Dealings With The Dead Volume II Part 16

No. CXXIII.

General Jackson has been reported--how justly I know not--upon some occasion, in a company of ladies, to have given a brief, but spirited, description of all his predecessors, in the Presidential chair, till he came down to the time of President Tyler, when, seizing his hat, he proceeded to bow himself out of the room. The ladies, however, insisted upon his completing the catalogue--_"Well, ladies," said he, "it is matter of history, and may therefore be spoken--President Tyler, ladies, was--pretty much nothing."_

A very felicitous description; and not of very limited application to men and things. I cannot find a better, for Master John Lovell's funeral oration, upon Peter Faneuil. This affair, which Dr. Snow, in his history of Boston, calls "_a precious relic_," is certainly a wonderfully flatulent performance. A time-stained copy of the original edition of 1743 lies under my eye. I hoped, not unreasonably, that it would be a lamp to my path, in searching after the historical a.s.sets of Peter Faneuil. But not one ray of light has it afforded me; and, with one or two exceptions, in relation to the _Hall_, and the general beneficence of its founder, it is, in no sense, more of a funeral oration, upon Peter Faneuil, than upon Peter Smink. In their vote of thanks to Master Lovell, pa.s.sed on the day of its delivery, the committee speak of "_his oration_," very judiciously abstaining from all unwarrantable expletives. From this oration we can discover nothing of Faneuil's birth-place, nor parentage, nor when, nor whence, nor wherefore he came hither; nor of the day of his birth, nor of the day of his death, nor of the disease of which he died; nor of his habits of life, nor of the manner, in which he acquired his large estate; nor of his religious opinions, nor of his ancestors.

We collect, however, from these meagre pages, that Mr. Faneuil meditated other benefactions to the town--that his death was sudden--that votes of thanks had been pa.s.sed, for his donation of the Hall, "a few months before"--that the meeting, at which the oration was p.r.o.nounced, March 14, 1742, was the very first annual meeting, in Faneuil Hall--that Peter Faneuil was the owner of "a large and plentiful estate"--that "no man managed his affairs with greater prudence and industry"--that "he fed the hungry and clothed the naked; comforted the fatherless and the widows, in their affliction, and his bounty visited the prisoner."

Master Lovell, not inelegantly, observes of Faneuil's intended benefactions, which were prevented by his death--"_His intended charities, though they are lost to us, will not be lost to him. Designs of goodness and mercy, prevented as these were, will meet with the reward of actions_." This pa.s.sage appears to have found favor, in the eyes of the late Dr. Boyle, who has, accordingly, on page 21, of his memoir of the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society, when speaking of Faneuil, made a very free and familiar appropriation of it, with a slight verbal variation.

Master Lovell's fervent aspirations, in regard to Faneuil Hall, one hundred and nine years ago, have not been fulfilled, to the letter. The G.o.ds have granted the orator's prayer--"_May Liberty always spread its joyful wings over this place_"--but not with Master Lovell's conditions annexed; for he adds--"_May_ LOYALTY _to a_ KING, _under whom we enjoy that Liberty, ever remain our character_."

In this particular, Master Lovell was not to be indulged. Yet he steadily adhered to his tory principles; and, like many other conscientious and honorable men, whom it is much less the fashion to abuse, at present, than it was, of yore, adhered to his royal master; and relinquished his own sceptre, as monarch of the South Grammar School, with all the honors and emoluments thereof, choosing rather to suffer affliction, with his thwarted and mortified master, than to enjoy the pleasures of rebellion, for a season. He retired to Halifax, with the British army, in 1776, and died there, in 1778.

Original copies of Master Lovell's oration are exceedingly rare; though the "_precious relic_" has been reprinted, by Dr. Snow, in his history of Boston. The t.i.tle may be worth preserving--"A funeral oration, delivered at the opening of the annual meeting of the town, March 14th, 1742. In Faneuil Hall, in Boston. Occasioned by the death of the founder, Peter Faneuil Esq. By John Lovell, A. M., Master of the South Grammar School, in Boston. _Sui memores alios fecere merendo._ Boston, printed by Green, Bush.e.l.l & Allen, for S. Kneeland & T. Green, in Queen Street, 1743."

