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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 SCOT( B De ho Pri TH I BEQUEST OF REV. CANON SC ADDING, D. D TORONTO, 1901. I SCOTCH BORDER CLAN DICKSON, THE FAMILY OF I'^l B. HOMER DIXON, AND THE FAMILY OF de homere or homer <'^ "m- Printed for Private histrihution onhj. i! ■ 'I v|- -til TORONTO, 1884. ^- y 1' \^ ri- METROPOLiTAfY TOROMTO CENTRAL t history ^ 7 \ -..O-- 4 '. ^'V .^- i miuwW' nitrnm*! ^1 T CONTENTS Preamble - - . The Clan Dickson • - ■ HoMEU Dixon Family De Homeke or Homer Family Other families particularly referred to- 1 3 11 43 COCKBURN 38 McKeige - 38 Dallas 34 Pearce - ■ 53 Fraser - 13 Robinson - 37 Heward 36 Sears - • 47 Mayne 12 Smith - 35 ; Royal Lineage - 57 The Borderers . 59 Vis 'I '<: ,t id*Mw>*^3'.v-rf>«Miij«i PREAMBLE. As I am now over three score, and my children are all mirors, I will commit to writing some account 3f my own and my mother's family, in case, when 1 am gone, any of my children should take an interest in the matter ; a subject which I regret to say neither my father nor my grandfather cared about, which is one reason why the following accounts will be found so imperfect. On the Dickson side, however, there are still more reasons, and principally because my grandfather, a Scotch- man, who was an only son, left home when he was still young, and was thrice burned out, viz. : twice in the city of Westminster, England, and once in Ostend ; besides which, his houses both in Ostend and Flushing were sacked by French troops. One of the iires in England, before the year 1786, occurred when he and his wife wero in the country, and it was 8 'j this time (as my father r.sed to say) that all the family papers were lost. My grp-ndfather Dickst»n married at the age of twenty- two, and resided some twenty years in Westminster, where he had twelve cliildren, nine of whom died before the birth of the youngest and eventual sole heir. He then removed to Ostend, where he remained another score of years, when he removed to Flushing, where he dwelt 2 about a dozen years, and then removed to Amsterdam, where he died about five years after, in 1824, aged 85, while his only son was in Boston, and when his widow died two years later, the silver plate, etc., was sent to Boston, and the furniture was sold at auction. A box of papers was sent to us also, but it was consigned to the cellar, and I remember, when a boy, cutting up some old parchments to strengthen my kites. Many years after I overhauled the box again, and found only a few old papers which are now inserted in a folio book, entitled on the back : '* Dickson or Dixon Papers." My grandfather Homer died in Boston in 1837, when I, a boy of eighteen, was in Holland. He knew the history of his own family ; and my mother told me she had often heard him mention where in England his family came from, but sl.e had forgotten all about it ; and when 1 inquired of his only son, my uncle, Fitzhenry Homer, he said he had found some trunks of papers and old family letters in the attic, but had ordered them all to be burnt, and it was only from the family in England that I obtained the necessary information. I THE CLAN DICKSON. Like all surnames, the name of this Scottish Border, Foraging or Riding Clan, has been variously written at different periods. ^ • ' In a cha ter from King Robert Bruce, about A D. 11506, to Thomas .son, it occurs as filius Ricardi, and was also writti ')ick, Dicson, Dickiesoune, Dikeson, Diki- 8on, Dikson, biKSone, Diksoun, Diksoune, Dixson, Dixon, Dykson, Dyckison and Dickson. The last is now the usual form in Scotland, but in England, where Dixon is not a clan name, and where there are numerous families who do not pretend to claim a common origin, but all derive their name from being sons of various Dicks, the surname is almost invariably written Dixon. Itwas so written inScotlandas early at leastasA.D.1591, for among the barons and gentlemen of the Eastern Marches who subscribed a bond at Edinburgh in that year, promising faithfully to serve the King against Bothwell, occurs the name Patrick Dixon. My grandfather originally spelt his name Dickson, but altered it to Dixon before he went to the Netherlands. According to Nisbet (Edinburgh, 1722) the Dicksons are descended from one Richard Keith, said to be a son of the family of Keith, Earls Marshall of Scotland, and in proof thereof carry in their arms the Chief of Keith Marischal. 'i '# # ■ :;• 1 \ This Kichard was commonly called Dick, and his sons were styled after him, the affix of son in the Lowland» answering to the prefix of Mac in the Highlands. It is probable that he was the son of the great Marshal Hervey de Keth, who died in 1249, by his wife Margaret, daughter of William, third Lord Douglas, because it was customary in those days in Scotland, before the introduc- tion of quartering, for cadets to compose their Arms by- adding to their paternal bearing a part or the whole of their mother's Arms to show their maternal descent, and to difference themselves from other descendants of the family, and the Arms of Keith are Argent, oh a chief or, three pallets gules, while the House of Douglas, before the death of the Bruce in 1329, when the heart was added, bore simply Azure three mullets argent. The oldest Arms of the Dicksons are Azure, three mullets argent, on a chief or, three pallets gules. The first Dickson on record, moreover, was also a vassal or retainer of the Douglas, and a man of wealth and in- fluence. This Thomas Dickson of Heysleside, Co. L&nark, was born A.D. 1247, and if grandson of the aforesaid Hervey de Keth was then also second cousin to William, seventh Lord Douglas, father of the good Sir James, eighth Lord. Archdeacon Barbour, who wrote in 1375, calls him a good and rich man, who had many friends. His account of the return of Sir James to Douglasdale in 1307, is as follows : " Now takeis James his wiage Towart Dowglas his heretage. And than a man wonnyt tharby That waa of freyndis weill mychty And ryche of moble and off cateill And had been till his fadyr leyll And till himself in his yowthed He had done mony a thankful deid Thoin Dicson wes his name perfay. " Etc. It z. e. " Now takes James his voyage Toward Douglas his heritage. And then a man dwelt thereby That was of friends very mighty ' . And rich of movables and cattle And who had been loyal to his father And to himself in his youth He had done many a thankful deed Thom Dicson was his name by my faith To Mm he sends and prayed him That he would come to him at once To speak privately to him And he regardless of the danger went to him And when he told him who he was He wept for joy and for pity And took him directly to his house Where in a chamber privately He kept him and his company That no one perceived it. Of meat and drink and other things That might comfort them they had plenty. He wrought with so much subtilty That all the loyal men oi the country That were dwelling there in his father's time This good mail made come one by one And do their homage every one And he himself first homage made." After the capture of Berwick, in 1295, Thomas Dickson enabled William, seventh Lord Douglas, to obtain posses- sion of his castle of Sanquhar, for which he received the lands of Hisleside, or Hazelside, about two miles west of Douglas, where there is still a farm-house bearing the name. There is scarcely a vestige of the old mansion now remaining, but there are indications that it was a building of magnitude and strength. Soon after his accession to the throne. King Robert Bruce (in 1306) conveyed to Thomas filius Ricardi, the barony of Symundstun, how Symington, in the County of Lanark ; * and he was also created Hereditary Castellan or Governor of Douglas Castle. As such, the Castellan resided in his own house, except in case of war, when he left his house in charge of his dependents, and himself took command of Castle Douglas. In 1307, by Dickson's aid, as Barbour tells us, the good Sir James recaptured his castle of Douglas from the Eng- lish, but according to Hume's History of the Family of Douglas (Edinburgh, 1648), being oppressed with the mul- titude of his enemies, he was, himself cut down and slain. According to tradition, although cut across the middle by an English sword, he still continued his opposition until he fell lifeless, and this account is supported by a memorial of some authority — a tombstone, still to bo seen in the church-yard of St. Bride of Douglas, on which is sculptured a figure of Dickson, supporting with his left hand hu protruding entrails, and raising his sword in the T Reg. Mag. Sig.,16, 78. '^^, other in the attitude of combat. The story is told in Scott's ** Castle Dangerous." He was killed on Palm Sunday, March, 1307, aged 60, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas Dickson. Hie successors, the eldest branch, at least, took the name of Symonston, and altered their arms to Gules, a two-handed sword between two mullets or, while the other branches of the family retained both the name of Dickson and the arms, diiSerencing the latter only with very f « h exceptions, by changing the metals or the colors. The Dicksons were formerly one of the principal Border Clans of the East Marches, and according to Rogers* (Traits and Stories of the Scottish People, London, 1867), were called " The Famous Dicksons. " ^ These Forajging or Riding Clans, as they were otherwise styled, were broken up about the time of the Union of the Crowns. A little work, called Moneypenny's Chronicle, pub- lished in 1597 and 1603, gives among other particular:* concerning Scotland, a list of the principal clans and sur- names on the Borders, not landed, as well as of the chief riders and men of name among them. It commences thus : East Marches. Bromfield (Chief, Bromfield of Gordon Mains, or of that Ilk). Trotters (Chief unknown). DiKSONS (Chief unknowji), etc., etc. • As the Highlanders either levied blackmail or plundered the Lowlanders, so also the Border Clans considered it per- . fectly legitimate, aye, even honorable, not only to return the compliment to their own countrymen in the North, 5! . 1 . :*ti t '" .M rr"" 8 but to live upon their English neighbors south of the Border. Their chief property was in cattle, and as they themselves were nightly exposed to the attacks of the Eng- lish marchmen, as rapacious and active as themselves, their incursions assumed the appearance of fair reprisals. A predatory expedition was the general declaration of enmity ; and a command given by the chief to clear the pastures of the enemy constituted the usual letters of marque, and the cattle taken were considered fair spoils of war. It was the custom of the times everywhere. How f re - quently we read in old Froissart, or Monstrelet, of noble knights going forth in search of adventures, which, in our present language would signify to lay their hands on whatever they came across. Although they occasionally acted as infantry, the Moss- troopers were so much accustomed to act on horseback that they held it even mean to appear otherwise. They generally acted as light cavalry, riding small horses trained to move through the Scottish morasses ; and at the blaze of their beacon fires ten thousand men would assemble in a single day. Nisbet in his Heraldry (Edinburgh, 1722), says : "There are several families of the name of Dickson, of good old standing in the Shire of Berwick," and names Dickson, of Buhtrig ; Dickson, of Belchester, now the only old family of that name since Buhtrig has failed (or become extinct) ; Dickson, of Newbigging ; Dickson, of We>?ter Binning ; and Sir Robert Dickson, of Sornbegg, now designed of Inveresk. The Dicksons of Inveresk claimed descent from the Buhtrig family, one of whom, John Dickson, of Glasgow, temp. Jac. VI., purchased of Sir Matthew Stewart, of Minto, the lands of Busby. He was father of the cele- «E.