Note 208 — Chapter X

Of the after history of the young men and maidens who contracted these romantic marriages I can give information in only two cases. Charles Peter Vanderaa, entered in the register of the Record Office as lieutenant on a brig-of-war, was married on the day of his release. Whether he took his wife to Holland or not, his grandson, from whom I got my information, did not know. All he knew was that his grandfather, in some capacity or other, again took to the sea, and that he died of yellow fever in Spain or one of the Spanish colonies, leaving his widow with two sons, Thomas and Peter. The widow, after his death, lived in Peterborough in very poor circumstances. The second son, Peter, I well remember earning a living as a schoolmaster in Peterborough, where he had at one time been in the police force; he married and had one daughter, who married a blacksmith named Dawson. The couple moved to London, where there may be a colony of the cadet’s descendants, recking nothing of their Dutch blood. The oldest son, Thomas Vanderaa, had two sons, one of whom I knew well. His mental capacity was not very high; he got his living as a casual, respectable gardener and handy man. He died a few years since, but I have preserved the letter in which he gave me the information about his relatives.