Recollections of seventy years

Preface

IT has often been proposed to me to write the history of my life, by friends who have listened with pleasure to many narratives connected with it ; but I have not been convinced that the strictly personal part of my history has anything in it worth laying before the public.

Conscious, however, of having been acquainted with many remarkable characters, and holding in my memory not a few unwritten romances, I have consented to put on paper some of those past experiences, hoping that the Recollections of Seventy Tears of varied life may have the same interest for my readers that my oral narratives have had for my auditors.

Mine are " plain, unvarnished tales," never exaggerated, never embellished. Every anecdote

VI PREFACE.

depends for its value on its perfect truth ; and as most of them belong to my life in the Old World, and to persons who are no longer living, I trust that no one's feelings will be hurt by my disclosures. I have in a few instances suppressed names, or given fictitious ones.

Contents

Page

Chapter

I. Residence. — Siege of Dunkirk. — French Revolution. — Detenus . . . . . . 7

Chapter I. Residence. — Siege Of Dunkirk. — French Rev- Olution. — Detenus

WHEN at last my father was established in Dunkirk, the outfit of his whaling ships was the revival of trade in that town, and the inhabitants welcomed the strangers who brought them wealth and prosperity. As the crews and the officers of the whaling ships were from Nantucket, and some of these had their families with them, there was a large number of Americans in Dunkirk. Many English also were attracted thither by the brisk business created by the fishery.

After a separation of two years, my mother resolved, even at the risk of her life, to join her husband in Dunkirk, and his parents and sisters went with her, all strict Quakers, and objects of curiosity to the French, who saw for the first time the peculiarities of that sect, and could not understand either their faith or their scruples.

The residence in a French town of such an exemplary family of Friends, was hailed by the English Quakers as affording an excellent opportunity for promulgating their doctrines, and a succession of preachers came over to Dunkirk for that purpose, and always stayed at our house. As they spake no French, my father used to act as their interpreter, but once, when he could not attend, a person was employed in his stead. The preacher began his discourse with these words, " Job was an upright man " ; and they were rendered into a French expression equivalent to " Job was a tall, gentlemanly man," and the rest of the sermon was, probably, no nearer than that to the real meaning.

The peace principles of the Quakers will not allow of any demonstration of pleasure at a victory won by force of arms, in any cause, and when the whole town was in a ferment of joy for the success of the French arms, and was making great preparations for a general illumination, these conscientious Quakers refused to illuminate. The Mayor of Dunkirk was a good friend of my father, and urged him to do it as a mere act of self-preservation, " for," said he, " the people will be so exasperated by your not illuminating, that they will commit some outrageous act of violence, from which I cannot protect you." Fully aware of the danger they would in-

KESIDENCE. 9

cur, both father and son were resolved, in spite of all the remonstrances of their friends, not to illuminate ; they would maintain their principles at all hazards.

When their neighbors were lighting up their houses, they shut their shutters, locked and barred their doors, and retired to a back parlor, to await their fate. It was a very solemn time for them all, and was spent in silent prayer. At the end of an hour, the door-bell rang, and my father chose to answer it, though he expected, on opening it, to be assailed by an angry mob. Instead of this, a friend entered, exclaiming, " I am glad to see that you have illuminated after all." " But I have not done it." " Yes, your house is illuminated, and very prettily done too." In utter amazement my father went into the street, and saw a large frame-work of wood covered with lights, and put up against the front of the house. This was the work of the Mayor to save the good Quakers from destruction.

Though the French could not comprehend the principles of these strange people, they honored them for their adherence to them, and always bore kindly with their peculiarities. Even when the town of Dunkirk was besieged by the English, and all citizens who could bear arms turned out to defend their homes from the invader, my father was excused from the duty of a sol- 1* dier, and appointed commander of the fire department, a post of danger which he solicited. The firing of hot shot sometimes produced a conflagration, and that spot became the point toward which the enemy directed their guns. It was, of course, a dangerous place to those engaged in extinguishing the fire. My father thus proved that it was not cowardice that prevented his taking up arms.

I will now describe that siege of Dunkirk, as I have heard my father relate it.

