Appendices

[277 cont.]

XVI. SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES.

p. 34. Sir Lawrence Dundas of Karse made his money as commissary general and contractor to the army (1748-1759) and bought the stewartry of Orkney and Shetland in 1766 at a price. He was a son of Sir Thomas Dundas of Fingask and brother of Major General Thomas Dundas, who served in America under Clinton and Cornwallis in the campaigns of 1779-1781 and was one of the commissioners named by Cornwallis to arrange the terms of the capitulations at Yorktown. Living near Edinburgh Sir Lawrence must have been well known to Miss Schaw by reputation if not personally, and was by her thoroughly disliked. He was fifty years old at this time and died in 1781.

p. 41. The following quotation is a witness to the accuracy of Miss Schaw’s narrative. “About the beginning of October a large vessel from Boston in New England and bound for Burntisland, having one Smith for master, and Parker the owner, with his lady and four children on board, was driven by stress of weather, about ten of the clock in the night time, upon the west part of Fair Isle ‘twixt two rocks, by which merciful and wonderful interposition of Providence [336] they were all saved, being about twenty souls, with their provisions and some of the cargo. Next day the ship went to wreck.” The Diary of the Rev. John Mill, 1740-1803, Scottish Historical Society, 1889.

p. 74. The scenery around Dunkeld was so greatly admired that it became the subject of a book written in 1823, Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld and of Blair in Athol, by Macculloch.

p. 93. There was an earlier parish building in St. John’s. An act was passed by the assembly of Antigua in November, 1716, for the erection of a new church “in the room of the present parochial church.” According to the act the old church was too small and much out of repair and ought to be pulled down. But the Board of Trade recommended that the act “lye by probationary,” which was generally equivalent to a disallowance. Evidently the older structure remained in use until it was replaced by that of 1740-1745, the latter, destroyed in the hurricane of 1831, destined to be replaced by the church of today, built in 1848. It is interesting to note that the figures of the two St. Johns, stand today as they did then on pillars at the entrance.

p. 107. Among the Treasury Papers in the Public Record Office (Treasury 1: bundle 352, fo. 89) is a petition from Gideon Schaw to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, dated May 2, 1752. From this petition we learn that Schaw was appointed Harnage’s assistant in August, 1751, “to cause all the Accounts required by the late Act, for the more effectual securing the Duties upon Tobacco, to be sent from the Different Ports in Scotland, to be entered in Books to be prepared and kept by him for this purpose, and from time to time to transmitt exact Duplicates of his said Books to Mr. Harnage, which entry and transmission of Duplicates makes him to do everything twice over.

“It is known that upwards of Twenty thousand Hogsheads of Tobacco, have for some years past, been annually Imported into Scotland. That near Fourteen Thousand have been this year already Imported since the 29th September last, an exact Account of the Importation, Exportation, of the Manifest and also of the Landing Marks, Numbers, Weights, and of the several Different Disposals of these quantities of Tobacco, does require so much figuring and Writing as was impossible for your Memorialist to Dispatch without the assistance of three Capable Clerks, and his own closs (sic) applications, so as to answer your lordships intentions.

“Your Memorialist, ever since the Commencement of the Act, has been charged by the Commissioners of the Customs at Edinbr with [337] corresponding with the Officers of the Different Ports, and instructing them in the new Method directed by thc Act, for keeping the Accounts of the Landing of Tobacco at Importation and Shipping it at Exportation, and when removed by Land Carriage or Coastwise, etc. And all Questions which comes (sic) before the Board of Customs relating to the Tobacco Law, are mostly referred to your Memorialist for his opinion.

“All which hath laid your Memorialist under the absolute necessity of providing himself with three Capable Clerks: To witt John Smith, recommended by your Memorialist’s friends at London and known to Mr. Moris, the secretary of the Customs at Edinburgh; Robert Schaw sometime with your Memorialist and afterwards with Sir John Schaw of Greenock, and known to the Right Honorable the Lord Cathcart; and George Neil who was your Mentorialts Clerk when Collector of the Customs at Perth, all whom he has hitherto subsisted out of his own pocket.

