|
THE finding of an
interesting manuscript is much like the sighting of an unexpected island
by a mariner sailing in strange seas, for the exploration of either,
whatever may be the ultimate value of the discovery, affords all the
excitement that accompanies an adventure into the unknown. Nor has this
"Journal of a Lady of Quality," stumbled upon accidentally in a search
for other material, failed in any particular to fulfill the expectations
of its discoverers or the promise of its charming title and opening
pages; and one can only marvel that such a treasure should have lain so
long unproclaimed.
That an incredulous
reader may not have to speculate regarding the genuineness of the
Journal, the editors hasten to say that it is no twentieth century
fabrication, but that the manuscript from which the present text is
printed is known as Egerton, 2423, and is even now in the British
Museum. It is a quarto volume labelled "Travels in the West Indies and
South Carolina, 1774, '75"; and in the Museum Catalogue it is entered as
a "Journal by a Lady, of a Voyage from Scotland to the West Indies and
South Carolina, with an account of personal experiences during the War
of Independence, and a visit to Lisbon on her return 25 October
1774—December 1775." Quite a long description that, but withal an
inaccurate one; and surely he was a careless retainer of the British
Museum who did the labelling, for even a cursory reading of the
beautiful manuscript shows that "North Carolina" should be substituted
for "South Carolina," and that the narrative itself deals, at most, with
only the preliminary events of the American War for Independence and
continues nearly to the beginning of February, 1776.
As a narrative, the
Journal falls naturally into four parts, dealing respectively with the
voyage from Scotland to the West Indies; with life and experiences in
the West Indies at Antigua and St. Kitts, and the voyage from St. Kitts
to the Cape Fear River; with life on the Cape Fear just before the
American War of Independence; and, finally, with the various adventures
and experiences of Miss Schaw and her companions in Portugal on her way
back to Scotland. Nowhere in our manuscript does the name of the author
occur, and, for the most part, the names of persons referred to are in
blank; so that only after much following of clues and searching in the
records of England, Scotland, Ireland, the West Indies, and America have
the editors been able to trace the careers of those who play the leading
parts in the story. With the blanks filled out as far as possible, with
but few corrections in spelling and capitalization, and with here and
there a change in the diverting, but somewhat erratic, punctuation, the
Journal, in the form now presented, is the same as that of the British
Museum manuscript.
But of more importance
than these slight changes in form is the fact that two other copies of
the Journal are known to exist, one of which, the Vetch manuscript,
owned by a descendant of the Schaws and recently bequeathed to a
descendant of the Rutherfurds,—the two families that play the chief
roles in the Journal,—we have not been allowed to examine, even for
purposes of textual comparison. The other, now in the possession of Mr.
Vere Langford Oliver, the distinguished author of a history of Antigua,
was purchased by him a few years ago in the belief that it was unique;
and although this is not the case, it is of particular value in that it
gives the name of the author and is dedicated to Alexander Schaw, Esqr,
"the Brother, Freind, and fellow traveler of the Author, his truly
affect. Jen. Schaw, St. Andrews Square, March 10, 1778." Mr. Oliver, who
has compared his copy with that in the British Museum, says that
although there are differences in binding and pagination, the two
manuscripts are in the same handwriting and differ but slightly in
phraseology. Our belief is that both are copies of the same manuscript,
which, in turn, may have been the original; for these letters, written
to a dear friend, probably a woman back in Scotland, by this same "Jen.
Schaw" while on her eventful journey to the West Indies and North
Carolina, were probably copied many times for circulation among
relatives and friends. Thus, from 1904, when the editors of the present
volume came upon the British Museum manuscript, these other manuscripts
have been appearing, first Colonel Vetch's and later Mr. Oliver's, to
claim the title for the only and original; and almost comically, have
been masquerading, like three Dromios, somewhat to the confusion and
dismay, but also to the amusement, of some of the discoverers of the
prize.