One of the numerous acts of the British government to destroy the Revolutionary power in Prance, was sending a large force, under the command of the Duke of York, son of George III., to besiege and take the city of Dunkirk. He sat down before the town in the most approved manner of those times. The wide plain beyond the city was covered with the tents of the English army, while rows of cannon and mortars seemed to threaten the ancient walls of Dunkirk with certain destruction. The peaceful inhabitants were much alarmed, and every citizen capable of bearing arms was enrolled as a soldier; for there was no military force there, and the English might have marched into the town and taken it at once ; but not knowing its defenceless state, they began to bombard it with hot and cold shot. Orders were given by the

SIEGE OF DUNKIRK. 11

Mayor that there should be in every room of every house a pail of water and a pair of tongs, to pick up and quench the hot shot ; also, every closet door must stand open, and all the women and children were advised to leave the town. All those who could afford it went off to Calais and put up at Dessein's famous hotel. They rushed off in such haste as to be very ill provided with clothes, and some days after that, when my mother and her children arrived with ample wardrobes, her clothes were borrowed by all her friends, and as she wore the Quaker costume, she was amused to see her plain garments on gay, fashionable Frenchwomen.

A courier arrived daily from Dunkirk and proclaimed, from the steps of the Town Hall, the progress of the siege. All the fugitive ladies would run out, without bonnet or shawl, and stand around him to hear the news. There came letters from their husbands written without any regard to truth, merely to suit the wishes of the writer. If a man had a very timid wife, and was fearful she would fly farther, he would tell her that the town was very quiet, and he was in no danger. If a husband was afraid his wife would return inopportunely, he would write that the enemy was at the gates of the city, half of its inhabitants were killed, and the streets ran blood. These ladies, living together, naturally compared the accounts they received, and finding them so very contradictory, they knew not what to believe ; some were very angry, and all were much annoyed. At last one of them said, let us ask Madame Rotch what her husband writes, for the Quakers do not lie. They did so, heard the truth, and ever after relied on her letters for their news of the siege.

A force sufficient to defend the town was soon sent to Dunkirk, and some little fighting took place without the walls, but the cannonading of the town did little damage. The merchants used to dine round at each other's houses, eat up all their wives' preserves and other good things, and have a jolly time of it. One morning the cannonading did not begin as early as usual, and, on looking through their telescopes, the men on the ramparts could see no movement in the British camp. At last the truth dawned on them, that the English had run away in the night. A visit to the camp showed with what haste they had departed. In the Duke of York's tent were found his watch and all his dressing equipage. This extraordinary retreat excited the utmost contempt of the French, and the indignation of the English people. The Duke of York was deprived of his command, and it was several years before he was again employed.

I have hitherto related only what I remem-

FRENCH REVOLUTION. 13

ber to have heard from others ; but now I come to a period when I can remember what I saw myself, and it is not wonderful that, living in the midst of a bloody revolution, my earliest recollection should be the sight of the guillotine, erected in the great square of the town of Dunkirk. Sent out to walk before breakfast, with my nurse, we happened to see it just arrived, and in the process of erection. On my return home I told my mother of it, with childish glee, and was astonished at the horror with which she heard my account.

At this time the Revolutionary government decreed that all the British subjects then in France should be imprisoned, and my nurse, being an Englishwoman, was shut up in a nunnery, used as a prison, after the nuns had been liberated. It was in vain to tell her that her life was not in danger ; she was extremely frightened, and to calm her fears and make her imprisonment less tedious, my mother sent me every morning to pass several hours with her ; so visits to a nun's cell are among my earliest recollections. My mother valued relics so much, that she sent a good chair of her own to be exchanged for the shabby old one of the cell occupied by my nurse, and I have that nun's chair now.

After the imprisonment of the English in France, two American ladies were walking on the ramparts of Dunkirk and conversing together. A sentinel said to his comrade, " All the English are not in prison ; shall we arrest those ? " On hearing this, one of the speakers said to the soldier, u We are Americans, and we speak the American language." Both the men applauded them, for the French loved America in those days.

Another instance of female courage occurs to my mind as happening in that same town of Dunkirk. Mrs. R., an American lady, was conversing with a gentleman who had some care of her during the absence of her husband in Paris. It was after nine o'clock, and he was preparing to go home, when a servant stole quietly into the room, and whispered to her mistress, that the man-servant had brought two armed men into the house ; they were now in his room, and she had no doubt that they would rob the house and murder the family. Mrs. R. tried to allay her fears, by saying those men were probably friends of Joseph, and were merely paying him a visit, and she desired the girl to keep quiet in the kitchen and she would send the soldiers away. Her friend Captain M. offered to speak to the men for her, but she thought it best to try first if she could manage them, and keep the Captain for a reserve force ; so she went to the foot of the stairs, leading up from the kitchen to the man's

DETENUS. 15

room, and said, " Joseph, it is time for your friends to go home, and for you to shut up the house and go to bed ; send them away directly." Joseph made no reply, and she returned to the parlor to wait the effect of her commands. They availed nothing, so she went again, in spite of Captain M's. remonstrance and wish to go himself. Her objection to his going was, that it would appear as if she was alarmed, and she meant that her authority, as mistress of the house, should prevail.