“He therefore most humbly hopes and begs, as he cannot carry on the business without the Assistance of the Three Clerks, for whom he can be answerable, your Lordships will be pleased to appoint them such salarys, as to your Lordships shall seem meet, whereby he may be enabled to execute the office effectually, and as far as shall be in his power to defeat the many Schemes of the Fradulent (sic) Dealers to disappoint this Law.”

The petition, which is signed “Gid Schaw” and endorsed “Memorial Gideon Schaw, Gentleman,” was granted on the recommendation of Harnage, to whom it was referred. Harnage said that between September 29, 1751, and October 10, 1752, 23220 hogsheads of tobacco were imported into Scotland and that the clerks were necessary for the service, to be rated at £40 for the first clerk and £30 each for the other two, payment to begin from the time of their first being employed by Mr. Schaw.

A few points in this petition call for brief comments. No doubt Schaw handled a good deal of American tobacco, large quantities of which came from Virginia. The mention of Robert Schaw as one of his clerks in 1751-1752 raises the question of identification. Probably this Robert was not Gideon’s son, but a member of the Greenock branch. The Lord Cathcart to whom reference is made, was a grandson of Sir John Schaw and so a distant relative of Gideon’s. His son, equally distinguished with himself, was Sir William Schaw Cathcart, while a daughter married David, Lord Mansfield (above, p. 89). He himself was a son of Charles, 8th Lord Cathcart, who had [338] charge of the expedition against Cartagena in the War of Jenkins’s Ear and died, 1740, at St. Kitts (on the Cathcarts see Graham, The Beautiful Mrs. Graham and the Cathcart Circle, 1928). His mother was Marion Margaret Schaw, Sir John Schaw’s daughter. George Neil, afterward at Greenock, was the one through whom Miss Schaw sent her letters (above, p. 254).

p. 133. Major James Milliken was a planter of Nevis, but having loyally come to the assistance of the English at St. Kitts, in their contest with the French in 1702, and having suffered heavily from the Chavagnac-d’Iberville raid upon Nevis in 1706 (Calendar State Papers, Colonial, 1720-1721, § 204, xxiv) obtained as reward and recompense two grants of land—a plantation in the country and a lot in Basseterre—in 1717. The plantation was claimed by one Stoddart, who retained forcible possession of it until ousted by the court, when a compromise was reached. Milliken came to St. Kitts in 1718, bringing many white servants and seventy-four negroes and retained the plantation from that time (Calendar State Papers, Colonial, 1717-1718, §§ 325, 491, 797). When the editors of this journal visited the site of the plantation in February, 1934, they found no trace of the original buildings, though the locality still bears the name “Millikens.” The same is true of “Olivees,” which lies not far away.

p. 144. William Dry was collector and searcher at Brunswick, succeeding John Jeans, deceased. The two offices were then always held by the same mans. He was authorized to keep a boat and two boatmen (Treasury 11: 22, p. 575).

p. 146. There is some uncertainty as to the length of Miss Schaw’s stay at Brunswick. That she should have remained there a month has always been difficult to believe, partly because of the silence of her narrative and partly because there was no reason why she should stay in so uninteresting a place, while her brother waited for her only a few miles away. The doubt was still further increased by John Rutherfurd’s remark in one of his letters that his family arrived “last spring,” a term hardly compatible with the month of February. The evidence for the longer visit is the entry in William Dry’s register of the arrival of the Rebecca on February 14, supported by the supposed date of the death of Gov. DeWindt at St. Eustatius, January 19. The latter date is rendered very doubtful by an entry in Parson Richardson’s Register of Burials in St. Eustatius, 1773-1778, which states that Gov. DeWindt was buried on February 21, so that according to the register his death must have taken place on February [339] 19 instead of January 19. As Parson Richardson was an intimate friend of the governor’s and felt his death keenly, it is hardly conceivable that he could have made a mistake. According to the new date, Miss Schaw remained a month longer at St. Kitts, reaching St. Eustatius on February 19 and Brunswick on March 17. The entry in the Dry register probably refers to an earlier voyage of the Rebecca. Remaining in Brunswick only a day or two Miss Schaw would then have gone on to Schawfield, reaching there, as the narrative states, on the 22d. (The information from the Richardson register has been sent us by Miss Lilian H. Hayward, district registrar, St. George’s, Bermuda, to whom we are greatly indebted for her courtesy.)

