USA > Pennsylvania > The provincial councillors of Pennsylvania : who held office between 1733-1776, and those earlier councillors who were some time chief magistrates of the province and their descendants > Part 22
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His increasing infirmities led to his retirement to private life. He died August 4, 1741. By his will, he gave Bush Hill to his son James, and a plantation of 300 acres west of the Schuylkill which be- came part of " the Woodlands " to his son Andrew.
Andrew Hamilton's wife, who died before him, about 1736, was Anne, widow of Joseph Preeson, and dau. of Thomas Brown of Acco- mac by his wife Susannah Denwood of Munny, sister of Arthur Den- wood. Bp. Meade, in his Old Churches &ct. of Virginia, Vol. I, p. 255, quotes a record that "Thomas Brown and his wife, though Quakers, were yet of such known integrity that their affirmation was received instead of an oath," and says that the old family seat called Brownsville on the sea shore of Northampton still in possession of an Upshur was the ancient residence of the Browns, who were there visited by some of the more eminent Friends from Philadelphia ; which fact, if Hamilton first landed in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, would explain how he went to Virginia. A MS. in the handwriting of John Gibson, Mayor of Phila. in 1772, says : "Grandfather Brown mar- ried Susannah Denwood of Munny, the sister of old Arthur Denwood,
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-he had issue Elizabeth, Sarah [,Ann,] Mary-Elizabeth married Thomas Preeson of Liverpool and had [ ], Sarah, Susanna, Zorobabel, Joseph, Ann, Hannah-Sarah was] my mother, Zoroba- bel was Thomas Preeson's Father, Susannah [was] the Mother of Preeson Bowdoin, the others died without issue.
"Sarah Brown married Arthur Upshur, who had Abel, who had Arthur, Susannah, John & Caleb and Abigail Mother of Elizabeth Waters. Ann Brown married Joseph Preeson afterwards Andrew Hamilton-Mary Brown married Louthy Littleton, whose Daughter married Col. Gale; after Littleton's decease, she married Hancock Custis.
"[Le]vin Denwood's sister married my Grandfather Brown
"[Levin Denwo]od had Issue, Elizabeth married Geo. Gale who had issue [common]ly called great Col. Gale, who had Leah now living-[Mary] who married Dr. Hill-Sarah who married [Cov- ing]ton, her Daughter married President Lloyd and had [ Jca now living, and by another Husband Hallady [ who] is also living-another Daughter married in Wales.
Levin Gale, Geo, John, & Matt. Gale were the sons of the [ ]le that married the Daughter of Denwood.
Hancock Custis by Mary Brown, the Widow of Littleton had issue Col. John Custis who had a Daughter married to Samuel Willson and a son who died a minor-The sister of Hancock Custis married a Cable, who had Esther the Wife of Thomas Preeson by her (sic) second Husband ; and by her first Custis Kendal who had a son Custis mar- ried to Elizabeth Bowdoin.
" Thomas Preeson the Husband of Elizabeth Brown, his sister mar- ried Ralph Peters of Liverpoole
" Sarah Brown married Arthur Upshur who h[ad] another son without issue. Abigail Mother of Eliza[beth] Waters now Elzey- Susannah who married John Teagle by him had many sons She af- terwards married Col. Edmond Scarborough who had a Daughter [Priscilla] now living."
The blanks made by holes in the MS. are supplied by memoranda of John Gibson's son James Gibson, who adds "Thomas Preeson my Father's grandfather died in 1723." Rev. Richard Peters, the Coun- cillor, was nephew of this Preeson. James Gibson, whose memoranda are dated Mch. 30, 1842, goes on to say : " Andrew Hamilton was born in Scotland, he settled in Maryland in early life at or under 21
I
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Hamilton.
years of age. He was well educated and delicately brought up. There was a mystery attending him and it was supposed Hamilton was an assumed name. It was said he had killed a person in a duel. His marriage is proof of his standing. He was the first lawyer of his day in Penna .- first in the Proprietory Council and most influential with him (sic)-He represented Bucks County many years and tried the great cause in New York in 1722 (sic) against a Printer prose- cuted by the Government reported in Hargrave's State Trials."
