Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe - Thaddeus Mason Harris
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[Footnote 1: Referring to the encomium of the Abbe Raynal, in his
_Histoire Philosophique et Politique_.]
[Footnote 2: These last verses were added by the old friend of the
General, the Rev. Moses Browne.]
OBITUARY NOTICE
OF
MRS. ELIZABETH OGLETHORPE,
WITH EXTRACTS FROM HER WILL.
OBITUARY NOTICE
COPIED FROM THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE FOR 1787, PAGE 1025
October 26th, 1787, died, at her seat, Cranham Hall, Co. Essex,[1]
aged 79, Mrs. Elizabeth Oglethorpe, widow of the late General
Oglethorpe. She was daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, Bart., (nephew
to the Lord Keeper,) by Abigail, his fourth wife, who survived and
married Mr. Tryst. Sir Nathan, by his first wife, (Anne Meyrick)
had two sons; Nathan, who succeeded him in title, and who married a
daughter of Sir Francis Lawley, and died in April, 1737; and John, who
died without issue. By his second wife, (Elizabeth Brage) he had a
son, Benjamin, who died before him. By his third wife, (Elizabeth
Bowater) he had no issue. By the fourth he had a son, Samuel, and Mrs.
Oglethorpe. Sir Nathan, the son, had one son and two daughters; and
the son dying without issue, his half-brother, Samuel, succeeded to
the title and part of the estate. He dying a bachelor, Mrs. Oglethorpe
became his heir, and has died without leaving any child. September
15, 1744, she married the late General Oglethorpe, who died July
1,1785;[2] and to her magnanimity and prudence, on an occasion of much
difficulty, it was owing that the evening of their lives was tranquil
and pleasant, after a stormy noon. Very many and continual were her
acts of benevolence and charity; but, as she would herself have been
hurt by any display of them in her lifetime, we will say no more. Not
to have mentioned them at all would have been unjust to her memory,
and not less so to the world, in which such an example may operate as
an incitement to others to go and do likewise.
[Footnote 1: This old mansion, situated on a pleasant rising ground,
was built about the end of the reign of James I. In the hall is a
very fine whole-length picture of Mr. _Nathan Wright_, a considerable
Spanish merchant in the beginning of Charles the First's time, who
resided long in that country, by Antonio Arias, an eminent painter of
Madrid; and the more curious, as perhaps there is not another picture
of that able master in England. _Gentleman's Magazine_, LV. 518.]
[Footnote 2: The date for the time of the death of General Oglethorpe,
which is given on the 296th page of this volume, was taken from the
public Gazettes. As it took place late in the night, it might be
rather uncertain as to its being the close of one day or the beginning
of another. But the above, corroborated by the testimony of the
monumental inscription, must be correct. I regret, however, that I did
not perceive it sooner. T.M.H.]
By her will, which is very long, and dated May 30, 1786, and has four
codicils, the last dated September 11, 1787, she leaves her estate at
Westbrook, in Godalming, Co. Surrey, bequeathed to her by the General,
to his great nephew, Eugene, Marquis of Bellegarde, in France, then in
the Dutch service, but born in England, and his heirs, with all her
plate, jewels, &c.; to her nephews, John and Charles Apreece, and
their sister Dorothy, wife of ---- Cole, an annuity of L100 amongst
them, and the survivor for life; and if either John or Charles succeed
to the Baronet's title, the annuity to go over to the other; but if
their sister survive, she to have only L200 per annum; also four
annuities, of L50 each, to four of her female friends or neighbors.
