ANCESTRY OF MISS PIERCE.

Whenever we meet with a person who rises above the level of his or her contemporaries and is noted for larger qualities of mind or heart, we become curious to know how far these qualities may be inherited from equally distinguished ancestors. In connection with the rare woman whose life-work is depicted in these pages we are struck with an interesting coincidence.

Col. John Pierce was her brother and a prominent figure in the Revolution, a friend of General Washington, and paymaster of the army at Ticonderoga. John Pierce, of Litchfield, Connecticut, was her father. Again, his father was John Pierce, of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Now, Wethersfield was settled from Watertown, Massachusetts, by men who had become dissatisfied with the conduct of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and here again we find a line of John Pierces starting in Watertown and bringing up in Wethersfield. The first one, John Pierce, or Pers, was made freeman of Watertown in 1638, is spoken of as “a man of good estate who projected the settlements of Sudbury and Lancaster.” Just before this we find in England another John Pierce, to whom a patent was granted by the Crown, February 20, 1620, which is the patent upon which the Plymouth Company settled after finding that they had landed and were forced to settle further north than the tract to which their patent from the South Virginia Company entitled them.

Now, although unable exactly to connect all these different John Pierces, namely,—

John Pierce, England, patentee, 1620.

John Pierce,^[1] Watertown, freeman, 1638.

2John Pierce, his son, lived in Boston, Woburn, Mass., and Wethersfield. Last mention in Woburn, 1649.

John Pierce, his son, born 1644, moved to Wethersfield, then to Southbury, d. 1731.

John Pierce, his son, b. 1683, moved to South Britain, Conn.

John Pierce, of Wethersfield, there from 1742 to 1764, will proved 1774.

John Pierce, of Litchfield, his son, born 1733.

Col. John Pierce, brother of Sarah Pierce,—

the names being identical even to the spelling, it does not need a vivid imagination to suppose that their blood may have flowed in the veins of Sarah Pierce, our heroine, or that she drew her inspiration from, and shared the qualities of the family of whom Gen. E. W. Pierce wrote: “Indomitable perseverance is also a trait that marks their character in every department of life and has generally crowned their efforts with ultimate success, though attained after repeated and mortifying failures.” And again, among the armorial bearings of the family is a dove with an olive branch and the motto, “Dixit et fecit,” “He said and he did.”

The history of the family in this country fills numerous volumes, including the variations of the name, such as Pierce, Peirce, Pearce, Pearse, etc.

Returning to John Pierce, of London, we find he must have been a man of position and influence which is shown in the first place by his being able to acquire a patent. Then he is spoken of as a “citizen and clothworker of London,” and “that renowned clothworker.” He must also have been a man of daring and adventure as he set sail for America in the winter, in the month of December, 1821, in the “Paragon,” a vessel which he had equipped for the purpose and in which he had gathered a goodly company of passengers and a quantity of freight for Plymouth.

Owing to inclement weather they returned to London in fourteen days with the vessel badly damaged. Unwisely they ventured out again, in the following month, one of the worst in the year for mariners, with added passengers and freight. This sailing was no better than the first, as they soon met a severe storm which injured both vessel and cargo to such an extent 3they had to go back to London. It would seem this loss was both discouraging and irremediable, as we do not learn that the leader of the expedition ever tried again to cross the Atlantic, but that he sold out to pay for his losses and assigned his patent to the Plymouth Company. At that time so little was known of the Plymouth Pilgrims that they were known as “Mr. Pierce’s Company.”

We read elsewhere, however, that John Pierce’s enthusiasm for adventure and colonization must have been shared by his brothers, for Captain William and Captain Michael came over later. They are the ancestors of many of the name in this country. That they were men of substance and education is shown by facts connected with them. Captain William is stated to be “mariner” and captain of the vessels “Anne,” “Lion,” and “Mayflower.” In 1623 he brought a noteworthy company to Plymouth. In 1624 he brought the “Winslow” and the first cattle in the “Charity.” In 1625 he was at Plymouth again, in the “Jacob,” bringing “Winslow” and more cattle. In 1629 he commanded the famous “Mayflower” and conveyed a company from Holland as far as the Bay on their way to Plymouth. He came many times in other vessels. In 1636 the first vessel built in this country and called “Pierce’s Desire” was launched for him at Marblehead, Massachusetts, and in 1639 he sailed her from Boston to the Thames in twenty-three days, which would even now be a credit to such a craft and captain. To him also belongs the credit of bringing to New England from the West Indies the first cotton, in 1633, and in 1636 the first sweet potatoes from the same place. He was born in England about 1590 and died in the Bahamas, July 13, 1641.

Captain Michael Pierce came over in 1645 and fell fighting with the Indians in 1676. He was one “who never knew fear.”

The first attempt in this country at printing anything in book form was in 1639, when Pierce’s almanac made its appearance.

On the other side, from her mother, Mary Paterson, Sarah Pierce inherited both ability and energy.

