MASTER JOHN SULLIVAN OF SOMERSWORTH AND BERWICK, AND HIS FAMILY.[10]

MASTER JOHN SULLIVAN OF SOMERSWORTH AND BERWICK, AND HIS FAMILY.^[10]

BY JOHN SCALES OF DOVER, N. H.

Thomas Coffin Amory begins his biography of his grandfather, Gov. James Sullivan, as follows:

James, the fourth son of Master Sullivan, was born in Berwick, Me., 22d April, 1744. The cellar of the house occupied by his parents is easily distinguished by some portions of its walls still remaining in a field near Salmon Falls river, and within half a mile of Great Falls village. The barn which served to store away their harvests for the long winters of New England climate has only quite recently (1858) been destroyed by fire. Near by, but separated from the old dwelling by a public road, laid out in comparatively modern times across the farm, is the ancient cemetery, where Master Sullivan and Margery his wife, when their long protracted lives were over, were laid to their last repose amid the scenes of their humble labors and of the pleasures and various vicissitudes of more than half a century.

The above is incorrect in one particular: Gov. James Sullivan was not born in Berwick, Me.; he was born in Somersworth, N. H., then a parish in Dover. Mr. Amory made the mis-statement because he had not all the facts at hand in regard to the question. That particular part of Somersworth in which Master Sullivan lived is now in the town of Rollinsford, having been set off from Somersworth in 1849, and is now the village at Rollinsford Junction.

This village is one mile from Salmon Falls village and one mile from South Berwick village, at the lower fall where the fresh water meets the tide water; this is the ancient Quamphegan, and the point where the river changes its name to Newichawannick, which it holds till it gets to Dover Point, where it joins the Pascataqua, six miles from Quamphegan. The settlers on Dover Neck did not use the 64Indian name Newichawannick, but called it Fore River, and the river on the west side of the Neck they called Back River.

The Somersworth village in the days of Master Sullivan was much larger than the modern village of Rollinsford Junction; this is distant about four miles from the depot in the city of Somersworth. For more than a century it was the home of several of the leading men of New Hampshire. It was the home of Master Sullivan from 1723 to 1754. Here his children were born; here he did the most important part of his teaching; here he educated his sons to be governors, and leaders in the Revolution, and leaders after the American government was formed.

They were important factors in forming the state governments of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. At this village school of Master Sullivan the sons of many other men were taught in a way that fitted them to enter Harvard College, and fitted them to be leaders in the great struggle for independence. Here Master Sullivan not only kept school, but was also the scribe and counselor for his neighbors and fellow-citizens.

He was a fine penman, and wrote wills, deeds, mortgages, and such other legal documents as the needs of the parish demanded. Here he served in the local military company; here he swept the parish meeting-house and rang the bell for services on the Lord’s day; here he sat under the ministrations of Rev. James Pike, who was the faithful and able pastor of this parish for more than sixty years.

The farm which Mr. Amory speaks of in Berwick was purchased by Master Sullivan in August, 1753. He bought it of Mr. Samuel Lord, and there is no record that he bought any land anywhere before that date. It is on a beautiful elevation which overlooks the city of Somersworth, a mile away, across the Salmon Falls River. Much of the land is now cut up into streets and house lots in the fast-growing village of Berwick. A garden occupies the spot where Master Sullivan’s house stood; a street crosses the spot where he and his good wife were buried. Their remains were removed to the Sullivan cemetery in Durham, and now repose near the grave of their illustrious son, Gen. John Sullivan.

It is not known precisely when he moved his family to Berwick, but probably in 1754, and there they resided more than forty years. In Berwick he was a farmer, as well as a schoolmaster and scrivener for his townsmen. Tradition says that his wife was the better farmer of the two. He was so fond of his books that the weeds 65oftentimes got the better of his crops. His wife Margery cared nothing for books, and delighted in out-door work.

The town of South Berwick was set off from Berwick in 1814; the First parish is at South Berwick, and recently celebrated its two hundredth anniversary with an elaborate and interesting service. In 1754 the present Berwick was established as the North parish, on petition of 39 freeholders (landowners). This petition for an enabling act to choose parish officers was granted by Governor Shirley and the council, April 17, 1754, the house concurring on the next day. One of the 39 signers to that petition was Master John Sullivan. He helped organize the parish and owned a pew in the meeting-house; later two of his sons owned pews there.

