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APPENDIX A.
See American Archives, 4th Series, Vol.
1, page 391, for original:
"At a meeting of the Freeholders and
other inhabitants of the County of Frederick, Virginia, and gentlemen
practising at the bar, held in the town of Winchester, 8th day of June,
1774, to consider of the beste mode to be fallen upon to secure their
liberties and properties, and also to prevent, the dangerous tendency of
an act of Parliament, passed in the 15th year of his present Majesty's
reign, entitled, `An Act to discontinue in such manner and for such time
as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading and
shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the town and within the
harbor of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, North America,'
evidently has to invade and deprive us of the same.
'`The Rev. Chas. M. Thruston, Moderator.
"A Committee of the following gentlemen,
viz., C. M. Thruston, Isaac Zane, Angus McDonald, Alexander White,
George Rootes, George Johnston and Samuel Beall, 3rd, were appointed to
draw up Resolves suitable to the same occasion, who withdrawing for a
short time, returned with the following votes, viz;
"Voted, 1st. That we will always
cheerfully pay clue submission to such acts of government as his Majesty
has a right, by law to exercise over his subjects, as a Sovereign of the
British Dominions and to such only.
"2nd. That it is the inherent right of
British subjects to be governed and taxed by Representatives chosen by
themselves only; and that every Act of the British Parliament respecting
the internal policy of N. America, is a daring and unconstitutional
invasion of said rights and privileges?
"3rd. That the Act of Parliament above
mentioned, is not only in itself repugnant to the fundamental law of
natural justice, in condemning persons for a supposed crime, unheard,
but also a despotic exertion of unconstitutional power calculated to
enslave a free and loyal people.
"4th. That the enforcing the execution of
said Act of Parliament by a military power, will have a tendency to
raise a civil war, thereby dissolving the Union which has so long,
happily subsisted between the mother country and her Colonies; and we
most heartily and unanimously concur with our suffering brethen of
Boston and every other part of North America, that may be the immediate
victim of tyranny, in promoting all proper measures to avert such
dreadful calamities, to procure a redress of our grievances and to
secure our common liberties.
"5th. It is the unanimous opinion of this
meeting that a joint resolution of all the Colonies to stop all
importations from Great Britain and exportations to it, until the said
Act shall be repealed, will prove the salvation of North America and her
liberties. On the other hand, if they continue their imports and
exports, there is the greatest reason to fear that fraud, power and the
most odious oppression will rise triumphant over right, justice, social
happiness and freedom.
"6th. That the East India Co.; those
servile tools of arbitrary power, have forfeited the esteem and regard
of all honest men and that the better to manifest our abhorrence of such
abject compliance with the will of a venal ministry, in ministering all
in their power an increase of the fund of peculation; we will not
purchase tea, or any other kind of East India commodities, either
imported now or hereafter to be imported, except salt-petre, spices and
medicinal drugs.
"7th. That it is the opinion of this
meeting that Committees ought to be appointed for the purpose of
effecting a general Association, that the same measures may be pursued
through the whole Continent. That the Committees ought to correspond
with each other and to meet at such places and times as shall be agreed
upon, in order to form such general Association, and that when the same
shall be formed and agreed on, by the several Committees, we wilI
strictly adhere thereto; and till the general sense of the Continent
shall he known, we do pledge ourselves to each other and our country,
that we will inviolably adhere to the votes of this day.
8th. That C. M. Thruston, Isaac Zane,
Angus McDonald, Samuel Beall, 3rd, Alexander White and Geo. Rootes be
appointed a Committee for the purposes aforesaid, and that they or any
three of them are fully empowered to act.
"Which being read were unanimously
assented to and subscribed."
In a foot note appears the following: "On
Monday, the 6th instant, tickets were posted up in different parts of
Frederick County, Va., signed by friends of liberty, asking the
gentlemen, merchants, freeholders and other inhabitants of the County to
meet at the Court House on the following Wednesday, at 3 P. M, to
consider of the most proper measures to prevent the fatal consequences
apprehended from the Act of Parliament mentioned in the votes and to
defend and secure the rights and liberties of Americans. In consequence
of which (though the notice did not exceed forty-eight hours) a great
concourse assembled at the time and place appointed. The Court House
being too small to contain the company, they adjourned to the Church,
where the above votes were unanimously agreed to."
APPENDIX B.
Mrs. Anne S. Green is of the opinion that
our great-grandfather, Angus McDonald (emigrant), was a crown prisoner
after Culloden and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
She visited the Congressional Library in
Washington and from the "Reports of the Crown Cases" he made copy of the
following:
"Mr. Skinner, King's counsel in the
prosecution of Angus Aeneas McDonald, gives account of the Pretenders
advance into Scotland when he was first joined by the McDonalds and
Camerons. First victort- at Preston Pans, on to Falkikk, Inverness and
Sterling, repulsed at Fort William, on then to Culloden. Mr. Skinner was
McDonald's prosecutor. He was arrainged for high treason at St.