Issue of Andrew Hamilton-all by his wife Anne :
JAMES, also Councillor, sometime Lieut .- Gov. of Penna., see below,
ANDREW, m. Mary Till, see after sketch of James Hamilton, MARGARET, m. William Allen, see p. 140.
JAMES HAMILTON was born about the year 1710, before his parents permanently removed to Pennsylvania. Clarke Hall, on Chestnut St., Philadelphia, it would seem, therefore, was not his birth-place, as Watson asserts, but his residence during a few years of boyhood. After he attained full age, his father resigned the office of Prothono- tary, and James was invested with it. Andrew Hamilton was a large holder of land in Lancaster County ; and the county town was laid out on his property. Its people elected his son James to the Provin- cial Assembly in 1734, and re-elected him five times. The Corpora- tion of Philadelphia made him one of its members October 2, 1739, and in 1741 advanced him to the dignity of Alderman. The Ad- miralty Judgeship being left vacant by his father's death, it was thought to recommend him to the Crown for that position. An honest man could make little money out of it; but an unscrupulous adven- turer or Court favorite would find great profit in acts of petty tyranny, which would exasperate shippers, and perhaps drive away commerce. A man of Hamilton's independent wealth was therefore desirable ; but he declined : not having made the law a branch of his education, he deemed himself unfit. The most prominent of the young bachelors of the city, he was a member of the Saturday Club, which seems to have been about the earliest social institution of Philadelphia : he resided, in what was then handsome style, at Bush Hill, his late father's seat north of Vine Street; and sealed letters with the Hamilton arms-gu. a mullet between three cinquefoils erm. He was Mayor of the City for the year beginning October, 1745. It had long been the custom
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Hamilton-James Hamilton.
for the Chief Magistrate of Philadelphia on leaving the office to enter- tain at a sumptuous repast the gentlemen of the Corporation. His brother-in-law's banquet on a similar occasion had served to dedicate the newly erected State House, and had given the name of " Banquet- ing Hall " to the Rooms of Assembly. Before and afterwards about fifty of the wealthiest, most cultivated, and by other political offices most distinguished citizens-for such were, indeed, the Aldermen and Councilmen of those days-had annually sat down to dinner with a host who was about to be added to the number of ex-Mayors. But Hamilton conceived a happier idea. He offered October 7, 1746, to devote a sum of money equal at least to the sum usually spent on this conviviality to the erection of an exchange or other public building that should be of permanent advantage to the inhabitants. The Cor- poration agreeing to it, he gave the Treasurer 150/. (a large estimate of the expense of a dinner) to be put out at interest, and applied to the erection of an Exchange "for the like uses with that of the Royal Exchange of London," or of such other building in Philadelphia as the Mayor and Commonalty should see fit. His example was fol- lowed by other Mayors, whose smaller contributions were probably nearer the actual cost of the entertainment, and a large amount was in the City's hands in 1775, when it was proposed to use it in the erec- tion of a City Hall and Court House, and a committee was appointed for that purpose. While Mayor, James Hamilton was invited to a seat in the Provincial Council, and qualified Jany. 17, 1745-6.
Hamilton went abroad, and had been enjoying the society of Lon- don, when, in November, 1748, he returned to Pennsylvania, bearing a commission from the Penns as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province and Territories. The appointment of one who had been reared from boyhood within this government, was experienced in its public affairs, and owned large portions of the soil, was very auspicious. His ad- ministration was fortunate until the passage of a bill by the Assembly for the emission of 20,000l. bills of credit. Instructions had been sent, in 1740, by the British Ministry, who feared the unsettling of trade by the inflationist proclivities of the populace, directing the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania to pass no bills for that purpose without a clause suspending their operation until the Royal assent should be given. Hamilton proposed an amendment to that effect : whereupon the Assembly resolved unanimously that it was "destructive of the liberties derived to them by the Royal and Provincial Charters," the
H
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Hamilton-James Hamilton.
