The Volume 45 • No. 1 • February 2011 SSpiriTpiriT of of ’76’76 Published by the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence QUINCY: “The City of Presidents” n a warm New England weekend, The General Meeting of the Society was September 25-26, 2010, the Fall held on Saturday morning at the Quincy OMeeting of the DSDI was held in Marriott after which we boarded the bus for Quincy, Massachusetts. There were 53 a tour of Quincy. Our first stop was the members and guests in attendance, including Quincy Historical Society Museum which is five children, representing 13 states and 13 housed in the former Adams Academy, a different Signers. National Historic Landmark and site of the birthplace of John Hancock. The museum After the Board of presented an informative history of Quincy Governors meeting through the centuries. on Friday, the group departed for Boston, about 7 miles away, where we caught the Harbor Express ferry and experienced a delightful, wind- Brinker sisters, trip hosts blown trip through the Boston Harbor islands with a stop at Hull before reaching the Fore River Shipyard adjacent to the USS Salem, a Cold War-era heavy cruiser that serves as home to The Lockwoods waiting for the ferry tour of Boston harbor. the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum. That evening, we enjoyed a light Our next stop was the Dorothy Quincy reception and lecture by our own Mr. Homestead, another National Historic Thornton Lockwood who presented a very Landmark and part of the original farmland interesting talk, entitled “Legacy of the that Edmund Quincy acquired in the 1630s. Declaration of Independence.” At the It was home for five generations of Quincys. conclusion, he gave a brief biography of Leading up to the American Revolution, the each of the Signers who was represented by residence was a meeting place for many attendees of the meeting. American patriots including John Adams, continued on page 3 WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE Fall Meeting 2010...................................................... 1 DSDI Meetings .......................................................... 8 President-General’s Message.................................. 2 DSDI Scholarship Program..................................... 8 Matthew Thornton Home and Plaque ............... 4 Gifts and Contributions.......................................... 9 Spring Meeting Reminder ....................................... 5 History of the Society of the Signers................ 10 John Morton Project and Conference................. 6 DSDI Insignia Order Form................................... 10 Revolutionary Frontier............................................ 7 Registrar-General’s Report .................................. 11 William Williams Plaque Dedication ................... 7 Future Meetings...................................................... 12 Picton Press Register Volumes ............................. 8 Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Officers,______ 2010-2011 Board of Governors 2010-2011 President-General JOHN CURTISS GLYNN, JR. 105 Elmsford Court, Brentwood, TN 37027 ______ First Vice-President LAWRENCE McMAHON CROFT 2604 N. Parham Road, Richmond, VA 23294 NEW HAMPSHIRE - Mrs. Kenneth S. Peterson Second Vice-President MILES JOSEPH McCORMICK 16-A Fountain Manor Drive, Greensboro, NC 27402 MASSACHUSETTS - Ms. Marianne M. Brinker Chaplain-General REV. FREDERICK WALLACE PYNE 3137 Periwinkle Court, Adamstown, MD 21710 RHODE ISLAND - Mrs. Emily Sedgwick Bagwill Registrar-General JAMES HERBERT ALEXANDER, JR. 7157 SE Reed College Place, Portland, OR 97202 CONNECTICUT - Truxtun E. Brodhead NEW YORK - Melvin P. Livingston Assistant-Registrar JOHNNY DOW ALEXANDER P.O. Box 425, Salem, OR 97308 NEW JERSEY - Philip R. Livingston Historian-General EDWARD RIDLEY FINCH, JR., ESQ. 860 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021 PENNSYLVANIA - Donald C. Ward, Sr. Assistant-Historian JOHNNY DOW ALEXANDER P.O. Box 425, Salem, OR 97308 DELAWARE - L. D. Shank, III MARYLAND - Mrs. Linda Coley Teare Treasurer-General DANIEL HEYWARD McNAMARA 8507 Henrico Avenue, Richmond, VA 23229 VIRGINIA - Robert Bruck Warden Laubach Assistant Treasurer ROBIN LEIGH RAWL 2528 Heyward Street, Columbia, SC 29205 NORTH CAROLINA - Miles J. McCormick SOUTH CAROLINA - Mrs. Laura Heyward Sturkie Secretary-General DONALD CROSSET WARD, JR. 103 East Wells Street, Apt. C-131, Baltimore, MD 21230 GEORGIA - Mrs. Julie Burnet McLaurine Assistant Secretary L. D. SHANK, III P.O. Box 634, Odessa, DE 19730 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - Mrs. Laura Haines Belman Chancellor-General T. MICHAEL KENNEDY, ESQ. 100 Flintshire Way, Coppell, TX 75019 DSDI WEB SITE: http://www.dsdi1776.com/ Dear DSDI Members, I hope everyone had a wonderful and enjoyable Christmas and 2011 is starting well for you. Kathryn and I spent three weeks with our son, John, and family in Bothell, Washington and arrived home in time for some snow in Nashville. For those that did not attend, we had a great time in Quincy, MA at the Fall 2010 meeting. The Brinker sisters