If further proof were
needed, both of the authenticity of the Journal and also of the accuracy
and truthfulness of the author in describing places, events, and
individuals, that is supplied by the notes and appendices of this
volume, in which Professor Andrews has checked up or amplified each
point of personal and historical interest. Scholarly research has been
applied to the work of this delightful "Lady of Quality," but she holds
her ground firmly and ably, as with ease and fluency she discusses
manners and customs, climate and scenery, sugar-culture and farming,
friends,—their houses, amusements, recreations, and sorrows,—and,
fortunately for posterity, happenings and human beings as she saw both
in the West Indies and North Carolina just before the American War for
Independence. Rarely is she caught napping, and with her enthusiasm and
humour, her ability to make us see and feel with her, she carries us to
a triumphant end. Reluctantly we close the volume, for we would know all
her story; but she leaves us abruptly in Portugal, with never a hint as
to how she got back to Scotland or how and where she spent the later
years of her life: and we ask ourselves, Who was this "affect. Jen.
Schaw," where did she come from and whither did she go, this vivacious,
adventurous, aristocratic lady, this devoted Sister, who willingly faced
great discomfort and hardships in order to accompany one dear brother to
his new home in the West Indies and to visit another in the far distant
British colony of North Carolina? What manner of woman is this who
suddenly appears on our field of vision, leaves an unforgettable account
of herself and her relatives and friends, and vanishes as suddenly as
she came? What is her achievement, and what is the significance for us
of this Journal of hers? It is in the search for answers to these
questions that one begins a real voyage of adventure.
The Journal relates that
there sailed from the Firth of Forth on October 25, 1774, a small craft,
the Jamaica Packet, bound for the West Indies and North Carolina, the
chief passengers of which were a young Scotsman and his sister, the
author of the Journal, who from other sources we discover were Alexander
and Janet Schaw of Edinburgh. Travelling with them were Fanny, an
attractive girl of eighteen or nineteen, John, Jr., or Jack, a lad of
eleven, and William Gordon, the nine-year-old "Billie" of the Journal,
connections of the Schaws, and children of John Rutherfurd, a prominent
resident of the colony of North Carolina. Besides these five, there were
also Mrs. Mary Miller, Miss Schaw's maid, whom she called her Abigail,
and who is a comic figure in the story; and the faithful, efficient
Robert, Mr. Schaw's grave East Indian servant, who almost magically made
up for deficiencies in the menu when live stock and food had been swept
overboard and the passengers were facing possible starvation. And that
the Journal might lack no element of romance, there were the fine
English sailors, the honest mate, the subservient supercargo, hand in
glove with the unscrupulous captain; the pitiful emigrants smug- gled
aboard and treated like slaves; frightful storms and rumours of pirates;
and hovering in the background, always the Sinister figure of Parker,
the rascally owner of the vessel, whose evil deeds constantly came to
light during the perilous voyage on which the Schaws were embarked.
Nowhere, we think, does our author display so well her own sterling
qualities of character and charming personality, as in this, the opening
chapter of the Journal. From the start she captures our interest for
herself and for her companions of what she picturesquely calls her
"little wooden kingdom," and with a real sense of climax, sustains it at
high pitch, until she and they, after a stormy passage of seven weeks,
from which they but barely escape with their lives, sail safely into the
beautiful harbour of St. John's at Antigua. For months, off and on,
regardless of storms, severe cold, intense heat, or the distractions of
travel, Miss Schaw wrote her journal-letters, describing, as the case
might be, the tropical and almost Oriental luxury of the West Indies,
the exciting and interesting events of our pre-revolutionary history, or
the details of her amusing experiences in Setubal and Lisbon, never
forgetting her promise to the fortunate and adored friend in Scotland
who was her inspiration. Dating her first letter "9 o'clock evening,
October 25, 1774," Miss Schaw says: "I propose writing you every day,
but you must not expect a regular journal. I will not fail to write
whatever can amuse myself; and whether you find it entertaining or not,
I know you will not refuse it a reading. As every subject will be guided
by my own immediate feelings, my opinions and descriptions will depend
on the health and humour of the moment in which I write; from which
cause my sentiments will often appear to differ on the same subject." It
is not surprising that the journal of such a delightfully whimsical and
candid author as this letter shows Miss Schaw to be, should be both
accurate and refreshing, and that its author should win for herself at
the outset the affectionate interest of her readers. Fortunately for us
