APPENDIX 439 



Some Eminent Huguenot Names 



Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's mother was a lineal descendant of John 

 Alden and Priscilla Moliues, and the strain of Huguenot blood accounts 

 for some of the finest qualities in the character of New England's most 

 loved poet. 



The good Quaker poet of New England, John Greenleaf Whittler, was 

 proud of the Huguenot blood he inherited from Thomas Whittier, the 

 ancestor who settled in Salisbury in the days of the early colonists. 

 Through the peaceful training of the Quaker the Gallic blood pulsed 

 swiftly when wrong was to bo righted, and liberty of conscience as well 

 as of person was inwrought into his religious creed. 



Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, the historian, author of The History of Neio 

 York, and for many years editor of the Magazine 0/ American History, 

 which became of much value under her control, was of Huguenot descent 

 through hor mother's family, the Vintons. She was deeply Interested in 

 the Huguenots and many articles in the magazine were devoted to them. 

 She was a leader in establishing the Huguenot Library now in possession 

 of the Huguenot Society of America, and served on the Library Commit- 

 tee until her death in 1893. She was secretary of the first Sanitary Fair 

 in 1863 : noted for philanthropic and public si)irit. 



General Frederick Dent Grant traces his Huguenot descent through 

 the family of DeLillo and of De la Noye (Delano), who was a member of 

 the Narragansett Settlement. 



Of the Presidents of the United States, there is a strain of Huguenot 

 blood in John Adams, Garfield, and Roosevelt — the latter representing 

 the best type of the mingUng of the Dutch and French races. 



Hon. Richard Olney, Secretary of State under President Cleveland, and 

 one of the foremost lawyers of New England, traces direct descent to 

 Andrew Sigourney, who was one of the settlers in Oxford. With the late 

 Senator Bayard, this makes two Secretaries of State of recent date who 

 were of Huguenot blood. 



A Historic Huguenot Chair 

 In the rooms of the Bostonian Society there is a very old Huguenot 

 chair, which was brought to Boston from Lyons, France, in 1685, by a 

 Mr. Waldo, whose family was said to belong to the Waldenses, and who 

 loft France to escape religious persecution. His son, Nathan, born in 

 Boston, emigrated to Connecticut, taking the chair with him. Later it 

 became successively the property of Nathan's son Edward ; of Edward's 

 daughter Johanna, wife of Josiah Cleveland, and of her daughter Thank- 

 ful, wife of Thaddeus Palmer ; and of Thankful's daughter Lucy, who 

 gave it to Rev. John Cleveland, D. D., of Providence, R. I. More recently 

 it belonged to the late Mrs. Jane G. Alden, Novelist, and is now loaned 

 to the Bostonian Society by her daughter, Mrs. Albert DeSilva, of Rox- 

 bury, by whose permission a picture has been obtained, which may be 

 seen elsewhere in this volume. 