p. 202. The statement made in the note on this page that Heron’s bridge was the only drawbridge in the colonies is not correct. There was one over the mill stream in Boston before 1653. This bridge was in two sections and had to be rebuilt in 1659, because it was so clumsy and heavy that a serious catastrophe took place at the time of the execution of the Quakers in that year. One of the sections was overloaded with people gathered to view the execution and collapsed, many being injured. (Boston Record Commissioners, Report, 2. pp. 117, 124, 153, Book of Possessions, 2, 20; Winthrop Papers, Collections, Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, VII, 507.)

p. 261. No trace of “Green Castle” exists today, except a few foundation stones. When the editors visited the site in 1934 they found a small white plantation house located there, occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. Bowen, who received them most cordially. The Bowens already knew of the journal and were interested in the history of the Martin family. Two original water-color drawings of the plantation buildings were made by Nicholas Pocock in 1805, each measuring twelve by eighteen inches. One shows the planter’s home built on a low hill, the outbuildings and negro huts on the side and two windmills and the refinery on the right; the other shows the estate from behind. Each is signed and dated “N. Pocock, 1805.” These drawings, which are in the possession of the editors, are reproduced in this volume without the color.

p. 262. The essay on plantership was first written by Col. Martin for the instruction of young planters and issued anonymously. A fifth edition was published in 1773, only a year before Miss Schaw’s arrival. The first three editions were without the name of the writer and were printed in [340] Antigua; the third and fourth (also printed in Antigua) were reprinted in London, the fourth, for the first time, bearing the author’s name. The fifth was printed in London only (for T. Cadell in the Strand, MDCCLXXIII). It contains many additions, and was prefaced by an essay upon the Slavery of Negroes in the British Colonies. A copy of this edition is in the possession of the editors; a copy of the very rare first edition has recently been acquired by the New York Public Library, and a copy of the fourth edition is in the Yale University Library. An advertisement in this fourth edition says that in 1745 Martin wrote A Plea for Establishing and Disciplining a National Militia in Great Britain and all British Dominions of America, of which a new edition was called for in 1765, containing a preface, “suited to the present state of affairs” (Ragatz, Guide for the Study of British Caribbean History, 1763-1834, p. 309; Cundall, West Indian Bibliography, no. 215A).

p. 274. Mathew Mills is mentioned as early as 1717 as wishing to buy a plantation of 150 acres in St. Kitts. References to him can be found in Calendar State Papers, Colonial, 1717-1718, §§ 41, 134, p. 701; and in Board of Trade Journal, 1738-1741, p. 240.

p. 291. John Rutherfurd was of Bowland, Stowe, Midlothian, of the Edgerston branch of the Rutherfurds. He was the eldest son of James Rutherfurd of Bowland, M. P. for Selkirkshire (1702-1747) by his wife Isabella, daughter of James Simpson of Sharpitlaw (a lady of considerable fortune), and grandson of Robert Rutherfurd of Bowland and Anne his wife, daughter of Sir John Murray of Philiphaugh and widow of Alexander Pringle of Whitebank. Hence the connection with James Murray (above, p. 290) and Mrs. Paisley and Catherine Pringle (above, pp. 239, 244). He was born January 25, 1722, one of a large family of eight sons and two daughters.

p. 299. John Rutherfurd was born in September, 1762, and died in 1813. William Gordon Rutherfurd was born in June, 1764, and died in 1818. Fanny Rutherfurd was born in 1756 and died September 24, 1809, the date given on the memorial tablet affixed to the wall of the Inveresk churchyard.