-'* ' . :p \ ^« ••■ ;- i ^ ;-^i E^KiK flft w™^- '- ■* W4 brated Rev. Dr. David Dickson, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, who was born in 1583, and died 1663. His son, John Dickson, of Busby, married Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Montgomery, of Skermerley, by his first wife the Lady Mary, daughter of Archibald, Marquess of Argyle. Their grandson, Sir Robert Dickson, was created a baronet in 1695, and took the title of Sorn- begg from a barony he acquired in Ayrshire. He died in 1712, and was succeeded by his son Robert, who died without male issue, in 1760. Besides Berwick i.nd Lanark there were many families of the name in Peebles and other border counties. Chambers, in his History of Peeblesshire, says : "These Dikesons, or Dyckisons (now modernized into Dickson), seem to have been an old and pretty numerous family in the district, for they turn up on all occasions in the burgh and other records." Robert Dickson, of Hutcheonfield, Co. Peebles, was living in 1407» when the estate of Ormiston, of Wormiston, with its border tower, was conveyed to him. His descen- dant, William Dickison, possessed the estate in 1516. The vault ot the peel-house, of Hutcheonfield, is still in existence. John Dikeson, of Smithfield, Co. Peebles, was witness to a deed dated 6th August, 1457. He is the oldest re- corded proprietor of the old Castle of Smithfield, which was destroyed about a century ago. From the Dicksons the estate passed to the Hays, by the marriage of the daughter and sole heiress of John Dickson to John, third Lord Hay, of Yester, who died in 1543. The Dicksons were possessors of Winkston, Co. Peebles, in 1489. Part of the old mansion, now turned into a farm-house, is still in existence. Tliey had also a mansion I :;l ISr r f\\: 10 in Edinburgh, in the Cowgate, above the foot of Lib- berton's Wynd, where their Arms, a war wolf passant, on a chief three mullets argent, were to be seen cut in stone, above the door, about a century ago. Whitslaid, Co. Peebles, formerly belonged to the Dick- sons. About the early part of the 17th century, John Dickson, of Whitslaid, married Janet, daughter of Sir David Murray, of Stanhope, by his wife, Lilias, daughter of John, Earl of Wigton. Whitslaid was sold by Willijara Dickson, in 1 777. The Dicksons of Kilbucho and Hartree were another Peeblesshire family. In 1649, one of them became Judge in the Court of Session, under the title of Lord Hartree* In this century we find William Dickson, of Kilbucho, married Margaret, daughter of Sir William Murray, Bart., and David Dickson, of Hartree, married Helen, daughter of Sir Alexander Wed derburn, of Blackness. Elizabeth, daughter of John Dickson, of Hartree, married Sir George Mackenzie, of Rosehaugh, Lord Advocate of Scotland, who died in 1691. This family are still in possession of Hartree and Kilbucho. In the fifteenth century one of the name was a companion of Sir James Stewart, Lord of. Lorn, called the Black Knight of Lorn, who married Jane, Queen Dowager of Scotland, for in 1445 a safe-conduct was granted by Henry VI., King of England, to " James Stewert, lately husband of the late Queen of Scotland, John Stewert, his son, and William Dicson, Scots, with twenty persons, Scotchmen, in their company. " This William Dickson must have been a person of some note, for although there were twenty others he is the only one named in connection with the stepfather and stepbrother (Sir John Stewart, afterwards Earl of Athol) of the reigning King, James the Second. I! II I \ HOMER DIXON FAMILY, Heney Dickson, of Dunblane, Perthshire, had a son, William, bom in 1737, who probably died young, as my father had never heard his name mentioned, and a daughter, Margaret, born in 1744. My father told me she had married in Leith (or Falkirk ?) but he had for- gotten her husband's name. It must be remembered that my father was the young- est child of his parents and the only survivor, born twenty years after they were married, and when they left England in 1787 he was only six years old ; and, as the French Revolution broke out in 1792, and soon after England and France, with wliich the Low Countiies were then united, were at war, there was hardly any communi- cation between Great Britain and Holland or Belgium until 1814, when my grund parents were nearly fourscore, and too old to think of returning home, or even hunting up their relations if living. My father went to England in 1814, and remained a year, principally in London, but all his near relations of the name of Dickson were then dead. As before stated, our family papers were destroyed by fire before 1786, but I believe my father had an impression that his grandfather Henry Dickson's house was in the country, and his town house only in Dunblane, and it i» certain that my grandfather, Thomas Dickson, spoke Gaelic, which is used in the Highlands of Perthshire, but is nut the language of Dunblane. ill n _j^i-,.L-_l.V~= 12 In 1841, soon ?,fter steam communication was started between Great Britain and the U. S., my parents, then residing in Boston, revisited Europe, and by my request my father had the Parish Register of Dunblane examined, and made some inquiries which I think confirmed him in his idea that Henry Dickson probably only passed the winters there, as it was formerly the custom of the gentry to pass their winttrs in the shire towns- Henry Dickson's son — Thomas Dickson, or Dixon, was born in Dunblane, County Perth, Nov. 6th, 1739, and married at Inverary, April 9th, 1762, Elizabeth Mann (born Nov. 30th, 1738), daughter of Alexander Mann or Mayne, of Renny, Ross- shire, by his wife Katharine, daughter of John Fraser, M?*ster of Lovat,* second son of Thomas Fraser, Lord Lovat, Chief of the Clan Fraser. (Alexander K. Mayne, Main or Mann, of Renny or Rhynie (House), Co. Ross, died in 1735, and was buried at Fearn in the same county. He was father of Alexander Mann, of Renny, bom 1706, died 1802, aged 96. He is called an '' Officer in the Army," and was probably a subaltern in one of the Independent Com- panies raised in 1730, as his wife's uncle, Simon Lord Lovat, who wa'i Lord Lieutenant of the County of Inver- ness, was Cautain of the first company (there was no higher rank), and the privates were almost all of them men * Master is the title in some Scotch families of the eldest son of the chief, or of tlie eldest brother if the chief has no son. I! I m \ of good families, many of whom had joined as the carry- ing of arms had been prohibited, and this service relieved them of that law. General Stewart, of Garth, in his "Highlanders of Scot- land," says five of these privates dined and slept at his- father's house at Garth, and the following morning they rode ofi" (although infantry) in their usual dress, a tartan jacket and truis, ornamented with gold lace embroidery,, or twisted cords, as was the fashion of the time, while their servants carried their military clothing and firelocks. There were six of these companies, and a captaincy was considered equal to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the line. Each company wore the family tartan of its captain, but when regimented ten years after, a dark tartan was given them, and they were then called the Black Watch, per- haps in distinction from the troops of the line who were known in the Highlands as the Red Soldiers. They were embodied in a regiment in 1740, at which they were very indignant, and mutinied, but order was soon restored and they were sent to Flanders and took part in the battle of Fontenoy. Mr. Mann was present at this engagement,^ but retired from the service soon after. The Manns were not a Rosshire family. I think I heard that this branch came from Nairnshire. '1 I ^ 'I - V ' I John Fraser, second son of Thomas Lord Lovat, was born at Tanich, Co. Ross, circa 1674. The record of his marriage is lost, but the late Captain Fraser, of Balnain, who served during the Peninsular war, but sold out in 1815, and died in 1860, believed that he married Elizabeh, 14 •daughter of Alexander Eraser, of Balnain, by his wife, a daughter of Fraser of Foyers. The Hon. John Fraser was a consistent Jacobite to the last, and often resided in France, where he was styled the Chevalier Fraser de Lovat. When in Scotland he bore assumed names, as John MacOmas (son of Thomas), John Dubh or Dhu (dark complexioned), and John Corsan, which was necessary, as he was an outlawed Jacobite, for he was a faithful adherent of Prince Charles Edward, the young chevalier, and, like his brother Simon, and many of the noblest and best men in Scotland, had no love for the German House of Hanover. To check pursuit, or to pre- vent suspicion, therefore, Simon, Lord Lovat, always gave out that this brother John was dead. Dhu, or Dow was also used in Scotland for dark hair, but according to tradition the Master of Lovat had a dark complexion. Elizabeth Dixon, nee Mann, was god-daughter of John, fourth Duke of Argyll, and generally spoke of him as her " uncle," his sister having married her grand uncle Simon, Lord Lovat, in 1733. She told my mother, in Amsterdam, that the Duke was always ver^' kind to her and that she had staid at Inverary Castle. The Duke, who was Hereditary Grand Master of the Household in Scotland, had some influence also in England, for there was a vacancy at St. James' which he oflfered, but it re- quired residence in or near the Palace, and my grand- father, who was a strict Presbyterian and did not like •Court life, declined it. This occurred soon after t leir marriage, when they bad left Scotland and taken up their residence in the Oity of Weatminster. They remained there about twenty ^ean And were twice burned out, losing much property. a ■, ['' iV' iiiii 15 My grandfather was a very kind-hearted man and could never refuse to assist his friends, by which he lost much money, and besides he became bondsman for one who held an important oflSce, and became defaulter to a large amount, which my grandfather had to pay. These losses caused a necessity for retrenchment, and he decided to go to the Continent (of Europe) where living was much cheaper. About this time, however (1786), my grandmother's uncle, General Fraser, died in London. This was Briga- dier General Thomas Fraser, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royals or First Regiment of Foot, and Lieut. -Governor of Chester (an office now, I believe, abolished), and previously Lieut. -Governor of the Island of St. Christopher, who died in the City of Westminster, Nov. 5, 1786, a bachelor, aged 75, and was buried in the Church of St. Martin's in the Fields. I have his gold watch ; maker's name, Hu. Cuningham, Dublin, No. 257 ; also bis silver snuff-box, and the re- mains of his scarlet coat. His sword was stolen in Flush- ing by a French officer, and for fear that the coat would also be stolen for the sake of the gold lace and buttons, which my father said were not gilt but solid gold, it was all stripped off and sold to a jeweller for two hundred pounds ($1000).