Because Master Sullivan spent the last 40 years of his life in this parish of Berwick, the writers of cyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, and biographies of his sons have taken it for granted that he always lived there, hence say his sons were born there. If Master Sullivan’s sons were like the ordinary sons of men, nobody would care or take the trouble to inquire whether they were born in Maine or New Hampshire. They are not like ordinary sons; they are extraordinary, and that is why New Hampshire should claim the honor which is its due, just as we delight to boast that Webster and Chase, and a host of distinguished men, are the sons of New Hampshire. The Sullivan family is one of the most notable families in the history of New England. There were five sons and one daughter. I will give a brief summary of their lives.

I. Benjamin was born in 1736; he received a thorough education from his father; he enlisted in the British navy and rose to be an officer, when most young men would be only ordinary seamen; he was tall, handsome and brilliant, and walked the decks as one who was born to command. Unfortunately, he and his ship, with all on board, were lost at sea just previous to the Revolution.

II. Daniel, the second son, was born in 1738; after being carefully educated by his father he engaged in mercantile business in Berwick and was very successful; about 1770 he was leader of a company of gentlemen who founded a town at the head of Frenchman’s Bay in eastern Maine; this town is called Sullivan in his honor. When the Revolutionary War commenced he organized and commanded a company which did valiant service for the Patriot cause; he was leader in the defense of Castine against the attacks of the British navy. Captain Sullivan was so conspicuous and efficient in the defense 66that the officers of the fleet marked him for special revenge; one ship went up from Mt. Desert to the head of Frenchman’s Bay specially to capture the captain; a sortie of marines at midnight went to his house, when all the family were asleep, caught the captain, drove his family out of doors and burned the house and contents; the British officer offered to release him if he would swear allegiance to the king; the captain positively refused to accept freedom on such condition; he was then carried to New York city and confined in a prison ship several months; he was then exchanged but died on his way home, from disease contracted while in prison. He has the reputation of being a man of extraordinary ability, both as a military leader and a business man. Before the war he had acquired large possessions in land, lumber, and sawmills.

III. John, the third son, was born in 1740; after thorough training by his father, he studied law with Judge Livermore in Portsmouth; he commenced practice of the law in Berwick in 1761, and was married about that time. He removed to Durham in 1763, much against the wishes of some of the good people in that town, who feared a lawyer would make trouble. General Sullivan was the first lawyer the town ever had; but the people soon learned to love and respect him; although his office was in Durham, his practice soon extended throughout Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire and York County in Maine; his success was remarkable.

Before 1775 he was acknowledged as leader at the bar in all of those counties, where John Adams, the second president of the United States, was for several years one of his competitors; not only was he a great lawyer but he also engaged extensively in business, owning several mills and much real estate; at the opening of the war it was estimated he was worth £40,000; most men with such holdings would have hesitated much before rebelling against the king of England; John Sullivan did not hesitate; he took the lead and was commander of the expedition which committed the first overt act of war in the Revolution, by capturing and removing the gunpowder from Fort William and Mary at Newcastle, Dec. 14, 1774; of course you all know the story; the hundred barrels of powder were taken up the river to Durham and hid in various places; a larger part was placed in the cellar of the old church near General Sullivan’s residence; the monument to his memory now stands on the spot.

Some of that powder was used at the battle of Bunker Hill; all of it was used in the Revolutionary War, except a small bottleful which 67Maj. John Demeritt of Madbury now has, being handed down to him as an inheritance from his ancestors; this capture of the powder was four months before the Lexington and Concord affair.

While attending to his law business and his sawmills and lumbering, he had taken a hand in the local military affairs, and in 1774 was major of the regiment of militia in his section of the province; Governor Wentworth could not persuade him to hold it after the little affair at Fort William and Mary; he was delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1775; he was appointed brigadier-general in the Continental army in 1775; a major-general in 1776; commanded the New Hampshire troops at Germantown and Brandywine; commander-in-chief in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778; commander-in-chief in the great and hazardous expedition against the Six Nations in 1779, which resulted in the overthrow of the most complete organization of the Indians ever effected on this continent. To commemorate this great service of General Sullivan the state of New York has erected costly tablets on the spots where the most important encounters took place.

This was General Sullivan’s closing service in the military operations of the war. I think he should be ranked second only to Greene and Washington as a military leader. His services in civil affairs which immediately followed were quite as valuable and important as his military service. In 1780 he drafted the bill, which the Legislature adopted, to regulate the militia; in 1781 he was delegate in the National Congress; in 1782, ’83 and ’84 he was attorney-general of New Hampshire; he was president of the state in 1786, ’87 and 89; he was the Federal candidate in 1788 but was defeated by John Langdon, the Republican candidate. Sullivan had defeated Langdon in the two years previous, and in the year following; Sullivan was a Washington federalist; he was a presidential elector when Washington was elected the first time; he was president of the convention that adopted the Federal constitution, June 21, 1788, which was the act that established the Federal union; the vote stood 57 in favor to 42 against adoption; it was largely through the influence of General Sullivan that the 57 votes were secured and the Federal union was formed.