As an eminent historian conceived it to be a matter of indifference, at which end he commenced his history, I shall not adhere to any chronological arrangement, in the presentation of the few facts, which I have collected, relating to Peter Faneuil and his family. On the contrary, I shall begin at the latter end, and, first, endeavor to clear up a little confusion, that has arisen, as to the time of his death. Allen, in his Biog. Dic., says, that Peter Faneuil died, March 3, 1743. I am sorry to say, that, in several instances, President Allen's _dates_ resemble Jeremiah's _figs_, in the second basket; though, upon the present occasion, he is right, on a certain hypothesis. In a note to the "Memoir of the French Protestants," also, M. H. C. vol. xxii. p. 55, Peter Faneuil is said to have died, March 3, 1743. Pemberton, in his "Description of Boston," Ibid. v. 3, p. 253, by stating that the funeral oration was delivered, March 14, 1742, makes 1742 the year of Faneuil's death. The t.i.tle page of the oration itself, quoted above, fixes the death, in 1742.

Dr. Eliot, in his Biog. Dic., says 1742. The Probate records of Suffolk show administration granted, on Peter Faneuil's estate, March 18, 1742.

His _obiit_, on a mourning ring, that I have seen, is 1742.

Now, if all dealers in dates, of the olden time, would discriminate, between the old style and the new, we should be spared a vast deal of vexation; and the good people of Boston, notional as they proverbially are, would not appear, in their creditable zeal to do honor to a public benefactor, to have given him a funeral oration, a twelve month before he was dead. If the year be taken to begin, on the first of January, then Dr.

Allen is right; and Peter Faneuil died March 3, 1743. But if it did not begin, till the twenty-fifth of March, and, legally, it certainly did not, before 1752, when the new style was adopted, in Great Britain, and the Provinces, then Eliot, and Pemberton, and the t.i.tle page of the oration, and the records of the court, and the mourning ring are right, and Peter Faneuil died, in 1742.

An ill.u.s.tration of this principle may be found, on the t.i.tle page of the oration itself. It is stated to have been delivered, March 14, 1742, and printed in 1743. Having been delivered near the close of the year 1742, it was printed, doubtless, soon after March 25, which was New Year's day for 1743.

The public journals, nevertheless, seem to have adopted, and adhered to the idea, that January 1, was the first day of the historical year, long before the style was altered; and thus, in the Weekly News Letter, published in Boston, Faneuil is stated to have died, in 1743. This journal contains an obituary notice. A few imperfect numbers of this paper are all that remain, and its extreme rarity leads me to copy the obituary here:--

"Thursday, March 10, 1743. On Thursday last, dyed at his seat in this Town, PETER FANEUIL, Esq., whose remains, we hear, are to be enterred this afternoon; a gentleman, possessed of a very ample fortune, and a most generous spirit, whose n.o.ble benefaction to this town, and constant employment of a great number of tradesmen, artificers and labourers, to whom he was a liberal paymaster; whose hospitality to all, and secret unbounded chirity to the poor--made his life a public blessing, and his death a general loss to, and universally regretted by, the inhabitants; who had been so sensible of their obligations to him, for the sumptuous edifice, which he raised at his private expence, for their Market house and Town Hall, that, at a general town meeting, as a testimony of their grat.i.tude, they voted, that the place of their future consultations should be called by his name forever: in doing which they perpetuated their own honor as much as his memory; for, by this record posterity will know the most publick spirited man, in all regards, that ever yet appeared on the Northern continent of America, was a member of their community."

In the Boston Evening Post of March 7, 1743, in a brief notice of Peter Faneuil's death, the disease of which he died is said to have been "_dropsey_."

Now that we have established the period of Peter's death, it may be well, to establish the period of his birth; and this we can do, with certainty, even to an hour, from authentic doc.u.ments. In addition to other means, for ascertaining dates, and various particulars, respecting Peter Faneuil, and the members of his family--through the kindness of the Genealogical Society, I have, before me, a folio volume of his commercial correspondence: mutilated, indeed it is, by some thoughtless hand, but furnishes some curious and interesting matter. Many of his letters are written in French; and those, which are in English, are well composed. I have found but a single instance, in which he writes our language, like a Frenchman. Upon that occasion, he was in a pa.s.sion with a certain judge of the admiralty, complained of his ill usage, and charged him with "_capporice_."