From information furnished by the late Alexander J. Rutherfurd and from a “Memoir” contributed by Colonel Vetch to the Royal Engineering Journal (August 1, 1903) the following facts are taken.

John Rutherfurd, on his return from North Carolina, was nominated for a cadetship in the Ordnance Corps, but before becoming a cadet was sent to Canada where, though only fifteen years old, he was attached to Brigadier General Fraser’s regiment at Crown Point and [341] was present during the campaign that ended in the surrender of Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. In consequence of this surrender he became a prisoner of war on parole, binding himself not to serve again against the Americans during the war. Returning to England he entered upon an active military career in Holland and Flanders against the army of the French Republic (1793-1795), in the West Indies (1795-1797), and elsewhere. Returning to England he was quartered, as it happened, at Plymouth, near his aunt Janet, his sister Fanny, and the latter’s husband, Alexander Schaw. Thus, after twenty-three years, four of the five voyagers on the Jamaica Packet came together again for a period of over a year (1798-1799). It must have been an eventful reunion. During this time, Alexander and Fanny’s son, John Sauchie Schaw was born.

In 1799-1802 John was in service in Ireland and in Holland (the Helder expedition). With the peace of Amiens (1802), his career with the army came to an end, and for the next ten years he was chiefly concerned with peaceful pursuits. In 1802, at the age of forty, he was appointed surveyor general of Trinidad, married there, and took some part in the attempts made to liberate the South American republics. While in Trinidad he had differences of opinion over matters of administration with Governor Picton, who was hostile to him and took sides against him. Therefore, in 1809, he accepted an appointment as secretary to the governor of Gibraltar, but four years later, falling victim to an epidemic of fever which broke out there in 1813, he was invalided home on H.M.S. Thames, died on the voyage, and was buried at sea, leaving his financial affairs in some confusion. He died insolvent and nothing was ever recovered by his son.

p. 301. John married Marie Defou in Trinidad in 1803. Their son, born there, is the Henry Rutherfurd mentioned in William Gordon Rutherfurd’s will (p. 304). Marie died shortly after the birth of her son, and he, when quite young, was sent to England to be educated, spending some years at school and in the household of his childless uncle, William Gordon Rutherfurd. Lilias, William Gordon’s wife, mistreated the orphan boy even during the lifetime of her husband, then broken in health, making mischief between him and his nephew. After her death in 1831, contrary to the terms of her husband’s will, she, who was only the residuary legatee for life, left everything to her own nephews, an injustice which resulted in prolonged legal proceedings. Eventually judgment was rendered in 1833 in Henry Rutherfurd’s favor, but not much money was recovered.

[342] Colonel Henry Rutherfurd had a distinguished career, serving under the East India Company in Assam, Bengal, and India for twenty-seven years, retiring before the Mutiny (1857). He married Frances Schaw, granddaughter of the Fanny of the Journal and sister of Fanny’s grandson, General Henry Schaw, C.B., R.E., who died in Wellington, New Zealand in 1865. Colonel Rutherfurd died at Dunedin in 1874, leaving a large family of six sons and three daughters.

p. 304. The following statement regarding the career of William Gordon Rutherfurd is taken from Mackenzie’s Trafalgar Roll.

Capt. W. G. Rutherfurd, C.B., was the son of John Rutherfurd of Bowland Stow near Edinburgh, and Frances, widow of Gabriel Johnson, Governor of North Carolina. He was born in North Carolina in 1764, educated in Edinburgh and St. Andrews University and entered the service as a boy in 1778. He served as Acting Lieut. in the “Boyne,” 98, flagship of Vice Admiral Sir John Jervis, in the West Indies, 1793. Promoted to Lieut. 1794. Accompanied the combined naval and military expedition for the capture of Martinique and greatly distinguished himself on shore with a division of Blue-jackets. 1794—mentioned in dispatches, promoted to Commander. Promoted to Captain, 1796. Took part in the capture of Curaçao, Sept. 1800. Continued on the West India station until 1804, in command successively of the “Nautilus,” “Adventure,” “Dictator,” “Brunswick,” and “Decade.” Commanded the latter, a 36 gun, frigate at the blockade of Cherbourg in 1804. In 1805 was appointed to the “Swiftsure,” 74, which he commanded at Trafalgar, 1805—received the thanks of Parliamnent, a gold medal and sword of honour from the [Lloyd] Patriotic Fund. Captain of Greenwich Hospital, 1814. Created a C.B., 1815. Died at Greenwich Hospital, 1818, and was buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, where a tablet was erected to his memory.

