[47] Henry White was an eminent and wealthy merchant of New York, a member of the Council, and an original member and finally president, of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He acted for a time as commissary, while the royal army occupied that city, and being a pronounced loyalist, his estate was confiscated. After the peace he went to England, and died in London, December 23, 1786. Eve, his widow, died in New York, in 1836, at the great age of ninety-eight. Of his sons, John Chambers White, became a vice-admiral in the British navy, and Frederick Van Cortland, became a general in the army.
[49] Isaac Royal, of Medford, died in England, in October, 1781. He was a representative from Medford to the General Court, and for twenty-two years a member of the Council. In 1774, he was appointed a Councillor under the writ of mandamus, but was never sworn into office. Appointed a brigadier-general in 1761, and the first who bore that title here. He left the country April 16, 1775; was proscribed in 1778, and his estate was confiscated. He bequeathed upwards of two thousand acres of land in Worcester County, Mass., to found the first law professorship of Harvard University, and his bequests for other purposes were numerous and liberal.
[50] William Brattle, F.R.S., lawyer, preacher, physician, soldier and legislator, son of Rev. William, minister, of Cambridge, died in Halifax, N.S., in October, 1776; aged seventy-four. He was graduated at Harvard University, in 1722; was distinguished both for his talents and eccentricities; was a representative from Cambridge, and many years a member of the Council; a member of the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; a major-general of militia, and was a member of every profession, and eminent in all. For many years he pleased both the Government and the people, but finally forfeited the good will of the Whigs, and accompanied the British soldiers to Halifax on the evacuation of Boston, and died there a few months after his arrival.
[51] Samuel Danforth, son of Rev. John, of Dorchester, died in Boston, at the house of his son, Dr. Samuel Danforth, 27th October, 1777; aged about eighty-one. He was graduated at Harvard University, in 1715; taught school; was a Selectman in 1733-39; representative 1734-38; member of the Council 1739-1774, and several years its president; Register of Probate, 1731-45; Judge of Probate, 1745-75; and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1741-75. At the Revolution he passed out of office, but was so quiet in his deportment that, though understood to be a loyalist, he was not disturbed in the possession of his property. He was distinguished for his love of the natural sciences.
[52] Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, sons of Governor Hutchinson, were merchants and partners in business, and consignees of one-third of the tea shipped to Boston. I have seen no evidence of a pecuniary interest in this shipment on the part of the Governor, as is asserted by the historian Bancroft. Their names were given to the East India Company by a London correspondent, who solicits the consignment for them, without mentioning their connection with the Governor. Thomas, jr., born in Boston, in 1740, was a mandamus Councillor and Judge of Probate, and was proscribed and banished. When the condition of the country became unpleasantly hostile, he left the mansion house at Milton, and took shelter in Boston, but left all the furniture, silver plate, &c., expecting to be able to pass and repass at pleasure. When Boston was evacuated, he and his family, and Peter Oliver and family, embarked for London, in the "Lord Hyde" packet. He settled at Heavitree, near Exeter, in Devonshire, and died there in 1811. His wife was Sarah Oliver.
Elisha, his brother, born in 1745, graduated at Harvard University, in 1762; was proscribed and banished, and died at Blurton Parsonage, Trentham, Staffordshire, England, in November, 1824. His wife, Mary, daughter of Col. George Watson, of Plymouth, Mass., died at Birmingham, England, in 1803. "Neither of my sons," wrote the Governor, in March, 1774, "have dared to appear in Boston since the latter part of November, to the total neglect and ruin of their business."
[53] Stephen Greenleaf, sheriff of Suffolk County, was arrested by the Council of Massachusetts as a loyalist, in April, 1776. He died in Boston, in 1795; aged ninety-one.
[54] John Singleton Copley, a famous painter, son-in-law of Richard Clarke, and father of Lord Lyndhurst, was born in Boston, July 3, 1737, and died in London, September 9, 1813. He was a self-taught artist, and after painting many portraits in Boston, settled in London in 1775, and acquired a high reputation.
[55] John Pownall, many years Clerk of the Reports, Secretary of the Board of Trade (1754-68,) Deputy Secretary of State (1768-76,) and afterwards a Commissioner of the Board of Customs, a Magistrate and High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, died in London, July 17, 1795; aged seventy. His brother, Thomas, Governor of Massachusetts in 1757-60, afterwards, while a member of Parliament, opposed the American policy of the Government.