In the winter of 1785 Edward Winslow was at Halifax and Ward Chipman, a fellow refugee from Boston, had taken up his residence at St. John. In a letter of Mr. Winslow to Mr. Chipman on the 16th January, 1785, he says, "Give my old Custom House seal to Mr. Leonard, and tell him I'll forward the famous carv'd Coat of Arms by the first conveyance from Halifax." A subsequent letter to Mr. Chipman, refers more fully to the subject which is in part as follows:
My Dear Fellow:
By the schooner Halifax I send a small assortment of stationery as per invoice.... In the box with your stationery is a venerable Coat of Arms, which I authorize you to present to the Council Chamber, or any other respectable public Room, which you shall think best entitled to it. They (Lyon & Unicorn) were constant members of the Council at Boston (by mandamus) ran away when the others did—have suffered—are of course Refugees and have a claim for residence at New Brunswick.
Cordially yours
ED. WINSLOW.[258]Ward Chipman, Esq.
Judge Winslow was one of the founders of the Old Colony Club, at Plymouth, and was one of its most active members. He delivered the first anniversary address of that association on the 22 of December or Forefathers' Day, in 1770.
Isaac Winslow was a Boston merchant, son of Col. Edward Winslow, born May 2, 1709. He was the third in descent from John Winslow who came from Droitwich to Boston in 1655, and died in 1674. He was a brother of Governor Edward of the Plymouth Colony. He was a gentleman highly esteemed for his benevolence and other virtues. He graduated at Harvard College in 1727, then entered the counting room of James Bowdoin, and subsequently with his brother Joshua carried on an extensive and profitable business in Boston. They also became considerable ship owners, and had one ship constantly in the London trade. Joshua was one of the consignees of the tea destroyed by the mob. Isaac retired from business in 1753, and became a resident of Roxbury. He was the last occupant of the Dudley mansion, which was razed to the ground a few days after the battle of Bunker Hill, to make way for the works erected here by the Americans. The Universalist church was built upon its site. In making the necessary excavation for the church, the wine cellar of the mansion was unearthed and strange to say, as it may seem, the liquors were, after a lapse of forty-five years, found intact.[259]
In June 1760 he received the thanks of the town for a gift of land near Meeting House Hill. His first wife, Lucy, daughter of Gen. Samuel Waldo, died in Roxbury in 1763, at the age of forty-three.
In 1774 he was an Addresser of Gov. Hutchinson, and 1775 of Gen. Gage. He was appointed Mandamus Councillor, and was qualified. This was an offence that could not be forgiven by the disunionists.
Though a loyalist, his moderation and his character made him less obnoxious to the revolutionists than his neighbors, Auchmuty, Hallowell, and Loring. His virtues, however, could not save him from the fury of the mob. Immediately after the Lexington affair, he took refuge in Boston.
In 1776, with his family of ten persons, he accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax, and in 1778 was proscribed and banished, and his estates confiscated. In his religious belief he was a Sandemanian. Jemima, his widow, died at London in 1790.
Rev. Edward Winslow was an Episcopal minister of Braintree, now Quincy, Mass. He was born in Boston in 1722. Graduated at Harvard College in 1741. His father Joshua was a brother of the aforesaid Isaac Winslow, and son of Colonel Edward Winslow.
The North Precinct of Braintree, now Quincy, had the reputation of being a "nest of Tories," owing to the presence of the Church of England people, connected with Christ Church. The mother English society was most liberal in dealing with its offshoot and until the Revolution, it annually sent over sixty pounds sterling for the support of the minister. In all, it is said to have spent over thirteen thousand dollars in building up this church. Naturally the society was inclined to a friendly feeling toward the hand which fed it. To it the Apthorpe's, the Vassall's, the Borland's, the Cleverly's and the Millers, indeed all the gentry of the neighborhood with the exception of the Quincy's, belonged, the Adam's not being in this class at that time. It was here the same as elsewhere throughout the colonies, the ministers of the Established Church of England stood condemned in the eyes of revolutionists, neither seclusion, insignificance nor high character was able to save the clergy from the fury of the mobs.