Winslow Family Memorial, Volume II FAMILY MEMORIAL The Winslows of Boston Isaac Winslow Margaret Catherine Winslow IN FIVE VOLUMES VOLUME II Boston, Massachusetts 1837?-1873? TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED BY ROBERT NEWSOM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE 2009-10 Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume II Editorial material Copyright © 2010 Robert Walker Newsom ___________________________________ All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this work, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission from the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume II Chapter Thirteen (Volume Two, Chapter One) Biographies more interesting than works of Fiction – Digressive style inevitable when writing the biography of a whole family, and Isaac proposes to carry on in the same style – Further recollections of New York – The house in William Street – Numerous connections in the city; uncles Edward and John and families; Grandfather and uncle Davis; Capt. Handfield – Children of his great uncle Isaac’s first wife, Lucy Waldo, move from General Knox’s to aunt Sukey’s in Beacon St., Boston; letters from his father to these – Relatives and friends in England – Isaac’s carefree childhood amid the turmoil of his elders – Prince William Henry trying to ice skate – Much to amuse children in the city – Dutch farmers and their produce – House in Dock St. – The nine o’clock signal gun and watching the King’s ships put out their lights at night – learning Chess – a French dentist on his father’s difficulties with the language – The Peace of Paris at last and its stipulations about Loyalists – The family decamps to Newtown, Connecticut as a stepping stone towards Boston – Almost shipwrecked at Hell Gate – The children’s delight in the Country – Their mother’s dismay at their rude house – His father’s more relaxed life in the country, which suits his unambitious temperament – Further adventures with little Rose – Attempts to go without shoes – Rose’s musical entertainments – A misadventure with a nail – Schooled (poorly) by a Frenchman – Watching overnight a small sick friend – Travel by horseback – Isaac’s first play – A misadventure riding with his mother – His father’s trip to Boston – Letters between his father and mother; his father visits family in Newport; news from his mother; his farther arrives in Boston and is received by Governor Hancock “beyond his greatest expectation”; applying for permission to return from the Governor and Assembly; reconnecting with family in Boston; financial worries; his mother growing tired of keeping house without her husband; still no word from the Assembly on permissions; more visits with family in Boston; more about his civil reception by the citizens and leaders; an exchange of gloomy letters; his father discouraged about business prospects – Removal from Newtown to Boston of the whole family at last – Renewed family connections – Aunt Sukey’s big Beacon St. house – His sister Mary a pretty and precocious but alas a spoiled child. I Vol 2 Chap 1 It has before been said, that after at my daughters request I first began this work, intended at first as an autobiography, it gradually assumed the character of a family biography or memorial – and in many cases has become, a sort of reminiscence of the “olden time” – This has been done to avoid a dry genealogical detail which to the descendants of ancestors, we have never known but by name, is little interesting, but if connected with circumstances even of a public character, in which they as members of the community, were associated – especially with circumstances more immediately relating to themselves, an interest is naturally created in the actors – Indeed detailed biographical Sketches Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume II corresponding to an account of the opinions, sayings, and doings of almost any individual, such as Boswells life of Johnson, would be more interesting, than a work of fiction could possibly be, and almost as much so to strangers as to connections, such details however are rarely preserved in any family, only any fidus achates* like Boswell – In [l]ieu† of this, most biographers of late years, have [c]ompiled their books from letters, which though not to [be] compared with the personal notices of character by a judicious observer, are yet the best materials which can be obtained, after a lapse of years. But these, referring to persons and events of the day, almost unavoidably, lead the biographer, from his main objects, to collateral ones – as the learned judge Marshall, has made his biography of Washington, in fact – a history of the revolutiona[ry] war – If such is the case in regard to the biogr[apher of] II. Vol 2 Chap 1 an individual, much more will be digressive style be slid into, in a family biography or memorial, and had I been possessed of letters of my two first American Progenitors, John and Edward of which I have none, the digressions would have been more and greater – nor do I regret having fallen into this digressive style of writing, as the readers of it, may be thus be led to take an interest in those parts of it which have now become New England history, which otherwise, would not have attracted attention – and though the history, has now approached a period, when my own recollections comm[ence] it will be carried on in the same style, comprehending not only family events, within my own recollection, whether of near, or distant connections, but also as heretofore but also events of a more general character, associated with early or later recollections. I have already mentiond, that [my] fathers family on our first arrival at New Yo[rk] August 17[78] went to my grandfather Davis house co[rner Pearl] and Pine Streets – While residing he[re] III Vol 2 Chap 1. the death of an infant, Benjamin, the 3d son of my parents, took place as I believe has been noticed. Having no recollection at all of this event, though more trivial circumstances at and before August 1778, (when this little brother died, I infer that my brother Thomas and myself, being then the only two children of the family were, if the disorder was infectious, purposely kept away from the scene of sickness, and death – While residing in William Street which was rather a large house, with much chamber room, my father maintained his family by keeping a grocery shop, in the room fronting on the street, and I presume was able to pay the rent by, letting out the unoccupied chambers, to the persons of his acquaintance loyalists before mentiond, who generally or occasionally within my recollection were co-occupants of that house with him – My brother John was born in this house in June 1779, and it was here that the incident recorded in the last IV Vol 2 Chap 1. volume of a Hessian Soldier taking possession of a chamber in which myself and brother slept, in the evening when my father and mother had gone out, took place‡ – The liability to * Faithful friend (after Aeneas’ trusty companion). † As the top leaves in the second half of Isaac’s portion of the ms., this page and the next have received more damage than most and are slightly chipped. Fortunately the missing text is easy to infer. ‡ Above, I, 207. Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume II having officers and their servants billeted out on the inhabitants, is an evil incident to all garrison towns. This combined with the natural desire every head of a family has to have his family to himself, led to his taking rather a singular habitation in the Spring of 1781 – by hiring a Store in a street called Dock Street, fitting up the upper part as a house – Kitchen in the Garrett, and residing there till the family left New York in 1783. – . There were some houses in the same Street which faced the East River – I presume it was difficult to get dwellings at that time, and in fact during the whole of the war, as well from the V Vol 2 Chap 1 diminished buildings in the city by the great fires formerly spoken of, as from the encreased number of inhabitants which the army and attendants, and other non residents, occasion’d – The connections of the family in New York during the war were numerous. – There was the widow of my father’s uncle Isaac with her son Thomas, a boy two years older than myself – My uncle Edward, the minister with his wife and family of 7 or 8 children my uncle John, wife & Son (about my age, the latter of whom died I think before my father’s family arrived) my grandfather Davis and wife, and my uncle Benjamin Davis* – a Captn Handfield of the army, who had married a daughter of my uncle Edward (or uncle parson, as he was generally called by the children) – all these were householders in New York, so that there was society enough without going out of the family – Besides the widow VI Vol. 2 Chap 1. of my fathers uncle Isaac (who it will be recollected died in New York, before my fathers arrival) there, were the children by his first wife, Mrs Waldo who went to Ireland with her husbands regiment. Elizabeth to whom this letter is written, had with Sister Sally Tyng, returned from their Cousin Mrs Knox residence (at the headquarters of the American army at Morristown as has been said) and from thence in the year 1779, went to my aunt Sukeys house in Beacon Street.