Charter of Charles II having expressly authorized the legislature of the Province to enact laws which should remain in force five years or until the King repealed them. Hamilton remained firm, considering that these instructions were contemplated in the bond of 2000l. which he had given on his taking office : and his opinion was afterwards coincided in by Ryder, ex-Attorney-General of England. But the disagreement with the Assembly was a means of great embarrassment to the governor, who was anxious to obtain money for military services against the French, and who had sufficient difficulty in prevailing upon the Quakers to allow an appropriation for that purpose, not directly for the war, to be sure, but ostensibly "for the King's use" In the early stage of the quarrel, he asked to be superseded, and Robert Hunter Morris arrived in October, 1754. The latter had no better success with the Assembly, and, while Braddock's army was fleeing before the French and Indians, was obstructed by a proposition to tax the Proprietary estates.
Hamilton as a member of Council lent his aid to Morris, and when news of Indian outrages arrived at Philadelphia, actively stirred him- self in arranging for defense. He went to Lancaster Nov. 2, 1755, with blank military commissions and a dedimus for qualifying such officers as he saw fit to appoint. Sending an Indian scout up the East side of the Susquehannah to gain information, he returned to Philadelphia soon af- ter, and, not standing on his dignity, or consulting his personal feelings, served as one of the Commissioners appointed by the Assembly to spend the money it had voted, but which it would not give into the Governor and Council's hands; and went with those who had written the Assembly's rancorous messages to him a few years before, to super- intend military affairs at Easton. This had become the frontier, the people from the North West having deserted their homes. Joining the Governor at Reading, although it was midwinter, and his health was bad, he went on to Carlisle to enlist certain Indians in the cause of the Province, and heard from his scout that the savages were dancing the war dance, and the Delawares and Shawonese and Susquehannahs had eagerly taken the hatchet. Such labors did Hamilton and his colleagues perform that by the time Hamilton returned to Philadel- phia, it could be told the Assembly that a chain of forts and block houses was almost completed along the Kittatinny Hills from the River Delaware to the Maryland line, and each one garrisoned by from twenty to seventy five men.
In the Spring of 1759, when Hamilton was again in England, his
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Hamilton-James Hamilton.
reappointment as Deputy-Governor was taken into consideration by the Penns. The matter being delayed, he wrote a short note dated London, April 4, to the effect, that, as every one knew he had not solicited it, he was not disposed to recede from the terms on which he had agreed to take it, viz: that he be not restrained from assenting to any reasonable bill for taxing the Proprietary estates in common with all the other estates in the Province ; for in his opinion it was no more than just. The commission finally issued bears date July 19; he took the oath before King George II and the Privy Council at Whitehall Aug. 10, 1759 ; and on November 17 arrived in Philadelphia. The Penns instructed him, first, as was but natural from large property- holders, to use the most prudent means to prevent the Assembly from including any part of the Proprietary estate in any tax raised by it, but, secondly, if a tax on this estate at all were necessary, to levy it on the quit-rents, the tenants paying the tax, and deducting it from the rent ; and to make proper arrangements for justly assessing other peo- ple's estates ; and on no account to authorize the sale of Proprietary lands for taxes. The following year, a bill was presented for raising 100,000l. The Assembly could not be induced to allow the appoint- ment of commissioners to whom the Proprietaries might appeal in a case of over-assessment; although Hamilton pointed out that the county assessors, to whom alone the Assembly would commit the sub- ject, did not represent the Proprietaries, who had no voice in their ap- pointment, but only the inhabitants who elected them. We here see the Penns crying out against "taxation without representation," or a principle nearly akin to it. In Cumberland County, they had been rated for money to arise on a contingency. Hamilton added that nothing was further from his thoughts than to desire an exemption of the Proprietary estates : "All I contend for is that they may be put upon an equal foot with others." The Assembly adhered to the bill, and Hamilton, finding the money was necessary, gave his assent under protest. He was relieved from office by the arrival of John Penn as Deputy-Governor in 1763. Penn lived with Hamilton at Bush Hill, and was assisted by his council, until the latter was obliged to go to Europe for treatment of a cancerous affection on his nose.