Margaret's [fill, Southwork, Dec. 10th at the Court of the King's Bench,
Easter term (George II), 1747. Charges had been preferred Jan. 1st,
1746, Angus Aeneas McDonald plead not guilty. His counsel claimed French
citizenship (had been educated in France) , McDonald's main defense of
counsel.
"The prosecutor dwelt upon his being a
citizen of Britian. Defense claimed he had been reared and educated in
France. McDonald at same time was being tried for a debt he owed one
Ramsey (who probably had given him aid when he was hiding from his
pursuers and dodging the King's officials) .
McDonald was condemned to be executed
along with Kilmarnock and was Iying under sentence of death, when an
order was given by the King to prepare a pardon for McDonald upon
condition that he would retire from the country, from His Majesty's
Dominion, during McDonald's life time.
"When the messenger came to release him,
the Keeper refused to surrender him, giving excuse, alleging action by
Ramsey. The Attorney General made motion that those charges be
dismissed, he being supported in his position by John Strange, Solicitor
General, considering the Iaw, that a person under an attainder is
civiliter Mortnus, and cannot be charged without the authority of
the Court—thereby defeating the King's pardon.
"The same report cites that McDonald
(notwithstanding the pardon) settled with Ramsey, his creditor, and was
delivered into the custody of a messenger, by virtue of a warant from
the Duke of Newcastle, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of
State. Justice Foster, in describing High Treason, quotes the leniency
of the sentence upon McDonald being right, and thought that his was an
extreme case, being only twenty years old and that the law would be
deficient if he could not discover any intermediate general limit, to
relax, consistently with public safety in such cases.
"In McDonald's plea of defense, as
reported, he never averred that he was born out of Britain, but that he
was educated in France, which would not have freed him from
responsibility, and some unforeseen and unknown influence was exerted in
his behalf to obtain the clemency of George II."
APPENDIX C.
To Angus W. McDonald, from his
grandmother, while he was a cadet at West Point.
Winchester, December 31st,
1815.
MY DEAR ANGUS :
This is the last day of the old year and your different cousins are
here, and have been looking for you for some days, but have now given
you out.
I should have answered your letter
shortly after receiving it, but was so unwell and had such a sick
family, with much other business, that I couldn't find the time.
I wish very much you could come home and
prove your horses. And I want very much to see you, I cannot expect to
last long. I am now in my seventieth year, and that is a great age. As I
have so little correspondence with my family, I can say but little about
them. They were all well when I heard from them last.
Edward is here and has been for a week
and is very hearty and grown very much. As I so seldom go out I can give
you but little news, therefore, my letter will be short. Your Cousin
Becky is expecting an heir and your Uncle John has one, and as I can
think of nothing else worth writing, I will conclude.
Your ever affectionate
grandmother,
ANNA MCDONALD.
P. S. Anna Maria Holliday and Anna T.,
Jane and Betty Hangham, Richard Holliday and Edward McD., are all here,
and they make so much noise that I can scarcely write at all.
A. McD.
Copies of letters of introduction, given
Angus McDonald by his teachers at West Point Military Academy; originals
in possession of Mrs. John B. Stanard, his daughter.
West Point, July 14th,
1817.
This will certify that the bearer, Cadet
Angus W. McDonald, has been under my command at the Military Academy at
this place nearly three years, during which time he has studied under my
particular instruction, Geography, History and Ethics, and also
Fortifications and the course of Infantry tactics established for the
discipline of the Army of the United States, as far as the Evolutions of
the line; in all of which I believe him to be well versed, as well as in
Artillery duty.
I also further certify that during the
time he has been at the Military Academy, he has been attentive to his
studies generally (in which he has made good progress), as well as to
his other duties, and that his whole conduct has been that of the
Gentleman and the Soldier.
As such, therefore, I confidently
recommend him to all whom it may concern.
A. PARTRIDGE,
Capt. of Engs. Comdg.
The bearer hereof, Mr. Angus McDonald,
has been a Cadet at the United States Military Academy for several years
and has now completed the entire course of studies and military
exercises as required by the laws and regulations.
As Mr. McDonald has been under my
particular instruction in the higher branches of science, and as I have
had the advantage of a thorough knowledge of his moral and intellectual
character, it is with great pleasure that I can afford him the most
satisfactory and ample testimony.
In regular performance of duty and the
acquirements of science, few have been more assiduous and persevering;
he has therefore passed through all the classes with credit and
conspicuous distinction and excellence; but his merit is far from being
limited to mental improvement; Mr. McDonald possesses a refinement in
manners, an honorable delicacy in his moral conduct, which cannot fail
to attract the attention and obtain the favour of all virtuous and
enlightened men.
JARED MANSFIELD,
Prof. Nat. & Ext. Phil.
West Point, July 15th, 1817.
