SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST 201 



liberal religious doctrines is said to have cost him the 

 honorary office of justice of the peace in his community 

 and to have determined his emigration to America. His 

 first visit to America was made in the summer of 1798, 

 when, with his brother Benjamin, 14 he started an estab- 

 lishment for brewing English ale at New Haven; 

 through his chemical knowledge and skill he is said to 

 have reproduced to perfection the famous Burton ales. 

 William Bakewell brought his family to the United 

 States in 1802, and when a disastrous fire destroyed his 

 business at New Haven, he took up the large farm of 

 "Fatland Ford" in 1804, as already related (p. 108). 

 In that retired spot he devoted much time to his library 

 and laboratory, while living a life of easy independence. 

 If abrupt in manners and inclined to severity in disci- 

 pline, he was generous, kind-hearted and an ardent re- 

 publican. Mrs. Audubon's mother, who felt keenly the 

 separation from her own people, died in September, 

 1804, a few months after reaching "Fatland Ford," and 

 in the following year William Bakewell was married to 

 Rebecca Smith. This lady seems to have taken a strong 

 dislike to Audubon, for when her death was announced 

 in 1821, 15 he referred to her as "my constant enemy 

 . . . God forgive her faults." 



At this time Audubon studied nature for the pure 

 love of it, without the faintest expectation that his labors 

 in natural history would ever be of any service to the 

 world. But in the year 1810 occurred an event, of seem- 

 ingly small moment at the time, which nevertheless left 

 a distinct mark upon his career, as will be now related. 



14 See Vol. I, p. 153. 



" William Bakewell died at Philadelphia on March 6, of the same year, 

 after suffering from the effects of a sunstroke, and was, eventually, buried 

 at "Fatland Ford;" in 1822 his farm, originally of 800 acres, passed into 

 the hands of Dr. William Wethcrill. See Note, Vol. I, p. 99, and W. G. 

 Bakewell, Bakewell-Page-Campbcll (Bibl. No. 200). 