She told Joseph those men must come down and leave her house directly, and added, "If they do not move at once, I will come up to them." One would suppose that armed men would laugh at such a vain threat, but so far from it, they obeyed at once. To get out of the house they had to pass by the open parlor door, and Mrs. R. placed herself so as to see them pass through an entry in which stood a rocking-horse with a child's hat hung on his head. One of the men seized the hat and was carrying it off, when she called to him to let that hat alone, and he threw it back into the entry. " Well done ! " said the Captain, " you are a brave woman. I should have let him carry off the hat."

Among the English detenus, as they were called, was the author and poet, Helen Maria Williams, well known in this country as the writer of that beautiful hymn, beginning, " While Thee I seek, protecting Power." She was acquainted with my father, and hearing that he was in Paris, when she was imprisoned, she sent for him, and begged him, as an American, to claim her as his wife and so procure her liberty. The truthful Quaker was not so corrupted by his residence in France, as to be willing to make this false claim ; he was, however, induced by her eloquent pleading, to promise not to deny what she might say on the subject, unless directly questioned. She succeeded in obtaining her liberty and fled to England. The apparent indifference of the supposed husband threw no discredit on her pretended relation to him.

ROBESPIERRE. 17

• CHAPTER II.

ROBESPIERRE. — DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. — ABB^ GREGOIRE.

I HAVE so often heard my father describe Robespierre that I feel as I had myself seen that mean-looking little man, with his ruffles, and his hair elaborately dressed. As it was considered, in those days, that to be well dressed was anti-republican, his elaborate toilet was the more remarkable. My father narrowly escaped with his life, after an interview with this worst of tyrants. He was deputed by the American merchants of Dunkirk, who were suffering under an act of embargo, to take up a petition for its removal from vessels belonging to so friendly a power as the United States. He was to read the petition at the bar of the National Convention ; a body of men who were supposed to represent the will of the people, but were, at that time, entirely subservient to the will of one man, and that man Robespierre. He allowed the House to appoint only one committee, called the Committee of Public Safety; to that all important cases were referred, and there Robespierre ruled every decision. Over the door of the committeeroom was written, " Engrossed by the affairs of the nation, we have no time to consider private claims."

My father was told that he must read his petition to Robespierre, before he attempted to read it in the National Convention ; so he sought an interview with that dangerous man at his own residence. He was shown through a suite of shabby rooms, where the family were employed in household work, to a long, unfurnished hall, where he found half a dozen gentlemen waiting to see the despot. There was not a seat in the room, until a door opened and Robespierre entered, in his dressing-gown, followed by his hair-dresser, who carried a chair in his hand for his master to sit on whilst he was powdered. When powder was generally worn, it was the custom to put it on, in some small room or closet devoted to the purpose, and to powder in the presence of another person was considered an insult. That Robespierre should come into his audience-chamber to perform that part of his toilet was a piece of arrogance and rudeness never to be forgotten. ' The hair-dresser applied the powder-puff until there was a cloud of powder all around him, and of course the dark coats, in waiting, were none the better for it. When the hair-dresser retired, he carried off the chair with him, and Robe-

ROBESPIERRE. 19

spierre went up to a mirror and adjusted every hair around his face. He then exchanged his dressing-gown for a coat which his valet brought, and assisted him to put on. That done, he turned to the knot of gentlemen who were standing at one end of the room, and said he was ready to hear what they had to say. Those who spoke before my father did were very summarily disposed of with negative answers. Then he produced his petition, and asked Robespierre to read it. He did so, and returned it, saying, " That petition cannot be presented to the National Convention, for it contains views to change the government." Such words from such a man were equivalent to a sentence of death. My father knew it, and perceived at once what was the objectionable part. The merchants asked for a committee to be appointed to examine the claims of American ship-owners, and Robespierre had abolished all committees but the one of which he was the moving power. With wonderful presence of mind my father took out his pencil, struck out that request and showed the paper to Robespierre, who, on -seeing the alteration, said that might be read the next day at the bar of the National Convention. As my father left the hall, a friend who had accompanied him there, said, " We are a head shorter for this." " Never mind," was the reply, " we shall go in good company."

