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Thomas Kemble, a merchant, who resided in Charlestown as early as 1651, at which time John Becx, Robert Rich, and William Green, of London, consigned to him 272 Scotch prisoners in the ship John and Sarah, Captain John Greene, to be disposed of for such goods as he should conceive would turn to the best account "in the Barbadoes," whither he was directed to send said goods consigned to Mr. Charles Rich. These prisoners ("servants" these merchants call them) were sent to this country by order of the English government, and were probably taken, with others that were sent here about the same time, at the battle of Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650, when Cromwell was victorious, and four thousand were slain and ten thousand taken prisoners. The following extract from a letter written by Rev. John Cotton to to the Lord General Cromwell, dated at Boston, N. E., 28 of 5th, 1651, respecting some prisoners of the same class of persons as were those consigned to Mr. Kemble, and in the same year, is interesting as showing how those prisoners were disposed of and treated:-t

"The Scots, whom God delivered into your hands at Dunbarre, and whereof sundry were sent hither, we have been desirous (as we could) to make their yoke easy. Such as were sick of the scurvy or other diseases have not wanted physick and chirurgery. They have not been sold for slaves to perpetual servitude, but for 6 or 7 or 8 years, as we do our owne; and he that bought the most of them (I heare) buildeth houses for them, for every four an house, layeth some acres of ground thereto, which he giveth them as their owne, requiring 3 dayes in the week to work for him (by turnes) and 4 dayes for themselves, and promiseth as soon as they can pay him the money he layed out for them he will set them at liberty."

Mr. Kemble was of Charlestown as late as 1658. In 1655, while an inhabitant of Charlestown, he owned part of a saw-mill in Dover, N. H., where we find him admitted an inhabitant in 1660.§ Between that time and 1666 he removed to Boston, and probably resided most of the remainder of his days on Moon Street, as he owned a house and garden there for many years before and at the time of his death. He died January

*N. Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg. Vol. i. p. 377. Hutchinson's "Collection of Papers," Boston, 1679, contains this letter and Cromwell's

answer. It is said in a note to Cromwell's Letter, that "this letter was copied from the original, all wrote with the protector's own hand." Cromwell's Letter was sold at auction in 1854, for £38 sterling, and was bought by our countryman, Henry Stevens, Esq., F. S. A.

Suffolk Reg. Deeds, Vol. iii. p. 152.

N. E. Hist. and Genl. Reg. Vol. vii. p. 158.

29, 1688-9, aged 67 years and 14 days. His wife Elizabeth survived him many years, and died December 19, 1712. The gravestones of both are in the Copp's Hill burying ground.

Mr. Kemble was for many years attorney or agent in this country for Mr. Robert Rich, a merchant of London.*

Thomas Kemble had the following children. John, Samuel, Sarah, Rebecca, Henry, and Elizabeth, and possibly others. Sarah was the only surviving child in 1714. Of the sons, we have traced John and Samuel only to manhood. John resided in New York city, and died before 1699, leaving a considerable estate, partly to his mother and sister, Mrs. Knight, but mostly to Elizabeth, Madam Knight's daughter. Samuel died on his passage from Barbadoes to New England in 1684.

Sarah Kemble was born in Boston, April 19th, 1666. We do not find the date of her marriage on record. Her husband was Richard Knight, of Boston. He had a former wife, Remember Grafton, the daughter of Nathaniel Grafton, of Salem.

We have been able to gather but very few particulars of the husband of Madam Knight. He appears to have been absent from Boston when her journey was made, and probably died abroad, as we find no evidence that he When he died we was here after 1701.

have not been able to learn, but we know that his wife supposed him to be living in 1706, when she signed as his attorney.† In 1714 she styles herself a widow.

Miss Caulkins says, in a letter dated May 23, 1858, that by a recent examination of the records of New London and Norwich, she finds no evidence that Madam Knight was a resident of either of those places until about 1715, which was after the marriage of her daughter with Colonel Livingston of the former place, and that her statement in her history of New London that Madam Knight was at Norwich in 1698, and a widow, is probably an error, as she may have confounded her with another individual, there being various persons then resident in the town of the name of Knight.