All these annuities are charged on the Cranham estate, which she
gives in trust to Sir George Allanson Wynne, Bart., and Mr. Granville
Sharpe, for the use of her nephew, Sir Thomas Apreece, of Washingley,
Co. Huntingdon, for life, remainder in tail to his issue male or
female, remainder to his brothers John and Charles, and sister
Dorothy, successively, remainder to her own right heirs. The manor of
Canewdon Hall, Essex, to be sold to pay legacies, viz.: L100 to Sir
G.A. Wynne; L1000 to the Princess of Rohan, related to her late
husband; L500 to the Princess de Ligne, her late husband's niece;
L1000 to Samuel Crawley, Esq., of Theobalds, Co. Herts; L500 among the
Miss Dawes's, of Coventry; L500 to James Fitter, Esq., of Westminster;
L500 to the Marquis of Bellegarde. The manor of Fairstead Hall, Co.
Essex, to Granville Sharpe, for life, paying L50 per annum to his
friend Mr. Marriott, relict of General Marriott, of Godalming, and
to settle the said estate to charitable uses after his death, at his
discretion. To Edward Lloyd and Sarah his wife, her servants,
L500; and L10 each, to other servants. By a codicil: to Maria Anne
Stephenson L1000 stock out of any of her property in the funds; to
Miss Lewis, who lives with Mrs. Fowle, in Red-lion square, and to
Miss Billinghurst, of Godalming, L50 each; to the poor of Cranham,
Fairstead, Canewdon, and Godalming, L20 each; her turn of patronage
to the united livings of St. Mary Somerset and St. Mary Mounthaw,
in London, to the Rev. Mr. Herringham, of South Weald. By another
codicil, L1000 more to the Marquis of Bellegarde; L1000 to Count
Bethisy; L200 to Granville Sharpe. By another, revokes the legacies
to the Princess de Ligne and Count Bethisy, and gives them to the two
younger daughters of the Marquis of Bellegarde, at the age of 21, or
marriage. As the Marquis resides in France, and it may be inconvenient
to him to keep the estate, she gives the manors of Westbrook and
Brimscombe, and Westbrook-place in Godalming, in trust to G. Sharpe,
and William Gill, Esqrs., and their heirs, to be sold, and the money
paid to the Marquis. Her executors are Mr. Granville Sharpe, and Mrs.
Sarah Dickinson, of Tottenham; the latter residuary legatee.
At the foot of the monument erected to the memory of General
Oglethorpe, was added the following inscription:
"His disconsolate Widow died October 26,1787,
in her 79th year,
and is buried with him,
in the vault in the centre of this Chancel.
Her fortitude of mind and extensive charity
deserve to be remembered,
though her own modesty would desire them to
be forgotten."
OGLETHORPE'S
ACCOUNT OF
CAROLINA AND GEORGIA.
This article is extracted from SALMON'S _Modern History_, Vol. III.
page 770, 4th edition; where it is introduced in these words: "The
following pages are an answer from General OGLETHORPE to some
inquiries made by the author, concerning the State of Carolina and
Georgia."
ACCOUNT OF CAROLINA AND GEORGIA.
Carolina is part of that territory which was originally discovered by
Sir Sebastian Cabot. The English now possess the sea-coast from the
river St. John's, in 30 degrees, 21 minutes north latitude. Westward
the King's charter declares it to be bounded by the Pacific ocean.
Carolina is divided into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia;
the latter is a province which his Majesty has taken out of Carolina,
and is the southern and western frontier of that province, lying
between it and the French, Spaniards, and Indians.
The part of Carolina that is settled, is for the most part a flat
country. All, near the sea, is a range of islands, which breaks
the fury of the ocean. Within is generally low land for twenty
or twenty-five miles, where the country begins to rise in gentle
swellings. At seventy or eighty miles from the sea, the hills grow
higher, till they terminate in mountains.
The coast of Georgia is also defended from the rage of the sea by a
range of islands. Those islands are divided from the main by canals
of salt water, navigable for the largest boats, and even for small
sloops. The lofty woods growing on each side of the canals, make very
pleasant landscapes. The land, at about seven or eight miles from the
sea, is tolerably high; and the further you go westward, the more it
rises, till at about one hundred and fifty miles distance from the
sea, to the west, the Cherokee or Appallachean mountains begin, which
are so high that the snow lies upon them all the year.
