Part one - from Gabriel in 1650 to his grandson Gabriel James (Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin)
Part two - Gabriel James' descendants from his eldest son Charles
Part three - Captain Gabriel
Part four - the family of William, Gabriel James' third son
Willie Henry - the sad tale of William Henry in the Great War Part five - the original Gabriel's remaining grandchildrenn
Part Three - Captain Gabriel Maturin
1112) Gabriel Maturin was the second son of Gabriel James, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin. His birth date is not known but his elder brother Charles was born in about 1729 and a sister Anne in about 1743; Gabriel enlisted in 1752, possibly at about 16, so the working theory is that he was born between 1730 and 1736. As his grandfather spoke French as his first language, being born and raised in Guienne (but also wrote perfect English as might be expected of a Chaplain in a British regiment), and his father lived in Huguenot society in Utrecht until he was taken to Trinity College Dublin, it is likely that Gabriel spoke French as a second language at home. His father died in 1746, at the early age of 46, having been an important element in Dublin society and establishment.
Gabriel was commissioned Ensign in Otway's Regiment (which became the 35th Regiment of Foot) on 24 January 1752. Raised by the Earl of Donegal in 1693 as the Prince of Orange's Own Regiment, it had seen service in the West Indies, Spain and Gibraltar but had been stationed in Ireland for some 44 years when Gabriel was commissioned. In 1752 and '53 the Regiment was at Kinsale (south of Cork), moved to Dublin for 1754 and '55 and embarked for North America via Plymouth on 15 April 1756; Gabriel was commissioned Lieutenant on 12 April.
Fort William Henry
In 1757 the Regiment's first posting at Fort William Henry, north of New York, became a notorious siege by the Marquis de Montcalm, commander of the French forces in Canada. The subsequent massacre was dramatised by Fennymore-Cooper in "The Last of the Mohicans" - and apparently over-dramatised in the film. The fort was at the southern end of Lake George, the northernmost British outpost on the vital route through the Hudson Valley. Despite appeals for help by Colonel Monro of the 35th who was in command of the besieged forces, his superior officer, Brigadier General Webb at Fort Edward which was only 15 miles away, refused to come to his aid. After a valiant defence Monro was forced to capitulate to a vastly stronger enemy when a despatch from Webb, advising Monro to surrender, was captured by the French and taken in to the beleaguered fort under a flag of truce. Montcalm admired Monro's resolute defence of his position and negotiated an honourable retreat with a detachment of French troops to escort the British garrison to Fort Edward, accompanied by a token cannon, on a promise of parole that the released British would not bear arms against the French for eighteen months. The retreat was attacked by Indian allies of the French who had promised payment in plunder and scalps: the French stood by as the garrison, including women and children, was robbed, butchered and scalped. A Scottish news-sheet estimated that 1500 had been killed; it is more likely that, when all those captured by Indians or fled to the woods were accounted, the figure was between 69 and 184. Though we do not know for certain that Gabriel was at the Fort it would be most unusual for a new Lieutenant to be separated from his Regiment.
Fort William Henry - with acknowledgments to US Library of Congress. Click on the image to open a full detail 0.8 mb copy of the map; click that image to zoom to full size.
Wounded at The Heights of Abraham
No matter what actually happened at the evacuation of Fort William Henry the British Army was incensed by the lack of will shown by the French to control their allies. An order was issued in 1758 "that in consequence of the treatment received by the garrison of Fort William Henry the year before, the capitulation there entered into by Colonel Monro should be considered null and void, that is, that all officers and soldiers should serve as usual, instead of not bearing arms for eighteen months". When Officers and Gentlemen on both sides lived and fought by an almost chivalric code this was a noteworthy departure. The French were conscious of their inhuman behaviour; on being overrun at the battle for Quebec the French officers took off their hats and asked for quarter over and over again, declaring that they were not at Fort William Henry in 1757. Major-General Wolfe reflected the contempt on 24th July 1759 when he ordered "The general strictly forbids the inhuman practice of scalping, except when the enemy are Indians, or Canadians dressed like Indians."