After stating that Madam Knight appears land at Norwich from 1715 to 1725 and is as grantor or grantee in various deeds of styled "widow and shopkeeper" or "Misstress Sarah Knight shopkeeper," Miss Caulkins further remarks in the letter above referred to,-" The New London records, however, afford the most striking evidences of the magnitude of her land operations. The lands of the Mohegan Indians were then included within the bounds of New London, and here, beside the reservation

*Middlesex Reg. Deeds, Vol. iii. p. 463.

† Suffolk Reg. Deeds, Bk. xxiii, p. 30.

for the Indians, was a large tract fast filling for travellers and is called an Innkeeper. At up with white settlers, but still affording some this place she died and was brought to New range to speculation. Col. Livingston had London for interment."* A grey headstone tried the experiment of buying up large (of which a wood cut is given in Miss Caulquantities of this land and had owned at dif- kin's history of New London) gives the date ferent times several of the finest farms in the of her death as Sept. 25, 1727 in the 62d year Mohegan country. But he gradually parted of her age. with them and finally, soon after his second marriage, sold the whole remainder of his purchase to John Stanton of Newport.

"In 1719 Joseph Bradford of New London, and Mrs. Sarah Knight, of Norwich, in partnership, repurchased the Livingston lands of Stanton, and perhaps other lands also. One of these deeds from Staunton to Bradford and Knight comprised eight parcels, the first of 600 acres, being originally a colonial grant to Gov. Winthrop, and measuring nearly double the nominal quantity; the second 100 acres, the third 70,-the fourth 500,-the fifth 350,-being the farm on which Col. Livingston had lived in the day of his first wife, with the mills and mill stream and mansion house,-sixth an Indian grant called the Wheat-field, 251 acres,-seventh and eighth 170 acres. The consideration for these was £1000 in hand paid before the sealing &c.,dated the 17th day of the twelfth month called February, Anno Domini 1718-19, and in the fifth year of our sovereign Lord George &c.

"By a second deed of the same date, Stanton conveys to the partners Joseph Bradford and Sarah Knight, two-fifths of certain undivided lands originally ceded by Owaneco, Sachem of Mohegan, to Livingston Dennison & Company-amounting to about 1000 acres for £230-paid in hand; also a right to one-ninth of all the herbage of Mohegan included in this purchase.

These two transactions will serve in some degree to show the business-like character of Madam Knight-and the prominent as well as important position she held in society. She stood high in the social rank and was respected both in the church and in mercantile affairs."

The following record is on the town books at Norwich;- August 12th, 1717. The towne grants liberty to Mrs. Sarah Knight to sitt in the pue where she use to sitt in y meeting house."+

"She was also a pew holder in the new church built in that parish about 1724, and was sometimes styled of Norwich, and sometimes of New London.

"This can be easily accounted for as she retained her dwelling-house in Norwich but her farms where she spent a portion of her time were within the bounds of New London. On one of the latter, the Livingston farm, on the Norwich road, she kept entertainment

* MS. Letter of Miss Caulkins. † Ibid.

"The only child of Mrs. Knight, Elizabeth, relict of Col. John Livingston, survived her and presented her inventory which comprised two farms in Mohegan with housing and mills £1600, and estate in Norwich £210. Mrs. Knight was a woman of considerable distinction in her day. She certainly possessed more than a common portion of energy, talent and education. She wrote poetry and diaries, transacted various kinds of business, speculated in Indian Lands, and at different times kept a tavern, managed a shop of merchandise, and cultivated a farm." +

Elizabeth, Madam Knight's daughter was born at Boston, May 8th, 1689, and was married there, by Dr. Increase Mather, to Colonel John Livingston, of New London, Oct. 1, 1713. She was his second wife; his first wife was Mary, only child of Gov. Fitz John Winthrop. She died January 12, 1712-13. Madam Knight met with and speaks of this lady in her travels in 1704. Col. Livingston had no children by either wife. There is no monument or stone to the first. A table of freestone is erected to the memory of the second with the following inscription: "Interrd under this stone is the body of Mdm. Elizabeth Livingston, relict of Col. John Livingstone of New London who departed this life March 17th, A.D. 1735-6 in the 48th year of her age."

