Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Journal of a Lady of Quality
Appendices: - II. The Martin Family


COLONEL SAMUEL MARTIN, of whom Miss Schaw gives an engaging account, was well called the "Father of Antigua," for he was born on the island in the last decade of the seventeenth century, and except for three trips to England, covering probably less than ten years in all, lived continuously there until the very eve of the Revolution. Thus his long life of more than eighty years was coincident with the most important period in the history of the colony, and touched at many points its industrial, social, and political development.

The Martins came originally from Ireland, some of its members migrating early to Surinam and the West Indies, and settling finally, in the seventeenth century, in Antigua. Many of the later members returned to England, and as officials under government or officers in the army and navy rose to eminence in their professions, a few attaining the honors of knighthood. Others went to the American continent, to Boston, New York, and North Carolina, becoming representative men of their communities, and acquiring, as a rule, ample wealth, wherewith to maintain social positions commensurate with their prominence. The family as a whole got widely scattered during the colonial period, but its members never lost their regard for Antigua, retaining property there, and manifesting interest in its welfare and a desire to be of service to its people whenever the occasion arose. In England the most prominent Sons of the family dwelt in or near London, in Surrey, Dorset, Herts, and Berks, where, supported in part from the income of their Antigua plantations, they possessed country seats and lived the lives of country gentlemen. 'Wherever Martins resided, whether at "Green Castle" in Antigua, "Rockhall" in Long Island, or in England at Ashtead in Surrey, Great Canford in Dorset, or "White Knights" near Reading, they were of more than ordinary influence and importance. Some of them rose to positions of high distinction, particularly in the navy.

Because of the meagre records of the time, the various members of the family are not always easy to identify, and, in consequence, much confusion has resulted among those who have endeavored to deal with the family genealogy. In three generations there were five Josiahs, and in four generations, six Samuels; and in addition there were others bearing the same names, who do not appear to have belonged to this particular Martin line at all. Even with all the available evidence before us, there are still some difficulties that cannot be surmounted.

Colonel Martin's father, also a Samuel, was the son of Samuel Martin of Dublin county, Ireland, fourth in descent from a Josiah Martin of the same place (Debrett, Baronetage, ed. 1840, p. 374). He was probably born in Surinam, but appears in Antigua as early as 1678. He soon became one of the conspicuous men of the island, an ensign and major in the militia, a member of the assembly, of which he was speaker in 1689, a councillor, treasurer and collector of imposts, and, toward the end of his life, member of a committee to com- pile a body of laws. In 1699 he is spoken of as "of great estate, good sence, and repute." That he lacked the urbanity and instinctive kindliness of nature which Miss Schaw noted in his son, appears from the severity of his attitude toward his slaves, by whom he was murdered on Christmas Day, 1701. "We have lost a very useful man in Major Martin," wrote Governor Codrington. "I am afraid he was guilty of some unusual act of severity or rather some indignity toward the Coromantes, the best and most faithful of our slaves." Though the young Samuel was but a child when this tragic event took place, he must have been deeply impressed by its significance, for Miss Schaw presents a pleasing picture of the large troop of healthy negroes upon the "Green Castle" plantation—numbering about three hundred at this time—cheerfully performing the tasks imposed by a kind and beneficent master, a prince of subjects rather than an owner of slaves. Many of them had been freed, as Miss Schaw says, and others were freed later by Martin in his will.

