Copley never labeled himself politically--neither a radical Whig in the camp of Sam Adams (who had no tolerance for British intervention in the day-to-day lives of Americans), nor a whole- hearted loyalist. He wanted to appear neutral.
Henry, on the other hand, who became an engraver and civil engineer, was more strongly loyalist than his half-brothers. He was so caught up in the tumult of the times that he made an engraving of the historic Boston Massacre. He lent it to Paul Revere, who used it to make the famous engraving, without compensation Henry or giving him credit. Henry was furious, and wrote Revere the following, from the Copley-Pelham letters:
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| The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre H. Pelham |
Sir, When I heard that you was cutting a plate of the late Murder, I thought it was impossible, as I knew you was not capable of doing it unless you coppied it from mine and as I thought I had entrusted it in the hands of a person who had more regard to the dictates of Honour and Justice than to take the undue advantage you have done of the confidence and Trust I reposed in you. But I find I was mistaken, and after being at the great Trouble and Expense of making a design, paying for paper, printing &c, find myself in the most ungenerous manner deprived, not only of any proposed Advantage, but even of the expense I have been at, as truly as if you had plundered me on the highway. If you are insensible of the dishonor you have brought on yourself by this Act, the World will not be so. However, I leave you to reflect upon and consider of one of the most dishonorable Actions you could well be guilty of. H. Pelham.
Alas, Henry was on the wrong side of history. After the Revolution he was unable to earn a living, and left in Aug-ust 1776 with other loyalists, headed to London where Copley was already estab-lished. He later settled in Ireland with his Irish wife, who died after bearing twin sons. In 1789 he was appointed agent for Lord Landsdowne's Irish estates. He drowned in 1806 while overseeing construction of a Martello tower on an island in the River Kenmere.
Peter Pelham III - 1721-1805
Born in London, Peter III was seven when the family came to America. He grew up in Boston amid talented artists and musicians cultivated by his father. He learned to paint, dance, and play the flute. At 13 he was sent to New Jersey to study for three years with Charles Theodore Pachelbel, son of the famous German composer, Johan Pachelbel. There he learned organ and harpsichord, composition, improvisation, and how to install organ pipes. When Pachelbel left for Charleston, SC, Peter followed. Having become a harpsichord teacher, Peter found work in Boston at Trinity Church. There he married, Ann Creese, and would eventually have 14 children, including our ancestor, Charles.
The demands of a large family, and connections with wealthy Virginian colonists, led to Peter moving the family to Williamsburg, Virginia. He helped install the pipe organ at Bruton Parish Church -- the "court church" of colonial Virginia. This led to his being hired as church organist, a position he would hold for the next 44 years, until 1802. He would have played for many of our founding fathers, including Washington and Jefferson.
By all accounts he was a beloved and colorful personality. Unable to make ends meet on his church salary, he was appointed keeper of the Williamsburg Gaol (jail). The position came with lodging in the jail's second story. Legend has it that Peter would borrow prisoners to take to church and work the bellows on the organ. And when he was (ahem, often) in his cups would be distracted and, more than once, a prisoner would escape. He avoided ending up in jail himself, at least.
He eventually lost his eyesight, and his daughter, Sarah, took over as church organist. He lived with another daughter in Richmond, Virginia, until his death in 1805.
Among testaments to his talent and skill is the writing by Alexander Macaulay, a Scot, who wrote:
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"There's the Church fam'd for its noble Organ of one hundred tones, touch'd by the modern Orpheus -- the inimitable Pelham."
Michael Monaco, actor and organist, plays 18th century organ at Williamsburg
Charles Pelham - 1748-1829
Peter's second son, Charles, is our ancestor: his grand-daughter, my great great grandmother, would be Carrie Pelham Magruder. He was a Revolutionary War hero... no loyalist, he. Enlisted as First Lieutenant in Patrick ("Give me liberty or give me death") Henry's First Virginia Regiment, he signed an oath of allegiance at Valley Forge and fought in the battles of While Plains, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, rising to rank of Major before becoming a prisoner of war on May 12, 1780, when General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered Charleston to the British. Paroled after the war, he married, in 1784, 19 year old Isabella Atkinson in North Carolina. They moved to Virginia's western frontier, soon to become Mason County, Kentucky, where he was granted 4,468 acres of land along the Licking River. He had a gristmill and raised his family of 10.
Charles Hollis (C.H.) Pelham - 1790-1855
Frontier expansion to the areas west of the Mississippi was attracting significant migration. Encroaching settlers and federal treaties in 1808 and 1825 pressured the Osage Nation to cede claims in Arkansas and Missouri and to move to a reservation in SE Kansas and later to "Indian Territory"(now Oklahoma).
C.H. Pelham, born in Kentucky, would come to Arkansas territory with his wife, two sons, and two brothers in 1819, three years prior to its statehood, settling in what would become Batesville, its oldest city. A surveyor, he no doubt laid out portions of the city. Also a colonel commandant of the local militia (home guard against Native resisters), he received the honorary title of "Colonel" which he wore the rest of his life. He was a sugar cane planter and public servant: coroner, postmaster and clerk of the circuit court. He was elected to the state legislature in Arkansas' first elections held in 1836.
He and Sarah had four children (we know of), two daughters born in Batesville along with the two sons born in Kentucky. His youngest child, my great great grandmother Caroline, was born in 1830.
The Pelham Sisters, Isabella and Caroline
The sisters would have been quite the eligible young ladies, born into a family of wealth and political prestige. Isabella, born around 1825, had caught the eye of a new arrival on the Batesville scene in the early 1840s, Charles Magruder, who had come to Arkansas after Locust Grove had passed out of the family (as told in the earlier post about the Magruders in Maryland). He and his brother in law, John Carter, had made a start at farming, bringing with them enslaved persons from their Maryland property.
The Magruders' origins as Maryland planters apparently impressed the Pelham family, as Charles married Isabella in 1843.
Caroline, the youngest, was 16 when she met Lloyd Magruder, youngest of the Magruder sons, who had joined his brother in Batesville. He enlisted in the Army to serve under General Wool in the Mexican War, the campaign on the Rio Grand. Leaving Batesville a private in Arkansas' mounted artillery, Lloyd returned an officer and veteran of the defining battle at Buena Vista, against Mexican General Santa Anna. Wearing a uniform consisting of a blue jacket with gold buttons, blue pantaloons with a side stripe, and a red sash to hold a revolver and sword--a dashing hero--he must have swept Caroline off her feet. They married on August 10, 1847.
Their first daughter, my great grandmother, Sallie, was born on July 1, 1848, in Batesville. The future looked bright: Lloyd was granted 160 acres as a bounty claim for his military service. He owned more land in Batesville, has prosperous in-laws and a law profession. Settling in Batesville as a country squire and raising a family seems an attractive option. Caroline probably wished it would be so.
Caroline's story continues ...
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