September 26, 1789, President Washington appointed him United States district judge for New Hampshire, and he entered upon the duties of that office Dec. 15 of that year; he remained in that office until his death, Jan. 23, 1795, being nearly fifty-five years old, having 68been born on the 17th of February, 1740. A better American, a more capable, a more useful, or more fearless citizen than John Sullivan, New Hampshire never had.

In this connection it may be well to say a few words about his descendants, to show how strong was the hereditary force that came down from Master Sullivan. General Sullivan’s son John was a prominent and able lawyer in one of the Southern states, but died young. His son George was attorney-general of New Hampshire twenty years. His grandson, John, son of George, was attorney-general ten years or more, and his grand nephew, John S. Wells, held the same office several years. They were all able attorneys, and no family in the state has the equal of this illustrious record.

IV. James, the fourth son of Master Sullivan, was born in Somersworth in May, 1744, and died in Boston, Dec. 10, 1808. He was thoroughly educated by his father, quite the equal of a Harvard graduate of that period; he studied law with his brother John; opened an office at Saco about 1767 and practised his profession there until about 1780; he was very successful, and with his brother John did the larger part of the law business in York County. When he was twenty-six years old he was appointed attorney-general for the district of Maine and held the office until the Revolution began; he was delegate in the first Continental Congress, when he was thirty years old; when he was thirty-one he was appointed judge of admiralty; the next year he was promoted to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, which office he held several years; he removed to Boston in 1782. While he was in Maine, John Adams, who used to go down there once or twice a year to attend court at Saco and Portland, said that he always found the Sullivans in possession of all the best and most important cases.

In 1783, ’84 and ’85 he was delegate in the Continental Congress, and also was representative from Boston in the Massachusetts General Court; he was member of the Executive Council in 1787; judge of probate from 1788 to 1790; attorney-general from 1790 to 1807; in 1804 he was presidential elector, casting his vote for Thomas Jefferson, of whom he was a great admirer. The Federalist abused him fearfully for so voting. He was governor of Massachusetts in 1807 and 1808, dying a short time before his term expired. Notwithstanding he gave so much time to official business, he was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society and its president many years; he wrote and published a history of Maine; he published 69numerous pamphlets on various questions that concerned current business affairs; he was a clear and forcible writer and an eloquent advocate; he delivered innumerable addresses on public occasions and stood in the front rank of literary men and the legal fraternity of Boston.

V. Mary Sullivan was the fifth child of this remarkable family; she was born in 1752; her father as carefully educated her as he did his sons; she was tall and handsome, like her father, and inherited his fondness for books; she was brilliant and attractive, mentally and socially; like her father she was a successful teacher several years, at a time when most women thought they were highly accomplished if they could write their own names. She married Mr. Theophilus Hardy and resided in Durham near her brother John. To them were born several daughters; one of these, a very gifted woman, married Edward Wells, Esq., and they also resided in Durham, which was then one of the liveliest business centers of the state. They had a large family of children, and several of the sons manifested those strong traits of intellectual power of their Sullivan ancestors; one son, Samuel Wells, was governor of Maine two years, 1858 and 1859; another son, John Sullivan Wells, whom many of you may remember, lacked only fifty votes of being elected governor of New Hampshire in 1856, the Know-Nothing tidal wave being a little too much for him to overcome; he was attorney-general several years; United States senator; speaker of the House in the New Hampshire Legislature, and also president of the Senate. He was an able lawyer, a brilliant and fascinating public speaker, and one of the most popular men in his party and he was generally popular with all parties. Another brother, Joseph Bartlett Wells, was a distinguished lawyer in Illinois, where he was attorney-general several years, and was lieutenant-governor at the time of his death; had he lived he would undoubtedly have been governor of the state. A fourth brother was consul at Bermuda several years and died there. These were great-grandsons of Master John Sullivan.

VI. Ebenezer was the sixth child and youngest son of Master Sullivan and his wife Margery; he was born in 1753, and died in 1797. He was educated by his father and studied law with his brother John. Before he could get established in his profession the Revolution commenced, and he engaged earnestly in the cause of the colonies; starting as a private, he rose to be captain of a company and did valiant service.