Of Colonel Martin's life we have but a slender outline. He was born about 1690—the exact date being uncertain, because statements differ as to the age at which he died—and he died in Antigua in November, 1776, a little less than two years after Miss Schaw's visit. His early career is obscure, owing to the presence of more than one Samuel Martin on the island, but he seems to have been the Samuel of "Five Islands" plantation, who was major of militia in 1707 and of the troop of mounted horse or carabineers in 1712. In 1716 he was elected to the assembly and, except for a trip to England in 1716-1717, continued to serve either as deputy or speaker until he again left the colony in 1729. He married, before 1714, Frances Yeamans, daughter of John Yeamans, the deputy governor (1693-1711), but she died and he married, as his second wife, Sarah Wyke, the daughter of Edward Wyke, deputy governor of Montserrat, and widow of William Irish of the same island. His fourth child, Henry, the second son by his second wife, was born in Dorset, England. in 1733, so he probably remained in England on his second visit for a number of years. Soon after his return he must have been commissioned a colonel of militia, for Miss Schaw tells us that in 1772 he had been head of the militia "upwards of forty years." In 1750 he was again elected to the assembly and chosen speaker at its first session. From this time forward, living on his "Green Castle" plantation in New Division, which was picturesquely located in Bermudian Valley under Windmill Hill (Davy's West Indies, p. 408), he led an increasingly peaceful and prosperous life, resigning his place as speaker in 1763, and his seat in the assembly in 1768. At the urgent request of his children, three of whom, Samuel, Jr., Henry, and William Bvam, had been living there for a number of years (a nephew, William, was a business man in London), he went to England, when nearly eighty years of age, doubtless with the expectation of spending his declining years there. But as he told Miss Schaw, he could not stand "the dreary climate." lie spent his time partly in Surrey and partly in Dorset, and at the former place, August 13, 1773, made his will, adding codicils and generally settling his affairs. He must have returned to Antigua soon afterwards, glad to get back, as he himself said, to the "warm sunshine" of his semitropical island. He died on the island, where he had been born, and where he had spent more than three score and ten of the more than four score years of his life. His only venture into the field of authorship, as far as we know, is a pamphlet entitled An Essay upon Planters/zip, humbly inscribed to his Excellency George Thomas, Esq., Chief Governor of All the Leeward Islands, As a Monument to Ancient Friendship, which was written in Antigua and first published there about 1755. A third edition was issued in London in 1763, and a fourth, a work of sixty-two pages, in 1765. The treatise shows Colonel Martin to have been a model planter and a high-minded, considerate master.

Colonel Martin, according to his own statement, had twenty-three children, but of this number it is impossible to give the [lames of more than seven: Samuel, Jr., and Henrietta, children by his first wife, and George, Henry, Josiah, William Bvam, and Fanny, children by his second wife. That many of his children died young is probable, and that others may be found among the many Martins whose names appear in the records of Antigua and neighboring islands, is equally likely.

Samuel, Jr., his eldest son, was born in Antigua, September 1, 1714. He went to England when but a lad, possibly accompanying his father on the latter's second trip in 1729, in order to be educated, as there were no educational facilities in Antigua. He was entered at the Inner Temple about 1740, and became a bencher in 1747, continuing in residence until 1761. From 1742 to 1744 he served as deputy agent for the colony, while his cousin, John Yeamans, appointed agent in 1727, was absent on leave in Antigua; and in 1744 he was recommended by Yeamans as his successor, but the recommendation was not acted on by the colony. He became a member of parliament from the borough of Camelford in Cornwall, 1747-1768, and from the Cinque Port Hastings, 1768-1774, both controlled boroughs, and lie took some part in parliamentary business. His most important post was that of first secretary to the Treasury Board, to which he was appointed in 1756, Serving until 1762, and in which he must have had a great deal to do with the distribution of the money approprinted by parliament to recompense the continental colonies for their services and expenditures in the French and Indian War.* He became treasurer to the Princess Dowager of Wales, possibly after the death of the prince in igi, and continued to serve in that capacity until the death of the princess in 1772, "a long service," he calls it in his will. In the latter year, possibly to compensate for the loss of his office, he was granted an annuity of £iaoo out of the four and a half per cent duty, until a grant in reversion of the office of usher of H. M. Exchequer, a post paying about £4000 a year, should take place. But he died before he could profit from the emoluments of the office, which had been enjoyed since 1738 by Horace Walpole, the wit and letter writer, who survived him by nine years. He does not appear to have held any government position during the years after 1772; but we occasionally get glimpses of various business activities, by means of which he mav have added to an income already large. He had a small estate, "Marshalswyck," near St. Albans, Flerts, where he was living in retirement in 1780, when sixty-six years of age; and another in Dorset, possibly near Great Canford, about two miles southeast from Wimborne minster on the south side of the river Stour. While in London, after 1761, he lived in Queen Street, Westminster, until 1777, and afterwards at 84 P,-Ill Mall. He died November 20, 1788, and was buried in Great Canford churchyard, where there is a tablet of white marble, placed by his executors, his brothers Henry and William Bvain, and his intimate friend Ralph Willet of Merly, with the inscription, we "loved him when living and lament him now dead" (Hutchins, Dorset, III, 310).

