Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978

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Judge Ridgely was selected by and appointed guardian of Caesar Rodney in 1745, and his papers give evidence of his warm interest in and attachment to his ward, who later became the eminent patriot of Delaware. "He died full of years

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and of honors, charitable without ostentation, religious without bigotry, and his country celebrated his obsequies with tears and embalmed his memory with praise and applause." Under his tutelage and care were trained three noted men of Delaware-his son, Hon. Charles Ridgely, Caesar Rodney, and his step-grandson U. S. Senator John Vining.

Judge Nicholas Ridgely, like his distinguished grandsire, was thrice married. He married (first), December 26, 1711, Sarah, daughter of Colonel John and Sarah Worthington, of Ann Arundel county, who died March 16, 1721. On De- cember 5, 1723, he married (second) Ann, widow of James Gordon, daughter of Robert and Mary French, of New Castle county, on the Delaware, who died No- vember 21, 1733. His third matrimonial alliance was made December 23, 1736, with Mary, widow of Captain Benjamin Vining, and daughter of Judge Hugh Middleton, of Salem county, New Jersey, who survived him.

Issue of Judge Nicholas and Sarah (Worthington) Ridgely :-

Sarah, b. Nov. 20, 1713, d. unm., Dec. 6, 1736;

Rebecca, b. Oct. 15, 1714; m. Oct. 30, 1731, Benjamin, son of John Warfield, of Ann Arundel county, Md .;

Rachel, b. Feb. 7, 1716; m. April 20, 1749, Hon. John Vining, Chief Justice of Three Lower Counties, and had two sons, Nicholas and Benjamin, neither of whom left descendants;

Ruth, b. March 16, 1718, m. James Gorrell; had daughter Sarah Gorrell, b. Aug. 14, 1749;

Ann, b. Feb. 18, 1720, d. unm .:

Issue of Judge Ridgely by second wife, Ann ( French) Gordon :--

Mary, m. Patrick Martin; one child, Mary, d. unm .;

Issue by third wife, Mary (Middleton) Vining :-

CHARLES GREENBURY, b. Jan. 26, 1737, d. Nov. 25, 1785; m. (first) Mary Wynkoop; (second) Ann Moore; of whom presently;

Sarah, b. Sept. 30, 1743; m. Rev. Samuel McGaw; had one son d. inf .;

Elizabeth, b. Dec. 15, 1745; m. June 20, 1761, Thomas Dorsey, of Elk Ridge, Md .; left numerous descendants.

Mary (Middleton) Vining, third wife of Judge Nicholas Ridgely, had by her first husband, Captain Benjamin Vining, two children who lived to mature years, John and Mary. The son, John Vining, became first Chief Justice of the Three Lower Counties, in 1764; was Speaker of the Assembly, 1766-68; Trustee of Loan Office for Kent County; and filled other positions of trust and honor. He married (first) his step-sister Rachel, daughter of Judge Nicholas Ridgely, by his first wife, Sarah Worthington, by whom he had two sons, one of whom died in childhood, and the other of whom became a promising young lawyer, but died unmarried. He married (second) Phoebe Wynkoop, by whom he had a son John, who became a brilliant lawyer, and member of the first Continental Con- gress. He had also a daughter, Mary Vining, a beautiful girl and prominent belle of the Revolutionary period. Mary Vining, daughter of Captain Benjamin and Mary (Middleton) Vining, married Rev. Charles Inglis, for some years rector of Christ Church, Dover, afterwards rector of old Trinity Church, New York City, where he was officiating at the outbreak of the Revolution, and though

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threatened with death if he persisted in praying for the King in the opening serv- ices of his church, held fast in his loyalty to the crown, thereby suffering the con- fiscation of his property and banishment to Nova Scotia, where he became the first Colonial Bishop. His first wife, Mary Vining, left no issue ; he married ( second) a New York lady, and had several children, one of whom succeeded him as Bishop of Nova Scotia, and another son distinguished himself at the siege of Lucknow.

DR. CHARLES GREENBURY RIDGELY, eldest child and only son of Judge Nich- olas Ridgely, of Dover, Delaware, by his third wife, Mary (Middleton) Vining, was born January 26, 1737, at Salem, New Jersey, where his maternal grand- father, Judge Hugh Middleton, had been for many years a prominent man in public affairs, and owned a very large estate called "Barriton Fields."

His mother's first husband, Captain Benjamin Vining, was also of Salem county, though of a New England family, his father, William Vining, being at one time "Collector of Salem and Marblehead in New England." The son Ben- jamin removed from there to Philadelphia, where he was a Justice of the Peace, 1715-22, but later removed to Salem, New Jersey, where he died leaving a large estate to his widow, who on her marriage to Judge Ridgely surrendered it entire to the children of her first marriage.

