USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 45
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Thomas Swift, father of Samuel, above mentioned, was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony, June 17, 1635, and died in Milton, January 26, 1717- 18. He married, October 16, 1676, Sarah Clapp, who died at Milton, February 4, 1717-18.
Thomas Swift Sr., father of the above named Thomas Swift, came to New England with the early Puritan Fathers from Rotherham, in the West Rid- ing of Yorkshire, England, and was the grantee of a tract of land at Dorches- ter, Massachusetts Bay Colony, November 22, 1624. He was a son of Robert
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Swift, of Rotherham, where he was born about 1600. He married, at Trinity Church, Dorchester, October 18, 1630, Elizabeth, daughter of Bernard Capen, one of the founders of Dorchester, who, like nearly all the other settlers at Dor- chester, came from county Dorset, for whose county town the place was named. He died November 8, 1638, at the age of 76, and his grave in the old burying ground at Dorchester is the oldest marked grave in New England, with the stone flagging to keep the wolves from disturbing the remains, still in its place. His house, still standing on Washington street, near Wheatland, is one of the most noted antiquities of New England. His wife Joan, daughter of Oliver Purchase, died March 26, 1655, and is buried by his side. The next gravestone to the right of the Capens in this ancient burying ground is that of their son-in- law, Thomas Swift, who "Dyed May ye 30th, 1675." Elizabeth (Capen) Switt died January 26, 1677, aged 78 years. "The Capens were among the earliest settlers on Jones's Hill, and men who were foremost in the affairs of the town which was so progressive, both as regards the school and the church", says a chronicler of Dorchester. Captain Preserved Capen, one of the sons of Ber- nard and Joan, was selectman of the town sixteen years, warder for thirteen, "and wrote more in the town books than any man by far."
At the close of the Revolutionary War, Samuel Babcock engaged in business in Boston, and on his marriage in 1783 to Elizabeth Swift, located in Cam- bridge, where he resided until entering the United States army in 1812, and his subsequent death in the service, November 29, 1813.
The children of Samuel and Elizabeth (Swift) Babcock, all born at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, were :-
MAJOR SAMUEL BABCOCK, U. S. A., b. May 22, 1785, d. June 26, 1831, of whom pres- ently ; James Babcock; lived some time at Watertown, Mass .; later jointed his brother-in- law, Asa Brigham, at Alexandria, La .;
Rebecca Babcock; several years at Jaffrey, N. H., d. at Alexandria, La., Oct. 28, 1819; Eliza Babcock, m. 1809, Asa Brigham, of Jaffrey, Cheshire Co., N. H., in 1809, and from this date her mother and sister Rebecca resided with the Brighams until their respective deaths within a little over a month of each other at Alexandria, La. Asa Brigham and Elizabeth Babcock were married at Framingham, Mass. How long they resided at Jaffrey, N. H., does not appear, but they were living in Alexandria, on the Mississippi, above New Orleans, from 1819 to 1826, as shown by a number of letters written by Asa Brigham to his brother-in-law, Maj. Babcock, in one of which, dated. Nov. 1, 1819, he reports the death of his mother-in-law, Elizabeth (Swift) Babcock, his sister-in-law Rebecca Babcock, and his own son, Master George Brigham. The Brighams later removed to Brazoria, Texas. They had issue:
Adeliza Brigham, b. 1812, d. 1833; m. and had one daughter, who married Judge Hancock, of Austin, Texas;
Samuel Babcock Brigham, b. 1814, was living at Matagorda, Texas, 1859; Benjamin Brigham, b. April 21, 1815, joined Texas patriots and was killed at the battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, his 21st birthday ; Susan Rebecca Brigham; b. 1816, d. 1825.
MAJOR SAMUEL BABCOCK, eldest son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Swift) Bab- cock, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 22, 1785, and was reared and educated there. On April 28, 1806, he was appointed a cadet to West Point Military Academy, in a regiment of artillery, but in November, as he records in his journal, he addressed a letter to the lieutenant-colonel of engineers re- questing to be transferred to that corps, and his request was granted the fol- lowing spring, and in August, 1807, he was ordered to Fort Columbus, on com- mand in the Engineer Department, and acted there as private secretary to
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Colonel Williams, in command, until his return to West Point in December fol- lowing. He graduated February 23, 1808, and was commissioned second lieu- tenant Engineer Corps, and ordered to Fort Columbus, where he had the sup- erintendence of the erection of Castle William, and remained there until April, 18II, when he returned to West Point, where he remained until August, 1812. During his stay at Fort Columbus his journal records two visits to his home at Boston on furloughs. In August, 1812, Lieutenant Babcock was ordered by Major Walker K. Armistead, of his Corps of Engineers, later lieutenant-colonel, to take charge of the erection of Fort Gansevoort, on the North River, and he commenced the work in September and completed it in ninety days. In January, 1813, he records that he received two commissions, one as first lieutenant to rank from July 1, 1812, and one as captain to rank from September 20, 1812, these dates corresponding with the official record of his promotions. From this point the journal of Captain (later Major) Babcock gives so much of the history of the movements about Baltimore in that critical time in the life of the Republic that we quote it in full.