The next one is from Colonel Crozet, who
had been one of Napoleon's most trusted engineers, before he became
Professor at West Point:
Mr. McDonald succeeded, before I had the
pleasure of becoming acquainted with him, to acquire the esteem and
approbation of the chiefs and professors of the Military Academy. It
would be difficult for me to add to the testimonies which they have
given him.
Mr. McDonald joins to his progresse in
his studies an eminent military disposition et I am convinced that his
country will find in him one of its best officers. I will hear with
pleasure of his successe in his career and will always be happy to have
a share in his friendship.
E. C. CROZET,
Prof. of Eng.
West Point, 19th July, 1817.
APPENDIX D.
The following letter is from one of his
associates in the Custom House at New Orleans:
New Orleans, August 15th,
1819.
DEAR McDONALD:
The Steamboat Alabama leaves here for your town to-day and I cannot
suffer the opportunity to escape of writing you. From accounts which we
received here, we were apprehensive that your journey would not be so
pleasing as you anticipated, and that you would most likely be detained
at the mouth of the river for some weeks.
I come now to speak of things highly
important to you * * * * perhaps in no place more than in St. Louis is
circumspection and prudence more indispensible. With the exercise of
these and your natural abilities I trust and feel that you will do well.
Our country is open to the efforts of
genius and enterprise, and its advantages are alike accessible to the
lowly and the high. Your ambition, too, McDonald, is of that stamp whose
eagle flight would soar above the cool and calculating fortune-seekers
of the common world, that would pierce the almost inaccessible regions
of fame and repose upon the pinnacle of glory. This passion of the mind,
unless properly tempered is dangerous and if indulged without regard to
a proper restraint, will, I think, prove detrimental to the good of its
possessor.
To secure that high and respectable
standing in society, which is the aim of every man, a coincidence of
thinking and acting with the world is necessary and although it argues a
sacrifice of independence—still to render that independence more lasting
and independent, we must sometimes stoop to lower things.
There has been a reduction in the Custom
House. Gorman Newman, Duplesis Hudgeons, Captain Lake and Lorrain are
suspended. Your promise of writing, I hope you will observe, nor retain
the opinion, I very well know you left me with, as a fellow of a cold
and repulsive nature.
You have no friend in this world, Mc,
more sincerely so than myself. My heart is susceptible of the warmest
emotions, and the interest I feel in your welfare is as disinterested as
it is affectionate. Take care of yourself, my dear fellow, and know that
a happy accomplishment of your views, can give no greater pleasure to
any friend you have, than to your
Sincere one,
JOHN D. ORR.
"Bellington wishes you to excuse him for
not writing, but will do so goon. He is about leaving for PhiladeIphia."
The following extracts from some of his
Ietters while he was engaged in the fur trade, will give some idea of
the life he led on the Western frontier.
The following is a copy of a letter
written to Joshua Pilcher, Agent for the Missouri Company, at Fort Lissa,
Upper Mo.
JOSHUA PILCHER.
Dear Sir:—I cannot let pass an opportunity without addressing you a few
lines. The prospect of affairs is very much changed since you Ieft here.
This dam'd, turbulent band of the Sioux, it seems, cannot pass the
winter in peace, though I cannot lay the blame entirely on them. Perhaps
they have had sufficient provocation from the Mohawks to make war.
Not Iong since the Mohawks, or a band of
them, came to the Lower Yanktons and stole nearly all of their horses
and (Indians now say) wounded some of them.
This band have been through fear,
confined to their village for fifteen days, since which they have not
killed five buffaloes. At last, provoked and ashamed they all assembled
and joined with the lower band and to-clay marched to attack the
Mohawks. Seventy-seven have left their village and there remain but
eight or ten to provide for and take care of the women and children.
I have now fifty pack and in consequence
of this war I cannot expect more than 20 or 25 additional this winter
(illegible) , so if I make 75 pack I shall exceed my expectations.
Notwithstanding we shall expend more, I
do not conceive it to have been the best policy in You to establish the
trade of this post at a cheaper rate than elsewhere. This band give you
the whole credit of it and I do not doubt, should you winter here next
winter, but that they will come to your call where ever you may be.
The little soldier who stays, as he says,
to take care of your boy and goods, never lights his pipe without a
prayer for the little Chief. The mission to the 'rees having proved
their disposition to amity, I presume an expedition will go there in the
spring as they will get a great many robes. If it is not necessary to
remain here with goods, next spring, I have thought that by accompanying
the Little Soldier, I could be of service in procuring him a medal,
which I every clay conceive to be of more consequence. (Illegible) The
impression you have made upon the Sioux will, I am convinced, give you
an ascendancy over every other trader, and I doubt not but that you will
have very vigorous opposition here next season.
That villian, Cy, has openly and loudly
exclaimed against your inviting Indians down, and by some chicanery has
prevailed upon one at the Tetons, who promised to come, to retract.
I think I could be most instrumental in
procuring the L. Soldier a medal which I believe would be the most
important service I could render the Company. It is the only reason in
the world that inclines me to go down in the spring. If, however, I
remain, I should like to make an expedition to the Grosvaunts * * * *
provided I am furnished with an interpreter for the Grosvaunt language.
