USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. I > Part 26
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Some of the name, which was variously spelled Die Witte, De Witte, De With, De Wit, de Witt, and finally De Witt, served under William the Silent and were zealous supporters of the revolted provinces against Spanish oppression. After the death of John of Barneveldt, Jacob De Witt succeeded to the high honors of " Land Advocate of Holland." His son Corne- lius, the burgomeister of Dordrecht, "at the head of a Dutch fleet, with a stout Dutch admiral (De Ruyter) to do his bidding," sailed up the Thames, burning the English ships and sending con- sternation into the very heart of London.
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CHARLES LYTLE LAMBERTON.
Another son, John De Witt, one of the most distinguished men in the history of the Netherlands, became grand pensionary of Holland during the period between the separation from Spain and the opening of the thirty years' war, a position which at that time required the most consummate ability and statesmanship. Under his guidance Holland became a power among the nations of Eu- rope. Geddes, in his recent valuable work, " The History of the Administration of John De Witt, Grand Pensionaty of Holland," says of him that " he was a head and shoulders above nearly all the notable men of his time," and " one, moreover, on whose pub- lic virtue there is hardly a blemish or spot." Tjerck Claus de Witt left his native land about the year 1648, and settled on the banks of the Twaalskill, now Rondout creek, within the limits of the present city of Kingston, and became the progenitor of that branch of the family to which Mrs. Lamberton belongs. J. H. De Witt was born in Marbletown, Ulster county, New York, on October 2, 1784. While yet an infant his parents removed to Twaalskill, now called Wilbur. His father, Colonel Thomas De Witt, one of nine sons, commanded a regiment in the continental army and served through the whole period of the revolutionary war. The only daughter in this large family married General James Clinton, and became the mother of De Witt Clinton. Colo- nel Thomas De Witt left surviving him three sons, Jacob H., Reu- ben, and Thomas, and one daughter, Mary, who married Thomas Thorp. Reuben died unmarried in 1859. Thomas, the youngest son, entered the ministry and died in 1874, having been for many years senior pastor of the Collegiate Reformed church of New York. Jacob H. De Witt spent the whole of his long life in his native county and was prominently identified with its interests and its people. In 1812 he was adjutant of a regiment raised to prosecute the war with Great Britain, and subsequently re- ceived a commission as colonel. In 1810 he was elected by the Clintonian party to congress, where he took an active share in the great struggle preceding the Missouri compromise question. In 1839, and again in 1847, he represented Ulster county in the state legislature. In 1823 Colonel De Witt married Sarah Ann Sleight, of Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York, a granddaughter of General Swartwout, who rendered distinguished service under
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CHARLES LYTLE LAMBERTON.
Wolfe in the French war, and who subsequently fought in the war of independence.
"Colonel De Witt died in Kingston on January 30, 1857, in the seventy-third year of his age. He left surviving him his wife, who died in 1872, one son, John Sleight De Witt, and three daughters, Elsie, Mary, who married James S. Evans, a leading banker of Kingston, and Anna, who is the wife of Charles I .. Lamberton, of Pennsylvania. In his public career Colonel De Witt exhibited those qualities of sturdy honesty and independ- ence which descended to him from his Dutch ancestry, and in private life his gentle, kindly heart and old-fashioned courtesy endeared him to an ever-widening circle of friends."
In the same history, writing of Tjerck Claesen De Witt, the author says: " he was the kinsman of John De Witt and Cornelius De Witt, the two brothers who were so distinguished in Holland, the former for nineteen years having successfully administered its government-1652 to 1672." He says further that "Tjerck Clae- sen De Witt came to this country from Zunderland, Holland, prior to April 24, 1656, when he married Barber Andries in New Am- sterdam. He was settled in Beverwyck, where he owned a house and lot which he exchanged with Madame De Hutter for two parcels of land in Esopus, containing one hundred and forty acres, September 1, 1660. In 1661 he was still possessed of a portion of his patrimonial estate in Ilolland, from which he received the rents." Having disposed of all his property in Albany, he took up his permanent residence in Esopus (Ulster . county) in 1660. In November, 1661, he assisted in the erection of a parsonage. Besides those already mentioned amongst his other descendants was Hon. Simeon De Witt, surveyor general of the state of New York from 1784 to 1835. And Thomas De Witt and thirty other descendants of Tjerck Claesen De Witt, immediately after the battle of Lexington, with others of the men of Ulster signed the famous articles of association, " Shocked by the bloody scene now acting in Massachusetts bay, do, in the most solemn manner, resolve never to become slaves, and do associate under all the ties of religion, honor, and love of coun- try, to adopt, and to endeavor to carry into execution whatever measures may be recommended by the continental congress."