The 35th took a crucial part in the taking of Quebec from the Plains of Abraham in August 1759 under General Wolfe. In a gallant charge they relieved the Royal Roussillon Regiment of their white plumes to wear in their own hats thereafter; the Roussillon Barracks still stand in Chichester. According to Trimen in his Historical Memoir of the 35th Regiment of Foot, British losses that day were just 55 men killed and 607 wounded. In the 35th one officer and six men were killed and six officers, including Lieutenant Gabriel Maturin, and 29 men were wounded. The Regiment then operated in Canada until the fall of Montreal. General Amhurst, commander of the British forces in North America, divided the conquered Canada into three departments corresponding to the historical boundaries, each under a military governor, and imposed martial law on 22 September 1760. General James Murray was appointed to Quebec with Louis Gramahé as his secretary, Colonel Ralph Bourton with J Bruyères to Trois Rivières and General Thomas Gage with Gabtriel to Montreal. The three secretaries were all French-speaking Huguenot or Swiss-French and played an important part in presenting the the new rule of British Law to the French who opted to remain in the colony (note 1). Trimen's statement that Gabriel was at the capture of Martinique on 27 January 1762 and Havannah on 30 July is therefore incorrect, neither was he with the 35th when it was posted to Pensacola, Florida in 1763 to garrison the territory exchanged by Spain for Cuba at the end of the Seven Years War; disease wreaked havoc and of the 1000 men posted there only 40 returned to England in late 1765.
Commissioned as Captain on 9 November 1764 Gabriel married Mary Livingston in New York in October 1765. He exchanged to the 31st Regiment of Foot (which had been sent from England to relieve the 35th at Pensacola in 1765), officially on 17 June 1767. At that point he was secretary to, now, General Gage who had been promoted to overall command of Regiments in America in November 1763, based in New York. Correspondence signed by Gabriel to Sir William Johnson dated 1 June 1767 and 13 May 1772 deals with the expenses of the operations against the French traders from Canada and their Indian allies in the north of New York State. (note 1a)
Gabriel sat for John Singleton Copley, when the portrait painter was on a visit to New York from his native Boston and before he had been persuaded by fellow artists to move to Britain in about 1775. That portrait of Gabriel was bequeathed by his widow, Mary, to his nephew, the Rev. Henry Maturin rector of Clondevaddock, but has been lost. Copley had already painted General Gage in 1768 and in 1771 "Mrs Thomas Kemble Gage" had her portrait painted by him, now highly regarded in the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego.
The Whitesborough Patent - the acquisition
Mary Livingston was born on 7 June 1748, the eldest child of one of the influential New York families. Her father, Robert James, was the great grandson of Robert Livingston who had arrived in America in about 1687 to join his uncle, also Robert, by then well established in the enormous Clermont Estate in New York State. On 29 October 1765 the Secretary of the Province of New York issued the marriage licence for Captain Gabriel Maturin and Mary Livingston. (note 2).
The Clermont branch of the Livingstons had been investing in tracts of land in the Hardenborough Patent, then in 1770, land was being made available in what would become Delaware County, New York State. As today, business opportunities attract investors with a spectrum of morals and generally those furthest from getting their hands dirty, physically and metaphorically, are able to make the biggest profits. The Whitesborough Patent, also in what is now Delaware County, New York State, is a good example. Henry White was granted Letters Patent by George III on 10 March 1770 in the name of 48 subscribers to about 38,000 acres stretching between the west branch of the Delaware and the Susquehanna Rivers. As was the custom in such Patents the 48 names were nominees for, in this case, six investors; Henry White himself (hence Whitesborough) and five members of the British Army headquarters staff, William Sherriff, Hugh Wallace, Gabriel Maturin, Thomas Gamble and Stephen Kemble. After the tract had been surveyed by William Cockburn and divided into 40 Great Lots, each of about 1000 acres with allowance for roads and watercourses, at a meeting in New York on 2nd May 1772 the "tenants in common" drew lots by ballot to decide which freeholds would go to each investor, legalised by a Deed of Partition on 13 December 1772. Gabriel Maturin drew five lots, mainly well away from existing villages, whilst Henry White drew thirteen lots totalling 12,829 acres including Lot 10 on which the County Seat of Delhi would be established, William Sheriff had ten lots and Stephen Kemble five including two lowland plots on the northern bank of the Delaware River. Hugh Wallace and Thomas Gamble shared the remaining seven lots with five and two lots respectively.
The Whitesborough Patent in 1772 with acknowledgements to http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/nhtopos.htm and the Centennial Edition of the 1985 Catskill Map.