No. CXXIV.

I am indebted to Mr. Charles Faneuil Jones, a grandson of Mary Ann Jones, Peter Faneuil's sister, for the use of some ancient papers, and family relics; and to George Bethune, Esquire, of Boston, the grandson of _Benjamin Faneuil_, Peter's brother, for the loan of a venerable doc.u.ment--time worn, torn, and sallow--the record of the birth of Peter Faneuil, and of his brothers and sisters. This doc.u.ment, from its manifest antiquity, the masculine character of the hand writing, and the constant use of the parental expressions--_notre fils_--_notre fille_--I, at first, supposed to be the original autograph of _Benjamin_, the father of Peter.

This conjecture was, of course, demolished, by the last entry, on the record, which is of old _Benjamin's_ decease, but in the same peculiar hand.

The doc.u.ment is in French; and, after a careful comparison--_literatim_--with the volume of Peter's commercial correspondence, now in my possession--I have very little doubt, that this record was copied, by Peter, from the paternal original, with the additional entry, by himself, of the date of his father's death. At the bottom, and beneath a line of separation, and by another hand, with a fresher ink, is the following entry--"_Le 6 D'Aout 1725, M. Gillam Phillips de Boston a epousee ma Fille Marie Faneuil agee de dix sept et quatre mois_." The 6th of August, 1725, Mr. Gillam Phillips, of Boston, married my daughter, Marie, aged seventeen and four months. The expression _ma file_, shows this entry to have been made by Peter's mother, then the widow of _Benjamin_, who appears, by this record, to have died, at New York, March 31, 1718-9, aged 50 years and 8 months.

This unusual praenomen, _Gillam_, I, at first, supposed to be a corruption of _Guillaume_. But there was a merchant, of that day, in Boston, bearing the name of _Gillam Phillips_. In the Registry of Deeds, for Suffolk, lib.

43, fol. 13, there is recorded a deed, from "_Wentworth Paxton, and Faith, his wife, formerly Faith Gillam_," in which, reference is made to Faith's father, _Benjamin Gillam_. Mr. Gillam Phillips is thus named, in the will of his wife's uncle, Andrew Faneuil, to which I shall have occasion to refer. Jan 22, 1738, Peter, in a letter to Lane & Smethurst, of London, speaks of his brother-in-law, _Mr. Gillam Phillips_.

This gentleman was the elder brother of _Mr. Henry Phillips_, who was indicted, for killing Mr. Benjamin Woodbridge, in a duel, fought with swords, and without seconds, on Boston Common, upon the evening of July 3, 1728. This extremely interesting affair cannot be introduced, as an episode here, on account of the s.p.a.ce it must necessarily occupy. The original doc.u.ments, relating to this encounter, which terminated in the immediate death of Mr. Woodbridge, have fallen into my possession; and, as Peter Faneuil personally a.s.sisted, in the escape of the survivor, who found a city of refuge, in Roch.e.l.le, and a friend and protector, in Peter's uncle, _Jean Faneuil_; it seems, in some degree, related to the history of Peter and his kinsfolk. I may, possibly, refer to it hereafter.

In 1685, the period of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, there were living, in or near Roch.e.l.le, in France, three brothers and two sisters of the Faneuil family. One of these, _Benjamin_, became the father of _our_ Peter Faneuil--the others, his uncles and aunts, when the persecution commenced, so ably and touchingly described, by James Saurin, fled for safety to foreign lands. Andrew, the elder brother, escaped into Holland, and took up his abode in Amsterdam; where he married that preeminently beautiful lady, whose portrait is now in the possession of Col. Benjamin Hunt, whose mother was Jane Bethune, a daughter of Mary Faneuil, the neice of Peter.

_Andrew Faneuil_, before many years, came to this country--precisely when, I cannot say. That he was here, as early as 1709, is evident, from the proposals of Oliver Noyes and others, to build a wharf from the bottom of King Street, to low-water mark, "of the width of King Street, between Mr.