When Colonel Martin, the father, said to Miss Schaw, "my eldest son you know by character at least," and Miss Schaw in reply expressed her admiration for that character, both were probably referring to Samuel's chief claims to the remembrance of posterity—his duel with John Wilkes and his friendship for Hogarth, who painted his portrait. Though Hogarth's biographers mention the portrait, none of them have identified Martin or have been able to give any of the circumstances under which it was painted. Flogarth retained the portrait during his lifetime, and left it to Martin in his will, and Martin in turn left it to his brother, William Byam. The date when it was painted is uncertain and its present whereabouts are unknown. It is probable that the duel with Wilkes grew in some way out of Martin's acquaintance with Hogarth and the latter's quarrel with Wilkes and Churchill, 1762-1764, for it took place at the same time, although its immediate cause was Wilkes's attack upon Martin in the MortIz Briton (March, 1763), in which he stigmatized him as "a mean, abject, low-lived, and dirty fellow" (Bleackley's Life of Wilkes, pp. 132-133, and for the duel, pp. 135-137).

During the period after 1772, Martin performed a number of set- vices for his Antiguan and North Carolinian friends and was useful in furthering the claims of some of the Loyalists before the commission. Thomas Macknight applied to him with letters from his brother, Governor Josiah Martin (Dartmouth Papers, letter of July 24, 1781), and there is a paper in the Public Record Office bearing Samuel's comments on Josiah's own claims for compensation and a pension. In these comments, Martin suggested that the Treasury grant Josiah a post in the recently organized government of Bengal. Though nothing came of the suggestion, it is interesting to note that Josiah's son, Josiah, born in North Carolina in 1772, was afterwards appointed register of the court of appeals at Benares, a post that he was filling at the time of his death in 1799 (Gentleman's Magazine, 1799, p. 1087).

Samuel's half-brother Henry, second son of Colonel Samuel by his second wife and the progenitor of the present English line, was born in England in 1733, and as far as we know never visited Antigua. He early rose to prominence in naval circles, being for many years naval commissioner at Portsmouth. In 1790 he was appointed comptroller of the navy, one of the four principal officers of the Navy Board, an office which he retained until his death. He was knighted July 28, 1791, and died August I, 1794. He lived in Harley Street, London, but died apparently in Dorset, possibly at Great Canford. He inherited "Green Castle" from his father, and had lands also in Ireland and England. He had four Sons and four daughters: the eldest son, Samuel, died in 1782; his second, Sir Henry, who attained no special distinction, died in 1842; his third, Josiah, was collector of customs in Antigua, succeeding the "Young Martin," mentioned in the text, and died in 1849; his fourth, Thomas Byam, afterwards Sir Thomas, who became an admiral in the navy and whose biography is given in the Dictionary of National Biography, died in 1854. The members of this family in no way concern us here.

Colonel Samuel's fourth son was Josiah, the governor of North Carolina, who played an important part in the events leading to the Revolution, and is mentioned a number of times in Miss Schaw's narrative, though it is doubtful if she ever met him personally. To North Carolina historians he has been but a fleeting figure, and they have been but little concerned to find out whence he came or whither he went after he left the colony. It is worth while, therefore, to give a sketch of his life, as far as the details can be recovered.

Josiah was born in Antigua in 1737 and was probably named for his uncle, whose daughter he afterwards married. He joined the local militia in 1754, at the age of seventeen, but in 1757 entered the regu- lar army as ensign of the 4th Foot. In November, 1758, he was commissioned lieutenant and on August 11, 1761, was bracketed with Charles Lee, of unsavory reputation, as major in the 103d or Volunteer Hunters. The next year, 1762, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 22d Foot, afterwards Gage's regiment, but in 1764 was transferred to the 68th, which was located in Antigua from 1764 to 1772. On account of ill health, he sold his commission in 1769 and retired from active military service. Just where he was stationed during these years is not easy to ascertain, but he must have spent part of his time in Long Island, where he married his wife; part in London, where Miers, a London jeweller and portrait painter, painted his portrait (a miniature); and part in Antigua, whither he went in 1764. There he was appointed by Governor Thomas a member of the council, in place of Arthur Freeman, whom Thomas had suspended for running away with his daughter, and he retained that position, nominally at least, until Freeman's return from England in 1771. In 1761 he married his cousin Elizabeth (apparently five years his senior), the daughter of his uncle Josiah by his first wife, a Mrs. Chester, and probably both before and after that event lived at "Rockhall," Josiah's countryseat in Long Island. He must have resided there again after resigning his commission in 1769, perhaps for two years. On December 14, 1770, he was named governor of North Carolina, through the influence of Governor Trvon, and on May 1, 1771, received his commission and instructions from England, through Lord Dunmore. He was delayed in Long Island by continued ill health and did not reach the province until July ii of that year, holding the first meeting of his council on August 12. Samuel Johnston of North Carolina wrote to Thomas Barker, June 10, 1771, "We are in daily expectation of Mr. Martin our new Govt, and as we hear a very amiable character of him are not uneasy at the approaching change" (Letter in North Carolina Historical Commission files).