This ridge of mountains runs in a line from north to south, on the
back of the English colonies of Carolina and Virginia; beginning
at the great lakes of Canada, and extending south, it ends in the
province of Georgia at about two hundred miles from the bay of
Appallachee, which is part of the Gulf of Mexico. There is a plain
country from the foot of these mountains to that sea.
The face of the country is mostly covered with woods. The banks of the
rivers are in some places low, and form a kind of natural meadows,
where the floods prevent trees from growing. In other places, in the
hollows, between the hillocks, the brooks and streams, being stopt by
falls of trees, or other obstructions, the water is penned back. These
places are often covered with canes and thickets and are called, in
the corrupted American dialect, swamps. The sides of the hills are
generally covered with oaks and hickory, or wild walnuts, cedar,
sassafras, and the famous laurel tulip, which is esteemed one of the
most beautiful trees in the world. The flat tops of the hillocks are
all covered with groves of pine trees, with plenty of grass growing
under them, and so free from underwood that you may gallop a horse for
forty or fifty miles an end. In the low grounds and islands in the
river there are cypress, bay-trees, poplar, plane, frankincense or
gum-trees, and aquatic shrubs. All part of the province are well
watered; and, in digging a moderate depth, you never miss of a fine
spring.
What we call the Atlantic ocean, washes the east and southeast coast
of these provinces. The gulf stream of Florida sets in with a tide in
the ocean to the east of the province; and it is very remarkable that
the banks and soundings of the coast extend twenty or twenty-five
miles to the east of the coast.
The tides upon this coast flow generally seven feet. The soundings are
sand or ooze, and some oyster banks, but no rocks. The coast appears
low from the sea, and covered with woods.
Cape Fear is a point which runs with dreadful shoals far into the sea,
from the mouth of Clarendon river in North Carolina. Sullivan's Island
and the Coffin land are the marks of the entry into Charlestown
harbor. Hilton head, upon French's island, shows the entry into Port
Royal; and the point of Tybee island makes the entry of the Savannah
river. Upon that point the Trustees for Georgia have erected a noble
signal or light-house, ninety feet high, and twenty-five feet wide.
It is an octagon, and upon the top there is a flag-staff thirty feet
high.
The Province of Georgia is watered by three great rivers, which
rise in the mountains, namely, the Alatamaha, the Ogechee, and the
Savannah; the last of which is navigable six hundred miles for canoes,
and three hundred miles for boats.
The British dominions are divided from the Spanish Florida by a noble
river called St. John's.
These rivers fall into the Atlantic ocean; but there are, besides
these, the Flint and the Cahooche, which pass through part of Carolina
or Georgia, and fall into the gulf of Appellachee or Mexico.
All Carolina is divided into three parts: 1. North Carolina, which is
divided from South Carolina by Clarendon river, and of late by a line
marked out by order of the Council: 2. South Carolina, which, on the
south is divided from 3. Georgia by the river Savannah. Carolina is
divided into several counties; but in Georgia there is but one yet
erected, namely, the county of Savannah. It is bounded, on the one
side, by the river Savannah, on the other by the sea, on the third by
the river Ogechee, on the fourth by the river Ebenezer, and a line
drawn from the river Ebenezer to the Ogechee. In this county are the
rivers Vernon, Little Ogechee, and Westbrook. There is the town of
Savannah, where there is a seat of judicature, consisting of three
bailiffs and a recorder. It is situated upon the banks of the river of
the same name. It consists of about two hundred houses, and lies upon
a plain of about a mile wide; the bank steep to the river forty-five
feet perpendicularly high. The streets are laid out regular. There
are near Savannah, in the same county, the villages of Hampstead,
Highgate, Skidoway, and Thunderbolt; the latter of which is a
translation of a name; their fables say that a thunderbolt fell, and a
spring thereupon arose in that place, which still smells of the bolt.