she was blessedly unaware, as she jotted down her opinions and
descriptions according to the "humour of the moment" that she was
writing for posterity a document of rare interest and importance, one
which, as far as we know, and especially as it bears on the Scottish
phase of American colonial history, is unique. Little did she suspect
that she was to be caught in the net of the future historian and
labelled as a valuable specimen of those Scots who figured in the
colonizing movements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In the lowlands of
Scotland, amid the hills and valleys and along the rivers and firths
from the Grampians to the Tweed and the Clyde, were scores of Scottish
families of old-time stock whose attention was attracted early to the
islands and mainland of the New World. Even before the end of the
seventeenth century, young Scotsmen had begun to wander across the seas,
either to fill civil offices in the colonies, to find cheap land upon
which to set up farms and plantations, or to serve in regiments,
stationed for longer or shorter periods in Boston, New York, or some one
of the island colonies. As lands in the West Indies became more
difficult to obtain, because of the growth of the sugar industry, many
of the settlers turned to the mainland of America, to North Carolina in
particular, and after the opening of the Cape Fear section, colonized
there in great numbers Hamiltons, Martins, Mackinnens, Hallidays,
Murrays, Duncans, Rutherfurds, Pringles, and Schaws—all of whom figure
in this Journal. Before the end of the colonial period both Lowland and
Highland Scots were to be found in North Carolina, Georgia, New York,
and Nova Scotia, with a few in Maryland and Virginia as well; and some
of them, men of the old covenanting blood and spirit, alive to the
opportunities offered by commerce or the development of large
plantations, became important officials or planters and tradesmen of
prominence and influence. Wherever these Scotsmen found themselves,
whether in the West Indies or on the American Continent, in Oporto or in
Lisbon—Portuguese cities where treaty relations with Great Britain made
it possible for English and Scottish merchants to monopolize
commerce—there they established homes and places of business, and
retaining their devotion to their mother-country, their king, and their
traditions, created centres of Scottish life that became in reality
little Scotlands. Mutual affection and devotion characterized these
Scottish families, wherever their members settled. Eager for news from
home, those in the colonies extended generous hospitality to the
wandering members of their own family, or the families of their friends;
those that remained in Scotland never lost interest in their kin across
the sea, aided them with money, and welcomed them back whenever they
could come. Thus had the stage been set for Alexander and Janet Schaw,
who, all unconscious of so much preparation for their advent into
history, wandered happily from one to another of the West Indian
islands, to various plantations and centres of the colony of North
Carolina, and finally, Miss Schaw herself, to Lisbon, meeting old
friends and acquaintances, and enjoying the lavish hospitality that
clannish Scotsmen naturally offered to such charming and distinguished
guests.
It is a matter for
congratulation that Miss Schaw made her visit to the West Indies and the
Cape Fear just when she did, for had she come a few years later, she
would have found Antigua and St. Kitts, not at the height of their
prosperity as they were in 1774, with the Hamiltons, Martins, and Paynes
dispensing almost royal hospitality, but suffering from the somewhat
devastating effects of the American Revolution: and had she come
earlier, we should have lacked a chronicler of a period of our own
revolutionary history for which there exists no finer contemporary
document than her Journal. Not only does she describe graphically and
interestingly the natural scenery and social life of the places she
visited—for she is a gifted letter writer, as other extant letters of
hers prove—but she gives us pictures of political life in North Carolina
(luring the stormy pre-revolutionary days which are typical, not only of
the Cape Fear, but also of many other colonial centres, and which help
us to understand, even if they do not induce us to accept, the
conservative pot of view held by those who in such troublous times
remained loyal to their mother-country. From the moment of her arrival
at Brunswick until she sailed for Portugal in the autumn of 1775, Miss
Schaw gives a running account of affairs in the Cape Fear, both social
and political, as seen by one of the group of loyalists and
conservatives, of whom many undoubtedly were forced into active
opposition to the colonial government by the violence of the extreme
radicals. In this connection it is interesting to learn that of the men
of Brunswick and Wilmington whom the Schaws knew well, those who moved
to the Cape Fear from Charleston, such as Richard Quince, William Dry,
Joseph Eagles, James Moore, and others, became the nucleus, as it were,
of the united provincial group, which often, and especially after the