did a marvelous job in hosting the meeting and everything ran like clockwork. It was a real honor for me to lay a wreath at the tomb of John Adams and to visit where he, Abigail and John Quincy had lived. I am looking forward to New Bern. It has been several years since I have been in New Bern, NC and I remember how I enjoyed visiting Tryon Palace and the other sites. I know Miles and Celeste have worked hard to make this a memorable Spring meeting. The 2010 Scholarship program ended in December and I want to thank our Scholarship Committee and Chairman, Leslie, for all that was done in completing this for us under very difficult personal circumstances, so thank you Leslie and your committee. We are putting the finishing touches on the 2011 Scholarship program. Applications will be completed on-line. This will allow us to keep an electronic copy for record purposes. The application instructions will be posted on the website as soon as all the details are completed so please check the website. And remember being a member of DSDI does not automatically guarantee anyone a scholarship award. In 2011 we will be moving more of our communications onto electronic media. We are forming a Communications Committee to look at ways we can improve in this area. One thing for sure, we need all members to send the Registrar-General their email address. All organizations are finding it expensive to continue to mail things and so we will be looking at how we can communicate with our members at less cost. We are looking at PayPal as another method to pay dues, purchase a Life Membership, donations, etc. You will note in this edition that you can order DSDI emblems via Ruth Hagan and we will be adding the new lapel pin to the form. She is also looking at other merchandise for our members so that effort will grow this year. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please email them to me: [email protected]. And I hope to see many of you in New Bern. Sincerely, John Curtiss Glynn, Jr. President-General 2 The Spirit of ’76 Fall Meeting 2010 - Quincy, Massachusetts continued from page 1 Another short bus ride took us Josiah Quincy, Benjamin Franklin, and John to the United First Parish Hancock. The house was also the childhood home of Church, a National Historical Dorothy Quincy, who married John Hancock and later Landmark also known as became the first First Lady of Massachusetts. Her “Church of the Presidents.” picture graces the dining room. It was fascinating to Built of Quincy granite in 1828 go from the early kitchen with a huge hearth through in Greek Revival style by the the various hallways and into the lovely rooms, up architect who also designed one set of back stairs which led to other rooms, and Quincy Market in Boston, the finally down the main stairs. church is the final resting place of two Presidents, John Adams After enjoying our box lunches on the lawn, we and John Quincy Adams, and headed across town and paused to see the stone cairn their First Ladies, Abigail and which marks the spot from where Abigail Adams and Louisa Catherine. In the crypt, pres. Gen. John Glynn young John Quincy Adams viewed the burning of President-General John Glynn laying wreath by the Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill in led us in the wreath-laying Adams crypt. 1775. At the base of Penn’s Hill are the birthplaces of ceremony with a prayer and the singing of “God Bless our 2nd US America.” President, John Adams, and 6th US Back at the hotel, president, John after cocktails and Quincy Adams. hors d’oeuvres, we These are the oldest enjoyed dinner and presidential a talk given by our birthplaces in the guest speaker, Dr. United States. We Edward Fitzgerald, toured the first floor executive director of both humble of the Quincy saltbox-style Historical Society. farmhouses and got a We left Quincy glimpse of life in the Group picture at the birthplaces of John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams having learned more 1700s. In one room, about this city and John Adams’ law office, the Park Ranger told us that with more appreciation for the hard work and John Adams met with Sam Adams and John Bowdoin dedication that many Massachusetts revolutionaries to draft the Massachusetts Constitution which invested in the is still in use today and greatly influenced the founding of our development of the Constitution of the United great country. States. About one mile away, at the second site of the Adams National Historical Park, we Submitted by had a guided tour of The Old House at Marianne Peacefield, where John and Abigail Adams Brinker moved in 1788. It became home to four generations of the Adams family and is filled with a vast collection of original artifacts. The adjacent Stone Library was built to hold the over 14,000 historic volumes and papers of John Quincy Adams. Quincy Historical Society and Museum 3 Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence The Matthew Thornton Home in Brunswick, Maine Matthew Thornton was born in Lisburn, County Antrim in Ireland on March 3, 1714, the son of James Thornton and Elizabeth Jenkins.