This spring is impregnated with a mixture of sulphur and iron, and
from the smell, probably, the story arose. In the same county is
Joseph's town and the town Ebenezer; both upon the river Savannah; and
the villages of Abercorn and Westbrook. There are saw mills erecting
on the river Ebenezer; and the fort Argyle, lies upon the pass of this
county over the Ogechee. In the southern divisions of the province
lies the town of Frederica, with its district, where there is a
court with three bailiffs and a recorder. It lies on one side of the
branches of the Alatamaha. There is, also, the town of Darien, upon
the same river, and several forts upon the proper passes, some of four
bastions, some are only redoubts. Besides which there are villages in
different parts of Georgia. At Savannah there is a public store house,
built of large square timbers. There is also a handsome court house,
guard house, and work house. The church is not yet begun; but
materials are collecting, and it is designed to be a handsome edifice.
The private houses are generally sawed timber, framed, and covered
with shingles. Many of them are painted, and most have chimneys of
brick. At Frederica some of the houses are built of brick; the others
in the Province are mostly wood. They are not got into luxury yet in
their furniture; having only what is plain and needful. The winter
being mild, there are yet but few houses with glass windows.
The Indians are a manly, well-shaped race. The men tall, the women
little. They, as the ancient Grecians did, anoint with oil, and expose
themselves to the sun, which occasions their skins to be brown of
color. The men paint themselves of various colors, red, blue, yellow,
and black. The men wear generally a girdle, with a piece of cloth
drawn through their legs and turned over the girdle both before and
behind, so as to hide their nakedness. The women wear a kind of
petticoat to the knees. Both men and women in the winter wear mantles,
something less than two yards square, which they wrap round their
bodies, as the Romans did their toga, generally keeping their arms
bare; they are sometimes of woolen, bought of the English; sometimes
of furs, which they dress themselves. They wear a kind of pumps, which
they call moccasons, made of deer-skin, which they dress for that
purpose. They are a generous, good-natured people; very humane to
strangers; patient of want and pain; slow to anger, and not easily
provoked, but, when they are thoroughly incensed, they are implacable;
very quick of apprehension and gay of temper. Their public conferences
show them to be men of genius, and they have a natural eloquence, they
never having had the use of letters. They love eating, and the English
have taught many of them to drink strong liquors, which, when they do,
they are miserable sights. They have no manufactures but what each
family makes for its own use; they seem to despise working for hire,
and spend their time chiefly in hunting and war; but plant corn enough
for the support of their families and the strangers that come to visit
them. Their food, instead of bread, is flour of Indian corn boiled,
and seasoned like hasty-pudding, and this called hommony. They also
boil venison, and make broth; they also roast, or rather broil their
meat. The flesh they feed on is buffalo, deer, wild turkeys and other
game; so that hunting is necessary to provide flesh; and planting for
corn. The land[1] belongs to the women, and the corn that grows upon
it; but meat must be got by the men, because it is they only that
hunt: this makes marriage necessary, that the women may furnish corn,
and the men meat. They have also fruit-trees in their gardens, namely,
peaches, nectarines, and locust, melons, and water-melons, potatoes,
pumpkins, onions, &c. in plenty; and many kinds of wild fruits, and
nuts, as persimons, grapes, chinquepins, and hickory nuts, of which
they make oil. The bees make their combs in the hollow trees, and the
Indians find plenty of honey there, which they use instead of sugar.
They make, what supplies the place of salt, of wood ashes; use for
seasoning, long-pepper, which grows in their gardens; and bay-leaves
supply their want of spice. Their exercises are a kind of
ball-playing, hunting, and running; and they are very fond of dancing.