On his return he took his place at the Council Board, and as Presi- dent administered the government after the departure of John Penn. The five months of this, his third, term of office, were chiefly taken up with the war against the Connecticut claimants. The Proprietary settlers around Wyoming hearing that 500 men under arms were
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Hamilton-James Hamilton.
coming to dispossess them, fled to the block house. All endeavors to, succour them failed, and when at last a large body was on its way to raise the siege, the important post was surrendered. Just after this, Richard Penn arrived as Deputy-Governor, October 16, 1771.
Hamilton took the part expected from so eminent a citizen in the founding of our public institutions, and gave handsome donations to them. He was some years President of the Board of Trustees of the College, and was President of the Philosophical Society when it united with the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge. At the first elec- tion for President of the new society, Jany. 2, 1769, Hamilton and Dr. Franklin were placed in nomination, the former being the choice of the aristocratic element; but Franklin with his reputation in science and his claim as founder of the Philosophical Society, was very prop- erly chosen.
Hamilton, as President of the Council, was chief magistrate a fourth term, from July 19, 1773 to Aug. 30, 1773. A few years later, he was obliged to witness the destruction of Regal and Proprietary authority in America, and, forbidden by his years and his loyalty to embark in the Revolution, and share the popularity of its leaders, saw in its suc- cess the vanishing away of his family's claim to office and influence. In August, 1777, he was made a prisoner on parole, but on the 15th of the month, when the officers of Pennsylvania settled on the boundaries within which he was reside, they allowed him the whole extent of Pennsylvania. He lived at Northampton during the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, but, complaining of his banishment from his relatives and friends, when he had taken no active part, and his health being threatened by a return of the cancer on his nose, he had his parole returned to him by the Revolutionary government in April 1778, and, on May 4, he obtained a pass through the American lines to go into the city to consult a physician, and remain two weeks, con- ditional, however, on his taking the oath of allegiance. Not long af- terwards, the evacuation of the British dispensed with the necessity of a pass to Philadelphia : and he returned to Bush Hill. He died in New York Aug. 14, 1783, aged 73. He made his will before the Declaration of Independence, taking much pains to settle his large property so as to maintain in wealth and standing the future genera- tions of his name, or, as Judge Duncan said in Lyle v. Richards, in the " vain design that his estate should not be inherited by any human be- ing who breathed the same air with him" and with the " proud view of aggrandizing some unknown son of an unknown ancestor at the ex-
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Hamilton .- James Hamilton.
pense of all his living representatives." Bush Hill and the Lancaster estate and certain lots in Moyamensing were to go to his nephew Wil- liam for life, then to William's eldest son for life, then to said son's eldest son, second son, third son, &ct. successively in tail male and af- terwards to the second son of William Hamilton for life and to his first, second, third, &ct. sons successively in tail male, and so on until the male issue of William failed, and then to the heirs of the body of William, and in default thereof to the heirs of the body of William's brother Andrew, and in default thereof with somewhat similar limita- tions to the Allens, and when the heirs should happen to be females the eldest of them should take it all. He authorized the sale of the Lancaster lots on ground rent and the letting of Bush Hill on long building leases. He left no issue.
ANDREW HAMILTON, son of the Councillor, in partnership with William Coleman carried on an extensive shipping and commission business up to the time of his death. He was Town Clerk of Phila- delphia after the death of Ralph Assheton, and held several other offices. He added 56 acres to the plantation on the Schuylkill, leav- ing it to his son William. Hed. in Phila. Sept., 1747. He m. Xt. Ch. Dec. 24, 1741 Mary, only dau. of William Till the Councillor.