actual outbreak of hostilities, opposed those "newcomers and foreigners"
of English or Scottish birth, such as Dr. Cobham, Robert Hogg, the
Rutherfurds, and the Schaws. Such cleavages of friendship were unhappily
frequent, for political feeling ran high in all the colonies; and it is
not difficult to understand Miss Schaw's indignation when she saw the
radical group of North Carolina politicians, self-styled "patriots,"
forcing into rebellion a colony which she believed had itself no real
grievance against the mother-country. Her accounts of the persecutions
of such refined, intellectual men as Dr. Cobham and Archibald Neilson,
and of such honorable business men as Robert Hogg, Samuel Campbell, and
Thomas Macknight—persecutions that drove them either out of the colony
entirely or most unwillingly into the ranks of the king's party; her
story of the tarring and feathering of Neilson's valet; of the enforced
drilling of unwilling "volunteers"; of the threats against the lives of
peaceful citizens who refused to "sign the Association"—all these
details, vividly and feelingly described, together with her own
impressions of individuals and events, constitute a story that
challenges the attention of all those genuinely interested in our
movement for independence. Such contemporary evidence makes us realize
that our forefathers, however worthy their object, were engaged in real
rebellion and revolution, characterized by the extremes of thought and
action that always accompany such movements, and not in the kind of
parlour warfare, described in many of our text books, in which highly
cultivated and periwigged American gentlemen of unquestioned taste and
morality, together with farmers of heroic mould, engaged life and limb
for principles of democratic government, which developed, in fact, only
during later periods of our national life. A definitive account of the
loyalists in our revolution has yet to be written, but such a
contribution should help to clarify our minds about the facts of our
colonial history, and counteract the false judgments and prejudices
which perpetuate what a recent writer so aptly describes as "the ancient
grudge."
But this Journal,
valuable as it undoubtedly is as history, claims recognition for itself
also as a literary and human document, and places its author among the
littérateurs of her country and century. Researches, amply rewarded in
other respects, unfortunately have failed to secure much information
about the personal life of Janet Schaw herself; but we know that she was
born in Lauriston, a suburb of Edinburgh, in a house which is still
standing, and conjecture that at the time of her voyage to the West
Indies and America she was possibly thirty-five or forty years of age.
She came of an old Scottish family that counted as blood relations or
connections by marriage Murravs, Rutherfurds, and Scotts, and was
herself a third cousin once removed of Sir Walter Scott. The common
ancestor of all was a certain John Schaw, minister of Selkirk, who had
married Anne, daughter of an early Sir John Murray of Philiphaugh. On
January 23, 1723, Janet's father, Gideon Schaw, was married to an Anne
Rutherfurd, also a cousin of Sir Walter's and great-aunt of the three
Rutherfurd children who accompanied Alexander and Janet Schaw to
America. By this marriage there were six children, of whom three only,
Robert, Janet, and Alexander, figure in this Journal. As early as 1726
Gideon Schaw and his wife were living at Lauriston Yards, a fourteen
acre farm just outside Edinburgh, now included in the city proper; and
we know that there the eldest daughter, Anne, was born; but inasmuch as
from 1730 to 1751 Gideon Schaw held positions in other parts of
Scotland, and as we can find no records of birth or baptism for Janet or
Alexander, we can only guess as to where they were born and when. Janet
probably spent many years at Lauriston, and we believe that she was
residing there at the time of her father's death in 1772, two and a half
years before her narrative opens; but of her later life, after her
return from Lisbon in the winter of 1776, we know almost nothing. That
she was living in Edinburgh, at least for a time, is indicated by the
dedication in 1778 of one copy of the Journal from "St. Andrews Square"
in that city, and also from an entry in the Edinburgh directory,
011778-1779, which gives her residence as "New Town," a northern section
of Edinburgh which included St. Andrew's Square. Such are the meagre
facts of the life of our charming "Lady of Quality." Had she, like her
brother Alexander or her relative John Rutherfurd, held positions of
public trust, or, like her brother Robert and the Rutherfurd children,
owned land on the Cape Fear, public records would have been available
for her history as they have been for the history of these others; but
she, the most important person connected with the Journal, remains for
the most part unrecorded. Nor is the elusive lady to be caught anywhere
it seems, for as far as we know she did not marry; and having made her
contribution to history and letters, she passes on—what woman but will
envy her!-without date, ageless, just Janet Schaw, the author of "The
Journal of a Lady of Quality."