Think upon it. It is not impossible and if possible, well worth the
venture.
If I am to remain here a hermit all next
summer, I hope you will have consideration to send me what books Dick
can carry. It would reconcile me very much to a solitary life, and
please write particularly to Mr. Heampstead to send all my books up in
the first boat.
Send me, too, some good tobacco, I am
out. Very respectfully,
A. W. MCDONALD.
In another letter he says. "In the spring
of 1821 I started with a small equipment and two men to visit the
Mandans and Minnatarees and from there to go across the country to the
northwest establishments on the Assinaboin, with the view of
accumulating such knowledge as might better fit me for the business in
which I was about to engage.
"I purchased from the 'roes three horses,
informing them beforehand of the purpose for which I wanted them. When
about to start, the Little Soldier informed me that the two young men
intended to kill and rob me as soon as I got out of sight of the
village."
In a letter written Sept. 14th, 1824, he
says:
"After having exhausted in extravagant
enterprise and perilous experiment seven years of my life, I find that I
have achieved only a circle of difficulties and ended where I began."
APPENDIX E.
NOTES ON THE NAYLOR AND SANFORD FAMILIES.
Leacy Anne Naylor was a daughter of
William Naylor, a prominent lawyer and legislator of his day, and was
educated at Madam Capron's school at Carlisle, Penn.
The family were originally Quakers and
came to this country about the same time that Penn did and located in
Erie, Penn. William Naylor came to Virginia from Carlisle, about 1806.
His mother was Miss Armstrong, the daughter of Jean Denison, who it is
said, ran away from school in Edinburg to marry a clashing officer of
the British Navy, Captain Armstrong. Mary Naylor, a sister of William
Naylor, married Thos. F. Wilson, who represented the Erie district in
Congress in 1816. Another sister married a Stevens and another a
Johnston.
When William Naylor first came to
Virginia he taught in the Rev. Dr. Hill's school near Winchester and
later was a member of the famous Convention of 1829. He was a lawyer in
extensive practice, and I have often heard it said that he would never
take case which he could not conscienciously advocate.
He married first, Anne Sanford, daughter
of William Sanford and Penelope Thornston Sanford, both of Virginia. Of
the Sanford genealogy, a letter from Dr. Douglas Forrest, Rector of
Cavalry Church, Cincinnati (a Virginian, however), written to J. C.
Cresap, Sec. of National Soc. of American Revolution, has this to say:
"Daniel French, Sr., of Fairfax Co., died in 1749, leaving a legacy to
his loving god-sons, Daniel Sanford and Edward Sanford (spelt some times
with a 'd'). Richard Sanford was one of the executors. William Sanford
died in 1801 in Hampshire County, leaving a wife, Penelope, and seven
daughters and one son. Thomas Sanford, of `Sanford Court,' married a
daughter of Lord B ." (Name illegible.)
The Sanford family bible is now in
possession of the Cresap family. A letter from Daniel J. Cresap, of
Logan County, Ohio, to Marshall McDonald, of date July 24th, 1890, says:
"Anne Sanford married Judge William
Naylor; Theresa Sanford, Samuel Slicer; Matilda married Cephas Cresap;
Eliza married Henry Myers, and Sidney married Joseph Cresap; Thornton
married twice and the children of his first wife all moved South."
A letter from Mrs. Anne Sanford Green,
says:
"Captain William Sanford married Penelope
Thornton. They had seven daughters and one son, who married twice. The
first wife was a Miss Crane, of Loudon County. They had three children,
Lawrence, Mary Eliza and John Theodore, all of whom married in
Louisiana. Mary Eliza married a Compton, living on the Red river, also
one of the sons. The Comptons were people of considerable prominence.
Thornton married a second time, Elizabeth Tidball, a daughter of Nancy
McDonald, whose father was Angus McDonald (emigrant) . Their eldest son,
Joseph Tidball Sanford, married Miss Orrick, of Maryland.
"Two of the seven daughters of William
Sanford married Cresaps; another married a Slicer; another a Gaither,
and another a Helm and her sons went out to Kentucky and settled in
Bardstown. I distinctly remember when the brothers passed through Romney
and stayed at my mothers for several days, en route to Kentucky. Anne
married our grandfather, William Naylor, and the seventh and last
married a Jolliffe, whose daughter Lavinia married Sam Hopkins, of
Baltimore, who was either an uncle or a brother of the old bachelor who
founded `Johns Hopkins' Hospital.' "
A letter to Marshall McDonald from W. M.
Stone, Asst. Comm. Department of the Interior, General Land Office,
says:
"The Virginia Military records of this
office show that seven warrants were issued for the representatives of
William Sanford, for military services of said Sanford, as Captain in
the Virginia Continental line, for the seven years and ten months war of
the Revolution.
"Each of those warrants being for 746
acres. Said warrants were disposed of by patenting on entries and
surveys in the Virginia Military district of Ohio."