East Apthorp's and Mr. Andrew Faneuil's." These proposals are dated Feb.

20, 1709, and are inserted in Dr. Snow's History of Boston, p. 209.

In Holland, doubtless, Andrew acquired that pa.s.sion, for flowers, which he gratified, in his seven-acre Eden, on the westerly side of Treamount Street, where he is said to have erected the first hothouse, that ever existed in New England. His warehouse, the same, by him devised, for the support of the minister of the French Church, was at the lower end of King Street, near Merchant's Row, from which Butler's Wharf then extended, as laid down, by John Bonner, in 1722. This warehouse, under the will of Andrew, reverted, to his heirs, upon the extinction of the French Church.

It was then, just where we find it, in the New England Weekly Journal, of Jan. 13, 1729. "_Good New York Flower. To be sold, at Mr. Andrew Faneuil's Warehouse, at the lower end of King Street, at 35s per Hundred, as also good chocolate, just imported._" He was engaged in commerce; and, for those days of small things, acquired a large estate, which his forecast taught him to distribute, among the public funds of France, England, and Holland. His warehouse was purchased of one of his descendants, by the late John Parker.

_Jean Faneuil_, another of Peter's uncles, held fast to the faith of his fathers; and lived, and died, a Roman Catholic. He died in Roch.e.l.le, of apoplexy, June 24, 1737, about four months after the decease of his brother Andrew, as appears by Peter's letter of Sept. 8, 1737.

_Susannah Faneuil_ also continued, in the Roman Catholic faith, and remained in Roch.e.l.le; where she became the wife, and the widow, of Abraham de la Croix. She survived her brother Andrew, the date of whose decease is clearly shown to have been Feb. 13, 1737, by Peter's letter to S. & W.

Baker, of London, giving them the inscription, "_for the handsomest mourning rings_."

_Jane Faneuil_ was a Huguenot. She became the wife of Pierre Cossart, and took refuge, with her husband, in Ireland, where she died.

_Benjamin Faneuil_, the father of _our_ Peter, was closely a.s.sociated with that little band of Huguenots, who cl.u.s.tered about the town of Narragansett, otherwise called Kingstown, and the region round about, at the very close of the seventeenth century. In that village, in 1699, he married a French lady, whose name was Anne Bureau. The record, in Peter's transcript from his father's original, is now upon my table--"_Le 28 de Juillet 1699. Benjamin Faneuil et Anne Bureau ont ete marie a Narragansett, en nouvelle Angleterre, en la maison de Mons. Pierre Ayross, par Mons. Pierre Daille ministre de L'Eglise francoise de Boston_." The 28th of July, 1699, Benjamin Faneuil and Ann Bureau were married at Narragansett, in New England, at the house of Mr. Peter Ayross, by Mr.

Peter Daille, minister of the French Church in Boston. Three years before, in 1696, Sept. 4, the name of this Benjamin Faneuil will be found, M. H.

C., xxii. 60, attached to a certificate, in favor of Gabriel Bernon, referring to the ma.s.sacre of John Johnson and his three children, at New Oxford. Johnson had married the sister of old _Andre Sigournay_.

This _Benjamin Faneuil_, the praepositus, or stirps, became the father of eleven children, by his wife, _Anne Bureau_, who were all born in New Roch.e.l.le, in the State of New York, and of whom _our_ Peter was the first born. Their names, in the order of birth, are these--_Peter_, _Benjamin_, _Francis_, _Anne_, _Anne_, _Marie_, _John_, _Anne_, _Susannah_, _Mary Anne_, and _Catherine_. The two first Annes, John, and Catherine, died in infancy.

The birth of our Peter is thus chronicled, in the family record--"_Le 20 de Juin, 1700, Estant Jeudy a 6 heures du soir est ne nostre fils Pierre Faneuil, et a ete baptise le 14 Juillet, par M. Peyret, ministre de l'Eglisse francoise de la Nouvelle York, presente au Bapteme par M. Claude Baudoin et par Sa Mere_." The 20th of June, 1700, being Thursday, at 6 o'clock in the evening, was born our son, Peter Faneuil, and he was baptized the 14th of July, by Mr. Peyret, minister of the French Church, in New York; presented in baptism, by Mr. Claude Bowdoin and its mother.