But if records fail to
furnish the life history of our author, her Journal is rich in
revelations of her character and ability and shows her to be a well-born
Scotswoman, loyal to her country and her king, in her tastes and
preferences an aristocrat, and in religious, social, and political views
a typical member of the educated class in Scotland in the latter half of
the eighteenth century. Her prejudices and antipathies, though largely
temperamental, are to a certain extent also those of her class; and
although they do not invalidate her sense of fact, at times they warp
her judgment and blind her to the real significance of the events in
which she plays an important part. But, on the whole, Miss Schaw
exhibits a tolerance and breadth of view, especially in matters
pertaining to religion and faith, that seem unusual, unless one recalls
the fact that she was living and writing at a time when Scotland was not
only passing through a period of great material prosperity, marked by
extension of trade and rapid development in agriculture; but was also
making her greatest contribution to science, philosophy, and literature,
and through such men as David Hume, Adam Smith, Black, Leslie, Hutton,
and above all Macpherson, was exercising a profound influence on the
contemporary thought of the intellectual world. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find Miss Schaw discussing scientific methods of tilling
the soil and harvesting the crops, and drawing comparisons between the
thrifty intensive farming she had seen in East Lothian and the
shockingly wasteful methods employed by whites and blacks alike on the
plantations of the Cape Fear. Also, it is natural that, inheriting as
she did the literary traditions of Allan Ramsay and James Thomson, and
living in the midst of a metaphysical and philosophical renaissance, she
should take great pride in the philosophers and poets of her country,
should quote them frequently with admiration and approval, and adopt
them as guides in the conduct of life. We almost catch the contemporary
thrill when she exclaims over the magic beauty of Ossian; and share her
amusement when she finds that the book from which Fanny Rutherfurd was
reading aloud when the boat seemed to be sinking, was not the Bible but,
as Miss Schaw laughingly confesses, Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism!
However, she is deeply religious and revels in hymns and the Scriptures,
as her frequent quoting of both attests; and although she disclaims
being a bigot and really is a very tolerant person, she acknowledges
that the force of habit is too strong to allow her to be anything more
than a spectator at the ceremonies of other churches than her own. She
prefers, so she says on one occasion with her characteristic frankness,
"the snivelling of a sincere-hearted country precentor" to the
impressive service and grand music of the beautiful church at Antigua,
and doubts whether there is much real religion in the ceremonious
procedure of the Anglican church.
Her antipathies, however,
are not only religious, they are political and social as well: but
inasmuch as she is never ill- humoured in her criticism, her strong
feelings on various subjects only tend to make her more vivid, and
produce in any portrait of her an effect of earnestness and force that
contrast delightfully with the varied and lighter sides of her
character. As might be expected, from a Lowland Scot, a staunch
Presbyterian, and a Hanoverian, she is thoroughly distrustful of her
neighbors the French, who, she says with much contempt are, like
"chattering, grimacing monkeys, subtle enemies and false friends, and as
little ashamed of defeat as a French admiral or general." We can only
hope that she lived to know that the "little Billie" of her journal
became the Captain William Gordon Rutherfurd of the Swiftsure, who,
serving with distinction under the great Lord Nelson, took part in the
defeat of the hated French at the battle of Trafalgar.
