The Loyalists of Massachusetts Part 49

John and Thomas Wiswell were early residents of Dorchester. John's name is found in the records as early as 1634. His brother Thomas came to Dorchester about 1635. Noah, son of Thomas, born in 1640, was a military man, and was in command in the desperate battle with the Indians near Wheelwright's Pond, N. H., where he and his son John were killed, July 6th, 1690. Another son of Thomas, Inchabod, born in 1637, was minister of Duxbury. He had a son Peleg, born in 1683, who was schoolmaster at Charlestown in 1704. John Wiswell, son of Peleg, married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Samuel Rogers, graduated from Harvard College in 1705, was a master of a Boston Grammar School in 1719. He died in 1767, aged 84 and is buried in Copps Hill burying ground.

JOHN WISWELL, son of the aforesaid, was born in 1731, and graduated from Harvard College in 1749. In 1753 he was teaching school in Maine, but he pursued the study of divinity as a Congregationalist. Occasionally he preached, and in 1756 he was invited to become the pastor of the New Casco parish in Falmouth, now Portland, and was ordained November third of that year. In 1761 he married Mercy, the daughter of Judge John Minot, of Brunswick.

In 1764 John Wiswell suddenly changed his religious views and left his people. He embraced the Episcopal form of wors.h.i.+p, and preached for several Sundays in the town-house. On September 4, 1764, the Parish of St. Paul's Church, Falmouth, was organized and Mr. Wiswell was invited to become their rector. For want of a bishop in the colonies, he was obliged to go to England to receive ordination. A writer at this time says, "There was a sad uproar about Wiswell, who has declared for the church and accepted of the call our churchmen have given him to be their minister." They voted him 100 a year and later he received 20 as a Missionary from the Missionary Society. After a year's elapse, he was able to report to the Society in London for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, that his Congregation had increased to seventy families, and the admittance of twenty-one persons to the communion. In 1765 the parish addressed a letter to the Rev. Mr. Hooper of Boston, asking his good offices in enlisting the sympathy of the churchmen there, in behalf of their oppressed fellow-wors.h.i.+ppers in Falmouth. John Wiswell was an ardent Loyalist, as were about twenty of the leading men of his church. He continued to preach until the revolution broke out.

After the trouble came in the colonies, he was seized while out walking one day with Captain Mowatt, by Colonel Samuel Thompson of Brunswick, who had arrived with about fifty men unknown to the inhabitants. Colonel Thompson refused to release Mr. Wiswell, and Captain Mowatt, but finally seeing that the town was against him, he consented to release them if they would give their parole to deliver themselves up next day. After his capture, the clergyman was obliged to declare his abhorrence of the doctrine of pa.s.sive obedience and non-resistance, and was then released.

Mr. Wiswell now joined the British Forces, and after going on board a man-of-war addressed a letter to the wardens of his church, resigning his charge. After Captain Mowatt burned Falmouth, he sailed to Boston, and then to England. After leaving his parish he was for three years a chaplain on the British Naval s.h.i.+p Boyne, and later for a short time was a curate in Suffolk. He and fifteen others from Falmouth had their estates confiscated, and were banished.

At the close of the war, Mr. Wiswell accepted the call of some of his former paris.h.i.+oners, and settled in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, over a parish they had formed there, and in 1782 he was appointed a missionary of that place. Having lost his first wife, he married a widow Hutchinson from the Jerseys, as the Rev. Jacob Bailey, the frontier missionary writes, who married them. John Wiswell was afterwards a missionary at Aylesford, and after a very full and worthy life, died at Nova Scotia in 1812, at the age of eighty-one. He left two sons, born in Falmouth, who were Lieutenants in the Navy. Peleg, one of his sons, was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court, of Nova Scotia, in 1816 and died at Annapolis in 1836, at the age of seventy-three. When the Rev. John Wiswell lived in Falmouth, Maine, he occupied a house painted red, which stood on the corner of Middle and Exchange Streets, afterwards owned and occupied by James Deering, and which gave place to the brick block built by that gentleman.