* It was au old Scotch custom to wear rich buttons and a gold chain, and among the better and more provident of the lower ranks solid silver buttons were worn, that in the event of failing in battle or dying in a strange country. * Fearinpt I might have forgotten the exact sum, I mentioned this to a jeweller here, who said that before he left England, about forty years atfo, 8ie had often melted down old lace, and that it was always 18 karat ffold, and if the coat was heavily embroidered and the buttons gold, he did not doubt that I was right. He had himself met with silver buttons gilt. i! - 'I * ■! 16 the value thereof might defray the expenses of a decent funeral. General Fraser was very fond of my father, whom he called his little namesake, and during his last illness he ordered his servant to send for his niece (my grand- mt)ther), as he wished to give his commission as Colonel (worth then £4,000 or £5,000) to my father, then about six years old, for whose benefit it could have been sold, as it was then usual so to dispose ot commissions, even on deathbeds. The servant, however, said that our family had already left the country, and no sooner was the General dead than he ran off with about one thousand pounds in money and the most valuable effects. Ofticera were sent after him and recovered the gold watch and about £250 in money, which was all he had left. My grandparents were however only out of town at the time, and were not aware of the General's death until some weeks had passed, when one of his brother officers, a General, came down to offer them five thousand pounds stg. for the prize money due the estate, as General Fraser was one of the commanding officers at the capture of St. Eustatius in 1781 , where the prize money was estimated at four millions, and his share, which had not been dis- tributed, was valued at twenty thousand pounds. The oflfer was of course refused. They returned to town and my grandmother took out Letters of Aduiinis- tration, Dec. 29, 1786, soon after which sundry claimants appeared, and she had to oppose quite a number, and, af^^^sr defeating them and gaining her cause before the Courts of London and Edinburgh, found she had exhausted nearly all she had received. At this time a new claimant appeared, and my grand- mother, by bad advice of her proctors, gave up some <' 17 1 documents which were afterwards withheld, and she was prevented from recovering the prize money which was placed in chancery. It was afterwards said that her proctors, Black & Blundell, were interested against her, being related to the family of the last claimant. When my father was in England, in 1841-43, 1 begged of him to look up this affair, which he accordingly did, and learned that early in the present century, I think he said in 1806, a certain Major Eraser of Newton, laid claim to this sum in chancery, and, as our family were then locked up, as it were, on the Continent, and ignorant of what was going on — as there were no mails then be- tween England and the Continent, so that if advertised they never heard of it, and there was no one, therefore, to oppose him — he succeeded in establishing his claim and the money was paid over to him. About January, 1788, my grandparents went to the Continent, settling at Ostend, then a much more im- portant place than at present. In 1792 the French Revo- lution broke out, and not long after the French invaded the Austrian Netherlands. Mr. Dixon had invested some money in real estate, which he could not sell, and was afraid to leave the country for fear it would be confiscated as the property of an emigrant. He however, raised as much money as he could and gave it to his wife, who with her son Thomas (my father), then about fourteen, left Ostend in an open boat at midnight, during a severe storm, to go on board an English packet boat, supposed to be bound for England. The packet boat landed them in Flushing, where they remained until an opportunity offered for London, where my grardmother invested some of her money. Strange to say I found a certificate for part of this money. It is a printed government certificate for £1,089 stg. B / 1 i J 'jAji^^ 18 received of Mrs. Elizabeth Mann to pay for £1,800 consols, dated July 22, 1796. The receipt is in her maiden name, but Scotch women often retained their family name after marriage. It appears she bought Consols at about sixty for one hundred. During the mutiny at the Nore, in 1797, however, they went down to £45, the lowest point ever reached. Mrs. Dixon returned to Flushing, and, after more than a year's separation, was allowed to join her husband in Ostend. The French had entered that city the day after she left, and her husband was soon imprisoned, and remained con- fined some weeks until some of his Belgian friends obtained his liberty by giving bonds that he should not leave the country. On his release however, he found that his house had been taken possession of by General Beaufort with his wife and about fifteen officers and ser- vants, and with difficulty obtained permission to occupy an upper chamber in his own house. Not long after the house caught fire and was entirely consumed, and moreover, the French General claimed damages, conceiving the fault to have been in the con- struction of the chimney, for which he claimed that Mr. Dixon, as owner, was liable. The case was tried before the Tribunal of Bruges, and Mr. Dixon gained the case, but had to pay his own costs. I have still an official copy of the Decree of the Court " Citoyen Thomas Dixon vs. Citoyen Beaufort, General de Division, et Adelaide Barthelemy David, son epouse," dated Bruges, 21 Tendemiaire, I'an 6, i.e., a.d. 1798. There were no " Monsieurs " in those days, it was Citizen Dixon, and even the General was Citizen Beaufort. 19 Mr. Dixon was continually called upon to pay ** Emprunts Forces," or Forced Loans, and threatened with the guillotine if he refused. As a foreigner he was not spared, and was supposed, as an Englishman, to be rich. Assignats or bonds were given by the Government in return, but they soon became worthless. I found one which had been preserved by accident. It is for five hundred francs, received of Citizen Thomas Dixon, dated 11th Frimaire, I'an 7, or a.d. 1799. My father said there had been many of them for various amounts, but they had been thrown away as waste paper. During these troublous times, my grandfather was several times imprisoned and more than once narrowly escaped the guillotine. About the year 1803 he removed to Flushing to be near his son Thomas, who was then engaged in business, prin- cipally with the West Indies. He remained in Flushing until the lalter part of 1818, when he removed to Amsterdam, and died there October 25th, 1824, aged eleven days less than eighty-five years, and was buried in a tomb in the English Church, His only son, Thomas, was then in Boston, and the following year (April 25, 1825), his partner, Mr. Parker, wrote to him as follows : — " The health of your mother has been for some time in a weak state. She has been so much indisposod of late that she has been obliged to keep her bed, but is now recovering. I hope the old lady will live to see you again, but if she should be taken away, which is not improbable, considering her advanced age I would like to know what to have done with her efiects." About three months after she was taken sick and died August 15, 1826, (Bt. 87 years, 8 months, 16 days, and was buried alongside of her husband. ■til i I 20 ■V They had twelve children, all of whom predeceased them, excepting only the youngest son. Nine died young. A daughter, Elizabeth, bom in Westminster, Oct. 10, 1766, married a Mr. Eaton, and died in 1791, leaving an only daughter, Charlotte, born in 1787, and died in Ostend, in 1799, aged 12 years. I have still some of my aunt'£: silver, as a tea-pot and stand, sugar-bowl, salt- cellars, etc., all marked " E. E.", but some was melted over in Boston, because old-fashioned. A son, Henry, was born in Westminster, Oct. 19, 1768. In 1796, while in Ostend, an order was sent to him from England to return home and join an expedition to Gibraltar, as officer of the Commissariat, but the French Police got wind of it and arrested him. He was confined in prison, and finally exiled to Ypres, under siirveillance of the police, but his sufferings so undermined his con- stitution that he died of consumption. He married Sarah Watkinson. She was companion to a lady of rank. Hia parents opposed the match, and he ran away with her. They were soon forgiven, and he died in Ostend, June 27, 1802, leaving an only son, Henry, who died a bachelor, in Manilla, E. I., in 1823. His widow was taken home by my grandparents, and, against their wish, ran away a second time, and married Captain John Heseldon, a handsome Irish officer, who spent what little she had, and died, and she was again supported by nxy grandparents until her death. Thomas Dickson, or Dixon, of Scotland, England, and the Netherlands, was succeeded at his death, in 1824, by his only surviving son, Thomas Dixon, Knight of the O-der of the Netherlands Lion, and of the Order of the Lily, who was born in the City of Westminster, Jan. 26, 1781, and baptized at the a (I / 21 Church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. He was not named after his father, but as has been already stated, after his granduncle, Gentjral Thomas Eraser ; but it was not then customary to give double Christian names, although they were beginning to do so. In 1787 or 1788 he accompanied his parents to the Netherlands, and when about fifteen years old, a com- mission in the British Army was sent to him by Sir Henry Dundas. afterwards Lord Viscount Melville, then Secretary of State, but it was intercepted by the French Police, and he was imprisoned, and sentence of death was passed upon him, but by the fortunate changes of Ministers of Police, at Paris — three changes in about as many months — and the intercession of his father's friends, especially Citizen Ricour, Member of the Council of Five Hundred, he was released upon bail that he should net leave the country. - ' ~ • In the year 1800 he left Ostend and settled in Flushing, where he went into business. ■ While there another letter to him from England was seized by the French Police. He had assisted a friend and countryman to escape from the continent, and this gentleman on his safe arrival in England wrote a letter of thanks. This letter being also intercepted he was arrested, and only escaped by bribing the Chief of Police with a purse of fifty Louis d 'Or, or one thousand francs. A few years after this he petitioned the British Govern- ment for reimbursement of certain losses, and among sundry certificates which he then procured was one which referred to the year 1804, and which I copy here :— " This is to certify that in the year 1804 I commanded the British brig called the ' Eve,' of North Yarmouth, was 1 22 captured in the North Sea by the French Privateer the * Admiral Bruix,'andwas conducted into Flushing, where immediately on my arrival Mr. Thomas Dixon, merchant at Flushing, rescued me from on board the privateer, conducted me to his own house, and kept me there in private for three weeks, after which he conducted me on board a Dutch schuit going to Rotterdam, which put me on shore at Brouwershaven, according to the directions of Mr. Dixon, with letters of recommendation to his friends there, who procured me a passage over to England immediately. "All which services Mr. Dixon did gratuitously, and even furnished me with ten pounds in money, as when Mr. Dixon rescued me out of the privateer all I possessed was a few shillings, which I had previously communicated to Mr. Dixon. It is and was well known that Mr. Dixon, frequently assisted other British masters in the same manner, for which every British subject ought to be acknowledging to him. " SPENCER SCOTT, *' Master of the brig ' Liberty ' of this place.'