A letter from Lieut. James C. Cresap, U.
S. N., to Marshall McDonald says:
Annapolis, Md., July 13th,
1890.
DEAR MCDONALD :
Beyond question, your grandmother, Anne Sanford (Mrs. William Naylor),
and mine (Sidney Cresap) were sisters. My father knew his aunt Anne and
named my sister, Anne Sanford, after her. She is now Mrs. R. S. Bibb, of
Beatrice, Neb."
Besides Leacy Anne, there were two other
daughters and a son of William Naylor and Anne Sanford (his wife). Jane,
the eldest daughter, and Nannie. Jane married first Mr. Chichester
Tapscott and second Mr. Campbell. She was quite a noted beauty, besides
having many other attractions. Nannie married Dr. Jos. L. Bronaugh, of
Loudon County, Virginia. William, the only son was highly educated, a
graduate of Princeton and had just begun the practice of law a short
time before his death.
It seems that he was deeply in love with
Miss Mary Fairfax, of Greenway Court, a niece of Lord Fairfax, though
there had been great opposition on the part of his family to their
marriage. And when her death occurred very suddenly, he became
inconsolable for days. It is said that he never recovered from the shock
and died himself at a very early age. He was a skilled musician, playing
on several instruments.
William Naylor's second wife was Susan
McGuire, a sister of Mary McGuire who married Angus McDonald (2nd) .
They had three sons and one daughter. Edward Ralph who early moved out
to Shelby County, Mo.; John Samuel, a physician, who followed him later,
and James Naylor, who was a Presbyterian minister. James Naylor was a
graduate of Hampden Sidney Theological Seminary, and married Miss
Graham, daughter of Dr. Graham, of Prince Edward, who I believe was at
one time President of the Seminary. He settled in Mississippi.
Millicent, the only daughter of the
second marriage, never married and went with her mother to Missouri,
where both of them finally died. Though William Naylor himself was a
staunch Presbyterian, I have always heard that his mother was a member
of the Church of England and that her prayer book was carefully
preserved in the family.
I have heard it related of my mother,
Leacy Anne, that she was very fond of dancing, of which amusement her
father, being an elder in the Presbyterian Church, did not altogether
approve; so upon one occasion when she had been invited to a ball, which
her father did not wish her to attend, Leacy Anne's desire to go was so
apparent and her disappointment so genuine, that at the last moment he
relented and consented to her going. Being too late to don the
convential evening gown she went, just as she was, in her simple home
dress and family tradition has it, that she was the belle of the ball.
Her comparatively early death, Ieft her
children very little personal knowledge of her, but I have heard from
many sources that she was a woman of most attractive and engaging
personality. The following letter, written to Edward C. McDonald some
time before her marriage to his brother, Angus, will give some idea of
her early life.
Romney, August 21st.
MY DEAR EDWARD:
Ever since you left Romney I have been expecting a letter from you, but
have not yet received a line, except a short postcript addressed to me,
in one of Grandma's letters. In your last letter to Millicent, you said
if I did not write to you first, that you were afraid we would never
become correspondents. Now you see by this letter, Edward, that I am
determined you shall have no excuse and if you do not write now. I shall
conclude that it is not your wish to do so.
One apology you offer is that you have
nothing to write, which Would be of interest to me. Now when I request
my friends to write to me, I do not do it, that I may through them, hear
from other people. It is because I wish to hear from them. Tell me what
you and Angus are about, when we may expect to see you in Virginia
again, and every trifling circumstance that occurs, be it ever so
trivial, I can assure it will be of interest to your friends in Romney.
So say no more that you can find nothing to say.
There have been few changes in Romney
since you left, and we are pretty much as we were this time last year.
No marriages, that I can hear of, on the carpet, except Emily Woodrow's
to Mr. Kercheval. It is said that one wedding makes others, and I hope
it may be the case in this instance. Romney is most outrageously dull,
and perhaps this wedding may be the means of enlivening us up a little.
Nor am I certain that the wish is not prompted by a little selfishness.
Perhaps I expect to come in for a share; I tell you candidly that I do,
but my ambition goes no farther, than merely to be second best. And in
that, I shall be gratified, as I am to be Emily's bridesmaid.
Millicent is now at your uncle Holliday's
and I shall join her there next week. But I do not expect the visit will
be quite as memorable as the last week I spent there. Do you recollect
the ducking I got in the creek? That alone was enough to distinguish it,
to say nothing of the gigging excursions.
On the Fourth of July we had a dinner at
the same place we had last year. The company was not quite so numerous
as then, nor did we seem to enjoy ourselves as much. Your voice was
greatly missed, as every one seemed to be afraid to cheer. Every now and
then some one would say "Don't you wish McDonald was here?" Your friends
often inquire after you and appear to take great interest in your
welfare.