Their music is a kind of drum, as also hollow cocoa-nut shells. They
have a square in the middle of their towns, in which the warriors sit,
converse, and smoke together; but in rainy weather they meet in the
King's house. They are a very healthy people, and have hardly any
diseases, except those occasioned by the drinking of rum, and the
small pox. Those who do not drink rum are exceedingly long-lived. Old
BRIM emperor of the Creeks, who died but a few years ago, lived to one
hundred and thirty years; and he was neither blind nor bed-rid, till
some months before his death. They have sometimes pleurisies and
fevers, but no chronical distempers. They know of several herbs that
have great virtues in physic, particularly for the cure of venomous
bites and wounds.
[Footnote 1: That is _the homestead_.]
The native animals are, first the urus or zoras described by Caesar,
which the English very ignorantly and erroneously call the buffalo.
They have deer, of several kinds, and plenty of roe-bucks and rabbits.
There are bears and wolves, which are small and timorous; and a brown
wild-cat, without spots, which is very improperly called a tiger;
otter, beavers, foxes, and a species of badger which is called
raccoon. There is great abundance of wild fowls, namely, wild-turkey,
partridges, doves of various kinds, wild-geese, ducks, teals, cranes,
herons of many kinds not known in Europe. There are great varieties of
eagles and hawks, and great numbers of small birds, particularly the
rice-bird, which is very like the ortolan. There are rattlesnakes,
but not near so frequent as is generally reported. There are several
species of snakes, some of which are not venomous. There are
crocodiles, porpoises, sturgeon, mullet, cat-fish, bass, drum,
devil-fish; and many species of fresh-water fish that we have not in
Europe; and oysters upon the sea-islands in great abundance.
What is most troublesome, there, are flies and gnats, which are
very numerous near the rivers; but, as the country is cleared, they
disperse and go away.
The vegetables are innumerable; for all that grow in Europe, grow
there; and many that cannot stand in our winters thrive there.
APPENDIX. This portion of the work contains additional notes, original
documents, and notices of some of the distinguished friends of
Oglethorpe.
APPENDIX
No. I
FAMILY OF OGLETHORPE.
The following genealogical memoranda are taken principally, from a
note in Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_, Vol.
II. p. 17, on his having given the title of a book ascribed to the
subject of the foregoing memoir
"This truly respectable gentleman was the descendant of a family very
anciently situated at Oglethorpe, in the parish of Bramham, in the
West Riding of the County of York; one of whom was actually Reeve
of the County (an office nearly the same with that of the present
high-sheriff) at the time of the Norman Conquest. The ancient seat of
Oglethorpe continued in the family till the Civil Wars, when it was
lost for their loyalty; and several of the same name died at once in
the bed of honor in the defence of monarchy, in a battle near Oxford.
"William Oglethorpe, (son of William) was born in 1588. He married
Susanna, daughter of Sir William Sutton, Knight and sister to Lord
Lexington. He died in November, 1634 leaving two children, Sulton,
born 1612, and Dorothy (who afterwards married the Marquis of Byron, a
French nobleman,) born 1620.
"Sutton Oglethorpe, being fined L20,000 by the Parliament, his estates
at Oglethorpe, and elsewhere, were sequestered, and afterwards given
to General Fairfax, who sold them to Robert Benson of Bramham, father
of Lord Bingley of that name. Sutton Oglethorpe had two sons, Sutton,
and Sir Theophilus. Sutton was Stud-master to King Charles II.; and
had three sons, namely, Sutton, Page to King Charles II.; John, Cornet
of the Guards; and Joseph, who died in India.
"Sir Theophilus was born in 1652; and was bred to arms. He fought,
under the Duke of Monmouth, in the affair at Bothwell bridge, where a
tumultary insurrection of the Scots was suppressed, June 22, 1679.
He commanded a party of horse at Sedgmoor fight, where the Duke was
defeated, July 6, 1685; and was Lieutenant Colonel to the Duke of
York's troop of his Majesty's horse-guards, and Commissioner for
executing the office of Master of the Horse to King Charles II.