In the inventory of her effects are the following items. A negro woman Rose, a man Pompey; Indian man. Silver plate £234 13s-&c. &c.‡ Her husband, Col. John Livingston, died in 1720, in England. James

*History of New London, by Miss F. M. Caulkins, p. 371.

† Ibid.

In a letter from Miss Caulkins dated April 26, 1858, in answer to a question asking what she had found in regard to Madam Knight since her hisfound some acquittances given to Mrs. Christopher tories were published, she says that she recently Christophers as administratrix of Mrs. Livingstone's estate by heirs of the same in Boston and vicinity. They make no mention of relationship had received their proportion and were satisfied. otherwise than merely acknowledging that they These receipts were signed by the following per

sons,

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Douglas, of London, and his wife Elizabeth, and we are enabled to present here her autowere executors. His estate was very small. graph. Thus it will be seen that Madam Knight has left no descendants to honor her name or be proud of her enterprise-to cherish her memory or preserve her writings.

The business which led Madam Knight to undertake her perilous journey was apparently the distribution of an estate. We were indebted, several years since, to Thomas Rutherford Trowbridge Esq., (a descendant of the Thomas Trowbridge mentioned by Madam K. as her kinsman) for the statement that she is found at New Haven as a witness in 1704 to several deeds and settlements made of Caleb Trowbridge's Estate, (brother of Thomas Trowbridge) who was a merchant, a man of wealth, and who left no children. The name of his wife before marriage was not known. Mr. Trowbridge suggests that she may have been a sister of Madam Knight. She had a large property in her own right, and the brothers and sisters of Caleb Trowbridge made an agreement with her that she should receive back all real and personal property which she had when married, and £500 additional, she agreeing to pay the debts in Boston. John Prout and S. Knight witnessed all the papers that passed between them.

The journal to which this introduction is made was published in 1825 under the editorial supervision of Mr. Theodore Dwight of New York. "It had been," says Miss Caulkins, "carefully preserved in manuscript in the Christophers family, to whom it came after the death of Mrs. Livingston; Sarah, wife of Christopher Christophers who was a Prout of New Haven and a relative being appointed to Administer on Mrs. Livingston's estate. From a descendant of this Mrs. Christophers viz. Mrs. Ichabod Wetmore of Middletown, the manuscript was obtained for publication. It had been neatly copied into

a small book."

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Gerak Knight.

At the time of Madam Knight's journey, New York contained not much over five thousand inhabitants; Boston had a population at the same time of about ten thousand, double that of New York. The same rate of increase in the population of New York that there has been since this journey, and for the same length of time in the future, or to about the year of our Lord 2000, would give that city fifty millions of inhabitants, twice the popula tion of the whole United States at the last census-and would cover the whole Island of Manhattan with one person to about every square yard of ground.

Then the Boston News Letter was the only paper published in all the country, and but a very few copies once a week, each copy containing but four or five square feet of print.

Now the newspaper and periodical literature published in New York alone, would encircle the globe every year with a belt six feet wide, printed on both sides, or make a sheet printed on both sides, three feet wide, and a thousand miles in length, every week.

In 1732 the Vade Mecum for America, or

a Companion for traders and travellers, contains a table of distances with the names of the taverns on the route to New York, via line of Madame Knight's journey, 28 years New London,-being very nearly the precise before. The entire distance to New York is there stated to be 271 miles. At the time of her journey a fortnight was consumed on the road; when Mr. Dwight made his introduction he speaks of a day and a half as necesFrom the inquiry started with regard to the sary and as a great advance in speed. At authorship of this journal, and whether it was present we are usually whirled over the truth or fiction, at the time when we first read ground in about eight hours, and it has been the article in Blackwood a letter was written by accomplished in five. Our western rivers, a friend of ours to Mr. Dwight who stated that and those of the whole world, with almost unfortunately all but a single leaf of the original every ocean of the earth, now alive with manuscript had been destroyed. We shortly steamboats, vying in splendor and size, with after called upon him at his office in New York the most gorgeous of palaces, and shooting when he spoke of the loss with deep regret, forward fifteen or twenty miles per hour, were and if time had allowed us would have shown then navigated by the diminutive sloop, skiff, the remaining leaf at his residence. Our or sail boat, or skimmed over by the shallow curiosity to look upon the writing of Madam Knight has however recently been gratified