It is in character, too,
that she should condemn the radical American colonists as rebels and
savages, and be shocked and enraged by some of the events she witnessed
in the Cape Fear; for by temperament and education Miss Schaw detested
violence and cruelty, advocated the authority both of the family and the
state, and cherished always the good form and courtly manners
characteristic of the refined society to which she was accustomed. That
in social matters she was conservative and valued the conventions of
life for society at large, there is ample evidence; though it is also
true that, aristocratically, she sometimes claimed exemption for
herself, as when she humorously defied custom and drank wine at a
ladies' luncheon in Antigua, or, for purposes of safety and convenience,
travelled with Archibald Neilson in Portugal as his wife. Also, she took
for granted a certain laxity of morals in her own class, when, for
instance, she describes the terror of one of the emigrants, "a lovelorn
youth," who but for herself and her brother would have fared badly at
the hands of an outraged husband, "a rough fellow," she calls him, "who
had not the patience of your husbands of fashion." But her prejudices
and points of view, such as they are, only relate her more closely to
the very fine type to which she belonged; while her intelligence, kindly
human sympathies, and freshness of heart and mind save her from
provinciality, and leave on our minds the impression of a truly
admirable and delightful woman. A real love of fun and humour and an
instinctive passion for fair play—such are the qualities which she
shared largely with her brother Alexander, and of which they both gave
evidence again and again during the eventful sixteen months of which the
Journal treats. They make a charming picture, this highly bred,
high-spirited brother and Sister, who faced life wherever it found them
with courage and equanimity, good nature and kindliness—he, the
educated, intelligent man of affairs, prompt in action, impatient of
brutality and injustice, resourceful in emergencies both on land and at
sea; she, the candid, warm-hearted, quick-witted woman of the world, a
person of very real distinction and charm. Whether or not she was
beautiful, we do not know, for although she loves the flower-like beauty
of Fanny Rutherfurd and has much to say of the good looks of the men and
women of Antigua, she refers to her own appearance but twice: once when
she writes jocosely that a passion is begun between Mr. Baird, the
collector, and herself, "which, as it is not raised on beauty, it is to
be hoped will be lasting"; and again, when speaking of the masks worn by
the ladies of Antigua, she says, "As to your humble servant, I have
always set my face to the weather, wherever I have been. I hope you have
no quarrel with brown beauty." But that she was genial and sociable,
liking both men and women and liked by them in return, there is ample
proof; and it is not surprising that two such visitors as she and her
brother Alexander received a warm welcome wherever they went, and that
their journey resembled more a royal progress than a tour of ordinary
travellers.
But it is not only as a
faithful chronicler of what she saw and experienced, or as an
interesting and charming woman, that Janet Schaw claims attention, but
above all as an artist, as a lover of beauty and form, who uses her
masses of material with reserve and discrimination, securing her
backgrounds and atmosphere with delicacy and precision, and drawing her
figures with swift, sure strokes of her. pen. Her imagination plays
about the subjects that interest her, and feeling and emotion lift her
work above the commonplace into the realm of artistic achievement. She
revels in the smell of the air, as it comes to her "warm off the African
coast"; in the colour and perfume of Mrs. Dunbar's garden; in the
richness and elegance of architecture of churches and houses and public
buildings. Picture after picture she paints for us —landscapes of rugged
mountains and bleak, barren lands with an almost arctic atmosphere;
frightful storms with boats battling for their existence; sea-scapes of
tropical islands in an almost motionless ocean, langourous under the
rays of a burning sun; vivid little genre pictures of a lady going to a
ball dressed out in all her "British airs with a high head and a hoop";
of emigrants at play in the sunshine on the deck of a sailing vessel; of
marvellous banquets where the varieties of food and drink seem infinite
in number, and where one is presented with a refreshing liquid "in a
crystal cup with cover of silver"; of slaves going to market in joyful
troops, carrying animals and fruits and flowers "like a set of devotees
going to sacrifice to their Indian gods." Her portrait of the exquisite
Lady Belle Hamilton seated in her magnificent hall at "Olivees," her
handsome young husband near her, and beside her a little mulatto girl
"dressed Out like an infant Sultana" possesses in its effects of
contrast the quality achieved by Rossetti in his lovely picture of "The
Bride"; whereas in such a description as that of the great storm at sea,
when the ship with her sails fluttering in rags was all but lost, our
author seems almost inspired.
