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," 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,’° 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. 
4 See Vol. I, p. 153. 
15 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 Wetherill. See Note, Vol. I, p. 99, and W. G. 
Bakewell, Bakewell-Page-Campbell (Bibl. No. 200). 
