History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 196

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 196

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With Colonel John Bayard, he was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council, November 28, 1777, to visit the Pennsylvania troops encamped at Valley Forge, and report on the condition of their clothing. This interesting document may be seen in the Penn- sylvania Archives (vol. vi. p. 74), wherein they state that they had conferred with General Washington on the subject, and that General Wayne had the soldiers paraded for their inspection, " but could not discover that they were in a worse condition than the army in general." There is no doubt that Mr. Young would have risen to a conspienous position in these trying times if it would not have been for his declining health, which became so impaired that he died January 28, 1779, at the age of fifty years. Ilis remains were interred in Christ Churchyard be- side those of his wife, who had preceded him in 1759, at the carly age of thirty years. Owing to his re- gard for his motherless children, Mr. Young was in the practice for many years of spending a portion of his time at Græme Parke, and was thus induced to become a member of the Hatboro' Library, November 1, 1760, which he retained for the benefit of him- self and children for thirteen years.

Mr. Young had four children, of whom two died in infancy. Of these, Anna, the subject of this notice, was the oldest, and was born in Dr. Græme's house, in

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Fourth Street, Philadelphia, November 5, 1756, and in less than two years and three months thereafter lost her mother. It was owing to this circumstance that her early training was chiefly confided to her aunt, and thus she became a long and intimate resident of Græme Park. On this matter Dr. Rush stated that Mrs. Ferguson "had no children, but she now faithfully performed all the duties of that relation to the son and daughter of one of her sisters, who committed them to her care on her death-bed. The mind of her niece was an elegant impression of her own." Mr. Young wrote in 1765 that " Anna," then aged eight and a half years, "grows more and more like her dear mamma in every respect, and that is saying as much as I could wish."

A few months after the death of her grandfather Miss Young, then in her sixteenth year, left Græme Park to reside with her father in the city, on which occasion, under date of November 24, 1772, she sent an affecting letter to her aunt, from which we take an extract, --

"I would wish to tell you the grateful sense I have received of your kindness to me ; when I look back on the last six years of my life, I feel oppressed with your goodness to me. You took me at an age totally in- capable of giving you pleasure, too old to divert you with innocent amusement in the prattling way, and too young to be company to you. Over my growing reason you watched with patient care, and instructed the both by your precepts and example in the practice of every virtue and now that I am of an age to know and return your tenderness 1 must leuve yon without any other recompense for your goodness but the testi- mony of your own heart ; however, it shall be my study in my future conduct in life to show that your goodness has not been thrown away npon me. I feel the deepest regret at leaving a place where I have spent the most careless, and I fear, the most happy part of my life. I was always fond of the country, but to Grame Park I was more partienlarly attached, and I must now take my leave of it, and though I may some- times visit it, it will never again be ny delightful home. May you, my dear aunt, possess health and every blessing in this world, and may Mr. Ferguson, when he cro-ses the Atlantic, more than return all the love you have for him ; may he unite in one all the endearing characters of father, husband and friend. May this be your portion here and eternal happiness hereafter is the sincere wish of your grateful and affectionate niece."

Before the early age of fourteen Miss Young had written an " Ode to Gratitude," wherein she exhibits her regards to her aunt for her long devoted tender- ness and care.

A strong attachment having been formed between Miss Young and Dr. William Smith, a native of the city, the parties were married at Græme Park No- vember 30, 1775, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, rector of Christ Church. Mr. Smith had graduated in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1771, and sub- sequently became an extensive druggist under the firm of Lehman & Smith. Being an ardent patriot, just before the entry of the British army into Phila- delphia he conveyed. for their greater security, his wife and children to Bethlehem, where they remained until their departure. On his return he found con- siderable damage had been done to his property, par- tieularly to his furniture and medicines, which they had either used or wantonly destroyed.

On the birth of her first child Mrs. Smith wrote from the city in September, 1776,-

"Now I have got my dear little girl, I want her to pay ber respecta to her grand annt, but I do not hope for that pleasure till the 30th of No- vember, the anniversary of my marriage, when I hope to be at the spot that made me happy, to claim my flitch of bacon, unless I should have the happiness of seeing you in town before."

In regard to the flitch of bacon, reference is here meant to an old custom respecting happy marriages, described in Nos. 607 and 608 of Addison's Spectator.