"March (1813), ordered on recruiting service; May, ordered to Baltimore to make repairs and additions to the fortifications; arrived there the beginning of May; British squadron in sight; people frightened out of their wits, everything wanting; found Col. Wadsworth, of the Ordnance Department, acting as engineer and commencing a ravelin before the gate at Ft. McHenry. Was introduced to Gen. Smith, commanding militia; at his request traced a Battery for six guns which he called after my name; received orders to examine the situation of the harbor in company with Col. Wadsworth and report re- specting the propriety of erecting a small work S. W. of the town, fix on a spot and re- port; received orders from Sec. of War to commence, which was done in July.
"August, British again appear; Maj. Armistead supercedes Maj. Buell in command of Fort McHenry. Fort put in a respectable state of defence; the enemy move off, and about this time am taken very ill of a billious fever which in about eight days terminates in an intermittent. At beginning of September retire to Goverstown, about four miles from the city, for the benefit of the air. Return to Baltimore 22d Sepr., finish the work (now called Covington) and in Novr. return to New York.
"March 1814; ordered to the Narrows; July following to Philadelphia to construct a block house on the pea patch and another on the Delaware shore. Report to Gen. Bloom- field, who is a most respectable man; was to receive supplies from the council or corpora- tion of the city; Gen. B. introduces me; am not well pleased with the manners of those gentry ; imagine themselves great engineers; finally after visiting the P. P. and explaining what my orders are, the committee are displeased that I will not do what my orders do not authorize, and after some manouvering in which they display not much knowledge or civilization, they refuse to furnish me any funds.
"20 August; Sec. of War writes from Montgomery C. H., ordering me to Baltimore; where I arrive on 'the 3d; report to Gen. Smith; he receives me according to custom in a very cold manner, and tells me he conceives B. to be in a state of defence equal to the emergency.
"5 Sept .; without being required I report to Gen. S. what I conceive necessary; he objects to my plans as too extensive, but after a day or two orders me to commence at Camp Lookout, which I did by tracing a circular redoubt of 150 feet interior radius.
"Sept. 12; Battle of North Point; 13th bombardment of Fort McHenry; 4 men killed in 24 hours. 14th, at daylight enemy got under weigh; weather there 3 Days very wet and foggy, wind S. E.
Up to this time, since ordered south, Captain Babcock has been assistant en- gineer of the Fifth Military District, Maryland and Virginia, under Col. Thomas G. Swift, Lieutenant Colonel Armistead, before mentioned being chief engineer. We quote :
"22d May, 1815; came to 4th District to Report to my very particular friend Gen. Scott, as engineer of the district ; ordered by Gen. Swift to make a report on a project for the pea patch ; Lieut. Craig joins me as assistant; transmitted plans in June. July, Lt. Col. Totten arrives to examine ditto; informs me that Gen. S. objects to my plan as too extensive, propose some alterations which I think are very trifling.
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"Feby. 1816; Recd. plans of work to be erected on the P. Patch; recd. orders to pro- cure material to be deposited there, which is done.
"Augt. 1816; Lt. Eveleth joins me, to whom I commit the charge of superintendence at the P. P.
"May, 1817; Gen. Swift orders the work to be commenced. (In March of the same year I am married to Marian Rualt Contance).
"July, 1817; remove to New Castle and the foundation of the works there is com- menced, also extensive wharfing to preserve the soil from washing away. In 1818 same labor is continued. Decr. 23d, 1818, is born our daughter Catharine Fotterall Babcock. In 1819, mason work begun by P. Kline & Son; in the same year I am promoted to the rank of major *
* * In the autumn of 1820 the Secretary of War visited Ft. Delaware, (the name of the work on the Pea Patch), also Col. Armistead. * * *
1821, Feby. 2d, 2d daughter, Elizabeth Swift, was born. * * * 1822, same work continued. 1822, was born our Ist son Samuel."