* (Mr. Dixon's friends at Brouwershaven probably induced some smuggler or fisherman to give Captain Scott a passage to England.) Between the years 1798 and 1807, he rescued from difierent French prisons between thirty and forty English captains and seamen, and procured their passages home at his own expense, and at great risk to himself had it been found out. In 1808, he was appointed magistrate of the City of Flushing, and when King Louis (Bonaparte) visited the city he had the honour of a long conversation with him [' 23 and accompanied him on horseback, as a honorary aide-de- camp, around the batteries, navy-yard, etc. When the Island of Walcheren was taken by the English in 1809, he was o dered to continue in office by His Excellency the Earl of Chatham, Commander-in-Chief, and when the English evacuated the city, was continued in the same office. When the Emperor Napoleon visited Flushing, in May, 1810, he presented to him the keys of the city, and sub- sequently delivered an address as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, but on the day following (12th May), was arrested by special order of the Emperor, taken to Paris, and confined as an " Otage Hollandais" (Dutch hostage), in the Prison la Force, where he remained more than fifteen months, charged with having served the English during their occupation of the Island of Wal- cheren; until by the unceasing efforts of his friends — van Royen, Bijleveld and Baron van Doom, Deputes de la Hollande, Bruys de Charly, Deputy of the Department of Saone and Loire, Reverchon, old member of the Council of Five Hundred, and Count Emmery, Senator, he was released from prison and sent into exile at Macon, in Burgundy, sotus caution et surveillance. He was moreover ordered to sell all his property and reinvest it in Bur- gundy, he being exiled there for life, as legal copies of all the documents still in my possession will show. The Deputy (or as we should say here Member of Parliament) Bruys de Charly, gave him letters to the Prefect (or Governor) the Baron de Roujoux, Prefect of the Department of the Saone and Loire, and others in Macon, and, although my father did not tell me so, still I think Count Emmery must also have introduced him to the Prefect and to a brother Senator in Macon, as in a I w 24 letter dated "Paris, 28 Xbre, 1811," he says: *' Dans votre Prefet, dans un de mes Collegues, vous avez la des protecteurs excellent." The Prefect invited him to dine once a week regularly, and gave him invitations to all his assemblies, and they were all very kind to him, so that lie passed the time there not unpleasantly, except that, as he was an exile, he had no passport, and could not go beyond the city walls, for the country swarmed with gendarmes (military police), who would luive demanded liis passport, and not having the same, he would have been immediately arrested and again imprisoned. At length, after two and a-half years, in January, 1814, the Baron sent for my father at ten o'clock at night, and, saying he trusted to his honour, for if the Emperor learnod of it he would be undone, told him that the enemy wou'd soon be in Macon, and m11 the exiles and Spanish officers, prisoners of war, were to be removed into the interior tlio next morning. That this war my father's only chance of escape, and he could not bear to think of his being marched off by the gendarmes, and advised him to change liis lodgings and conceal himself, promising not to order a particular seirch. The next day, from his place of concealment, he beheld the prisoners marched oft", and the following morning saw the Douaniers (officers of customs) running away. He then ventured out, and met a detachment of Austrian hussars, told the Colonel who he was, and in reply was informed that his was only an advanced guard with orders to retreat at the tirst resistance. Tlie Colonel advised him to take lodgings oi)po8ite the bridge, where he could give him warning. The next night the Coh)nel sent for him, and they galloped oft" pursued for some distance by the ffi J" VI 25 and French, arriving the following morning at Bourg I'Ain, the headquarters, where the Colonel presented him to General Count Bubna, who kindly invited him to dinner, where he sat next to the General's aide-de-camp, Prince Leopold, afterwards King of the Belgians. A few days later he arrived at Basle, in Switzerland, where he met an old acquaintance, the Chevalier de los Rios, whom he had formerly known at the Hague. (The Chevalier, who was brother to the Duke of Fernan Nunez, was afterwards Spanish minister to the Congress of Vienna, in 1815. I have two letters from him to my father, written at Vienna at that time.) The Chevalier told him confidentially that the King of France's brother, the Count d Artois (afterwards King Charles the Tenth), was then in Basle, incognito, under the name of Count Leu, and upon his saying that he might give H.R.H. some news from Burgundy, the Chevalier asked permission to present him, which was granted. He enjoyed the honour of His Royal Highness' acquaint- ance about eleven days, was able to give him much useful information, and he became very intimate with him. The Count wrote a Proclamation in the name of his brother, Louis XVIII., which Mr. Dixon got privately printed, and of which I have two copies. He (Mr. D.) then left Basle, and eight days after arrived in Nijmegen, where he presented himself to the Prince of Orange, by whom he was received very graciously. Soon after he arrived at the Hague, and passed about three months at the house of his friend van Royen, Minister of the Navy, and until the Island of Walcheren was evacuated by the French, when he returned to Flushing, arriving there May 18, 1814. Ill ''(I 26 Shortly after the return of the Bourbons, he received a letter from the Mayor of Macon who, with three deputies, had waited upon King Louis XVIII. to congratulate him upon the Restoration — informing him that he had barely finished his address when Monsieur,* who was at the king's side, said : " Apropos, you had a Mons. Dixon in exile with you a long while. It was he who first informed me of the good disposition of the Maconnais to the Bourbons, and it was in consequence of this assurance that I showed my favours to Macon in particular on my return to Paris. If you write Mons. Dixon tell him from me that I remember him with aftection." f Soon after this, His Royal Highness sent him the Patent (dated Paris, Aug. 25, 18 14 J, and Decoration of a Knight of the Order of the Lily. He was reinstated in the office of Magistrate of Flushing by King William, and when H. M. visited the city, he accompanied him in a two hours' walk about the fortifica- tions, and was listen 3d to with interest, as he had previously accompanied King Louis and the Emperor Napoleon on the same route. A dinner was given to the King, and my father was seated directly opposite to H Af., that being the second place of honour, the King being seated at the side of the table in the middle. He there placed his resignation into *" Monsieur" was the old French title for the heir apparent to the throne, as if he was the Monsieur par excellence. t"Thi8 letter was in existence at the time my father wrote his memoirs, when I was about thirteen years old (three or four years before I returned to Holland to finish my education), as it was referred to by a nu/n&«r, but is now lost. He wrote on quarto paper, but the MS. was loaned to many friends and became so ragjjed and worn that after beinjf copied, it was destroyed. When I came back to Uoston (a^jed about twenty-one), I found the pa|)ers my father ha - After the battle of Waterloo, Mr. Dixon returned to Holland, and in September 1815, joined the House of Van Baggen, Parker & Co., of Amsterdam ; the style of the firm, which was of very old standing, being changed to Van Baggen, Parker & Dixon. Their principal business was importing cotton, rice and tobacco from the Southern States. The foUowin^p; spring he embarked for the U. S. A. to visit the correspondents of the firm, and arrived in Boston April 18th, 1816. He travelled through the country leisurely, as far south as Savannah, and visited the Canadas. On his return to Boston to sail for home, he became acquainted with, and married Mary B. , daughter of Benj. Perrott Homer, Esq., May 26, 1818. 