Anna Young Smith, who was of a naturally delicate constitution, died March 22, 1780, at the early age of twenty-three years and nearly five months, which was a sad bereavement to her affectionate husband. Dr. Smith, on the following 23d of June, thus wrote to Mrs. Ferguson,-

"I am at present engaged in collecting the few little performances in the poetical way my dear Anna has left behind her, and many a stray sigh does it cost ine. I think I see and hear in every line that heavenly look and voice that so lately charmed mne. Alas ! Madam, when I reflect on the extraordinary worth of that most amiable of women, and that she once constituted my soul's happiness, my heart dies within me at the thought of having lost her, and I am often amazed how I can possibly sustain the dreadful shock ; but we know not what we can bear till we are put to the test. But why do I dwell on this monrnful theme? Your own good heart, which can so keenly feel another's woe, will, I know, excuse me. I must at last bring myself to submit in humble silence to the severe blow, and heaven alone can witness my feelings and mournful recollections."

For her only daughter, then aged about three and a half years, Mrs. Ferguson, in June, 1789, prepared an interesting selection of her poems in a manuscript volume of four hundred and seventy-six pages, in the preface of which she says,-

"My dear Anna Smith, as this will fall into your hands when, perhaps, I shall be in my silent grave, do not think that I transcribe this from mere vanity. No, it is by no means an essential part of a female char- acter to write verses ; though I do not think it, on the other, that it ia to be ridiculed. Writing and kuive of books, I can speak from experi- ence, is a happy resource for the evening of life, when the more active scenes either slide from us or we from them. Virtuons sentiments, however brought into action, whether we fill a wide or narrow circle, ia worth them all. I write in solitude and with my spectacles on."

As has been mentioned, Dr. Smith, in the spring of 1791, purchased of Mrs. Ferguson the Græme Park estate, which he retained until the year 1801. The loss of his wife and family alone induced him to part with it, to the great reluctance, no doubt, of both himself and Mrs. Ferguson, with whom a warm friendship had so long existed. He was a highly-respected and successful business man, and sur- vived until May 20, 1822, aged seventy-six years. He had three children,-Ann, Thomas Græme and Sam- uel F. Smith. The latter was born March 16, 1780, only six days before the death of his mother. Ile also became a successful merchant of Philadelphia, and married Ellen, daughter of John Mark, of Fredericks- burg, Va., October 27, 1806. Ile was long a director of the Philadelphia Bank, and for some time its presi- dent, retiring from it in 1852. Mr. Smith resided at No. 1411 Walnut Street, and the writer, in 1856, was kindly permitted access to the many family papers in his possession, from which copious extraets were made.

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As will be observed, he was a great-grandson of Dr. Græme, of whom there are now (1884) numerous de- scendants in the country. The daughter, Anna Smith, according to Dr. Rush, died in 1808, aged thirty-two years, of whom he mentions " exhibiting to a numer- ous and affectionate circle of acquaintances, a rare instance of splendid talents and virtues, descending unimpaired through four successive generations."

Respecting the poetical performances of Mrs. Anna Young Smith, we must say that they will compare favorably with any other writer of that period. portion was published, after her death, in the Colum- bian Magazine. Several of the pieces were reprinted and became deservedly popular, as the "Ode to Lib- erty," "Elegy to the Volunteers who fell at Lexing- ton," "Lines to the Memory of Warren," "Walk in the Churchyard at Wicaco " and "Lines in Praise of Wedlock." Besides the aforesaid, she left other pieces in manuscript, among which we would name "Ode to Gratitude," " True Wit," "Lines on Dr. Swift," " Epistle to Damon," "Sylvia's Song to Damon," and "Lines on the Death of Dr. Græme." In the article on "Early Poetry," in this work, we have given sev- eral of her contributions.

JONIN YOUNG, the son of James and Jane Young and grandson of Dr. Græme, was born in Philadelphia November 6, 1757. His mother having died when he was but little over two years old, he was, not long afterwards, consigned, with his sister, to the care of his annt at Græme Park, where he received most of his education. Dr. Rush thus speaks of Mrs. Fergu- son and his early training: "Her nephew, John Young, became, under her direction, an accomplished scholar and gentleman." When Mrs. Ferguson was in England his father wrote from the city, April 3, 1765: "John is really a good and fine boy,-learns fast and loves the Academy." lle was at that time only about seven and a half years old, but this would indicate that he had already made some progress in his studies.