Captain Babcock was promoted to the rank of major March 31, 1819. From May 22, 1815, until his resignation on December 22, 1830, he was located for the greater part of the time at New Castle, Delaware, being ordered to Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio to superintend the erection of fortifications at different periods, 1826 to 1830, though his main residence was near New Cas- tle, where he purchased Spring Garden Farm, to which he retired on his resigna- tion, and died in Philadelphia, June 26, 1831.
By his first wife, Marian Rualt Contance, whom, as stated in his journal, he married in March, 1817, he had two daughters and one son. His eldest daugh- ter, Catharine Fotterall Babcock, born December 23, 1818, never married; the second daughter, Elizabeth Swift Babcock, born February 2, 1821, married Captain Charles Fleming, U. S. N .; the son, Samuel Fotterall Babcock, born September 12, 1822, married Ella Bourne.
Major Babcock married (second) in Philadelphia, May 18, 1826, by Bishop William White, Elizabeth Eyre, of Philadelphia, born August 2, 1805, who long survived him, dying June 30, 1872. By her he had but one child, Maria Louisa Babcock, born September 12, 1827, married, as above stated, October 22, 1856, Dr. Elisha Crowell.
The ancestry of Elizabeth Eyre, the second wife of Major Samuel Babcock, is as follows:
George Eyre, who came to New Jersey in 1727, was the third child and only son of George and Sarah Eyre, of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, where he was born November 17, 1700. His great-grandfather, Sir Gervaise Eyre, lost his life while governor of Newark Castle, May 5, 1645, fighting for King Charles I. The local historians of the day speak of Sir Gervaise Eyre as a man of irreproachable character, the best horseman in King Charles's army, and adds that "had the King had many such soldiers he had neither lost his crown nor his life." The grandfather of Sir Gervaise, also named Gervaise, married Mary, daughter of George Neville, and a descendant of Ralph de Nev- ille, second Lord of Raby, who was a lineal descendant of the ancient Saxon King Ethelred II. The family was founded in England by Humphrey de Eyre, who was a knight of William of Normandy, and lost a leg while fighting under him at the battle of Hastings in 1066. The crest of the Eyre family, in com- memoration of this, is a leg in armor, couped at the thigh. One of the homes of the Eyre family in England was North Lees, in Derbyshire, now in ruins. On the north side of the nave of the ruined chapel, beneath a crochetted ogee canopy, is the altar tomb of Robert Eyre, who fought in the battle of Agincourt, and his wife Joanna, daughter and heiress of Robert Padley, Lord of the Manor
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of Wethersage, with an inscription in black-letter characters, and effigies of their ten sons and four daughters. There are several other monuments of the Eyre family in the Wethersage Church.
George Eyre, the American emigrant, studied for the ministry, but while on a visit to this country in 1727, met and married Mary, daughter of Hon. Manuel Smith, of Burlington, New Jersey, one of the four sons of Richard Smith of Braham, West Riding of Yorkshire, who came to New Jersey to take up land granted to their father, about 1694. Richard Smith, the father, was a son of Richard Smith (1593-1647), and was born at Braham in 1626. He was edu- cated for the law, but joined the Society of Friends and in 1660 was imprisoned with many other Quakers in York Castle. He was a Quaker preacher and the author of religious works. He died in England in 1688. He married, in 1653, Ann, daughter of William Yates; an eminent Friend of Albrough, Yorkshire. She was also imprisoned for her faith. Manuel Smith was born in Braham in 1670, and died in Burlington, New Jersey, in May, 1720, leaving a large estate. The family were very prominent in provincial affairs for several generations. Manuel, however, took less interest in public affairs. He was not a Quaker, but was one of the church-wardens of St. Mary's Episcopal Church at Burlington. He married Mary Williams, and left only three daughters to survive him.
George Eyre, on his marriage to Mary Smith in 1729, settled in the town of Burlington, where he resided until his death, January 14, 1761. "He was a
devout Christian gentleman of good education. * * * His descendants are quite numerous, especially in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Many of them have held high positions of honor and trust." His wife Mary Smith died, and he married (second) Mrs. Rebecca Shreeve, of Burlington, by whom he had one daughter, Anne, born September 10, 1756. By his first wife he had eleven children-Samuel, died in infancy; George, Sarah, Hannah, and Eliza- beth, died unmarried; Samuel, second of the name, born February 2, 1734, of whom presently ; Manuel Eyre, born March 10, 1736, who came to Philadelphia when a young man and married Mary Wright, daughter of Richard Wright, the leading ship-builder of Philadelphia, with whom he became associated in business, and during the Revolution was a prominent member of the Pennsyl- vania Navy Board; died in Kensington, Philadelphia, November I, 1805, leav- ing a large family. Jehu Eyre, born January 21, 1738, was a colonel of the Philadelphia Artillery during the Revolution, and died July 1781, from ex- posure in the exercise of his military duties; he married Lydia Wright, sister to his brother Manuel's wife, and had nine children. Mary Eyre, born October 1739, married Rev. Colin Campbell, rector of St. Mary's church, Burlington. Martha Eyre, born October 28, 1741, married William Gordon, of Burlington. Benjamin George Eyre, the youngest child of George and Mary (Smith) Eyre, born June 1, 1747, died July II, 1789, was a colonel in the Continental army and was aide-de-camp to General Washington at the battle of Princeton, and is shown in Col. Trumbull's historical painting of that battle. Anne Eyre, daugh- ter of the second marriage, married Judge Thomas Adams, of Burlington, and had six children.