Issue :
ANDREW, bapt. Xt. Ch. Feb. 25, 1742-3, aged 6 weeks 2 days, m. Abigail Franks, see next page,
WILLIAM, b. Apr. 29, 1745, well known as the builder of the Woodlands mansion, and the founder of Hamilton Village, now the lower part of West Philadelphia. He graduated at College of Phila. 1762, and took some part in the resistance to Great Britain at the beginning of the Revolutionary war, becoming Chairman of the Committee of Inspection & Ob- servation for the City & Liberties, but after the Declaration of Independence and the overthrow of the Proprietary gov- ernment he was one of the "disaffected." In 1778, he was put on trial for high treason to the new State, but was ac- quitted. Left by his uncle the owner of the 179 acres ad- joining the plantation on the Schuylkill, as well as tenant for life of Bush Hill, he made the Woodlands his home, liv- ing in elegant leisure, and devoting himself to the study of landscape gardening. He was elected in 1797 a member of the Amer. Philos. Soc. In 1805, he began to dispose of
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building lots in the Northern part of his land, laying out streets called by the family names of Till (now 40th), James (now Chestnut), Andrew (now Walnut), Moore (now 34th), Margaret (36th), Mary (38th), &ct. He gave the ground on which St. Mary's Church was built. He d. s. p. at Woodlands June 5, 1813.
ANDREW HAMILTON, b. Phila. Jany. 12, 1742-3, bapt. Xt. Ch. Feb. 25, 1742-3, son of Andrew and Mary Hamilton, as above, is called " of Woodlands," d. Nov. 22, 1784, m. Xt. Ch. Jan. 6, 1768 Abigail, dau. of David Franks of Phila. merchant by his w. Margaret, dau. of Peter Evans of the Inner Temple, gent., Register-General of Penna. Peter Evans's wife, Mrs. Hamilton's grandmother, was Mary, dau. of John Moore Esq., one of the earliest lawyers in Pennsylvania, for a short time Judge of the Admiralty, and afterwards Collector of the Port of Phila. and descended, says the Life of Bp. Richard Chan- ning Moore, from Sir John Moore of Frawley, Berkshire, knighted by King Charles I. Bp. R. C. Moore was descended from a son of John Moore of Phila., John Moore, member of the Council of New York. Issue :
MARGARET, b. Oct. 4, 1768, d. s. p. unm. Jany., 1828, ANN, b. Dec. 16, 1769, m. James Lyle, see next page, MARY, b. Aug. 1, 1771, d. s. p. unm. April, 1849,
JAMES, b. July 31, 1774, of Woodlands, and tenant for life of Bush Hill, who by agreement with his brother Andrew barred the entail &ct. of the Bush Hill estate by a common recovery, the effect of which was passed upon by the Supreme Ct. of Penna. in the case of Lyle vs. Richards, 9 S. & R.,- His brother became entitled to one-third, himself to the other two-thirds, and they executed articles of sale in 1814 to Thomas Cadwalader, Thomas Biddle, Samuel Richards, John Wharton, and others, Gen. Cadwalader to divide it into lots, and the Hamiltons to accept ground rents amount- ing in due time to $36,000 per an. After raising $200,000 principal, Cadwalader and his associates, in 1821, gave up the undertaking-James Hamilton d. at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., July 20, 1817 intestate, unm., s. p.,
ANDREW, b. Nov. 4, 1776, m. Eliza Urquhart, see below,
FRANKS, b. May 22, 1779, grad. A. B. (U. of P.), d. unm. Aug. 14, 1798,
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Hamilton-Palairet branch.
REBECCA, b. Nov. 7, 1783, m. Francis Lewis O'Beirne, see p. 139.
ANDREW HAMILTON, b. Nov. 6, 1776, son of Andrew and Abigail Hamilton, p. 136, d. May 16, 1825, m. (Gent.'s Mag.) at Bath June 11, 1817 Eliza, only dau. of the Rev. D. H. Urquhart of Broad- mayne, co. Dorset, Eng.
Issue :
MARY ANN, d. Phila. Jany 24, 1851, m. Septimus Henry Palairet of the city of Bath, Capt. 29th Foot, d. June 18, 1854,
Issue (surname PALAIRET) :
Mary Ann, m. April, 1863 Capt. Adolphus Halkett Versturme of 11th Regt. Foot,
Henry Hamilton, m., 1st, -, and, 2nd, Dec., 1881 Charlotte Ellen Rooke,
Laura Katherine,
Charles Harvey, late Capt. 9th Lancers, m. Emily Henry,
Eleanor, m. July 1867 Henry Hodges of Bolney Court, co. Oxford, Esq.,
Edith, m. Apr., 1871 Sandford George Treweeke Sco- bell. (a son), d. y.