From a letter he wrote to his aunt near the begin- ning of 1774, he states that the reason he did not come to see her when last in the city was because she

" lodged at Mr. Stedman's, a house my father has laid his commands on me never to enter ; his reason I know not. I received the presents from you through the hands of my sister with pleasure and gratitude, particularly the pocket-book as a memento of my good grandfather, and shall rank them among the innumerable obligations I have received from your hands. My situation is very different to what it was with you ; 1 am apprentice to Mr. Carmack, who treats me very kindly, but has very little business. Nevertheless I am seldom idle, but divert my leisure hours with books. Since I have been with him I have rend the histories of England, Charles the Fifth and Buchanan and Robertson's Scotland."

On July 15th he wrote,-

You were right, for I was affected at the death of Mr. Carmack, who was seized about six in the morning with an apoplectic fit and expired at . leven in the night."

It appears he was engaged with him to learn the dry-goods business.

He wrote to his aunt, August 10th,- ,

"I think myself very lucky in getting a place. I am with Messrs, John

and Peter Chevalier, who are in the shipping business, and shall here get an insight into both branches of business. I like it much better than the other ; there is much more varicty and exercise."

On December 1st,-

" I sincerely thank you for your good advice and your groundless fears for my falling into vice. I call them groundless, because you must certainly know that I have it not in my power to enjoy the pleasures of this world, be my inclinations ever so great, for I have not the Philoso- pher's stone to procure them, and as for company, 1 keep very little, till I can afford to maintain the appearance of a gentleman."

Washington had been appointed, in Philadelphia, by Congress, June 14, 1775, commander-in-chief of the American army, respecting whom Mr. Young made an interesting and complimentary allusion, dated the following July 1st,-

" I beg you will return my compliments to Mr. Ferguson, and tell him I am extremely obliged to him for his present of the book, which 1 accept with pleasure. 1 sincerely wish the autumn was arrived, that we may gather in the fruits of our glorious toils : but as the laurel is an evergreen we may obtain it at all seasons. I dare engage our noble General will soon nod under a whole gruve of it. I think it is happy for America that the person promoted to that high dignity has always borne the character of a man of honor, and is remarkable for his honesty and integrity ; for he certainly has it as much in his power to raise himself ou the ruins of his country as old Oliver."

Little did this young man fancy the troubles that were now so rapidly approaching, and of whose dire effects he should also receive his share. We have mentioned how his father, James Young, from the very beginning of the contest, had ardently espoused the patriot cause; but not so his son, then aged but little over eighteen. It appears that on the 24th of January, 1776, he fled from his home in the city, with a Mr. Baynton, to New York, where Governor Tryon recommended him to Sir William Howe for a com- mission in the army. The result was that he was placed on board the "Phoenix" ship-of-war and shortly after taken a prisoner by the Americans. His father, on learning this, petitioned to Congress, March 23d, that he be permitted, on his parole, to reside on the estate of his late grandfather, at Græme Park, on condition that he remain there and confine himself within a distance of six miles of the same, which was granted him. We know that he was still there in the following September, but it is probable that he fled a second time to the British while they held the city or shortly afterwards, for he was charged, with a number of others, with high treason April 10, 1779.

What services Mr. Young engaged in to aid the Bri- tish cause we are unable to state, but he was reported as having purchased a lieutenancy, in 1780, in the Forty-second Foot, and that he was in the Sixtieth in 1787. It would appear from the information derived from him in the fall of 1785, he had made application as a loyalist to the government for losses inenrred in the American war, but without success. From a letter he sent to his aunt, dated London, October 4, 1787, it appears that he had suffered from remorse. He stated therein,-

"I went to bed with these meditations, and in the midolght hour the spectre of Poverty drew my curtains, and stared at me with such an aspect as frightened away my philosophy. In this temper I arose in the morning and carried io my name to the War-Office as one who was

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demrous of serving again, and was yesterday informed that I was appointed to my old regiment in one of the additional companies to be raised. As soon, then, as war is determined on I shall be sent to the most remote and dreary corner on the Island, in the most dreary season of the year, among people with whom I had been long enough associated to dislike to commence again an employment which I had practiced long enongh to be sated with, by raising men in the service of a country for which I have no particular affection. I have been the instrument of injustice without cumpnnetion, but now I have not even a prejudice to keep me in favor with myself. With such sentiments, to become a journeyman, with penurious wages, in the trade of blood, is to become a character that a galley slave would not contemplate with envy, for I have his reluctance without having his consolation."

