Chapter XXIX

There are many points that I could make in these articles were I to go around and make enquiries of this or that one. While the author would be very thankful for any information that will lighten his labors, he is not yet ready to make a personal application for it.

In a former chapter I said Mrs. Hazard's door plate was upon the door of Barker's residence in Beekman street. I did not mean that. The name on the door plate was Thomas Hazard. He was formerly from Nantucket. He made a fortune there in the whaling business, and then came to New York. I never heard that he was in business in this city. He was the father of three children. One was a son. He died early. One daughter married John H. Howland, an extensive merchant in Front street for many years. The other married Jacob Barker, as I have previously stated. The Hazards were all quakers. When in the city, the old man always lived in Beekman street. Old Mr. Hazard deemed Jacob Barker a wonderful person. So he was. He was a great merchant, a great ship owner, the first private banker, the truest patriot, and the best abused man among her old citizens.

Jacob Barker was also a good pilot, and he frequently piloted his own ships out to sea. He did this for two reasons: the first was, that he saved the pilotage; and the second, he believed that he could do it better and with more safety to his ships than any professed pilot could do.

Fitz Green Halleck, the celebrated poet, was the cashier of Jacob Barker for many years, and he ought to write the history of the old private banker. Halleck was also Secretary of the Duchess County Fire Insurance Company.

I have previously alluded to the four corners of Pearl street and Pine, as being occupied by four great auctioneer houses. I gave the history of Woolsey, Ward and Beach. One of the corners was occupied by Shotwell, Fox & Co.; they had succeeded Leggett, Pearsall & Co., an auction and commission house in 1825.

That house consisted of Samuel Leggett, Thomas W. Pearsall, Joseph S. Shotwell, and George S. Fox. A Mr. Stanton was afterwards taken in.

Of Samuel Leggett I shall have more to say as I get along. He walked through this world treading as softly as any Quaker merchant, yet in his earlier years he trod heavily in the commercial and financial walks. He was President for many years of the famed Franklin Bank, that he got an injunction upon, and stopped it at twenty minutes past ten o'clock on the morning of the 29th May, 1828, thirty-five years ago.

That Franklin Bank was started in 1818. It had good old names among its directors—Henry Astor, Gabriel Furman, James A. Burtis, Israel Corse, James Palmer, Dennis H. Doyle, William Seaman, Thomas Freeborn, Samuel James, Robert Bogardus—most all dead now.

The Leggett family is very old. Samuel was the son of the late Thomas Leggett of West Farms, Westchester county, who among our most ancient merchants left an honored name.

During the Revolution, or about 1780, Thomas Leggett commenced business in a dry grocery, (he did not sell rum) at the corner of Peck Slip and Pearl street. There he was successful in a small way. At that time there was a market in Peck Slip. The Bank of New York was six doors above Thomas Leggett's store on the same side. That was the old location (the Bank was afterwards built on the corner of William and Wall.) It has been since re-built. The builder, George Ireland, is yet alive in the Fifth Ward, ninety and odd years old. He was present when the first corner stone was laid, and was also present many years after when it was taken up, in order to lay the corner stone of the present building. May the old worthy live a century longer.

Walter Franklin lived in the house at the junction of Pearl and Cherry streets, afterwards the residence of General Washington.

Franklin Square is named after Walter, and not after old Benjamin, as is generally supposed. After General Washington left the above house, it was occupied by Samuel Osgood, who married the widow of Walter Franklin, whose daughters married De Witt Clinton, citizens Genet, and John L. Norton.

I mention these facts to show that at that time the Franklin Square and Pearl street neighborhood was the most aristocratic quarter of the town.

As an evidence of the simplicity of living at that period, as exhibited in the value of rents, Mr. Thomas Leggett, in anticipation of changing his business, bought in 1781 the house now known as 307 Pearl (then Queen street,) but did not move into it that year. He rented it out to Comfort Sands (then a young gentle-man of great pretensions,) for his own occupation with his family, at the rent of $32,50 per annum. This fact will afford us a better idea of the style and cost of liv-ing at that time than anything else could do.

A daughter of Comfort Sands married Nathaniel Prime, the founder of the house of Prime & Co., now, and which has been in former time, Prime, Ward & Sands, Prime, Ward, Sands & King, Prime, Ward & King, and Prime, Ward & Co.

Mrs. Philip Hone, formerly Miss Dunscombe, was born and married in the next house to No. 307 Pearl (Queen.) Mr. Leggett moved into his house, No. 307 in 1782, where he conducted a successful dry goods business, and lived until he retired. The firm was at first Thomas Leggett. Then he took into the firm in 1793 his brother Joseph, who left in 1803. Then, in 1803, Joseph retired. He took in his son Samuel, and the firm was Thomas Leggett & Son. He had several sons,--Samuel, William H., Joseph, and Thomas, Jr. In 1807, the elder Leggett retired from business, and the firm was changed to Leggett, Fox & Co., consisting of Samuel, a brother, and his own brother William. In 1832 or 1833 the concern gave up business and closed up, although doing a large and prosperous business, continued for over forty years. The partners retired well off.