Dr. Charles Greenbury Ridgely acquired a good classical education at the Col- lege of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, and studied medicine under the direction of Dr. Phineas Bond, who later became his brother-in-law by the marriage of both to daughters of Judge William Moore, of "Moore Hall." On acquiring his medical diploma, Dr. Ridgely located at Dover, where he prac- ticed his profession with marked success, acquiring such a reputation for profes- sional skill, that he was frequently called in consultation to all parts of the "Lower Counties" as well as to Philadelphia. He also became prominent in public affairs, almost from his first establishing himself at Dover. The Delaware Register, vol. ii, p. 166, has this to say of him: "He was not only distinguished as a learned and popular physician, but his powerful and active mind, his liberal reading on other subjects beside those of his profession, his strict integrity and honor, and his remarkable urbanity of manner, recommended him to his fellow citizens as a suitable candidate for a variety of public stations. According, from a short time after his settlement in Dover until his death, he scarcely passed a year in which he did not fill some important office, and frequently several of them."

He was elected to the General Assembly of the Three Lower Counties in 1765, and re-elected in 1766-67-68-73-74-76, and was a delegate from Kent county to the Convention held at New Castle, August 1, 1774, to select delegates to the first Colonial Conference held at Carpenter's Hall, September 5, 1774, when Caesar Rodney, Thomas Mckean and George Read were selected as delegates. He was also a delegate to the Convention which at the suggestion of the Continental Con- gress assembled at New Castle, on August 27, 1776, and after a session of twenty- six days promulgated on September 20, 1776, the first constitution, and launched into existence the independent state of Delaware, and dissolved all connection of what had been the "Three Lower Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex on the Delaware" with the crown of Great Britain. Among his fellow delegates were Nicholas Van Dyke, Richard Bassett, Jacob Moore and Thomas Mckean. He was a Justice of the county of Kent from November 1, 1764, until the adoption of the constitution of 1776, and was again called to the bench under the new

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government then established. He died at Dover, November 25, 1785, near the end of his forty-eighth year.

Dr. Charles G. Ridgely married (first), June 11, 1761, Mary, daughter of Abra- ham Wynkoop, of Holland lineage; (second), June 2, 1774, Ann, daughter of Hon. William Moore, of "Moore Hall," Chester county, Pennsylvania, by his wife Willamina, daughter of the Earl of Wemys, Scotland.

Issue of Dr. Charles G. and Mary (Wynkoop) Ridgely:

Nicholas Ridgely, b. Dover, Sept. 30, 1762; read law under Judge Robert Golds- borough, Cambridge, Md .; admitted to Bar at New Castle, 1787, and became one of the most distinguished members of the Delaware Bar. He was appointed Attorney General of the State, 1791, and filled that position with eminent ability ten years; was member of Constitutional convention of 1792, and was thereafter repeatedly elected to General Assembly of State, and drafted the principal legisla- tion made necessary by changes in the constitution. In 1801 was appointed Chan- cellor of the Court of Chancery, to which, through his influence in the Assembly, had been transferred the entire jurisdiction of the Orphans' Court, and equity proceedings, and the rules of court, forms of practice, and general principles of procedure adopted by him, are still in use, and he is justly considered the founder of chancery jurisprudence in Delaware. He held the office of Chancellor until his death, April 1, 1830, a period of nearly thirty years. His "Notes of Decisions in Chancery" are still the authority on those matters. He left no descendants.

Charles Ridgely, died in early manhood.

Abraham Ridgely, was an eminent physician, and prominent in political circles of his time, filling position of Secretary of State and other important offices; died without issue.

Issue of Dr. Charles G. and Ann (Moore) Ridgely:

Mary, m. Dr. William M. Morris; had one son, William Morris, m. a Miss Harris, of Harrisburg, Pa., and had children; Mary, wife of Caleb Penniwell, and Walter Morris;

HENRY MOORE, b. Aug. 6, 1779, d. Aug. 6, 1847; m. (first) Sarah Baning; (second) Sarah Ann Comegys; of whom presently.

Willamina, died in childhood.

Ann, died in childhood.

George W., became midshipman U. S. N .; lost at sea.