32 On the 4th June, they sailed for England, remained a month at London, and then went to Paris, where they staid six weeks, and were most kindly received by the Royal Family, who only returned to the city the day before that on which they intended leaving. One of the royal carriages was sent for theiii, and when introduced in the Audience Chamber, the Count d'Artois met them at the door, embraced Mr. Dixi^n and kissed Mrs. Dixon, and then presented them to his brother, the King, who also kissed Mrs. Dixon and shook hands with Mr. Dixon. The Count then presented them to the Dukes and Duchesses d'Angoul^me and de Berri, by whom they were also most kindly received. Tho Count offered his services to Mr. Dixon, and begged him to apply to him if he should ever find it necessary. The same royal carriage was placed at their disposal on leaving, and before returning to their hotel they took a drive in the Bois de Boulogne, and meeting a Boston friend, (Mr. Joseph Joy,) gave him a seat. This gentleman, as it was supposed, (although it was headed * ' Letter from a Lady,"^ wrote an account of the presentation to a Boston paper, and I have still the slip which was cut out of the paper of April 20, 1819. The day after they left Paris for Flushing, to see old Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, passed a week at Ypenburg, near the Hague (van Royen's seat), and then went to Amsterdam, where they took a house on the Buitenkant, and remained about three years. Three sons were born there, but in 1822, Mrs. Dixon desiring to see her father, and Mr. Dixon wishing to make some business arrangements, they returned to Boston, intending only to stay at most a very few years, but this was before the days of steamers, when it was not so easy iZL. 33 I to run across as it is now, and as his parents died in Amsterdam, and Mrs. Dixon did not like to leave her father, they remained, each year as Mr. Homer grew older finding it more difficult to leave him, until they finally determined to settle in Boston. On the death of the Netherlands Consul in Boston, in 1833, Mr. Dixon received the appointment. The Nether- 1 lands Government had no Consul-General in the U.S.A. at that time. Two or three years after the opening of steam naviga- tion with Europe, they crossed the Atlantic again (in 1841), and met many old friends. At the Hague, which they visited two or three times, the King created Mr. Dixon, Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. At a grand gala night at the Royal Theatre, Mr. Dixon, who had this thne left liis family in Paris, was seated in the box with the King's ministers. Baron van Hall was tlie Minister of Justice, and his father was President of the High Court of Justice, and at a grand dinner given by Mr. van Royen, uncle to Baron van Hall, to which all the cabinet were inviteil, Mr. Dixon was placed at the host's right hand, and the first toast given by the venerable president, was, '* Tlie health of Mr. Dixon, who thirty years ago saved the life of my son, then in France as one of the Garde du corps of the Emperor Napoleon, and now meets him again for the second time as Minister of Justice." At Florence they were more graciously received by King Louis B(maparte, who gave a party expressly for them, gave them the mte of his box at the Opera, etc. r. /ti^c I « " ■HWrM , I i-U_ 34 Their party comprised : The two younger sons, Henry and Fitz, and the only daughter. The eldest son, Homer, (myself^, who had passed three years in Europe, and returned home in 1840, remained in Boston to take charge of his father's property. They remained in Europe over two year^, and in September, 1843, returned to Boston, where he died of dysentery at his house, No. 1 Walnut street, corner of Beacon street, September 15, 1849, aged 68, and was buried in the Homer tomb, King's Chapel burying ground. His widow removed to Toronto on the occasion of her eldest son's marriage, in 1858. It was during a financial crisis, and the house was sold at a sacritice to a speculator who sold it again within a couple of years for one huijdred thousand dollars. It is still standing. Some years later she was thrown from her carriage, July 9, 1875, the horses having ran away, and died from the effects of the accident on the 16th of the same month, aged 83. They had issue, three sons and one daughter, viz : 1. Benjamin Homer, of whom hereafter. 2. Thomas Henry, b. in Amsterdam in 1820, died un- married in Paris, in 1853, cat. 33. 3. Fitz Eugene, b. in Amsterdam, in 1821, m. in Philadelphia in 1849, Catherine Chew, daughter of the Hon. George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the U. S. A. , by his wife Sophia, daughter of Philip Nicklin, Esq. . by liis wife Juliana, daughter of Chief Justice Benjamin Chew, President of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, son of Chief Justice Samuel Chew, who died in 1744. DoUas or Dallas is in the county of Elgin, Scotland. The tirst of the family on record, is Sir William do Doleys, 35 knight, living in 1286. In 1442, John de Dolas held the Barony of Cantray. From him sprang William Dallas, Laird of Cantray, in 1630, from whom descended in the third degree, Robert Dallas, of Dallas Castle, Jamaica, father of Robert C. Dallas, of Kensington, ob., 1824, (who had among other issue, [Ij Sir George Dallas, Bart. ; [2] Sir Robert Dallas, Lord Chief Justice C.C.P., and [3] Charlotte, who m. Captain the Hon. George A. Byron, father of George Anson Byron, Lord Byron) — and of the Hon. Alexander James Dallas, Secretary of the Trea- suary of the U.S.A., ob. 1817, father of Vice-President Dallas, who filled also the offices of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Russia, and afterwards to the Court of St. James's. The late Governor-General of Canada, the Earl of Duflferin, told me that Vice-President Dallas and himself were cousins, an aunt of his having married Sir George Dallas, Bart. 4. Harriette Elizabeth Mann, 6. in Boston in 1825, m. in 1846, William Henry Boulton, of Toronto, M.P.P., and Mayor of Toronto. Of the Boultons of Moulton, county of Lincoln, England. He d. 1874, s.p. She m. secondly, Goldwin Smith, D.C.L., of Oxford, and the Grange, Toronto, eon of Richard Prichard Smith, Esq., M.D., of Mortimer (near Reading), Eng. , by his wife the daughter of William Breton, Esq. , of South- ampton, and sister of General Henry Wm. Breton, Oovernor of Malta. Dr. R. P. Smith (who m. secondly Katherine, daughter of Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, Bart., and a. without other male issue), was son of the Rev, Richard Smith, M.A., Rector of Long Marston, county York, and grandson of the Rev. Richard Smith, M.A., Rector of Wellineton, Salop. I Of the Smiths of Hough, Cheshire, where they removed i from CO. Lane, temp. Hen. VIIL One of the family William Smith, Lord Bishop o Lincoln Chancellor of Oxford, and President of Wales (which had then a Parlia- ment of its own), was one of the founders of Brasenose College in 1609. « 36 We return now to the eldest son of Thomas Dixon, K.N.L., K.L. Benjamin Homek Dixon, Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and Consul-General of the Netherlands in Canada, who was born in Amsterdam, Mar. 10th, 1819» He was appointed Consul of the Netherlands in Boston after his father's decease, in 1849,* but resigned on his removal to Canada, Feb. 1st, 1858. He was created Knight of the Order of the Netlierlands Lion by King William in, and in 1862, was appointed Coasul-Goueral of the Netherlands in Canada. He married firstly in Toronto, April 8tli, 1858, Kate McGill, daughter of the Hon. Chief .Justice, Sir James B. Macaulay, C.B. She died without issue in 1865. He married, secondly, Nov. 29th, 1866, Frances Caroline, daughter of William B. Howard, Es<|., of Toronto, and Mary M. Cockburn, his wife. Frances C. Ileward was born August SOtli, 1838, and named after her two godmothers ; her mother's aunt, Frances, Countess dei Pennazzi, and her mother's friend, Caroline, Lady Cunningham, both of whom were represented as sponsttrs by proxies. / Thomas HEWARD,E8q.,of Friar Wingate, county HEWARD of Cumberland, England, had issue four sons FAMILT. ^^^ ^'^^ daughter, viz : — (Ij Stephen, of whom hereafter ; (2) Thomas, who w. and left issue ; (3) J. Elder, died intestate, circa 1872, leaving about £80,000 in chancery. He had an only son who married * His Vice-Coiisul was Lieut.-Colonel George M. Thkcher. ij-r" 37 ixon. Kate les B. He 'oline, and without his father's consent, and went with his wife, it is believed, to Australia, but has never been heard of ; (4) Simon, Sir Simon Heward, who was knighted in 1837, died a bachelor. (I.) Sophia m. Captain John O'Brien, Royal Navy. The eldest son, Lieut.-Colonel Stephen Hewakd, 6. in 1777, emigrated to Canada, lie commanded the Queen's Rangers, and served in Canada during the war of 1812. He m. in Toronto in 1806, Mary daughter of Christoplier Robinson, Esq., M.P.P., and died in 1828, (Bt. 51. He was father of William Beverley Heward, who m. Mary Margaret, daughter of James Cockburn. Esq., M. D., and had issue two daughters, one of whom, Mary Ann, (Minnie) m. James Henderson, Esq., barrister, the other, Frances Caroline, m. B. Homer Dixon. :*l The Hon. Christopher Robinson, of Cleasby, ROBINSON county of York, England, (brother of the FAMILY. 1 Right Rev. John Robinson, Lord Bishop y of London, and First Plenipotentiary of the celel)rated Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, who died in 1723), was afterwards appointed Governor of Vir- ginia, where he died in 1696. His descendant in the fourth degree, Christopher Robinson, Esq., M.P.P., settled in Toronto, where he died in 1798. He married Esther, daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Sayre, and had among other issue, a son, the Hon. Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson, Bart., C.B. , (father of the present Liout. -Governor of Ontario), and a daughter, Mary, who married Lieut.-Colonel Stephen Heward, before-mentioned. i 1 ■ 38 James Cockburn, Esq., M.D., Surgeon COCKBURN I British Army, married Dorothea, daughter FAMILT. 1 ®^ Clotworthy McKeige, Esq., of Halifax, \ N.S., and had by her one daughter, Mary Margaret, born in Quebec, November 10th, 1819, who married William B. Heward, before mentioned. About 1820, Dr. Cockburn's father died in England, leaving in his will the extraordinary clause that none of his sons should inherit any share of his property unless thej^ visited Iiis grave within a certain time (one year) after his death. Dr. Cockburn, who was then stationed in Quebec, immediately sailed for home, but died on the passage, and the remaining heirs would not allow his widow and daughter any portion of the estate. The late Chief Justice Draper told me that when he returned to England (I think he said the first time), he called on John Cockburn, a barrister in London, and brother of Dr. Cockburn (the other brother was named Richard), who offered to adopt his niece, whose mother was then dead, but she had already been adopted by her mother's friend, Lady Campbell, wife of Chief Justice Sir William Campbell, who would not part with her. ( Clotworthy McKeige, of Halifax, N.S., and afterwards of Jamaica Plains, near Boston Mass., a relative of Clotworthy, Earl o Massareene, and also of the Earl of Elles- mere, was twice married. By his first wife, Isabel, h had two daughters, viz. : McKSIOE FAMILY. 39 irgeon ighter ilifax, Mary who 1. Frances, m. Count dei Pennazzi, of Pisa, Tuscany. She died a widow, in 1874, at her castle of Corte Maggiore, having had issue a son and daughter, viz. : (1), Louis Count dei Pennazzi, who has issue a son, Gualtiero Count dei Pennazzi, and (2), Isabel detto Ida, who died unmarried. Although christened Isabel, after her grandmother, the young Countess was always called Ida. 2. Dorothea, m. Dr. James Cockburn, above named. By his second wife, Eliza Church, Mr. McKeige had two sons and three daughters, viz. : 1. William Massareene. Pie came to Toronto about 1838, to see his niece, Mrs. W. B. Reward, and afterwards went to Mexico. It was no trifling trip to visit Toronto at that time, as there were then no railroads, and it was about a fortnight's journey from Boston. 