70He was taken prisoner and narrowly escaped being burned at the stake by the Indians. After the war he married and resided at South Berwick, and engaged in the practice of his profession. He was the leader at the bar in York County, a thorough lawyer and a powerful advocate. He was a tall, handsome, powerfully-built man, whose presence was commanding wherever he stood.

Such were the children of Master Sullivan. What say you, Mr. President, are these boys worthy for the New Hampshire Historical Society to claim them as sons of New Hampshire?

Seven cities claimed the honor of being the birthplace of Homer. Other great men in later times have honored the cities where they were born by their great deeds; should not New Hampshire feel everlastingly honored by having such a family born within its borders? I will take it for granted that you will answer all my questions in the affirmative. Then what proof have I that they were born in New Hampshire and not in Maine? I will tell you shortly.

On page 356 of McClintock’s History of New Hampshire Fred Myron Colby has the following concerning Master John Sullivan:

The grandfather of the New Hampshire Sullivans was Major Philip O’Sullivan of Ardea, an officer of the Irish army during the siege of Limerick. His son John, born at Limerick in 1692, was one of the company that in 1723 emigrated from Ireland and settled the town of Belfast in Maine. At this place he hired a sawmill and went to work. Two or three years afterward another vessel of Irish emigrants landed at Belfast. On board was a blooming young damsel, who, after the custom of those days, had agreed with the shipmaster to be bound out at service in the colonies in payment of her passage across the Atlantic. She was bright and witty, with a mind of a rough but noble cast. During the passage over a fellow-passenger jocosely asked her what she expected to do when she arrived in the colonies. “Do?” answered she with true Celtic wit, “why raise governors for thim.” Sullivan saw the girl as she landed, and struck with her beauty, made a bargain with the captain, paying her passage in shingles. He wooed and won her, and the Irish girl entered upon her initiatory steps to make good her declaration. Immediately after his marriage (1735) Mr. Sullivan settled on a farm in Berwick and began clearing it for the plow.

Following this is a statement that John was the oldest son of this couple, and a lot more of fictitiously interesting biography of the general. Now what are the facts?

Master Sullivan landed in York, Me., from Limerick, Ireland, in the winter of 1723; he hadn’t a cent to pay the captain for his passage 71across the Atlantic. After working at farming a week or so he got weary of it, and applied to Rev. Dr. Moody, pastor of Scotland parish, to help him. He made his application in a letter written in seven languages, so the doctor might know he was an educated man. The worthy doctor was favorably impressed, and loaned him the money to pay his fare and then helped him to a school in Dover. May 20, 1723,^[11] Master “Sullefund” was chosen one of the two teachers of the town of Dover, at £30 salary per year. Just where he kept that school is not stated in the record, but it undoubtedly was in that part of Dover then called the “Summer parish,” from the fact that meetings were held in a barn there during the summer and fall by Parson Cushing, then pastor of the First parish.

These summer meetings were held to accommodate the people who objected to walking or riding five or six miles to attend meetings at Cochecho, where now is the center of the city of Dover. As this is the place where Master Sullivan spent thirty years of his life, I may as well explain further in regard to this name, Somersworth, which is unique in the history of towns and cities in the United States, no other place in the country having that name.

The people had become familiar to having the village called the “Summer parish,” so in 1730, when this district was separated from the First parish as a distinct parish, it was the most natural thing for the leaders, who were educated men, to retain the familiar name, and they did it by changing “parish” to “worth,” and they had “Summersworth.” The word “worth” is the old English termination for names of places, so Summer parish and Summersworth mean precisely the same thing. You will notice that the present spelling is Somersworth.

The ancient spelling of the parish was Summersworth, and when the citizens petitioned for an act of incorporation as a town they 72asked to have it spelled that way, but when they got their charter they found that the clerk of the General Court, or somebody else, had changed “Sum” to “Som,” so they let it go that way. This change in orthography made no change in the meaning of the name. According to Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose large dictionary was published in 1755, the year after this town was chartered, “Sumer” is Saxon and “Somer” is Dutch for the English word “Summer.”

Before Summersworth was made a separate parish the town of Dover looked after the schools; but after it became a parish the people managed their own schools by votes in parish meetings. July 2, 1734, the parish “Voted that Hercules Mooney be the schoolmaster here for one month (viz) from July 4^th to Aug^t 4^th, 1734 next ensuing at three pounds fifteen shillings per month.”

“Voted that Capt. Thomas Wallingford and Mr. Philip Stackpole be the men that Joyn with the Selectmen at the months end above to agree with Mr. Mooney or any other suitable person to keep school in this Parish for the Residue of this Sumer and autum.”

