104 k nB7- •AA^a^- ^^O^A'2, ^];^!Ii^C¥^T£'ra M^^^l^l&I^I^I '^mm-ffi^^ ^ «/~.':^.,\t^.-A'^.V--^ri d^fi^^^' rhnfli ^8A^/^^ ;^';^^|^^:^ !^«A?66a' I'/^AA; ^A/^r^o ■^^Ar^o,r^, >o;a': ' ^IkV^lAA' JB^'^''^ 'N/ l^i^^AAAA: 'b^K^'>^" '/^ '^', /-^ ' M^hk- '^'^r\ ■a:a:0 ;aA^ 'library of congress. I mm "^' J'-^.^^AR/^; ->^H UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J vbbH^ ^OaOa >ky rs ,^ cf ^r. >AiA', \AA.r\ ™^f^ ;^^fYY^, Hfillfi^sIpP 1..^^^ i^j ^v^ ''^"'^, oy-:^!. i^*AQm3?9^ ^lAh ' .-^ /^ (5*. ?^^^'^ aaas:^^'^ .K^O.r<^ &m&: ■ .r^a^^m' WSSm/MdJldddMMdi T r T r^^AA/^/^/^A/^A^ A/^^^.^' ^"ik^ iii^:^-^ ^ -. ^ ^ s^w ^Ua,'^/^'^" snflAoocA^««A?^«(^««/^^rv ^aa"; w^i:^\/^i ^^^^.t '■^.^A' ^/^^/S/^^ ^A/^' ^^-^ ftAAA^N^^' iOA^' O^ff^ ,^^^, '9*^^^;:M'^^^^^^ r^A'^^A^.r'^r W^MI?^^^*Jh^ mW^JJJm '^^zii:::::^^^^^^^^ sWm^^P^e *^'^.*SH^ ::'^«A«\ft-;flnA<^fl(^,/?fl(J^«; '??a^^SS5Sgg®??^?«^!^ ^^««h^o>^WHSV/ I A BRIEF MEMORIAL OF PHILIP MAEETT READ BY SIMEON E. BALDWIN, HKKOKK THE New Haven Colony Historical Society, September 22d, 1890. NEW HAVEN: TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE A TAYl.OH, PRINTERS. 18 9 0. n fc-V ef . nuJUieMr-^'Z) A BEIEF MEMORIAL OF PHILIP MAPvETT READ 1!Y SIMEON E. BALDWIN, liEFORE THE New Haven Colony Historical Society September 22cl, 18()0. NEW HAVEN : TUTTI.F. , MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR. PKINTERS. 1890. PHILIP MARETT. \W Simeon E. Hai.dwin. [Read September 22d, 1890.] The great jrifts of I'liilip .Maivtt and hi.s I'.iinily to tlif tliarities of New Haven have made his name a familiar one, since liis deatli. l>iit coming here, as lie did, in advanced years, and with no connection with the active business of the place, there were few of our citizens who were familiarly ac ."\Iarctt manicd, in 1781, Elizabeth Cunningham of Boston, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Boylston) Cunningham. Their residence was at what was tlien No. 88 Newbury street, wliere he died July 31, 1799. The inventory of his estate amounted to about 84,000.* Paul Revere, the second, of Revolutionary memory, was one of the appraisers, and .several pieces of silver of his workmanship descended in the family. Capi Mnr.tt wa-; a parisliioner of Rev. Dr. Weljb, pastor of the llollis Street church. •Proliatc Records, SufTolk Co., Book 97, [i. ■ll!7. due of tlic articles of parlor furniture was a clock, appraised at $4n, which is not improbahlj- that now in tlie collections of this society, presenttid by the e.xecutors of Mrs. Ellen M, Gifford, y — 6 — He left a widow with two little cliil.lreii, a girl oi yfb, and boy of six. This lad, the Philip Marett who finally became a citizen of Ne^ Haven, was born Sept. 25th, 1792, and early distinguished himself at tlie pul)lic spKools of Boston. Among the noteworthy bequests of Dr. Franklin was the following : "I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my first instructions in literature to the free grammar schools established there ; I therefore give one hundred pounds sterling to mV executors, to be by them, the survivors or survivor of them, paid over to the managers or directors of the free schools in my native town of Boston, to be by them, or those person or persons who shall have the sui)erintendenee ant in which he helcl his enemy : as he liad been used to fighting Frenchmen, and hail no experience of iVmericans, he conceived we were like them."' \\"c sailed at II and returned at (i o'clock, highly gratilieil. Commodore Decatur is a man whose modest manners engage interest, and when to those were joined the cfinsideration of his tried firnniess and ciuirage he excites our liveliest admiration. I was singularly struck with the ai)])earance yesterday of Ca|>t. Dacres and Capt. IFiill: — tiiose persons who a few days since in the heat of battle were einleavoring •The late Sir \in\x-T\. I'i|ion Marett of \m Ilaule manor (wlio died in 1H84). married the daiiKhter of the last I'liilip M.