The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American RevolutionStark, James Henry
History
The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution
Stark, James Henry
American loyalists -- Massachusetts; Massachusetts -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783
In 1744 he returned to Scotland with his sister Elizabeth, married his
cousin, Barbara Bennet, and remained in England and Scotland for five
years. On his return in 1749, accompanied by his wife and daughter and
his sister Elizabeth, their ship put into Boston, and he returned alone
to Wilmington, leaving his family in Boston, because, as he wrote, "they
had an opportunity of spending three of the most disagreeable months of
this climate in that poor Healthy Place, New England--their health they
owe to God's goodness, their poverty to their own bad policy and to
their Popular Government." His sister Elizabeth remained in Boston and
married Thomas Campbell, a Scotchman, merchant and trader. Their married
life was short, for the husband died in a few years.
A comfortable, prosperous figure in Boston at that time was Mr. James
Smith, a Scotchman, a sugar-baker, whose refinery had been in working
since 1729 or before and who had amassed wealth as well as years. His
home on Queen Street, now Court Street, was central in position,
surrounded by other residences of its kind, yet conveniently near his
sugar house, which stood in Brattle Street, between the old church and
what was known as Wing's Lane. At the same time it was not far from
King's Chapel. As one of the Church Wardens of King's Chapel and a
generous contributor to its needs Mr. Smith stood high in the esteem of
his fellow townsmen and the few allusions to him in the records and
traditions of his day indicate that he was no less genial a friend than
an open handed citizen. Mr. Smith married Mrs. Campbell in 1760. "I can
assure you," wrote James Murray in 1761, "they both enjoy a happiness
which is rarely met with in a match of such disparity." Her brother
rejoiced in this marriage, which he declared placed her "in the best
circumstances of any of her sex in the town." Prosperity for one member
of the family must help for all. Boston thus became a second home for
the Murrays in America.
[Illustration: COUNTY RESIDENCE OF JAMES SMITH, BRUSH HILL, MILTON.
BUILT IN 1734.]
Shortly after his sister's marriage he lost his wife and all his
children but two, owing to the unhealthy climate. This caused him to
leave the South and his opinion of New England was changed, for he wrote
at this time, 1760, "you cannot well imagine what a land of health,
plenty and contentment this is among all ranks, vastly improved within
these ten years. The war on this continent has been a blessing to the
English subjects and a calamity to the French, especially in the
Northern Colonies, for we have got nothing by it in Carolina."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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