In 1735 it was “Voted that Mr. Jon^o Scrugham be school master for one month in this Parish at the Descression of the Selectmen.” Also, “Voted that there be thirty pounds raised to Defray the Charge of a school this sumer and autum.”

In 1737 the parish “Voted sixty pounds for a school master.”

“Voted that Mr. John Sullivan be the schoolmaster for the ensuing year.”

“Voted that John Sullivan to sweep and take care of ye meeting house & to have thirty shillings.”

From that date to 1752 no schoolmaster is named, but from year to year the parish would vote to have a school and leave the matter with the selectmen to hire a teacher. As they had voted Master Sullivan in once, it was taken for granted that he would be the teacher. April 6, 1752, “Voted Mr. Joseph Tate twenty three pounds old tenor to keep ye Parish School one month.” The record does not show that Master Sullivan kept the parish school after Mr. Tate began work there.

Master Sullivan was married to Margery Browne in 1735. Soon after that he commenced to sign his name as witness to documents as “John Sullivan of Summersworth.” Their third child, John, was born in 1740. In 1787, when he was the Federalist candidate for governor, then called president, his opponents charged him as guilty of being born in Berwick, Me., hence was not eligible for the office.

73The New Hampshire Gazette, March 10, 1787, replied to this as follows:

Surely the collector of intelligence has not consulted all the people in this state, or he would have found out that President Sullivan was born in Somersworth, in the county of Strafford.

In the summer of 1743 Master Sullivan and his wife had a falling out, and he went off to Boston to remain till her temper cooled. She repented of her cruel treatment, and published the following advertisement in the Boston Evening Post, July 25, 1743, from which I copied it in the Boston Public Library. It shows conclusively that Summersworth was Master Sullivan’s home in 1743:

Advertisement.

My Dear and Loving Husband:

Your abrupt departure from me, and forsaking of me your wife and tender babes, which I now humbly acknowledge and confess, I was greatly if not wholly the cause by my too rash and unadvised speech and behaviour towards you; for which I now in this public manner humbly ask your forgiveness, and hereby promise upon your return to amend and reform and by my future loving and obedient carriage toward you, endeavor to make an atonement for my past evil deeds, and manifest to you and to the whole world, that I can become a new woman, and will prove to you a loving, dutiful and tender wife.

If you do not regard what I have above written, I pray you harken to what your pupil, Joshua Gilpatrick, hath below sent you, as also the lamentations and cries of your poor children, especially the eldest (Benjamin) who though but seven years old, all rational people really conclude that unless you speedily return will end in his death; and the moans of your other children (Daniel and John) are enough to affect any human heart.

And why, my dear husband, should a few angry and unkind words from an angry and foolish wife [for which I am now paying full dear, having neither eat, drank nor slept in quiet, and am already reduced almost to a skeleton, that unless you favor me with your company will bereave me of my life] make you thus forsake me and your children? How can you thus, for so slender a cause as a few rash words from a simple and weak woman, cause you to part from your tender babes, who are your own flesh and blood? Pray meditate on what I now send and reprieve your poor wife and eldest son, who take your departure so heavily, from a lingering though certain death, by your coming home to them again, as speedily as you can, where you shall be kindly received, and in a most submissive manner by 74your wife who is ready at your desire to lay herself at your feet for her past miscarriage, and am with my and your children’s kind love to you, your loving wife.

Margery Sullivan.

Summersworth, New Hampshire, July 11, 1743.

The Hon. Thomas Wallingford, who resided in Summersworth and lived near Master Sullivan, was captain of the company of militia in that parish in 1746, and probably several years before. The late Rev. Dr. A. H. Quint had the muster roll of this company, and I presume his widow now has it. Dr. Quint published it in his Historical Memoranda, and it can be found on page 377 of the book of this memoranda that I recently published. In this list of soldiers appears Master Sullivan’s name, although the clerk of the company spells it “John Sullevant.” Of course he was an old resident there, or he would not have been enrolled as a soldier.

Another witness, and I leave this part of my subject. Mr. Michael Reade of Dover was born in the same year as General Sullivan and lived to be more than eighty years old. He went to school to Master Sullivan and knew him and the boys well, hence, of course, knew where they lived. This Michael Reade’s son Michael was born in 1773, and lived to be more than eighty years old. He knew Master Sullivan, saw him many times, and his father told him much about the old master; among other things, that he lived in Summersworth many years before he removed to Berwick and united farming with school teaching. The younger Michael Reade was living when Dr. Quint wrote much of his Historical Memoranda, and furnished the doctor many facts about many topics, and one was that his father always said General Sullivan and his brothers were born in Summersworth.