20 RECOLLECTIONS OP SEVENTY YEARS.

While my father was reading the petition, Robespierre entered one of the galleries, and as soon as it was ended, he moved that it should be referred to the Committee of Public Safety. This quashed it at once, but the reader's life was saved.

Not until after the fall of Robespierre, was my father permitted to leave France ; then he embarked with his whole family and all his valuables on board one of his own vessels, and sailed for America. He was aware that a number of persons had secreted themselves on board his ship, in order to escape from Prance, and as two custom-house officers accompanied the vessel down the harbor, my father was afraid they would discover the fugitives. To prevent this he provided a handsome lunch and plenty of good wine, of which they partook so largely that they forgot to examine the vessel, and left her in high good humor.

Instead of proceeding to the United States, we landed in England, and our arrival was impressed on my memory by my being checked in singing the following words : —

" Le Due de York est un poltron, Vive le son, vive le son."

I was told that I was now in the country of the Duke, and must never sing that again. This abb£ gkegoire. 21

was unnecessary caution ; but we had come from a land where every word must be guarded, lest life should be the forfeit, and it was difficult for us to realize that there was liberty of speech in England.

A suit in chancery to recover the insurance on a vessel burnt at sea, was what took my father to England, and its long duration caused him to settle in that country.

The Abbe Gregoire lived in the time of the first French Revolution. He was a republican in his principles, but a lover of law and order. He was made a Bishop in the Roman Church, but was very liberal in his opinions. My father was on intimate terms with him, and ventured to ask him whether he believed in all the ceremonies of his Church ; he said he did not, but added, "We must make religion thick enough for the people to feel it, or it will slip through their fingers."

A better saying of his was one that saved his life. Paris in those days was lighted by glass lanterns called reverberes, suspended by ropes over the centre of the street, and the mob were often pleased to use that arrangement for hanging any one obnoxious to them. At one time, every well-dressed man was in danger of this summary punishment, and the Abb£ Gregoire being one day too neat and clean to suit the taste of a mob of ruffians, they called him an aristocrat, and cried out, A la lanterne ! They would have hanged him on the spot, if he had not saved his life by this impromptu jeu d? esprit : —

The mob applauded him, and he passed on in safety. Courage and presence of mind were much needed in those times.

I remember hearing my father say that he was in Paris when the Queen was beheaded, and that he dared not go out of his hotel before the execution, for fear of seeing some part of it; nor after it was over, for fear his countenance should betray his horror of the deed, and cause his arrest as a loyalist. It happened to my father, more than once, to be engaged to dine with a friend, and when he went to the house, to be told by the servant that his master had been taken the night before to the Conciergerie. Few ever left that prison but to go to execution. It was considered as the next step to the guillotine.

MRS. BARBAULD. 23

Chapter III

MRS. BARBAULD. — MR. AND MRS. OPIE. — BENJAMIH WEST. — GEORGE THE THIRD. — MRS. KNOWLES.

DICKENS has shown us the great influence which a chancery suit may exert over the lives and characters of all concerned in it. My father's suit continued so many years, that it broke up all his plans of returning to his native land, and planted him for life in England with all the privileges of a British subject. We resided for a time at Islington, a suburb of London, and there my mother made the acquaintance of Mrs. Barbauld, who was then writing for the benefit of her little nephew, Charles Aikin, those hymns and lessons which have since delighted so many children, both in the Old and the New World. Melancholy, however, were the consequences of her devotion to that bright little boy. His brain was overtaxed, and the precocious child became an idiot before he reached maturity.

I remember sitting on Mrs. Barbauld's lap and her asking me if I could read, and what book I was then reading ; I answered, " Barbauld's Lessons," quite unconscious that I was sitting in the lap of their author. She then said, " I suppose you study geography, and can tell me what ocean is between England and America." I said, " The Atlantic," which I knew from hearing my mother speak of her relations as being on the other side of the Atlantic, not from any study of geography ; and fearing I might not be able to answer another question, I hurried away from her.