Henry White - yellow, William Sherriff - blue, Hugh Wallace - white, Gabriel Maturin - green, Thomas Gamble - purple, Stephen Kemble - red. A high resolution copy of this file is available; contact Mike Osborne
Henry White, married to Eve van Cortlandt, was a merchant in New York and a consignee for tea (a very sensitive tenure in view of the East India Company's determination to pursue their monopoly in support of the Crown's taxation policy which led ultimately to the Boston Tea Party) as well as being a member of the Council which authorised the granting of Patents; he later testified that the land was in "one of those places that he calls the Moon" and that "he patented it from an idea that it might in remote times be beneficial to his children". White remained a Loyalist through the Revolution and returned to Britain afterwards so that his lands were confiscated by the State of New York in 1779. The Commissioners of Forfeiture certified that they had sold 11,075 acres of White's 12,829 acres for £8,145 (New York currency) about $1.84 per acre at $2.5 / £ NY or 8s.01d British (at $4.55 / £ GB). In 1784 White made a claim on the Commissioners of Parliament for compensation for the confiscated land at which he was asked if it were within the power of a Member of the Council "to get grants to himself of what lands he pleased" he answered "Not immediately; but to his friends who immediately afterwards conveyed to him" (note 3). White died in England in 1786 but his widow and daughter returned to New York. On 1 June 1785 the Commissioners of Forfeiture conveyed Lots 10 and 40 to Henry Platner of Claverack, Columbia County, NY. Platner was a dubious character but he must have subsequently rued the sale that day as he became involved with a very unsavoury selection of lawyers, including Erastus Root, Jacob van Rensselaer and Samuel Sherwood who between them achieved his ruin, ending with his false imprisonment for forgery. Sherwood's action was condemned by Chancellor Kent as "Plunder . . . of a helpless and imprisoned convict who had left his family in shame and misery"; Platner was released from gaol by Governor Morgan Lewis in 1806 (note 4).
Hugh Wallace was a very active supplier of provisions to the British forces, also a member of the Council and a serial investor working with a very sharp London-born colonial official named Goldsbrow Banyar who as Deputy Clerk of the Council and the provincial Supreme Court was well placed to influence the patenting of lands. Banyar was a hidden name behind many of the nominees for Patents and became an extremely rich man, surviving the Revolution with his fortune intact by withdrawing to Rhinebeck NY until the outcome of the conflict was clear. Wallace on the other hand was less devious, obviously supported the King and forfeited all his rights in The Act of Attainder in 1779.
Major William Sherriff, Deputy Quarter Master General, (note 5) drew one of the major portions of the Patent equal to Henry White but appears to have fallen foul of the law and was deprived of his title by a lawsuit brought by Solomon Simson, Manuel Myers and Solomon Myers so that the land was bought by Ebeneezer Foote from James White, Sheriff of Delaware County, on May 30 1799. This is despite the fact that by a previous Deed of 5 July 1780 Peter Kemble (brother of Stephen following) had bought the same 9459 acres from Lewis Ogden of New York. There may be some confusion here as Foote was given Power of Attorney by Peter Kemble for a number of transactions at this time.
Lieutenant Thomas Gamble was Sherriff’s Assistant Deputy Quarter Master General. He later acted as the New York agent for Philip Wharton Skene, the Patentee for 29,000 acres near Lake Champlain (note 6).
In "Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution" John Shy is of the opinion that - " The list of those (British Officers) who came to own land is far longer than the list of marriages (to American women), and one begins to suspect that only unusual sloth or ineptness kept an officer from getting a sizeable grant somewhere in America during his service here."
In 1758 General Gage had married Margaret Kemble, the daughter of the wealthy New Jersey merchant Peter Kemble. The Kembles were related to many of the powerful families of colonial New York, including the van Cortlandts, Bayards and Stuyvesants. Margaret's brother, Stephen, had joined the 44th Regiment of Foot as a 17 year-old ensign in 1757 and, perhaps unsurprisingly, rose swiftly through the ranks to become a Captain in January 1765 and Deputy-Adjutant-General of the Forces in North America in 1772. Within two weeks of the Deed of Partition on 31 December 1772 Stephen Kemble transferred his title to the 4944 acres of land in Whitesborough to his brother Peter "of New Jersey". There is some lack of clarity over this title, though, as it appeared that there was another Deed by Stephen selling this same land to John K Smith on January 1st 1772 despite the fact that the draw did not take place until May of that year. Further Deeds in 1795 and 1796 indicate that the land was resold as a complete parcel finally to Ebeneezer Belknap referring in the Deeds to the purchase by John Smith. In common with many of his peers Stephen Kemble kept his loyalty to the Crown despite being passed over for promotion in the Army. Stephen served with the 60th Regiment in the West Indies and in Quebec, promoted to full Colonel in 1782, but retired from military service in 1787 after his complaints to the war Department at being made to serve under an inferior officer were ignored. He was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate based in England until, in 1805, he sold his English property and returned to his birthplace at New Brunswick, New Jersey where he died in 1822.
General Gage returned to England in 1772 but it is likely that Gabriel remained in New York or Boston during the unrest which led to the Boston Tea party in 1773. By May 1774 Gage had been ordered to return to America and establish his headquarters in Boston. Gabriel was in that city where he died "of a throat distemper which is very prevalent in the army at this time" on 15 December 1774 (note 7), just a matter of a few short months before the Revolution was ignited by the skirmishes at Lexington and Concorde in the following April.
Gabriel died intestate so that by New York law his entire estate reverted to his elder brother Charles who lived in Dublin. In due course his widow Mary married Dr. Jonathan Mallet(note 8). Jonathan had previously married Katherine the daughter of Archibald Kennedy (Receiver General and Collector of Customs for New York) and lived at No. 3 Broadway, New York with their children, Thomas Kennedy Mallet, Anne and Catherine; it is not known when Katherine died. As the Surgeon in charge of the Surgeons and their Mates, hospitals and medicines attending the Army from New York to Niagara, Jonathan had worked closely with Gabriel. After Jonathan's marriage to Mary Maturin née Livingston they all moved to England in 1792 selling No. 3 Broadway to a John Watts (note 9).
Whitesborough - selling the share
The five Whitesborough lots 2, 4, 8, 22 and 32 passed first to Charles Maturin but he died just six months after Gabriel on 9 May 1775 and in his will, proved on 8 May 1776, bequeathed the property to his wife Elizabeth to be held in trust and divided as she thought fit among their children in her last will and testament. Elizabeth remarried George Cartland. By a family agreement for the proceeds to be divided equally among all seven of the Maturin children Lots 22 and 32 were sold by a Deed on 1 May 1798 to William Betts, merchant of Norwalk, Connecticut for the sum of $3,000 for 2000 acres of land. Betts had some high- powered advice; not only did he buy at $1.50 an acre (when the local tax assessment was valuing land at $2 and Henry White's 11,000 acres had been sold twelve years earlier for $1.84 an acre), but he made the family wait for their money by paying $1,000 down, another $1,000 in November and the final instalment in the following May. The 29-year-old Gould Hoyt was a witness to the Deed; he would later make a fortune on land speculation in North Carolina which excited interest in a number of lawyers and prosecutors.
The family did not get rich from this sale. $3,000 was worth about £700 sterling at $4.40 / £. A curate in the Church of Ireland had a stipend of about £120 a year so this was about 6 years salary. It had to be split between the eight beneficiaries.
By Elizabeth Cartland's will, made on 3 December 1793, half of the remaining property was left to her elder daughter, Elizabeth Maria, whilst the other half was to be split between her other four daughters, Edith, Mary, Anne and Margaret. Presumably her two sons, Henry and Gabriel, had been left bequests by their father, Charles. In fact Elizabeth Maria died on 5 July 1796 before her mother, who died 12 May 1801. Being a "lapsed legacy" Elizabeth Maria's portion then had to be shared among the remaining six children and their new husbands. In October 1800 Anne had married the fortune-hunting Molesworth Phillips (Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines who was lionised as a hero when he killed the Hawaiian who had murdered Captain Cook but was rather a nasty character; he had married Susannah, sister of the novelist Fanny Burney, but became a widower with her early death in January 1800). Anne's twin sister Margaret married Thomas Quinan.
When the family decided to sell the remaining Whitesborough lots in 1806 Edith, Mary and Henry appointed Captain Gabriel's widow, Mary Mallet née Livingston, as their "attorney"; she was then living in London as the widow of Jonathan Mallet. At that time a woman could not be an attorney "learned in the law" so it must have been that she was acting as an individual on their Power of Attorney. In 1806 Revd. Henry's brother Gabriel was a private tutor at Eton College but is described as being of Middle Temple, London and acted as a lawful attorney for himself and his sisters Anne (and Molesworth Phillips) and Margaret (and Thomas Quinan). They sold the remaining three thousand acres in Lots 2, 4 and 8 to John Atkinson for 6 shillings an acre or £900 sterling. In 1799 Atkinson was described as a merchant of the City of New York; he had 19,200 acres in one major holding and several smaller plots in the Delhi, Delaware area, valued at $2 an acre. He bought the Whitesborough Lots for about $1.32 an acre.
If half the proceeds was divided between the four daughters and half between all six children Molesworth Phillips must have been very disappointed with the paltry £187-10s-0d (less expenses) which was Anne's share. To Henry as a rector in a very poor parish in Donegal £75 would have been a useful sum equivalent to half a year's stipend.