HENRY BARNES.

John Barnes, and his wife Elizabeth (Perrie) came to Boston about 1710.

He was a prominent merchant, and was in partners.h.i.+p with John Arbuthnot, who married Abigail Little, of Pembroke, in 1719, and whose daughter Christian married Henry, the son of John Barnes, Sept. 26, 1746. John Barnes was a prominent Episcopalian, was vestryman of King's Chapel from 1715 to 1724, warden from 1724 to 1728, was the first mentioned of the trustees concerned in the purchase of land for Christ Church, and afterwards of those who bought of Leonard Va.s.sal, Esq., his estate on Summer street (see p. 286) for the building of Trinity Church. His home in Boston was on the north side of Beacon street, extending from Freeman Place to Bowdoin Street, a portion of which is now occupied by the Hotel Bellevue, he purchased this property in 1721, and died, seized of it. In 1756 it was conveyed by John Erving (see p. 298) to James Bowdoin.

John Barnes died early in 1739 at Clemente Bar, St. Mary Co., Maryland.

His wife died in 1742 in Boston.

Among their children was Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Coffin the Cas.h.i.+re (see p. 234). Among their distinguished children were General John Coffin and Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, of the British Navy.

Catherine, another daughter, born in 1715, married Colonel Thomas Goldthwaite (see p. 356). She was his second wife, and died at Walthamstow, England, 1796, aged 81.

HENRY BARNES. The subject of this memoir was baptized Nov. 20, 1723. He was brought up in his father's business, and established himself as a merchant in Marlborough, Ma.s.s., in 1753, and was appointed magistrate.

He was possessed of considerable property, and was one of the largest tax payers in the town, and was the owner of several slaves, one of whom "Daphne," he left in Marlborough, and she was supported out of his estate.

Henry Barnes was thoroughly loyal, and for that reason he was probably the best hated man in Marlborough. A late town history says Marlborough was cursed by a Loyalist named Henry Barnes.

Towards the close of February, 1775, General Gage ordered Captain Brown and Ensign D'Bernicre to go through the Counties of Suffolk and Worcester, and to sketch the roads as they went, for his information, as he expected to march troops through that country the ensuing spring.

Their adventures after their departure for Marlborough, are related by one of them as follows:

"At two o'clock it ceased snowing a little, and we resolved to set off for Marlborough, which was about sixteen miles off. We found the roads very bad, every step up to our ancles; we pa.s.sed through Sudbury, a large village near a mile long; the causeway lies over a great swamp, or overflowing of Sudbury river, and is commanded by a high ground on the opposite side. n.o.body took the least notice of us, till we arrived within three miles of Marlborough, (it was snowing very hard all the while,) when a horseman overtook us, and asked us from whence we came--we said from Weston; he asked us if we lived there--we said no; he then asked where we resided, and, as we found there was no evading his questions, we told him we lived in Boston. He then asked us where we were going: we told him to Marlborough, to see a friend; (as we intended to go to Mr. Barnes's, a gentleman to whom we were recommended, and a friend to the Government;) he then asked us, if we were of the army; we said no, but were a good deal alarmed at his asking us that question; he asked several rather impertinent questions, and then rode on for Marlborough, as we suppose, to give them intelligence of our coming--for on our arrival the people came out of their houses (though it snowed and blew very hard) to look at us; in particular, a baker asked Capt. Brown, 'Where are you going, Master?' He answered, 'To see Mr. Barnes.'[237]

[237] The horseman that met them was Col. Timothy Bigelow, of the Committee of Safety.

"We proceeded to Barnes's, and on our beginning to make an apology for taking the liberty to make use of his house, and discovering to him that we were officers in disguise, he told us that we need not be at the pains of telling him, that he knew our situation, that we were very well known, he was afraid, by the town's people. We begged he would recommend some tavern where we should be safe; he told us we would be safe no where but in his house; that the town was very violent, and that we had been expected at Col. Williams's tavern, the night before, where there had gone a party of liberty people to meet us. While we were talking, the people were gathering in little groups in every part of the town (village).