2. Ellesmere Albert, who ran away from home, and is supposed to have died at sea. I. Mary Louise, m. Ernest B. Schneidler, of Havana, and died a widow, in 1875, leaving one son, Charles, now residing in Madrid, and two daughters, viz., Mina, m. Louis Will, Prussian Consul-General in Havana, now of Auchallander House, Glasgow, and has issue. (Consul-Geneial Will left Havana on account of his wife's health, and settled lirst at Blackheath, Eng., but now resides in Scotland), and Nellie, m. Senor Don Ordonez del Campo, and resides in Havana. II. Eliza, m. Dr. H. Huyt, and (III.), Augusta, died young. Clotworthy McKeig'" died at Jamaica Plai)is, and his widow then took a house in Beacon Street, Boston (one of a row of brick-houses, where the Athenaium now stands), but after a !ew years she went to Italy to see her daughter, and died in Pisa, in 1837. :M HiMM 40 We return again to B. Homer Dixon, K.N.L., who has issue by Frances C. Reward, his wife, , • 1. Mary Frances Homer, b. January 9, 1870, and named after her two grandmothers and her own mother. 2. Harriette Kate Macaulay Homer, b. December 18, 1870. Named after her aunt, Harriette E. M. Smith, and her father's tirst wife. ■>. Thomas Fraser H<>mer, b. December 6, 1871, named after his grandfather Dixon, who was, as before stated, named after his granduncle, General Thomas Fraser. 4. William Mayne Homer, />. Decemlier 26, 1872, named after his grandfather, Howard, and his ancestors the Manns, or Maynes. 5. Henry Eugene Homer, 6. June 19, 1874, named after his father's brothers. 6.^Ida Louise Homer b. April 15, 1878, named .after her mother's aunt, Louise Schneidler, and her cousin, Ida, Countess dei Pennazzi. All the above were born at The Homewood, Toronto. l Family of Fitz Eugene Dixon, of Philadelphia, younger brother of B. Homer Dixon. 1. Alexander James Dallas,?*. 1850, //'. in 1878, Margaretta, daughter of Colonel William Sergeant, U. S. Army, son of the Hon, John Sergeant, Member of Congress, whose father, the Hon. Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, was the hrst Attorney-General of Pennsylvania after the Revolution. 41 1870. and 2. Thomas Fraser, b. 1852 ; m. in 1877 Emma, daughter of Lieut. -Colonel Charles John Biddle, U. S. Army> and niece of the Hon. Craic; Biddle, Judge C.C. P., sons of Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank of the United States. 3. Sophia Dallas b. 1853, m. in 1877; Francis John Alison, barrister, son of Robert Alison, M.D. , whose father, Francis Alison, M.D., was son of the Rev. Professor Francis Alison, D. D. , of Donegal, Ireland, Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and minister of the ' First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 4. Mary Homer, b. 1855, m. in 1876, Brig. -Genera Russell Thayer (graduate of West Point Military Academy), commanding second brigade, first division ' Pennsylvania Militia, son of the Hon. Martin Russell Thayer, President Judge of the C. C. P. , of Philadelphia. 5. George Dallas, h. 1857, m. in 1879, Mary Frances Quincy, daughter* of William Henry Allen, Esq., LL.D., President of Girard College, Philadelphia, by his wife Mary Quincy, granddaughter of the Hon. Samuel Quincy, Solicitor-General of Massachusetts before the Revolutionary War. 6. Thomas Henry, ?>. 1859. 7. William Boultou, b. 1860. 8. Catherine Eugenie, h. 1864, m. in 1883 Joseph Percy Keating, barrister, son of William Valentine Keating, Esq., M.D. , whose grandfather, John Keating, Baron Keating, Knight of the Order of St. Louis, (ob. 1856, at. 96) emigrated to the U. S. after the French Revo- lution of 1792. He was grandson of Sir Geoffrey Keating, of Adare, co. Limerick, Ireland, who went to I 1,1 42 France after the seige of Limerick, and was created a Baron by the King of France. 9. Harriette (Rita), b. 1866. 10. Susan Dallas, h. 1867. 11. Matilda Wilkins, b. 1869. She was named after her aunt, Matilda Dallas, wife of Hon. W. Wilkins, Secretary of the Navy of the U. S. A. , and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the U. S. A. to the Court of Eussia. ^ted a 43 De Homere, or Homer Family. jr her ^Ikins, Cnvoy )f the Homer is an old Saxon name derived from the manor of Homere, now Hummer, county of Somerset, England, and probably signifies high mere or lake. It is not mentioned in Domesday, but occurs no less than eight times in the Inquisitiones Post Mortem, from 5 Richard II. (13812), to 2 Henry V. (1414-15), as "Homere mess' 't terr','' {i.e., messuage or manor and lands). The first of the surname on record is — Thomas de Homere, Lord of the manor of Homere, to whom lands in the neighbouring county of Dorset were granted, a.d. 1338, by Lord Maltravers. His name appears in two deeds, both of the year 1338, as Thome de Homere and Thomam de Homere (vide Collectanea Topo- graphica et Genealogica, Vol. 6, p. 349. London, 1840.) In the fourteenth century, according to a tradition in the family of the Staffordshire Homers, their ancestor left his native county on account of having fought a duel, and settled in the county of Stafford, where he or one of his descendants, built the house of Ettingshall, near Bilston, and, as the name of Thomas de Homere does not occur again in connection with the manor, which, in the latter part of this same fourteenth century (viz., a.d. 1381), was held by John Wydeford, to whom, or to his predecessor, he may have sold it, it is exceedingly probable that this Homere was the founder of the Staffordshire family, especially as this tradition, naming the very century that |l ,.^(i r-.'V'tc-'-aipiSwrni-i .44 he left his manor, was received in 1855 from Mr. Benjamin Homer, of Bilston, an old gentleman of seventy, who had never heard of Thomas de Homere, besides which the surname is an uncommon one. Surnames were assumed about the year 1000. It soon became customary' lo be named after one's own landed possessions, and the territorial De was introduced into England by the Normans in 1066. Thomas of Homere's family had no doubt held the manor for so long a period that the surname had become hereditary, and was retained by him when he j^arted with the lands to John Wydeford, who it is evident did not assume the name of Homer, but retained his own surname, derived either from some other manor or the place he came from. It is impossible to say which, as he had already dropped the prefix which, in the latter case, would have been the Saxon " atte " — John at the Wide-ford. There is a family of Homers in Warwickshire, but one of them, Mr. Arthur Aston Homer, informed me about thirty years ago, that they were a branch of the Etting- shalls. They, however, do not bear the same arms as the latter, who carry, argent, a cross-bow sable between four cocks gules, and I have a painting of these arms which belonged to my great-grandfather, Benjamin Homer, who died in 1776. Ettingshall was an old half-timbered structure* of the so called Elizabethian type. It was in such a state of decay that it was taken down about the year 1868, and the place is now a dreary waste. Being of wood, it was probably older than the time of Elizabeth, as they were '* Half-timbered signifies, I believe, timber with the interstices filled with mortar. Such houses are still to be seen in England, and 1 have seen *n old castle in Germanj' with tlu upper storeys built in that manner. 45 then be},'innin«,' to build of brick and stone. Harrison, who wrote during her reign, say.M : " The ancient manours and houses of our gentlemen are yefc and for the most part of strong timber, in framing whereof our carpenters have been and are worthilie preferred before those of like science among all other nations. Howbeit, such as be latelie builded are commonlie of either bricke or hard stone, or both." One of the family built the chancel of the old church at Sedgley, and the family burial vault was under this chancel. At the demolition of the church, through age and dilapidation, about the year 1828, the family vault was destroyed. The bones of the Homers were collected and buried in a heap by themselves. Copies of the inscriptions were taken, but tliey have unfortunately been lost. Edward Homer erected a pew in this church in 1620, which was occupied by his descendants until the demolition of the church. The seat of this pew was accidentally preserved, and camo into the possession of the Earl ct' Dudley, and now forms part of the wainscot of a house belonging to him in the Old Park, at the Wren's Nest, near Dudley. It bears the following inscription : — THIS SETE SETVP AT THE PROPER COST AND CHAGES OF EDWARD HOMER. ANNO DOMINI 1620. Although " pues " are mentioned as early as 1546, still they were ior a long while confined to the family of the patron, and were exceptional rather than otherwise until about 1600, and even thirty years later, Weever, writing in 1631, complains of pews as a novelty. The greater part of the old family property at Etting- shall was sold by the great-grandfather of T. K. Homer, Esq. (who was residing in 1875 at Spring Bank, Cheltenham, 'I J ii i' ::'! I u . 1 46 li Eng.), and the remainder was sold by his grandfather who went to reside at another family property in Sedgley, where he died in 1847, and was succeeded by his eldest son. About the year 1855, the late Horatio G. Somerby, of Boston, the antiquarian and genealogist, saw Mr. Benja- min Homer, of Bilston, Stafford, then aged about seventy, who stated that Edward Homer, of Ettingshall, had a son. Captain John Homer, who emigrated to Boston, and after some years returned to Ettingshall to see his family, and then went back to America, and was never again heard of, and Mr. T. K. Homer wrote that Captain John was a son of Edward, but whether it was that Edward who built the pew, or his son, he did not know. Mr. B. Homer, whose family were descended from a younger branch of the Ettingshalls, gave to Mr. Somerby the names of some of his ancestors, etc. , and I considered it noteworthy that there were three or four Benjamins beside himself, as this was a favourite name among the descendants of Captain John. Mr. B. Homer's only son died a midshipman in the navy. Edward Homer, of Ettingshall, county of Stafford, was father of — Captain John Homer, who was born a.d. 1647, and emigrated to Boston, Mass. , circa 1672. He m. in Boston, July 13, 1693, Margery Stephens, and d. Nov. 1, 1717, aged 70 years. She d. at Yarmouth, Mass., in 1762, cb. circa 96 or 98. They had issue six sons and two daughters. The eldest son died young. The second son, Benjamin Homer (I.,) was h. in Boston, May 8, 1698. He removed to Yarmouth, Mass., where he bought a farm and house, which latter was still standing about the year 1850. It was two storeys high, and partly constructed of 47 father \t son. >y, of senja- ^enty, |a son, after , and timber taken from the old meeting-house. It 1850 it was still a good house, and at the time it was purchased must have been one of the best in the town. He m. there Dec. 22, 1721, Elizabeth, daughter of John Crowe, or Crowell (grandson of John Crowe, one of the three original grantees of Yarmouth, and representative to the General Court, or, as it would be called here, Member Provincial Parliament), and Bethia Sears, his wife. Ill and [John Saybu, Alderman of Colchester, county of SEARS I Essex, Eng., d. in 1509, and his widow d. in FAMILY. I 1530. They were buried in St. Peter's Church, I and the following mural brass memorial is still in 'xistence : — " In this yle and neare unto this place are buryed the bodyes of John Sayer, sometyme Alderman of this Towne of Colchester, and of Elizabeth, his wyfe, which said John dyed the xiiij. day of February, in the year of our Lord God MCCCCCIX., and which said Elizabeth dyed the xxvij. day of April, in the yere of our Lorde God MCCCCCXXX." His son, John Sayre, d. in 1563, and was buried near his father, with the following memorial also in brass : — " John Sayers bodye lyeth enclosed here in grave, Wliose ghost the heavens do possess, whose fame on earth we have ; His life and eke his deatli with jrood report he ))a8t, And now he (doubteless) doth enjoy the life that aye shall last. When l^ftene hundrcth yeares and sixty -three were spent, From Chryst hia Byrth accounted just, from i)ayne to joyes he went. He dyed in Ano. D'ni. 15G3." His eldest son, Richard Sayer, b. 1508, m. Anne Knyvet, eldest daughter of John Knyvet, of Ashwelthorpe, county of Norfolk, by I 48 his wife Jane, daughter and sole heiress of John Bourchier, second Lord Berners, Chancellor of the Exchequer, by his wife Catharine, daughter of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Anne Plantagenet, grandmother of Lord Berners, was daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, son of King Edward III. E?hard Sayer, or Sayers, a political refugee, settled in Amsterdam in 1537, and died there in 1540, leaving a son, John Bourchier Sayer, who was born in 1535, and m. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Jolin Hawkins. He d. in Holland. His eldest son, John Bourchier Sayer (II), was 6. iu Amsterdam in 1561, and m. there in 1585, Maria Lamoraul van Egmond, daughter of Philip Lumoraal van Egmond,* and acc^uired with her a large fortune, princip illy in money. She d. 1620. He (/. 1629. His eldest son, Richard Sayers, or Sears, b. in Holland in 1590, attached himself to the congregation of tlie Rev. Mr. Robinson, and sailed for America, landing in Plynntutli, May 8, 1630. He m. theve Dorothy, sister ;)f tliu liev. Anthony Thaclier. He was a Representative to tlie Colony (Jourt, and d. in 1676, a\ 86. His second son, l^iul, in. Deborah Willard, * Believed to have been a relative of the fiiiiious Count Laiiioraal van Egmond, nho was inurde-ed by the " bluody" Duke of Alva in lf)t)8. His eldest son was named Fliilip (nb. iinin. in l.'i'.iO), but Fi-rwerda, iu his Wapen-Bo^iv (Leeuwardeu, 177:^), makes no mention of a Thilip Lamoraal. The diifnity of prince is, cati'fix paribitx, eonsidered the most elevated degree of nobility, after which follow dukes, manniesses, counts, or earls, viscounts and l)arons (lords) ; but Kg-mond, who wns prince of CJavre, and also prince of Steenhuizen, preferred ;i8 liis first title that oi Count of Egmond. In France the first prince of the blood, to whom I have already referred, bore the title of count (of Artois), while his younger brothers were dukes. In Scotland, when John, fourth Earl of Athol died, in 1594, and the title became extinct upon the failure of male heirs. King .lames VI. offered the earldom to his Privy Councillor, Simon Eraser, eighth Lord Lovat, nephew of the late earl, who however declined the honour, " as a sinking of his own title of Lord Lovat." 49 and was father of Bethia, wife of John Crowe, whose daughter, Elizabeth, m. Benjamin Homer, to whom we return. a I died Benjamin Homer (I), had issue six sons and three daughters. The eldest son, John Homer, h. in 1724, removed to Boston, and was a merchant and bliip owner. He was also one of the " Sons of Liberty," an association of fifteen gentlemen formed about 1768, who were in the habit (for there were no club houses nor grand hotels in those days), of meeting at the old Green Dragon tavern in Hauover Street. During the year 1768, the Massachusetts Assembly voted to raise a Committee of Correspondence with her sister colonies upon their mutual grievances, which alarmed the British Ministry who gave instructions to Governor Ber nard to express to the House their disapprobation of the Act, and to demand its repeal. This led to a warm debate which resulted in a vote, " Not to rescind." The Sons of Liberty, in order to commemorate this event, had a massive silver punch-bowl made, on which was engraved, together with several emblematical devices, the following inscription :— " To the memory of the glorious ninety -two Members of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, who, undaunted by the insolent menaces of villains in power — from a strict regard to conscience and the liberties of their constituents — on the 30th June, 1768, voted ' Not to rescind.' " 1 ill On the reverse side are the words, " 45 " — *' Wilkes and IBl* 35»»;K' f W^:e'>a!&^ i'z: i 50 Liberty,"* — and along the outer edge of the bowl are the names of the Sons of Liberty, in the following order : — John Homer, William Bowes, Peter Boyer, Benjamin Cobb, William Mackay, John Marston, Caleb Hopkins, Nathaniel Barber, John White, Daniel Malcolm, Benja- min Goodwin, John Welsh, Fortesque Vernon, Daniel Parker, Ichabod Jones, — all of whom belonged to Boston. The fourth, Benjamin Cobb, was brother-in-law to John Homer, having married his sister, Bethia Homer. Although a "Son of Libirty " in 1798, John Homer was a loyalist a few years later, and accompanied the royal army to Nova Scotia in 1776, and thereby lost a great deal of landed and other property which was confis- cated. He settled at Barrington, N. S. , and was father of Joseph Homer, J. P., Collector of Customs, who had issue (1) John Homer, Member Provincial Assembly, who died in 1846, and was succeeded as member by his son John W. Homer, and (2) Joseph Homer, father of J. A. R. Homer, M.P. , of New Westminster, B. C. , who was Member of the first Legislative Assembly in British Col- umbia, and is now a member of the Dominion Parliament. The family in Nova Scotia still treasure up some silver plate and choice old furniture which John, the loyalist, brought from Boston. Benjamin Homer (I. of name), d. in Yarmouth, Oct. 24, 1776, c«. 78. His second son, Benjamin Homer (II.,) was born in Yarmouth, August 5, 1731. He removed to Boston, and married there, * This refers to that shamefully traduced man, John Wilkes, who con- quered for lis the freedom of the press, and the iminber (4.')) of his paper, the North Briton, which caused his prosecution by Government. He is too often judged by his portrait by Ho^furth, which is a caricature. The so-called " Villains in Power " were the British Ministry, and they deserved the name. ,vl are the order : — Benjamin Hopkins, m, Benja- >n, Daniel to Boston. w to John er. >hn Homer panied the [•eby lost a was confis- was father 3, who had embly, who by his son ler of J. A. ),, who was British Col- Parliament, some silver ;he loyalist, uth, Oct. 24, »uth, August irried there, /ilkes, who con- tC>) of his vni)er, >rmneiit. He is laricuturo. The 111 thoy deserved 51 October 23, 1759, Mary Parrott, daughter of Bryant Parrott, or Parrott, and his wife, Ruth Wadsworth, daughter of Deacon John Wadsworth, of Milton, Representative to the General Court, and niece of Rev. B. Wadsworth, President of Harvard University, and of the Hon. Joseph Wadsworth, one of His Majesty's Judges — three sons of Captain Samuel Wadsworth, who, with his lieutenant and twenty-six men, were killed by the Indians in 1676, at Sudbury, Mass., where there is a monument to his memory. Bryant Perrott (son of Bryant Perrott, of County of Somer- set, Eng. , and Hannah, his wife), was a merchant, and resided in Water Street, Boston. His brick mansion-house and stable were consumed in the great fire in 1760. He d. Dec. 1754, cm. 64, and was buried in his own tomb, in King's Chapel Burying Ground. Benj. Homer (H.) was a merchant and shipowner, in partnership with his brother John, above mentioned, and the firm owned several vessels. Unfortunately, however, Benjamin was accidentally killed in 1776, and his brother John went to Nova Scol: »,, and all their vessels were seized and confiscated during the Revolu- tionary War. He resided in Cross St., North End, then a fashionable part of the town, owned negro slaves (liouse-servants), for slavery was only abolished in Massachusetts in, I think, about 1780, and, to give some idea of the times, I may add that his only son, Benj. P. Homer, told me, when a boy, that he, when of the same age, hail a negro boy to attend to himself alone. He said he then wore small clothes,* with little gold knee and shoe buckles, carried a * When he made these remarks, boys wore pantaloons. Small clothes, under the name of kiiickerbockora, wore not reintroduced until about twenty years ;ii;<>. i« «Mm 52 little gold-headed cane, and his negro attended him to school to carry his books and follow him everywhere. Benj. Homer (II.) had an only son, of whom presently, and four daughters, viz. ; — 1. Ruth, m. Mens. Pierre Hemi Arsonneau, a French gentleman, and d. a widow, s. p. 2. Elizabeth, m. Judge Amasa Paine, of Troy, N.Y. , brother of Judge Elijah Paine, father of the Hon. Charles Paine, Governor of Vermont. 3. Mary, m. Hon. Lot Hall, of Westminster, Vt., Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of Vermont. 4. Bethia Cobb, m. Colonel Oliver Gallop, of Hartland^ Vt. , Aide-de-camp of Governor Chittenden. Benj. Homer (II.) was accidentally killed at Farmington, Conn., while returning from Montreal, on horseback, by a slide of earth falling upon him, Mar. 30, 1776. He was buried there, and his epitaph states that he was " A Kind Husband, a Tender Father, a Faithful Master, a Pleasant Friend, and a Zealous Patriot." His widow survived him but a few years, dying of a broken heart. Mar. 4, 1779, CE. 30. His only son, Benjamin Parrott Homer, was born in Boston, June 30, 1761. He was baptized Benjamin, but afterwards assumed the additional name of liis mother's family, which was then become extinct by the decease, in 1784, of Bryant Perrott, the only son of his mother's only brother. He m. in Gloucester, Mass., April 1, 1790, Abigail, daughter of David Pearce, of Gloucester, and Bethia Ingersoll, his wife. She u. Jan. 17, 1811, aged 37. mil to e. gently, French N.Y., ! Hon. 53 1 David Pfarce was born Oct. 26, 1736, and died Mar. 16, 1818, ce. 81. He was one of the first merchants in the country, reported to have been worth two millions of dollars, an enor- mous sum in those days. He owned at one time forty s(iuare-rig,f?ed vessels, but lost most of them about a.d. 1800, they being nearly all seized and confiscated in different European ports, or captured by French priva- teers. I have a painting of one of his vessels, the ship '' Sukey," built in 1793. She measured 390 t(ms, and was considered a first-class ship. He sold her i . London, in 1797, to Admiral Sir Home Popham He was fifth in descent from Abraham Pierce, who was in Plymouth, Mass., with two servants, abou': the year 1623. There is a short account of the Pearce family in the N. E. Historical Geneal(;gical Register, Vol. Vi. Boston, 1852. Benj. P. Homer was an East India merchant and