(2) Mary's parents, Robert James and Susannah Livingston, must have been very impressed with Gabriel's qualities as they named their 9th child and 6th son Maturin Livingston in 1769. The latter became a substantial owner of property in Delaware County around Bovina and Delhi in the 1820s according to the Assessment Rolls for that area; as a Judge he became deeply embroiled in the early politics of New York City and was appointed Recorder of the City though he withdrew from that arena after a prolonged tussle with deWitt Clinton. When Maturin Livingston married Margaret Lewis (daughter of Governor Morgan Lewis) their ninth child was also baptised Maturin. Maturin Junior married Ruth Bayliss; it was their daughter Elizabeth who wed William Cavendish Bentinck in a very plush ceremony at Newport, Rhode Island patronised by Royalty in 1880. Judge Maturin's eldest son, Morgan Lewis Livingston, also named his seventh child Maturin. The family, including two of the three Maturins, are buried beneath an elaborate mausoleum resembling a claw-footed bath in the small cemetery of St James' Episcopal Church opposite the Vanderbilt Estate at Hyde Park, New York State, pictured right.
Jim Oppenheimer (descended from Emma 11135) at the Livingston tomb
(3) Chapters in the History of Delaware County, New York - by John D Monroe, published by Delaware County Historical Association, 1949, www.dcnyhistory.org/monroejohnd.html
(5) Army officers and contractors ranks and details taken from volume 5 of the records of Abraham Mortier, Deputy Paymaster General, British Forces in North America. National Archives, Kew, UK - Army Establishment: Miscellaneous Books PMG 14/4.
(6) Correspondence between Skene and Gamble is held at the Historical Document Inventory of New York State Archives.
(7) The deed of sale of the second Maturin Whitesborough lots in 1806 notes that Gabriel died on 2 December but the diary of Lieutenant John Barker (The British in Boston p.11 - http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2581128) and vol VII (1928) of the Journal for Army Historical Research state the date to be 15 December 1774
(8) It must be the sort of coincidence which fate loves that Captain Gabriel's great grandfather, the Reverend Gabriel Maturin, was arrested in the home of "M. Mallet - avocet au Parlement" in Paris on 16 April 1690 bringing his illegal mission to his deserted Huguenot flock to an abrupt end; Louis XIV exacted revenge by putting the Reverend Gabriel in solitary confinement for 25 years on the île Ste Marguerite in the Bay of Cannes.
(9) In 1794 the executors of Sir John Johnson sold a tranche of the Charlotte River Patent in Delaware County NY to a "John Watts and Robert Watts" - with a further tract to John Jacob Astor and William Leight as part of the foundation of the Astor fortune; Elizabeth Cartland (Charles Maturin's widow) employed a Robert Watts as Attorney when negotiating the sale of Whitesborough Lots for the Maturin family in 1798.
Acknowledgements:
To Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer for invaluable support in obtaining research information
To Sharon O'Dell, Deputy Clerk at the Delaware County Clerk's Office, for very constructive help
The Clermont branch of the Livingstons had been investing in tracts of land in the Hardenborough Patent, then in 1770, land was being made available in what would become Delaware County, New York State. As today, business opportunities attract investors with a spectrum of morals and generally those furthest from getting their hands dirty, physically and metaphorically, are able to make the biggest profits. The Whitesborough Patent, also in what is now Delaware County, New York State, is a good example. Henry White was granted Letters Patent by George III on 10 March 1770 in the name of 48 subscribers to about 38,000 acres stretching between the west branch of the Delaware and the Susquehanna Rivers. As was the custom in such Patents the 48 names were nominees for, in this case, six investors; Henry White himself (hence Whitesborough) and five members of the British Army headquarters staff, William Sherriff, Hugh Wallace, Gabriel Maturin, Thomas Gamble and Stephen Kemble. After the tract had been surveyed by William Cockburn and divided into 40 Great Lots, each of about 1000 acres with allowance for roads and watercourses, at a meeting in New York on 2nd May 1772 the "tenants in common" drew lots by ballot to decide which freeholds would go to each investor, legalised by a Deed of Partition on 13 December 1772. Gabriel Maturin drew five lots, mainly well away from existing villages, whilst Henry White drew thirteen lots totalling 12,829 acres including Lot 10 on which the County Seat of Delhi would be established, William Sheriff had ten lots and Stephen Kemble five including two lowland plots on the northern bank of the Delaware River. Hugh Wallace and Thomas Gamble shared the remaining seven lots with five and two lots respectively.