ANN HAMILTON, b. Dec. 16, 1769, dau. of Andrew and Abigail Hamilton, see preceding page, d. in 1798, m. Oct. 17, 1792 James Lyle of Phila., merchant, of the firm of " Lyle & Newman," the other partner being John Beauclerc Newman. James Lyle was the second son of Hugh Lyle of the North of Ireland. He d. Aug. 10, 1826.
Issue (surname LYLE):
MARY, b. Jany. 22, 1796, m. Henry Beckett, see below,
ELLEN, b. Oct. 21, 1797, m. Hartman Kuhn, see p. 138.
MARY LYLE, b. Jany. 22, 1796, dau. of James and Ann Lyle, as above, d. Nov. 21, 1829, m. Nov. 12, 1818 (being 1st wife of ) Henry Beckett, son of Sir John Beckett, created Bart. in 1813, by his w. Mary, dau. of Rt. Rev. Christopher Wilson, Bp. of Bristol, and grddau. of Rt. Rev. Edmund Gibson, Bp. of London. Henry Beckett was b. Apr. 11, 1791, and became a merchant of Philadelphia,
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Hamilton-Beckett branch.
being at one time British consul, and afterwards purchased the Bona- parte place at Bordentown, where he d. Sep. 11, 1871.
Issue (surname BECKETT) :
MARIANNE, b. Apr. 27, 1820, d. s. p. May 10, 1849, m. July 10, 1839 Sir Thomas Whichcote, Bart., son of Sir Thomas Whichcote, the 7th Baronet, by his w. Lady Sophia Sher- ard, dau. of the 5th Earl of Harborough,
JAMES, d. y.,
HAMILTON, b. Oct. 15, 1829, now residing in England, m. Dec. 14, 1854 Hon. Sophia Clarence Copley, dau. of Baron Lyndhurst, Lord High Chancellor of England,
Issue (surname Beckett) :
Henry Lyndhurst, b. Apr. 8, 1857, Lieut. West Essex Militia,
Constance Mary, m. Henry Campbell Bruce, eldest son of Baron Aberdare.
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ELLEN LYLE, b. Oct. 21, 1797, dau. of James and Ann Lyle, as p. 137, d. at her residence in Chestnut St. below 12th, Phila., Feb. 8, 1852, m. Dec. 15, 1818 Hartman Kuhn, son of Adam Kuhn, M. D. (Univ. at Upsal, Sweden), Professor in the Medical Dept. of Univ. of Penna., by his w. Elizabeth, wid. of - - Markoe of St. Croix and dau. of Isaac and Margaret Hartman. Dr. Adam Kuhn's father was Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, one of the justices of Lancaster Co., whose father emigrated from Heidelburg, and settled at Germantown, Pa. Hartman Kuhn was b. Feb. 4, 1784, grad. A. B. (U. of P.) in 1800, and from 1836 until his death was one of the Trustees of the Uni- versity, and was member of the Amer. Philos. Society. He d. Nov. 6, 1860.
Issue (surname Kuhn) :
MARY, m. Hartman Kuhn, son of her uncle Charles Kuhn by his w. Elizabeth Hester Yard, Issue (surname Kuhn) : William, of Rome, N. Y., Frederick, d. inf., .
Mary Hamilton, m. Joseph Harris of Balt., Issue (surname Harris) : James Hamilton, Mary Kuhn, Isabel Barney, Joseph Ridgely,
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Hamilton-Kuhn branch.
Charles, m. Mary D. Maison, Issue (surname Kuhn) : Mary Hamilton, Ellen, d. y., Elizabeth Ella, d. y., Cornelius Hartman,
CHARLES, now of Nice, Italy, m. Louisa C. Adams, who d. Florence 1870, dau. of Charles Francis Adams, U. S. Min- ister to Great Britain, and grddau. of John Quincy Adams, President of the United States, and gr-grddau. of John Adams, President of the United States,
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