-mH of La Jiaulc, who died in IHOO, two j'oars befon; his Now Haven couain. S — to take away the lives of each other, and would have exulted at success in their attempt, are now seen walkinir arm in arm as brothers ; it reminded me of a most elegant description of the battle of Talavera, by an English bard, when in the heat of fight the Frencli and Spaniards together met in a stream as friends, but after bathing rushed again to arms and fought more warmly for the suspension. Capt. Daeres is about 24 years old, small and not elegantly made; looks something like James Savage, Esquire. He is a very pleasant amusing man, full of life and anecdote, is jjossesscd of immense wealth, married to an elegant woman in England, and fights for anuisement and glory. He says this will be the last time he visits Boston in this war, unless to liatter it down, and means to enjoy himself now he is here. He is treated with great distinction and though he is very haughty, as a man attaining so high a rank in the British navy naturally would be, is a perfect gentleman. The pajiers ^vill give you a full account of the dinner on Saturday. The tickets were So ; one was offered me but it was inconvenient for me to attend. Decatur and Capt. Lawrence only dined with them ; Commodore Rogers was indisposed. When the Guerriere was fighting the Constitution, Daeres ordered his men to play Yankee Doodle by way of derision, and told his men to take care of the molasses in order to give the Yankees some black straj), (a drink composed of rum and molasses peculiar to X. England). He told his crew he would give them 20 minutes to take Capt. Hull, but the poor fellow in 20 minutes was taken himself. AVhen Daeres was in Halifax, he said he did not Ansh to fall in with less than two American frigates; then he might get some honour, but with one he could not get glory. Here he prophesied correctly. Admiral Sawyer told him: " Capt. Daeres, though you are a young man you deserve well of your country, you have fought well hitherto, but remember you are now to fight, not Frenchmen, but men of the same lilood as your- self." So much for all this, but I hope you'll pick some amusement out of it." * * * Mr. Marett was of a thoughtful disjiosition, fond of reading books of Md)stantiai merit, and wrote with force and facility from an early age. He had a way, not uiicom- iiiini among those born in the eighteenth century, of putting his thoughts upon any subject that interested him deeply upon paper. One of his manuscrijjts of this kind, dated in .ruly, 1813, when he was not quite twenty-one, begins thus : " \Yhen I hear a person e\[)ress a wish to look into futurity, I am surprise( I'cirtugal for Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a position which he retained flave-traders, and sighted in mid-nci'an a I'ortuguese mer- chantman, called the JJaria/inu Flora. The Alliyator steered towards her and was received by a cannon shot across the bows. The Unitc(l St.-itcs flag was then hoisted, liut the Marianna Flora continued tiring, under tln' a|pprehenNiiui, as it afterwards jirovfil, that the Alliijator was a pirate sailing under false colors. I, lent. Stockton, thinking that the I'ortuguese shi|i nni>t be of the same character, returned a bro.adside, at whicii the Muriaima l-'lura ran up liir n.itional flag, ami surrendered. Her p.apers were submitti-d for inspection, and >Meh apology as the case admitted of niade, but Lieut. Stockton, believing that she had a<'ted in a piratical way and insulted the authority of his goveninient, jiiit a prize-crew on l)r>aid, and f-enl her to Boston. — 10 — There sbe was libelled in admiralty, and Mr. Marett as Vice-consul for Portugal directed the management of tlie defence. The District Court held that the seizure was unjustifiable, and also sustained his claim in behalf of the owners for damages for breaking up the voyage, awarding them about $20,000. This was, of course, a very serious matter for Lieut. Stockton, against whom this decree was made, and he was driven almost beside himself by anxiety. Pie apijealed to the Circuit Court, and there upon new pleadings, the claim for damages was disallowed. Mr. Marett then appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the owners of the Marianna Flora were I'eprescnted by his brother-in-law, John Knapp of Boston, (a graduate of Harvard of the class of 1800, whose 4*. li. I\. badge is among the collections of this Society) and Thomas Addis Emmet. Blake and Webster were the opposing counsel, and as the case