life with which she was not familiar. There was no aspiration of struggling genius with which she could not sympathize. She knew thoroughly the best literature of the language and appreciated art so keenly that in expression and interpretation she was an exquisite artist herself. Any one who knew Mrs. Coventry Waddell, as her friends knew her, will appre- ciate how valuable a contribution the life of such a woman was to the time in which she lived and how great a loss to the circle, which can know her no more." (N. Y. Mail & Express, June 11th, 1891 ).
Another contemporary article is as follows :
"Mrs. Charlotte Augusta Waddell was in the early 'Fifties' the acknowledged leader of the Metropolitan Fashionable Four Hundred of that period. Endowered with rare beauty, gifted with extraordinary talent, a brilliant conversationalist, and in the possession of an ample fortune, she exercised a social sway which is without parallel in the annals of New York Society. * * * She was a woman of the very highest cultivation and of the most charming manner. The younger society leaders of today know her only by tradition as it were, but the chapter in which her triumphs are recorded, is one of the very brightest in the social history of the metropolis." (N. Y. World, June 12, 1891).
She was the daughter of Jonathan Southwick, of New York City, and grand- daughter of Worthington Ely, whose father, Dr. John Ely, married Sarah Worth- ington, a great beauty and sister of the mother of Gov. John Cotton Smith. The Worthingtons were descended from Hugh Worthington who held the Lordship of Worthington under Edward IV., 1474. The Elys settled in Lyme, Connecticut, about 1660, and the family has ever been one of influence. From Sarah Worthing- ton also descended Samuel Goodrich, the famous "Peter Parley" of history. See further biographical references of Mrs. Waddell, in "Emma Willard and Her Pupils," the latter being Mrs. Russell Sage's tribute to a famous educator and the most notable girls' school of its generation.
William Coventry H. and Charlotte Augusta (Southwick) Waddell had the following children :
William Southwick Waddell, b. 1843; d. s. p., and bur. Waddell vault, Trinity Church- yard, New York, Dec. 18, 1861;
Ida Lucretia Waddell, b. July, 1845; d. s. p., and bur. Waddell vault, Trinity Churchyard, New York, Dec. 26, 1863;
Anne Augusta Coventry Waddell, b. 1847; d. s. p., and bur. Waddell vault, Trinity Churchyard, New York.
Between 1847 and 1857 William Coventry H. Waddell was one of the largest owners of New York City real estate and had unbounded faith in the future devel-
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opment of the city. He was greatly interested in the development of the Adiaron- dack and St. Lawrence regions and owned considerable tracts in each, building a summer residence on the former properties at DeKalb, St. Lawrence county, part of which were originally Daubeney lands. His optimism regarding the ultimate value of the iron ore deposits in New York State (see his paper on "Northern New York," read before American Geographical & Statistical Society, November 2, 1854), is coming to be more and more justified. Over-extension in his real estate investments caused his failure in the great panic of 1857 and from which he never financially recovered. Murray Hill was sold and not long after torn down to furnish the site of the present Brick Church, and he removed with his family, after a few years, to Newburg on the Hudson, though returning after a brief interval to a residence overlooking the Hudson river at One Hundred and Forty-third street, but a few rods distance from "The Grange" of Alexander Ham- ilton. He accepted a post in the United States Custom House, as legal expert on cases involving seizures, which he continued to fill, undisturbed by the many changing administrations, and with marked fidelity until his death.
He was strongly interested in genealogy and to this interest more than to any other single fact is doubtless due the preservation of the data which makes possi- ble much of the present record regarding Waddell, Coventry, Daubeney, and allied lines. He was the originator of the Genealogical Registry which for some years had its offices in the Society Library Building, New York City, and which preceded by nearly forty years a service, recently (1909), sought to be rendered by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (of which he was also a member as early as 1869) in authenticating and recording genealogical pedigrees and data, although doubtless the latter's greater facilities for authenticating such records is not to be denied. He was elected a member of the St. Nicholas Society of New York City, December 5, 1845. On January 11, 1841, he was admitted to member- ship in the New York Society Library, in the right of his great-grandfather, John Waddell, one of the original subscribers, and which right had been forfeited in the American Revolution (see Keep's History "New York Society Library," p. 408, for reproduction of revived certificate). He was one of the incorporators in 1854, and a member of the Council of the American Geographical Society (Memorial History, N. Y., vol. 4, p. 451), and in 1862 one of the charter members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ibid vol. iii, p. 443).
Waddell Bay was named for him by Capt. Charles Francis Hall on his North Polar expedition (see latter's "Life Among Esquimaux," p. 376).
A warm personal friend of Gen. Sam Houston, his attention was early directed toward Texas, and with others he expended considerable sums in colonizing ex- penses of the Rio Grande and Texas Land Company, of which he was president.
His acquaintance and personal friendship among the prominent men of his time was extensive, including particularly Andrew Jackson, Edward Livingston, Re- verdy Johnson, Sam Houston, John C. Freemont, Washington Irving, Gov. Marcy, Samuel L. Southerd, George Bancroft, Lewis Cass, Silas Bent, Horatio Seymour, Benjamin F. Butler, Abram S. Hewitt, William E. Dodge, Stephen Vail, S. F. B. Morse.
He was keenly alive to progress and development in all scientific and material matters, as well as in thought, and was in many ways a generation in advance of his time. Among other things, his particular interests and activities comprehended
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