SIR ROGER HALE SHEAFFE, BARONET.
William S. Sheaffe, of Charlestown, was born in 1649, and married in 1672 Ruth Woods. He was a mariner, and they had three sons and three daughters. His son William, born 1683, married Mary Longfellow, a widow, in 1704. He died in 1718, and his widow in 1720. They had five sons and two daughters. His eldest son William Sheaffe, Jr., was born 13 Jan., 1705. He graduated at Harvard College in 1723, and married Susanna Child, Oct. 1st, 1752.[260]
William Sheaffe was Deputy Collector of Customs of Boston. He frequently acted as Collector in the absence of Sir Henry Frankland, who held that office in 1759, and when the Baronet was removed for inattention to his duties, he was appointed to fill the vacant place, and issued the celebrated "Writs of Assistance," giving the Revenue officers the right to search for smuggled goods. Roger Hale succeeded as Collector in 1672, when Sheaffe was again Deputy. He continued in that office under Joseph Harrison, who was the last Royal Collector of the port. Mr. Sheaffe died in 1771, leaving a large family in poverty. There is ample evidence that Mrs. Sheaffe was an intelligent, excellent woman, and bore many trials with pious resignation, and that the Sheaffe's were a loving and happy family. Mrs. Sheaffe died in 1811.
Susanna, Mr. Sheaffe's eldest daughter, who died in 1834, married Captain Ponsonby Molesworth, a nephew of Lord Ponsonby. The family account is that on the day of the landing of the British troops in Boston, a regiment halted in Queen (Court) street, opposite Mr. Sheaffe's house, that, Susanna attracted by the music, accompanied by her younger sisters, went upon the balcony, that Captain Molesworth saw her, was struck with her great beauty, gazed upon her intently, and at last, said to a brother officer, who like himself was leaning against a fence, "That girl seals my fate." An introduction, and a visit followed, and the maiden's heart rapidly won, but then came sorrow, for Susanna was barely fifteen, and parental consent to her marriage was refused. Her governess, to whom she entrusted her grief, espoused her cause, and favored immediate union, and the result accordingly was, the flight of the three to Rhode Island, where the loving pair were married. Molesworth sold his commission in 1776, and in December of that year was in England with his wife. Their married life proved uncommonly happy; and they lived to see their children's children.
Another daughter, Helen, of remarkable beauty, married a revolutionist, James Lovell, who became Naval Officer of Boston. Their grandson, Mansfield Lovell, was a General in the Confederate service, and was in command at New Orleans, when it was captured by the Union forces. The General was true to the disunion instincts of his grandfather.
Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, Baronet, the subject of this sketch, was son of William Sheaffe. Born in Boston in 1763. His mother, after the death of his father, removed to a wooden house which was standing till recently on the corner of Essex and Columbia (formerly Auchmuty street) which was owned by her father. Lord Percy, afterward, Duke of Northumberland hired quarters there, soon became attached to Roger, and assumed the care of him. It would seem that the original intention of his Lordship was to provide for the boy in the Navy, for Mrs. Sheaffe wrote, in December 1776, she was told "Earl Percy had taken my son Roger from the Admiral's ship, given him a commission in the Army (which I must not say that I am sorry for), and sent him to England to an academy for education under his patronage." In 1778 Roger was dangerously ill, and on becoming convalescent, passed two months in Devonshire, with his sister, Mrs. Molesworth. In a letter dated at the Academy, Little Chelsea, early in 1779, he said, Lord Percy is as good as ever. He has given me a commission in his own regiment, the Fifth, now in the West Indies. I shall not join it for a year.
My love to my dear sister and brother. Remember me kindly to all my friends in Boston. You may be sure that I shall follow your advice strictly, that I may be all that you wish, shall be the endeavor of your most dutiful and affectionate son.
In 1786 Captain Molesworth said in a letter to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Sheaffe, The Duke of Northumberland has lodged money to buy Roger a Company, which, when he is in possession of, he will have it in his power more fully to manifest his affection for so good a mother. Roger's sister, Mrs. Molesworth, at the same period wrote her mother, "He is as good a young man as ever lived. Lord Percy continues his kindness to him. He improves very much, and is a great favorite with all his masters." Again, "Roger behaves remarkably well, is much liked in the Regiment; he is tall, well made, and reckoned handsome, very lively, yet prudent and steady in matters of consequence. He wishes, as much as we do, to go to Boston."
In 1791 Lieutenant Sheaffe was at Detroit, which post was still held by England, on account of the non-fulfillment of some of the terms of the treaty of peace. In 1794, before the surrender of the "Western Posts" as they were called, Lieutenant Sheaffe delivered a letter to Capt. Williamson, which was unequivocally of a military and hostile nature.