Samuel Eyre, son of George and Mary (Smith) Eyre, born February 2, 1734, married Elizabeth Folwell, of Burlington, and lived for a time in Burlington, later in Philadelphia. They had six children: George, married, September 30,
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1789, Mary Lippincott, of Burlington, who after his death married Patrick E. Whelen, of Philadelphia, they had two sons, Samuel and George, both of Phila- delphia, and one daughter, Eliza, who married John Ashburner of Philadelphia. Elizabeth Eyre married, October 18, 1792, Uriah Wilkins, of Burlington, and had five children: Nathan Eyre, of whom presently. Mary, died unmarried. Hannah, married Captain John Griffiths. Samuel Benjamin, married Hannah Whitehead, and had several children.
Nathan Eyre, second son of Samuel and Elizabeth Folwell, was engaged in business in Philadelphia when a young man, and later lived in Kaysville and Haddonfield, New Jersey. He married (first), March 3, 1791, Sarah Kay, of Evesham, New Jersey, by whom he had one daughter, Ann, who married George Thompson. He married (second) Elizabeth, sister to his first wife, by whom he had seven children: Maria, married Benjamin Ashburner; Sarah, married William Fotterall, of Philadelphia; Joseph Kay Eyre, married a Miss Hopkins; Elizabeth, married Major Samuel Babcock; Emma, married Thomas Allibone, of Philadelphia; Samuel and Charles Edmund.
John Kay, great-grandfather of Sarah and Elizabeth Kay, the two wives of Nathan Eyre, came from Kirk-Burton, Yorkshire, to New Jersey, in 1680. He was a member of Assembly from Gloucester county, 1685-1703-4-6-7-9; was elected speaker of the House, 1709, and regularly thereafter, to and including the year 1714, remained a prominent member of the Assembly at least until 1721 and possibly later, and was many years a justice of the courts of Gloucester county. He died in 1742, his wife Sarah surviving him.
Josiah Kay, son of John and Sarah, married, in 1713, Rebecca, daughter of Francis Davenport, of Burlington county, New Jersey, who had come from Whittington, Derbyshire.
Joseph Kay, of Haddonfield, New Jersey, son of Josiah and Rebecca (Dav- enport) Kay, of the same place, was the father of Sarah and Elizabeth Kay, above mentioned, who married Nathan Eyre. Elizabeth (Kay) Eyre survived her husband and married (second) Captain Samuel Potter, of North Carolina.
ADDINELL HEWSON, M. D.
ADDINELL HEWSON, M. D., of Philadelphia, comes of a family long eminent in the medical profession, his direct ancestors for at least four generations hav- ing held exceedingly high places in the science of medicine and surgery, which they have done much to advance.
DR. WILLIAM HEWSON, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch was born at Hexam, on the south side of the River Tyne, in the County of Northumberland, England, in 1739. He received a liberal education, and in 1759 attended the lectures of John and William Hunter in London, and was afterwards associated with them as a lecturer on anatomy, in which science he was a well-known authority at an early age. When Dr. Addinell Hewson was in Europe in 1850, Sir William Lawrence presented him with an old engraving on which is the likeness of William Hewson, in a group of students around John Hunter. He also made valuable discoveries in relation to the nature of blood and the lymphatic system. In 1771 he was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society which awarded him the Copley Medal for his researches in the lymphatic system of birds and fishes. In 1772 he published "Experimental Inquiries into the Properties of Blood." He was also an eminent surgeon. His brilliant career was brought to an untimely end by his death on May 1, 1774, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, of a fever produced from a wound received in dissecting. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of Addinell Stevenson, a well-to-do merchant of London, by his wife Margaret, at whose house. she being then a widow, Dr. Franklin re- sided while in London as agent for the Colony of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hewson "was a woman of cultivated mind and fine judgment", says Franklin Bache, M. D., great-grandson of Dr. Franklin, in his obituary notice of Dr. Thomas T. Hewson, her son, in 1849, and continues, "It was her good fortune to enjoy the friendship of Dr. Franklin to the day of his death; and her published corres- pondence with him evinces as well the extent of her acquirements, as the ele- gance of her style." She removed; with her children to Philadelphia in 1786, where she resided until shortly before her death. She died at Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1795, in the fifty-seventh year of her age.