"These particulars were communicated," says Miss Caulkins, "by the daughter of Mrs. Wet

more, Mrs. Andrew Mather of New London."

birch bark canoe, taking weeks to perform the voyage of a day. The communication of the telegraph shows a still more wonderful advance. We have truly come near verifying the words of Shakspeare in the mouth of Puck.

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tical purposes of life; to art, locomotion, manufactures, and the press. The storehouse and the diffusion of knowledge are thus immeasurably increased.

At the time of Madam Knight's journey our country was mostly a forest, and the physical forces which are now working such Our descendants, one hundred and fifty wonders around us, lay comparatively inert. years hence, may consider us as far behind Since that period the hardy industry of our them in the physical and material interests of fathers has caused the desert to blossom like Earth, as we now consider those in the days the rose, and comfortable and elegant dwell- of Madam Knight behind us, yet, however ings are sprinkled over our land where then these interests may then outstrip ours, if the were the log hut or the Indian wigwam. Since practical principles of piety, purity, and patrithen, the philosophy of a Franklin and the otism which produced such staunch characters ingenuity of a Fulton, together with hundreds in our fathers and mothers, are faithfully of others who have followed in their train transmitted to future generations-our dehave unlocked, or are still unlocking, the pent scendants will look back, for ages to come with up powers of the material world, and those a just pride at having had such an ancestry. powers are now being applied to all the BOSTON, June 1st., 1858. W. R. D.

prac

THE PRIVATE JOURNAL KEPT BY MADAM KNIGHT,

ON A JOURNEY FROM BOSTON TO NEW YORK, IN THE YEAR 1704.

FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.

INTRODUCTION.

closely connected with ourselves ought to THIS is not a work of fiction, as the scarcity excite a degree of curiosity and interest, while of old American manuscripts may induce some we are generally so ready to open our minds to imagine; but it is a faithful copy from a and our libraries to the most minute details diary in the author's own hand-writing, com- of foreign governments, and the modes and piled soon after her return home, as it ap-men of distant countries, with which we can pears, from notes recorded daily, while on the have only a collateral connection. road. She was a resident of Boston, and a lady of uncommon literary attainments, as well as of great taste and strength of mind. She was called Madam Knight, out of respect to her character, according to a custom once common in New England; but what was her family name the publishers have not been able to discover.

In copying the following work for the press, the original orthography has been carefully preserved, in some cases, it may be, so far as to retain the errors of the pen, for fear of introducing any unwarrantable modernism. The punctuation was very hasty, and therefore has not been regarded. Two interuptions occur in the original near the commencement, which could not be supplied; and in a few

short omissions, but none of them materially affect the narrative.

The object proposed in printing this little work is not only to please those who have partic-instances it has been thought proper to make ularly studied the progressive history of our country but to direct the attention of others to subjects of that description, unfashionable as they still are; and also to remind the public that documents, even as unpretending as the following, may possess a real value, if they contain facts which will be hereafter sought for to illustrate interesting periods in our history. It is to be regretted that the brevity of the work should have allowed the author so little room for the display of the cultivated mind and the brilliant fancy which frequently betray themselves in the course of the narrative; and no one can rise from the perusal without wishing some happy chance might yet discover more full delineations of life and character from the same practised hand. Subjects so

The reader will find frequent occasion to compare the state of things in the time of our author with that of the present period, particularly with regard to the number of the inhabitants, and the facilities and accommodations prepared for travellers. Over that tract of country where she travelled about a fortnight, on horseback, under the direction of a hired guide, with frequent risks of life and limb, and sometimes without food or shelter for many miles, we proceed at our ease, without exposure and almost without fatigue, in a day and half, through a well peopled land, supplied with good stage-coaches and public houses, or the still greater luxuries of the ele

gant steam boats which daily traverse our

waters.