private underwriter, but retired from business about 1815, when he built the house No. 37, Beacon St. , corner of Walnut St., where he resided until his death, when it fell to his son as ])art of his share, and was sold upon the decease of the latter, in 1856 (without the stable, which was sold separately), for seventy thousand dollars. He was a perfect gentleman of the old school, as I can remember, but very high-tempered and exceedingly proud. When the Duke Bernard of Saxe-NVeimar, a General in tlie Netherlands army, and brotlier-in-law of the late Queen Adelaide of Great Britain, was in Boston in 1825, he lived on board of the " Pallas," a frigate which had 3 t 'i tmmm 54 been placed at his disposal by the Netherlands Govern- ment, but, together with Admiral Ryk and his officrrs, made our house, as it were, their headquarters, and the duke was very kind to us children, playing horse with me, placing me on his back, and creeping round the room. He offered to stand godfather for my sister, and wished her to be called Ida Bernardina, after his duchess and himself, but Mr. Homer refused his consent, telling my mother he would not listen to such outlandish names. The duke was not affronted, and stood as sponsor together with Mr. Homer, and my sister was named after her mother's sister, Harriette (Homer) and her grand- mother, Eliz. Mayne, who, as already stated, was also goddaughter to a duke. But a more serious affair occurred. His widowed aunt» Rebecca Perrott, told him she had made her will, and left all her property (viz., the Perrott estate, which she had inherited from her husband and son), to his children. My grandfather (who perhaps thought it was his by right), replied : " My children will have enough from their father, and do not wish to be indebted to any one else." The old lady immediately altered her will, gave one thousand dollars to buy silver plate to each of the Homer children, of whom there were then six, and left the estate, which was of great value, to her own relations. Mr. Homer met with some heavy losses in the financial crisis of 1836-7. By one bank alone he lost exactly ninety-five thousand dollars, equal to twice or thrice that sum now, and his iron chest was robbed of over one hundred thousand dollars in bonds, payable to bearer, which were never recovered. Gentlemen then had iron chests, or so-called strong boxes (not fire-proof safes), with locks which a modern burglar would laugh at. 55 )vern- iiy , Id the |li me, He Iher to (mself, ler he He died at his house in Beacon St., Boston, April 4, 1838, aged 76. He had nine children, six of whom pre- deceased him, unmarried. The survivors were, 1. Fitzhenry Homer, h. 1799, m. Nancy Bradford, daughter of the Hon, James D'Wolf, of Bristol, R. I., U. S. Senator, by his wife, Nancy, daughter of the Hon. Wm. Bradford, Lieut.-Governor of Rhode Island, wlio was fourth in descent from Governor William Bradford, who came over in the " Mayflower " in 1620. He cl. in 1856, leaving two daughters, (1) Josephine Maria, b. 1830, m. Henry Bedlow, Esq., Secretary of the U. S. Legation to Naples, and after- wards Mayor of Newport, R. I., and (2) Isabel, h. 1843, m. John Combe Pegram, Midshipman U. S. N., and now Barrister-at-Law. 2. Mary Bethia, b. June 7,. 1792, w. Thomas Dixon, K.N.L., K.L., already referred to. 3. Georgiana Albertina, b. 1809, m. Philo Strong Shel- ton, Esq., of Boston, fourth in descent from Daniel Shelton, of Deptford, Co. York, Eng. , who settled at Stratford, Conn. , where he married in 1692 Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Samuel Welles, son of Hon. Thos. Welles, one of the early Governors of Connecticut ; and bought lands still held by his descendants. They had surviving issue as follows : (I). Philo Strong, (2) Joseph, (3) Charles Parkman, (4) Benj. Homer, and three daughters, viz.: (i) Albertina, m. in 1857, Frederick Richard Sears, son of the Hon. David Sears, a descendant of Knyvet, eldest son of Richard Sears, the pilgrim ; (ii) Helen Eugenia, m. Captain Richard G. Gary, son of the Hon. Thomas G. Cary, of Boston. He was shot during the last war on the very day that his commission as Lieut. -Colonel 1 j mmmmimmm 56 was signed, (iii) Harriet Homer, m. Charlod J. Randall, son of the Hon. Judge Randall, and brother of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Randall. By the death of Fitzhenry Homer, without male issue this branch of the Homer family became extinct. An account of the family will be found in Bridgman's King's Chapel Epitaphs " Memorials of the Dead in Boston," 8vo, Boston, 1853 ; in some editions of which however, the family is erroneously derived from a Richard de Hehmor. 1 ■ fr*"^ hi J. Irotlier issue ,57 ROYAL LINEAGE, Uman a iul in wliich -ichard 1 It will be seen in the account of the Homers that through the the Sears family, I am fourteenth in descent from King Edward the Third. A matter of trifling im- portance, however, for the families who can claim royal descent are to be found in all classes of society, and may be counted by myriads. Still, as a mere matter of curiosity only, I will add one more lineage showing my descent from the Bruce. Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, was father of the Princess Margery, who married Walter, Lord High Stew- ard. Their grandson King James the First, was father of the Princess Joan, who married George Gordon, Earl of Huntley. Their great-grandson John Gordon, Earl of Huntley, was father of Lady Elizabeth Gordon, who mar- ried Jolin Stewart, fourth Earl of Athol. Their daughter Lady Elizabeth Stewart, married Hugh Eraser, Lord Lovat, whose great-grandson John, Master of Lovat, was father of Katharine Eraser, who married Alexander Mann, and their daughter, Elizabeth Mann, married Thomas Dickson, grandfather of B. Homer Dixon, who is fourteenth in descent from King James the First and eighteenth from the Bruce. And as King Robert was sixth in descent from the Conqueror, who married Maud, daughter of the Count of Flanders who was tenth in descent from Charlemagne, B. Homer Dixon is twenty-fourth in descent from William the Conqueror and thirtyfourth in lineal descent from 1 . 58 Charlemagne, who died in 814— the generations in over one thousand years averaging thus nearly thirty-one and one-half years. " Burke says that among the lineal descendants of Edward the First, King of England, entitled to quarter the royal arms, occurs Mr. Joseph Smart, of Hales Owen, butcher. Mr. Smart can also therefore trace his descent to Char- lemagne, and as it is not necessary to encumber one's shield by retaining all the family quartcrings, he has the right, not only to use these arms on his seal, but even to place the arms of Smart and England (viz., ti\e Lions of England) quarterly, over his butcher shop or stail ! 59 n over le and dward royal itcher. Char- shield right, place igland) THE BORDERERS Lest it should seem from what I have said of the bor- derers that they were not very dissimilar to the ruffians of the North- Western States, I must express the opinion that as regards their cattle hunting expeditions, they probably looked upon them in the same light as boys do the rob- bing of orchards, and as I have likened the Marchmon to privateers it must not be forgotten that it is but a few years since privateering was considered as perfectly legitimate. Leslie, Bishop of Ross, says " They never told their beads with such devotion as when they were setting out upon a marauding party, and expected a good booty as the recompense of their devotions." Froissart describes them thus : — " Englishmen on the one party and Scotchmen on the other party, are good men of war ; for when they meet there is a hard fight without sparring; thoie is no hoo (i.e., cessation for parley) be- tween them, as long as spears, swords, ax 3s or daggers will endure ; but they lay on each upon other, and when they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtained the victory, then they glorify so in their deeds of ^. ^-..4i>,«T«>a»-v.w^^i«# 60 bewray (betray) any man that trusts in them for all the gold in Scotland or France," and Scott, in his Border Antiquities, says they were of all others the most true of faith to whatever they had pledged their individual word. When a borderer made a prisoner, he esteemed it wholly unnecessary to lead him into actual captivity or confine- ment. He simply accepted his word to be a true prisoner, and named a time and ])lace where he expected him to come and treat about his ransom." At the bloody battle of Ottevbourn in 1388, the Scotch leader, the Earl Douglas, was slain, but the English were totally defeated and their connnander, Hotspur, son of the Earl of Noi'thumberland, and about one thousand others were taken prisoners. Froissart says, " when the Scots saw the English were discomfitted and surrendering on all sides, they behaved courteously to them, saying ' sit down and disarm your- selves for I am your master,' but never insulted them more than if they had been brothers," and Hume (Histoiy of the Houses of Douglas and Angus) adds " Froysard (a stranger, and favouring tnore the English) concluded touch- ing this battle, that in all history there is none so notable by the vertue of the captains and valor of the soldiers .for in the heat of the conflict no man ever fought more fiercely, in the victory obtained none ever behaved themselves more mercifully ; taking i)risoner8, and having taken them, using them as their dearest friends, in all humanitie, courtesie, gentleness, tenderness, curing their wounds, sending them home, some free without ransome, some on small ransome, almost all on their single word and promise to return at certain times appointed, or when they should be called upon. " It must be confessed, however, that the border penalties I r ill! the Border true of word, wliolly onHne- I'isoner, him to Scotch sh were 11 of the others sh were behaved n your- id tliem 'Histoiy ysard (a d touch- notable soldiers laii ever )ne ever •isoners, friends, I, curing without ir single nted, or enalties 61 were short and sharp. Those accused of march treason were tried by jury and if found guilty were decapitated, but with the marauders of either country, the wardens used much less ceremony, for they were frequently hanged in great numbers, without any process of law whatever. There was an old proverb in Scotland of Jedburgh Justice, where men were said to be hanged tirst and tried after- wards. In England tliis was called Lydford Law, but (turning again to Leslie) "although some things are to be noticed to tlioir dispraise, yet there are others to be greatly admired ; for most of them, when determined upon seeking their supplies from the plunder of the neighbouring districts, use the greatest precautions not to shed the blood of those who oppose them and if taken prisoners their elo(]uence is so powerful, and the sweetness of their language so winning, that they even can move both judges and accusers, however severe before, if not to mercy, at least to admiration and compassion." This was the opinion of a bishop who published his history in Rome in 1578. B. H. D.