"Mr. Barnes asked us who had spoken to us on our coming into town; we told him a baker; he seemed a little startled at that, told us that he was a very mischievous fellow, and that there was a deserter at his house. Capt. Brown asked the man's name; he said it was Sawin, and that he had been a drummer. Brown knew him too well, as he was a man of his own Company, and had not been gone above a month; so we found we were discovered. We asked Mr. Barnes, if they did get us into their hands what they would do with us; he did not seem to like to answer; we asked him again; he then said, he knew the people very well, that we might expect the worst treatment from them.

"Immediately after this, Mr. Barnes was called out; he returned a little after, and told us the Doctor of the town had come to tell him, he was come to sup with him, (now this fellow had not been within Mr. Barnes's doors for two years before, and came now for no other business than to see and betray us). Barnes told him he had company, and could not have the pleasure of attending him that night; at this the fellow staid about the house, and asked one of Mr. Barnes's children, who her father had got with him; the child innocently answered, that she had asked her papa, but he told her it was not her business; he then went, I suppose, to tell the rest of his crew.

"When we found we were in that situation, we resolved to lie down for two or three hours, and set off at twelve o'clock at night; so we got some supper on the table, and were just beginning to eat, when Mr.

Barnes, who had been making inquiries of his servant, found the people intended to attack us; he then told us plainly, that he was very uneasy for us, that we could be no longer in safety in the town; upon which we resolved to set off immediately, and asked Mr. Barnes if there was no road round the town, so that we might not be seen. He took us out of his house by the stable, and directed us by a by-road which was to lead us a quarter of a mile from the town; it snowed and blew as much as I ever saw in my life. However, we walked pretty fast, fearing we should be pursued; at first we felt much fatigued, having not been more than twenty minutes at Barnes's to refresh ourselves, and the roads were worse, if possible, than when we came; but in a little time it wore off, and we got on without being pursued, as far as the hills which command the causeway at Sudbury, and went into a little wood, where we eat a bit of bread that we took from Barnes's, and eat a little snow to wash it down.

"A few days after our return, Mr. Barnes came to town from Marlborough, and told us that immediately after our quitting town, the Committee of Correspondence came to his house, and demanded us; he told them we were gone; they then searched his house from top to bottom, looking under the beds and in the cellar, and when they found we were gone, they told him, if they had caught us in his house, they would have pulled it down about his ears. They sent hors.e.m.e.n after us on every road, but we had the start of them, and the weather being so very bad, they did not overtake us, or missed us. Barnes told them we were not officers, but relatives of his wife's from Pen.o.bscot, and were going to Lancaster; that perhaps deceived them."

In the House of Representatives, November, 1775, the "Pet.i.tion of Henry Knox[238] humbly showeth. That your pet.i.tioner having been obliged to leave all his goods and home furniture in Boston, which he has no prospect of ever getting possession of again, nor any equivalent for the same, therefore begs the Honorable Court, if in their wisdom see fit, to permit him to exchange house furniture, with Henry Barnes, late of Marlborough, which he now has in his power to do." The prayer was refused, but he was allowed to _use_ the Loyalist's goods, on giving receipt to account for them to the proper authorities.

[238] Subsequently Chief of Artillery in the Revolutionary Army, and Secretary at War under Was.h.i.+ngton.

In December, 1775, Catherine Goldthwaite prayed the interposition of the General Court, stating in a pet.i.tion that she was the niece and adopted heir of Barnes; that she had resided with him about seventeen years, that at his departure from town, she was left with a part of his family in possession, and that the committee of Marlborough had entered upon his estate, sold a part, and proposed to dispossess her entirely. No redress could be obtained.

Through the violence of the mob Henry Barnes was forced to seek shelter in Boston early in 1775. From there he went to England. In 1777 he was at Bristol with his wife and niece, and in September thirteen of his fellow Loyalists were his guests, and later still in the same year he dined with several of the Ma.s.sachusetts exiles at Mr. Lechmere's, when the conversation was much about the political condition of their native land.