He was afterwards first Equerry and Major General of the army of
King James II.; and suffered banishment with his Royal Master." After
his return to his native country he purchased a seat in the County
of Surrey, called "the Westbrook place," near adjoining the town of
Godalming; a beautiful situation, in a fine country. It stands on the
slope of a hill, at the foot of which are meadows watered by the river
Wey. It commands the view of several hills, running in different
directions; their sides laid out in corn fields, interspersed with
hanging woods. Behind it is a small park, well wooded; and one side is
a capacious garden fronting the south-east.
Sir Theophilus was for several years a member of Parliament for
Haslemere, a small borough in the south-west angle of the county of
Surrey. This place was, afterwards, in the reigns of Anne, George I.,
and George II., successively represented by his three sons, Lewis,
Theophilus, and James. He died April 10,1702, as appears by a pedigree
in the collection of the late J.C. Brooke, Esq., though the following
inscription in the parish church of St. James, Westminster, where he
was buried, has a year earlier.--"Hie jacet THEOPHILUS OGLETHORPE,
Eques auratus, ab atavo Vice-comite Eborum, Normanno victore, ducens
originem. Cujus armis ad pontem Bothwelliensem, succubuit Scotus:
necnon Sedgmoriensi palude fusi Rebellos. Qui, per varies casus et
rerum discrimina, magnanimum erga Principem et Patriam fidem, sed non
temere, sustinuit. Obiit Londini anno 1701, aetat. 50."
Sir Theophilus married Eleanora Wall, of a respectable family in
Ireland, by whom he had four sons and five daughters; namely, Lewis,
Theophilus, Sutton, and James; Eleanora, Henrietta, Mary, and
Frances-Charlotte.
I. LEWIS, born February, 1680-1; admitted into Corpus Christi College,
in the University of Oxford, March 16,1698-9. He was Equerry to Queen
Anne, and afterwards Aid-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough; and, in
1702, member of Parliament for Haslemere. Having been mortally wounded
in the battle of Schellenburgh, on the 24th October, 1704, he died on
the 30th.
The following inscription to his memory is placed below that of Sir
Theophilus.
"Hujus claudit latus LUDOVICUS OGLETHORPE, tam paternae virtutis,
quam fortunae, haeres; qui, proelio Schellenbergensi victoria
Hockstatensis preludio tempestivum suis inclinantibus ferens
auxilium vulnere honestissima accepit, et praeclarae spe Indolis
frustrata.--Ob. XXII aetatis, Anno Dom. 1704.
"Charissimo utriusque marmor hoc, amantissima conjux et mater possuit,
Domina Eleonora Oglethorpe."
II. THEOPHILUS, born 1682. He was Aid-de-camp to the Duke of Ormond;
and member of Parliament for Haslemere in 1708 and 1710. The time of
his death is not recorded. He must have died young.
III. ELEONORA, born 1684; married the Marquis de Mezieres on the 5th
of March, 1707-8, and deceased June 28, 1775, aged 91. The son of this
lady was heir to the estate of General Oglethorpe. He is mentioned, in
the correspondence of Mr. Jefferson, as highly meritorious and popular
in France, (1785.)
IV. ANN [mentioned in Shaftoe's narrative.]
V. SUTTON, born 1686; and died in November, 1693.
VI. HENRIETTA, [of whom we have no account.]
VII. JAMES, [see the next article.]
VIII. FRANCES-CHARLOTTE ... Married the Marquis de Bellegarde, a
Savoyard.[1] To a son of this union is a letter of General Washington,
dated January 15, 1790, in the 9th volume of Sparks's _Writings of
Washington_, p. 70.
[Footnote 1: _Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. LVII. p. 1123.]
IX. MARY, who died single.
The ARMS of the family are thus described: "Argent, a chevron, between
three boar's heads, erased, sable armed, or, lingued proper."
CREST. "A boar's head, as before, holding an oaken branch, vert,
fructed or."
II
DISCUSSION RESPECTING THE BIRTH-DAY OF OGLETHORPE.