was one of first impression, it was argued with great care, and after a full examination of the governing principles of international law. Judge Story pronounced the opinion of the court, and it is one of his ablest efforts. Stockton, he said, had been forced to act, on a sudden emergency, after an unprovoked attack on the flag of his country, for which but a poor excuse had been offered. No doubt the Marianna Flora was on a lawful voyage, and her owners were innocent of any wrong ; but their agent, the master, had deliberately fired on an American ship of war. It was an indignity to the nation, and Lieut. Stockton might well hesitate in assuming the arbitration of national wrongs. The case was one new to the courts, and of course new to him. It would be harsh now to hold him personally liable for heavy damages, because in exercising on the sea a discretion otticially entrusted to him, he had come to a result different from that reached after three trials in successive courts. In view of all the evidence, it was right to release the ship, because her captain had only committed an error of judgment, but that error was no good reason for giving his owners indemnity from its natural consequences, at the expense of a gallant officer of our navy who had no other end in view than to protect the honor of his country. The decree for damages was therefore set aside, and the owners left to settle their accounts with their own captain.* Mr. Marett's wide acquaintance with the course of foreign trade, coupled with sound judgment, gave his opinions great weight in Boston upon all questions of commercial intercourse, and he could express them with remarkable clearness and precision. *The Marianna Flora, 11 Wheaton's Reports, p. 1. — n — When the tariff bill of 1820 was peiKliiii;: in Congress, by which a considerable increase in protective duties was to l)e granted, and all manufactured goods were to be excluded from our ports unless coming direct from the country of their origin, Mr. Marett contributed, over the signature of " P." a vigorous attack ii]ion the l)ill, to the Boston Repertory, a newspaper tlu'ii conducted by Nathan Hale. I (juote a few jiassages from it, to show his terse and telling style of composition. '"Tliat it is desirable to merchants to be able to prosecute trade free fnuii all unnecessary restrictions, — to be allowed to i^xpoit whatever articles they clioose, ami in return to imjiort such commodities as will be most benelicial, no one will orted this bill, but the inference is irresistible that they consider their duty to be, not to con8ierly appreciated by him to whose charge they are confided, we yet have from this State many devoted U> her service, anul)lic institutions of one kind and another. It has always also been famous for its dinner- parties, and it learned early that the two can be easily combined. The monthly meetings of the trustees of the Boston Library, of the wardens and vestry of King's Chapel, and of many similar bodies, took tlie shape of a friendly dinner fi»i/<\ preserved apides, calves-foot jellv, preserved peaches, two sipiash pies, two of appli', two of coeoaniit, two of |)eacli, fancy cake, cheese-cake, cheese, olives, and preserved prunes, and two threepint pvramids of ice cream. Then "when the white cloth was removed," came in on a "hijrh ylass dish" apples, oranges, ])ears, and graj)es, flanked by dishes of walnuts and raisins. The table was also (it was before the days of Father Mattliew) well fortitied with decanters of sherry and .Madeira, a tlagon of hock, and one of claret, and four bottles of chanii)agne ; followed by coffee and cigars. Mrs. Marett was a hostess whose cliarm of manner none who enjoyed lier liosjiitali- ties could forget, ami their only child, Miss Ellen Martha Marett, afterwanls .Airs. Arthur N. GifFord, was a per.son of remarkable social attractions, coui>led with high intellectual j)ower. Her portrait l)y Alexander in the galleries of the Yale Art School re]>resents her as she looked at the age of seventeen, but is more successful in de]iicting the beautv of her features, than in .showing the animation of expression which gave them a peculiar interest to every observer. I'lider such auspices the spacious