Mr. Barnes was proscribed and banished, and his estate confiscated. He died at London in 1808, at the age of eighty-four.

THOMAS FLUCKER.

Secretary of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.

The Fluckers were descended from a French Huguenot family who settled in England. Captain James Flucker, mariner, came to America and married Elizabeth Luist at Charlestown, Ma.s.s., May 30, 1717. He was taxed there from 1727 to 1756 and died 3 Nov. 1756. She died Sept. 1770. They had eight children.[239]

[239] See Life of Henry Knox by F. G. Drake, P. 125.

THOMAS FLUCKER, son of the aforesaid, was born at Charlestown, 9 Oct.

1719. He was a merchant in Boston and owned an estate on Summer street.

He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace 14 Sept. 1756, was a member of the Council in 1761-68. A Selectman of Boston in 1766, succeeded Andrew Oliver as Secretary, 12 Nov. 1770, was made a Mandamus Councillor 9 Aug. 1774. He married 1st, 12 June 1744, Judith, daughter of Hon.

James Bowdoin, a Boston Huguenot family, and as a testimony to the public spirit of this famous family, Bowdoin College remains. 2nd, 14 Jan. 1751, he married Hannah, daughter of General Samuel Waldo, proprietor of the Waldo Patent Main, to whose heirs the great domain descended. The portion belonging to Mrs. Flucker and her brother, were confiscated.

Thomas Flucker was a staunch Loyalist. He was banished and his estates confiscated. He left Boston at the evacuation, March 17, 1776, for Halifax. He afterwards went to London, where he was a member of the Brompton Row a.s.sociation of Loyalists, who met weekly for conversation and a dinner. An extract from Hutchinson's Diary, July 13, 1776, says:

"Flucker dined with us; depends on the truth of the report of his family's being arrived in Ireland; has 300 allowed by treasury; last (?) of the Council 200." Thomas Flucker died in England suddenly on Feb. 16, 1783. His wife remained in England, but survived him only three years.

THOMAS FLUCKER, of Ma.s.sachusetts, son of the former, graduated at Harvard University in 1773. During the Revolution he was a Lieutenant in the 60th British regiment at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1777. By the University catalogue, it appears that he and his father died the same year, 1783.

LUCY FLUCKER, another child, born 2 August 1756, married General Henry Knox of the revolutionary army, and afterwards Secretary at War. The young rebel had at the time a flouris.h.i.+ng bookstore opposite Williams Court in Cornhill, a fas.h.i.+onable morning resort at that time for the British officers and their ladies. Harrison Gray Otis says that Miss Lucy "was distinguished as a young lady of high intellectual endowments, very fond of books, especially of the books sold by Knox, at whose premises was kindled as the story went, 'the guiltless flame' which was destined to burn on the hymeneal altar." Henry Knox became Chief of Artillery in the Revolution, and in Was.h.i.+ngton's Administration, Secretary of War. He acquired on easy terms, a very large share of Mrs.

Flucker's property, which had been confiscated, and settled on it at Thomaston, Maine, building a fine mansion in which he himself died in 1806, and his wife in 1824.

Sally Flucker, another daughter of Thomas Flucker, Jr., who performed in Burgoyne's "Maid of the Oaks" in private theatricals given by British officers in Boston, accompanied the family to England and married Mr.

Jephson, a member of the Irish Parliament. Copley painted her portrait.

Hannah Flucker, daughter of Thomas, married 2 Nov. 1774, James Urquhart, captain in the 14th regiment, which was engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill.

MARGARET DRAPER.

Richard Draper and his brother William emigrated to the Colonies and settled at Boston about 1680. He was a merchant in that city. The Boston Records state that Richard Draper and John Wentworth furnished the lumber from which Faneuil Hall was built. In his will he says that he is the son of Edward and Ann Draper, of Branbury, in the County of Oxford, Great Britain, deceased, and only brother to William Draper Senr. of Boston. This will was probated Jan. 25th, 1728.