In 1798 New York was afflicted with burglars. One night Mr. Thomas Leggett heard an outcry, in his immediate neighborhood. "Murder!" "thieves!" was called, and "help" invoked. He rushed out of his own house, and ran across the way, where he saw a light in the store through the chinks of the door, which latter he promptly stove in. He saw three burglars. Two were upon the owner of the store, who was down on the floor. A third was coming towards the door. Mr. Leggett seized him, wheeled about, and jammed him against the wall with his back, and thus held him. Another burglar rushed at Mr. Leggett, but he seized him with his hands, and held him fast. The rear burglar drew a penknife, and commenced stabbing; but he made a mistake, and stabbed his confederate No. 2, that Mr. Leggett was holding on to, while keeping the other fast against the wall. He was relieved from his disagreeable situation by his neighbor, Alderman Theophilus Beekman, who came to his assistance, and the fellows were secured (save burglar No. 3, who escaped,) and afterwards taken to prison, tried, convicted and executed.

Mr. Leggett, in common with all the followers of George Fox and William Penn, was opposed to capital punishment. He was often heard to say that he was glad that he had not been obliged to appear as a witness against the two burglars whom he was mainly instrumental in capturing. (He was absent from the city at the time of their trial, thinking there was sufficient evidence of their guilt for their conviction without his testimony—particularly as one of them was a young offender whom he believed had been seduced to the committal of the deed by his more hardened companion.)

In 1809, as I have before stated, the old gentleman retired from business, and removed to the old homestead, where he died in 1843, aged about eighty-eight years. He was born in 1755. The Leggetts came from an old stock, and we must say something of that old homestead in West Farms, where he died. His ancestors came into West Farms with John Richardson in the year 1661—two hundred years ago.

In 1664 Mr. Richardson bought from the Indian proprietors the equal half of the township of West Farms, comprising about three thousand acres, bounded by theound or East river on the south, Bront river on the east, Fordham on the north, and what is now known as Morrisania on the west.

The English title came from John Nicolls, the governor of the province in 1666. This was seven years before Morrisania was taken up by Lewis Morris and his brother.

Gabriel Leggett, the grandfather of Thomas, married the daughter of Mr. Richardson, and inherited the lands now occupied (1861) by Joseph Walker, Paul Spofford, Edward Faile, W. W. Fox and George S. Fox.

The two latter married two of the daughters of Thomas Leggett, who lived from 1809 and died in the house now occupied by his daughter, Mrs. George S. Fox, and was the home of his ancestor Gabriel in 1670.

These Foxes were descended from the old Quaker George, who, on the 13th of August, 1658, met Oliver Cromwell, in Hampton Court, at the head of his guards. "I saw and felt," writes honest George, "a waft of leath go forth against him, and when I came to him he looked like a dead man."

Quaker Fox saw but too truly; the conqueror of all England had bowed, in his turn, to a mightier power. A hand heavier than his own was on him. On September 3d, Oliver Cromwell died.

In the year 1774 Gabriel Leggett, grandfather of Thomas, was driven out of West Farms township by Colonel Delancy and his partizans, who were arrant tories. The Leggett family then went up on their new lands in Saratoga; from whence they were taken by Burgoyne's Indians. The male part of the family were conveyed to Burgoyne's camp, where they all remained prisoners except Thomas Leggett, who made his escape, swam over the North River in October, and came back to the old homestead in West Farms.

The farm on which the Leggetts lived at Saratoga was a part of the battle-ground afterwards. The wheat fields were manured by many dead bodies; the wheat showed where they lay the following year, when it was harvested! General Frazier was also mortally wounded in a ravine near Mr. Leggett's house.

But to return to Thomas Leggett. After he made his escape and safely reached the homestead, he found it vacated and dismantled, even to the weather boarding, which had been stripped off for kindling wood. The entire neighborhood was a scene of desolation. The negroes belonging to the property had been kept in the house for tory use, and were found entirely destitute. Luckily for all parties, fishing was good. The nets had been left untouched—the fishing season was just approaching. The other proprietors came in about the same time, and they fished as a joint-stock concern. They cleared that season $3,000; one third fell to the share of Thomas Leggett, who, finding it impossible to live in that disturbed region, removed to New York, and went into the grocery business, as already stated, in Peck Slip, corner of Pearl street, in 1780.

When in 1809 Mr. Thomas Leggett left business, he was succeeded by his sons Samuel and W. H. Leggett, and his son-in-law W. W. Fox, under the name of Leggett, Fox & Co., as before stated. Samuel was the first person in this city who attempted to furnish the city with water from the neighboring river. He proposed the Bronx. From some cause unknown to me, the plan failed. The money subscribed for this object was returned to the subscribers. The idea thus suggested was not lost, however. It culminated in other hands, and the Croton was substituted for the Bronx.