DR. THOMAS TICKELL HEWSON, second son of Dr. William Hewson, the cele- brated anatomist and physiologist above mentioned, and his wife Mary (Steven- son) Hewson, was born in the City of London, April 9, 1739, and died in Phil- adelphia, February 17, 1848. The "Obituary Notice of Thomas T. Hewson, M. D." read before the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, November 6, 1849, by his friend Franklin Bache, M. D., before quoted, gives such an excellent sketch of the life and achievements of Dr. Hewson that we here quote it almost entire :
"In March, 1781, at the age of eight years, young Hewson entered the school of Wil- liam Gilpin, at Cheam, near London, where he received the rudiments of his education, and where he continued to attend until the summer of 1786, with the exception of five months in the winter of 1784-5, which he spent with Dr. Franklin at Passy. He showed much ap- titude for learning, and was called 'little inquisitive Tom,' and 'all soul and no body'. His mother, writing to a friend in September, 1783, remarks of him that 'he bids fair, by the
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powers of his mind, to do honor to his name; for he outstrips all his companions in his learning.' In the summer of 1786, Mrs. Hewson removed to America with her children, and soon after her arrival Thomas entered the junior class of the College of Philadel- phia, afterwards the University of Pennsylvania. He was prepared to graduate in 1788, but remained another year, in compliance with the advice of Dr. Ewing, the provost of the College, who wished him to postpone his graduation on account of his youth. In July, 1789, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, speaking at the Commencement with much applause, and immediately afterwards began his medical studies with Dr. John Foulke, of Philadelphia. After having pursued his studies for nearly five years in Philadelphia, he returned to England in June, 1794, and in the month of September following entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital as one of the house surgeons. In November, 1795, he went to Edinburgh to pursue his medical studies at the University, where he remained until July, 1796, when private business compelled him to return to London. In that city he was de- tained until July, 1800, when he returned to America. During his absence abroad he had the misfortune to lose his mother, who died October II, 1795, at Bristol, Pennsylvania, in the fifty-seventh year of her age.
"Thus, after a course of medical and surgical studies embracing a period of eleven years, he returned to America to enter upon the practice of his profession in this city. in November, 1806, he was appointed physician to the Walnut Street Prison, and served this institution faithfully until March, 1818, when he resigned. His services in this insti- tution were signalized by his devoted attention to the prisoners during the prevalence of a dangerous and malignant typhus, which broke out in December, 1847, and continued until the succeeding March. So highly did the inspectors of the Prison estimate the services of Dr. Hewson that they presented to him a handsome silver vase, bearing the following in- scription :
TRIBUTE TO HUMANITY The Inspectors of the Prison Of the CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA To DR. THOMAS T. HEWSON Commemorative of his distinguished professional services during the prevalence of malig- nant typhus fever in the winter of 1817-18.
"The correspondence which passed between the Committee of Inspectors of the Prison and Dr. Hewson on the occasion of the presentation of the vase does equal credit to both parties. In September, 1811, Dr. Hewson was elected one of the surgeons of the Philadel- phia Almshouse, an appointment which he held many years. In 1815 he published a trans- lation from the French of the valuable work of Swediaur on Syphilis. In December, 1816, he was elected Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the Department of Natural Science at the University of Pennsylvania; but it does not appear that he delivered a course on the subject until the spring of 1818. It is probable also that this was the only course he de- livered under this appointment. Knowledge and zeal (and Dr. Hewson possessed both to an extraordinary degree), are not the only prerequisites of success in teaching a branch of science. The importance of the subject must be appreciated by a sufficient number of vo- taries to afford the teacher a class of pupils; for without recipients of his knowledge his fitness to impart instruction must be in vain.
"In January, 1817, Dr. Hewson was appointed physician to the Orphan Asylum, a posi- tion he held for twenty years; and in November, 1818, he was chosen one of the sur- geons of the Pennsylvania Hospital in the place of Dr. Dorsey, deceased, and continued to hold this appointment until May, 1835, a period of nearly seventeen years, when he re- signed.
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