"I am commanded to declare that during the inexecution of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, and until the existing differences respecting it, shall be mutually and finally adjusted, the taking possession of any part of the Indian territory, either for purposes of war or sovereignty, is held to be a direct violation of his Britannic Majesty's rights, as they unquestionably existed before the treaty, and has an immediate tendency to interrupt, and in its progress destroy, that good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between his Britannic Majesty and the United States of America. I, therefore require you to desist from any such aggression. R. H. Sheaffe, Lieut. 5th Reg't. and Qr. M'r. Gen. Dept. of his Britannic Majesty's service."
In 1801 he was in service in the attack on Copenhagen under Lord Nelson; and though poor, just one-half of his prize money was sent to his mother in Boston.
At the battle of Queenstown Heights, he was a Colonel in General Brocks army; that gallant officer was slain at 7 o'clock in the morning. At noon, Colonel Sheaffe moved up from Niagara, took command of the forces and drove the Americans over the rocky heights into the river. For this victory he was made a Major General, and created a Baronet. At this period General Scott (who was the conqueror of Mexico, and Commander in Chief of the United States forces at the outbreak of the Civil War,) was a Colonel, and was taken prisoner by General Sheaffe, who related to him some of the circumstances of his military career, in substance, that in 1775, he was living in Boston with his widowed mother with whom Earl Percy had his quarters, that his Lordship was very fond of him, and took him away with him in view of providing for him, which he did, by giving him a military education, and by purchasing a commission and promotion to as high rank as is allowed by the rules of the service, and that the war then existing found him stationed in Canada. He stated moreover, that, reluctant to serve gainst his own countrymen, he solicited to be employed elsewhere, but at that time his request had not been granted.
Major General Sheaffe, commanded the British Army in person, and after the battle of Queenstown Heights, he moved upon Little York, now Toronto, and captured it. During these operations he lost his baggage and papers, which General Dearborn informed the Secretary of War "were a valuable acquisition."
In April, 1813, within a week of the fall of Little York, in a letter from his wife's mother to her niece, Miss Child, dated at Quebec, she says, "It is possible that you may not have heard that your cousin, Sir Roger Sheaffe has had the title of Baronet of Great Britain conferred on him, by our Prince Regent, a handsome compliment, which I trust will be followed by something substantial to support it. Sir Roger is so pressed with public business as to allow him scarcely time to attend to his private concerns. My dear Margaret is still in Quebec, with her lovely little Julia, as Upper Canada is still the seat of war. Her elevation to rank, has not in the least deprived her of her native humility and meekness. The manner it was announced to her was rather singular. She was met by a gentleman in the street, as she was going to church, who accosted her by the title of 'Lady Sheaffe', and put a letter in her hand from the Duke of Northumberland, addressed to 'Lady Sheaffe' which she received with her usual equanimity."
In 1841 he writes to his cousin, Miss Susan Child of Boston, "The year 1834 was indeed a sad one, in it we lost the last of our children, and in the same year died my sister Molesworth, a brother of Lady Sheaffe, my late brother William's eldest son, named after me, a Captain in the Army, and also Lord Cragie, the brother of your cousin, Mrs. Cragie's husband. I retain a good share of activity, as well as of erect military carriage, my sight is good, my teeth in a state to create envy in a majority of American misses, my appetite never fails and I sleep well." In January, 1842, he spoke of William, eldest surviving son of his brother William thus: "He is my natural heir, and having adopted him when he was ten years of age; and it having pleased God to take all my children from me. I regard him as a son."
Sir Roger H. Sheaffe died at Edinburgh in 1851, aged eighty-eight. He visited Boston, his native town, four times, namely, in 1788, in 1792-3, in 1803 and in 1806. He was respected and loved by his kinsmen to a remarkable degree. He was of medium stature, his person was well formed, his face was fine, his eyes of the deepest blue, full and prominent; and his teeth were of the purest white, regular and even, and were retained to the close of his life. Lady Sheaffe was Margrate, daughter of John Coffin and a cousin of Lieutenant-General John and of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin. She was the mother of four children, who, as we have seen, died before her husband. The remains of Sir Roger's father and mother, of his brother Thomas Child, of his sisters Helen, Salley, Nancy, and Margaret, and of others of his lineage, were deposited in the Child Tomb, Trinity Church, Summer street, Boston.[261]
Nathaniel Sheaffe, oldest brother of Sir Roger, was a clerk in the Custom House, but at the death of his father in 1771, he left, in order to better provide for his mother and sisters, of whom he had the care. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he went to Jamaica, "where he intended to stay till the times will permit him to come home." He died January 29, 1777, and was buried in the churchyard at Morant Bay, Jamaica.
Thomas Child Sheaffe, brother of Sir Roger, went to New York after the evacuation of Boston. He was engaged in trade with the West Indies and Souther Ports. He died in Boston previous to 1793.