Samuel Leggett was a man of enlarged ideas. He possessed great energy and determination, but combined with the most mild and amiable disposition, which sometimes led him into difficulty, as in the case of the unfortunate Franklin Bank. To save the reputation of others, with whose evil doings circumstances had made him acquainted, he permitted scandal to go unrebuked, thinking that time and the full acquittance from every charge of wrong by Chancellor Kent (who gave the entire matter an official examination) would be a sufficient vindication.

In 1831, the Chancellor wrote the following letter:

New York, March 4, 1831.

Dear Sir:—I thank you for your pamphlet in vindication of your character and conduct as late President of the Franklin Bank. I was acquainted with the principal facts from the perusal of your journal in the summer of 1828, and your efforts to redeem its credit and promote its stability in a strong and interesting point of view.

I was never able to discover from my investigation, any ground for the suspicion and calumny against you, in your conduct as President or Director of the institution; and I rejoice that you have been able so completely to vindicate your character, and soothe the lacerated feelings of your family and friends. With my best wishes for your happiness and prosperity, I am, your friend and obedient servant,

JAMES KENT,
Receiver for Franklin Bank.

That same Samuel Leggett was the first originator of a gas company in this city in 1822. He was the first President of the New York Gas Light Company. His brother-in-law, W. W. Fox, succeeded him, and has continued President to this day. He is a man over 70 years of age. This company went into operation on the 26th of March, 1823. Its charter is unlimited. The original capital was $1,000,000.

Samuel Leggett was one of the best men of his time. Like other benevolent men of every age he was persecuted for not exposing the defects of the false and pretentious with whom he had become acquainted. Mr. Leggett had two sons; one of them is Secretary of the Brooklyn Insurance Company. A daughter married Barney Corse.

There are other descendants of the old Gabriel Leggett, the grandfather of Thomas.

William Leggett, at one time connected with the Post—editor of the Plaindealer—a famous political meteor in the day of General Jackson, and a great friend of Edwin Forrest, was a lineal descendant of old Gabriel. William's great-grandfather was mayor of Westchester many years ago.

As a race, the Leggetts are famed for their agility, strength, indomitable courage and perseverance. Old Thomas Leggett never experienced such a sensation as fear. William, of the Post, was also remarkable for his personal disregard of danger.

Thomas Leggett always refused while in business to give an endorser for his auction purchases. in accordance with the customs of auctioneers, which was a source of trouble between him, John Hone, Robert Hunter and David Dunham. He also resisted the tyranny of the banks, at that time, 1800, a great power in the city and for many years afterwards. Even now banks are not quite powerless. He was one of the greatest of the old school merchants who left an unstained name, a comfortable estate, and a large family to enjoy his fortune and give vigor to the State in which they were born.

There were other Leggetts, cousins of this Thomas Leggett's descendants, and at one time numbered among the old merchants. Many of our readers will well recollect Thomas H. Leggett, who lived on the south side of Beekman street, a few doors from Nassau street. It was No. 21. Next door was a lawyer's court filled with offices, and a garden in front between that and Mr. Leggett's house. It belonged to Mr. Leggett. Back of this property, but facing on Ann street, stood the old Catholic Church. The splendid house that our citizens will well remember (it was the handsomest down town) Mr. Leggett quitted in 1836, and rented it as a boarding house to the Misses Wetmore. He retired from business, but afterwards got nearly ruined. He had endorsed for his son and nephew who succeeded him in business. They put him in for $60,000. He did not assign his property, but paid as he could. He owned two houses in Beekman street. One he exchanged with Stephen Allen for a piece of land in Flushing, where he now lives. He has been in the habit of spending his winters South.

Thomas H. Leggett was brother to the famous Aaron Leggett (Mexican Leggett, as he has been nicknamed.) Never lived such a joker as Aaron Leggett. He was once in business in Pearl street in dry goods. The firm was Leggett & Hance. Mr. Hance was the Revo. C.—afterwards Revo. C. Hance & Co.

Not a week ago I went up to the Croton Water Office to pay my water dues, where I was very much amazed to see Revo. C. Hance, and get his signature for my small amount of money. He has died since.

If I was to pen all I know about Aaron Leggett, it would take a year. To cut it as short as possible, he went out to Mexico. I believe he started a steamboat. At any rate, he was as intimate as a pickpocket, with old Santa Anna. Leggett got upset, and then commenced his celebrated claims. He may have lost $10,000. He claimed a million, and certainly got considerable. The way Aaron made out his bills, was as follows: —

Value of steamboat	$5,000
What she would have made in one year had not the Mexicans seized her	500,000
Interest for three years at 33⅓ per annum	510,000
Total	$1,015,000

While floating about Washington City, Aaron Leggett fixed his eyes upon about two thousand acres of the Mount Vernon estate belonging to George Washington. He bought it for about $5 an acre, and when he died held it at $50.

When he died he left his brother Thomas H. about $60,000; in other words, quite comfortable.