Josiah was resident governor of North Carolina until 1776. He made a tour of the colony with his family and retinue in 1772, reaching Hillsboro in July, and although he endeavored to adjust the difficulties arising out of the Regulators' War, he was only moderately successful. Temperamentally he was not well fitted to deal with the unrest of the period, and has always been harshly judged, not only by North Carolina historians, but also by all whose sympathies are with the revolutionary party. He was energetic, conscientious, and loyal to the cause which he upheld, but he lacked wisdom and the spirit of compromise, and saw in the colonial movement, as did Miss Schaw herself, only an exhibition of contumacy and sedition. His letters are long and his style is turgid and tiresome. He adhered inflexibly to the constitutional rights of the prerogative, and, believing that force was the only remedy to apply in the case, lie suffered the fate of those who endeavor to coerce rather than to control an uprising based on legitimate grievances. He showed unquestioned ability and laid his plans with shrewdness and ski]], but the breaks in the game went against him. When his first efforts to obtain military assistance failed, he fled before the rising storm, and somewhat to the discredit of his valor, if not of his discretion, escaped from New Bern on May 2J., 1775, and took refuge, first at Fort Johnston (June 2), and then on board the Cruizer in the Cape Fear River (June 18 or 19). He remained in the province (on the ships of war) "for the sake of correspondence with the friends of government," and not only organized a corps of Highlanders for an attack upon Wilmington (N. C. R. XXII, 616-617), but also formulated elaborate plans, which in the autumn of 1775 he sent to Lord Dartmouth in England, by Miss Schaw's brother, Alexander—plans providing for a combined attack of land and sea forces for the purpose of reducing to subjection the Southern colonies. On January 10, 1776, he removed from the Cruizer to the Scorpion, and from that vantage point inaugurated the highland campaign, which ended in the defeat of the Highlanders at Moore's Creek bridge on February 27, 1776. In March he changed to the transport Peggy, and when Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Warren, who arrived during the spring, decided that further effort was useless, he accompanied them to Charles Town and remained there on the transport during June and most of July. With his departure from the province his governorship came to an actual, though not a legal, end. In his memorial presented to the Loyalist Claims Commission, he said that he never acted as governor after his flight from New Bern; but we know that he issued a proclamation from Charlotte in October, 1780, when he was with Lord Cornwallis's army (Connor, history of North Carolina, I, 469) and that he continued to receive his salary until October, 1783 (The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of the American Loyalists, Roxburghe Club, p. 290).

Toward the end of July, 1776, anxious to see his family, and knowing that for the time being there was nothing more for him to do in the South, Martin went to New York on the Sovereign and "for the sake of rendering immediate service" remained there for nearly three years, living with the family at "Rockhall." During this time his property in North Carolina, real and personal, was sold by order of the congress at New Bern, February 6, 1777. What his employments were during this period we do not know. He Was certainly not the "Lt. Col. Martin" who presided at a court-martial in New York, March 27, 1778 (Order Book of the Three Battalions of Loyalists commanded by Oliver DeLancey, 1776-1778), for he was no longer of military rank; but he was the "Josiah Martin" appointed a member of the Board of Associated Loyalists in October, 1780 (American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution, II, 198), though he can have had little or nothing to do with the work of that board. In the autumn of 1779, he accompanied Clinton on the latter's second expedition to South Carolina ("at the desire of Sir Hy Clinton, who proposed to make him governor of S. Carolina when conquered but found his commission did not enable him to do so," Public Record Office, C. O. 318) and the next year (August, 1780) he joined Cornwallis's army and served as a volunteer until April, 1781. He made a number of efforts to return to military command, but without success. Those of his former highland regiment who served under Cornwallis endeavored to raise a regiment of their countrymen, of which Martin was to be colonel, but the results were unsatisfactory, as only about a hundred men returned to the colors, and these, in two companies, under Captain Forbes at Charles Town in 1781, and Captain McArthur at Fort Arbuthnot in 1782, were compelled to remain on guard duty (Ross, Cornwallis Correspondence, 1, 54; Loyalist Muster Rolls, MSS., )777-1783).