HENRY MOORE RIDGELY, son of Dr. Charles G. and Ann ( Moore ) Ridgely, born at Dover, Delaware, August 6, 1779, graduated at Dickinson College, studied law with his cousin, Charles Smith, Esq., at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was ad- mitted to the Delaware Bar in March, 1802. About the time of his admission to the Bar, Dr. Barrett, of Dover, a friend of Mr. Ridgely, having been grossly in- sulted by a Mr. Shields, of Wilmington; in accordance with the custom of the time, sent a challenge to the latter by Mr. Ridgely. Shields refused to meet Dr. Barret, and, acting in a very ungentlemenly manner to the bearer of the challenge, finally challenged him to a duel. Mr. Ridgely, though the quarrel was not origin- ally his, felt obliged to accept and in the duel which resulted was so severely wounded that for a time his life was despaired of, but after a painful and pro- tracted prostration fully recovered. Public opinion was so aroused against his antagonist that he left Wilmington and never returned.

Mr. Ridgely became one of the ablest and most successful lawyers of his time, as well as a prominent business man and statesman, and he early manifested an interest in political affairs, became a leader of marked prestige, and was the success- ful standard bearer of his party in many important elections. He was repeatedly

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elected to the State Legislature, and assisted in framing many of the most im- portant statutes of the State; was elected to Congress in 1811, and re-elected two years later by a large majority. At the termination of his second term he declined a renomination, preferring to give his entire attention to his large practice, but was induced to accept the position of Secretary of State in 1817, a position he again filled in 1824, and as the incumbent of that office performed a most valu- able work for posterity in collecting and arranging the scattered and imperfectly kept archives of his native state. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1827, and held a prominent place in that body, as he had in the lower House, by his advocacy of a protective tariff and other important measures of national legis- lation.

Mr. Ridgely, though filling at the behest of his fellow citizens many important offices, apparently cared nothing for public office or for the furthering of his per- sonal ends. He was tendered the Chancellorship of the State in 1830, and later the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but declined both these high honors, yet, because he felt he could intelligently serve the public interests, accept- ed the comparatively unimportant and nonlucrative office of Commissioner of the Levy Court of Kent County, and patiently devoted his time to restoring the offices of the county to an orderly condition. Again believing that there was mismanage- ment of the County Almshouse, he sought and obtained the office of trustee, and was able to institute a number of reforms, that added greatly to the comfort of the paupers and reduced the expense of their support. In business and financial circles Mr. Ridgely held the same high position, filling a number of positions of trust and honor. He was elected President of the Farmers' Bank of Dover at its incorporation in 1807, and filled that position for a period of forty years.

Henry Moore Ridgely married (first), November 21, 1803, Sarah, daughter of John Baning, of Dover, by his wife, Elizabeth (Alford) Cassius, said by a traveller of note, to have been "the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in Europe or America." She was daughter of Philip Alford, a wealthy West India merchant, who with his wife Charity came to Philadelphia and resided for some years on Second street, making periodical trips to the West Indies in the transac- tion of his business, during one of which he was lost at sea with many of his valuable papers.

Charity Alford, the widow, later removed to Dover with her widowed daugh- ter, who in 1786 married John Baning, son of Philip Baning, of Dover, born there, 1740, and died February 15, 1791. After the death of John Baning his widow married (third) Dr. William McKee, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a skilled physician of Wilmington, Delaware.

Sarah (Baning) Ridgely died January 14, 1837, and Mr. Ridgely married (second), March 17, 1842, Sarah Ann, daughter of Governor Cornelius Comegys, who survived him He died on his sixty-eighth birthday, August 6, 1847. His fifteen children, six of whom survived him, were all by his first wife, Sarah Baning.

Issue of Henry Moore and Sarah (Baning) Ridgely :-

Charles George, b. Aug. 12, 1804, d. July 15, 1844; educated at St. Mary's College, Baltimore; entered West Point and graduated there with high honors and com- missioned Second Lieut. First U. S. Infantry, July 1, 1826; resigned Feb. 22, 1827; sometime Professor of French at West Point Military Academy; studied law and practiced at Georgetown, Del .; sometime member Delaware Legislature:

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Elizabeth, b. Feb. 27, 1813, d. 1833; educated at Madame Grelland's school, Phila., and afterwards went much into society in that city, where she was admired, being a very beautiful girl of much ease and grace of manner. She was also a great belle in Washington society during the term of her father in the U. S. Senate;

ANN, born Feb. 21, 1815, d. Oct. 20, 1898; m. Charles Irenée Du Pont; of whom presently;

Henry, b. April 15, 1817, m. Virginia Jenkins; had issue :

Ruth Anna, m. (first) Richard Harrington; (second) Dr. James Wilson. Had issue by Harrington :

Ridgely;

Samuel Maxwell; Virginia.

