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
James Murray now began the weary life of banishment, the pathos of which
was so many times repeated in the history of the Loyalist exiles. He
first went to Halifax; there he established himself with his wife and
his sister, Mrs. Gordon, but he could not be content to stay so far from
his sister and his children, who remained in Boston to prevent their
property from being confiscated, and soon, as he puts it, he came
"creeping towards" them, hoping at least to be able more easily to
communicate with them and to serve them by sending occasional supplies.
He visited Newport, New York and Philadelphia. He found himself,
however, no nearer the accomplishment of his wishes in New York than in
Halifax and to Halifax, in 1778, after some two years spent in
profitless wanderings, he returned. There he remained the rest of his
life. In his last letter to his daughter dated Halifax, February 17th,
1781, he said "A man near seventy, if in his senses, _can want but
little here below, nor want that little long_. Therefore the withdrawing
of my salary for some time past gives me but little concern." In this
letter he seems to have had a premonition of his death, for he died a
few months later. The salary that he refers to was that which he
received from England for several years after leaving Boston--about 150
Pounds a year as inspector of imports and exports, many sufferers
received from 50 to 300 Pounds a year in addition to their salary for
their present subsistence. Mrs. Inman, his sister, survived her brother
but a few years and those were sad ones. Her friends were scattered,
her means reduced and her health undermined. She died May 25, 1785.
ELIZABETH MURRAY, his daughter, married Edward Hutchinson Robbins, who
in 1780, when but twenty-two years of age, became a member of the
disloyal government and who occupied the position of Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor and Judge of Probate.
Brush Hill afterwards passed into the possession of her son, James
Murray Robbins, who lived here until his death in 1885. It then passed
into the possession of his nephew, James Murray Howe, its present
occupant.
As previously stated, the only thing that prevented the confiscation of
this estate was that Elizabeth and Dorothy Murray, to whom their aunt
had given it had remained on the property during the war and would not
leave it, although every effort was made to drive them off it by their
disloyal neighbors. Their father was proscribed and banished under the
Act of 1778, he was forbidden to return to Massachusetts and for a time
did not even dare to write to his family. A daughter of Mary Robbins
married a son of Paul Revere. Two of their sons fell upon the
battlefield in the war for the Union, fighting on the loyal side in
support of their government, giving to their country on the one hand
lives derived from the disunionists and on the other from their loyal
ancestor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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