The Patersons originated in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, where they were of a substantial character. One of their members, William Paterson, became prominent in London among trading 4and financial circles. He was born in 1658 and died in 1719. He was much interested in the treaty between his own country and England and wrote an able pamphlet entitled “The Union of England and Scotland.” He is called “the chief projector” of the plan for founding the Bank of England and conducted many of the negotiations between the government and the merchants. Later he came to America, passing some time in the Bahamas, and then conceived a plan for aiding the commerce of Scotland, called the “Darien Scheme.” Darien was to be colonized as a trading post, but the plan failed, although Baimester says that the revival of the scheme in these later days proves Paterson’s great foresight.

James Paterson, born in Scotland in 1664, was one of the first settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and there in 1704 he married Mary Talcott. He, or some of his family, are said to have introduced the use of tin into this country. He died in 1750, leaving a son, John, born in 1707. John married Ruth Bird, was active in the army for the King, and rose to the office of major. He died in 1762. He was the father of Mary Paterson, who married John Pierce, and also of Major General Paterson, of whom an able life has been written by Dr. Thomas Egleston, one of his descendants, and to whom a fine monument has been erected at Lenox, Massachusetts, where he lived after his Revolutionary career. This Mary Paterson married John Pierce, and they may have lived with her father, Major Paterson, at Farmington, Connecticut, after their marriage, as their oldest child, Col. John Pierce, was born there in 1750. They probably settled in Litchfield the following year, for it is recorded in the land records of that place that “John Pierce, of Litchfield,” May 15, 1753, “Bought of Zebulon Bissell ‘my home lot’ 10 acres of land, barn, and orchard, for £1300.” His father, “John Pierce, of Wethersfield,” having bought, probably for him, of John Catling, the previous March, nine acres of land for £305.

“John Pierce, of Litchfield,” appears frequently afterwards in the land records, but otherwise we know little of him. Besides farming his land he had the trade of a potter. He is said to have had fifteen children. Of these we know that Mary Paterson had seven: John, the colonel, who married Ann Bard; Mary, who married a Strong; Betsey, Anne, or Nancy; Susan, who married 5James Brace; Ruth, who married Thomas O. H. Croswell; and Sarah. After the death of his first wife John Pierce married Mary Goodman, and three of their children lived to grow up: Timothy, the doctor, who died unmarried; James, who was in a bank in New York; and Mary, who outlived all her brothers and sisters.

John Pierce died a few years after the birth of his last child, which threw the responsibility of the family on the oldest son, and perhaps accounts for our knowing so little about him. That Colonel Pierce assumed the responsibility bravely and cheerfully, is evident from his own letters. He was the head of the family, and advised his brothers and sisters, particularly Sarah, when she was in New York preparing for the task which perhaps he had picked out as particularly suited to her strong character. We are told he sent her and Nancy there, while the tuition of one of them was paid for by a cousin, Mr. Landon.

Writing of Miss Pierce’s work and influence is needless. The work can speak for itself and for her, who in her quiet, dignified way became such a power among her scholars and the community where she lived and taught, that it extended even to the gay young pupils of the contemporary law school.

To this end, diaries and compositions, letters, plays, and rules follow, chronologically arranged, together with the names of as many of the three thousand pupils that came from north, south, east, and west as could be gathered. With them are also the names of some of the men they married. Many of these marriages resulted from the attendance of the young men and women upon these two contemporary and prominent schools. The fame, even the knowledge, of these schools have almost died out in the north, amid the rush and whirl of the active, commercial, and industrial life; but in the south, from which John C. Calhoun and many other afterwards prominent men came to study in Litchfield, their memories and traditions are still alive.

As to her preparation by education and surroundings for the task that grew in extent and magnitude so far beyond her expectation, we know that she and her sister Nancy were sent to school in New York with the express purpose in view of their opening a school in Litchfield; but of the school they attended, or of what the teaching consisted, we can learn nothing.

6The influence of her stepmother, Mary Goodman, must have been an inspiration. She appreciated learning so highly that she was one of a committee of women who appealed to the school board to extend to girls the same privileges in studies as were enjoyed by the boys. We know also that about the time the school was started, the year 1792, and for many years afterwards, the society in Litchfield was such as to be a constant education to a woman with the receptive mind of Miss Pierce, and it must have been largely due to that influence that the school studies and methods developed as they did in the course of years. The adding of many branches not heretofore attempted by women must have been the result of an unconscious but phenomenal growth on the part of the teacher. In later years her efforts were supplemented by those of her nephew, the son of her sister Susan, Mr. John Pierce Brace, also a born educator, whom she educated at Williamstown college that he might become her assistant. From the autographs in the album of Mary Peck, pupil and teacher in the school, who married Edward D. Mansfield, a pupil in the law school, the mental quality of the Litchfield society of that day can be gauged as well as what might be its effect upon the mind of any bright girl who was thrown constantly in contact with it. The Litchfield Female Academy, which was begun with two or three pupils in the dining-room of a young girl teacher, attained, under the guidance of this remarkable woman, a vigorous life of forty-one years, and proved itself to be a pioneer on this continent of the higher education of women.