GODMAN, JOHN D., an eminent naturalist and physician, was born at Annapolis, in Maryland, and having lost his parents at an early age, was bound apprentice to a printer. He afterwards entered the navy as a sailor boy, and at the age of fifteen commenced the study of medicine. On completing his studies, he settled in Philadelphia as a physician and private teacher of anatomy, and for some time was an assistant editor of the Medical Journal. It was at this period that he published his Natural History of American Quadrupeds, in three volumes, 8vo. Having been elected to the professorship of anatomy in Rutgers’ Medical college, he removed to New York, where he soon acquired extensive practice as a surgeon. Ill health, however, obliged him to relinquish his pursuits, and he returned in 1829 to Philadelphia, where he died in 1830, in the thirty-second year of his age. He possessed much and varied information in his profession, in natural history, and in general literature. Besides the work above referred to, he is the author of Rambles of a Naturalist, and several articles on natural history in the Encyclopædia Americana.
GODFREY, THOMAS, the real inventor of the quadrant commonly called Hadley’s, was born in Philadelphia, and pursued the trade of a glazier. He was a great student of mathematics, and acquired by himself a tolerable knowledge of Latin, in order to be able to read mathematical works in that language. In 1730, he communicated the improvement he had made in Davis’s quadrant to Mr. Logan, secretary of the commonwealth; and in the following year a full description of a similar instrument was read before the Royal society of London, by Mr. Hadley. It was decided that both claimants were entitled to the honor of the invention, and the society presented Godfrey with household furniture to the value of £200. He was intemperate in his habits, and died in 1749.
GODFREY, THOMAS, son of the preceding, and a poet of some merit, was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1736. He was at first apprenticed to a watchmaker, but disliking the drudgery of this occupation, he obtained a lieutenant’s commission in the Pennsylvania forces, which were raised in 1758 for the expedition against fort Du Quesne. Subsequently he established himself as a factor in North Carolina, where he died in 1763. His chief works are The Court of Fancy, a poem; and The Prince of Parthia, which was the first American tragedy.
GREENE, NATHANIEL, major-general in the army of the United States, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1742. Though enjoying very few advantages of education, he displayed an early fondness for knowledge, and devoted his leisure time assiduously to study. In 1770, he was elected a member of the state legislature, and in 1774, enrolled himself as a private in a company called the Kentish Guards. From this situation he was elevated to the head of three regiments, with the title of major-general. In 1776, he accepted from congress a commission of brigadier-general, and soon after, at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, distinguished himself by his skill and bravery. In 1778, he was appointed quarter-master general, and in that office rendered efficient service to the country by his unwearied zeal and great talents for business. He presidedat the court-martial which tried major Andre, in 1780, and was appointed to succeed Arnold in the command at West Point; but he held this post only a few days. In December of the same year, he assumed the command of the southern army, and in this situation displayed a prudence, intrepidity and firmness which raise him to an elevated rank among our revolutionary generals. In September, 1781, he obtained the famous victory at Eutaw Springs, for which he received from congress a British standard and a gold medal, as a testimony of their value of his conduct and services. On the termination of hostilities, he returned to Rhode Island, and, in 1785, removed with his family to Georgia, where he died suddenly, in June of the following year. He was a man of high energy, courage and ability, and possessed the entire confidence of Washington.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, was born in the island of Nevis, in 1757. At the age of sixteen, he accompanied his mother to New York, and was placed at Columbia college, where he soon gave proof of extraordinary talent, by the publication of some political essays, of such strength and sagacity that they were generally attributed to Mr. Jay. At the age of nineteen he entered the American army, and in 1777, was appointed aid-de-camp of Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In this capacity he served during the remainder of the war, and at the siege of Yorktown led in person the detachment that carried by assault one of the enemy’s outworks. After the war he commenced the study of the law, entered into its practice in New York, and soon rose to distinction. In 1782, he was chosen a member of congress from the state of New York; in 1787, a member of the convention which formed the constitution of the United States, and in 1787 and 1788, wrote, in connection with Mr. Jay and Mr. Madison, the essays published under the title of The Federalist. In 1789, he was placed by Washington at the head of the treasury department, and while in this situation rendered the most efficient service to the country, by the establishment of an admirable system of finance, which raised public credit from the lowest depression to an unprecedented height. In 1795, he retired from office, in order to secure by his professional labors a more ample provision for his numerous family. In 1798, his public services were again required, to take the second command in the army that was raised on account of the apprehended invasion of the French. On the disbanding of the army, he resumed the practice of the law in New York, and continued to acquire new success and reputation. In 1804, he fell in a duel with colonel Burr, vice-president of the United States, and died universally lamented and beloved. Besides his share in the Federalist, general Hamilton was the author of numerous congressional reports, the essays of Pacificus, and the essays of Phocion. A collection of his works in three vols. 8vo, was issued at New York some time after his death. He was a man of transcendent abilities and unsullied integrity; and no one labored more efficiently in the organization of the present federal government.