I am delighted to hear that you have some
idea of studying law. I think a profession is at any time, almost a
fortune. My father, when he came to Romney, had nothing in the world but
his profession, not a friend or an acquaintance, and you certainly know
how he has succeeded; and he is not the only instance. He was
twenty-four years of age when he began the study of law, and you have
the advantage of three or four years over him.
There is a good deal of sickness here at
present. Nearly every one has either bilious fever, or fever and ague.
Though, so far, our family have escaped with the exception of some of
the servants.
Now Edward, I shall expect you to write
to me as soon as you receive this. Give my compliments to Angus. Perhaps
he thinks I ought to call him "Mr. McDonald," but I have always looked
upon him as a relation and wish to treat him as such. The family all
desire to be remembered to you and Angus. Adieu, Edward, and rest
assured that you will always have the esteem and friendship of,
LEACY ANNE,
Mr. Edward C. McDonald,
St. Louis, Mo.
Though William Naylor owned slaves during
his life, he gave their freedom to all of them who had reached the age
of twenty-one at the time of his death (and in some instances made
provision for their maintenance), and the younger ones as they attained
that age. And I doubt not that this course would have been followed by
all slave-holders in Virginia in the course of time.
APPENDIX F.
NOTES ON THE PEAKE AND LANE FAMILIES.
Cornelia Peake was the youngest child of
Dr. Humphrey Peake and Anne Linton Lane (his wife), and was born in
Alexandria, Virginia, where her father was Collector of the Port, under
President. Monroe's administration. With the election of Jackson, who
was of a different political faith, he lost his position and soon
afterwards decided to remove with his family to Missouri.
Besides Cornelia, Dr. Peake had four
daughters and one son—Julia, who married George Tyler of Prince William
County, Va.; Elizabeth, who married Mr. Thomas F. Buck of Frederick
County; Susan, who married Edward C. McDonald; Ellen, who married James
DeCamp, son of Dr. S. G. De-Camp of the U. S. A., and William Peake, who
married Miss Nancy Glasscock of Missouri.
The records of Fairfax County, Virginia,
show that two brothers of the Peake family came from England to America
in 1654. One settled in Woodstock, Conn., and the other in the northern
neck of Virginia.
William Peake (1st) lived near
Alexandria, Virginia, and his "seat" was called "Mt. Gilead." It was
separated from Mt. Vernon by Little Hunting Creek. He had two children,
Mary, who married Abednego Adams, and Humphrey, who married Mary
Stonestreet of Maryland about 1748. William Peake served in Braddock's
expedition.
The children of Humphrey and Mary
Stonestreet were John, who was a physician and educated in Edinburg,
Scotland,and married Miss Bowie of Maryland; William. Anne, Harry and
Humphrey. Anne maried Francis Adams, her first cousin. Harry married
Miss Moffett and Humphrey married Anne Linton Lane, in 1798, a daughter
of Capt. William Lane, an officer of the Revolution.
Cornelia was about thirteen years of age
when her father moved to Missouri and about sixteen when he finally
concluded to settle in Hannibal, where the family of Sam Clemens (Mark
Twain) then lived. And her reminiscences of the "Twain" family and
"Huckleberry Finn" are well worth recording. "In the town of Hannibal
were some very plain people, named Clemens, the head of the family being
a magistrate was dignified with the title of Judge, and was also Deacon
in the Presbyterian Church. He had several children, Sam being then only
a little street boy, with an intimate friend named Ruel Gridly, whom he
afterwards immortalized as `Huckleberry Fin.'
"Sam always looked well cared for and
comfortably dressed, but Ruel's apparel was remarkable because of an
absoute divorce between his trousers and the part of his dress to which
they were intended to be fastened, and his chief interest in life,
apparently, was to keep them from falling off. He was the child of a
pitiful old drunkard. I was at a friend's house once, and observing Ruel
from the window in a very sorry plight, my friend ordered her servant to
give him some dinner, and when a plate heaped with roast turkey and
gravy, with other good things was handed out to him he received it with
great joy, and promptly emptying the entire contents into his hat he
replaced it on his head and walked off."
Her first impressions of Angus W.
McDonald too are interesting:
"Among the guests was a tall,
fine-looking man, * * * * Mr. Angus McDonald of Virginia. I was
introduced to him, but was too much awed by his dignity and importance
to have much to say."
She spent several winters in St. Louis
and at Jefferson Barracks, after she grew up, and met many of the young
officers stationed at the post, who afterwards became famous during the
war between the States.
Among her acquaintances too were the
wives of Captain Clarke and Captain Bainbridge of the Dragoons and Dr.
Emerson of the U. S. Army, the three ladies being daughters of Capt.
Jack Sanford and cousins of Leacy Anne Naylor.
THE LANE GENEAOLOGY.
William Lane married Miss de Moville in
16—in Prince William County, Virginia. Their sons were James de Moville
and William; James married Patsy Carr and William married Mary Carr. The
children of James and Patsy were William, Joseph and Ellen. William
married Susan Linton Jennings, Joseph married Miss Prince of Princeton,
New Jersey, and Ellen married Col. Simon Triplett of Virginia.
