Chapter XVI ACCOUNT OF THE THREE BROTHERS NOLONEL Schuyler and his two brothers all possessed a superior degree of intellect, and uncommon external advantages. Peter, the only one remaining when I knew the family, was still a comely and dignified looking old gentleman; and I was told his brothers were at least equal to him in this respect. His youngest brother Jeremiah,1 who was much beloved for a disposition, frank, cheerful and generous to excess, had previously married a lady from New York; with whom he obtained some fortune: a thing then singular in that country. This lady, whom, in her declining years, I knew very well, was the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished family of French protestants. She was lively, sensible, and well informed. Peter, the second, was married to a native of Albany. She died early; but left behind two children; and the reputation of much worth and 1 Peter and Jeremiah Schuyler were twins, and baptized in the church January 12, 1698, the youngest of the children of Col. Peter, whom the Indians called Quidor. Peter junior married Catharine Groesbeck, and Jeremiah married Susanna, a Huguenot lady of New York. Jeremiah was buried at the Flats in 1753, but Peter was living September, 1771. 2 Peter the third, not the second. See note on p. 253. VOL. I. II great attention to her conjugal and maternal duties. All these relations lived with each other, and with the new married lady, in habits of the most cordial intimacy and perfect confidence. They seemed, indeed, actuated by one spirit; having in all things similar views and similar principles. Looking up to the colonel as the head of the family, whose worth and affluence reflected consequence upon them all, they never dreamt of envying either his superior manners, or his wife's attainments, which they looked upon as a benefit and ornament to the whole. Soon after their marriage they visited New York, which they continued to do once a year in the earlier period of their marriage, on account of their connection in that city, and the pleasing and intelligent society that was always to be met with there, both on account of its being the seat of government, and the residence of the commander-in-chief on the continent, who was then necessarily invested with considerable power and privileges, and had, as well as the governor for the time being, a petty court assembled round him. At a very early period a better style of manners, greater ease, frankness, and polish prevailed at New York, than in any of the neighboring provinces. There was, in particular, a Brigadier-general Hunter,' of whom I have heard Mrs. Schuyler talk a great deal, as coinciding with 1 Robert Hunter succeeded Francis Lovelace as governor of New York in 1709, and was governor of Jamaica, in 1728. her husband successively, in their plans either of defence or improvement. He, I think, was then governor; and was as acceptable to the Schuylers for his colloquial talents and friendly disposition, as estimable for his public spirit and application to business, in which respects he was not equalled by any of his successors. In his circle the young couple were much distinguished. There were too among those leading families, the Livingstons and Rensselaers, friends connected with them both by blood and attachment. There was also another distinguished family to whom they were allied, and with whom they lived in cordial intimacy; these were the De Lanceys, of French descent, but, by subsequent intermarriages, blended with the Dutch inhabitants. Of these there were very many then in New York, as will be hereafter explained; but as these conscientious exiles were persons allied in religion to the primitive settlers, and regular and industrious in their habits, they soon mingled with and became a part of that society, which was enlivened by their sprightly manners, and benefited by the useful arts they brought along with them. In this mixed society, which must have had attraction for young people of superior, and, in some degree, cultivated intellect, this well-matched pair took great pleasure; and here, no doubt, was improved that liberality of mind and manners which so much distinguished them from the less enlightened inhabitants of their native city. They were so much caressed in New York, and found so many charms in the intelligent and comparatively polished society of which they made a part there, that they had at first some thoughts of residing there. These, however, soon gave way to the persuasions of the colonel, with whom they principally resided till his death, which happened 1721, two years after. This union was productive of all that felicity which might be expected to result from entire congeniality not of sentiment only, but of original dispositions, attachments, and modes of living and thinking. He had been accustomed to consider her as a child with tender endearment. She had been used to look up to him from infancy as the model of manly excellence; and they drew knowledge and virtue from the same fountain, in the mind of that respectable parent whom they equally loved and revered. 1 He seems to have been buried 22 September, 1724. See Pearson's "Early Settlers of Albany," also note 1 on p. 147. |