Nicholas, b. Dec. 13, 1820, m. Mary R. Tilden; had issue, Henry Moore and Mary Tilden Ridgely;

Eugene, b. May 4, 1822, m. Mary A. Mifflin; had issue: Daniel, m. Ella Madden; Willamina Moore, b. May 27, 1827, m. Alexander Johnson; had issue :

Henry Ridgely, Nicholas Ridgely,

Ann du Pont,

James, Elizabeth, died in infancy ;

Edward, b. Jan. 31, 1831, m. Elizabeth Comegys; had issue : Harriet, married Dr. D. A. Harrison,

Edward, died young, Sarah,

Henry, married Mabel Fisher.

Seven other children d. in inf.

ANN RIDGELY, second surviving daughter of Henry Moore Ridgely by his wife, Sarah Baning, like her elder sister, Elizabeth, inherited the grace and beauty of her grandmother, and was possessed of a no less lovely disposition and manner, as well as fine intellectual powers. She was entirely educated under her father's personal care, certain hours of every day being spent in his study reading aloud to him, and daily contact with a man of his finely cultivated mind and intellectual tastes, early formed those of her own. At the age of twelve years she had read all of Shakespeare, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Dryden's Virgil, and was familiar with most of the other classical writers as well as the modern poets. She was much admired in society. May 11, 1841, she became the second wife of Hon. Charles Irenée du Pont, of "Louviers," Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, Delaware, son of Victor du Pont, by his wife, Gabrielle Josephine La Fitte, de Pelleport, daughter of Gabriel Renee Louis La Fitte, Marquis de Pelle- . port, of noble French lineage. He was born at Charleston, South Carolina, March 29, 1797, where his father, Victor du Pont de Nemours, was then French Consul. The family later returned to France, but again came to America, with Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, the father of Victor, and a younger brother Eleu- there Irenée du Pont, the founder of the powder works on the Brandywine, arriving at Newport on New Year's Day, 1800.

Victor du Pont removed to New Castle county in 1809, and settled on the banks of the Brandywine, where Charles Irenée du Pont was reared, and later became interested in manufacturing interests in that locality, and was the owner of extensive tracts of land there and elsewhere and was prominently identified with the affairs of the State, serving several terms in the legislature, and was a member of the State Senate in 1841, and again in 1855. In the latter year he was

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instrumental in securing an appropriation from the State Treasury to assist in building the Delaware railroad, of which he was one of the projectors, and was for many years a director. He was also a director of Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company; exerted a wide influence in the development of the resources of his native state and the promotion of internal improvements, and for many years president and director of the Farmers' National Bank of Wil- mington. He died January 31, 1869.

Charles Irenée du Pont married (first), October 5, 1824, Dorcas Montgomery Van Dycke, daughter of Hon. Nicholas Van Dycke. She died in 1838, leaving three children, and he married (second), May 11, 1841, Ann Ridgely, who sur- vived him nearly thirty years, dying October 20, 1898, in her eighty-fourth year. They had issue :

AMELIA ELIZABETH DU PONT, of whom presently;

Henry Ridgely du Pont, b. at Louviers, Nov. 19, 1848; d. April 29, 1893; studied law with his half-brother, Victor du Pont, and admitted to Bar of New Castle co., 1871; appointed U. S. Jury Commissioner, 1870.

AMELIA ELIZABETH DU PONT, daughter of Charles Irenée du Pont, by his second wife, Ann Ridgely, married, July 5, 1866, her cousin, Eugene du Pont, eldest son of Alexis Irenée du Pont, youngest son of Eleuthere Irenée du Pont de Nemours, the founder of the firm of "E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company," in 1802, by his wife, Sophie Madelline Dalmas, and Eleuthere Irenée du Pont was the younger son of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, Inspector General of Finance and Commerce, under Louis XVI. of France, and the founder of the family in America, by his estimable wife Nicole Charlotte Marie Louise le Dec de Rencourt.

Alexis Irenée du Pont, was born on the banks of the Brandywine, New Castle county, Delaware, February 14, 1816, and was educated at the Mount Airy School. near Philadelphia, and at the University of Pennsylvania, and about the year 1836, became actively identified with the powder manufacturing plant established by his father, and continued a member of the firm of "E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company," until his death on August 23, 1857, from injuries received in an ex- plosion of a portion of the works on the preceding day. He married, December 16, 1836, Joanna Smith, daughter of Francis Gurney Smith, of Philadelphia, who survived him and died August 29, 1876.