_Benjamin_, _our_ Peter's brother, was born Dec. 29, 1701. He was a merchant in Boston, about the time of his uncle Andrew's death, in 1737.

Shortly after that event, he went to England, and France, and returned, about two years before the death of his brother Peter, in 1742-3, upon whose estate he administered. His nephew, Edward Jones, in a letter to his mother, June 23, 1783, informs her, that "_Uncle Faneuil seems to be growing very low; I think he will not continue long_." He was then in his eighty-second year. He died in October, 1785.

After Peter's death, Benjamin resided in Brighton, then Cambridge, in the street, which now bears the family name, where he erected an expensive mansion, successively occupied, after his decease, by Messieurs Bethune, English, Parkman, and Bigelow. By his wife, Mary Cutler, he had three children, Benjamin, Mary, and Peter.

_This_ Benjamin, nephew of _our_ Peter, is the "_Benjamin Faneuil, junior_," whose name appears, among the signers of the "_Loyall Address_"

to Gov. Gage on his departure Oct. 6, 1775. He left Boston for Halifax, with the British army, in March, 1776. He is the person, referred to, by Ward, in his Memoirs of Curwen--"_the merchant of Boston, and with Joshua Winslow, consignee of one third of the East India Company's tea, destroyed in 1773, a refugee to Halifax, afterwards in England_." He married Jane, daughter of Addington Davenport, by his first wife, Jane, who was the daughter of Grove Hirst, and sister of the Lady Mary Pepperell; and, with his wife, lived many years, abroad, chiefly in Bristol, England, which became the favorite resort of many refugees, and where he died. I have, in my possession, several of his letters, written to his relatives, during his exile. These letters are spiritedly written; and, to the very last, in the most perfect a.s.surance, that the colonies must submit.

_Mary_, _our_ Peter's niece, became the wife of George Bethune, Oct. 13, 1754, and died in 1797. A portrait, by Blackburn, of this beautiful woman, is in the possession of her son, George Bethune, Esquire, of Boston. After a very careful inspection of this portrait, not long ago, I went directly to the rooms of the Historical Society, to compare it with the portrait there of her uncle Peter, to which it seems to me to bear a strong family resemblance. This portrait of Peter was presented to the Society, by Miss Jones, the grand niece of _our_ Peter, now the wife of Dr. Cutter of Pepperell. It has been erroneously ascribed to Copley. If its manifest inferiority to the works of that eminent master were not sufficiently germaine to this question--Copley was born in 1738, and not quite five years old, when Peter Faneuil died.

_Peter_, the youngest child of Benjamin, and, of course, the nephew of _our_ Faneuil Hall Peter, who may be otherwise distinguished, as Peter the Great--was baptized, in Trinity Church, in Boston, in 1738, and entered the Latin School, in 1746. He entered into trade--went to Montreal--failed--resorted to the West Indies--and, after his father's death, returned to Boston.

No. CXXV.

Let us conclude our post mortem examination of the brothers and sisters of Peter Faneuil.

_Francis_, the third son of _Benjamin_, the old Roch.e.l.ler, Peter's father, was born Aug. 21, 1703, of whom I know nothing, beyond the fact, that he was baptized, by M. Peyret, minister of the French church in New York, and presented "_par son grand pere, Francois Bureau, et Mad'selle Anne Delancey_."

_Mary_, the eldest sister of _our_ Peter, that came to maturity, was born April 16, 1708, and is the _Marie_, to whom I have already referred, as having married Mr. Gillam Phillips, Aug. 6, 1725. Their abode, before the revolution, was in the mansion, more recently occupied by Abiel Smith, at the corner of State and Devonshire Streets; or, as they are called, on Bonner's plan of 1722, King Street and Pudding Lane. Her husband was a refugee. After his death, she resided in Cambridge, Ma.s.s., where she died, in April, 1778.

_Anne_, the next, in order of time, was born Oct. 9, 1710, and married Addington Davenport. This fact is stated, by Peter, in a letter, of Sept.