Cornwallis thought well of Martin and spoke highly of his services. "In opening up channels of correspondence with our friends in North Carolina," he wrote to Lord George Germain, "I have been greatly assisted by Gov. Martin, from whose abilities and zeal for the service I have on many occasions derived great advantage" (August 20, 1780). "Gov. Martin became again a military man," he wrote to the same after the battle of Camden, "and behaved with the spirits of a young volunteer" (August 21, 1780). "I have constantly received the most zealous assistance from Gov. Martin during my command in the southern districts," he again wrote (March 17, 1780. "Hoping that his presence would tend to incite the loyal subjects of this province to take an active part with us, he has cheerfully submitted to the fatigue and dangers of our campaigns; but his delicate constitution has suffered by his public spirit, for, by the advice of the physician, he is now obliged to return to England for the recovery of his health" (Ross, Cornwallis Correspondence, I, 489, 494,509).

In April, 1781, after the battle of Guilford, Martin, suffering from increasing ill health, left Cornwallis's army and returned to his family at "Rockhall." There he spent a part of the summer, after which, with his wife, a son, and three daughters, he set sail for England. In London he presented his claims to the American Loyalist Claims Commission, and in memorials—one of which was supported by the "observations" of his brother Samuel, and in evidence given personally in the presence of the board, he made statements of his losses. His salary, he said, with the perquisites of the governor's office, was worth from £1700 to £i800 a year; his furniture he valued at £2400 to £2500, his books at £oo to £600; and his horses, two carriages, and the lands which he as governor had granted to himself and his children (io,000 acres) were worth altogether £3500. The Treasury had been paying him his salary of Lioco since July, 1775, and a temporary pension of £500, but the board decided that as long as the salary was paid the allowance should cease. Until October, 1783, therefore, Martin had his salary, but after that date the £500 allowance seems to have been his only payment from the British Exchequer, except the compensation for losses, which was placed at £2100. In 1785, Martin reported that he had received only £840 of that amount (Audit Office Papers).

There is nothing to show that Martin engaged in any occupation under government or in any way concerned himself with public affairs after he returned to England. Probably his health forbade active work. He performed useful services in behalf of members of the highland regiment that he had raised in 1775-1776, and he wrote recommendations and appeared before the board personally in behalf of their claims. In 1782 he was living in South Molton Street (off Oxford Street) and later resided at 56 James Street and in New Norfolk Street (Grosvenor Square). lie died intestate* at the latter place in March, 1786, at the age of fort-nine, and was buried in St. George's, Hanover Square. Miers, as has been noted, painted his miniature some time before 1771, for which Martin said that he sat fifty times (Copley-Pel/zarn Letters, p. 128). It cost him thirty guineas, and Coplev, who saw it, told Henry l'clharn that he thought it well worth the money. Copley himself in 1771, going from New York to "Rockliall" specially for the purpose, painted a portrait of Mary Elizabeth, Martin's eldest daughter, at that time eight or nine years old, with a dog, a picture that is not included in Bayley's list of Copley paintings. This portrait was originally painted on canvas and set in the chimney piece over the mantel in the back parlor, but Mr. Hewlett, who bought "Rockhall" in 1824, had it taken out and framed lest it be injured by damp and mould (letter from Mr. Hewlett's granddaughter, Louise Hewlett Patterson). All together Martin had eight children, Mary Elizabeth, born in Long Island, 1762, two daughters born either in Long Island or in Antigua between 1762 and 1769, Sarah, born in Antigua about 1769, Alice, born in Long Island about 1770, Samuel, born in Long Island, 1771, Josiah, born in North Carolina, 1772, and Augusta, born in Long Island, 1775. Little Sammy and two unnamed daughters died in North Carolina, and Augusta died in England before 1788. The others were all living in 1795, Josiah dying unmarried in 1799. Of the mother's death we know certainly but little. Payson says that she died at the age of forty-four, in October, 1778, a month before her father (Oliver, Antigua, III, 441; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Jan., 1900).

