iv. Sarah, b. 18 Sept. 1768; m. first, Jonathan Williams, 12 July, 1789, and second, Abijah Cheever, M.D.,* 18 Oct. 1798; had one son, DavidPearces Williams, b. 1792, H. C. 1811, a young lawyer of great promise, d. 28 May, 1813. V. Abigail, b. 8 Feb. 1773; m. Benjamin Homer, of Boston; d. leaving several children; not one living Oct. 1877.† vi. John, b. 27 Feb. 1775; d. in France, 1798. vii. Harriet, b. 10 Aug. 1777; d. 6 June, 1778. viii. Harriet, b. 28 March, 1780; m. first, John Scott, had Margaret," who m. Oliver Wendell Penhallow; m. second, Hunking Penhallow, and had four sons and two daughters. By second wife, DAVID3 had: ix. Susanna Stevens, b. 8 July, 1793; m. Thomas W. Penhallow, his second wife; d. 20 Oct. 1869. Σ. Frederick-Augustus-Gilman, b. 11 Jan. 1795; d. 10 Feb. 1799. xi. Mary-Ingersoll, b. 19 March, 1797; d. 21 Sept. 1798. BUTLER. [From another old Family Bible.] PETER' BUTLER and MARY ALFORD, his wife, had : Peter d. 11 August, i. Peter, m. Elizabeth Brown, Aug. 16 [year obliterated], dau. of Abraham and Rebecca Brown, b. Nov. 17, 1664. 1699. They had: 1. Peter, b. Feb. 6, 1682-3; d. 25 Feb. 1725-6. 2. Samuel, b. Jan. 17, 1685. 3. John, b. Jan. 21, 1687; d. 25 Sept. 1726. 4. Elizabeth,' b. May 25, 1691; d. Feb. 25, 1736.‡ 4. Mary, b. Feb. 6, 1693-4. 6. Hezekiah,3 b. June 10, 1696. 7. Alford,3 b. Feb. 4, 1698; m. Mercy Tay, 27 Jan. 1720-21. WIBIRD. RICHARD WIBIRD came to Portsmouth from England before 1700. July 10, 1701, he m. the widow Redford. (William Redford was Reg. of Deeds, 1693 to 1697.) In 1716, he was one of the King's Council for the Province of New Hampshire. In 1727, he paid the highest tax in the town of Portsmouth, and is said to have erected the first brick house there. Was a very wealthy man. He had : i. Richard, b. July 7, 1702; H. C. 1722; m. Elizabeth Wendell, sister of Judge Oliver Wendell. This Richard was Collector of Customs in 1730; one of the King's Council, 1739; in 1746, was a purchaser of one-fifteenth of Mason's Grant; Judge of Probate in 1762; d. 1765. ii. Elizabeth,2 m. Hunking Wentworth; her dau. m. John Penhallow, and had eleven children. iii. Thomas, b. 1706; H. C. 1728; was never married; d. Nov. 12, 1765, and bequeathed by his will £60 sterling to the Rev. Mr. Wheelock for the use of his Indian School; also to Harvard College about the same amount for the purchase of books for the library there; and further by another "Item," "I give and bequeath all my silver plate to the Church of Christ of which I am a member, to be converted and manufactured into a Flaggon under the care of the Committee of said Church for the time being, for the use of said Church and their successors forever." Two flagons were made from the plate. iv. John, m. Elizabeth, dau. of Rev. Jabez Fitch, H. C. 1694; her sister Ann m. Rev. Nathaniel Gookin, and her sister Mary m. Francis Cabot. John and Elizabeth had Anthony, H. C. 1747, Rev., minister at Braintree, d. single. 5 Dr. Cheever afterwards married Miss Scott, and had : 1. Charles A.; H. C. 1813, M.D. 1816 d. 1852; was eminent in his profession. 2. Elizabeth, d. single. Their daughter Mary-B. Homer m. Thos. Dixon, Esq., and had inter alia B.-Homers Dixon, Esq., now of Toronto, Canada. The latter gentleman has printed a brief genealogy of the Pearce family in the REGISTER, vi. 276-79, and one of the Homer family in Bridgman's King's Chapel Epitaphs, pp. 201-4.-ED. She m. John Watts, and after his death, m. John Penhallow. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WE ROTCH. WRITTEN IN THE EIGHTIETH YEAR OF HIS AGE. Communicated by FREDERICK C. SANFORD, Esq., of Nantucket, Mass. E* arrived in the harbor of Newport, where Capt. Dawson commanded the navy and Gen. Prescott the army, but the refugees had made interest with the general not to permit us to land, and we were ordered to depart by Capt. Dawson. We interceded with him to let us stay a little longer, for we found the expedition was progressing rapidly, and unless we could arrest it, it would be in vain to proceed to New York. Again Dawson, by request of Gen. Prescott, under the influence of the refugees, ordered us immediately to depart. Dr. Tupper now for the first time went on board, and in his plain, blunt way, after the usual ceremony of entry, addressed him in this way: "You order us to depart. We cannot be frightened away, nor will we depart. We know the extent of your authority. You may make a prize of our vessel and imprison us. Much better for us to be thus treated than to be sent away. We come for peace, and you ought to encourage everything of the kind," &c. &c. His reasons made such an impression on Capt. Dawson that he gave us leave to remain as long as we pleased. The refugee boat came several times to us to endeavor to get us off. We insisted on going on shore, but this they steadily refused. After the conversation with Capt. Dawson, this boat came again, and Dr. Tupper insisted that he would go on shore. They still denied him unless he would stay with them. As he was not always exact in his expressions, to answer his purpose he said, "Well, I am going to stay," and almost forcibly got into their boat and went ashore, being satisfied, if he could see the General, he could in this respect destroy the influence of the refugees. He did accordingly get leave for Samuel Starbuck, and the next day for me to come on shore. We found it necessary to be in friendship with the refugees, that, if possible, we might stop the current of this intended predatory visit. I got on shore in the afternoon, and found that I must wait on Gen. Prescott. Knowing his brittle temper, and it * Dr. Benjamin Tupper, Samuel Starbuck and Mr. Rotch, a committee of the town to represent its case to the British commanders. See REGISTER, XXXI. 264. For other details concerning several events narrated in this autobiography, see Mr. Starbuck's articles, "Nantucket in the Revolution," in the REGISTER for July and October, 1874, and January and April, 1875. The period embraced in the portion of the autobiography printed in this number of the REGISTER is treated of by Mr. Starbuck in the number for January, 1875 (ante, xxix. 48-53).-Ed. being in the afternoon, I almost dreaded to appear in his presence. However, let my treatment be what it would, I desired the meeting over, and accordingly went. ९९ I was introduced by one of his aids. He received me very cordially, gave me his hand and said, "Mr. Rotch, will you have some dinner? I can give you good bread, though the rebels say we have none." I thanked him, saying I had dined. "Well," said he, "will you have a glass of wine?" I answered, "I have no objection, if thou canst put up with my plain way." My glass was filled with his own and those of all the officers at the table. As a stranger introduced, they all drank to me before I put the glass to my lips. I then observed: "General, as I mentioned before, if thou couldst put up with my plain way, I was willing to take wine with thee; but as we, as a society, disuse these ceremonies, and I have always found it best to keep to my profession, let me be in what company I may; therefore I hope my not making a like return will not be accepted as a mark of disrespect, for I mean it not as such." His answer was, "Oh no! If a Quaker will but be a Quaker, it is all I want of him; but, he is no Quaker" (naming one of our profession), and I was sorry for the cause of this remark. After some conversation, I mentioned that I did not wish to intrude further on his time, and rose to retire. "Oh no," says he, you must take some coffee." I accordingly stopped. He was full of conversation respecting the siege of the Americans, and made it a very trifling thing. I then mentioned (the French fleet being at that time before the town) that twelve capital ships being so near was much against them. "To be sure," said he, "it is not very pleasant, but we don't mind them." I then gladly retired. We applied to Maj. Winslow, formerly of Plymouth, to introduce us to Col. Fanning, the principal. When we stated our situation, that we were likely to be destroyed, the Colonel was very high, saying we might join the English then. I observed that such a step would inevitably lead to our destruction. "Well," said he, "have not I been destroyed also?" I believe he was governor of North Carolina at the beginning of the war.* Maj. Winslow endeavored to soften him by representing our peculiar situation; but there seemed little prospect of anything favorable when we parted. They had a Board of Refugees established, of which Col. Fanning was president, who would hear us when they met. We accordingly attended, and found Fanning very mild and disposed to alleviate our sufferings. As we proposed applying to the commander-in-chief at New York, we asked if they would put off their expedition until they could Col. Edmund Fanning was a son-in-law of William Tryon, governor of North Carolina; but he, himself, was never governor of that colony.-ED. know the result of our mission. Fanning thought this reasonable, and put the question to all the principals there. They all readily agreed until it came to who very reluctantly gave his consent. We then proceeded to New York, and applied to the commanders Commodore Sir George Collier of the navy and Sir Henry Clinton of the army. On representing our case to Sir George Collier, he readily gave us an order forbidding any British armed vessel to take anything out of our harbor. This was a great relief. I then laid before him the state of our captured seamen, that all the exchanges of prisoners were partial, that as we made no prisoners we had none to exchange; consequently ours remained in the prison ships until they mostly died. On his understanding the reasonableness of our request, he ordered that all our men should be