William's children were, James, who
married Catherine Alexander, born Triplett; Anne Linton Lane, who
married Humphrey Peake; Ralph, who married Susan Triplett; Patsy Carr,
who married John Bailey; Elizabeth, who married Philo Lane, after John
Wrenn; Catherine, Susan and Alfred never married; Harrison married
Lucinda Carter; Sarah never married; Benedict Middleton married first
Anne Adams, second Susan Cockerel].
Joseph's only child was a daughter, who
married Peter Jett of Rappahannock County, Va.
(The above geneaological notes are copied
from the family bible of Donald McDonald.)
APPENDIX G.
Following is a copy of a letter written
to Marshall McDonald while at Vicksburg, by his father, Angus W.
McDonald:
Richmond, April 11th, 1863.
MY DEAR SON:
I received yesterday-, your kind and affectionate letter, and you cannot
measure the comfort it imparted. It poured sweet balm into my wounded
heart, and rekindled or revived the flickering lamp of hope, almost gone
out.
Oh, I beg of you, dear Marshall, continue
to write to me—write frankly, as you have done. * * * * If you
persevere in prayer, I have no doubt your petition will be granted.
Communion with God by prayer and the contemplation of His infinite
goodness and purity, with faith in the exercise of those attributes for
your salvation, is certain,—from the inevitable influence of such
communion,—to elevate and purify the heart and reclaim it from
sinfulness and folly. Such communion is sure to bring forth good fruit.
When you have confessed yourself to your
Maker, you will feel no reluctance in opening your heart tc your
affectionate father on earth and you know that he will listen and give
you comfort, if he can, in return. I know, too, dear Marshall, that
unreserved and frequent communication with me cannot but have a happy
influence upon a nature constituted as yours is.
I wish that you were with me. When
Vicksburg is deemed safe, when it is no longer the post of honor,
because the post of danger, I hope you will obtain a transfer to this
city, where your attainments and favorite studies and experiments would
be of the greatest service to our cause. I consider that your department
has a head here which was originally wood or stone; carved into shape
and character by some Vest Point artezan wound up like a machine, and
set to running with a prescribed speed and in a particular groove, which
he never has and never can Ieave, without imminent danger of ceasing to
run at all, or running off altogether. * * * *
I feel, dear' Marshall, that "all my
young barbarians" still at home, within the tyrant's rule and under his
heel, will have to be educated and placed in the path to future
honorable position. I cannot expect to live long (God grant it may be
until the end of the wear) * * * * Think of this high task and
duty and let it nerve you to conquer all the obstacles which lie in the
path, which must be trodden to accomplish it. * * * * Harry, Allan and
Kenneth were employed, when I last heard from home, in smuggling to
their mother and the little ones, the necessary provisions for their
daily subsistence—Milroy not permitting even the necessaries of life to
be sold to any citizen who had not taken the "Oath of Loyalty." This,
your mother having refused to take, she was not permitted to purchase
even flour or meat. The boys, however, flank the pickets at night and
bring supplies sparsem from the country people. I glory in them. They
have taken the oath of loyalty to the South, administered by me before I
left home and they will keep it.
Your most affectionate
father,
ANGUS W. MCDONALD.
EDWARD C. MCDONALD,
BROTHER OF ANGUS W. MCDONALD.
Edward Charles McDonald, son of Angus
(2d) and Mary McGuire (his wife) was born in Winchester, July 26, 1803,
and was named for the unfortunate Prince Charlie. Early family
connections, besides an inherent loyalty, had made the McDonalds staunch
supporters of the House of Stewart for generations and this was a loyal
tribute to the dead dynasty.
He was the only brother of Angus W.
McDonald and with him and the little sister he was taken by their
grandmother, to her home at Glengarry after his mother's death. He went
to school in Winchester until 1819, when he entered West Point, and
while there, he seems to have had a lively time. His most serious
ecapade, it is said, was in assisting about twenty of his comrades to
drown a flock of sheep in the Hudson River.
After they had been fed on mutton until
the very sight of the dumb creatures themselves roused all their
antipathies, it seemed that nothing but the wholesale slaughter of the
innocent offenders could appease them. He was also charged with having
committed several other minor offenses and while under arrest for some
of them, as the records at West Point state: "Did accost the sentinel
who was walking in front of his quarters and demand of him why he walked
there; and further, that if he did not walk somewhere else, he would
thrash him. And when the sentinel ordered McDonald to go to his room,
and said McDonald refused to do so, the sentinel called the Corporal of
the Guard, who McDonald also refused to obey, telling him that the
sentinel had been walking in front of his door long enough and if the
Corporal did not send him away he would be d d if he wouldn't thrash
him."
While this was certainly insubordination,
it at the same time evinced on McDonald's part a spirit of wounded
pride, which might have been appealed to more successfully, by other
means than brute force; his entire after life proving his nobility of
soul and his lofty standards.
