16 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



dical treatment. They were made the victims of 

 every imaginable outrage which the cruelty and 

 malignity of their captors could inflict. In spite of 

 very considerable obstacles, Mrs. Gray visited them 

 repeatedly in their prison ; nursed, fed, and clothed 

 them to the extent of her ability: and was even 

 arrested as a spy by the British officers, who were 

 incensed at her kindly and charitable interference. 

 She nevertheless persisted in her good offices until 

 the discharge of the prisoners; when her services 

 were properly acknowledged by a unanimous vote 

 of thanks passed by the American officers imme- 

 diately after their release. 



Of Thomas Leiper, another ancestor of Dr. Kane, 

 it is recorded that he was a special favorite of Gene- 

 ral Washington, and that he was present and fought 

 in many of the most important battles of the Eevo- 

 lution. It was he whom the Continental Congress 

 selected to perform the difficult and responsible 

 duty of conveying to the commander-in-chief, then 

 engaged in the siege of Boston, the first money 

 which was sent by them to defray the expenses of 

 the war. This commission Colonel Leiper executed 

 with great prudence and success. It was he who, 

 at a much later period, in conjunction with his 

 friend Robert Morris, the leading financier of the 

 Revolution, loaned one- third of his personal estate 