I will give a brief summary of the points: May 20, 1723, the town of Dover voted to hire him to teach school one year and give him £30. Jan. 10, 1737, he wrote and witnessed a deed, Tebbets to Tebbets, and signed as of Summersworth. Dec. 13, 1737, the parish of Summersworth voted to hire him to keep school one year, and also sweep the meeting-house. The New Hampshire Gazette says he lived in Summersworth when his son John was born in 1740. His wife Margery says their home was in Summersworth when she advertised for him to come home in 1743. Capt. Thomas Wallingford says he was a citizen of Summersworth in 1746. And last, but 75not least, Michael Reade told Dr. Quint the boys were all born in Summersworth.

On the other hand, there is nothing in the Berwick records, parish or town, which even mentions Master Sullivan before 1753. Aug. 12 of that year he bought his farm in Berwick of Samuel Lord; and after that his name frequently appears.

Master Sullivan and his wife Margery were a remarkable couple. They are two of the interesting characters in Sarah Orne Jewett’s story, The Tory Lover, recently published, which, of course, you have all read, or will read.

Master Sullivan was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1691, during the siege of the city by King William’s forces. His wife, Margery Browne, was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1714. In 1723 they both set sail from Limerick in the same ship for New England. The captain intended to land at Newburyport, but owing to stress of weather he was compelled to land at York Harbor, Me. In his old age, when he and his wife were calling at a neighbor’s, they got to talking about his younger days, and he told the following story, which was recorded by the person who heard it. Master Sullivan said, in the presence of his wife:

I sailed from Limerick, Ireland, for New England in 1723; owing to stress of weather the vessel was obliged to land at York, Maine. On the voyage my attention was called to a pretty girl of nine or ten years, Margery Browne, who afterwards became my wife. As my mother had absolutely refused to furnish me the means for paying transportation, and I had not means otherwise, I was obliged to enter into an agreement with the captain to earn the money for my passage.

After I landed at York, for a while I lived on the McIntire farm in Scotland parish. Unaccustomed to farm labor, and growing weary of manual occupation, I applied to Rev. Dr. Moody, pastor of the parish, for assistance. I made my application in a letter written in seven languages, so that he might see I was a scholar. He became interested in my behalf, and being conversant with my ability to teach he loaned me the money with which to pay the captain the amount I owed for my passage. Thus set free from the McIntires, I was assisted to open a school and earn money to repay Dr. Moody.

Later in life, when he was past fourscore years old, he made another statement in regard to himself, at the request of his daughter-in-law, wife of General Sullivan. He wrote it with his own hand and gave it to the general’s wife. She gave it to her daughter, wife of Judge Steele; from Mrs. Steele it passed to her son and grandson; 76by the latter it was given to Thomas Coffin Amory, who published it in his biography of Gov. James Sullivan. It is as follows:

I am the son of Major Philip O’Sullivan of Ardea, in county of Kerry, Ireland. His father was Owen O’Sullivan, original descendant from the second son of Daniel O’Sullivan, called lord of Bearehaven. His father married Mary, daughter of Col. Owen McSweeney of Musgrey, and sister of Capt. Edmund McSweeney, a man noted for his anecdotes and witty sayings.

I have heard that my grandfather had four countesses for his mother and grandmothers. How true this is, or who they were, I know not. My father died of an ulcer raised in his breast, occasioned by a wound he received in France in a duel with a French officer. My ancestors were short lived; they either died in their bloom or went out of the country. I never heard that any of the mankind arrived at sixty, and I do not remember but one alive when I left home.

My mother’s name was Joan McCarthy, daughter of Dermod McCarthy of Killoween. She had three brothers and one sister. Her mother’s name I forget, but she was daughter of McCarthy Reagh of Carbery. Her oldest brother, Col. Florence, alias McFinnen, and his two brothers, Capt. Charles and Capt. Owen, went in defense of the nation against Orange. Owen was killed in a battle at Aughrim. Florence had a son, who retains the title of McFinnen. I can just remember Charles. He had a charge in his face at the siege of Cork. He left two sons, Derby^[12] and Owen. Derby married with Ellena O’Sullivan of the Sullivans of Banane. His brother married Honora Mahoney of Dromore. My mother’s sister was married to Dermod, eldest son of Daniel O’Sullivan, lord of Dunkerron. Her son Cornelius, as I understand, was with the Pretender (Charles Edward) in Scotland in 1745.

This is all that I can say about my origin, but shall conclude with a Latin sentence:

Si Adam sit pater cunctorum, mater et Eva;

Cur non sunt homines nobilitate pares?