HANCOCK, JOHN, a patriot and statesman, was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1737, and under the patronage of a wealthy uncle received a liberal education, and was graduated at Harvard college, in 1754. On leaving college, he entered the counting-house of his uncle, by whose sudden death, in 1764, he succeeded to great riches and the management of an extensive business. In 1766, he was chosen a member of the assemblyand soon distinguished himself by his zeal in the cause of the colonies. In 1774, he was elected president of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, and in the following year, president of the continental congress, in which capacity he was the first to affix his signature to the declaration of independence. In this station he continued till October, 1777, when ill health induced him to resign. In 1780, he was elected governor of Massachusetts, and held that office for four successive years, and again from 1787 till his death in 1793. Governor Hancock was hospitable and munificent, a man of excellent talents for business, and a true lover of his country.
HARPER, ROBERT GOODLOE, was a native of Virginia, but when very young removed with his parents to North Carolina. His parents were poor, and in early life he passed through a number of vicissitudes. At the age of twenty he found himself in Charleston, S. C., with but a dollar or two in his pocket, and with the intention of studying the profession of the law. Having obtained introduction to a lawyer, he prepared himself under his instruction for the bar, and, in about a twelvemonth, undertook the management of causes on his own account. He then removed from Charleston to an interior district, where he first distinguished himself, politically, by the publication of a series of newspaper essays on a proposed change in the constitution of the state. He was immediately elected to the state legislature, and soon afterwards to congress, where he was an efficient member of the federal party, a powerful advocate of the policy of Washington, and the personal friend of the most distinguished federal statesmen of the day. Many years afterwards, he collected in an octavo volume a number of his circulars and addresses to his constituents, and several of his speeches in congress. In 1797, he published a pamphlet, entitled Observations on the Dispute between the United States and France, which passed through numerous editions, and acquired great celebrity both at home and in Europe. The speeches which he delivered in managing the impeachment of Blount, and the defence of judge Chase, are admirable specimens of argument and eloquence.On the downfall of the federal party, Mr. Harper resumed the practice of the law in Baltimore, where he married the daughter of the distinguished Charles Carroll. He attended almost every session of the supreme court, from the time of its removal to Washington to that of his death, and was always heard with respect and attention by the court and juries. The federal party having regained the ascendant in Maryland, Mr. Harper was immediately elected a senator in congress; but the demands of his profession soon obliged him to resign his seat. In the years 1819–20, he visited Europe with a portion of his family, and was absent about two years. He died suddenly in Baltimore, in 1825. He was an active leader in the federal party, an able and learned lawyer, well versed in general literature, and political economy, and lived with elegant hospitality.
HEATH, WILLIAM, an officer in the army of the revolution, was born in Roxbury, in 1737, and was bred a farmer. He was particularly attentive to the study of military tactics, and in 1775 he was commissioned as a brigadier-general by the provincial congress. In 1776, he was promoted to the rank of major-general in the continental army, and in the campaign of that year commanded a division near the enemy’s lines, at Kingsbridge and Morrisania. During the year 1777, and till November, 1778,he was the commanding officer of the eastern department, and his headquarters were at Boston. In 1779, he returned to the main army, and was invested with the chief command of the troops on the east side of the Hudson. After the close of the war, he served in several public offices, till the time of his death, in 1814.
HENRY, PATRICK, was born in Virginia, in 1736, and after receiving a common school education, and spending some time in trade and agriculture, commenced the practice of the law, after only six weeks of preparatory study. After several years of poverty, with the incumbrance of a family, he first rose to distinction in managing the popular side in the controversy between the legislature and the clergy, touching the stipend which was claimed by the latter. In 1765, he was elected a member of the house of burgesses, with express reference to an opposition to the British stamp act. In this assembly he obtained the honor of being the first to commence the opposition to the measures of the British government, which terminated in the revolution. He was one of the delegates sent by Virginia to the first general congress of the colonies, in 1774, and in that body distinguished himself by his boldness and eloquence. In 1776, he was appointed the first governor of the commonwealth, and to this office was repeatedly re-elected. In 1786, he was appointed by the legislature one of the deputies to the convention held at Philadelphia, for the purpose of revising the federal constitution. In 1788, he was a member of the convention, which met in Virginia to consider the constitution of the United States, and exerted himself strenuously against its adoption. In 1794, he retired from the bar, and died in 1799. Without extensive information upon legal or political topics, he was a natural orator of the highest order, possessing great powers of imagination, sarcasm and humor, united with great force and energy of manner, and a deep knowledge of human nature.
HOBART, JOHN HENRY, was born in Philadelphia, on the fourteenth of September, 1775. He was educated at the college in Princeton, New Jersey, and was noted in early life for his industry and proficiency in his studies. On leaving this institution he was engaged a short time in mercantile pursuits, was subsequently a tutor at Nassau Hall, and after two years service in this capacity, he determined upon the study of theology. In 1798, he was admitted into orders, and was first settled in the two churches at Perkiomen, near Philadelphia, but soon after accepted a call to Christ church, New Brunswick. In about a year he removed from this place to become an assistant minister of the largest spiritual cure in the country, comprising three associated congregations in the city of New York. In 1811, he was elected assistant bishop, and in 1816, became diocesan of New York, and in performing the severe duties of the office, his labors were indefatigable. From 1818 to 1823, he was employed in editing the American edition of Mant and D’Ogly’s Bible, with notes. In September, 1823, the state of his health required a visit to Europe, where he remained about two years. He died in 1830. He was incessantly active in performing his religious offices, and made several valuable compilations for the use of the church.