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JOHN LYNCH.
During the war Ulster furnished three regiments for the conti- nental army, among whom were many of the signers of these articles of association.
In his retirement from the active duties of political and pro- fessional life, Mr. Lamberton enjoys a comfortable income, with means sufficient to relieve him of all necessity for professional labor, and enabling him to devote much of his time to study and travel in our own and foreign countries, in which recreation, as already stated, he very frequently indulges. His European tours and habits of observation have given him a rich fund of informa- tion concerning foreign customs and politics, which makes him a delightful conversationalist; and no man keeps closer watch of the drift of governmental matters in his own country, or is a better prepared or safer counselor touching the political pos- sibilities or probabilities of the passing hour.
JOHN LYNCH.
John Lynch was born November 1, 1843, at Providence, Rhode Island. His father, Patrick Lynch, was a native of Cavan, in the county of Cavan, Ireland, and who emigrated to this country in 1830. Here he remained for a few years, and then returned to Ireland, where he married, and again came to this country. He removed to Nesquehoning about 1846, and resided there until 1864, when he moved to Wilkes-Barre, where he died in 1878 at the age of seventy-five. He is remembered as a pleasant and agreeable gentleman, who had hosts of friends, and was beloved and respected by them. The mother of the subject of our sketch is Rose, daughter of the late John Caffrey, of the town of Cavan, Ireland. She is still living in this city at the age of sixty-five.
John Lynch was educated in the public schools, at the seminary at Wyalusing, Bradford county, Pa., and at Wyoming seminary, Kingston, Pa .. During his youth, he did the or- dinary work of boys who have their own way to make in the world, working on the farm in the summer months, and going to
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JOHN LYNCH.
school in the winter. Mr. Lynch studied law with Garrick M. Harding, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county Novem- ber 20, 1865. He then entered the office of the late Charles Denison, and was for a year the chief clerk of the late sheriff. S. H. Puterbaugh. In 1866 he received the democratic nomina- tion for register of wills of Luzerne county, and was triumphantly elected, Captain Harry M. Gordon being his republican opponent. Mr. Lynch was the last lawyer who filled that office, and it is to be regretted that an office so important and needing such a knowledge of the law should be filled by a layman. Upon the organization of the city of Wilkes-Barre, in 1871, Mr. Lynch was appointed a councilman-at-large for the city, and filled the office for three years. During the years 1873 and 1874, he was attorney for the city of Wilkes-Barre. In 1877 he was a candidate for the democratic nomination for judge, but the honor was carried off by Ex-Judge Dana. In 1879 he was nominated by the greenback- labor party for the office of judge, but was defeated by Charles E. Rice, president judge of Luzerne county, the vote standing thus : Rice, 6951 ; William S. McLean, democrat, 5013; and Lynch, 4539.
Mr. Lynch was married January 24, 1877, to Mary Cecelia, a native of Jenkins township, Luzerne county, and daughter of Patrick Lenahan, a native of Newport, Mayo county, Ireland. Mr. Lenahan was for many years a prosperous merchant in this city, and still resides here. The mother of Mrs. Lynch was Margaret, daughter of Hugh Durkin, a native of Tyrawley, county of Mayo, Ireland, and who died when Mrs. Lynch was but fourteen days old. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch have a family of two children- Maria Lynch and Grace Lynch. John T Lenahan, of the Luz- erne bar, is a brother of Mrs. Lynch; and James T. Lenahan, also a member of the Luzerne bar, a step-brother; Edward A. Lynch, also a member of the Luzerne bar, is a brother of John Lynch.
It may be set down as a rule, with just sufficient exceptions to make the study of them interesting, that those whose earlier years have involved the necessity of labor for a livelihood, and who subsequently fit themselves for one of the professions, bring to the practice of it the greater industry and the greater ingenuity.
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JOHN LYNCH. .