Non pater aut mater dant nobis nobilitatem,

Sed moribus et vita nobilitatur homo.

J. S.

All this condensed into a paragraph is that in Master Sullivan’s veins flowed the blood of the Norman Butlers and Fitzgeralds who went over from England to Ireland, when the Irish were first conquered by the English, and in time they became more Irish than the original race; that is, they fought the English government more 77fiercely than the Irish themselves did. Master Sullivan’s sons won in America what many generations of their brave ancestors had failed to win in Ireland.

As has already been stated, Master Sullivan was born in Limerick during the siege in 1691. Limerick, however, was not captured; a truce took place, and a treaty was formed. This treaty did not last long, and a large number of Irish were compelled to take refuge in France. Among these were Maj. Philip O’Sullivan and his family.

This family remained in France several years. Major Sullivan died there, as has been stated; his wife and children remained till peace reigned in Ireland to the extent that she was allowed to return and take possession of her large estates. While in France she carefully educated her son John, and, unwittingly, prepared him to be the future schoolmaster of New Hampshire. It was there that Master Sullivan learned his French so thoroughly that when he was past ninety years of age he wrote a letter in excellent French to his son, the general.

When his mother returned to Ireland her son was a young man, and I suppose passed his time as other young Irishmen did who were in the front rank of society in the city of Limerick. At length a difference of opinion arose between Madam O’Sullivan and her son; he fell in love with a young woman, who probably could not tell who her grandmother was. This displeased his mother very much. Madam was very haughty and aristocratic; she was proud of her ancestry and of her son’s ancestry. She could not endure the thought of his marrying a girl of low ancestry; she opposed the match.

I suppose that made Master Sullivan’s love burn more fiercely. After the affair had drifted along quite a while Madam forbid her son, peremptorily, to have anything more to do with the girl, and gave him two weeks in which to break the engagement; if he did not do it inside of that time, she would disinherit him. Per contra, Master Sullivan told his mother he would give her two weeks in which to consent to the marriage; if she did not consent inside of that time, he would leave Ireland forever, and neither she or the girl should ever hear more of him. They were both of the same grit; neither would yield, and the result was he sailed for America and in due time landed in York, Me. But the thought of that girl he had left behind him in Ireland haunted him for many years, and it was not till he was forty-four years old that he again entertained the thought of marriage. His mother afterwards repented of her stern act and 78made search for years for her runaway son, but she never found any trace of him.

Hamlet says in the great drama that bears his name:

“Rashly,

And praised be rashness for it, let us know

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall; and that should teach us

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough hew them how we will.”

Suppose Master Sullivan had obeyed his mother’s wishes and remained in Ireland, or suppose Providence had not concealed him from his mother’s search after she repented of her rash act, and he had been found and induced to return to Ireland, what a difference there would have been in the management of affairs and the history of New Hampshire.

Margery Browne was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1714; she died in Berwick, Me., in 1801. Nothing is known of her ancestry, but the name is essentially English, hence we may conclude that her parents, or their ancestors, crossed over from England and settled in Ireland. She came to this country in the same ship with Master Sullivan; she was nine years old and he was thirty-two; they never had met before boarding the ship. Why a girl of nine years should start on such a voyage alone is a mystery that will never be solved.

Her parents may have started with her and died on the way, or she may have taken a freak and stowed herself away among the freight and kept concealed till the ship was well at sea. Whatever may have been the cause of departure, she had no money to pay her passage, so the captain had to sell her service at auction in Portsmouth to get his pay. The tradition is that she was so young and so small that nobody would bid for her services. At last Master Sullivan consented to raise the sum the captain wanted for her passage. It is said that he finally paid it in shingles, which he cut himself in the forest and carried to Portsmouth in a boat.

It is not known where she spent the twelve years from 1723 to 1735, but probably in York, as a house girl on some farm. Master Sullivan does not appear to have taken any interest in her till a short time previous to their marriage, when he heard that the young men of York were falling in love with her and one had gone so far as to propose. He went over from Somersworth to York to see about it. He found a keen-witted, handsome and attractive young woman; the 79thought of the girl he had left in Ireland twelve years ago began to fade from his mind. She was equally impressed with his fine appearance; the result was she told the other young men they need not call any more. Master Sullivan and Margery Browne were married soon after.

She is described by those who saw her in the prime of womanhood as short of stature, beautiful in form, face and manners. She was a great worker, quick tempered, and quick to repent of what she did wrong in her madness. Her tongue was equal to her temper. If tradition can be relied on, she could have given Xantippe several points to start with and then have won easily in a scolding match, although Socrates’ wife has the standard reputation of being the greatest scold the human race has yet produced. Margery Sullivan did not scold all the time; it happened occasionally, like volcanic eruption, when she could not hold in any longer.

