A Portrait of Old George Town

by Grace Dunlop Peter

While he was still a prisoner there, his cousin, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, of His "Satanic" Majesty's Navy, as Lingan called it, visited him and offered him £2,000 (pounds) and high rank in the British Army if he would return to his former allegiance. Lingan's answer was, "I'll rot here first!" And he almost did! He was cooped up in a space so short that he could not lie full length, so low that he could not stand erect. It was many months after his release before his cramped and agonized muscles allowed him to sleep except in an armchair.

The reasons for wishing to obtain his defection were, first, the pride, and perhaps, affection of his connections in England. Lord North, himself, was one of these, and his cousin, Zachariah Hood was persona gratia at the Court of St. James. Also, the affiliations and connections of his family in Maryland made his defection greatly to be desired. One of his sisters had married Thomas Plater, the son of Governor George Plater of Sotterley, and he was also related to the prominent Carroll family.

At the conclusion of the war, General Lingan returned to George Town and farmed two estates he owned, both named after battles in which he had participated—Harlem and Middlebrook. He also was appointed collector of the port by General Washington himself. He was one of the original members of the Order of the Cincinnati.

In later years he moved over to the city, his house then being in the neighborhood of Nineteenth, M and N Streets. He had a wife and children, many friends, and all was going well with him until the election year of 1812. General Lingan was a Federalist in politics. The party organ was The Federal Republican, published in Baltimore and edited by Alexander Contee Hanson, whose wife was a near relative of Nicholas Lingan, the brother of James.

War with England was declared on Friday, the 19th of June, 1812, and next day an editorial appeared in The Federal Republican, which was like a match set to a powder train. On Sunday, public meetings were held advocating the suppression of the paper, and on Monday, three or four hundred men and boys assembled at the office of the paper at Gay and Second Streets, in Baltimore, and destroyed the furniture and the house.

The staff then removed to Georgetown where, although it was threatened from both Baltimore and Washington, it continued to publish the paper until July 26th, when Mr. Hanson went back to Baltimore to a small house on South Charles Street, accompanied by General Lingan, John Howard Payne, General Henry ("Light Horse Harry") Lee, and others. On the following day the paper was issued from that office, though it had been printed in Georgetown. It contained an attack on the State authorities for the outrage of June 22nd. This time the mob that gathered brought arms and ammunition. The twenty-seven gentlemen assembled in the office were also armed, "to defend the rights of person, and property, and the liberty of the press." At first only stones were used by the assailants, answered by volleys of blank cartridges. After scenes almost fantastic in fury, the gentlemen were finally overcome and marched to gaol for safety. But after dark another mob gathered round the gaol, and overcoming the guard, broke in. Mr. Gwynn pushed his way through a group of fifty men to General Lingan who was being knocked down by clubs, then jerked up to be knocked down again, while the outside ring of men bellowed, "Tory! Tory!" The only word General Lingan spoke to the mob was, when tearing open his shirt, he displayed the mark of the Hessian bayonet, still purple, and exclaimed, "Does this look as if I was a traitor?" Just then a stone struck the scar and he fell. As the last breath left his body, he murmured to a friend near by, "I am a dying man—save yourself."

On this side of Bridge (M) Street, adjoining what was then Bank Street stood the Bank of Columbia, when it moved from a few blocks east. From old pictures, it looks much more like a stately home than a bank, and part of it was used as his home by William Whann, the cashier. Set far back on the hill, with columns on its façade and a Greek pediment, it was very handsome. Its first president was Samuel Blodgett; its second, General John Mason of Analostan Island. Across the street he had his town house.

To this bank one day late in 1814, while he was Secretary of State, came James Monroe, on horseback, and asking for William Whann, told him that the government was entirely out of funds, and wanted a loan with which to dispatch General Andrew Jackson to New Orleans. Mr. Monroe pledged his own private fortune that the debt would be paid, and the money was turned over to him. The government at that time was not strong enough to levy heavier taxes for the conduct of the war with England, which was very unpopular in the New England States.

The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815—two weeks after peace had come—for a Treaty of Peace had been signed on Christmas Eve, and the great loss of life on the English side might have been avoided.

Just beyond here on the corner, Mr. Thompson had a residence, and still a little further lived Mr. Warren. Just opposite, at number 3350, is one of the oldest houses in Georgetown and one of the most notable, for here Colonel Uriah Forrest was living in 1791 when on March 29th he gave that memorable dinner, referred to by General Washington, when the arrangements were made for the purchase of land on which to build the new City of Washington.