Miss Schaw knows, also, the uses, for artistic purposes, of fun and
humour,—broad at times as was characteristic of the period,—of balance
and rhythm, of imagery, of pathos and emotion, and even of
sentimentality, and sketches picture after picture instinct with warmth
and colour and motion and the joy of living. Very often, especially in
the descriptive parts of her work, and in her characterizations, she
suggests her compatriot Stevenson, who might have said of her subjects
what he says of Raeburn's, that "the people who sat for these pictures
are not yet ancestors, they are still relations. They are not yet
altogether a part of the dusty past, but occupy a middle distance within
cry of our affections." Her contribution both to history and to
literature is a real one, and so vivid and human are the events and the
people she depicts as to make us feel that we have suddenly, and with
real understanding, touched hands, as it were, with our forebears of the
colonial period.
Before the visitor has
been long in the beautiful state of North Carolina, he will have
realized, as have the editors of this volume, that from Miss Schaw's day
to our own North Carolina has been one of the great southern triumvirate
of states noted for the charm of their climate and scenery and the
hospitality of their people. In pursuit of material connected with this
Journal the editors have journeyed from Great Britain to North and South
Carolina, finding every- where such generous interest and such a
delightful welcome as to make them feel that those who have cooperated
in the volume are a veritable band of brother adventurers. Especially
are they indebted to Dr. J. Maitland Thomson of Edinburgh, who has
contributed genealogical information of great value and photographic
copies of letters written by Janet Schaw; and to the present members of
the Hewlett family, owners of the fine colonial house of "Rockhall," at
Lawrence, Long Island, at times the home of the last royal governor of
North Carolina, Josiah Martin, who with his father, Colonel Samuel of
Antigua, are prominent in the Journal. In North Carolina, they have
wandered from Raleigh to the Cape Fear and Albemarle regions,
familiarizing themselves with the historical background of the Journal,
and enjoying the innumerable courtesies that the North Carolinian
lavishes upon the stranger within his gates. Everywhere have they met
with cooperation, but especially have they to thank The North Carolina
Society of the Colonial Dames of America, who are contributing
financially to the publication of this volume; Mr. John D. Bellamy, Jr.,
who has furnished many facts of real value; the late Mr. John G. Wood of
Edenton, from whose important collection of papers at "Hayes" they have
obtained much information concerning the Rutherfurd family; and even
more particularly Mr. R. D. W. Connor, secretary of the North Carolina
Historical Commission, who not only put at their disposal the manuscript
material under his charge, but at every turn helped on the work with
real interest and generous assistance. Finally, and with peculiar
gratitude, the editors recall the hospitality and cooperation of Mr.
James Sprunt of Wilmington, himself a Scot, under whose kindly guidance
they were able to study Wilmington and the Cape Fear, and to whom most
affectionately they dedicate this volume.
Today one perceives very
little of the isolation that Janet Schaw felt in Wilmington, now a
beautiful city echoing to the hammers of new shipbuilding enterprises
that sprang up during the war; but a sail down the Cape Fear River to
the plantation of "Orton," sole survivor of the many interesting
plantations that dotted the Cape Fear in colonial times, recalls her
descriptions, and carries one into the heart of what was once old
Brunswick, the first settlement that she saw on her arrival in the
province. Today all that is left of the original town are the impressive
brick ruins of St. Philip's Church, its roof open to the sky, its fine
deep windows framing sunny bits of out of doors, and its nave and aisles
picturesquely overgrown with grass and trees. In the old churchyard can
be found graves and tombstones that testify to the burial there of some
of Janet Schaw's friends; and starting from the centre of what was once
Brunswick Town are here and there magnificent live oaks, still tenacious
of life though heavy with years, and clothed in the fantastic, parasitic
moss that is treacherously destroying them. To the north the fine
colonial mansion of "Orton" brightly offers hospitality to the delighted
stranger, giving him a sense of stability and security; but neither the
delicious warm sunshine of early spring, nor the odours of sweet-scented
flowers and shrubs drifting in from well-kept gar- dens, nor the drowsy
washing of the river along the sandy shore can entirely dispel his fear
lest in time the luxuriant jealous forest, which even now threatens to
overwhelm both church and churchyard, shall reduce to jungle and
obliterate forever the old Brunswick that once knew Janet Schaw.
EVANGELINE WALKER ANDREWS.
Orion Plantation, March
30, 1920. |