THE JOURNAL OF MADAM KNIGHT.

Monday, Octb'r. y second, 1704.-About three o'clock afternoon, I began my Journey from Boston to New-Haven; being about two Hundred Mile. My Kinsman, Capt. Robert Luist, waited on me as farr as Dedham, where I was to meet ye Western post.

I vissitted the Reverd. Mr. Belcher, y Minister of y town, and tarried there till evening, in hopes y post would come along. But he not coming, I resolved to go to Billingses where he used to lodg, being 12 miles further. But being ignorant of the way, Mad Belcher, seing no persuasions of her good spouses or hers could prevail with me to Lodg there that night, Very kindly went wyth me to ye Tavern, where I hoped to get my guide, And desired the Hostess to inquire of her guests whether any of them would go with mee. But they being tyed by the Lipps to a pewter engine, scarcely allowed themselves time to say what clownish

[Here half a page of the MS. is gone.]

* Peices of eight, I told her no, I would not be accessary to such extortion.

Then John shan't go, sais shee. No, indeed, shan't hee; And held forth at that rate a long time, that I began to fear I was got among the Quaking tribe, beleeving not a Limbertong'd sister among them could out do Madm. Hostes.

Upon this, to my no small surprise, son John arrose, and gravely demanded what I would give him to go with me? Give you, sais I, are you John? Yes, says he, for want of a Better; And behold! this John look't as old as my Host, and perhaps had bin a man in the last Century. Well, Mr. John sais I, make your demands. Why, half a pss. of eight and a dram, sais John. I agreed, and gave him a Dram (now) in hand to bind the bargain.

My hostess catechis'd John for going so cheep, saying his poor wife would break her heart

[Here another half page of the MS. is gone.] His shade on his Hors resembled a Globe on on a Gate post. His habitt, Hors and furniture, its looks and goings Incomparably answered the rest.

Thus Jogging on with an easy pace, my

Guide telling mee it was dangero's to Ride hard in the Night, (whch his horse had the sence to avoid,) Hee entertained me with the Adventurs he had passed by late Rideing, and eminent Dangers he had escaped, so that, Remembring the Hero's in Parismus and the Knight of the Oracle, I didn't know but I had mett wth a Prince disguis'd.

When we had Ridd about an how'r, wee come into a thick swamp, wch. by Reason of a great fogg, very much startled mee, it being now very Dark. But nothing dismay'd John: Hee had encountered a thousand and a thousand such Swamps, having a Universall Knowledge in the woods; and readily Answered all my inquiries wch. were not a few.

In about an how'r, or something more, after we left the Swamp, we come to Billingses, where I was to Lodg. My Guide dismounted and very Complasantly help't me down and shewd the door, signing to me wth his hand to Go in; weh I Gladly did-But had not gone many steps into the Room, ere I was Interrogated by a young Lady I understood afterwards was the Eldest daughter of the family, with these, or words to this purpose, (viz.) Law for mee-what in the world brings You here at this time a night?—I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfull late in all the days of my versal life. Who are You? Where are You going? I'me scar'd out of my witts-with much more of the same Kind. I stood aghast, Prepareing to reply, when in comes my Guide-to him Madam turned, Roreing out: Lawfull heart, John, is it You?-how de do! Where in the world are you going with this woman? Who is she? John made no Ansr. but sat down in the corner, fumbled out his black Junk, and saluted that instead of Debb; she then turned agen to mee and fell anew into her silly questions, without asking me to sitt down.

I told her shee treated me very Rudely, and I did not think it my duty to answer her unmannerly Questions. But to get ridd of them, I told her I come there to have the post's company with me to-morrow on my Journey, &c. Miss star'd awhile, drew a chair, bid me sitt, And then run up stairs and putts on two or three Rings, (or else I had not seen them before,) and returning, sett herself just before me, showing the way to Reding, that I might see her Ornaments, perhaps to gain the more respect. But her Granam's new Rung sow, had it appeared,

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