Eugene du Pont, soon after the tragic death of his father, became a member of the firm, with his uncle, General Henry du Pont, his younger brother, Francis Gurney du Pont, and his cousins, Irenée and Lammot du Pont, sons of his uncle, Alfred. The firm under the original name, having by this time vastly extended its scope, owning and operating ten different plants in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Issue of Eugene and Amelia Elizabeth (du Pont) du Pont :-

Ann Ridgely du Pont, born April 22, 1867, married June 26, 1894, William C. Peyton, son of Bernard and Estelle Peyton of San Francisco, Cal., and they have issue :

Bernard Peyton, born January 29, 1896.

Alexis Irenée du Pont, born August 2, 1869; graduated from Harvard College, 1892; now secretary and treasurer of the E. I. du Pont Company.

Eugene du Pont, born July 7, 1873; graduated from Harvard College in 1897; is now an officer in the E. I. du Pont Company.

Amelia Elizabeth du Pont.

Julia Sophia, married, November 3, 1903, James Newman Andrews, son of Gen. John N. Newman, and Lucy (McEntee) Andrews and they have issue :

39 Lucy Andrews, born October 21, 1904.

DU PONT FAMILY.

PIERRE SAMUEL DU PONT DE NEMOURS, founder of the American branch of the family of du Pont, was born in Paris, France, December 14, 1739, and died at the Eleutherian Powder Mills, on the banks of the Brandywine, New Castle county, Delaware, August 17, 1817. He was a son of Samuel du Pont, born 1710, died June 7, 1775, by his wife Anne Alexandrine de Mountchanin (married, May 19, 1737) ; grandson of Jean du Pont (died 1731), by his wife Marie de la Port ; and great-grandson of Jean du Pont (died 1715), by his wife Marie du Buse ; and great-great-grandson of Abraham du Pont, born 1566.

Pierre Samuel du Pont was educated for the medical profession, but never entered into its practice. Becoming early interested in economic questions, he published in 1762 a treatise on national finance, which attracted the attention of the celebrated economist, M. Quesnay, who became his friend and associate. Du Pont published several other pamphlets and numerous articles in the popular style of the period preceding the French Revolution, in the Journal de L'Agriculture. du Commerce, et des Finance, and the Ephemerides du Citoyen, of which journals he was successively editor. An article published in 1764, on "Export and Manu- facture of Cereals," attracted the attention of Turgot, another leader of the French school of economists, later Minister of Finance to the unfortunate Louis XVI., who became du Pont's staunch friend and patron.

His journal, the Ephemerides du Citoyen, being suppressed by governmental edict, du Pont accepted the office of secretary of Council of Public Instruction from Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland, and being made also governor, guardian and tutor of the King's nephew, Prince Adam Carlowkski, spent the next two years in Poland. At the expiration of that time his friend and patron Turgot, who had been made successively Minister of Marine and Minister of Finance, recalled du Pont de Nemours to Paris, and for the next two years the young patriot was engaged in ably seconding and assisting that most able and un- selfish patriot and statesman in his unsuccessful effort to establish governmenta! and economic reforms, far in advance of his age, that have made his name famous in the history of political science.

Du Pont de Nemours shared his patron's dismissal in May, 1776, and retired to Gatinais, in the neighborhood of de Nemours, his ancestral estate, and em- ployed himself in agricultural improvements and literary and scientific pursuits. During this six years' retirement he wrote a translation of Ariosto, and in 1782, on the death of his patron, published his "Memoires sur la vie Turgot." In the same year he was appointed by Vergennes, with the English commissioner, Dr. James Hutton, to prepare the treaty for the recognition of the Independence of the United States, and a treaty of commerce between France and Great Britain in 1786. At about the latter date he was called to the Council of State of France, and appointed Commissary-General of Commerce and Inspector-General of Agri- culture.

During the French Revolution, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was an ardent advocate of a constitutional monarchy as against the extreme views of the

DU PONT ARMS.

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Republicans, and on the memorable day of horrors, August 10, 1792, with his youngest son, Eleuthere Irenée du Pont de Nemours, went armed to the Tuilleries, to defend the royal family from the anticipated attack of the frenzied mob. Through the courage and activity of the son, the lives of both him and his father were saved, and they later found temporary refuge in the observatory of Mazarin College, under the protection of their friend, the astronomer Lalande. While in hiding, Pierre Samuel wrote the famous "Philosophy L'Univers." Finally cap- tured and imprisoned in La Force, he and his son only escaped the guillotine by the timely death of Robespierre, and the reactionary movement having set in, du Pont became a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and by his policy of resistance to the Jacobins made himself a leader of the reactionary party. When the Republicans broke up the Council, September 4, 1797, du Pont de Nemours' house was sacked by the mob, and by the influence of Chenier he barely escaped death or transportation.

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Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 978

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978