In July, 1789, Lieutenant Young again wrote to Mrs. Ferguson, mentioning that he had only recently recovered from a paralytic stroke ; that his physician had advised him to seek a warmer elimate, and he was therefore going to Provence or Languedoc. As the revolution in France was then showing symptoms of approaching troubles, he says, in relation to his journey, that he meant to return in a ship in the spring from Marseilles, unless " I should be detained by the commotions of the country. If there should be a civil war, I shall join the people, that I may atone in some measure for the offences against the rights of mankind in my former conduct." He mentioned having written an article on "Aristotle's Poeties " in the late European Magazine, and meant on his return to apply himself to translation as the most profitable department in letters.

At what exact time Lieutenant Young returned to London we are unable to state, but he forwarded an interesting letter from thence to his aunt, July 7, 1790, wherein he remarked,-

" During my residence in France, I had an opportunity of witnessing the regeneration of a great empire. An awful and edifying spectacle, Indeed ! and in the history of mankind unexampled in the nature and efficacy of its means. Twenty-four millions rising with one accord, to tramp on regal, aristocratic and ecclesiastical tyranny, under which they had been crushed for fifteen ages ! However, I hope the people of France will follow the example of the Americans yet further, and reform the constitution made on the spur of the occasion. Paris and London strike me as being no less dissimilar in their external appearance than In the deportment of their respectivo inhabitants. Paris abounds in more noble edifices ; many in such a chaste correct taste as would have done honor to the city of Minerva in the purest ages of the arts. Its

public libraries and cabinets are splendid beyond comparison. Its charitable institutions are upon a grand scale, but appear to me to have a tendency to increase the evils they were intended to alleviate. Its qnays have an aspect noble and pleasing, witbont being polluted with a cask or a bale, while its streets are narrow and ill-paved and no foot- walk for foot-passengers, as in London. Add to this an accumulation of filth, removed only once a week.

" The furniture of their honses is correspondent in a like degree of contradiction. Damask enrtains and chairs, in most splendid apartments, without a carpet or table of better materials than oak or deal. In all manufactures which have usefulness for their object, their specimens pnt beside English work appear like rude essays of barbarians. They excel us, however, in some of the mechanic arts, and these have a tendency to mark the different geniuses of tha two nations. The manu- factures in which they have no competitors are paper-hangings, tapestry, plate-glass, embroidery and the richest silks ; nor does it require sagacity to discover ao analogy between the arts and genius, habits and manners of thinking, of the people. Now that the aristocracy is abolished, and the exertion of every individual may be directed to the public good, we shall see whether or not they be capable of that degree of industry or application which have produced such wonderful effects among their neighbors. I had almost forgot to tell you that when I was at Ver- sailles I saw the queen and royal family. The queen was a fine woman,

but with a countenance so clouded with disappointed pride and humbled ambition that I thought Milton himself must have had some such idea for the prototype of Satan, before he had lost all his original brightness. I was much gratified by having an opportunity of inspecting the remains of Roman greatness, which still exist in Tours, Vienna, Orange, Carpentras, Nismes, etc., some of which are built without cement, and are as perfect at this day as when first erected."

These extracts are calculated to impress one with the literary abilities of the author.

As mentioned, Lieutenant Young did enter into the work of translation, which was the "Compendium of Ancient Geography by Monsieur D'Anville," from the French, which was published in London in 1792, in two oetavo volumes, together containing eight hundred and forty-eight pages. The translator's pre- face contains fourteen pages, and is an able and pro- found production. It contains several finely-exe- euted maps. This translation at that time, by a young American, was certainly no ordinary undertak- ing, and appears to have been satisfactorily aceon- plished. Mrs. Ferguson presented a copy, March 22, 1798, to the Hatboro' Library, "as a mark of her regard to that institution," and also one to the Phila- delphia Library.