I often met her after I was grown up, and remember her as a sweet-looking, lively old lady, wearing her gray hair, which was then very uncommon, and reading aloud to a circle of young people, on a rainy morning in the country. She read well ; the book was " Guy Mannering," then just published. When she had given us the description of Meg Merrilies, she asked us all to draw the Gypsy as we imagined her, and very different were the sketches we made. My sister's was the best, but the kind old lady took possession of them all as valuable to her.

Mrs. Opie, another author and poet, as different as possible from Mrs. Barbauld, was an acquaintance of my mother. Her novels were at this time very popular, and her husband was equally famous as an historical painter. He had many admirers, but his works were not of a high order. He made all his male faces with large, ugly noses, so that one could always know

• MRS. OPIE. 25

his pictures by that feature. My mother had such an instinctive appreciation of painting, that Mr. West made a point of going with her to the annual exhibition of the works of living artists, that he might hear her natural remarks on the principal pictures. She criticised all Opie's so severely that Mr. West feared she might be overheard by him and hastened to tell her whose they were. Mr. West's pictures did not wholly escape her criticism, but she generally knew beforehand which were his.

When Mrs. Opie became a gay widow, we often met her at the house of a mutual friend, where her eccentric conduct amused some, and disgusted others. I have seen her astonish a grave circle of elderly people by jumping up and dancing a shawl-dance then in vogue on the stage, flourishing away to a tune of her own singing, apparently unconscious of the effect she was producing. She used to carry about with her in all her visits a pretty little stringed instrument, in the classic form of a lyre, and sing her own songs, with great expression, to that accompaniment. She said she could always find out the secrets of a young girl's heart, if she could sing to her alone. She tried her experiment on me and proved right.

Mrs. Opie was fair, with delicate features and a form of symmetrical beauty. The well-formed 2 hands and arms were always on exhibition, and short and scanty skirts disclosed the prettiest feet and ankles. Her talents and accomplishments, her novels, her poetry, and her singing, made her, for a time, a favorite with the fashionables of London, and she highly enjoyed her popularity ; but it did not last long, and when it failed, she took refuge from the gay world in a circle of wealthy and highly cultivated Quakers. The Gurneys, Barclays, Hoares, Woods, and Frys, were her intimate friends, and after several years passed among them, she joined the Society of Friends and adopted their dress and language. I saw her once after her metamorphosis, and could but remark the discrepancy between her costume and her manners, which still savored of the wicked world. The pretty foot was still seen, though the dress was long and ample, and the glove was unnecessarily taken off to show the beautiful hand. Amelia Opie was not changed, only acting a new part.

I have already mentioned Benjamin West. He was historical painter to George III.", but still a true son of America, and much known to Americans in London. My parents were intimate with him, and he always took an interest in their children. My father showed him some flowers of my painting, on which he said, " Do not let her waste her time on such things as

BENJAMIN WEST. 27

these ; make her draw heads ; any one who can draw or paint the human face divine, will find all other objects easy work." Mrs. West had a very beautiful little spaniel of King Charles's breed, and on my mother's admiring it, Mr. West made a portrait of it for her.

My parents refused to be presented at the Court of St. James, and yet had a great desire to see the Royal family ; so Mr. West promised to obtain permission for them to be present in Somerset House, when the Royal family visited the exhibition of pictures there, previous to its being opened to the public. Mr. West always attended the King, on these occasions, to point out to his Majesty the pictures most worthy of his attention, and was always invited to breakfast with him on the morning that he went to Somerset House. During the breakfast, Mr. West obtained leave to admit his Quaker friends to the hall of entrance, and an order was despatched to the guards on duty there to admit us. The commanding officer was very civil and placed us so as to see the royal party to the best advantage.

The King came first, then the Queen, followed by four princesses, and they courteously delayed their passage through the hall for our gratification. Princess Elizabeth said, loud enough for us to hear, that she admired the Quaker bonnet, and should like to wear one, a great stretch of politeness, we thought. The King asked Mr. West if the little girl were a Quaker ; I had on a straw bonnet. On hearing that I was, he said, " Tell her that if she had had on a Quaker bonnet I would have spoken to her."

George III. had great fondness for Quakers, and removed some of their restrictions and disabilities. Their marriages were not legal until they were made so in his reign. The reason for his partiality was little known ; but I have heard it accounted for thus. When he was a young man, he had a Quaker mistress, to whom he w?as long faithful. She died just before his marriage, and when his courtiers supposed him to be sleeping quietly in his palace, the night before his marriage, he* was travelling incog, many miles out of London, to take a last leave of his clying mistress.