parlors of Mr. Marett's house on Summer street were a favorite center of social enjoyment, and we need not wonder tliat one of iiis old J>ostou friends, — an accomplished scholar ami historian, — wrote him long after his removal to New Haven, "I have never found a substitute for your home, since you left here." In the .summer of 1840 he took his wife and daughter on an extended western lour, partly for the benefit of hi-, own hc.illli, which had bi'coine somewlial impainil liy the liressure of accunnilatnig duties. His services were soULthi in various cpiarlers, outside of his regular business engagements, and I he many positions whieh he lilled as ch:iinnan of a .sciiooi coinniitfee, trustee of a libr.iry, wanlen of King's Chapel, and delegate to banking and ]iolitical conventions, contributed to we.ir upon his strength. — U — Mr. Marett was a gooil fi-ii'iKl. He had the art of conferring obligations, as if he were receiving tlieni ; or rather it wax with him, not art, hut nature. IIis disposition was kindly, and his good offices were seldom sought in vain, by any who had the slightest reason to ask them. In a gratet'ul lelter from tlie princijial of the Wintiiro]) School in IJoston, on occa- sion of iMr. ]Marett"s retiring fi'oui his official connection «illi the school-board in 1)S40, the writer says : "Your steady and vigilant care of its interests, those who are acquainted with the early history of the school must always gratefully remember. The institution anC'r, 1><4(>, 87 miles, in twu hours and a half, or at the rate of about :i5 miles an hour. At Paris, they spent a month. He read Freneh easily, aiiil aildeil to liis iilirary, while liierc, l)y tin; jiMrcliase of a number of laic and iiitiresting works, in that language, ni.iiidy of an historieal eliaraeter. Soon after his return to this eouiilry, uliiih was in October, IsIC, he removed to Brooklyn, and after spending .i few years tiiere and in New York, or in Iravcl in the South during the winter months, finally settled on New Haven as his plaee of residence. In 1852 he established himself in St. John's Plaee, fronting the Green, and here he sjienl the remainder of his life. The management of his rajiidly increasing fortune occu|)ied part of his time, and tin- rest was mainly spent in reading, and in the society of his wife and daughter, between wlioni and himself there always existed tlie tenderest and deejiest affection. He was also bound by tlie strongest attacliineni to his sister Mrs. IJaldwin of Boston. A letter which she wrote him when absent on a summer excursion a few yeans before her death, shows so fully their feelings to each other, that 1 venture to ipn^te from it. "To-day's mail brought us plenty of newsj)a|)ers, but they ilid not convey any intelligence of those near and dear friends wlio wind more closely rouml my heart eaeli succeeding year. First on the list is my lieloved brother, the idol, almost, of my child- hood, the companion of my youth, the friend and counselor of my mature age, and for whom I pray, as for my husband, that 1 may not survive. I hn|ie it is not selfish. I did not ask it, in the case of my beloved mother." She had her wish, dying in 1802, the same year with her husband, and seven years before her brother. Cliief-.Tustiec Shaw, who after he had passed his eightieth year had made a ])leasant visit to his kinsman's family at New Haven, ilied in IStil, and a list which .Mr. Marett kejJt of his old friends who had passed away since he left Boston, tells a pathetic story of his watch of a narrowing circle, as it closed about him. His life here was one of retirement, particularly after the marriage of his daughter to Mr. Arthur N. GifTord look her to New ^'ork in ls.">b. He lunl a small circle of warm friends in New Haven, ;inil his liou.se was always .an attractive one to them ; but his later years were spent much at his study-tiible among his books. He had a well- chosen library of towanls a thousand volumes furnisheil with the leading Kiiglish aiHJ American poets, novelists, and historians, and a number of the best biographies. — 16 — He continued, also, to tlie last to maintain his interest in the events of the day, and in its current literature. Occasionally he sent an