released who were not taken in armed vessels (for such we had no right to apply), and that it should not be so in future as long as he held the command. We also applied to Sir Henry Clinton, through one of his aids, Maj. André, that fine young man who lost his life as a spy. We could get no written order from him, but he intimated that he would direct that those in his department should not molest us, which he no doubt did, as they gave up their expedition, and we had a little quiet until Sir George Collier's command expired, and he was superseded by the arrival of Admiral Arbuthnot, and the shaving mills then came upon us. Timothy Folger was then sent to New York, and he obtained a like order to that obtained from Sir George. Added to this, he got permits for a few vessels, about fifteen, to whale on our coast, which were successful; but it was with great difficulty that distinction could be made between English and American cruisers, as the latter would make prizes of us if British permits were found. I now come to the most trying scene in my whole experience during the war. I was with four others impeached for high treason, by Thomas Jenkins, when there was no step between being clear and death. The laws of this state at that time made it high treason for any person to go to a British port without the consent of the court. We had been well assured that if we applied we should be refused, and if we did not apply to the British, we must from every appearance be destroyed by them. Under serious consideration, I was willing to be joined to the two others, and as before stated, proceeded as with our lives in our hands. This was made one of the great charges in the impeachment. We were examined before a committee of the court on the impeachment, but knowing we were to appear again when the witnesses should attend, we made no defence, which we afterwards found was an error in judgment. By this means the court thought us guilty, and were about to make an order to the grand jury to find a bill against and commit us to prison, which if it had taken place would have been in the severe winter of 1780. Happily my much valued friend, Walter Spooner, Esq., a member of the court, just then arrived, perceived the business before the court, and came to me for information. We told him we had reserved our defence for the second examination. He said we were in error, and must send for Jenkins, who resided in Lynn, and have another examination, and he would get the court to stay proceedings until this should be done. We all therefore met before the committee. Gen. Ward, a worthy character, was in the chair. was put to me first to answer to the high charges. When I arose, Gen. Ward politely told me I need not rise. I thanked him, but my heart was so full that my tongue seemed incapable of utterance while sitting. It I answered the charges in such a manner as fully to convince the committee of our innocence. When I had finished, the chairman, doubtless from a desire to put our minds at ease, asked me when we expected to return home. I replied that he could better judge of that than I could, being, as I was, in custody. He then asked me if I would take the subpoenas for the witnesses to Nantucket and deliver them to the sheriff. This was also to console our minds. I answered in the affirmative, if he thought proper to entrust me with them. I afterward took and delivered them. In the spring following, then, we again appeared before the court with twelve out of twenty of the witnesses, being all I could get together to attend, and then had another full examination. Before we entered upon it, I desired liberty to ask Jenkins a question, which was granted. Some of his friends had propagated a report that I had offered him money to withdraw his complaint. I then put the question whether I had ever made him an offer of the kind, but it irritated him, and I therefore went no further in a question to him, but desired liberty to make my declaration before we entered upon the charges in the complaint, which was readily granted. I then said, "I now declare, in the most solemn manner, that I have never, directly nor indirectly, by myself or by any other person for me, offered one farthing to Thomas Jenkins to withdraw or in any way mitigate the charges in his complaint now exhibited." I looked over the charges and made my defence article by article, and when I had gone through the whole, I observed to the committee, that if I had not answered fully to their satisfaction, if they would put any question which they thought would throw more light upon the subject, I would answer it without the least equivocation or mental reservation. The chairman, Gen. Ward, made me a low bow; no question was asked. They then took the complaint and examined the witnesses one by one, on each charge. "What do you know of this, Mr. (such a one)?" reading the charge. "No |