The Trafalgar Sword and Medal may be seen in the portrait of Rutherfurd reproduced opposite page 304. In his will they were left, in default of a son to the testator, to his nephew John Sauchie Schaw, and on the event of the latter’s death to “the eldest for the time being of such issue male who shall be living at my decease for his absolute property.” By further provision of the will they passed eventually to Colonel Henry Rutherfurd, who married Frances, John Sauchie’s daughter. Both are now in the Royal United Service Museum, Whitehall, deposited by John Sauchie Rutherfurd, Esq., of the New Zealand branch.

pp. 160, 320. The statement that Robert Schaw’s second wife was Anne Vail is now known to be an error. In the will of Alexander Schaw, dated January 8, 1802, the testator is mentioned as the “son of Robert Schaw and of Anne Schaw nee Hooper.” If, as we suppose was the case, Anne was related to such outstanding leaders in North Carolina as George Cooper (whose daughter she may have [343] been) and William Hooper, the latter a signer of the Declaration of Independence, she was, as Miss Schaw says, “connected with the best people in the country.”

Family Information. From Colonel Vetch: “At the end of the seventeenth century, almost within the town of Edinburgh, lived William Schaw of Lauriston, a man of substance and ancient lineage....He married Janet, daughter of Nicol Hardie, writer to the Signet [that is, a solicitor] of Edinburgh and by her had an only son Gideon so called after his grandfather, Gideon Schaw of Lanrtston. This younger Gideon married Anne, daughter of Robert Rutherfurd of Bowland and Anne Pringle his wife... He was a man of taste and after his father’s death lived in some style at Lauriston. He enjoyed the comforts and pleasures of life, prided himself upon his fine gardens and hothouses, and his kind and hospitable nature made him happy in welcoming his friends and acquaintances to his house. Unfortunately he was too extravagant and generous, and when he died [in 1772] his affairs were found to be much involved, so much so, indeed, that his son Alexander was obliged to sell the property... [The latter] proved himself upright and capable in business matters and ultimately satisfied fully all claims to the estate, by giving up half his pay for many years, though under no obligation to do so ... Lauriston Lodge was a part of the Lauriston House which was pulled down to make way for new buildings and streets, at a time when the hospital next the St. Catherine Convent was built. The Lodge, which still remains, stands today [1909] in the grounds of the convent.” See plan, p. 10 b.

From Mrs. W. H. Nelson. “When King George II and Queen Charlotte went to Plymouth to visit the dockyard, they had hunch with Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Schaw and Miss Janet Schaw. There was a good view of the shipping to be had from their balcony and when, after lunch, Queen Charlotte went out to look at it Miss Janet Schaw spread a very beautiful shawl over the balcony railing for the queen to lean on. Afterward this shawl was put away as a relic and eventually went to New Zealand with members of the Schaw family, who settled there.” Of Fanny, Mrs. Nelson says, while she “was on a visit to her daughter, Mrs. Beresford in Ireland, she was appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Sally Adger, who came as personal maid to Fanny at Plymouth in 1796 and remained the rest of her life in the Schaw family, used to tell many stories of Fanny’s sweetness and grace. Later when Sally became housekeeper in charge of the servants and they were troublesome, she had only to [344] bring them to her mistress to find them softened and brought to reason by her gracious tact.” To this Col. Vetch adds, Fanny “was a most elegant and pleasant lady. Both she and her husband seemed to enjoy all the comforts of life and kept their carriage.