John Young died in London, April 25, 1794, aged but little over thirty-six years and six months, and was interred at "St. Martin's-in-the-Fields," where Mrs. Ferguson had a tombstone erected with the fol- lowing lines :

" Far distant from the soil where thy last breath Seal'd the sad measure of their various woes, One female friend laments thy mournful death, Yet why lament what only gave reposo ?"

In the Philadelphia Daily Advertiser of July 29, 1794, appeared the following from the friendly pen of Dr. Rush:

"By letters from London we learn that John Young, Esq., died in that city oo the 25th of April last. Philadelphia gave birth to that extraordinary young man. He was grandson to the late worthy Dr. Thomas Græme and educated under his immediate direction. In literary attainments he bad few equals ; his translation of 'Ancient Geography,' published originally in French, will long continue a moon- ment of his singular taste and classical erudition."

ADDITIONAL RESPECTING GRÆME PARK .- Before we leave this interesting subject a few more facts may be given. Having ascertained from our neigh- bor, Joseph Lukens, tlie son of Seneca, where Mrs. Ferguson died, that the old vane that Sir William Keith had placed on one of his buildings was still in existence, we sought it up and made a draw- ing thereof in October, 1855. It was then in posses- sion of Hugh Foulke, of Gwynedd, who informed us that he had purchased it, with a lot of old iron, at the sale of Seneca Lukens, deceased, in 1829. It was made of wrought-iron, thirty-eight inches in length. The part bearing "W. K., 1722," which was seventeen inehes in length, was cut out in it after the manner of a stencil. At the lower part was a screw, with which it might be secured to its place. Governor Keith's coat-of-arms was found on several documents, to which his seal was affixed, one of which was relative

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

to the contract with John Kirk for building his man- sion-house at the park, dated December 12, 1721, the original having been presented to us, in 1860, by an antiquarian friend a short time before his decease.

1 1722

ANCIENT VANE OF GREME PARK.

At Samuel F. Smith's, the grand-nephew of Mrs. Ferguson, was shown the Græme coat-of-arms worked in various-colored silk about two feet square, which the latter had made shortly after her return from Great Britain, designed from a family book-plate in the presentation volumes given by her cousin, Thomas Græme, Esq., of Balgowan. Mrs. Ferguson's family

SIR WILLIAM KEITH'S SEAL AND COAT OF ARMS, 1721.

Bible came in possession of Mrs. H. C. Turnbull, near Baltimore, daughter of Samuel F. Smith, which was shown at her house in 1856. It is a quarto, elegantly bound in red morocco, gilt edges, printed at Oxford in 1733. From it was obtained the Græme family record of births, marriages and deaths, and also copies of the original portraits in oil, life-size, that had once been at Græme Park. Mrs. S. F. Smith showed divers articles of interest that had been in the possession of the Græme family and Mrs. Ferguson, ax miniatures, lockets, hair-work, bracelets, fans, silver- ware and silk dresses. The latter were very fine, the material having been brought by Captain Sted- man from China before 1760. An interesting object was a family tree composed of hair within a glass, surrounded with rubies, all set in a case of gold, which was worn by Mrs. Ferguson as a breastpin. Its form was oval, one by one and a half inches in size. On its back was engraved: "The hair of Lady Ann

Keith, Ann Græme, Ann Stedman and Jane Young. For E. Græme, 1766."

After Dr. Græme became the sole owner of the es- tate, in 1739, he formed here a gallery of paintings after the manner of the nobility in Europe. Among these were life-size portraits of Dr. Græme, Mrs. Græme, Jane Young, Ann Stedman, two of Mrs. Ferguson in early life and four of Græme Park and its surroundings, representing the four seasons; the names of the others we have been unable to ascertain. Mr. H. C. Turnbull's mansion was destroyed by fire in 1847, but fortunately nearly all the aforesaid por- traits were saved. A copy of the summer view ot Græme Park has been secured, which now possesses considerable interest. From Mrs. Ferguson's por- traits we are enabled to judge about the time when these paintings were made, as in the latest one she is not quite full-grown, and it was therefore probably done before 1754. Professor Samuel Jackson and Mrs. Susan Eckhart, of Philadelphia, informed us in 1853 that in early life they remembered seeing those paintings in the main hall at Græme Park, which was about 1782, during the ownership and residence there of Mrs. Ferguson.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 196

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534