Governor Samuel Wells of Maine wrote to a friend as follows about his great-grandmother:

Master Sullivan’s wife was as well known as he was, and when reference was made to her distinguished sons she was more frequently alluded to. She has been uniformly represented as a woman of considerable native strength of mind, yet entirely uncultivated, having the strong passions common to her country women, of which some are good and some are bad, wholly unsubdued by habit. These marked traits of character show a wider contrast between her and her two distinguished sons than between them and their father, and furnish a theme for remark, with anecdotes not a few, brought up whenever allusion was made to the family. That she was a masculine, energetic woman, with the resolution of a man, there is no doubt. That she performed out-door labor in the field, suitable only to men, in order that her husband might not be diverted from his occupation of teaching, was recently told me as coming from herself, in the presence of my informant, one of the few who now (1855) survive to remember her.

Attorney-General John Sullivan of Exeter gave the following description of his great-grandfather, Master Sullivan. He says:

I have been told he was a tall, spare man, very mild and gentle, thoughtful and studious, an excellent scholar, but averse to bodily exercise. He was exclusively a teacher.

An aged lady, who remembered seeing him when he was more than a century old, told me her recollection of him, as she saw him at his house one day, was that of a tall, venerable old man in a dressing gown, seated at a table reading a Bible; he wore his hair long on his shoulders.

80From what his great-grandson says, and from what I gather from other sources, I draw the conclusion that Master Sullivan was a tall, fine-looking man, who had a lofty and fine spirit. He had an excellent education in his youth, which he enlarged and improved in his later years, making him one of the best scholars in New England in the eighteenth century. He evidently was not satisfied with his lot in life, but never complained. The magnificent success of his sons was the source of great pleasure to him in his old age. He probably was the teacher of more men who took a distinguished part in the Revolution than any other one teacher in New England, and in that way he exercised a powerful influence in shaping the turn of events in that great contest.

Master Sullivan died the first of June, 1796, aged 105 years; his remains were interred in a field on the hillside, about 50 rods from where his house stood in Berwick. His wife died in 1801, and was interred at the same spot. Soon after his death, Gov. James Sullivan had a stone, with suitable inscription, erected there; some years later their great-grandson, Governor Wells of Maine, had the spot enclosed with a substantial iron fence. Thus it remained till October, 1877, when Mr. Ricker, the present owner of the land, got permission to remove the remains to the Sullivan cemetery in Durham, as he wanted to run a new street through his land directly over the grave.

The head of the old grave is now marked by a cherry tree, which stands by the sidewalk. When Mr. Ricker and Mr. Stillings, who lives near there, opened the grave, they found the skull perfect, also the hair and some of the large bones of Master Sullivan; over the forehead a root of the cherry tree had grown so that it half encircled the skull, and had to be cut before the bones could be removed. The skull was very large, with a high forehead, and the hair was long and perfect, being a dark brown mixed with slight sprinkle of gray. The remains had been interred there 81 years.

When Master Sullivan died, some one, presumably his pastor, Rev. Matthew Merriam, wrote an obituary of him, which was published in a Portsmouth paper, The Oracle of the Day. His death occurred on Saturday, June 3, 1796, and the article is in the publication of the week following.

The article is quite long, hence I will give only the substance of it here. The writer says he was extraordinary in his acquirements as a student, his brilliancy of mind, his power as a teacher, and in 81his influence over the community in which he lived. He taught school till he was 90 years old and then retired, lamenting he could no longer be useful to his fellow-men. He still continued his studies, reading his Bible, his Homer, and his Horace with as keen a relish as he did a half century before. He wrote a good hand till he was 102 years old; he continued his reading till he was 104, when his eyesight failed, but his mental powers remained perfect till seven days before his death, when his speech failed, but he seemed to understand what was said to him till the last hour; when he closed his eyes as in sleep, and his noble soul took its flight.

His health had been remarkably good throughout his long life of more than a century; he was a stranger to pain till a few months before death, when he became subject to cramps and nervous troubles which caused him great distress.

He was active in out-of-door exercise after he had passed the century mark; he would yoke and unyoke his oxen, drive them to the blacksmith shop and get them shod, and work them about the farm; he was able to cut wood for his household fires, and do chores of various sort.

Thus Master Sullivan appeared to his pastor, who had known him for forty years and more. Thus I deposit in the archives of the New Hampshire Historical Society my pen picture of New Hampshire’s grandest old schoolmaster.

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