The following letter written to his
brother Angus, who was some four or five years his senior, in which he
gives him some good advice is quite interesting in this connection:
St. Louis, October 6, 1824.
Dear Angus—For two weeks I had anxiously
awaited your letter. And I assure you that its seasonable arrival has
quite raised my spirits, especially as the enclosure is sufficient for
my present needs.
I am much gratified to hear that it is
your intention to accomplish your long and much desired object—the study
of the law. You have now got your foot upon the step that leads to
prosperity and fame. It depends wholly upon yourself now whether you
mount or not. You well know the exertions necessary to accomplish it.
You surely will not relinquish your
present opportunities (so long wished for) for your chimerical plans in
Mexico, the accomplishment of which are more than commensurate with your
means. And besides, I believe your associates are growing lukewarm
themselves. Lewis Heampstead told me the other (lay that he could get no
information respecting your business.
He starts with me next Monday to the
Merrimac, where we have determined to spend the winter. And as none of
us have sufficient funds to hire hands, we have come to the resolution
of using our own by way of experiment. Before I seal this I will see
Heampstead and let you know what his prospects are. But it will not do
to procrastinate in your present situation.
When this reaches you, if you have not
already forwarded more money do not do so, until I write again. I saw
Heampstead last night, and he tells me he will not be able to raise
funds for the expedition to Mexico, and that he has received no
information with respect to the situation of the country.
William Mays has just returned from there
and he says that the country is in a very peaceable condition. He
brought back about $1,200, which he has made since last spring. If
another expedition should be put on foot next spring, however, and I
should have the funds for an outfit, I think it more than probable that
I shall try my luck.
You, though, had better turn your head in
another direction and nothing under Heaven would give me more
satisfaction than to know that one of us, at least, had quit a life of
adventure.
Give my respects to all my friends, and
believe me to be your affectionate brother,
E. C. MCDONALD.
It was not long after he Ieft West Point
that he went with his sister, Millicent, and her husband, William
Sherrard, to Florida, for the latter's health, and remained there until
his brother-in-law finally died, when he returned with his sister again
to Winchester. From there he went West and joined his cousin, Major
Elias Langharn, who was Indian agent at Fort Snelling and also Surveyor
General for Illinois and Missouri.
Here he found employment for some time as
a Civil Engineer and during that time Iie traveled extensively through
the West, sometimes going as far as Mexico. Later he studied law and
after obtaining his license settled for a time in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 1833, he married Miss Frances
Elizabeth Singleton, of Winchester, by whom he had three children, Mary
Frances, Anne, and one son, Singleton. He finally moved to Hannibal,
Mo., where he made his home until his death. He lost his wife in 1840,
and in 1842 married a second time, Miss Susan Peake, a sister of
Cornelia Peake.
In 1849, he, in common with many others,
caught the California fever and made the journey there overland, where
lie remained three or four years, returning by the long Isthmus route.
At the breaking out of the war between
the States, he at once offered his services; his early military training
proving a valuable asset, and he left Missouri, in command of a Regiment
and went to join General Price. He was later sent, by Gen. Price, on an
important mission to Richmond and while en route was stricken with
pneumonia. He was taken to his brother Angus' home at Hawthorne, near
Winchester, where he died after a brief illness.
It was the never-to-be-forgotten winter
of 1862—when the bitter weather, which the people were so poorly
prepared to endure, caused so much sickness and death. Col. Angus
McDonald had been ordered to Rommey and came into his brother's sick
room to bid him farewell, and his grief, as he bent over the helpless
form of the brother whom he had always loved so tenderly, was pathetic
in the extreme.
Edward was propped with pillows, to
assist his difficult breathing, and both realized in that supreme hour
that it was to be their last meeting on earth. Not a word was spoken and
the expression of each face, as Angus leaned over and kissed the brow of
the dying man will never be effaced from my memory. It was a solemn and
impressive moment.
He died the next night and his body
reposes in the beautiful cemetery at Winchester, in sight of his native
hills, near the spot where he was born, and not very far from where his
mother is buried. He left besides his wife, five children of his second
marriage, Edward, Thomas, Angus, Millicent and Ellen.
He was a man possessed of many noble
traits of character. Of inviolable truthfulness and loyalty. And his
Celtic lineage constantly betrayed itself in his romantic ideas, his
earnestness and his tendency to hero-worship; traits which were
doubtless fostered by his reading. The Waverley novels were eagerly
devoured as they came out and he was an ardent admirer and student of
Shakespeare. Among the cherished relics left his children are some
volumes of his camp library, a pocket and well-thumbed copy of
Shakespeare, being among them.
Millicent, the only sister, married a
second time, her first cousin, Richard Holliday, and she, too emigrated
to Missouri, living first at St. Louis, and afterwards in Hannibal. She
was again left a widow and finally made her home with her brother
Edward's oldest daughter, Mrs. W. B. Corbyn, of Quincy, Illinois, wife
of Rev. Mr. Corbyn, an Episcopal Clergyman. |