article to the local newspapers. When a real or fancied case of hydrophobia induced the city authorities to authorize the killing of all dogs found on the sti'eets unmuzzled, he wrote in this way, quite an essay in their defence, urging the better example set by London where, he said, wandering dogs were taken in charge, and sold at auction, the proceeds going to a "Home for Lost and Starv- ing Dogs." It is not improbable that this was one of the causes which led his daughter, after his death, to endow the "Sheltering Home for Animals" in Boston, which bears her name, and also to leave by will a bequest for the foundation of a society in New Haven for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Mr. Marett had a large correspondence of a friendly nature, and his letters were of the kind one likes to get ; full of news, full of kindness, and full of the jiersonality of the writer, himself. " I feel," wrote one of his old Boston friends to him from Paris in 1859, "that my letters are a very poor return for yours. You give me more information than all my other correspondents upon the topics that interest me the most." Mr. Marett had all the depth of feeling and justness of observation which go to make up a j)oetic nature, and with these qualities he had a facility at rhyming, which might have made a less sensible man fancy himself in truth a poet. He often amused himself in writing in verse to his immediate family, when away from home, and the birthday gifts which passed between him and his daughter were often, down to his last years, accompanied by notes in rhyme, expressing on each side (for she also was almost a poet), the tenderest affection with that grace and simple force which plain prose seems often unable to compass. He was of a thoughtful and meditative disposition, and religion was one of the chief subjects that engaged his attention, in advancing years. He was a Unitarian of the Channing school, deeply penetrated by a sense of the goodness of God ; the reverent child of a loving Father. " Thus thinking of Him," he wrote to his daughter a few years before his death, " with a heart overflowing with lively gratitude for all His blessings to me, I do not dread an approach to his immediate presence, confident that He will not judge nie by the inflexible principles of justice, but with an imlulgent view of my weakness, my temptations, and my inii)erfections." A private journal which he kept is full of reflections of a similar nature, and contains occasional entries of prayers, carefully elaborated in the style of a former generation, and breathing a spirit of tnist and perfect faith in the Divine goodness and mercy. In 1867, at the age of 74, he drew his own will, providing for the ultiMiate a])jjro- priation of about seven hundred thousand dollars for various )iul)lic and oliarilahle objects, a life interest being reserved to his wife and daughter. The estate was distributed in 1889, the New Haven Hospital receiving a tiftli, the city for its aged and intirni jioor, ns one of their strongest arguments by those whose efforts induced the city government to establish our pi-esent i)ublic library a few years ago. His daughter, 3Irs. GifFord, wln^ died last fall,* left a fortune of over a million, * Mrs. Gifford died September 7th, 1S90. Her inarried lifi' was passed in New York, and lier later years at New Haven, with occasional winters spent in the south or ;ilin)alied to the sup])oi't of Free Heds for the benelit of poor ]>atieiits in that Institution, giving preference to the Incurably affected, if such were admissible. " Feeling a great syni))athy for Incurables and a desire his wishes shall be carried out, I therefore give to said Society Fifty Thousand (.")(), ooo) Dollars, a portion to be used as far as necessary, for the erection of a separate Iniilding on the Hospital grounds, corresponding in appearance to the liuildings of late years erected, anying the saireserve their memory, as long as there are ))Oor and sick to be relieved, as long as Colleges and libraries endure, as long as Christian charity is dear to human hearts. / W^rfurF^^^ii 0rfwWh^^fim §&'& .r^r\0' ^MOnn, ^f^^,^'. nffpmm "^m ■1/ _ ''.' 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