The rule is in keeping with that noticed in connection with our public schools that a large percentage of the best and most effi- cient scholars are the children of poor people. They see better things all around them than those to which in their homes they are accustomed ; they see or think they see, as is usually the case, that their parents' lack of education is the cause ; and there is naturally developed in them an ambition to avoid that lacking themselves, and thus attain to higher conditions.
John Lynch, as already stated, was required, as a boy, to give his summer months to labor, and his winter months of study were all the more diligently applied on that account. In school he was an apt scholar; in the office of his preceptor, when he had entered upon the study of the law, he was equally studious, and his bright mind was equally quick to respond to the precepts of the text books, so that he came to his examination amply pre- pared to pass it creditably, and to the bar fitted for real work.
He has built up a very large and lucrative practice since then, and is noted for the persistency with which he pursues a case when once he has taken hold of it, until the last expedient is exhausted. In politics, Mr. Lynch has always been a democrat, and, excepting when made a candidate for the judgeship by the greenbackers, worked in each succeeding campaign earnestly for the success of the democratic party. Many contend that his acceptance of that nomination was an error. Perhaps it was, but it is the natural ambition of almost every lawyer to set upon the woolsack, and it must be confessed that the condition of the parties in the district upon the occasion alluded to was such that almost any lawyer, similarly situated and surrounded, would have been likely to permit his natural, and in every way laudable, desire for promotion in the profession to run away with his judg- ment. He was not alone in assuming that the nomination ten- dered him offered strong hopes of success. It was not in fact until the canvass had been some time in progress that it became at all generally apparent that the result would be as it was.
Mr. Lynch takes comparatively little time from his professional duties, but has managed nevertheless to acquire a familiarity with general literature and a knowledge of men and affairs that suffice to fittingly adorn his appeals in jury trials and to make him a
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CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
speaker much sought after for public occasions of a political or patriotic character.
He has just entered middle life, has a vigorous vitality, and, barring any unforeseen accident, is evidently good for many more years of usefulness both as lawyer and citizen.
CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
Charles Leonard Bulkeley was born in Wilkes-Barre, Penn- sylvania, January 15, 1843. He is a descendant of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who was of the tenth generation from Robert Bulkeley, Esq., one of the English barons who, in the reign of King John (who died in 1216), was Lord of the Manor of Bulkeley, in the county Palatine of Chester. He was born at Odell, in the hun- dred of Willey, Bedfordshire, England, January 31, 1583. His father, Rev. Edward Bulkeley, D. D., was a faithful minister of the gospel, under whose direction his son received a learned and religious education suited to his distinguished rank. About the age of sixteen, he was admitted a member of St. John's college, at Cambridge, of which he was afterwards chosen fellow, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. He succeeded his father in the ministry in his native town, and en- joyed his rich benefice and estate, where he was a zealous preacher of evangelical truth about twenty years, and for the most part of the time, lived an unmolested non-conformist. At length his preaching meeting with distinguished success, and his church being very much increased, complaints were entered against him by Archbishop Laud, and he was silenced for his non-conformity to the requirements of the English church. This circumstance induced him to emigrate to New England, where he might enjoy liberty of conscience. "To New England he therefore came in the year 1635, and there, having been for a while at Cambridge, he carried a good number of planters with him up further into the woods, where they gathered the twelfth church then formed in the colony, and called the town by the name of Concord."
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CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
Here he expended most of his estate for the benefit of his people, and after a laborious and useful life died March 9, 1659. Mr. Bulkeley was twice married. His first wife was Jane, daughter of Thomas Allen, of Goldington, whose nephew was lord mayor of London. By her he had twelve children, ten sons and two daughters. He lived eight years a widower, and then married Grace, a daughter of Sir Richard Chitwood. By her he had four children, three sons and one daughter. She survived him, and removed to New London, where she died April 21, 1669.
Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, son of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, the puritan settler of Concord, Mass., and his second wife, Grace Chitwood, was born December 6/ 1636, graduated at Harvard college in 1655 before completing his nineteenth year. He married Sarah Chauncey, daughter of President Chauncey, of Harvard, the emigrant ancestor of the name, October 26, 1659. She was born in Ware, England, June 13, 1631. In the year 1661, Mr. Bulke- ley located at New London as the second minister of the church in that place. Mr. Bulkeley is supposed to have removed from New London to Wethersfield in the year :667. He was installed pastor of the church in Wethersfield the same year as successor to Rev. John Russel, who had removed to Hadley, Mass. He continued the pastor there about ten years, when he was dismissed in the year 1677. He then devoted himself to the practice of medicine and surgery. He was appointed by the general court in 1675 surgeon to the army that had been raised against the Indians, and Mr. Stone was directed to supply his place in his · absence. In 1676, while the party to which he was attached was in pursuit of the enemy, he was attacked by a number of Indians near Wachuset hill, in Massachusetts, and received a wound in his thigh. Soon after, Mr. Bulkeley devoted himself to the practice of medicine, and located on the east side of the river, in what is now Glastonbury, and became quite a landowner. As a clergyman, he stood at the head of his-profession, and ranked among the first in medical science. He was famous as a sur- veyor, pre-eminent in his time as a chemist, and highly respected as a magistrate. He died at Wethersfield December 2, 1713. On his monument is the following testimonial : " He was honor- able in his descent, of rare abilities, extraordinary industry, ex-
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CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
cellent learning, master of many languages, exquisite in his skill in divinity, physic and law, and of a most exemplary and Christian life."
Rev. John Bulkeley, son of Rev. Gershom and Sarah Chauncey Bulkeley, married Patience Prentice, daughter of John and Sarah Prentice, in 1701, and was father of twelve children. He gradu- ated at Harvard college in 1699, studied divinity, and was ordained as pastor of the church in Colchester, Conn., December 20, 1703, and took a high rank among the clergymen of his time.
Hon. Colonel John Bulkeley, son of Rev. John and Patience Prentice Bulkeley, was born April 19, 1705, graduated at Yale college in 1725, studied law, and became eminent in his profes- sion. He was judge of probate, and held many important offices of trust, including that of colonel of the militia. He married Mary, daughter of Rev. Eliphalet Adams, M. A., pastor of the " First Church of Christ" in New London, Conn. He died July 21, 1753. The following inscription is from his monument : " The Hon. Judge Bulkeley, Esq., of Colchester, who for a number of years was a great honor to an uncommon variety of exalted stations in life."
Eliphalet Bulkeley, a native of Colchester, Conn., son of Hon. John and Mary Adams Bulkeley, was born August 8, 1746. He married his cousin, Anna, daughter of Major Charles Bulkeley, of New London, Conn., September 16, 1767. On the 25th May, 1773, when twenty-seven years of age, he was commissioned a captain in the Connecticut militia. When the troubles between this country and Great Britain assumed a threatening aspect, Captain Bulkeley became a firm and spirited advocate of the rights of his native land, and in March, 1776, when the American troops were collecting to drive the British from Boston, he, by his spirit and influence, led a full company of sixty men to join the standard of Washington. Having been appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut " to be a captain of a company ordered to be raised for the defense of the colony," he was com- missioned by Governor Trumbull June 10, 1776; and on May 29, 1780, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty- fifth regiment of the Connecticut State militia. Colonel Bulkeley was very prominent in his day among the citizens of Colchester
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CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
and of New London county. He held a commission of the peace in his native town for more than twenty years, and represented Colchester in the General Assembly of Connecticut during the years 1778, 1780, and 1788 to 1794. In the spring of 1807 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and here he resided until his death, January 11, 1816. From May, 1814, to January, 1816, he was president of the Wilkes-Barre Borough Council.
Jonathan Bulkeley, son of Eliphalet and Anna Bulkeley, was born at Colchester, Conn., July 8, 1777. He married February 8, 1823, Elizabeth Simons, daughter of Rev. Joseph Simons, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church during many years of his life. Mrs. Bulkeley was born March 28, 1806, and died July 31, 1883. She came to this country with her father when but a child. She is remembered during her long residence in this city as a remark- able woman in many respects, notably for her excellent business qualities, she having been active and energetic in watching her varied interests during thirty years of her life. Mr. Bulkeley became an invalid while she was still comparatively young, and this, with the ordinary cares of a family, added much to the exactions of her daily routine. Throughout her life she was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was the oldest member on the rolls of the Franklin street church. In his early days, Mr. Bulkeley was a midshipman in the United States navy, and was assigned to the " Trumbull," a twenty-four gun sloop, commanded by his cousin, Captain . Jewett. He resigned his position in the navy in 1802, and the same year came to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he located and went into busi- ness. In October, 1815, he was elected and commissioned cap- tain of the cavalry company "attached to the Second regiment, Pennsylvania militia." He held the office of sheriff of Luzerne county for three years, being commissioned by Governor Joseph Hiester October 19, 1822. He died at Wilkes-Barre March I, 1867.