Colonel Samuel's next younger brother, Josiah, the uncle of Governor Josiah, with whom he has frequently been confounded, was born in Antigua in 1699. He lived in the island during his earlier years and from his rank in the militia was often known as Major Martin. If, as the records of St. George's parish, Hempstead, seem to show, his daughter Elizabeth was born in Long Island in 1732, two facts, not otherwise known, come to light. First, that Elizabeth was the daughter of his first wife and so half-sister to his other children and second that Josiah himself must have gone with his wife to Long Island as early as 1730-1732. If he was present in Long Island before 1732, he must have returned soon to Antigua, for his marriage to his second wife, Mary Yeamans, a niece of his brother's first wife, on May 8, 1735, is to be found in the register of St. Paul's parish, and in the same year he was appointed a member of the council there. He must have acquired land in Long Island early, for "Major Martin's lands" are mentioned in the Hempstead Records in 1742. He was a justice of the peace and notary public in Antigua in 1741 and president of the council from 1743 to 1746. In 1749 he was given twelve months' leave of absence, and at that time must have made up his mind to leave the island permanently. His name appears in the Hempstead records in 1751, as subscribing £20 for erecting a gallery in the parish church (Onderdonk, Antiquities of the Parish Church, Hempstead, p. i; Annals of Hempstead, p. 76). He purchased land in 1761 at the head of Cow Bay (Far Rockaway) and there must have erected his mansion, "Rockhall," soon after. In 1755, He was recorded as possessing six slaves, the largest number but one in a list of that date, and it is probable that he was a man of wealth, though holding no remunerative official post or engaging, as far as we know, in any business other than that of a country gentleman.

In the very few biographical statements that have been made regarding Josiah Martin the elder, we are told that he was aide-de- camp to Lieutenant Governor DeLancey in 1757, but that is wholly unlikely, as he was fifty-eight years old at the time, and the reference must be to Josiah Martin the younger. We are also told that he was on the council of the governor of the province of New York from 1759 to 1764, and that statement is probably correct, for he is called "Hon." in the notice of his death, a title indicating membership in the council, and in the legislative journal the name is entered followed by "Esq.," a style that would hardly have been used had the Josiah Martin in question been an officer in the regular army. Yet the matter is made perplexing by the fact that in the Privy Council Register he is spoken of as no longer of the council because he had "settled at Antigua" (Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, IV, 493), and it was the nephew, not the uncle, who went, to Antigua in 1764. Whichever it was, this particular Josiah Martin was not of much use as a councillor, for he was present at but five meetings of the council in five years (Journal of the Legislative Council, II, 1371, 1372, 1402, 1417, 1428). He died, November 21, 1778, at "Rockhall" and was buried in the chancel of St. George's Church, of which he was long a member. His will mentions six children, Samuel, Charles Yeamans, William, Elizabeth, Alice, and Rachel, and we know that he had one other son, Josiah, who died in 1762, after graduating at the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), A.B. 1757, A.M. 1760, and after he had been entered at the Inner Temple, London. His wife died in 1825, having lived during her later years in a house left her by her son in his will and which stood on the site of the Astor House in New York.

The eldest surviving son of Josiah the elder was Samuel, born in 1740 (baptized, October 14, in St. George's Church, Hempstead), who became a doctor, but from what medical school he obtained his diploma we do not know. He was a loyalist and in 1776 was implicated in a plot to overthrow the revolutionary government in New York. On February 17, 1776, he was compelled to give a bond of £500 to behave peaceably and refrain from harboring Tories in his house. Later his name was placed on the list of suspects, and in June lie was summoned before the committee for hearing and trying disaffected persons. When interrogated be said that he had never done anything against the country and was not an enemy to America; that he always meant to remain as peaceable and inactive as he could. On being asked whether the British parliament had a right to tax America, he replied that in his opinion it had no right to levy internal taxes on the colonies. On being further asked what lie meant by an internal tax, he answered a land tax, not a personal tax, which was not unconstitutional if for the regulation of trade, but, he added, he was not a politician and had confined his studies to his profession. Asked if he would give security, said that he would and named his father living on Long Island. The committee resolved unanimously that Samuel Martin was not a friend to the American cause, but after a further interrogation on June 26 accepted his parole and did not molest him during the war (Force, American Arc/jives, VI, 1776, if. 1153, 1160, 1175, 1176).

Martin continued to live at "Rockhall," serving for many years as vestryman of St. George's Church, and exercising considerable local influence. In 1773 he was recommended by the Royal Society "to make researches and collections in the branches of Natural History in America" (home Office Papers, 1773-1775, §127) and so must have acquired something of a reputation in England. He never married. His death took place on April 19, 1806, and he was buried under the chancel of the old St. George's Church. When the first church was burned and its successor placed on a slightly different site his grave remained unmarked. At his death Samuel left instructions that all the family papers should be sent to his brother Charles in England. Whether or not they are still in existence we do not know.


Return to Book Index Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast