412 John Torrey. 
Combe St. Nicholas, near Chard, in Somersetshire, and settled 
at Weymouth, Massachusetts, about the year 1640.* 
His grandfather, John Torrey, with his son, William, re- 
moved from Boston to Montreal at the time of the enforcement 
of the “ Boston Port bill.” But neither of them was disposed * 
to be a refugee. For the son, then a lad of 17 years, ran away 
from Canada to New York, joined his uncle, Joseph Torrey, a 
Major of one of the two light infantry regiments of regulars 
(called Congress’s own) which were raised in that city; was 
made an ensign, and was in the rear-guard of his regiment on 
the retreat to White Plains; served in it throughout the war 
with honor, and until at the close he re-entered the city upon 
‘‘ Evacuation Day,” when he retired with the rank of Captain. 
Moreover, the father soon followed the son and became quarter- 
master of the regiment. Caps Torrey, in 1791, married 
Margaret Nichols, of New Yor 
The subject of this bingraphioal notice was the second of 
the issue of this marriage, and the oldest child who survived 
to manhood. He was born in New York, on the 15th of 
August, 1796. He received such education only as the public 
schools of his native city then afforded, and was also sent for 
a year to a school in Boston. When he was 15 or 16 years old 
his father was appointed Fiscal Agent of the State Prison at 
Greenwich, then a suburban village, to which the family re- 
moved. 
* In some notes furnished by a member of the family, the descent is en- 
a. ‘ 
(in 1674, 1683, and 1695), as well as of having three times declined the presi- 
dency of Harvard College (after Hoar, after Oakes, and after Rogers). Although 
educated at the College, he was not a graduate, because he left it in 1650, after 
three years residence, just when the term for the A.B. degree was lengthened to 
four years. The tradition has it, that, “at the prayer meetings of the students, 
he was generally invited to make the concluding prayer,”—for which an obvious 
reason suggests itself-—for “such was his devotion of spirit that, after praying 
for two hours, the regret was that he did not continue longer.” Students of the 
present day are probably less exacting. 
The desire to claim a descent through so eminent a member of the family is 
natural. But our late venerable associate, Mr. Savage, in his Dictionary of early 
New England families, states that he could not ascertain that Samuel had any 