Charles Leonard Bulkeley is the youngest son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Simons Bulkeley. He was educated in the public schools of his native city and at Wyoming seminary, Kingston, Pa. He read law in the office of Asa R. Brundage, and was
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CHARLES LEONARD BULKELEY.
admitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 8. 1866, on the recommendation of Andrew T. McClintock, Stanley Woodward, and Edward P. Darling, the examining committee. In 1874 Mr. Bulkeley was elected one of the aldermen of the city of Wilkes-Barre for the term of five years, and in 1879 was re- elected for another term. Hons. Morgan Bulkeley, mayor of the city of Hartford, Conn., and W. H. Bulkeley, at one time lieu- tenant governor of Connecticut, and more recently the republican candidate for governor of the same state, are cousins of Charles L. Bulkeley. Asa R. Brundage, of the Luzerne county bar, is a brother-in-law, his wife being the sister of Mr. Bulkeley. Mr. . Bulkeley, in his young days, taught school in the township of Hanover and in the old borough of Wilkes-Barre. He writes an excellent hand, and has been employed at various times in most, if not all, of the offices in the Court House. He never married, and is one of that large class of citizens who, fitted by education and otherwise to play prominent parts in the drama of life, are nevertheless content with doing their full duty in the humbler stations. It has been mentioned that he has filled important positions in the several county offices. In all these his professional training served both him and the county admir- ably, and as alderman or justice of the peace it was of course invaluable.
There is a widespread and constantly growing belief that the law with reference to justices' courts should be changed, for all cities and populous suburban places especially, so as to provide · for a lesser number of justices, require them to be learned in the law, and give them jurisdiction (subject to appeal of course) in a variety of cases now required to be tried in the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. A step somewhat in this direction was made by the new constitution, but affected Philadelphia and Allegheny counties only, and the innovation, although not so comprehensive as many think it should be, is believed to have been beneficient in results. It is obviously desirable to relieve the regular courts of record of the burden of as many of the minor causes, both civil and criminal, as possible, and it would be beyond question a boon to litigants in such causes if they could be determined in a court which is in continuous session.
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THOMAS JEROME CHASE.
The purpose of such a change could not, however, be effected unless the persons chosen to preside in them were better fitted . for the service than most of those now hit upon to act as alder- men or justices of the peace. Hence the belief that they should be men learned in the law, or if not regularly graduated and admitted practitioners, at least men with more than an average understanding of the law. In such courts, men like Mr. Bulkeley would render effective service.
He is a man in middle life, of a genial and generous disposition, who has many friends, and deserves them.
THOMAS JEROME CHASE.
Thomas Jerome Chase, a scion of an old New England family, was born in the township of Benton, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1844. He is the son of the late Elisha W. Chase; a native of East Greenwich, Kent county, Rhode Island, who removed with his father, Gorton Chase, when but a boy of six years of age, to Abington, Luzerne (now Lacka- wanna) county, Pa. He died in 1862. Gorton Chase died in 1835. His wife was Freelove Potter, of an old Rhode Island family. The maternal grandfather of T. J. Chase was Thomas Phillips, a native of the city of Bath, England, where he was born February 22, 1769. He removed to Abington in 1812, and died there in 1842. His second wife, the maternal grandmother of the subject of our sketch, was the widow of Curtis Phelps, deceased. Her maiden name was Betsey Patterson, a native of Litchfield, Conn., where she was born in 1781. She died in Benton in 1848. The mother of Mr. Chase was named Welthea. Mr. Chase was educated in the common schools of Benton, in a select school taught there for two years, and a brief term at the Madison academy, Waverly, Pa. When not at school he did the ordinary work of a farmer's son until the age of eighteen years, when he enlisted in August, 1862, as a member of company B, in the One Hundred and Thirty- second regiment, Pennsylvania
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